Fat Tony

I reckon Martin is worth the risk on a big money, two-year deal via the PSD. While he is a great footballer, he isn’t worth pick #2 given his off field behaviour.

Despite the lack of success with our mature-age recruits last year, I am generally all for it as long as they are on one-year contracts. We should be looking at given a lifeline to players like Cross, Chapman, Tuck, Lovett-Murray and O'Hailpin because they will typically provide better output than a late draft pick and come at no cost. In saying that, I think Jolly is cooked and we would be better off getting games into Gawn and Spencer.

Byrnes was a mistake in two parts. Firstly, he reduced our compensation for Rivers and Moloney. Secondly, he was signed on two years.

Adams should be our primary target as he is out of contract and GWS will have to deal if he chooses MFC. A trade for Swallow should only be done if we believe we are long-term winners.

I think we chase Cross, but only on a one year deal and then reassess. We need to learn from the mistakes of Byrnes, Pederson and Rodan.

I think the player's club can force the player into the draft. We should be chasing Docherty with a PSD bonus.

Depends on the price (contract and trade), but at his age and likely value we are probably better off going for some younger midfielders or players in their 30s who we can acquire for nothing.

Tom Boyd

Poor clubs like us will be hurt most if they take away the compensation for free agents. We will become a gateway for other clubs to pick off our best talent. FWIW We should have delayed our request for a Priority Pick till the last minute.

We should be chasing both players but neither are worth pick 2.

Not all early picks are equal. We really need to nut out how good a prospect Aish (or whoever we rate at #2) is versus previous early picks to estimate its value.

Is he out of contract?

O'Keefe and Scarlett both considered leaving and were vital to premiership sides.

I really don’t think we want another KPF. IMO we could build our whole forward line around Hogan as the sole KPF if required. The kid is that good but will need space around him. Remember Freo has one foot in the Grand Final with Pavlich, Mayne and two gun crumbers as their permanent forwards. To your first question, I think even if Clark, Dawes etc are fit and firing, their trade value may not increase by as much as you think because a) the forward line is overcrowded and not working and/or b) our midfield is still likely to be weak. In saying all this, once we are at the draft table we must take the best available, which would be Boyd if we have #1. For this reason, we should aim to trade the pick as long as we can get fair value (even if #1 is split into other early picks because we cannot lure players).

I also think we should (hypothetically) trade the rights to Boyd but it really depends on if we can lure sufficient value players/midfielders away from their clubs. We haven't been able to do this recently without waving big money contracts, so I won't hold my breath.

I presume you meant Hogan rather than Franklin the second time. Buddy is a special player in that he is really a 200cm small forward and Roughead is very mobile also. I am not against taking Boyd if he is that good, but IMO we would need to trade out other players for midfielders for it to work.

Watching the Swans' performance on Friday night makes you question if a forward line of Dawes, Hogan and Clark will be too tall. I don't think you can take Boyd (if we can get him) without trading something out or playing Clark in the ruck.

Why don't you nip around to Neeldy's in the Delorean? Oh actually, he has no regrets.

I agree we should be proactive and I would consider taking a public approach. However, I question if a more targeted approach is the better course of action (i.e. letting the issue simmer and lobbying directly to the AFL while teeing up third parties like the players association to publicly argue the case for on field equality).

This concept is a long way off IMO. It is a good idea to get a well credentialed assistant coach with the aim of succession, but really it should be for the future board to decide the coach at that time. And Roos may change his mind (again) and want to coach for longer if things work out. Still the way it has been advertised makes it a reasonably attractive job.

If we get a priority pick and if Boyd is considered a ‘Lebron’ pick we must take him unless we can get full value out of any trade.

Ebert was uncontracted and was not in WC finals side.

If we get PP1 we should look to trade it (and rights to Boyd) only if we can garner a fair deal. Otherwise we must go best available and find other ways to build a midfield.

We must not pay over Adams' worth in terms of draft picks. The MFC needs to be patient and get the best value out of our top picks, because we are not remotely close to a flag. We won't get Adams unless we offer the best contract and he nominates us. If he does, we should ideally try to nab him through the PSD and even offer him a ‘bonus’ to come that way. If he is not keen on being disloyal and entering the PSD we should at least have him threaten it as a possibility so we don’t pay overs. While Jamar and ~#20 or Jamar and McDonald may be ‘unders’ compared to what others will offer, GWS will probably take the trade rather than losing him in the PSD.

I don't think that our second rounder and Jamar is fanciful given our strong position in the PSD. We need Adams to nominate us as his club of preference, which would give us the whip hand. I would consider a deal including Tom McDonald and Dom Tyson.