praha

I remember Dawes' first game for us. I think it was against the Suns. We got belted by 60 points at the MCG. He worked his butt off but simply couldn't get into the game. He was among our best but that says more about the team we had that year. He tried, but for his salary greatly underperformed. I wouldn't have minded keeping him on a low salary as a backup ruck/forward. I think he offers more than Spencer, even if he isn't a traditional ruck. Oh well.

It'll be Essendon vs Melbourne, Essendon home game. To alternate every year. Hawthorn plays Geelong in Round 1.

Nice pickup. GWS offloading talent to free space. They have so much young talent depth on their list it's not funny. We'll take him.

No chance. Richmond paid well above market value for him. GC along with every other team weren't prepared to go over 500k/3 years.

If it's the rumoured 700k over the 3 years that they mentioned on SEN yesterday, they're taking a HUGE risk, particularly with the free agents on offer next year. Don't think for a second it had anything to do Richmond's list. By the sound of it, no one got within 300k of Richmond's offer.

Why? Because of his age? Viney has undoubtedly been behind Jones in the leadership stakes, not Vince.

The MFC intern has been doing the club's Photoshopping again.

Are you being sarcastic? That is the same BS spin we hear from clubs when a player asks to be traded. "They are a required player." "As far as we know they haven't spoken to anyone." "He has not sought a trade to CLUB." Not saying it's a surety but if you think it's done and dusted based on anything Hawthorn has said, you obviously haven't been following AFL for very long. Unless Lewis and his management explicitly say, "We are staying at Hawthorn", it's a chance to get done.

What the hell is Lewis going to do with a third-round pick?

"There was an enquiry about Jordan, but he's a contracted player and a required player." This is diplomatic trade-week talk that is said whenever a player asks to be traded. Far from over. Suspect Lewis planned the move, agreed to contract pending Hawthorn deal, which they also agreed to, but then backflipped when Mitchell deal got done.

So have we got Dangerfield yet and if so who did we give up for him?

I hate trade period.

You'd think Fantasia is worth more than a third-round pick...

Was never anywhere near as bad as half on here made him out to be. Had zero experience but came in and played again top talent and league power forwards. Will be better for the experience as showed in a handful of games towards the end of the season.

I felt that Bernie went "over the hill" this year. Really peaking in 2015 but ultimately took on too much of a burden playing down back. People understate how important Hibberd and Melksham will be to that part of the team. Would like to see Bernie play more on the wing and up forward.

I guess he kind of makes a point.

Not sure what they'd do with Medallion Club. Can't just tell members that it's no longer valid, and you can't just give them AFL Gold membership seeing as there's a long wait list. I suspect medallion club members will be put onto AFL Members wait list and their Medallion membership doubles as AFL Silver. Then once they become Gold, their Medallion Club is stopped. Probably the only way to phase it out.

Didn't mind Jordie but unfortunately wasn't AFL standard. Wasn't much else to choose from in that Draft, though, and we ended up with Garlett anyway.

Jones turns it over a bit, too. His delivery isn't great sometimes but he'll get better. Hoping he turns into our Hodge. Mods: please merge my last two posts. Sorry for the double-up.

Prime is generally 27-28. If he keeps getting better he'll be an absolute star by then.

Jesus. Div 2. Suspect he'll double as player-coach in some way. They'll be paying him fair quid. AFL players in the amateurs earn good coin, more than they ever could playing VFL exclusively without being on an AFL list.

At the time he didn't fit in. Maybe he needed to be knocked down to rise up. Hardly a mistake. Hawthorn's played in 5 Grand Finals 8 years and won 4 flags.

I think he still has a role to play. Jayden Hunt filled in his role nicely and is smarter and more refined with the ball. Not sure where he fits in, but he is kind of a "downhill skier" player in that his style doesn't really work in a team that has few options and one-way running, as was the case in 2015. I think he's a "cherry on top" kind of guy that is going to standout as either part of the problem or a key component when the team is playing poorly or well, respectively. As per my above comment, Pies fans loved him until Collingwood started its slide. He was pivotal from 2007-2011 when they were playing Finals and had a strong spine. Once the wheels started falling off, he was found out. If he has support around him, his horse-like running and booming kick is useful when we're going well. We now have a hard-working forward line (at times) that can benefit from those quick entries. Pretty much every Premiership-winning team of the past decade has had a player of H's style.