Nasher

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.

There are so many posters who are guilty of being biased towards 30 seconds of play DA (read: probably all of us), but very few capable of recognising it after the fact and correcting. Great post.

Not a bad effort for someone "completely and utterly out of his depth".

No, it's bagging him incessantly when he isn't playing well that isn't right. Your claim that now is the time to show respect nearly made me throw up - it's always time to show respect, and you don't. Glad you were happy with his output yesterday.

Nah, I reckon it's yet another soft effort from PF. The time to show Oscar some respect was before, when he was struggling a bit, rather than laying in to him excessively. Supporting players when they play well is the easy bit.

With pick 9? And being Nathan's brother would have been irrelevant to the recruitment team. If I was going to rewrite history on that draft I'd pick Cripps at 9 - but I'm pretty happy with Salem.

Great compilation - a mix of clutch moments in games (how calm was Jeff White?) and just miracle goals. Funny how to passage of time becomes blurry after a while. I had to double take when I saw Dean Kent on screen in one of the Flash goals. Hard to believe Flash has only been off the list for four years, that feels like a bloody lifetime ago.

I am showing forum leadership and considerate restraint by posting this post about not replying instead of posting what I'd like to reply with.

Was he this good at Essendon? Easily in our top 5 players at present. He looks elite.

This feels to me like one of those topics that we heatedly argue about for ages, then he signs a long term deal with his current club in July. Surely he's not going anywhere.

He even lists a top 10. Jarrod Witts is in it. Whether the oversight was intentional or otherwise, it is credibility destroying. Hibberd is clearly performing well above most of those players and has been in our top 5 consistently since joining the team. Anyway, whatever. I'm long past looking for external plaudits. Hibberd was a fantastic trade and I couldn't be more pleased with his output to date. I knew he was a decent player but so far he's been even better than I anticipated.