binman

Bingo. If you done rate the dees, hard to rate port. Ditto for giants.

I heard something very similar. Can't reveal source, but he's been on the money before. Big if true. Where there smoke....

Yep. And a glue player. Every club needs them and losing nibbla compounds the impact of losing Gus. Hard to replace.

Yep, you're right. It creates a variable that wasn't there, so may increase the chances of Houston selecting another club. Depends a bit on how far down the road they might have gone. That said, I'm wary of the noise coming from tracc's side - it feels a bit scripted, a bit manager driven. Tracc's not going anywhere - at the moment. But he's definitely sending a message (and I'm ambivalent about that too I must say). On your main point, I agree 1000% It's hard to believe Nibbla will play only two more games for the dees. I'm shattered. I can't think of many dees players I've respected more. He will leave a huge hole - on field and off field. Of course he has to play. The players will be hell bent to get a win from our last two games.

All fair points. Personally I put no stock in either reports he's coming our way or suddenly cooled on us. I'm happy to wait and find out who comes rather than getting swept up in the trading palaver. My main point is for any gun player who has decided to leave their club, the decision about which club they want to gi to is done months ago. Doesn't mean it happens, because the clubs have to come to terms. If Houston decided a while ago Dee was his preference, the tracc noise is fugazi, particularly given its noise, whereas as 6 or 7 players resigning in the last month, including two young guns and Petty, is fact - and evidence of a club players want to be at.

I wonder what his error of judgment specifically was?

If you don't understand why, there's not much point me explaining it - particularly given it had literally been explained dozens of times by multiple posters. If you don't get it, you don't get it.

Some balance wouldn't go astray either. Anyone who has faced the sort of challenges clarry has faced, or knows someone who has, knows its a very hard road to get back on track. Clarry deserves a lot of credit for doing the hard yards, on and off field. On field, despite what even some dees fans claim, he has been one of our better players this season - and our best, most consistent mid. I'll bet dollars to donuts he is top 10 in the bluey. He deserves credit for that alone. He deserves further credit for backing up week after week and putting up with slings and arrows, some fired by dees 'supporters', being relentlesly physically and verbally targeted by opponents and seemingly not able to win a single free kick from the umpires. And most impressive of all is the mental fortitude to back up week after week and try his guts out knowing it's impossible to play to a level anywhere near his brilliant best. I mean this a player with a record that perhaps a small handful of dees players could come close to matching in the 166 year history of the club. And despite not being able to play his best footy he has not once dropped his head. It would be great if the media could at least note that. As for dees 'supporters' who don't get that, well....

Agree we should play nibbla. Absurd to suggest we wouldn't honour a plsyer who had given so much to the club But no player considering us would give a fig if we did or didn't. I mean, after all they are leaving their own club and any decision to leave has already been made. It's just dealin' that needs to be done. But in any case, I'm deeply suspicious of 'media reports'. Media creating 'fairy tales for profit' would be closer to the mark.

The cats would also have to triple their player welfare spending - imagine stengle and clarry in the same team! On stengle, it's crazy how him completely passing out cold in night club in season has got so little attention. I mean bloke's got form and he get so hammered he collapses in public and there's crickets. I mean, that's probably a good thing, but it's hard not feel the media pick and choose who they will denigrate.

I don't even want to watch it! Gutted. The last time i was close to being this upset about a player leaving is when with the wiz left for freo.

Yep, top idea. Langers is the only comparable athlete to nibbla we have on our list.

But unfortunately we'll still have to watch players running their guts out with ball in hand, and look forward and realise noone is gut running to provide an outlet option.

I think we can assume we did so because it was the best thing for clarry.

And not only that, clearly struggled rehabbing his hammy in terms of, for the first time in his career, not having the structure and routine playing each week provides. By all accounts he is working very hard on his wellbeing and has a good formal support network in place. I have little doubt part of the thinking behind not getting his hand sorted was ensuring he had the structure of playing each week in place. And the reality is a 70% clarry is better than any other option we had. (Though he looked closer to 50% in the second half against port so good time to swap him out).

