DeeSpencer

I'd probably give up 48 if we had to but right now I'd stare down the Hawks and see if they'll blink. Same goes for Essendon and giving up next years 2nd rounder. We need to do our best to hang on to the 2nd and 3rd round picks this year to keep adding quality youngsters. Getting shuffled to the back of the draft for Hibberd and Lewis will hurt us long term.

You can get beech wood butter knives or butter presses. Not sure a mature age recruit is the key to our future though, even if he's a very handy player who would've played by now if not for being stuck behind the leagues best forward line.

Given we don't have a lot of picks and will probably have a few list spots I'd think we might make a late move on a very bottom of the list type trade instead of waiting for delistings. Whilst we've heard rumours of bringing in a Barlow/Scott Thompson/Dal Santo to fill an experience spot that Lewis probably fills now I wonder if bringing him in will make any of our younger players - mainly like an ANB - decide to try and move.

That's true. Might have been to get Melbourne to up their offer, or might have been to placate members and let the Mitchell news sink in first.

Alternatively Clarko went to Mitchell and Lewis and thanked them for taking huge pay cuts for many years to win 3 flags and devised a plan to get them both big pay days before their careers ended. Mitchell was already keen to work for Adam Simpson, so Clarko released him to go play at West Coast for a year and use that leverage of playing for a big assistant coaching contract to follow his playing days. Lewis is slowing down and instead of just 1 year at Hawthorn before getting pushed out by Mitchell and O'Meara they used the leverage of being disgruntled to get a 3 year deal out of Melbourne. The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle of the two but I'm not convinced Hawthorn will suffer at all from this and the players will likely benefit.

I just don't see why we'd add Lewis if we got Rockliff. I know Rockliff can play forward but he's best on the ball as a clearance player and we'd be getting slow and inside heavy if we added both Rockliff and Lewis. No point dominating the clearances if you can't make use of them with outside runners and skill. So seeing that Lewis is getting closer to a sure thing I'm choosing to believe Rockliff isn't as likely.

Looks like Hill and it's not Jed Anderson, Cyril, Burgoyne or any of the other Indigenous Hawks of recent times, so unless they had some random tanned guy who looks a lot like Hill then I think it's Hill!

I'd have the same best 22. So to fit Lewis in I'd have the following options: 1. Injuries - they always happen 2. Melksham out, with Vince, Brayshaw and Garlett also possibilities depending on form 3. Go small down back with Hibberd as the 3rd tall. Hunt, Jetta, Melksham, Vince all strong overhead and can half contests against taller opponents/come third man up 4. Use the small forward line with Watts rucking, Petracca, Brayshaw and even Lewis can all play as marking forward targets I know he doesn't have the pace but I'd be trying to use Lewis like the Hawks use Burgoyne as a utility. Even if he doesn't star I think if we keep the established guys in position and float Lewis around we'll get better value from him that plugging him in the midfield.

Typical social justice types joining a useless social media campaign when you don't hear any of the players complaining. Talk of things like minimum wage are a joke. Same with comparisons to men's wages. That the league is set up to be run professionally doesn't mean the players have to be paid to any standard. $5000 is a lot for doing the training and playing games in the sport they all play anyway. There are professional athletes in Olympic sports and thousands of other elite athletes earning barely enough to survive. That's hardly a new thing. As Demon fans we should be the last to drive a higher wage campaign. Sorry ladies but we aren't Collingwood and we can't afford to outlay millions of dollars before there's even a product to get some return. I'd like to see the minimum salary rise to at least 8k (1000 per game) and I think it will, but also don't think the AFL and clubs have done anything wrong by starting small. Find me some players complaining or refusing to enter the draft and I might change my mind. Not a bunch of Greens politicians taking off their shoes.

Someone took a screenshot and tweeted the original post to him. Not that I have a problem with journos on footy forums as long as they then follow up with proper sources which is what BA has stated he will do.

Fantasia is worth a high 2nd if not a late 1st, he's a serious talent and probably untouchable. I highly doubt that rumour has any truth in it. Mid 30's + AVB for Hibberd and an early 4th would probably more like it.

An issue with this is that if you trade a future 1st round pick you can't trade any other picks from that draft. So by doing the deal as stated we'd need to trade the picks we get from this draft ie. pick 19 and/or the mid 30's pick and/or player(s) to get Hibberd.

