Pates

KK is the wildcard in this trade, has had similar problems to concussions as Gus, but I was always sure Gus would pull through them. Hopefully coming to our club can help bring his raw talent to the surface. Good luck Kade!

We wanted May, it made our trade position weaker. We accepted unders for him to secure a deal with GC. I’m sad for a number of reasons. We supported Jesse through a lot of difficult things, being away from family at a young age, a terrible back injury in his first year (available), the passing of his father, the testicular cancer scare, and all through that we helped him develop into easily the best young KP forward coming up. What we’ve received for him in under what he’s valued, that’s my opinion but it’s not just what he’s doing now that matters it’s what he’ll be able to do. We invested a lot into him and it’s felt like following the very original trade to get him to the club we have downgraded. That all said, it’s done and we can move on. He clearly always wanted to go home, so the club has moved to address a need at the other end of the ground. If May turns out to be the defender everyone thinks he’ll be, and Weiderman is able to continue his development then the premiership is a big chance.

Yeah I’m gonna steer well away from them. ☹️

I would’ve like him to follow through on his statement and be prepared to walk away. I feel like our club has got the big bold statements thing down, but in many aspects we still lack follow through. May being available and his desired club has definitely made things awkward, it tipped our hand and Freo have been able to exploit it. Fair play to them. I guess I am in the unconvinced corner on the May trade. I get the results based idea of it all, that if it completes the team that’s all that matters, but I hate giving other teams a leg up at the same time. I think it’s also frustrating because Freo have been sniffing around Hogan for years, they have wanted him desperately but now when they will get him they won’t have to sell the farm for him.

If we take that club it will be on the club to spin it in the way you have there. At the end of the period every club will be saying they are happy because they have filled need X and managed to trade into/remain in position Y in the draft. We will definitely be getting unders for Hogan and Mahoney’s bold statement of a trade for hogan being up there as one of the highest of all time will look like a complete joke.

I’m hoping we’re pushing for one more pick from Freo. I don’t know if they have it available but I would be asking for next years second rounder as well.

God I hate them.

I would say that KK is being looked at for a wing position.

I think we paid overs, not by much but we wanted the deal done rather than dragging it at as Freo have done here. The deal mooted by The Age is underwhelming to me but if KK is able to rediscover his form and May is able to be the backman everyone is hoping he’ll be then it’s a success. However I will feel that the time and effort we have invested in Hogan will have been fairly wasted.

It’s funny that you say that, I almost feel the same way. The only reason we’ve really entertained this farce of a trade deal is because of May being open to coming to us. Take him out of the equation and all of a sudden we go cold on trading Hogan and Freo have to decide on what they’re open to giving up. I’m so over this year’s trade period, this has just been so frustrating.

The long term contract could be an understanding by the medical staff that he will still require a lot of time with the rehab group in 2019 and for such a nothing pick they can just sit and wait with him. If they gave up a higher draft pick there’d be expectations for immediate impact, but with a future 4th rounder (incredible) they don’t have any reason to push him.

I think his point is that loyalty on both ends doesn’t exist as much as it once did. If we are happy to shop players around as pieces of commodities isn’t it fair that the players do the same when they may get the best value for themselves?

This is exactly why I have reservations about our desire to get him. Admittedly he is playing in a pathetically bad team but even Chip managed to hold his own when we were crap. I just don’t see what others are seeing.

I guess my ultimate thing is that I just don’t rate May as highly as a lot of others seem to. He’s at the top end of our age range and has been good but hardly an out an out star. I truly question whether bringing him in rounds out our team, particularly as at the other end Weiderman is still unproven. May would be a good get, nothing more. Jesse is a proven forward with limitless potential, I would take him any day of the week over May wherever we played him.

One question is have to ask is why would a player want to go to a club that is seemingly already treating him like a chump before he even arrives. If I was Jesse I’d tell them to bugger off and never call again after the crap they’ve pulled this trade period. I would also hope that Jesse himself would feel in some way indebted to the club for the way we have managed him the last few years and tell Freo to give us fair compensation for him.

Freo will be laughing if all they have to give up is pick 5, especially if they hold out on Neale and get more. I understand the outcome base idea but does that mean we just forget about the investment that we’ve placed in him? Personally I’d rather us hold onto him than take pick 5 (traded onto GC for May). He is higher quality than May and that should bloody well be compensated.

Under for me but I would be a lot more accepting of it given Jason Taylor’s track record. I also feel like that would kind of equate to an equivalent of a middle range 1st rounder so falls inside the range of what we were asking.

I’ll be disgusted if we fold for pick 5. The add ons of two second rounders, which was mooted earlier is fair to me. But jeez I really hope those rumours are BS.

No it's not, and it won't happen.

“A Hogan trade is not dead in the water, but it appears Melbourne will have to buckle first” Why the hell should we buckle? He’s the best young KPF to come on the market for years and we want proper compensation for him, plus he’s contracted. That plus the “smell a rat” line has just added bizarreness to an already weird trade discussion.

I confess that for me that would be a lot closer to what I would be comfortable with us accepting, especially given Jason Taylor’s track record thus far. But this whole contract talk confuses me, surely the way it works is prospective club makes offer/deal with player, player confirms he would be happy to move under those terms, and then the two clubs negotiate a trade.

Surely you would think before they entered into trade negotiations with Melbourne that they would had the contract drawn up and decided upon. How is it they could possibly enter negotiations and still be deciding on length and $$$?!

I think it’s telling that the media chatter has moved on from Hogan, I feel like if the deal was still on the cards there’d be mentions of it but it appears to me that both clubs have moved on.

This is what it comes back to for me with all the talk of him moving to defence. You can throw all the critiques about his game all you like but his raw data has him tracking as an absolute elite player by the time he reaches his prime. Why does it have to be him that we push into defence? Why not try Weiderman? Or swing Tom back there at times when it ain’t firing for him? Or using Preuss to drop into the hole. I’m not sold that May is the answer to our problems, rather I saw him as the club merely trying to get value out of a potential trade for losing Jesse.

So there bloody well should. I also agree with you that it's likely that Freo/Bell would offer that rather than 5 + 14. Perhaps maybe we could do 5 + 14 + 30 for Hogan and next years 1st round selection.