Who have we traded out that is an elite athlete? Jordon isn't, Beford is. And we didn't trade out either, both left of their own accord. Look at our current list. How many elite athletes do think we have with the sort of attributes Nibbla has (eg elite endurance, high cruising speed - striding speed as they call it - and ability to back up week after week)? I reckon the list stops at Langers, Windsor, Mcvee, maybe Chin, maybe Spargo and at a stretch Howes.

And unquestionably still be our best midfielder this year.

No doubt a deal will get done. But I very much doubt we'll play hard ball - I'd be very disappointed if we did. I'm one of nibbler's biggest fans, gutted that he's leaving and think will improve any club he goes to. But i don't think he significantly increases Port's chances of a flag Crom's changes of a top eight finish. In part that's because port, and to a lesser extent crows, have players with nibbla most important skill set - his elite athleticism. Because nibbla took time to become a best 22, and was somewhat maligned when he did, it's easy to forget that his point of difference as a draftee, his one wood, was he was already an elite athlete, with good leg speed (key) and elite endurance (critical). Those attributes remain his most important as since he was drafted the game has become increasingly aerobic and teams now need mutiple players who are elite athletes. Nibbla has become the prototype high half forward, a role that didn't really exist when he was drafted (not in the sense of the crazy box to box defensive running the hhf now does). The HHF has become a key role. Its not just a matter of slotting another role player into position, they have to be an elite athlete, with a massive tank and abilityt8 cover distance at speed - and they don't grow on trees as like nibbla they have to come into the AFL elite and build from there. It's for that reason that we'll lose more than either port or crows will gain by drafting nibbla. We simply don't have enough such players and will have to either draft or trade one in - even if there is a player in the team now who can slot into nibblas role (which I'm not convinced there is). Nibbla leaving compounds losing Bedford as he would be the perfect replacement.

Well, we won't actually get a read on his true market value given he's there's only 2 options for a destination club. The crows and port have the whip hand in negotiations and I doubt will get into any bidding war.

We can thank the media's strategy of creating a dramatic "(insert club here) is in chaos" narrative to drive clicks and advertising revenue for that.

Processing.

Eddy is right this year - round twenty four IS our Grand Final.

@WheeloRatings I was about to post: I'll preface this with an admission maths isn't my strong suit (well if you don't count calculating betting returns) and that perhaps i'm just having a brain fade, but it still doesn't look right. At the very real risk of embarrassing myself (something i AM good at), looking at the data for Port's overall score, which i get excludes rushed behinds it is 7.6.48, so 13 scoring shots in total. If Port converted ALL 13 scoring shots into goals that would be 78 points. Yet the expected score is 78.8 I'm glad i didn't because i just realised my error. They didn't have 13 scoring shots, they had 26! I assume five of those 26 shots were rushed behinds. Am i right in sating that means that on 8 occasions they either didn't make the distance (and it wasn't knocked though for a point) or kicked it on the full? On a night that was still and dry that seems an awful lot of shots at goal that failed to register a score.

And what is wrong with tracc being upset about things that impact him? I don't know about others, but I've never worked in a single workplace, even high performing, productive ones achieving its strategic goals, where every one is happy all the time or there aren't some people who are disgruntled to some degree. I imagine in the hyper competitive, cut throat, alpha environment of AFL footy clubs that's even more the case - even at clubs having great seasons.

Very good points, as it highlights the play through pain idea as a philosophy that might permeate the culture in general, ie not just the conditioning aspect. Tracc sub consciously feeling he had to come back on might be an example of the impact of that philosophy. Many, including commenators lauded may for coming back still feeling the effects of his broken ribs, so it's not as if its a philosophy unique to the dees Perhaps tracc has reflected on why he decided to say he was OK to go back on when he clearly wasn't. Another way the pay through pain mantra (perfect word for it) might cause issues is people all have different pain thresholds. I wonder if there is a risk of some players feeling judged by others for not being as keen to push through the pain barrier or worry about being labelled as soft.