whatwhat say what

no ways are giving up their first rounder for toumpas and our second rounder. he has zero value.

some of those tidbits of news came from player managers - and i'm fairly sure that hogan was discussed here first, then barrrett reported it. barrett's opinion pieces more often than not are opinion pieces that come after the likes of caroline or smith or denham have said it / written it two or three days prior. there's no doubt that he haunts message boards, which is a sensible thing to do when you think about it; how often is it that we see news here and then a couple of days later it's in the mainstream press?

some talk that ch 7 said other clubs are sniffing around gawn, who is ooc in 2016.

I've been really amazed by Nic Nat's improvement this year. I've been a naysayer for a long time - doesn't take marks, doesn't influence play - but he's really starting to show a lot more than that.

Is he Damien Barrett?

Has done nada at sanfl level all year, and had the heat put on him at the beginning of the year to improve or be chopped. I expect he might be a straight delist.

yeah, but it's extremely unlikely it's fair to say. although they have talked about his value being around that mark.

Howe - second round pick, maybe upgrade to first if bundled with something Dawes - late second round / early third round Grimes - third round / early fourth Garland will probably net us band 3 compo, depending on what salary he's offered by someone else, so likely end of second round pick. If he gets offered $600k, four years elsewhere, it might be higher, so a pick after our second rounder.

I don't. He's a former #1 pick, and a key position player, whereas Howe is a third tall. Regardless of knee injuries, we would have to pay a premium.

can't believe brisbane are chasing dixon so hard, offering him $750k a year. has he ever played more than three games in a row? he's mitch clark all over again. big, tall, strong, capable of the brilliant...and really frail.

gotta disagree jaded. garland is and has been a fine servant of the club, and him leaving as a free agent might gift us a second round pick. that's not being harsh, that's being an optimist (he's more likely to get us a third round pick). he performs consistently middlingly, is neither tall nor small (same as lumumba, cross, howe and grimes) and he is a shocking user of the ball - he 'sits' on it rather than distributing quickly and cleanly and he turns it over far too often. he also no longer rebounds from half-back. howe is younger and offers far more flexibility in terms of playing forward and, preferably, back. he also rebounds really well when positioned defensively. we simply cannot go into next season with garland, howe, lumumba, grimes, cross all as 'third / fourth tall' defenders. they don't do enough.

Stick a fork in about half a dozen of em.

Interesting that apparently garland - a free agent - hasn't spoken to the club or had the club speak to him about his moves in 2015. For mine, we have too many third tall type defenders - garland, Howe, Lumumba and Grimes all essentially can play the same role of being able to play tall and small. Potentially White and you could argue Dunn also fall into that category. Something needs to give, and with Howe and Garland both out of contract it makes sense that one is likely to go.

root is hitting it superbly.

and bellend too. three down in a bit over an hour of play!

starc is chucking pies.

australia's bowlers looking decidedly unimpressive. pitch is up and down in a big way too, but looks slow.

that really wasn't that far away from voges just then.

great start for australia.

zaharakis doesn't have any such threat over his head, as he's not one of the 34. from memory, neither is zach merrett, but there's no way the bombers will give him up. zaka would be a fine addition to our side, but bombers, as is their wont, would demand hogan, brayshaw and some magic beans for him, and then go off in a huff when we declared that price was a bit steep. our second rounder (18-25ish) would be what you'd want to pay.

we need players who can see ball, get ball, use ball. if if he can get over his knee injury without any major concerns - and it's a big IF at this stage, as apparently it was a pretty nasty one - then we'd be mad not to chase prestia. in terms of targetting players from the northern clubs, prestia and treloar would be top tier, dixon, bennell and josh kelly next, and then the likes of plowman (richmond want him), tomlinson, leuenberger (again, tigers into him in a big way apparently), lonergan, et al.

no, it really isn't. when hogan comes out of contract, the new cba will have been arranged - the aflpa is trying to get it tied to revenue in the game, around the 25% mark. hogan could easily pull in $1m a season in his third contract, and wouldn't even be that extravagant. i wonder what the tipping point is going to be for the afl to really become a different sort of business.

garland has already been speculated to be worth $500k+ on the open market. tall third defenders are hard to find.

Oh yes, slip of the thumb... Apparently it's Dixon and Bennell: http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/gold-coast-plan-to-lose-harley-bennell-and-charlie-dixon-20150706-gi6g1z.html Our first rounder, second rounder and Howe.

Caro is saying Bennell is on the move - would love him, I reckon with Roos, Goodwin, McCarthy and Jetta to take him under his wing like he has with Garlett GET HIM TO THE DEMONS!!