The Chazz

With regards to point 1, your opinion was that he's more likely to stay, not your source. Your source said it was far from a lock, yet within days he has extended. You put it out there, so you should expect to have your source questioned. Point 2 - a one year extension is better than the none that your source was leading you to believe. The fact that he's half way through his first contract and has extended it by a year is not only a positive sign, but also quite smart by the kid from a financial perspective, as well as for us. Point 3 - if you throw a enough darts at a dartboard, you will hit bullseye at times. Your (close to) 3500 posts in 526 days suggests you are putting a lot out there. And finally, calling you out isn't trolling. When you give it out, you need to accept it when it comes back at you. Learn from it.

So, can we call BS on your source? Either that, or Yze has made a massive impact in 6 days...

Given everything that has gone on in 2020, I'm hoping the decision to pick up HB is well down your list of great disappointments?

Always struck me as a good kid, Billy. Interesting that he still had his battles to make that transition, even though he was quite intelligent off the field. Articles like this should give us a bit of perspective. The players that we support with great passion, then roast with great venom, are, at the end of the day, real people. Like all of us, they have their own struggles, even when they are getting paid to play footy at the highest level. We sit here and say player X needs to get delisted, etc, like they are a disposable commodity, back you can back it in that many of them would be struggling each time they go in to those end of year exit meetings, not knowing what their immediate future is going to bring. Then if it goes as they expect, and they aren't offered a new contract, the fear of what the real world is going to bring can push them over. Yes, it's a part of life, but non-athletes are probably a bit more immune to it as we are used to it. All the best, Billy.

2:58 he kicked one from just inside 50m and it bounced through. The last goal at 3:42 (which they replayed about 4 times through to the end of the clip) did travel the 50m distance. As I said, I'm basing my view on a 4 minute clip, hence why I asked SONS for more info. But of the two samples that you have provided, only one of them had the legs, so I'm wanting a greater body of work to make an assessment on.

SONS, my concerns about Laurie, based on that 4min clip above, is that his kicking over 40m looks quite weak. His short kicking game without doubt looks excellent. Thoughts?

All good, you've gone the early crow on the kid, I won't be. Each to their own. (I hope you end up being spot on though!).

I think he had at least another level, if not two.

As I Said, Schwarz was a bloody good footballer. It will be interesting to see when/who the next forward will be that just changes games week after week after... Buddy is the most recent one, who will be next? I don't think that's what we will see Jackson do. I look at someone like Goodes that I wonder if LJ can mould some of his game around, with the best bits of Grundy thrown in. Will be fascinating (and hopefully rewarding) viewing of LJs career with us over the next decade to see what he will become. I'm not buying in to the talk of him being "flighty" and possibly looking at escaping back to WA at any possible chance. He'll be a Demon for a long time.

Jurrah is the most freakish footballer I have ever seen. Jakovich was the definition of mercurial, and Schwartz was just a bloody good footballer that we never saw close to the best of (which is a scary thought). The three players you mentioned have skill sets that I just don't think Jackson should be mentioned in the same breath as. If you are looking for the best comparison, then try Grundy (Collingwood), but I think LJ might have a couple of extra things in his arsenal than Brodie, which is what makes LJ a super exciting prospect.

Point 4 is an interesting one, and compliments what I'm about to say. The problem with continual rule changes is that it's making it harder and harder for umpires to adjudicate consistently, and with too much individual interpretation because of it (which frustrates fans). I think something that could be looked at is kicking backwards is automatically play-on, unless it is within the forward 50m of the side kicking (ie finding targets on better angles is allowed). Smart defensive sides will put more pressure on poorer kicking sides, which will possibly see sides less likely flooding back too much. I like to idea of the above post (Point 1 and Point 3). The other "nit-picking" things I think needs addressing. Why do they start the clock at a centre bounce as soon as the umpire bounces it? The clock should be restarted after any stoppage as soon as the ruck contest happens. Means no time is lost if there's a bounce recall. I'd also suggest having an extra arc up each end that is 15m from goal, so when teams are kicking in, the opposition (and umpires) know where the mark is. It will also help the umpires know how far the defender has ran with the ball (as they often run 20-30m without bouncing it, which is just stupid. I'd also love to see the re-introduction of a 15m penalty for minor infringements. 50m for small infringements is just too much of a penalty, especially for those infringements that often can't be helped. Again though, very difficult for umpires to adjudicate.

It's the Melbourne way. We are always thinking next year is going to be better than the current one. However, 2020 has been crud, so keeping everything crossed that 2021 is an improvement!

Don't get caught up with how and what the original post, and the following responses from that poster, had to say about LJ. It was classic "click bait", knowing that it would cause responses. All of it was based on nothing other than an opinion, written as though it's based on insider knowledge.

JM would have to be making millions day-trading on the ASX wouldn't he?

So are they classed as first or second round?

2 weeks ago we didn't have a first round pick for this year, now we have 2! How I see this deal is that we are banking on making finals next year, which means our first pick would be at least a Pick 10. We've effectively swapped a Pick 10 for 18 + 19. Similar to last year/this year with North. We basically traded Pick 9 for Pick 9, but got access to Kosi a year earlier, who I think will be a very good player for us. So in answer to the first part of your post that I bolded, I think JM does know what he's doing. I'm not a big fan of the bloke, but he seems an industry leader in the swapping and upgrading of draft picks.

Why would Essendon want to do those sorts of deals - have they got a few Academy/FS players this draft?

I thought I heard Mahoney say that about Tom, not Oscar. Thought the comments re: Oscar were around that he hasn't been offered a contract at this stage for next year (then me reading between the lines were that with Tom having to play back again, that it's likely that Oscar won't be re-signed).

Mahoney indicating having 2 picks in the 20-30 range could see us picking up a couple of players that will slide due to the lack of exposed (current) form in the junior ranks. Then in the next breath hasn't ruled out making more pick swaps!

Josh Mahoney coming up on Trade Radio...

So with this decision being made, and looking at the players that we've had come in/out this trade period to date (Hannan, Preuss out, Brown in), how many list spots do we actually have to play with this year? Trying to work out how many picks we currently have, but then with the talk on other threads about us trying to get in to the first round, do we have enough spots on our lists:enough current draft picks? Or will this see us totally delist the likes of Oscar?

Beef and black bean?

Unless Essendon are going for this yin/yang thing, I couldn't see Mahoney working with Dodoro. One gets [censored] done, the other is a pest.

Where has this been reported? I have clearly missed it. TIA.

Bang on, here LO. Brown is a genuine forward. I expect Weid's development to come on in leaps and bounds in 2021 as he has Brown to learn off/from.