Adam The God

If the $300k offer is true, that really was playing with fire. That's an insanely low offer in the post 2017-CBA world. I wonder if they knew he was going? I dunno. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Surely, they'd look to pay him at least $400k, even $450k.

This is a very poor post, but each to their own. Tyson is a ball magnet, who needs to improve his kicking/decision making and if he does he'll be A grade. Salem doesn't lack intensity. He goes when he needs to, is a beautiful kick and doesn't lack leg speed either (ie. he's not what I'd call "slow"). You have these guys and add the Hunt's, Hibberd's and another pacey outside mid (Whitfield or Kelly types) and you have just about the complete midfield. If you want to sit there and slash your wrists, fine, but to say only diehard Dees supporters are defending the trade is a load of rubbish.

If the above is true, we must be targeting someone else this year with our 2018 pick.

And he would have got away with it too, if it weren't for you, mate.

That was with the drug suspensions hanging over those trades. Let's hear how he is again this off season. I suspect he'll return to being a jackass.

Agreed. Gaff or Rockliff should be the other targets. Or at least players of their ilk.

Sounds like the only competition is Adelaide. I have no inside info, but my gut is telling me we'll eventually pay two first rounders, we're just playing hardball at the moment.

Haha, yep. I'm getting Riddler (without the riddles) vibes!

Exactly. So why wouldn't you sign long term with GWS? That tells me he's going to stick it out another two years and then head back to Victoria.

To me it reads as I want to win a flag in the next two years and then return to Melbourne. There's no CBA to wait for now. His currency is at its highest and is unlikely to get any higher than what North are offering.

Lol. We need more mids, we don't need to be giving the mids we already have away. Particularly, the ball magnets. Tyson's disposal (by foot) was horrible in 2017, but he continues to get the ball. It's about correcting the decision making and getting that knee sorted, not trading him. An idiotic suggestion really, but each to their own. Our midfield is Oliver, Viney, Petracca and Salem, then the old guys like Jones, Lewis and Vince (the butcher) might go through there too. Add our half backs/forwards like Melksham and Hunt into the mix as well. But don't mention the likes of AVB, Trenners or JKH. Now that is not a very deep midfield and it was exposed in the back end of 2017 with even the simple omission of Viney. We desperately need guys that get the ball a lot from the stoppages, because it means the opposition aren't getting it from the stoppages. Tyson is one of these guys. Say what you like about his disposal, but he's near the elite category in terms of getting the ball. Lever will get done if he wants to come here. It'll be pick 10 and an exchange of picks or a trade that potentially involves another club. I'll trust the club to make the right decision.

Bet Richardson didn't praise Petracca too much though.

I think if you look at a number of goals conceded against the scum in Round 23, you'll find they were off the back of stoppages. Our midfield was terrible that day. And I think our KPDs improved as the year went on at minimising mistakes, learning when to go up or stay down, who would cover out the back and knowing when to kill the ball. I think they were developing good synergy back there until the back end of the year, when Frost had a horror month and couldn’t stop consistently making heinous mistakes. Either Frost rediscovers his touch or Lever and Omac are the ones. I think (despite your criticism) Omac got better and better as the year went on and will be better for having another 20 games under his belt. He's a much better field kick than his brother and that makes him a much more reliable defender. Meanwhile, Tommy has found his niche up forward and had he gone back and nailed that goal late in the Collingwood match (as he had done the entire second half of the year), we'd be playing finals on percentage. Anyway, we'll agree to disagree here, Steve.

Yeah, well, bb, it's not really up to our defenders to block the corridor and ensure mids can't run through it at will or opposition forwards can't lead into open space. As we all know (but I feel we sometimes forget), modern footy utilises 18 man team defence, not a 6 man defence. If the half forwards or deeper forwards don't lay tackles and the mids fail to set up adequately to block or slow the play through the middle, the defence has ot incredibly tough. It's a really shallow analysis to blame our goals on our defence. We can blame specific players if they fail to win critical one-on-ones or make poor decisions, or turn the ball over, but the majority of the time, it is our poor team defence that enables the opposition to score.

I worry that Gawn is a one-hit-wonder, much like Jamar was. I hope I'm wrong.

Column A and B, bb. Another thought occurred to me. When Lever was first spoken of around draft time, some people (was Roos included? I doubt it) were talking Lever up as a player who could eventually roll into the midfield. I can't see it personally, but could we have an eye on him for our midfield, as well as our defensive unit?

The Drunk One is hedging his bets. If it doesn't eventuate, he can claim it was only verbal and fell over.

Our glaring weakness is still our midfield, I'm afraid. If we're not winning the ball and are off even a little bit, the opposition mauls us on the rebound, leaving our defence wide open. I've been saying this for a while, but we're still missing 2 further A graders to compliment Oliver, Viney, Tyson, Jones, Petracca, Salem, Brayshaw, Lewis and if I'm being very kind, Bernie Vince. With Vince and Lewis on their last legs (particularly the former), we're really going to need to address this soon. Oscar, Frost, Jetta, Hibberd, Hunt with Lever and TMac as swingman is fine for the moment. The midfield still struggled against weak opposition but reasonable midfields. This says it all for me. When Petracca, Salem and Brayshaw can play longer minutes in the midfield, we'll appear deeper, but we need reinforcements now.

We obviously think his soft tissue history is okay. Big dollars. I'm excited. Seems like it's happening. Then we can turn our attention to continuing to fix our midfield - this was shown up again V Collingwood. We still lack at least 2 B+/A graders. Oliver, Viney, Tyson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Salem, Jones and Lewis is not enough. We need that pace and class everyone talks about and another bull. Collingwood's midfield should not be beating us, particularly when Gawn is winning the majority of taps to advantage.

Kew? Sounds like he's on his way to the MFC then!

Yep, his decision making will continue to improve with more games experience. He is near hopeless when he doesn't take on the game, so I'll forgive one (maybe even two) holding the balls (leave it, bitters), as long as he's trying to take the game on. He's a massive asset when he's the rock in the slingshot.

Last night was simply an imperfect storm of all our defenders (with the except of perhaps Jetta) having absolute shockers. Hibberd, despite getting a heap of it was terrible; Frost probably cost us 5 goals alone; Oscar struggled; and Joel Smith looked completely lost again I reckon Lever's soft issue injury history is a slight concern. How many times has he been injured already this year?

Wow. How is that for a spine? Shivers.

I'm sure the club isn't entertaining a Weideman trade. That's the main thing.

Please tell me where you got this from LT. I want to bait a few Collingwood and Essendon mates on Instagram.