Pates

“I’m Basil Zempilas?”

No way would the Suns go for that, as it stands they will receive top level compensation for losing a FA which would probably end up being BETTER than whatever pick they’d end up receiving via Freo’s future pick. They’ll want a low draft pick THIS YEAR. If we give them pick 5 and receive May and KK I’d be satisfied with that. But on the Hogan trade, I’d be pushing for 5 and exchanging next years first round pick plus a second round pick this year. If all they want to offer is 5 plus a second round I’d straight up give them the middle finger and tell them to be prepared to battle with WC next year. This is quite possibly Mahoney’s big moment with the club, we MUST NOT cave. Consider what they are saying about Neale and how they are rating him, we must make sure it’s significantly higher than that. We must be prepared to walk.

My thoughts of a fair deal would be Pick 5 plus a mid first rounder (around the ballpark of 10) for Hogan plus perhaps a mid-late second round pick. I want us to trade aggressively with Jesse and not undercut, of our current crop he’s the first of our big names to potentially move on. We can’t end up on the losing side of this one, least of all to Freo.

Like it or not a lot of water has under the bridge since that interview. I'm not saying Goodwin wasn't truthful in that interview but since that time the door has been opened ever so slightly. I feel like the talk that came about in the media following Weid's great game vs the Cats and missing out on playing finals may well have created doubts/thoughts in his head which has lead us to this point. As for the club, I would be very interested to know what has gone on internally with discussions with him, clearly it hasn't been the straight down the line "you're a required player and we don't want to entertain a trade". Now that the club's stance has softened along with whatever is going on in Jesse's brain, it is very much a possibility until I hear it's been completely quashed by the club.

You would think to run such a big AFL story the producers in Seven Perth would ask for double confirmation and offer up more than just a 6 second clip with zero additional info.

If true it’s fantastic that he’s staying And I would be looking to the club to sit down with him to renegotiate an extension beyond next year. Just with people suggesting we play him in defence, I would actually argue we develop both Jess and Weids with defensive capabilities to be able to swing either one of them back depending on needs and form. I was as happy with Weidermans form in the latter stages of the year but he’s still got a lot of developing ahead of him.

Surely if he’s chilling in Bali (and happy to let the world know about it) he’s told the two clubs to try to make it happen given the conversations that are being had. The only The I wonder is his desire to get home, how many times have we seen contracted players use their managers to leverage a deal? The silence from the Hogan camp has me thinking his position is get the deal done if it can be done, but he wouldn’t be desperately sad if he was with us for another year. Of course this is total speculation on my part but there just doesn’t seem to be as much noise as we’re used to.

Interesting you say this but I would say it matches a lot of what I’m feeling about all this. Given the time this has played out and the fact that Hogan is still yet to make a decision leads me to believe that a strong part of Hogan wants to go home but not at the expense of his footballing dreams. All parties might well feel this is his best opportunity to get home, but Jesse himself may be feeling like Melbourne is his better chance at a premiership (that would be my opinion as well) and he isn’t as desperate to get home as others have in the past. He’s toured the facilities, he’s heard the pitch, he’s surely been told all the bells and whistles, and hopes and dreams. If he isn’t convinced by now he could be leaning towards staying. However if he is to stay I’d be looking for at least a two year extension, one year seems pretty pointless to me and I would prefer longer.

So 198 pages and he still hasn’t actually made up his mind? I understand it’s not an easy decision and the fact it’s taking so long does give credence to the idea he enjoys living in Melbourne and being a Demon. But really this is dragging on. And if he does decide to stay I Josh the club is saying to him stay long term, we don’t want to go through this circus again in 12 months time.

Gaff turning down a massive deal from North as another “big fish” says no to them is almost as good as us landing someone we wanted ?. Their war chest doesn’t seem to be worth as much as they hoped!

I’m happy for us to give up a second rounder for him, he’s in a better bracket of age for us and with our fantastic management of Nev and Gus I feel he’s come the perfect place to give him confidence past his concussion concerns. He’s a great talent but Buckenara is kidding himself if he expects up to give A grade compensation for a guy they are pushing out the door.

If Freo are to off us a player as well as a pick then that player must be walk up start best 22 or at least a young up and comer who will be beating down the door. I do trust that the FD will get this right, they know how massive a talent Jesse is, he’s a future AA for sure. If he gets a clean run at it he will win Coleman medals as well. We’re not going to give him up for chump change.

I’d be happy for us to keep Vanders over Jones but if we are losing AvB then Jones would be a good return.

If pick 5 is what they only offer to us then I would say nothing more than the middle finger would be an appropriate response. Two top 10 picks at a minimum is what we will get, if they want to low ball us then we hold onto him for another year and bring West Coast to the party for next year. Potentially even then try to convince him to commit longer, if Freo jerk us and him around it could well sour his budding relationship with them.

At least he can use that as a starting point, I'd say most people rate Hogan higher value than Lever so at least he can say "we coughed up for Lever, it's your turn Freo." But it will be interesting to see how they play this, it might depend on how desperate we are to get May. I'm totally of the opinion that we set the price and they either come to the party on it (or at least get damn close) or we hold onto him for another year.

Could we see Max in the VC position next year? Definitely sounds like his leadership has been massive over the last 12 months. Also strikes me as a bloke the whole playing group would want to play for.

That’s where free agency fails and is unfair on the departing team, mind you I have less sympathy for teams that have just won the premiership. But Gaff is a quality player, if West Coast don’t match they are getting royally screwed.

Good luck to them on that! We set the price, they come to the party or we tell them to bugger off.

Had an awesome first half of the year, was absolutely elite in many categories. I'm sure he would be the first to admit his second half of the year was disappointing and bear in mind he missed the last 5 games.

Well done to all the top ten getters, not gonna lie tha Lewis sneaking in at 10 surprises me but I'm sure there are on field leadership things that he does that we simply don't know about. Congrats to Maxxy, really well deserved. First ruckman since Jeff White to win the award and only the second time since Jimmy. Top notch season.

Certainly no other player linked to interstate move every year but Jack Watts’ name was brought up almost every fricken trade period.

Twins no less as well, hopefully boy/girl to get the double!

To be honest it's essentially the first we've heard of the "club line" through this entire saga. Gut feel is he's gone but really hoping he's staying.

I agree, while fringe players aren't going to get all the headlines having decent quality depth goes a long way to success.

I never wrote off Brayshaw and quietly had a chuckle when people on here were suggesting he retire, but I never thought he would come back so well this year. Hunt's a different kettle of fish, Brayshaw has always had the right attitude no matter what has happened, Hunt I'm not so sure has that same self belief and desire. That said I too think that with a clean pre-season, we could be looking at next year's B&F with him being the most improved player. Look at Harmes, lot's of people on here were calling him limited and couldn't see him in our futures (I'll admit I couldn't see where he'd fit in) but look at him now.