Lord Travis

Get whatever we can for him. I’d love a swap for Young.

Midfields defensive running and blocking the corridor has been a lot better tonight. Viney had a great first half, Trac and Gus good too. Clarry well held tonight but thankfully his mates are doing their bit.

Gawn needs to find a new set shot routine. That is just atrocious.

Keep the foot down boys. Comfortable win from here with no injuries please.

You ripper Spargo!

Gotta withstand their charge here. We’re holding up well but bit over 5 mins left in quarter still.

[censored] yes! This is a decent buffer now. Let’s [censored] bring it home boys!

Gotta convert and keep the pressure on.

Good first half. We controlled the game and probably should’ve got a few more goals tbh. The real test is not fading away in the second half as we’ve been doing this year. Time to run our four quarters and kick off the run for another premiership.

Can they shut the [censored] up about Jackson and focus on the game?!

Going well here. We’re cutting off their attacks and rebounding beautifully.

Viney having a brilliant game. Mongrel and class on display.

Great rebound from Hunt and classy goal from Fritta. Nice transition boys!

Can’t sustain it. So frustrating we can rarely make the most of our dominance in play.

Few good efforts from Hunt there. Weid not getting to contests so far.

And another! We’re going hard here. Make the most of the momentum!

Yeah boy?!

Nice transition and perfect kick from Trac. Let’s get going here boys!

Hunt in was a good call by the selection committee. He's almost our best lockdown defender, and our balance has been off since his omission. Freo have poor tall forward options, especially if Lobb is curtailed. Hunt in helps lockdown the smalls like Walters, Schulz, Frederick etc. Freo will get momentum at some point, so Hunt and Hibberd's defending tonight will go a long way to determining the result IMO. Freo were a legit contender at the mid point of the year, but they've fallen away defensively recently. Very similar to us actually. I expect our midfield to fire up tonight and work harder both ways to get back to the Melbourne brand after degenerating into a shoot out last week.

I'm optimistic about tonight. Freo got us at a bad time mid season when TMac was first out. Our backline then battled as May and Petty got injured, and Petracca had a career worst game due to illness. The same result is very unlikely tonight. We showed patches of form last week agains the Dogs, even if we did get overrun. Ramping up to finals starts tonight. Tipping us to get the job done by 20 points.

He does. Reckon Kozzie will sign next year with minimal fuss. He seems very happy and doesn't like media attention. Nothing to see here.

Didn't break the news on the podcast. Pathetic. In all seriousness this is a great signing. Gus is a key cog in our successful culture and leadership. Versatile and good player onfield for sure, but this was a big cultural signing to keep the core together. Go Dees!

That would be a dream. I’d even take a straight swap for Young. Doubt it will happen though as he recently signed an extension until end of 2027.

With what though? Pick 14 from Jackson trade and a future first? Would you accept that for one of the best young key forwards and former pick 2 and 21 years old? We have a poor draft hand to put forward, so unless we're giving them one of our young stars, then there's no hope they'll ever accept and let him go. The only way we can squeeze a King brother or the like out of another club is to snag a top 5 pick and pass it straight on, potentially with more.

It's a reasonable line of thinking and is the likely outcome at this stage I believe. It would leave us with picks 14, 16, 20ish. Unless we packaged them up to get a solitary high pick then they're not great picks IMO. We used picks 3 and 12 (really pick 10 but bumped back after academy bids matched) to get Jackson and Kozzie. Freo used picks 7 and 8 to get Young and Serong. If we'd had 14, 16, 20 in that draft we would've got Miles Bergman, Cooper Stephens, and Sam Philip. Hardly regenerating a list compared to either of those top 10 combos. Picks outside the top 10 are still a very low hit rate, even with all the advancement in recruiting. Not having a go and I agree your line of thinking is the most positive outcome. In my opinion though unless we get top 5-10 picks, we're going to be worse off. We're just trying the make the most of the poor hand we've been dealt and will likely have a net result of a weaker playing list if they're taken to draft. If there were proven key forwards on the market then I'd be trading those picks without a second. Picks at draft are overrated in my view though. Losing Brayshaw, an All Australian level half back in his prime, for a 10% chance at a best 22 player seems like a horrible deal. Take the proven player every time.