The Chazz

Oh dear...

Source?

He needs to get over it because the deal is done, he wasn't privy to any of the discussions had between the clubs, and there's not a thing he can do about the whole situation. His, and your, continual negative discussion on it is tiresome, and mostly, unsubstantiated. And do I think we paid overs? No doubt I would've liked to have kept our first rounder next year, but I'm more happy about having Lever on our books this year, than an unknown next year. Not only that, I expect us to be pushing finals in 2018, which Lever will greatly assist with. Rd 1 pick 2018 would be 3+ years away before making a significant impact on out flag aspirations. Lever will do it next year, and for the 10 after that.

No, he's like someone that just bought a $10k car for $11k. Paid more than what redbook estimated it at, but got the deal done nonetheless. And to keep the car analogy going, have a look on redbook, then have a look on carsales. There are many cars sold on carsales where the buyer paid more than what redbook suggests. I'm sure both buyer and seller are happy in that case. You need to get over it.

And here's another quote from PJ; "There was (just) one club making one offer at the end of the day, (and) I think that does say something." Amazing that some would think it was because of the public flogging we gave him. The sensible ones would put it down to the fact that most clubs would know what Jack is about, and wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

I am now starting to worry about our trade period when we start getting compliments from old Purple... If there was an award for the club which approached Trade Period with a minimum of fuss, and which didn't deviate from a hardline Plan A ... then it's this one. Loved the decisive work, both with the Lever acquisition and Watts exit.

While it's definitely overs, you can see their reasoning for it. They have enough young, top end talent from the last handful of drafts. They are now in a position where they would rather pick up known talent that meets a particular criteria (i.e. age, position, etc). They are fast running out of time (if not already) to get more wins on the board. Weller will assist in that area in 2018, they clearly think that pick 2 this year wouldn't. It's exactly the same situation that we found ourselves in with Lever. Our core group of top end talent are still very, very young. We are far better off adding more elite talent in that same age demographic, especially one of Lever's age/quality/position, rather than going back to the draft to find the same type of player. This is where I am hoping Carlton are totally f-ing themselves right up. Yes, they are getting top end talent coming in, but it's at the expense of senior players who still have some to offer. Yes, they are adding some experience through the likes of Darcy Lang and the GWS rejects, but they aren't of the same quality as Gibbs, Tuohy, etc. Their supporters also expect success each year, and they will be getting very restless if there isn't significant improvement in 2018, which I can't see happening. The angry midget in their coaches box will have many sleepless nights, starting day 1 of preseason. Good.

Again, do you really think that clubs wouldn't have intimate knowledge of Watts' attitude, work ethic, etc? If we kept quiet and got the Watts trade done with no public announcements, a lot of the nuffies on here would've expecting a first rounder. No club in their right mind would've paid that. By coming out and criticising him in the way they did, it helped prepare the intelligent ones that we wanted him gone, and we weren't going to be fussy what we got for him. I honestly think, given there was only one buyer, that we did very well out of the Watts deal. And you know my thoughts on the Lever trade.

We clearly negotiated a deal that we were happy with. As it turns out, it was a deal that Adelaide was happy with too. Common trend? It was a deal. Wait until the death and you never know what way it goes. Would you be willing to potentially lose a player that we committed to, just to improve our draft position by a handful or so spots? Yeah, let's want to become a destination club by being impossible to deal with...

How you can come to the assumption that a number of offers weren't made is staggering. Don't forget, we only have a certain amount of picks, and the order number of those picks are what they are. We can't pull picks out of our arse, so we have a small selection to use. Yes, we can try and shuffle our order by packaging picks for others. But let's not forget that the difference between a late 1st round pick and and early 2nd round pick can literally be 1 spot in the order. Is it worth potentially missing out on a young star, just to save ourselves 5-10 spots in the draft order? And I'll say it again, the 2018 draft order hasn't been finalised. Let's bookmark this discussion for 12 months, so we all know what the true "cost" of the Lever deal actually was.

And given what they paid for Gibbs, it has been confirmed that they wouldn't have accepted any less for Lever.

And if they don't accept?

Please, correct me where I am wrong.

So, you are critical of our negotiation skills, then your follow up is to make one offer and hold firm. You do understand what negotiation means, right?

So, are you saying that you should make a lower offer initially, then if the seller refuses, then you have to increase your 2nd offer? That's what Brisbane did. That's what we did. I'm certain the negative posters are now starting to take the pi$$ on this matter now. Can be the only explanation.

Maybe the players that Taylor has targeted will still be around in the 2nd round, so we didn't feel the need to upgrade. Maybe there were no "decent" players that we wanted to target. Maybe the club doesn't rate Schache as a "prospect". In a so-called weak draft, we've used our first pick on Lever. And while we gave up our first rounder next year too, the 2018 draft order hasn't been finalised, and the 2018 trade week is yet to commence. I don't think we can judge this Lever deal until then, but at this stage it's a clear win for us.

Jesus I would laugh if the Ablett deal didn't get done.

I'm sure a number of posters think that other clubs read newspaper articles to get intel on players from other teams.

Imagine the uproar if we left it to the last minute. We'd all be whinging that we haven't done anything this trade period. Some would be asking if Mahoney has a pulse. The only thing that would top that would be if we waited to get a better deal for Lever, only to find we missed him because Collingwood back-doored us because we flucked around so much.

There was always an element of risk for us to play too hard. We got the deal done, and the people more knowledgable than you (i.e. the FD), were happy with what it cost. The alternative was to play hardball and potentially miss getting one of hottest properties on the market. Mahoney made mention that our offer to Lever was less than other offers he had received. If Adelaide could get a better deal elsewhere, they would've done it.

I know it's too much to ask, but it'd be nice to think Gill is sitting back watching the amount of activity on the final day of the trade period, and makes the sensible decision to reduce the trade period to 3-5 days next year.

Amazing the compliments for both player and club over on the Colin Garland thread. The club has supported a great clubman who had to make the difficult decision to end what is for many a childhood dream. The club has made this difficult period that bit easier by transitioning him in to a coaching role, where he can begin the next chapter of his AFL journey. Yet, the same people that have done this with the utmost class are getting rammed from all angles about how they dealt with Watts. I imagine that will get ignored by many of disappointed posters on this thread.

Carlton also would prefer not to lose Gibbs, so they could afford to play harder. Unlike us with Watts. Crows think Gibbs will help get them to a flag, hence why they paid top dollar. We think Lever will, over time, help get us to a flag, hence why we paid top dollar. On exposed form, it's unlikely that Balic will be a star, so we paid accordingly. It's not that hard to comprehend.

On the club website now... http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-10-19/garland-retires-but-takes-on-new-roles All class this bloke. I wish him all the best in the future.

The Gibbs deal is no different to the Lever deal. If a club sees something they want, they just get it done. I'm not saying they will sell the farm to get it done, but are willing to pay what would appear to be slightly "overs". I bought a house last year, paid about $11k more than I wanted to, but I wanted the place, it still fitted in my budget, so I just got the deal done. If I didn't, I would've missed it. I have no regrets.