whatwhat say what

Don't see how - he's not going to win centre clearances.

Agreed, I said as much the same to the source - my guess is just a bomber trying to justify losing a best 22 player. Like the velvety sledgehammer saying keeping Hurley and Walla = more important than having those dudes plus Hibberd.

Got this from today someone involved at the bombers: "Rumours swirling that Hibberd has been offered around 725k for 4 years from the Dees" That better be a joke. No way he's worth close to that.

Loving his contribution to the team.

he's got to get an opportunity first before he can make the side. the opportunity is not there at the moment.

As a matter of interest, would the median age / games played provide a different perspective?

That's less of a blow that Viney. He picked a shocking time to break his hand throwing a punch.

Pretty exciting. Don't discount both Kennedy and Harmes. Both are very important and the latter has been seriously impressive.

That's nuts how young and inexperienced we are.

kid looks a jet in the making. should've nailed at least three of his four points today.

can't wait to see how he goes tomorrow. as a matter of interest, does anyone know how much training he's done this week? jonno brown raised an interesting point re tex walker last nite, that because he's carrying an injury and not training, his 'touch' is slightly off as a result of the lack of bal-lhandling during the week. he reckons it's particularly true for power forwards - they need the slap of leather on hands throughout the week in order to feel comfortable reading the flight of the pill etc. i wonder how much that is true. also: i love jesse hogan in this 'good vibes' thread.

he would waltz into our forward line and provide a great chop-out for gawn. very, very good player.

jonno brown: "why would you want to leave melbourne" gerard healy: "i don't think he's going anywhere"

his run up is fine cos - on the whole - his last five steps, his head positioning and his ball drop are very steady. it's only when there's a slight deviation from these key last vital ingredients that it goes awry. he's a bona fide superstar in the making. 26 games...it's freaky just how good he could potentially be.

Whatever happens, here's hoping he commits at some point...

love him, couldn't understand why he wasn't in the side from the first game.

This has always been my vibe too. Plus his buggered back, that'd put you off flying every second week.

Lachie Neale has just put off contract talks too for what it's worth.

his run-up to kick is not nearly as bad as everyone says. it is being critcised primarily because it starts so strangely with the ball held over the wrong foot - but then he has the stutter and from there it's actually super-steady and perfectly balanced. he's going to be helped massively by the limited rotations of modern football, because teams are going to start going long. look at kennedy for meth coke yesterday - he was unstoppable once they got their quick ball movement happening. admittedly the bears were absolute gash, but no one would've been able to stop kennedy with the amount of ball he was being presented with. people criticising hogan's second efforts need to watch that gif of him floating back and killing the contest in the last seconds. he impacted the contest and ensured it was neutralised. he's one impressive unit to be as starved of opportunity as he was in the first half, move up the ground to get involved in the third, and then utterly dominate the last.

Callum Mills should take out the rising star I reckon. Petracca and Oliver will hopefully split people on which Melbourne young gun to vote for...

i can't wait to see what this kid can do.

god i wish we'd recruited dunstall. imagine him as part of that late 80s / early 90s side alongside stynes, lyon, tingay, g lovett, b lovett, wight et al. anyway, back to oliver... was he better nab2 or nab1? probably more spectacular nab 2, with the mark and the big long sweeping handballs?

Back to Oliver... Some rumors around that Dodoro (Essendon recruiter) thinks he might be the best mid drafted since the Hodge - Ball - Judd era. No wonder they spat chips when we got him if he rated him that highly.

Back to Oliver - how much has he grown since being drafted? When he was being interviewed by Barry Hall on the weekend he looks almost as tall as him.

jake niall (ex-the age) on fox sports news just confirmed that negotiations have stalled and jesse wants to see how transition from roos to goodwin works, and essentially decision will be dictated to some degree on whether we can make finals in the next two seasons. something about the line "if it is to be, it's up to me" comes to mind to be honest...