whatwhat say what

Adding Hibberd, Lewis and Rockliff for the equivalent of two second round picks, a future first round and a fourth round pick plus a depth defender in Dunn would be a massive signal of intent that we are not just shooting to make finals in 2017 but to go deep into them. Bring it on.

there's no reason why he'll only play one or two more years. he's always been fairly durable, he's always been a hard-nosed midfielder, and he's always been a leader. we could just as easily get four good years out of him, let alone two. apart from jones and vince, do we have a single mid aged more than 23 years old? lewis will step right in and provide leadership and guidance for a young group. much as brayshaw latched onto jones to learn from, petracca could learn a lot from lewis.

had a shocker against the dogs, but the week before had 36 possessions, 11 marks, 5 tackles. he might be the wrong side of 29, but he's a jet.

jake niall's take on it: Demons still keen on trade despite Hawthorn backflip sounds like lewis is ropeable.

it definitely seems likely that if rockliff doesn't leave this season he will be out next year. bradshaw all over again.

unfortunately for anb his disposal is average, he lacks speed, and both strength and endurance seem to be issues for him at this level. if the crows want him, they're not going to be offering much for a former third round pick who can't get a game in a side that didn't make finals.

it's a similar contract size to the sylvia compo, slightly bigger, and the same draft pick too. no dramas with that one. the whole thing is just fundamentally a joke tho. i said in jest to someone earlier today: i've decided the mitchell to hawks deal is a complete fabrication if he doesn't leave it's all make believe it's just about the afl and afl media along with two complicit clubs keeping the news cycle ticking along cos there's NOTHING else happening "after strong consideration and listening to the fans - THE FANS!! - i've decided i will be a one-club player; i just love this club too much to leave" - media release tomorrow morning book it in

no problems with mayne going for 23 - virtually the exact same formula that saw sylvia get the same for dees - similar $$ and a year more on the contract, plus mayne is slightly older. would make sense that 23 then get passed over for hill. in: fyfe, sandi, bennell, alex johnson, michael johnson, mccarthy, hill, kersten, plus they're keeping ballanytne and zac clarke, and they still hold pick 7. forward line will be completely recast - mccarthy, kersten and tabener all possibilities of playing there in a rotational forward line, you'd think that they saw hogan why they would've chased hogan so hard, he would've been the leader of that lot by a country mile.

gotta be ricky nixon.

ahern did his acl for the second time and pickett hurt his lisfranc earlier this year and hasn't amounted to anything thus far as a result. good luck to them at north and blues respectively.

freo are not really rebuilding via the draft if they're bringing in the likes of kersten, mccarthy and hill, with fyfe set to come back. i can't see them being bottom three next year.

They don't have 7 any more. Gonna be an interesting year next year with the amount of changes / mooted changes over the next week and a bit. Some teams could be unrecognizable. FWIW, apparently Cats have said no re Caddy, but Cockatoo and Lang are other options.

it'd be very unfair / impossible for them to be disallowed to trade, but you could definitely limit free agency - pretty sure that's the way that the nfl handles it. biggest thing is that players shouldn't be able to veto trades. if a club sais 'mate, yr off to gc17' then pack yr bags - yr contract is being honoured, but at the suns not here. fwiw, i agree that acquiring mayne and wells makes 'sense' for the pies for them to re-balance their list - pendles is now their oldest and most experienced player - but the length of the deal for wells is a big surprise. mayne gives them exactly what they lack currently; a hard-working, hard-tackling and defensively-minded forward who will bust a gut to make an impact, and is only 27. wells also gives them what they need - speed and skill - but he'll be 32 at the start of the next season. i presume like sydney they're presuming that the new cba will see the salary size rendered redundant because the salary cap will increase exponentially.

they want our second round this year; we've offered second round next year. it'll go back and forth and be thrown around how to get it done and then one way or the other it'll happen, primarily cos they need his contract off their books due to all their new deals for various peptide payments to players like hurley et al who were out of contract.

haha, love it. genius: "agassi playing magneto theme"

he's a massively important player as he's one of few run-and-carry players that we have, and when he's really firing he can be damaging on the scoreboard and defensively. i'm hoping eventually he can go into the midfield and really become a rotational forward / mid player, because at the moment he clearly doesn't have the stamina to do it. he could be a crucial player for us to rise in coming years i think.

has pace and good disposal and decision-making. has the hallmarks of being a very good wingman.

his pace and strength in the contest are his best weapons. his disposal and decision-making will hopefully get better as he gets more match awareness. i think the thing with both he and the two mcdonald boys is that they all appear to be reasonably flexible in terms of offering a player who is both defensively-minded but also wants to attack. why he was experimented with as a forward i don't really understand given that he's clearly most comfortable behind the ball.

Vickey: a restricted free agent, the former top 10 draft pick has told Richmond he has a two-year contract offer from Hawthorn and wants to move there. Richmond now have three days to either match Hawthorn's offer – in which case Hawthorn would need to trade for Vickery to get him – or decline to match the offer and Vickery becomes a Hawk. interesting that it's only two years. Will reduce compo - hopefully tigers match forcing Hawks to trade.

very smooth with the ball. obvious isaac smith comparisons are obvious. outside our club i would doubt anyone could name him if they saw him. i think he's going to be a pretty good player.

and michael tuck used to run around with the ball in one hand too.

had a good start to his career in red and blue in 2015, but his second half of that year and entirety of 2016 was very, very poor. i think he'll be a depth / vfl level player at best in 2017.

koutafides did it years before brennan.

they can't just 'knock it down' tho. there's a lot of business based in / around it that will be severely disrupted if they knock it down - not least of all afl itself, which has a big studio set-up down underneath etihad to service afl media and that does a lot of outside production work as well. the stadium is horrible, no doubt, but simply saying 'bulldoze and begin again' won't necessarily work.

so good.