whatwhat say what

yes, but then what do we do with the ones that we've got? can't see us getting rid of lumumba, and if cross goes on and we sign up garland and grimes, it means including salem we have five, and then unless suckling can play as part of the midfield - and, hey, who's to say he can't? - we are looking too loaded up in that area i reckon. would suckling make us a better side? absolutely, i'd expect. so i wouln't be upset if we got him! apparently we're at 100% of the cap at the moment? presumably jamar is taking a big chunk of that and i can't see him going on.

absolutely, but it's not going to happen so it sadly doesn't matter. personally i don't think suckling will help us - we already have a plethora of half-back flankers, and he's going to be 28 next year.

Rance has signed up with Tigers - four year deal on pretty big coin from all reports. We were never a shot to land him, but it might rule Tiggas out of a chase for anyone else.

Lumumba, Grimes, Garland, and Howe (who I think is far better value in defence than up forward) can all effectively play the same way - rebound half back flank turnover merchants. Once Salem comes back we need two of them at the most. We don't need all four. The first two are, I believe, under contract, Garland is an unrestricted free agent, whereas the latter is a potentially valuable commodity. If we get a pick tied to our second round pick for Garland, ripper. He's not worth a pick 20-25 I'd say, but it's hopefully what his value will be, and hopefully he'll get to be a chance to be a premiership player - he won't be around when / if we get to that level. If Howe was worth pick 7 last year from GWS, I struggle to see him being worth pick 7 this year. More like a second rounder or bundled with our second rounder to upgrade to an opposition's mid-first round.

andrew moore another dominant performance for the port adelaide magpies. i hope we're into him in a big, big way.

Fairly solid rumour floating around that Carlisle for Yarran is a goer.

agree with you adamfarr.

if footscray offered mitch wallis, jack macrae, jake stringer, or the bont for him i hardly think we'd be saying no... we need midfielders with pace and skill. theirs are their best players.

Fourth round pick. At best. He's more value to us as a depth player than as trade bait, as at least we know what we will get from him and he's better than our current depth players.

Personally I'm not fussed if Hogan kicks a bag or not. If he has 21 possession, 9 marks, 8 score involvements and 2-3 goal games every week I'll be ecstatic. The ideal would be a triple-double - 20+ possessions, 10+ marks, 10+ score involvements.

Boyd was bought and paid for on future expectations - both of his form and also that the salary cap will soar post-2017 and his salary will be more the norm than the exception. Hogan is going to be earning a large fortune - justifiably - in his next contract.

aren't terlich and matt jones signed up til the end of 2016? has to be a minimum three draft picks taken at the national draft, plus vandenberg will be upgraded, which is effectively the 'last' nad pick. plus we might want to have a spot 'open' to claim any free agent who falls through the cracks, a la newton. so unless we're trading out players (howe, trengove, watts, toumpas) for picks or losing free agents (garland), we have to drop a minimum of four players. at this stage the likely leavers would be: cross (retired, although i think he could comfortably go around again in 2016) bail mckenzie hunt jamar may retire too, which would give us five spots in the draft before we even think about trades and free agency losses / gains.

Expectations for Nic Nat are far greater than for Watts in 2015, primarily because for the first time he's ostensibly number one ruck. Personally I rate both Lycett and Sinclair ahead of him. Would do toumpas for butcher at this stage, but let's see what the score is at the end of the year. Huge pressure on both players to perform this year.

Was that the one where Zaharakis actually attacked the contest and toumpas looked super tentative? It was appalling.

doubt it. morton got us two fat ladies, which we traded to port for the best dancing footballer ever. i'm fully expecting toumpas to want a trade back to adelaide at the end of this contract. we'll be lucky if we get jarryd lyons.

nailed it. and i think that's why some of us are arguing he needs to strengthen his contested ball use extensively as he's simply not looking like he's going to make it as an 'outside' footballer at afl level - not quick enough, not smart enough, not skilled enough. unfortunately he's also not anything close to tough enough.

yep, and if he plays consistently like he did against essendon no one will want him.

nice work demonking.

more like feeling the pressure dad is putting on - during his farewell speech at the b&f he said he can't wait til one whole flank (hb - wing - hf) reads davey - davey - davey. me either. and the idea of a lyon who has been playing union deciding to give afl a crack is pretty thrilling to my rather sad mind today as we lose another youngster to a serious injury. would love a lyon.

Fair to say yr not the only one dd!

maybe petracca was the player whose room was too neat. my goodness, i really hope we don't pass on him in favour of lever...

Also, the best half backs across the last twenty years haven't been half backs who've played their careers there. They've been mids who've been slotted into HB to play that role because of their skills. It's part of the reason why you need a surfeit of midfielders - inevitably every year two get injured for the year, others become flankers.

The other factor at play is that Petracca is not even the highest rated mid in the draft - Isaac Heeney is. Whereas McCartin is probably rated the best 'big' in this year's crop.

To me it sounds more like this draft will be of Scully / Trengove / Neck Tatts or Watts / Naitanui / Hill variety than Hodge / Judd / Ball. Solid players who should play 150-200 games, barring injury, rather than competition leading champs.

We shall see whether that's true or not. There's class to be plucked at 2 and 3 - be it two midfielders (of Brayshaw, Petracca or Laverde) or grab a key position player (Wright or McCartin) - we're hopefully setting ourselves up with class. Just gotta develop em into afl players!