DeeSpencer

We need to say nothing, don't inflame the situation and hope Freo or Brisbane do the Neale deal. Then straight on the phone with a promise that all will be forgiven if they give us pick 5 and the future 2nd rounder. As long as that all happens with more than an hour left we'll get May and come up happy. Freo are using their leverage. Good luck to them. Not sure I'd be going this hard but I'd be doing similar.

Swans betting that the Saints 2nd rounder next year is of more value than pick 28 this year, therefore giving them a couple of pieces to work with. The reality is though Hanners was never going to be that expensive. 3 years at 800k on the Swans books for a guy who can't play in the guts anymore and isn't all that effective on the wing if he's not breaking the lines. The Swans can easily fill his spot in the team and put that 800k to much better use.

North have a father son (30+) and an academy (5-15). But if they were going to give us the better pick they probably would've done it by now. Collingwood have an academy (10-30), a father son (20-40) and even another later academy. Could be an option but they might not have many list spaces. This draft is very shallow, teams won't want to give up good picks for trash unless it's a huge point win. I think our best option is to wait until draft night and do some live trades. Use picks in the 60's to move up a few marginal spots with the better 3 picks we already have to get 3 players we want. Then fill the list with extra rookie spots or delisted players. Guys like McKenna, Flippers, Max King and DJ never really gave us anything. We aren't losing ground if we replace them with similar gambles. Sure it would be nice to replace them with quality but give me the best 40 players we can find and worry about the last 4 spots.

Thanks for the post Tom. Welcome to Demonland. We should be having a good look through the state and local leagues/delisted players for a young 198cm+ forward with ruck stop gap potential or a ruck with upside. 21-24 year old range. Someone like when the Bombers added Shaun McKernan. Or really just a younger, taller, more agile Cam Pedersen. Adding a player of Campbell's age would just clog up the list and Casey.

Hard worker, good cultural guy, helped dig us out of the hole but at least at Melbourne his body couldn't find any burst speed around the packs so other mids who had it went passed him and that's clearly an issue on the outside as well. North are pretty well stocked for mids as well so I'm expecting they plan on maybe getting a number of games out of him next year then using him as depth on a cheap contract for 2020/2021. They'll be times where I miss his clean and at times creative hands around the ball, plus his willingness to run for the outside ball, but there's other things I'm sure we all won't miss.

Max Gawn's busted toenails on his Instagram are a good enough reason to trade for a big ruck. Liking this. Not convinced he and Gawn will play together, especially against the best sides. But the ability to not over do Max through the season is vital. Got to keep your best players fit and healthy through the season, they are the ones that matter come crunch time.

Pacy and the comps best runner but Scully hasn’t hit a target since he stabbed the knife through us. Excited to see what Stretch, Baker, Fritsch and Kade Kolo can do on the wings. Until then Vanders can tackle Scully in to the ground

No panic. Freo know we want to deal, they've made a smart low ball offer, we've rejected it. Until they even get pick 5 for Neale they can't offer it. We just have to wait it out a bit. The good news is they offered pick 11 to us now rather than dealing it for Lobb.

Josh Daicos still without a contract at the Pies. Any chance we have a nibble? James Rose and Jack Lonie maybe the best of the other small forwards without a deal for next year. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-10-10/unsigned-your-clubs-outofcontract-players

Option 1 would be Preuss with Max spending more time forward Option 2 would probably be T Smith who I assume sticks around for another year Option 3 is likely a defender - J Smith or Oscar Option 4 is they probably pick a developing key forward in the draft, most aren't ready to play but some are. But the confidence in knowing we can get by comes from Melksham, Petracca and Hannan. 3 marking forward types who can hit the scoreboard. Vanders as well.

Averaged 32 touches, won back to back best and fairest, had a 56 disposal game and if I remember correctly played a good game against the Swans reserves. And was set to go to the SANFL after having a shoulder reco. Maybe no other side drafts him but they'd be negligent if they hadn't checked him out on numbers alone. Certainly rookie picks probably owe some gratitude but the way to repay getting a chance is by training and playing to the best of your abilities, not necessarily signing on for another contract a few years later.

So instead of getting a gun full back the plan is to just throw Tom McDonald back, even though he's our best key forward, and just hope his lack of agility and horrendous kicking from the backline have just fixed themselves? What kind of plan is that? Trading from pick 14 back to 20, then adding a pick 3, it accounts to Hogan being worth pick 1. Then he won the Rising Star, he was probably still worth pick 1 if not more. But it's been 3 years since and apart from injuries and personal issues he just hasn't looked like a true superstar. He doesn't kick huge bags of goals, he doesn't take over games regularly, he doesn't do the freakish. Plenty of players have won the Rising Star and become good players without ever being of the same value. Don't act like Hogan is similar to someone like Buddy or Nick Riewoldt, it just isn't true. The Dogs gave Boyd the 2nd biggest contract in the history of the game. A mistake but a mistake they were always going to trade for. He was a pick 1 who they thought would play like a pick 1 - ignoring the more recent history of pick 1's and the evolving nature of the game. Griffen was 28 and banged up that year, no team apart from the pick rich Giants would've offered more than 1 first round pick, but it doesn't really matter. Boyd was still a rare overpay, there's no point comparing. Pretty much it comes down to the fact the Dees are happy to trade Hogan for a reasonable deal, not just the massive mega deal. If they weren't it wouldn't have got this far.

