Nasher

I understand why they might feel a double standard initially, without wanting to sound too dismissive, I suspect they'll get over it. Hopefully they understand that this is how you lure elite players to the club. The message is still true anyway. It will be tempting for some players to head off for more money. They should ask themselves though, is that what they really want to do?

Yep, shocking example but it was the best I could manage on such short notice ?

You have a comprehension problem. Thanks for the discussion.

They're losing a 21 year old gun, a player already touted as their next captain. I don't think they'll get their two first rounders but calling them greedy for that being their opening position is ridiculous. He was never going to come cheaply and as we all know, draft picks are a gamble. What would you be asking for if a 21 year old Jack Viney had said "I want to move to SA"?

There's no way the club would even consider trading Petracca anyway, it's just a lol-worthy suggestion. I want Lever, but I don't see the point in the trade if it costs another player likely to be instrumental in our success going forward; it just becomes a sideways step (or at best, a small one forward). If that's really Adelaide's opening offer, they are clearly just starting with an ambit claim in order to set the tone for the conversation and going from there. The final exchange will be pick 10 and whatever upgrade of later/future picks are required. It could be something like asking for Brisbane's 2017 second round pick for our 2017 third round pick and our 2018 second round pick if they'd consider something like that, and including that for Lever.

A lot of the value in the Tyson was realised in the first year. We needed to get off the ground, quickly, and it's unlikely any draftee would have helped in that regard.

I loved Nudge because his lies were outrageous and clearly ridiculous. I'm bored to death with the BS artists. Maybe I've been here too long.

Suspect this may be the same flog who told everyone we were getting Josh Kennedy.

Willing to bet that dear old Granny turns out to be completely full of it. Seen this movie a dozen times before. Makes up enough detail on the rumours to just sound plausible, when the inevitable gets done but not exactly as described, it's ooh, we/they gave in and agreed in the end to get the deal done. It's directly out of the GNF playbook. Time will tell though.

'Stephen Scumbag' probably isn't quite subtle enough.

Even the poster who made the "done deal" reference immediately followed it up with "but we will see". It is clearly not a done deal in any sense of the word, no matter how loose your interpretation is.

Gotta say I giggle a little bit when people describe Kelly as "exactly what we need". Are there any teams out there that don't need a player of this ilk?

He was a massive whipping boy at Essendon and was starting to head down that path here, too. In his early years there he was highly rated; I think he's starting to show why. Has definitely won me over in the last month.

I did say almost never happens. Remote enough chance not to waste my breath.

Zero hope of prising out one of the Saints best young talents. I'm not sure what the relevance of him being out of contract is: he's not a FA and we ain't going to get him to nominate for the draft, that almost never happens. It would have to happen by the same method as a contracted player: with agreement from the Saints. Which brings me back to my first point: zero chance of prising him out of the Saints.

OMac is a good player. It's only your stubbornness that prevents you from seeing it now. Agree with you on Frost.

Doesn't tackle much, but when he does, they hurt. That tackle 15 metres out after the unluckiest bounce ever was an absolute ripper. I'm still in disbelief at such a good player landing on our lap. He hasn't had a poor game since joining.

Thought so. Didn't get the long term deal right but as if he was going to leave.

He and Hibberd sang the absolute sheet out of the song. Loved it.

I saw Viney grimace in pain with the shoulder while on the bench. Could he... could he be human after all? Nah. What an effort that was.

I think on current form, you'd have to play them all and wait until it becomes apparent which one doesn't fit in. You'd think Pedersen and OMac were still the most vulnerable, but I can't see how you'd justify dropping either of them. Anyway, I'm nearly in a good enough mood to stop stomping on@picket fence's fingers and let him on the bandwagon.

Because it's interesting?

Who is worried about tackles?

To answer my own question a bit, looking at the numbers closely, our defenders are nearly all in the bottom few players for tackles. Hibberd and the McDonald bros regularly feature at the bottom end of the ladder. The inside mids (Viney, Oliver etc) sit at the top. The ladder for 1%ers - of which spoils is a key feature - almost looks like the tackles ladder in reverse, with Hibberd, McDonald bros, Frost and Jetta often featuring at the top.

I don't understand the lack of tackles - he's such a strong competitor in general and very hard to get the footy past; winning tackles seems like the next logical piece. He's got 4 tackles in total in 7 games for the MFC. That's a very low number whichever way you cut it. Maybe it is a genuine weakness in his game, but so far nobody cares because his contests and use of the footy out of the back line are first rate, and an element we've been absolutely screaming for. I'm sure not complaining at all, just trying to understand.