I share those same views. But the Hawks game plan was based around slow inside mids with great skills to distribute to speedy outside mids and super fast forwards with great defensive pressure to cover the other way. The Dogs probably aren't as quick outside but rotate heavily through the midfield and forward line to have full ground pressure and spread. If we got Lewis I think we'd have to shift to a lot more on ground rotations. Lewis + Jones: back/mid. Vince: wing/back/fwd/mid. Tyson: mid/wing/fwd. Viney + Oliver: mid/fwd. Salem + Stretch: Wing/back/fwd. Petracca+ Brayshaw: fwd/mid/wing. Part of the conditions I'd put on recruiting Lewis would be telling him that his role will include tagging and playing half back or half forward as Daniel Cross did when we got him. He has to be adaptable and complement what we have in place. Sure there'd be some games where he would be the main man in the middle but Nath Jones has probably earned his right to play in the guts and Viney, Tyson and Oliver are the future around the ball as well.

He's a free agent. Pinched hit in the ruck a couple of times this year but certainly isn't his go. Could be ok defensive depth for free (but might want a 2 year deal). I don't think we'd be interested unless we could move on Dunn and/or Garland.

Valid point. But Adcock was free as a rookie and knew he was going to be in the VFL and only used in case of emergency. Lewis will be best 22 and then the question becomes do we end up with a young player in the reserves or sending someone like a Vince back to the VFL who doesn't want to be there for only a marginal difference in ability but possibly a shift in culture. If it's a young player in the VFL then we've signed Lewis only a year after we got rid of Daniel Cross when we decided it was time to go for more speed and youth. And remember the Dogs cut Cross before he came to us. The issue is I think going in to next season we are past the stage of having to blood youth for experience. We are now at the stage where you get a game based on form (or hopefully we are). But I'm not sure we are at the stage to start adding older players either. We are kind in a balancing act where we don't need to be young but we don't want to be old.

Squib might be too harsh, I'll admit that. Overwhelmingly lacking in the physical presence required for talls was what I meant. If those are different things so be it. And without speed, strength or skill to mean he's anything more than a promising defender that can be found late in drafts.

Everyone wanted him dropped most weeks. Yet now I criticise him and he's some kind of gun? He doesn't pull out from under the contest. He just doesn't put his body on the line. Maybe it will come with time. I don't think he's hopeless, I just don't think he's some kind of special draft pick. I'm not going game by game for examples and this isn't perfect but look at his contest here to start this vid. His feet aren't even off the ground and big Max expected more.

HE'S NEARLY 31 FFS. The idea of a quality pick for 2 years of a guys career is bananas. Sam Mitchell - captain, 5 time B+F, All Australian, Brownlow winner - pick 81. Come on.

Plenty of players from Sydney and Geelong have a heap of experience. Can add Dogs players as well now. Pendles at Collingwood. Nick Riewoldt, he knows what it takes. Daniel Cross didn't get the ultimate success but I'm sure he knows what was required and did his absolute best. The coach / coaches, the captain and then the rest of the leaders have to drive the culture. And I see value in adding Lewis as a leader. Just not at the expense of getting more talent. Simon Goodwin played in back to back flags at Adelaide. Brendan McCartney played a big role in Geelong's dominance. Matty Egan was robbed of that chance due to injury but was still around the club. We have interest in Corey Enright as a coach.

You mustn't watch very closely. A heap of contests each week where he doesn't spoil with his body. Panics under pressure as well.

What is that in reference to? Leaving North? Or a player leaving another club?

The 9 times out of 10 he had a chance to crash a pack and spoil and meekly raised an arm? He's got endurance and reads the play well. Can mark and can kick more reliably than his brother but still lacks penetration and touch. But he won't make it if he doesn't learn how to be physical. He's nothing special and doesn't justify our decision in overpaying for Frost, which was the point of my original comment.

No dogs player had been in a grand final before they won it and before this year most of their players had only been in 1 final the year before. You have to win your own ball and use it under pressure in finals but otherwise it's not some special new game and making finals is about hard work and skill as well. Lewis doesn't have any kind of amazing insight that heaps of other senior players in the league don't.