Pates

I don’t like using the surgeries and injuries as an excuse, Richmond, Sydney, Geelong, WC etc have been backing up multiple years of finals. What I will say is it’s folly to dismiss it completely as a strong contributing factor. My worry has been that the club will look to the injuries and just say “oh well we’ll be back next year with better player fitness”. 2020 shapes as a massively important year for the club, a good time to get someone with Burgess’s credentials on board.

I totally agree, I think the media is always looking for the feel good story to come to fruition, where he plays the best footy ever in tribute to his father and looks up at the sky when he kicks the match winning goal. Obviously people are masters of their own destiny but it's hard to argue that his personal development from the age of 17 was disruptive, unusual, and emotionally difficult. As for the money side of things my understanding is that he's on slightly less that what he potentially stood to earn at Melbourne. When we traded him out I think the club saw the writing on the walls that his injury troubles were going to continue and that what was best for both club and player was to get him home. He's now Freo's problem but I still wish him well.

Whatever way you look at it it's sad. I hope he's able to get his body right and play some good footy in the future. Right now I'd say the trade is sitting at a 0-0 draw given May's injury troubles.

Oh I'm not at all unhappy about the try before you buy scenario, I think we've actually got ourselves into a no lose situation with this to be honest. What I was referring to was that the rules of the off-season prohibit him from training with a club prior to a certain date even if the club and player have already agreed to the terms of the rookie category he'll be on.

That seems really silly, I mean if club and player have agreed on a course of action then why not cut to the chase? That said I’m sure he will meet with our medicos who will monitor the program I’m sure he’s been given. For me I think the club has handled this really well, it’s a mixture of risk and prudence. We’ve taken a punt on him, given him another chance but we’ve done our due diligence and haven’t rushed into anything. Welcome to wearing Red and Blue Harley!

I gotta say for the rumoured coin he’s asking for I would be passing on him. I don’t know if Melbourne is playing games with Carlton, almost trying to rule themselves out publicly so Martin doesn’t nominate a stupid amount of money and then we swoop. I’d say I’m 50/50 on him, if we get him then great. I won’t lose any sleep if we pass on him though.

Jay Clark provides an update on Harley Bennell Seems they all feel we’re the front runners without saying he’s over the line. Between us and Geelong, always wary of Geelong in these situations, they’ve got a good record of getting players they want.

It feels like we've seen it happen to almost every other club (Saints being the only one I can't really think of), we've seen lots of players come back from adversity or a significant life event (whether or not it was self inflicted) and become valuable contributers to the teams success. I would dearly love to see that happen with us and Bennell.

Good stuff mate, not doubting your sources and always happy to get solid mail in at DLand!

I'm not sure if anyone here can shed some light into how good your mail has been in the past but it sounds positive from our end if true.

Can't say that surprises me TGR, not meaning any offence. But you're both of the critical viewpoints on things rather than focusing on what it right, though I would say you stick your head out more than he does. He seems to tread in the hindsight category where you actually make statements in advance. I know you were extremely critical of the club's actions on the Lever trade (fwiw I was unhappy that we folded to Adelaide's demands as well). Which players have left us recently that have come back to bite us? I can't really think of any. We might get a little bit of Frost-bite (?) but I'd say that's the only one I'm concerned with right now.

I remember that, completely stuffed us (literally), by the final Sydney match at the at the G (after playing WC in Perth) our players were dead on their feet and had nothing to give. I also agree agree with how you want to look at round one, do you want it mid-late year when the players don't have much to give or at the start when both team have all the preparation they need. Plus history shows that finals teams from the previous year tend to start slower than non finals teams. We have a good record there and I see it as a crack at us getting our season off to a flyer. It's just the time of the match that sucks.

May was relatively reliable at getting out on the park at GC. The problems arose when he returned to the club underdone which forced him to try to play catch up and eventually went to far. He owes us for 2019. People have differing opinions regarding his on field leadership, some didn't like him getting stuck into Frost. I didn't mind it, we'd had an awful year and players were doing their own thing at times. Someone needed to stand up and say, no more!

