whatwhat say what

I've got pretty good mail on both sides of the fence - one is adamant he's headed to the cattery and the other has him remaining ay Alberton!

Still hoping he winds up at the Dees.

nope.

It's looking increasingly likely that Boak will stay, Cloke will stay, and Caddy will stay, plus Viney will end up available as our second round pick.

The only way I could see us giving up #4 is if it gave us access to one of the under 17 kids from WA. But I expect GC17 to try for one of them, and someone else to get the other by trading a player rather than another pick.

So the dream draft of Toumpas, Wines, Kennedy and Viney could come to fruition, presuming we hold onto our current parlous position.

i want him. he's a gun mid, who gets the ball, delivers the ball, and kicks goals.

like jones, he's been left to solder together some form of midfield with little to no help.

a midfield of boak, jones, jmc2.0, trengove, grimes, viney, at least one other class recruit from this draft, plus hopefully gysberts (who i think has enormous potential - such a dirty word!) is potentially (there it is again!) very exciting.

i would imagine everything will come down to whether he's determined to go to geelong or not. my opinion still remains that it's the cats or the power for trav.

given our parlous ladder position, we are of course in the ideal spot to nab him if he does become available, having #4, #14 to play with.

a lot will come down to viney's f/s selection - if we can get him with our second round pick, then #3 and #4 makes for an even better bargaining position.

in an ideal world we keep both of those, get boak for #13, and viney for our second round pick.

essendon want him - they chased him hard last time - but will have to commit to daniher with their first round selection, which would be far too late to satisfy port regardless. footscray might be in with a shot if they want to trade their first pick, but i would doubt it. we shall see.

did you prefer garlett to kennedy?

daniher is frighteningly exciting - i absolutely loathe essendon and they're getting a terrific kpp very cheap. paul salmon-esque.

Would people be happy with....

Mini Draft Pick # 1 - Jack Martin/Jesse Hogan

Pick # 3 - Jimmy Toumpas/Jake Stringer/Ollie Wines

2nd Round Pick - Jack Viney

i'd rate toumpas and wines over martin and hogan, and we could probably get both, but it'd be hard to be opposed to it.

whitfield is a jet.

toumpas (no 's'), wines at #3 and #4 for me, then kennedy with the mid-range pick, followed by viney with the second-rounder.

i'd love grundy with the mid-range pick, but he won't last - wouldn't be surprised to see gws snap him up.

yup, he's got speed, he's got strength, and best of all he's got excellent vision. very exciting to see.

not with hogan's kicking at goal. leans back on his set shots, every time.

martin over hogan for me. he's small and skinny, but just scintilating speed and guts too.

he and hogan are the two eligible for the mini-draft, i believe.

viney's strength in the contest and worm-burning passing are really exciting.

Gee, slow down Jack!

yes, he's been very good thus far this quarter, particularly from the centre bounces. is he natural left or natural right?

can't believe boyd is not even 17 yet. he and daniher are both monsters in vic m's forward half. essendon are going to have a very, very dangerous forward line with daniher joining the likes fo hurley and crameri.

watched most of both games thus far. real stand-outs in the first game for me were:

grundy (sa ruckman)

stringer (vic c winger / half forward / 3rd tall forward type)

wines (vic c in-and-under midfielder)

toumpas (smooth moving sa in- and outside mid)

kennedy (small, zippy sa outside mid / small forward)

membrey (bullocking vic c third tall forward type - be interesting to see where he fits in the afl)

whitfield (vic c ball magnet - beautiful off both sides)

based on what i've seen of the vic m-wa clash thus far, no way is viney worth #3 in the draft. still hope we get him for that second round pick tho!

2 div 1 games being shown live on the afl app now tomorrow and Wednesday.

GC17 will nominate every father-son worth a dime now. Viney, Daniher, Bourke are all going first round. Stewart will probably slide to the scum's second round pick.

The big difference is that under the previous bidding arrangement he was a chance - albeit a slim one - to slide to our second round pick, as either GC17 or GWS had to nominate him individually as being picked up - now the team that finishes stone motherless can nominate those three mentioned in my opening para with one pick.

It's a completely radical rule change, making it a certainty Viney will be nominated.

In most people's opinions we're fortunate in that he's expected to be worth it.

Yeah, absolute certainty that Viney will be our first picked player now.

What a farce!

Boak would be not just our best midfielder but a terrific leader on and off the field too.

He's not super quick but his skills and vision are outstanding. He can play inside and outside.

But I'll wager it's Geelong or the Power for him.

Bugger. Foxtel gets installed on Saturday!

when he was 'on' - which was usually for about 2 quarters in 14 - the games seemed to move in slow motion around travis.

there was one game where he got the ball deep in the back pocket, had three players bearing down on him from different angles, and worked his way out of the jam like they were standing still not charging him to deliver a 50m bullet to a free man on the wing. just breath taking.

but, as i say, it was 2 in 14, if we were lucky.

i'll takes grimes any day of the week over roller.

Can you watch a replay online anywhere?

i remain to be convinced that sabremetrics will work for australian rules football.

there are too many vagaries compared to the 1 v 1 nature of a pitcher vs a batter.

If there is a Motlop or a Rioli amongst the names then grab them first and then JV.

no thanks, give me a selwood or a lewis over either a motlop or rioli with our first pick.

Traitor.

Don't forget that he threatened to go to Richmond for a season unless we did the trade to Adelaide. Tigers were apparently happy to have him for a season then execute a trade to Crows or the Power.

For what it's worth I believe we got pick 12 for him, which we traded to Geelong for Moloney.

Viney is going to be a valuable selection anywhere after the first two really. The kid is rated very highly and will be worth whatever pick we end up having to use to draft him.

If we don't pick him I'll be very disappointed, cos everything I've been told about him makes him sound worth it.