Dr. Gonzo

Martin was 21 at the time. Watts is 26.

AFL covers TPP so you don't have to worry about your membership dollars going to waste

Rumours were he was on the trade table a few years back and there were no takers.

Is Watts the only player on our list who requires motivation? Goodwin did a pretty good job motivating Oliver this year I thought. Jetta too.

Yeah I reckon we would want a pick 20-25 other clubs would be willing to pay 30-35. So a pick between 25-30 is probably right but you can only work with what the other club has and the fact we're pushing him out the door means we'll have to be a bit more generous. So pick 30 is probably about right. The salary thing isn't a huge issue for me unless it impacts on our TPP in 2019 and our ability to land another player next trade period. 2018 is pretty much sorted already.

What would you consider fair?

Agreed, I'm hoping the same. He's showed glimpses but he's just not a sure bet at this stage.

Agreed, Weideman could be delisted after his next contract (next year?) Not saying he doesn't have time on his side but he's shown nothing to date to suggest he'll make it at the top level.

The AFL last year when questioned about the Cats said "Oh, that doesn't start until 2019"

As much as I love it, if anyone has inside info I'd prefer they don't share here. Just let the club go about their business quietly.

Bomber Thompson to the Cats Leigh Matthews to the Lions History is abundant with these examples. It's just an absolute [censored] comment and completely disrespectful to our coach. I guess he'd prefer Garry Lyon was pulling the strings, maybe he could land us another Neeld

Haha Petracca is my 4yo's fave too, I think he just loves saying the name "Petraccaaaaa"

He's also been quite critical of North. Maybe he doesn't "hate" us after all and was legitimately criticising stupid moves we'd made in the past

Of course they can

Can't Essendon trade next year's 1st rounder for him? Or I am missing something? Is it just Dodoro being Dodoro?

And after basically kicking him out we cant tell him to explore his options, nominate a club and then quibble over an early or late 2nd round pick for him and paying some salary. When he nominates a club we'll get the deal done and most on here won't like it saying we got bent over again.

Also when Jones got injured. Viney was injured the following week from memory (Salem too). A week later Bugg cops 6 weeks. May have something more to do with it than Watts.

But you said the players weren't happy, texting each other etc - I just asked whether you knew that for a fact or were just spitballing. Not having a go mate, I think you're a good poster and don't want to get involved in a [censored] for tat.

Ok so it's just conjecture as far as you're concerned

Truth or conjecture?

I'm not "worried" per se - however it is the under 20 bracket which could present an issue down the track. Oliver is the only surefire one to be there in 2 years let alone 7 or 8.

I assume you would agree that regardless of personality all players are required to maintain the same standards and behaviours?

You can have all types, I agree - but they all need to meet the same standards and expected behaviours. Players can't get a free ride because "that's the type of personality I am"

I agree with this post sue, everyone is entitled to an opinion. After all how boring would it be if we all agreed on everything? I think the reason some (like myself) have been so vehement in our opinions because I have seen some of the comments on here and other social media platforms which seem to be not just supporting Jack or criticising the FD but going all out in attacking Goodwin, McCartney, Mahoney and Jones amongst others. This really bothers me because other than this decision and the fact we underperformed in missing the finals I think this FD has run a tight ship the last few years and has runs on the board where they deserve the benefit of the doubt in this instance. Of course that doesn't mean their decisions can't be questioned or criticised but some of the calls have been completely unwarranted and could lead to potential destabilisation of the club. After the last decade of hell when we seem on the verge of some exciting times as supporters the last thing I or, I assume, any of our supporters want to see is for us to go backwards due to infighting or off field stability. We can argue the merits of the decision til the cows come home and ask for accountability for poor decisions but at the end of the day once the decision has been made we need to back the players and FD in to start getting results next year.

Watts is a senior player. Oliver was still a teenager when that happened and afterwards pulled his head in after being spoken to. The rationalisations on here are astounding.