Dappa Dan

I noticed someone else quoted this, so I went back to use it... I keep coming back to this same thought...That the finals success, the team kicking out the coaches and running meetings with just themselves, all this... has left Jesse feeling like just another cog in this team and not its great spearhead as he's been for the last 4 years. Has he been waiting for an opening to sneak back to Perth? Maybe. I think my main thought though is that the club had up until this week shown no interest in trading him whatsoever. They've loved him and nurtured him all the way through and bent over backwards to accommodate him. And now, with his injury and non-involvement in the first success the club's seen in a long time, he suddenly baulks? A big part of me thinks if that's all it takes, then perhaps he's not made of the stern stuff we all hoped he would be? He's a great player and I want to keep him... but only if he buys in. And I mean REALLY buys in. Otherwise, what do we really have?

Gee that's beautifully written. Have to say though, as pretty as that was to read, the sentiment is wildly inaccurate. No amount of glorious words about his so-called loyalty can distract from what happens if he moves. In terms of sticking with the club, he's hardly Nathan Jones... He took a 2 year deal in his last contract, and has trotted out the same media line as Scully did before he left. I hope you're right though of course.

I suspect you're right there. And yeah, this is a club who's only dominant period stemmed from the great Pav. They know they can sell memberships with the Hulk. He will be adored forever after 200 games with them. If he were to go there, their next 5-10 years look completely different. At MFC he's not even in our 3 most important (Gawn, Oliver, Tmac, Viney, Lever). If you want to see some extreme examples of the value of draft picks, consider the tale of RG3 in the NFL. The Redskins traded their first round pick in three successive drafts... AND a second rounder. And what for? To move from pick 5 overall to pick 2. They literally traded all that to move up 3 spots to get their guy. NFL is different obviously, but where they're way ahead of us is they make huge blockbuster deals to get a franchise player. They'd find a first and second round pick trade quaint... In our defence, MOST people here are rating him. It's a small vocal minority that want everyone to think he's average. I'm confident the demons rate him as high as we do though.

- The greater football public, I think if we genuinely ran a poll, would have Curnow ahead based purely on his pack marking. And would take Daniher as he's just so damn big. Jesse is FAR more accurate. 150+ goals in 70 games vs Daniher's 180 in 100 games. Just for giggles let's throw in Curnow... 59 goals form 47 games. Hogan has essentially played one more seasons worth of games and kicked almost 100 more goals then him. You could (and should) argue that Hogan has better delivery, but we were a bad side when he played his first 50 games. In any case, I don't think the GP would put them ahead of Hogan since they're usually a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately crowd... In any case statistically he's well ahead. - Yeah that's a fair knock. But also a fair knock on just about every forward who's ever played. They feast against poor sides, and don't play as well against good ones. You can't argue with his goals-per-game average, and the fact he's been consistent from the beginning. Any time you're up the front of a Coleman, regardless of oppo, you deserve the adulation... Guys like Fev should be respected more because of this. - OK now you're putting words in my mouth. I never said he was "a certainty to be a Carey-esque superstar." Carey's on his own. But within any 5 year period you always have 3-5 big-time forwards who carve it up. The Brown/Riewoldt period was a classic. Hogan is that level of player. Not only that but I think he's in a mini-golden age. There's SO many great KP forwards around right now. And yeah, as I said earlier, he's a sub-25 year old KPF. There's a reason Nicky Dal's top-10 list he did a few days ago was ridiculous. Right now you have to say Riewoldt's the best KP forward in the game. Just won the Coleman... But he turns 30 in a month. If in some parallel universe he was to be traded, he wouldn't get anywhere near what Jesse would in a trade as trades are all about future. That, I think, is what you're overlooking. In a straight up trade for 2019 production... yes... most top tier players are worth a first and change. But when you're in your early 20s in a difficult to find/difficult to train/difficult to draft position like what Jesse plays, you start seeing 2+ first rounders. You just can't argue he's only worth a first and second when Lever went for two firsts. Gibbs too. That's insanity. The market rate for what Jesse is has to be CONSIDERABLY more than what Gibbs got. Gibbs will only likely play 3-4 more seasons. Jesse has 8, maybe 10 more. 2 firsts is unders. Good stuff though. Love the back and forth.

Yeah it was, but if this year both sides can be up and running by that stage... it will be better. Be great if it ciould not be overshadowed by injury events.

Welcome to posting... I have to take exception to this. No-one's using fawning epithets when they describe him like that. And just so you know, when the news broke, it was a mate of mine who's a one-eyed Tigers supporter who I first heard talk of Jesse as a generational talent. So it's not just the one-eyed demons supporters. Furthermore, a cold clear analysis of Hogan's output has, for a couple of years now, shown not only is he on the level of those guys, but he actually did more than them at a similar age. We all saw the articles written early in his career pointing this out. We've even seen Riewoldt-like articles written this year. I'm not telling you you can't look down on Hogan, we all have our ways of looking at footy differently. But you should preface it by claiming it as your opinion. And I'd point out that you're in the minority. The larger football world absolutely has him as the best KPF under 25 (unless you're a Blues supporter). He's not the best going around right now, certainly. But that's a reflection of his age and experience. He still needs more than a season to crack 100 games. And of the superstars running around right now, he has most of them beaten at a similar age. He doesn't have much more to do to be described accurately as a generational talent. If he went to Freo, he'd be their next Pavlich. Doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Peter Bell playing the ball beautifully. Maher put to him Langdon's comments that he's staying. Bell says "Langdon's mail is considered pretty good, I'll just say Jesse's a contracted player and we respect that"

See what I mean? It makes my head hurt. Plus I follow other sports with similar but slightly different rules, and I just can't keep up anymore. I'm only interested when a Scully/Hogan happens... That's what you're for.

