Little Goffy

Hogan is not a free agent of any kind next year, he's just a dude without a contract. As has been explained on this thread about once every 7 pages.

One of the key reasons many biscuits really have lost favour and texture in the last 10-15 years is the replacement of proper butter or vegetable oils with cheaper palm oil. Best part is, palm oil can still be labeled as 'vegetable' oil. Which is funny anyway because the oil is from a fruit. That dull feeling in your mouth is basically the taste of dead orang-utans mixed with the tears of child labourers. Mmmmm-mmmm. Also, I hear Fremantle are now also offering a direct trade of their 500g of palm oil for our 1kg of full-cream butter. But who would even buy a biscuit from those dodgy buggers?

Hmm, I wonder if Hogan might just be thinking to himself 'hey, self, seems like every year there is a top player desperate to leave Fremantle, and they seem like a serious basket case on field, and seems like they routinely stuff prospective players around because their ego wont let them get sensible deals done... maybe Freo aren't going to be the best environment for me to become the best player and person I can be?'

Yep, there needs to be a general reform of the trade system. I've got ideas but I'll spare you all a rant!

Lever. Jones. Salem. Weidemann.

Ha ha ha, would be quite hilarious if Freo baulked and Jessie stays here where he is loved and appreciated so well by all (just as soon as this thread is deleted). I can see it now, Hogan to stay with Melbourne, declares "Fremantle have shown they aren't going anywhere, so I'm not going anywhere near them'". The way it is starting to sound, Peter Bell seems to think that the motto 'act like a champion to become a champion' includes expecting players to come to your club on favourable terms as if you are a well-run unified premiership contender. Which is fine if you are any of those things, but they aren't, so just look silly and insulting. Next Hogan quote "I'm staying with Melbourne, where I have close bonds, where I'm wanted, and where I'll be part of a well-run unified premiership contender". And finally "I have a lot of respect for Matthew Richardson but I don't want to emulate his career"

Jeezus Biffen, I didn't realise you were also an, um... anti-Drefusard.

This may be blasphemy in this thread, but I need to confess my sins, I've moved on from banana bread and taken a liking to pear-and-raspberry bread! Why am I sharing this? I think just to keep the thread bumped up, as it clearly has more useful information in it than certain other overactive threads around here.

It is understandable that Freo would want to have a presence at the top of this draft, just to sell hope and paint the picture that a rebuild is actually happening. I've muttered it before but I'm becoming more confident about it, I think Freo's 2019 first pick (plus this year's 5ish) makes sense as a fair way to flip a coin on whether it is two very high picks for Hogan or one very high and one fairly high. And I like the idea of letting Jason Taylor have at least some shot in the first half of the draft each year. This could get dizzy - because we 'May' end up trading our own 2019 first pick while retaining the one Freo gives us. Anyway, I think it has been 500 posts on this htread since I last contributed so I figured I'd just throw some randomness in to celebrate how useful the thread has been.

Ha. This conversation is funny just because of how lonely Preuss will be, sitting there on the bench while everyone runs around going 'where will we find a tall now?'

So it seems to me like Hogan would actually consider how well Melbourne is compensated in the trade, as a factor in whether he will move. If that's the case, it makes him the most loyal person ever to leave a club!

Lol, sideways idea: Maybe we get pick 4 2018 and Freo's first pick in the 2019 draft, and that's why we are asking about trading our draft pick for next year (to get May/whatever). Because obviously Freo will be expecting to rocket back up the ladder. If it is a wrangle between accepting 5 or 10, I think their 2019 first selection is a fair slip of the coin. Leave it to fate, very sporting.

Based on what a few broken down shown-nothing key position forwards have gone for in recent years, right niw Weideman is worth a first round pick. Bizarro garbage to talk of zhogan being worth just the one, even a very good one. Meanwhile, something today reminded me of Trent Croad. And Fremantle's legendary capacity for terrible trading results. Prediction: Hogan heads to Freo, does fine but misses the profound bonds with the Demons. Is gutted by missing out on being part of our premiership at the same time as Freo just completely flat-lines with nothing but rubble left when they finally sack Ross Lyon. After a couple of years, feeling more mature and with family settled happily again, Hogan returns to the Demons for half what we gained in the original trade and proceeds to kick 70 a season for the next 5 years. A good time is had by all.

