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If we're looking to show incremental improvement and use next season as a building block for success, Viney shouldn't be a walk up start by the end of next year. It would be somewhat disappointing if some of the younger brigade haven't pushed him out of the side.

The Club was never going to come out initially and say that Petracca and Oliver wouldn't be at the club, but common sense long pointed to both players being moved on. Contextually, no reasonable person would take this types of claim seriously. Sure it may be a form of puffery, a 'smokescreen' if you will, but to the common punter this is hardly deceptive or overpromising; it's potentially an exaggerated opinion in the face of impending trades but that's merely a convention in the AFL landscape. I'm not adverse to criticising the board and I think there have been severe and ongoing failures, but this specific line of reasoning is just childish.

It doesn’t take much to see that resigning for what it was; a puerile attempt from a desperate club trying to the move the needle.

When Freo Recruit Made the Call to Leave the Dees (SEN) “Then, in my final year in 2025 I got halfway through the year and decided to pack up and come home. … Freo presented very well to me, I saw the opportunity and thought I’d definitely take it.”

I was being facetious, you know he hasn’t been brought in as a key position defender though, yeah? That’s not the role he’ll be playing.

Multitude of reasoning can go into it, but there are list management benefits including being able to be placed on a one year contract and the payments being significantly lower for a rookie listed player. We're in a pretty precarious position regarding financials, so that may have been a partial consideration given Kalani was tipped by most to be a rookie selection and he's probably more of a 'project' at the moment, or at least a selection based on potential rather than a hard baseline of performance (i.e., think the majority of first and second round selections). I would definitely temper expectations; I think a few on here may have gotten ahead of themselves and some of it is due to the romance of the White name that's synonymous with Jeff.

From footage I've seen it's pretty spectacular, but I'd contextualise this against the backdrop of it occurring against other schoolboys, so it can be hard to get a good read. From memory he was a state combine attendee, I'd be interested to see his results against others (may have a quick Google later).

Pleased we've been able to get him, but I think he's the most speculative and long-term of our additions this year. I'll definitely be interested to see where he slots in during training and what line-group he's seemingly training with. I'm agnostic at this stage on whether he'll become a success story like Jack Viney, or if he'll be relegated to the Kynan Brown and Taj Woewodin pile. He's got some great attributes but we'll need to be patient with this one, though I think for Kalani's sake he's come in at an ideal time to learn and develop.

In terms of the Dovaston / Pickett debate, from Melbourne's perspective it was always going to be Pickett over Dovaston.

Taylor/Pickett would've been highly likely, I think.

I too, will give myself a shameless re-post, inspired by @rpfc and @JJJ

This is completely fair, he was well and truly in the sights of both North and GWS by all reports, with picks that were merely 3 and 4 picks later than our Pick 12. It's a pretty big overreaction by some to say he wasn't worthy of Pick 12.

I haven't paid a heap of attention to the whole draft class this year, at least outside of the individuals I've been interested in so my views are likely somewhat limited. But I agree with most of your comments on Ludowyke; you'd be selecting him on potential, but I don't really have any qualms on that and realistically, that's what we've taken L Pickett on too. Sometimes you can become a benefactor of circumstance and while it's unlucky for Ludowyke that he was injured and slid, it could really put us in a good place, especially given there are questions on the development of Jefferson and Kenterfield is still unproven. Hibbins-Hargreaves is a player I've liked all the way through. Similar to Ludowyke, he's a bit of a pick on potential, but his versatility and class is something that could really add to the Melbourne team. I think he could become a strong distributor for us into the forward 50, and he's also able to hit the scoreboard. Ideally, he could become the ANB replacement we're really missing and his conversion rate on shots at goal went at 82% this year, another area we've struggled in. Greeves looks good on paper and he clearly has a nice pedigree to him, but I'm a bit reticent as I think the game is moving past those traditional big-bodied mids. Yes, you still need an extractor at the ball, but look how we struggled with spread and transition since 2022 with Oliver, Viney and Petracca all in the side. Some of the knocks on Greeves also relate to his two way running, general running capacity, defensive spread and attitude towards defensive work rate have been questioned. I agree with your point about next years draft too, it's a good opportunity to pick up two mids. We're still going to be hunting Humphrey next year too, so lets not discount that as a potential acquisition which will require some clever maneuvering capital wise, if we're successful.

Fingers crossed for HH at this point. If we could nab him, it would really finish of our draft period very nicely. I'm also warming to Ludowyke. Between NHH and Ludowyke they're probably the two I am most keen on. I'm agonistic on Greeves, but I tend to feel that between Steele, Viney and potentially Langford (depending on continued development and role), we're okay for that primary ball winner player.

Does that work both ways?

Courtesy of ZH: "GWS has been heavily linked to mature-aged Glenelg forward Latrelle Pickett in recent days with its first selection. There was an expectation the Giants would look to Oskar Taylor, but there is now a belief that Pickett has surpassed Taylor in their reckoning."

I also suspect at this stage that is the most likely scenario in which we'd obtain Pickett. Somewhat disappointing, as I would be comfortable selecting him on potential alone at Pick 8, but I also really like Farrow/Nairn. Also, if we grabbed HH at P37 or whatever it comes into, would alleviate most of the disappointment - he's been one of the players I've had on the wish-list for a while now.

You're very likely correct, it seems to be the most realistic reason. Blues will need to balance their points carefully for this draft with Dean, and next year with Walker. In fact, from memory the points next year are restricted even further and Walker is anticipated to be one of the best players in the crop, so they would very likely be analysing and projecting on the GC finishing positing cf. North.

I don't know and I don't pretend to know either. It could be for a myriad of reasons. Maybe the club has changed tact, maybe they think obtain a similar player they were targeting in ancillary manner without burning capital. Correct - things can change in a relatively short period of time. Maybe they have a decent understanding of where this sits now and want to make it a priority.

The updated 'Hun Phantom no longer has HH in the Top 30 either...

Yes.