North drafted a youngster - Xerri - who they have high hopes for as the future after Goldstein in 2-3 years. They aren't in the premiership window and are trying to accumulate players who will help them win games whilst still keeping their salary cap open for big name recruits. Tyson makes sense because he'll help them win games and they can front load him in 2019 and have a very cheap depth player in 2020/21. We are closing in on a premiership window - if all goes to plan - and need a back up ruck. A must have when in the window. We haven't been able to draft one so we'll pay for one. He's not perfect - not really a forward and needs to work on his fitness, but he has enough size, strength and competitiveness to fill in for Max if needed and wouldn't be the worst up forward either.

I'd say only partially related. Certainly it pushed Tyson another spot lower on the depth chart and surely increases the desire to get away from his salary. I expect we would've done it anyway.

My read on this draft from some trusted types is there's somewhere between 7-12 really super players, where most drafts have maybe 3 top liners and another 4 or so highly rated. After that it's back to normal business (and a bit shallow in the later rounds). So if the plan is to trade Hogan for May and a draft pick that Jason Taylor can use then I don't really care if it's Freo's pick next year, or this years pick 15 or pick 25. I certainly wouldn't cave but if there's pressure on to do a deal then I'd do the deal. I'm more in favour of getting in some viable assets with a lot of late swaps - especially now that live draft trading can occur. So if the second part of the Hogan deal is a later pick but it comes with some 3rd round and future pick upgrades then I'd do that. Hogan for May is what our team needs. Getting the extra value that we deserve can come in a lot of ways, the idea that a straight up top 10 pick is also needed is too ambitious.

That sounds about right to me. Still think it waits until the May deal, both clubs will want to work the little trade around the big trade.

Better news from Clark and Warner. 5 and 16 would do me. 5 and 21 would as well really. I'll even give Brisbane a 3rd rounder to send to Freo to move the Neale deal along!

GWS' access to the Riverina was a huge problem as well. Talented footy area that just needed a better development pathway but didn't need an AFL club to get all the benefit from it when it's produced legends of the game for 100 years. John Blakey's son going to the Swans purely because his dad coaches in NSW and not in Vic/SA/WA is a joke as well. Don't like the academies for the non Victorian and NSW clubs, although I do think more needs to be done to develop Indigenous talents who have all the skills and attributes but have a lot more going on that stops them becoming the type of professional junior it takes to get drafted these days. Not that that's true for every Indigenous kid though. The multi cultural aspect is tricky ground and seems unnecessary, the TAC clubs are very inclusive and should foster multicultural talent without the AFL clubs help.

Good man. Well done to all involved.

He's number 3. Lovely kick, wouldn't be that many better in the AFL. The issue is he's not physical for a big man and at his size it's hard to be quick enough to defend smalls. So he becomes and oversized flanker. I actually think wing would be his best position but I don't know if he has the tank, and I suspect we're bringing KK in for that role already.

Struggled in most of his early games but his game against the Giants was fantastic and he did some things against us as well. Has a bit of grunt in him as well as the Long/Rioli genes for pressure and tackling. He'd be a very good pick up but clearly the Saints know his quality. Express some interest now and try to get him to remain uncontracted until next years trade period.

Well he doesn’t ruck, he doesn’t tackle, he doesn’t crash packs and bring the ball forward to crumbers and he doesn’t set goals up with inside 50 kicks. Not saying he’s goals or nothing but in the role he was playing he needed to crash packs or kick goals He’ll be 28 and age is a huge factor. GC have just been given 3 priority picks with mature age players. I can see them getting a mid first round pick, but another pick 3 or 4 would be too much. They AFL would rather give them more mature age guys again, which this time the Suns probably trade and get some extra mid round picks. If he’s restricted GC can match and force a trade especially if they’ve sorted out their salary cap. That might be more of a concern than the compo.

Almost every team we played sent their best defender to T Mc from the week he came back. And often sent their 2nd best defender to Petracca or Melksham. Maybe Hogan can adapt, maybe he was injured, but T Mc looked the better CHF of the 2 and Hogan became an incredible inefficient inside 50 target apart from against bad teams where he got repeated easy chances

Not sure we'll sign him for a long term deal. The reality is the forward line functions better without him with a gun CHF in his position and a promising young tall developing. Obviously there's a lot of footy that can change things as the year goes on but if he's not traded then at least until the games start we're dealing with the same issues. Plus he has to rehab his foot. Chances are we do the whole thing again next year, this time without a gun key defender available. Might be a long year for Jesse dealing with injury, maybe even learning a new position, not having a long term deal on the table and having an immense amount of media scrutiny.