JJJ

This is accurate. I don’t think we’ll get him but we are loitering.

Jones and Parfitt. I think I threw up a little in my mouth. You can’t honestly think that repeating what we’ve tried with NQR DFA is the way forward??? Our depth is incredibly poor. If Trent Rivers played a 2 month patch of games like Peatling did this year we’d be anointing him as the second coming. If Peatling costs us a 2nd round pick and needs a 5 year deal to get across the line so be it.

I think others have mentioned we are talking with clubs who need points for academy/father son picks.

Not sure it’s that black and white. The asking price might have proven too much for us, that’s true given where we finished. But to say we exited the deal conflicts with what I was told first hand, post Houston’s camp moving on from us as a destination. We were still in there talking with his management trying to keep the embers warm. The truth lies somewhere in between I suspect.

We are trying for 2 picks in the top 15 and another pick in the 15-30 range. This is a mild deviation from our previously stated plans of 2 picks in the top 20 and supplement other list spots with mature age players/FA/trade. I had heard we thought we might be able to snag 3 picks within the top 20 but without trading out a serious talent, I can’t see how we do it.

If he can smash a pack playing as a key forward and can ruck the F50, he’s worth a swing. Maybe add some physicality and tackling too. The reality is that we need JVR freed up to become a true key forward. The club is looking for ways to do this.

That’s not true. He had a stretch contract which paid him ok but added years. If we hadn’t traded Harmes, his contract would still be pretty modest. Hardly impact TPP. My point was, that if we are to extract a ready to go mid, from a Premiership contender no less, who could help us win a premiership, why wouldn’t we pay him a bit more than market value and add a year? We have 2-3years tops to get another flag. The types of contracts that have hurt us are the large multi year, multi million dollar deals. Peatling’s contract won’t go near that level.

I’m not sure I agree with you here. We gave James Harmes an incredibly long contract a few years ago and he never had a period of sustained form like Peatling. The cost of change is always higher. More money, more years and more compensation. I’d do 5 years. We need to take a few risks to bolster our list before Gawn retires.

My wife and I booked a couples massage at 3pm this Saturday. If the Dees aren’t playing, I take the long weekend and relax. Don’t care who wins. Bring on the Draft!!!!

I wonder if he carried the injury in. Never really looked likely.

It’s not my opinion.

Smith has a lot of physical development left in him. His kicking penetration will improve.

Should never have been ours to trade. We were blinded by arrogance and thought we could replicate 21. It caused a lot of division internally and will be discussed a lot as a part of the review of footy ops.

I’ve heard similar. We are the highest $$ offer. My understanding is that he is most likely to stay at GWS. If he doesn’t come to us at least we’ve gone down swinging!!

I’m not saying it makes sense. Just saying the crowd size is not a thing for some. I don’t the club sees his selection to play for us as a lay down misere. Nor should we.

Get the same pay to play with your mates or move 2hours away from family and friends? Not sure the size of the crowds is a massive thing for a young player.

He has a pretty good attitude so I expect he’ll take this opportunity to continue his physical evolution. His ability to find the footy needs to improve along with his fitness. He’ll never be prolific but getting involved in more strings of play would help him and Casey/Melbourne as he is pretty good with ball in hand.

He had a very tough preseason but managed to play very well. Happy for him. I’m 99% sure Maxy would’ve been in his ear to play on.

You’re correct. Modern journo’s MO. It is true though, we’ve sounded him out. I like players that hit the scoreboard and Membrey does that clearly. Whether Father Time is about to catch up with him is the question I have. Handy player to have on the list though.

This was fait accompli. There are people in the club and on the board who are well aware that we’ve plummeted down the ladder in many areas. This can only be seen as a positive. Shows that as a club we have some self awareness.

Sounds like most AFL club executives.

Be that as it may, we’re still in his managers ear.

We haven’t given up.

Essendon have him very high on their board at the moment. Plenty of water to pass under the bridge before the draft though.

I think there’s a body of evidence that suggests Gawn is not going to sit down with a player and read them the riot act like Selwood used to do. Selwood was so hardline and uncompromising in his approach to attitude and focus that he intimidated 1st year players but it had a positive effect on the standards they upheld. Geelong officials were a little worried that once he left there would be a void. Does all that make Gawn a bad leader? Nope. Maybe we needed to better complement him with different leaders from the playing group and a harder line from the coaching staff. I think you can take it to the bank that Gawn’s concerns relate to culture just like Trac. But I do take your point that he has been captain during some interesting developments to say the least. I have a lot of faith in some of our younger players. Faith that they will step up in terms of performance and also step up their leadership. They will help drive the club forward next season and will be future leaders of the club. Ultimately, I would like Lever to be next in line but still think Gawn is the next option for next season. By which stage we have righted the ship or potentially another player has stepped up to the plate.