Adam The God

And Flanders is the curveball here too. I think the Suns will trya and force him to Melbourne. And I hope we say it's Humphrey or Trac stays.

Nice one, Tim. Round 1 is over. Suns say Humphrey won't be traded under any circumstance. MFC say Trac is a superstar, if you want him, you need to give us the best deal. Look forward to Round 2.

Good early posturing from CC. Flanders could still well be the domino here.

McRae is a drive by specialist. I still remember him smugly saying we'll see you in two weeks to the journos at the end of his Qualfiying Final pre match presser in 2023. Arrogant little short stack.

6 players delisted is pretty standard I would have thought. Kozzy, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Turner, Rivers, Bowey, Chandler, JVR, Kolt and Howes is a good young core of 11. No doubt we need more to join them, which is why I class this as list management evolution rather than rebuild. Surely, a rebuild would denote a total clearing of the decks but we've already had 4-5 years of bringing in that talent. In Kozzy and Rivers case, 6 years and Chandler 7. Then we have a further 9 premiership players that add varying levels of value in Max, Viney, Lever, Petty, Salem, Langdon, Mihocek, Fritta and Sparrow. And some potential in AMW, Culley, Adams, Kentfield and Heath. It's been my view that we still need 1-2 elite mids to add to that young core. Humphrey would be one, and then hopefully our 2026 pick too. Then we're basically at the 2016 stage of the list build. Time to target and acquire players through trades or free agency ala Lever, May and Langdon. If it's through trading and not FA, it's likely we'll need to sacrifice first round picks like we did to acquire Lever and May. Hopefully this is during 2027-2028 when Tassie compromises those drafts. If on top of this, we can do some shrewd business with second round picks in trade (like Langdon) or draft in a best 22 from the round 2 (like Fritta, Petty etc), by 2028 we'll be in the window. So maybe I'm being pedantic, but I don't view this as a rebuild. King has too many pieces and potential pieces at his disposal already. And no doubt, this was his pitch to land the role. Clear the decks of poor cultural elements and the small margins that he talks about, become smaller with everyone on the same page, with an aggressive, attacking game style.

Problem is Hawthorn don't value ball winners enough and have over balanced on ball users. We've got to be careful we don't over balance the same way and get rid of all our contested beasts. Viney appears to be near the end and certainly shouldn't be guaranteed midfield time next year. I hope we don't go too far one way. Humphrey is definitely the right direction. We just need to get the deal done or Trac should stay.

But a fan on a fan forum with no knowledge of the ins and outs of Lamb's position knows more than those in the industry.

Oh you mean Lamby is responsible for a hardnosed list management decision? Better not tell Dazzler. Lamb is hopeless and also moonlights as a recruiter apparently.

The Gawn, Viney extensions were board decisions, @dazzledavey36 . And I think you'll find Lamb is list manager, Taylor is recruiter.

Nor are the players. You've gotta sell this to the playing group first and foremost. Some may not like Trac, but they know without him and some first rounders in this year's draft, next year we're nowhere near.

A laughable outcome. No way this happens. Bookmark it.

It's Melbourne or he stays at the Suns. We're the only ones with capital (Trac) to get a deal done. And Humphrey doesn't meet Melbourne without the Suns' blessing or without some interest in joining the MFC.

It's very unlikely anyone is giving up 2026 picks for 2025. A weaker shallower draft. The only way it might happen is one of the academy teams needs multiple first rounders this year, but surely they've already got their picks lined up, and would have academy kids coming through next year too. I'm with @old55 . It's Humphrey for Trac or Trac stays. I think it's unlikely Trac nominates the Suns unless they've told him they'll get him over the line. At this point, it seems like posturing from the Suns on Humphrey. The Suns probably don't want to signal to the market that they're willing to give up talent like Humphrey so easily, but Trac is in their window, Humphrey is maybe a few years off peak and will be replaced by Trac. The thing the Suns have is an incredible academy that keeps churning out multiple top 10 players every draft. Even landing Trac, they'll soon be able to replace Humphrey with another academy kid. Then there's Humphrey's flight risk anyway, where the Suns potentially get less back than Trac for him when his current contract is up. The wild card in this is Trac's new manager is a bit green when it comes to this stuff and perhaps a CPM might have told him not to officially nominate, but just have an agreement to come if the Humphrey trade or similar can be struck. I think we're in the box seat or Trac plays for us next year.

The rewriting of history post Goody's sacking is hilarious. Goody wasn't tempered. He went and shot Watts and Hogan. Both fan favourites. Did he back in the same players for too long? Probably, but the dross that has been written about him recently is fantasy land nonsense. Also, you're completely wrong about Roos too. He wasn't a put his arm around guys coach. He was a Ross Lyon, Al Clarkson, Chris Scott type. He basically let his assistants run the show during the week and he'd do match day and press conferences. If you weren't in the 22, he wouldn't speak to you. Conversely, Goody was very hands on and would be across the playing group. This is the McRae, Mitchell and Fagan approach apparently as well. It's why some of the players couldn't stand Roos and couldn't wait to play under Goody.

As Steven King said in his SEN interview the week, the modern game is about margins and as King said, we had more than a handful of losses by a kick. So yes, we were a touch away. But the team King looks like having will be quite different to the Trac and Clarry team of 2025.

Midfielders win finals. That's Humphrey's ceiling.

Ours has a much greater ceiling...

You've gotta be kidding? Their list is BOG average. Outside of NWM, King and Sinclair (and the latter struggled as NMW took his gig), they've a very ordinary list. And now they've managed to bring in a bunch more inconsistent B graders on huge coin.

Not really, because this comparison implies that our list is in the same spot as the Suns. They have entered the premiership window. We are resetting for 2027-2028ish. Trac helps Suns win next year. Humphrey has his mid and likely forward minutes reduced by Trac. They let him go because it lands them Trac and it's not like the Suns don't continually have access to elite talent through their academy.

Question is, is Clarry being shopped around because we can't get the best out of him or is it more of a cultural decision? I think we probably are gambling on him never returning to AA form, but it feels more like a clearing of the deck.

As I imply above, I think it's linked to our Trac trade and our (long) desire to land Humphrey.

You can't just view the Clarry trade is isolation, you have to view the whole picture, which could be that we're able to offer someone like Humphrey a huge contravt by freeing up 700k+ from Clarry's pa wage.

But by signalling we'll pay 700k pa, we are saying we want him out the door, but we'll pay this if we get something back. We're not getting a first rounder, but a player might be handy. GWS have a lot of handy smalls. We need small forwards. I'd start there.

And yet you've had him in 43,567 best 22s you've churned out this year...

Suns won't trade us picks 6 and 7. They need one of them for academy kids. So as has been said, it's Humphrey and 6 or 7, or Trac stays.