This settles it for me then, we definitely made the right decision! ? EDIT: Adding my two cents May and Lever were need based trades, Lever in particular was being courted by lots of clubs and at the times was considered one of the best prospects as a long term defender. We got unlucky with him injuring his knee and it's completely stuff his time so far with us. BUT when he's been out there you can see why we got him. He reads the ball extremely well and with a full pre-season under his belt will be massive to our prospects of improving. May we all know what happened with him, and he should be doing everythng in his power to pay back the club for essentially a lost year because of his poor fitness base when returning to the club. Again though when he got out on the park you could see he's quality. He's got probably another 2-3 years of top quality footy in him which is what the club considers to be our prime window of opportunity. Those two playing together could be the difference for us. As for Harmes as mentioned above given his age bracken it's likely he was being courted by other clubs with long term offers on the table. If Port had poached him next year on a 4 year deal I bet you he would've been gushing praise. But Cornes himself is all about negative press though, it seems rare for him to praise a decision by any club instead sinking the boots into teams with hindsight statements.

Also seems to have a record of tight contests there (that we mostly come out the loser sadly), but I went down there with mates a few years ago and we had a really good time. Nice town, the ground atmosphere wise it pretty dead but it's still kinda cool getting back to a local footy style feel.

I don't know whether mental issues is the right wording but he's had a history of poor judgement with partying and alcohol. I'd also be willing to bet he'd be on a strike for illicit drugs given his history. But what has changed now is that he has a partner and a child with her that seems to be a very stabalising influence, plus he knows this might well be his last chance to resurrect his career so motivation wise it's all there in front of him.

True, mind you our record at docklands isn't half bad now! But yeah I get your point, gives us a bonus game at our home. I think it's just a frustrating thing that we never seem to get a home game against them.

I dunno, I even made the bold prediction it would be against one of the Bombers, Blues or Pies! ?

Seeing his ranking of Harmes proved to me that commentators look at clubs in isolation of who they think they should be watching. Harmes had a dip like most of the list but he was still a B+ and easily one of our better performers. 5 years might seem like a lot but he's worked hard to get where he is and being a Dee through and through he'll be stoked he's tied to us for the foreseeable future.

The analysts can always rank hardest to easiest based on what they know from the season just gone but ultimately there are variables they can't account for. A team at the end of 2018 that had us twice would've been considered unlucky, midway through 2019 they probably were licking their lips. Likewise there could be a dip for the Lions much like us from last year, they got a massively blessed run of injuries so what will happen if they suddenly cop it much like we did in 2019? I think we've been given every chance to return to the finals, the players that had dips/injuries in 2019 need to prove that 2018 wasn't a fluke. I'm looking at TMac and Weids in particular as players that have to prove what they showed at the pointy end of 2018 wasn't an abberation. I think internally the club has backed themselves in to return to that form. Commercially (and for expats living in the UK like myself) it absolutely sucks, only three night games means that watching games will be very difficult, while we won't get nearly as much exposure to get the big $$$ sponsors. Oh and a special mention to the fact we get shafted again with Essendon playing a home game against us at our home ground, as well as our anual trip down to the cattery.

Might be that we’re the only ones offering a senior list spot as opposed to rookie list spot.

The bloke was just so desperate to play footy, but very silly for him to do. I swear I thought he had a conversation with Gus at some stage, while I'm not saying Gus didn't do something similar at some stage I would hope that he was given some good strong advice to say you've got to put your health ahead of anything. We handled Angus really well through the worst of it, whenever it started to flare up we pulled him out immediately. Nev as well, I wonder how the Saints medicos would feel thinking that they probably were trying to do the same thing only for him to almost be his own worst enemy.

His talent is there, if we see it in a consistent way we will be a weapon. But it's still a big if.

I look back on that first game and think that if we'd kicked straight whether a bit of confidence would've seen our season be at least a little better. Definitely should've won both games.

I don't mind the calls for Spargo to be groomed as Jetta's protege. Spargo hasn't done enough for me to suggest that his position is forward, he's just not damaging enough. But he does have good disposal on him and he seems to be a determined little nugget. I remember Nev started as a forward/mid but ended up finding his niche down back. Could be a positive move for Spargo as well, my main question is whether he has enough balance and strength to stay in contests. He seems to go to ground quite easily.