whatwhat say what

yes, ballenden, that's the one. said he think he's the best prospect at this stage and wouldn't be surprised if whoever holds #1 bids on him first up.

Someone whose I said to me last week that this current crop of Vic Metro and Vic Country kids 'may be the worst ever'. He reckons there's 5-10 really good kids and then, he said 'a whole lot of plodders'. Reckons Brander and Fogerty are pretty clear standouts, and some tall forward kid that Brisbane has academy access to too.

weed's hands have looked good i thought. but at the moment he's not getting his hands on it. mccartin doesn't get involved at the moment either, but he's significantly bigger than weideman at this stage.

That's very interesting the diabetics stuff. Not a good outlook moving forward for McCartin

do you go for st. kilda?

it's the same quote every year. "this year is okay, but wait'll you get a load of next year's crop!"

I'm personally pretty happy with the way O Mac is developing, but I'd say T Mac was playing a key role for us as a defender at around the same age / development? Great post Axis.

gw$ are going to have to lose some more mids. as we all know, north have thrown the chequebook at kelly. whitfield has long been rumoured to leave for hawthorn. it'll be interesting to see where they go, if they go.

joel garner better come off the long run!

nup. not calling for brayshaw's trading either; just that as a clearly highly-rated player he may have value.

actually, i did.

i really hope so. he's stopped developing at this stage imo.

no, i don't "want" anyone delisted - i want them all to succeed. but i'm cognizant of the fact that, at the moment, brayshaw is tracking no better than toumpas as a player. i would love it if he could become a valuable contributor to the side, but at the moment is averaging less than 15 disposals a game at 68% efficiency across 33 games. it's not good enough, just as toumpas' average of less than 15 disposals a game at 74% efficiency across 35 games is similarly not good enough for a modern footballer be they a midfielder or a push-up half forward. if brayshaw was what we had to give up to get a lever in, i'd do the deal in a heartbeat.

Our backline is thin tho and lacking in skill - at the moment Lumumba and Garland are 'gone' for their career and 2017 respectfully, Frost cannot maintain fitness, and Hibberd has come to the club and immediately broken down at the age of 26, 27. Lever's skills are miles higher than the two Macs - and I'm a big fan of both those boys, but they lack the natural ability of Lever. Midfielders can always be found - there's an expectation that Petracca will go into the midfield, Stretch is getting better all the time, and ANB has started 2017 in much the same form as Brayshaw (middling, at best). It's always "easier" to find mids than quality ball-using key defenders.

But that's the things @TickleMeTyson - you've got to give to get. Brayshaw's ceiling is high; so too is Lever's. I'd argue that the latter has more scope for improvement and greater natural ability than Brayshaw. Both are highly rated, and if we have to give to get, Brayshaw could be a possibility - he's definitely rated higher than ANB for instance, and Stretch (who I'd argue has more impact on a game-to-game basis than Brayshaw).

I just don't rate Brayshaw. He can't get the ball and when he does get it he turns it over. Either he improves massively in 2017 or he's trade bait for mine.

Lever has had a far superior start to his career than Brayshaw - he can hit a target by foot which helps. Brayshaw to Carlton, Gibbs to Adelaide, Lever to Melbourne plus a shuffle of draft picks. You've got to give something to get something, and Brayshaw could easily be the makeweight in any deal to get the likes of Lever in.

i remember prior to the draft i was speaking to a champion data employee who was also a saints supporter - he was 100% confident that they were going to pick trac as he was, clearly in his view, the best underage player they'd ever seen in terms of where his ratings sat, and his influence upon games. he was shocked when it turns around to 'needs' rather than 'best available' and they picked mccartin.

i still think mccartin is going to be a very good player - he reads the flight of the ball well and is a terrific mark, but at this stage he simply doesn't look anything like fit enough to play afl-level football. the concussion issue is a massive concern tho. i would ask whether it's worth saints re-tooling him as someone who can learn the trade as a defender first, but his leading patterns and the like are actually pretty good; he doesn't need to follow good forwards around learning where and when to run, cos it seems pretty instinctual to him. so at the moment he's just a bit of an overweight key forward - and make no mistake, i think he'll end up a better forward than bruce or membrey, the latter of whom is a classic undersized third tall and the former who is a hit-and-miss player. fwiw, i am so very, very happy with weideman. once he starts clunking the marks he's getting his hands to - hopefully this week against the blues - he's going to be a really strong aerial threat who is a pearler of a kick both at goal and around the ground. petracca has the arrogance of stringer and neck tatts and hopefully will be better than both.

Gotta be GW$. Took the best 17 year olds out of drafts when we were down and a rabble desperate for quality kids, stole our #1 picked player, dominated drafts as we continued to struggle along, and currently have a winning record over us, one of few teams they do already in their young life. I loathe them.

carltank supporting mate is celebrating already. he's convinced they're finishing stone motherless and will appeal for a priority pick, have picks 1 and 2 at the table, and pick up these two potential gw$ boys. i personally think if that does happen it's far more likely sos will give picks 1 and 2 to gw$ for some magic beans, but whatever...

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.