This photo is from an art installation where a brother and sister cleared out all the stuff that their father had obsessively collected and stashed. Then they sorted it into a warehouse space. It just kept going and going. You can't see in this photo but I believe both Dom Tyson was stashed along one side. Though he should have been in the middle for best effect. And I say that as someone who has respect for Tyson and thinks he has been a solid contributor. But even his mum would say that he's better off being put to use somewhere else than left in storage at the Demons.

His younger brother never even got a chance to play at the highest level, and I hear he was even more talented.

That's more running bounces than our whole team currently averages per game! ?

Hibberd, Melksham, Lewis, Garlett, Vince. Frost depending on how you rate him. Anyway, the talk of an 'early first rounder' for May does trouble me a little and I'm wondering about the package deal options given Kolodjashnij, and also Gold Coasts picks 17 and 26, both of which seem to be in the high quality range of this allegedly deep draft. Could it be that Jason Taylor has identified a few players in that pick 20-30 range that he has a lot of confidence in? He can't spend his whole career picking from 40+, can he?

If the final result from losing Hogan is to gain 6, May and Kolonoscopy, we'll have done almost as well as West Coast did with the Judd trade (3, 20, and Kennedy).

This, precisely. On the one hand I still think a 3-tall forward line can work if done right and given the diversity of the three talls we'd have. On the other hand, in a 'pressure and weight-of-effort' game style there's always room for another small-medium player on the field and we have a great stock of options to pick from there. It's all ok. Not joyful, but it is ok.

For what it is worth, I'm firmly on the side of getting him. Yes, a little bit of risk but he very much fits into our list needs. Would not be crazy expensive in trade terms, and we can't just have seven teenagers come in all at once.

Was ahead of our curve at Melbourne as far as developing a calm, humble and professional attitude. I'm quite sure he was a good example to the 'kids' coming through;, and his presence forever ready to step up would have been a good honesty check for the young talls. Can only speculate if his attitude also had something to do with how well several players responded to stints in the VFL, too. "Is Pedersen sooking? Then why are you sooking? Get on with it." I wonder what his ties with his junior/pre-AFL clubs are like, I can see him cheerfully dropping by to kick 12 goals in an afternoon while he is still fit.

Wasn't that long ago, the last time talk of Hogan leaving went ballistic, that I speculated that maybe Gaff and a good first round pick would do the job. Now, Gaff has become a free agent, Hogan leaving would open the salary cap space to grab him, and we'd realistically get two first round picks from the trade. Swings and roundabouts. I still hope Hogan stays and I think the three-tall forward line can work (Haaaa ha ha with Hogan playing the role previously held by Watts... sorry, I just said that to annoy people) given the versatility of all three. What I picture is a kind of 2xCHF set up, with the 3rd 'slot' being filled by the variations of Weid in the ruck, Hogan up the ground, McDonald pinching (only occasionally) in defence, and a true traditional stay-at-home FF - in a sense, a forward 'resting' even more forward! Between the double-CHF and those four variations you get 3 players on the ground close to 100% of game time, using that 'rest' in the goal square, cycling between the three as needed. I think the benefit of each tall adding an extra 10-15% of game time on field works out in as much as you can then give that '30-45%' to help the midfield rotations stay fresh. I also think, given our haphazard inside-50s, there is real value in having three clear options going on at all times - a CHF 'travelling' out to offer a link up the ground, a CHF staying roughly around that traditional zone, and a FF ready to attack the emergency long kick.

Pick 3 ought to get it done. We could use Izak Rankine. I wonder if, in the chaos of trade period, and throw all the other ifs in like Hogan actually going, it could happen? Picks bounce along, we end up with an existing top-10, package it with Kent and maybe something else, get pick 3, get the precise player we most need. Yes, obviously I'm just yanking the chain, like everyone else at this time of year.

Geebus. This thread is still going? I'm seriously considering adding an inane meme-gif every time it gets bumped. It just beggars belief.

Jayden's attributes. + The number of players now in our best 22 who showed a glimpse, then ended up 'working on their game' with Casey before returning as much more complete, well-rounded players. = Reasonable confidence that there's a respectable future for him.