RalphiusMaximus

I maintain that Gumbleton is our best option for a trade this year. He'd be insane to take a 1 year deal from the bombers if he were offered 3 years from us at decent money. He looks like he may finally be getting past his injury issues and kicking 4 against the Hawks is nothing to sneeze at. The bombers would try to hold us to ransom on a trade, but in the end even if he was a #2 pick, he's now just another player who hasn't fired and can't get a game in their senior side. I could live with the notion of trading them Gysberts for him, although I still feel the kid could be a very good player for us and it could be seen as paying overs. Maybe Gys and their 3rd round pick?

Martin is a bit of a conundrum. In general he has been underwhelming, but when he's been given the chance to play in the no. 1 ruck spot he's shown some really good signs and improved his game drastically. He has a huge advantage over Jamar in that he can play around the ground and have an impact, while Jamar will always struggle to win possessions. We could well miss that ability if we trade him off and Jamar goes down again. The flip side is that he is one of the few players we have with some genuine currency in the market. He's not a free agent, he is a great athlete and has shown glimpses of being a capable first ruck if given the opportunity. With the right coach and team around him he could turn out to be a great pick-up. As has been said, you need to offer something if you want a decent trade. He is a player whose loss can be covered given the players we have in reserve, even if it would hurt, and there are clubs out there who will be willing to pay to get him.

There is value to be found in players who simply can't get a regular game with their side. Look at Richmond with Houli as a classic example. I think we could see some real value in pursuit of guys like Gumbleton and Byrnes who are more or less stuck being depth players at their clubs. I know there is an issue with Byrnes in his age, but if we got three years out of him I'd be very happy. In both cases the chance at more game-time has to be a factor, so we may not have to throw too much money at them. I would love us to bring in a big fish if we could manage it. A contract similar in scope to Clark's could be a big lure to some players. I have n idea who might be out there or who we might be interested in, but we should be finding ourselves with plenty of room in the cap so it should be easy to free up the cash.

Totally agree on Goodes. There's a reason he's won two Brownlows. The guy is a freak. clearly one of the best players in the league although he's a little past his prime now. It was a hell of a game to watch.

As long as the pies go out in straight sets I don't really care.

Did anyone else note on the AABC commentary that they were passed a note telling them that neither Cook nor Gysberts has been de-listed at this stage? Interesting point and also interesting that the club went to the effort to correct them on it.

I'm just not sure that we'll be active in the 17yo bidding this year. Given the number of players we're losing, I would think that we will need to take players who are able to play in 2013, not players who are in the bank for 2014. This is not to say that they are not great players in their own right but it becomes an issue of timing. Surely we'd rather see other teams throwing picks at them to improve the talent available to us in this draft?

I maintain that the most likely and most gettable is Gumby. He has the size we are looking for, is finally getting past his injury concerns and can't get a game under Hird. We should be able to snare him without too much outlay as well.

I honestly don't know who we're going to be able to snare at this point. It's going to be interesting to see. I know that last year a lot of experts thought we should have traded Martin for Young and something else from the Hawks. I suspect that these days the relative values have changed somewhat. Could we still have a chance to get young from them in a straight swap? Given that we are apparently still in the market for another tall forward, I think we may be looking at offering the bombers a pick and maybe a player for Gumby. He's not in their first choice forward line, but he appears to be over his injury issues and his game is improving. He also has the size we've been looking for. For a third, I guess I could jump on the bandwagon and say Caddy. I can't say I've ever seen him play, but plenty of people seem to think he's ok. Thus we have: Young Gumbleton Caddy.

Maybe our recruiters have been looking at the wrong areas over the last 6 years or so? Maric broke the record for kicking efficiency in the u18s. Cook was AA CHF. PErhaps these factors were given more weight than they deserved?

Totally agree. Lots of hurt feelings atm, but the fact is that Neeld isn't asking them to do anything 17 other clubs aren't doing too.

8mil from the Pratts would have counted as earnings for the club, and would have reduced the amount paid to them by the AFL. Borrowing from the AFL makes them short on cash and so is likely to increase their cut from the AFL. Crooked accounting Carlton-style.

Interesting to see the SC player ratings across the league. Grimes is our best at 41.

Garland in the goalsquare, 2012 vs Essendon.

A "rumour" hey? Has he been chatting to Mifsud again?

I have to ask. Given that you've been with us for a relatively short period, what was it that made you decide to follow the Demons? We've been pretty awful the last few years, we've had terrible press and even many of our own supporters can't see anything positive right now.

He's shown more than Cook, but he's still failed to get a start in two years at the club. His mad competitive streak may endear him to Neeld, but on his output alone you'd have to doubt that he's going to be kept.

I do like the look of Williams. He's strong through the body, able to hit packs and players hard. Not the best mark, nor the worst. Has very good game sense. He seems to like tapping the ball on to an open teammate while crunching the pack as well. Only real issue is his height, but he's about the same as Pavlich, and he almost won the Coleman this year.

Rookie upgrades for a start. Nicholson needs to be brought in. Evans might be as well. I could see Magner and Couch being used as well, although that might be a bit premature. Williams will need more time, but he looks like he could well be worth it next year. Not only would upgrading some of these guys allow us to use them more freely, it would free up rookie spots for more mature-aged state-league players we want to look at. And yes, there will be a rookie list next year.

So GWS is never going to win then

My early predictions at the start of the year were around the 8-9 mark I think. Since then we've seen some players really underperform and lost Jurrah and Moloney, both of whom I had as certainties to keep. It changes things.

I wonder if Ablett is tired of playing up north yet?

Bennell?

I'd take that swap, but I don't like to think how much money we'd have to throw at him to get Goddard to join.

I suspect that he is happy to lose the players who can't or won't tow the line and work to the standards he is setting. His task is not simply to get the team playing well, but to change their whole culture. He can't have senior players hanging around undermining him by failing to uphold the standards he wants the whole group to adhere to and complaining that they never used to have to work this hard. Experienced or not, anyone with a poisonous attitude has to go ASAP (note: poisonous is not necessarily malicious). We are already seeing this with guys like Moloney and Jurrah moving out, possibly Petterd too if the rumour mill can be believed. These are not players who have anything against the club, but their inability to do what is required of them can only have a negative effect on new draftees.