UNRESTRICTED... That's the word I was searching for. Yup. As I said in my first post. I hate looking into these details. They can change them at any time, and you can miss it if you don't watch afl.com on a daily basis, which I don't. So I just don't bother checking and rely on the good Doctors on here.

Hm. I'm still with it. The minute it's accepted he's eventually staying at demons, his signing price drops. If anyone leaked these rumours, it would have to be his manager. But yeah fair enough. Can't disagree with you. It's all guesswork.

Can't disagree with any of that. My point is though, doesn't that give you hope that he's resigning?

I think he mentioned he saw her in Perth a while back actually, but otherwise that's all right. As you say, Langdon... if anything, it makes it more likely he's gone now. lol... Everyone wants to know, no-one wants to do the homework. I imagine your knowledge is similar to mine. I believe players are RFAs until after their 7th season when they become fully free agents. But for all I know that might have been adjusted multiple times.

Jeezus... relax. No-one cares whether you're listening or not. You said you wanted the club "not to let him" go... sign him to 2-5 years. If he wants to stay, then they don't need to convince him. If he chooses to go, then there's nothing we can do to stop him. It's that simple. We can't force him to stay at the club, and it's not up to us to "not let him" leave. We live in a free country. Take it easy.

That's one of the little things I'm thinking. I reckon in the last few years Journos have lost the plot. There's more of them than players, and there's less and less content as the clubs attempt to control their own message through their own media departments. The consequence is the journos go even harder at fake news... At least I hope that's the case here.

I only heard that yesterday for whatever that's worth.

The only possibility there you may have overlooked is that Jesse is signing a big time deal, and is driving up his price... It's been done before. Seems unlikely though... And who can blame them. This is as busy and sad as it's been on here since the Scully trade. Dland has never been the same since then.

I don't buy that at all. If there's one thing that's always been consistent about Jesse (aside from his footy) it's that rumours pop up consistently and the club comments on them consistently. Be it at a presser, or even post match when Goody is ambushed. That's the way I see it anyway. But we'll see... Secretly of course, I'm glad you're in opposition. lol

That's a good point re: the journos... I think though it's now everyone. Even the respected ones are falling in line. That said, this has been alive for 3 days now... so it's still sort of early. Does say a lot though that it's drowning out a lot of other trade talk and even drowning out the GF media.

The silence is deafening, isn't it. Usually when these stories get released, the club reacts inside of 24 hours to squash any scuttlebutt. Not this time though.

I'm not a basketball guy unfortunately, but they have uber strict rules about how and when players get drafted. It's in the system that no player can take handouts (even things like free t shirts and pizzas) while they're at College. It's policed really strictly and impressively (The film: The Blind Side goes into it a little). In fact a lot of College players play College and never catch on at professional level because they find working for a paycheck doesn't fulfil them. Most NFL purists would say College football is better to watch than NFL. And to some degree I agree. In terms of being drafted outside the College system, yes. You can be picked up past a certain age. My team, the Eagles, just picked up Jordan Mailata who used to play for the Rabbitohs in the NRL but was considered a bit too bulky. He's an absolute physical specimen and has already caught on, and looks like having a career in a really important position. So it does happen. But TBH, it's the richest league in the world. If they can find difference makers anywhere outside the draft system, it's rare, and they tend to be their equivalent of our "rookies." They're alled "undrafted free agents." Come on over to "Other Sports" Forum and join in on the tipping. It's a growing thread. Surely you can't ignore the amount of smoke this time. If he just came out and signed, saying "I dunno what the fuss was about, I was never leaving the club"... wouldn't that surprise you?

Jeezus. There's been a draft in the AFL as long as I've been alive. Yeah as we've spoken about before, the early recruiting age plays havoc with drafting and makes it more hit and miss. The comparison to NFL drafting for example, is a good one. First rounders get traded with a heavy value, and rightly so, you're picking up players who are far closer to known quantities. Things like that are what we can learn (as fans) when it comes to assessing a player's value in terms of picks. Completely agree on the 3Xtop 10... It won't happen of course. But I agree with the price. I was saying 2 firsts and a super quick skilled midfielder as my price... only because I want some sort of known quantity as we're in our window now.

- That's what worries me. He's an out and out star. Simple as that. - It's looking likely now that it's just not up to us. Contracts don't count for squat anymore. Players get to where they want/need to go. You should brace yourself for the news that "if we can" isn't a reality anymore. We got Lever in exactly the same way. This is the way of modern footy now.

Were are you getting this "let" thing from? Did the Crows "let" Lever move to the demons? Players leave clubs all the time to return to their home state. There's not "letting" in it. If he's going to leave anyway, you WANT him to tell you a year in advance, while he's contracted, so you can get a fair price for him when he walks. Jeezus.

So we keep a malcontent on our list who'll disrupt the side for all of 2019, and in the end sign as a free agent with Freo anyway, and all we get is a late first round pick in return? No. If he's going anyway, we make the smart business decision and get what we can, while we can. Look... I'm not saying I've given up hope that their meetings over the coming days lead to him signing a 6 year deal... but it's looking increasingly unlikely. You need to come to terms with the fact that Jesse is possibly already out the door. If it's true that he is, holding onto him for 12 months will do nothing for MFC.

He's reportedly not signing with us next year. We can't keep a player for 2-5 years who isn't signed with us. lol....