Lord Travis

Agreed. I don't understand why they'd trade Pick 1 for him either? Why not get him for free via Free Agency and use pick 1 to trade further?

We do need a reliable small forward. With Davey close to retirement, Byrnes close to retirement, and Blease not producing due to injury, form, positional changes, this is a need for us now that we have the tall forwards sorted. Saints have Milne, Schneider, Saad, Milera, Dennis-Lane. Milne and Schneider are both done. That leaves the remaining 3. Saad is average, Milera is inconsistent and plays better as a half forward delivering the ball, and Dennis-Lane plays as a lead up forward more than a crumber. Not sure we'll find what we're looking for here. Keiran Harper is developing as a midfielder at North and they really rate him. Was talked up by the club big time early in the season and is still developing. Doubt they will trade him, and though he was drafted as a forward he is developing as a midfielder. Shane Savage is definitely worth a look. He is in and out of the Hawks team due to talent and competition for similar position. He's a good footballer and we should chase him if we can. He would add goal scoring potential as a small forward, and dash with stints in the midfield. Siposs is not what we are looking for. He's bigger, at about 90kgs and is a marking option who doesn't score many goals and is still being shuffled around trying to find his best position. The Saints won't trade him and we don't need him. Daniel Cross will retire at the end of the year. He'll be 31 next year and his output has declined considerably the last 2 years. He would be a good role model for our kids, as he is a very hard worker who has got the best out of himself. He plays hard football and just goes about his business without complaining when he gets rough treatment from a tagger. With his current output and age though, I believe he'll retire at the end of the year, and if we did get him across he would only give us one year of service I'd wager. As for Tom Bell, he'd be worth a look if it only costs us a late pick. He's certainly got the right body for an AFL midfielder, and he's shown he's capable in patches, but he hasn't put it together yet. If we got him cheap, I'd be all for it as he definitely has potential in a position we are light in. We need more midfielders, ball winners especially. I'd rather Bell over a Magner or Couch because potentially Bell could win lots of ball inside, but has a booming kick too so could bang through a goal or two also.

That trade in the OP won't eventuate as Swan won't move. He already stated he will retire in 1-2 years as he doesn't have a burning passion for footy. You'd think he'd rather retire than move to GWS for 1-2 years, so that trade won't happen unless they trade someone else in Swan's place. It seems highly likely Buddy will end up at GWS under free agency. Here's hoping we can pinch Daisy Thomas through free agency or trade across a Craig Bird, Taylor Adams type with a late first round or early second round draft pick.

Aish's skills are elite. He is one of the best kicks in the draft, and is good on both sides. He has good pace and is often bursting through traffic and dodging tacklers. He is more outside at this stage, but wins ball inside when required and will become a well rounded midfielder in the Trent Cotchin mould at AFL level. He is all class and the likely #2 at this stage.

Aish is similar to Trent Cotchin. He plays both inside and outside, has great decision making, great skills, is able to evade others and move well through traffic. I'd say he has a better kick than Cotchin, one of the best kicks in this draft, but slightly less core strength than Cotchin, which is why he uses quick lateral movement to shrug by tacklers in traffic. Kelly is a running machine. He would have to be at the top with the beep tests. He covers a heap of ground, gets to the right spots and always winds up having more ball than most others. He uses it well too, good skills, always in space so has time to make good decisions, but is very much an outside runner at this stage. It's hard to think of a player comparison. He plays a similar role to Gaff at West Coast, but he doesn't play a lot like him if that makes sense?

The more reading I've done tonight, the more convinced I am we will take James Aish with pick 2 (if that's what we have come end of the season). Seems to be the most rounded midfielder of the highest ranked ones. Him or Sheed anyway, but Aish has the better skills and turn of pace around the packs. What sort of player is Zak Jones? I've read mainly a defender? Being Nathan Jones' younger brother I'd hope we have a good look at him. If he has the same work ethic and hunger as Nathan then he will be a winner.

Would be happy with any of Sheed, Kelly, Aish with our first pick. They all have class, find the footy, make good decisions and execute their skills well. I haven't seen as much of Aish due to his injury, but Sheed and Kelly have both been consistent in displaying the skills which will make them good AFL players. I say we go for the most talented midfielder with our first pick and trade for a midfielder with another pick. Someone like Craig Bird from Sydney would be ideal. He's the right age bracket being 24, experienced with close to 100 games, comes from a good culture and has developed well. He's also a premiership player! He's played defensive roles, played inside midfield roles and has kicked goals. He'd provide ball winning ability and good work ethic with his tackles and defensive pressure. Good role model for our kids as well as being a good midfielder for our team IMO.

Hope his injury doesn't set him back again. Report says he is in a moon boot

He played ok, but Griffen still had 31 touches and 3 goals... Wouldn't talk up his performance too much. Glad to see Watts have a really good game and stand up when we needed it!

Blease injured his foot. Poor kid. Crap win tonight. I'd usually say I'll take any win, but to win that way limping over the line after being 45 points up 15 minutes into the last quarter... that was pathetic and I'm very disappointed.

Thank [censored] we won! Can't believe that last quarter!

