Nasher

Adelaide fans want to make Lever walk to the draft to "make a statement" to other clubs. That statement would be "if you won't pay our price, we're willing to accept nothing at all". I really get a kick out of how totally moronic people can get when it comes to their footy teams. Emotion has trumped all reason, and not in a good Titus way. There is absolutely no way Lever will make it to the draft. None.

Headline: Man goes to tip while packing up house to move interstate. FMD.

But surely for every fan who swallows that horse crap, there's another standing there going "whaaaaaaaa?" Maybe I'm just naive but I don't see what's wrong with just getting the job done without all the BS.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Birdman's negotiations with the 9 clubs though. Burton: Jake Lever's coming to Vic. What are you offering? Other manager: Jog on idiot, we've been talking to his manager all year and we know he ain't coming here. Stop wasting our time.

I tell you what, if I was running the Adelaide Crows right now, I'd be raising some serious concerns over the competence of my general manager of footy. Lever informs club of his intention to go, and nominates Melbourne. Birdman Burton meets with Melbourne. Melbourne opens negotiations in good faith, offerings its first and second draft picks - currently the best currency it has Burton has the option of negotiating. No, Melbourne, we need two first round draft picks. It doesn't have to be 10, you can use that in other trades to get us our two. We would consider a 2018 first rounder as one if you can net one, or use your own. Get on the hunt and we'll talk... Instead, Burton just walks out without comment. Negotiations stall as a result. Neither club now have any idea what other avenues to start exploring. Lots of time leading up to trade week to go to waste as a result. Burton then stands in front of the media and carries on like a butthurt fan. It's all about the money, he says. Message to current Adelaide players: "don't come to us to try and get more money. And if you do and we try to screw you over, don't even think about leaving or we will besmirch your name to the best of our ability." Burton says, "we'll negotiate with the 9 other Victorian clubs as well, to get the best deal." For Christ sake Brett, no you won't. Lever wants to go to Melbourne. If you don't negotiate with Melbourne, Lever will walk and you'll get f*** all in return. Once you start being pricks about it, Lever will get to the point where he'll happily risk going to Brisbane or North just to p*** you off. Don't reckon Melbourne fans or administration wouldn't even blame him. You've got a good starting point for a deal on the table, but you'd prefer to risk it all, and do untold reputational damage to your own club, just to look good in front of your fans. Typical ex-footy player promoted well above his skill level. I'm so happy Josh Mahoney has grown in to the role that he has. I'd hate to see a hot-headed oaf in charge like they've got.

Crows fans have already started with the old "he's not even that good anyway". Sorry, he is.

TMac will surely play the Watts role, which both terrifies and excites me.

He should have OMac in there somewhere and TMac in the forward line, though, so he only gets half a point.

I thought Adelaide were just posturing with their demands of two first rounders, but now that I've seen Brett Burton's public man tantrum, I have zero expectation of them being reasonable trading partners. Wow, what an absolute tool.

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?

"Giving" him a rookie spot involves delisted and re-drafting. You have to be prepared to lose the player taking that path. I get the feeling they rate him. He's big, tough and quick - if he can get fit, I think he'll remind us why we were all so excited when he first burst on to the scene.

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.

Again, maybe I'm being thick but I'm struggling with the idea that one player has responsibility for the outcome when the whole team was pus. Maybe Lewis' influence added 5 goals to our side but we still fell short - how would we know? I find it hard to be critical *or* appraising of his leadership when I wasn't on the field or in the coaches box. To me it's a leap too far to say "we lost, therefore Lewis failed to exert the required leadership". The Lewis effect is 100% guesswork. Maybe we're saying the same thing from opposite angles.

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.

Can any one player change that? The whole team fell in a heap in the first quarter. I expect him to be able to influence it, but of course that is completely immeasurable from the outer, not withstanding posters on here attempting to anyway.

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.