whatwhat say what

when you look at those numbers, the biggest differential is the 18 months age gap that tyson has on kelly. also interesting that whilst dom makes 1 more 'clanger' per game, his actual de% is higher, and obviously as an inside player dom's clearances are slightly higher and kelly's i50s are slightly higher. both are very, very good players - easy to argue that kelly's ceiling is higher, but i think the trade in and of itself is a classic win-win.

It is such good news, reading yr posts drunkn you can feel the excitement. Go Dec and go Dees!

i think of it as lewis and hibberd for our second round pick. unbelievable result.

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.

he wants his kid at the dees? happy days.

his reading of the play and his attack on the ball - particularly after salem went down - was very exciting to watch.

It's more what we give up to get him that concerns me. I think he'll help us add depth and skill, but I still say he's a solid but unspectacular player. Same as his old buddy Melksham who I would argue has more variable attributes which makes him a more beneficial depth player, whereas Hibberd should be a lock-down best half-back. However, he is completely one-sided and limited in terms of flexibility in a game that is increasingly becoming about variety of roles that can be played and skills that can be executed. If we pay more than our 2017 second round pick we've been gypped.

Shaw was a general at the pies and he's a general at the Giants. Hibberd is a solid foot soldier. He'd absolute be best 22 for 14 or so sides I would guess, including ours, but I fear we will way overpay for a solid player who is limited to only playing one position.

I still don't see the massive appeal of Hibberd. He's a 27 year old one sided half back flanker who has never been able to be part of the midfield rotation. In modern football more often than not yr back 7 consists of a genuine small (Jetta), three talls (Mac x2, Frost) then a rotation of ostensible midfield runners who rotate back. He strikes me as a classic 'good, ordinary' player and I cannot understand what massive benefit he would bring to our side.

Good kicks, smart kicks, and clearance players.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

let's just remember, this is all nasher's fault. kid looks a jet. natural ball winner and knows how to use it from the looks of things. perhaps too prone to handball would be the one knock on what we saw yesterday. ability to win the contest as well as work super hard defensively and lay some serious tackles is massively encouraging.