F*cking pathetic last quarter. If we lose this I don't watch again this year. How the [censored] can you let a team come back from nearly 50 points down in the last quarter?!

He's an arrogant [censored]. I'll never forget that day Steven King kicked Jeff White's face in, and Bomber joked that White put his face in the wrong place and deserved to be suspended. At that stage White had been rushed to hospital intesne surgery as his face was caved in. [censored]. There's a reason he's not spoken about in the same vein as Leigh Mathews, Paul Roos, Mick Malthouse etc. It's because even though he coached Geelong to a few flags, it was mainly player driven, and everyone inside the footy world acknowledges this. Then you have the issue of his off field discretions, getting involved with players girlfriends, wives, etc and being out on the [censored] and reportedly experimenting with drugs also. Now he's involved in the Essendon drug scandal too and says he wouldn't go near a Melbourne coaching job on AFL 360 the other night. He wouldn't be welcome here anyway. The guy is a scumbag. Avoid.

I remember PJ injuring his shoulder from smashing in trying to get the ball. I remember Pederson for squibing a mark when there wasn't even anyone coming at him!

Sh*t decision by the club. Sh*t footballer. Sh*t trade initially by both teams. Lose-Lose. Hopefully he doesn't take up the spot of someone who doesn't squib it every week. I've never seen a guy with such a big body be such a soft c*ck! I hate seeing him wear Red and Blue.

Strauss will be a bust I think unfortunately. He suffered shocking injuries which obviously rattled his confidence, not to mention development time, but 4-5 years on and he can't even get a game. He was drafted for having a great kick and good speed, but he has rarely if ever shown these traits at AFL level. Such as shame as we could have taken Zaharakis at this pick, and he's already won a B&F and won games off his own boot. I was stoked when we landed Tapscott in the draft, but he has not developed. Drafted for his booming kick, his big body and aggression, and his willingness to involved teammates in the game. We all love his aggression and physicality, but he just isn't impacting games of football. He doesn't lay enough tackles, doesn't get enough ball, and isn't damaging when he does get it. He's probably got another year to prove he can make the grade. Taggert still has time. I hope we see him debut sometime in the next few months. By all reports he has shown glimpses at Casey, but is still inconsistent. I hold hope he can make it as a good player for us, but he isn't off to a good start.

Thanks for that info. I thought I recalled something like this happening, but couldn't remember if it was for Sloane or Jack Redden who wound up at Brisbane.

It's Sloane. Rory Sloane. Good midfielder. No thrills. Works very hard, puts in both offensively and defensively. Signed a contract extension late last year after having a good year so is out of any clubs grasp until end of 2014. By all accounts loves it up in Adelaide so I don't think he's coming home any time soon unfortunately.

- Get Frawley to sign a contract extension. - Get Sylvia to sign a contract extension. - Acquire Dale Thomas via Free Agency. - Trade all high draft picks for establish midfielders. Getting more kids is won't help us as we can't develop them, and we are now running out of time as a club battling to survive again. On-field performance is pretty much irrelevant at this stage. The team this year is probably the worst team I've seen play in the AFL for 25-30 years. We won't make finals. We don't play an enjoyable brand of football to watch. I'm going to go into football hibernation until the end of the year and hope we can do the above mentioned to steady our list and put forward an AFL standard team next year.

They should use this month of free time to convince him to sign a contract extension and stop him leaving under free agency next year.

3-4. Their midfield will dominate us and chime in with plenty of goals, and Roughhead will smash it as he's in great form playing all over the park.

As a coach? No. He did however take a similar club in the Bulldogs to 3 consecutive prelims and with a bit of luck would've pinched a flag. He also took Sydney to a grand final after they'd been a basket-case for years and helped steady them as a club moving forward. As a player he won 4-5 premierships with Hawthorn from memory in the 70s-80s. He has what it takes. I don't think he is interested in coaching anymore though.

6. Howe 5. M. Jones 4. Terlich 3. Trengove 2. N. Jones 1. Garland Worst On Ground goes to Jamar. 20 something nothing hit outs against a d-grade ruckman and a rookie listed ruckman. 1 kick. 0 handballs. 0 marks. 6 tackles because he was too slow to ever get a hold of the ball. Awful performance. He has quickly fallen away as a player, and the fact he still has 2.5 years of his contract remaining is a huge concern for us. At his best he would always compete hard, provide a marking option around the ground and feed it off to runners passing by after clunking the marks from kick outs, long kicks to the wing etc. This made up for the fact he never had a high disposal count. Now he is a liability. if he wins a tap it goes straight to his feet and is useless. As soon as the centre bounce is done he falls over and we effectively play a man down from then on around the ground as he struggles to jog along to where ever he thinks the next stoppage will be. He wouldn't and shouldn't get a game at any AFL club based on form.

The club did not make anyone available for comment. We actually have to provide them with someone for a press conference as part of the TV rights deal, so we will get a fine for this. Obviously they were in serious discussion whether Neeld was to be moved on.

HOORAY!!! JAMAR JUST HAD HIS FIRST DISPOSAL AFTER 76 MINUTES OF PLAY. WELL DONE BIG FELLA!