Adam The God

We've offered Melksham and Hibberd deals though. You don't renege on those now.

Yeah, we'd need to tinker with the list you'd imagine, like trading out Tomlinson and Hunt. I would assume that Lamb and co have deliberately offered long term deals to spread the dollars across years to free up some cap space for FAs over the next few years, so you'd hope we could use some of this surplus to pay Bowes. Agree, 5 years is the risky part, but IMV you have to be aggressive to win flags. Hawthorn were aggressive in their pursuit of backmen that were FAs, Geelong have been aggressive in their pursuit of Dangerfield and Cameron, and are on the precipice of a flag. We were aggressive with Lever and May. If Grundy helps us win even one more flag during his five year contract, it's a raging success. If he helps us win two, this seems like a completely pedantic conversation in five years time.

I get it, and I agree to an extent, but no two deals are the same. Gold Coast may not have the same leverage as Collingwood have. We want Grundy and have met with him. No one may be willing to take Bowes, so they've had to dangle their pick 7. Besides, Gold Coast are probably at a different time frame in their list build, where another top 10 pick is valued less than clearing cap space.

And 700k is a bargain for the second best ruckman in the game. I'd prefer we didn't give up a first rounder, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. What comes goes around comes around. Let's keep our powder dry in the trading stakes I say.

I agree it's a bad contract, but that wouldn't be the contract we're paying, so it becomes irrelevant.

It's only considered a bad contract at 1mill though.

Quite happy for Jayden to explore his options. Bowey has the same pace, but is cleaner and has elite ball use. Jayden should be a back up next year and Bowey should be in the team ahead of him.

Just to add to this, if we can add to our ball use and x factor in the forward half with these new guys and fit Bowey on the opposite back flank to Salem, all of a sudden ball use is less of an issue. Most stoppage players are bang it on the boot types or go at very low DE, think Dusty (kicking DE of 63.2%) or Dangerfield (kicking DE of 51.9%). No real difference to Oliver (kicking DE of 52.6%) and Petracca (kicking DE of 56%), particularly when Oliver is so good with his hands.

Agreed. If we could have a recruiting period like Port did a couple of years ago (or even our 2019 year) and bring in 2 or 3 young guns that can impact straight away *and* Grundy, we're extending our rucking bang for buck and replenishing the list. This could also make us very unpredictable in 2023, which would be nice.

Reckon the club would be pretty [censored] off if Yze took Williams with him. Sounds like Caro stirring the pot again.

I wonder if we've asked Hunt to explore his options and if he can get a better deal, great, otherwise we'll take him on a two year deal.

My phone weirdly reposted after I tried to edit out the typos haha.

If we are interested in Bowes, we might even ask AT to explore his options. I think he will anyway.

If we aee interwsted in Bowes, we might even ask AT to explore his options. I think he will anyway.

I expect our pressure rating to be top 8 next year, which means we turn it over closer to goal and that has a huge impact on ball movement and how quickly you enter A50.

Providing he's fit and ready to go Round 1 next year, I'm quite happy to give up a first rounder if they pay 300k pa of his salary. We'll be a very dangerous proposition next year with a fit Grundy and Gawn.

And wait for cancel culture to come out too. Left wing agendas etc etc. Clarko and Fages have been cancelled. I wonder how that'll intersect with the HS' Chief of Football's article. They'll probably call it "balance".

Well, we could all sprout strange theories mate, but that doesn't really cut it. Have you any evidence of this, or just pissing in the breeze?

Having worked with the ABC, this has to be water tight... He's a brilliant journalist.

Even if we do trade out of next year's first round, we'll just do what we always do and trade back in next year. No it doesn't. We can do both. A developing ruckman should be cheap. As for Weid, he signed a two year deal with us last year presumably because there was no interest elsewhere. This year he showed he wasn't really good enough at AFL level, other than a break glass option. Can't see any other teams offering Sam a best 22 position. So we can get Grundy, a developing ruckman and still have Weid as a break glass option.

Poor old PF. He's been vomiting and faceplaming for pages now. I hope he's alright.

Going out in straight sets is certainly the Fagan model.

Right and are you suggesting that's a better path than the bloke who won the premiership last year?

PD, I said you should post more footy, not more culture wars. In the footy thread you were happy to be open minded about Grundy and then when it comes to politics, not so much. It's a very odd dichotomy.

I think it's a bit of both really. We had too many banged up players and a loading program that clearly diminished our second half abilities after Round 10.