whatwhat say what

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!!

confirmed by moloney prior to the start of the season. unbelievable, to be honest.

whether or not he's in play might be irrelevant, as we're at 100% of the cap, don't have anyone notable on big money going (possible exception being jamar), and have a couple of reasonably significant players - garland, howe - out of contract. also, i can't see treloar leaving gws, and if he does, i can't seem him heading for the dees.

Still not worth it for gc17. O'Meara is an elite player when fit, but his knee issues would also be a consideration.

looking like no subs next year. rotatiions could be 120, probably 100, potentially down to 80.

Our first round pick would be overs and our second round pick unders. Yarran for Carlile in a straight swap is the story at the moment.

motlop has been mooted as one of the possible moves if crows do choose to 'match' the dangerfield contract (presuming it comes from the cats) and force geelong to the trade table.

bennell and charlie dixon both on the market i'm lead to believe. personally i don't think they're worth that much - the former is unpredictable on and off the field, and the latter is predictable in that he can't stay ON the field for more than about two games in a row before he breaks down with injury. both are, however, super talents. our first rounder (4-7), third rounder (38-43) plus howe for both of them and gc17's second rounder (18-20). even that would make me nervous that gc17 would actually be the 'winner'.

midfield is where the priority has to lie. the only talk about melbourne is that howe is looking to go.

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.