Pates

I was sad about his departure and I was also disappointed the way that it happened with him seemingly wanting to stay but us making our minds up. But at the same time I also saw that he represented everything that was wrong with our club in that horrible period. We wasn’t going to be the difference for us, and while the pick we got was pretty measly Fritch hadn’t been a very worthy pick up and has more miles left in him. I wish him well, except if he plays against us then I wish him the worst game ever!

Unbelievably I agree, Petracca still flashes in and out of games whereas Gus played 4 quarters yesterday. Petracca has more upside and if he can pull everything together could become one of the premier players in the comp but right now it’s not happening. Gus is playing where he always needed to play, in the guys getting the ball tapped down his throat. Half back/forward was never going to work.

Back to what we know he could do. He needed confidence in himself and these games will do him (and us) a world of good.

Oscar has been flying under the AFLnradar this year but for the most part he’s been very good. He looks more confident in his ability to take marks (similar to how big bro developed) and more incredibly his field kick is much better. I still have kittens when he looks around for kicks but he’s more poised now and is making better decisions. If our defenders start to improve their communication with one another we will look much more solid down there.

Not in my list of people to be dropped, thought he was ok without being amazing. He’s got skills in him and did some good things.

He was very far from our worst, when he got the ball he did some good things. ANB and a few others in front to be dropped IMO.

It's difficult for the club, they don't want to undervalue the seats by making them too cheap but at the same time I think it's important to have sections on the bottom southern stand filled. A $5-10 members only additional match day fee (purchased at the membership tent) to allow access to that section (but not a reserved seat) would be perhaps a good way to go. You don't get a guaranteed seat as those who have paid for the specific seat get priority but people can find somewhere to sit and fill the area up. Just my thoughts at least.

Sadly if the attendance isn’t as good as we hope it’ll likely be because of the MFC reserved areas. For whatever reason they never seem to be filled and I always notice it on QB where the southern stand and Ponsford stand bottem level always have empty patches. I notice the club is offering upgrades, IMO they should’ve made it free and first in best dress. Do what you can to ensure it’s filled from the bottom to the top. [EDIT] Didnt want it to be a negative post, so we’ll done to all involved getting us over 40k so much earlier. If we win this weekend the lid could come off on the supporter side and we could get some excellent numbers.

All things considered our injury list isn't too bad (touch wood). The issue that two of the injured players are walk up starts and one of them is our co-captain. They are also not simple injuries but once that need care and management which just makes it all the more frustrating.

I've never been a massive opponent to pokies being involved in the footy club revenue. If people wish to use them they do so on their own volition, as long as there was no active advertisement of it then play on I felt. It's more the sports gambling with sportsbet, TAB etc that I've had issues with, particularly the odds being discussed/shown during the telecast. There should be a blanket ban on that side of things and I'd support no sponsorship by those betting agencies being allowed. How much space do the pokies take up at those venues? I hope they're considering creative ways to utilise the space in order to drum up additional cliental.

Did I say depth? No I said A-grade depth, meaning our midfield bats deeper with quality. I would pay top dollar to see our midfield have an extra A-grader (borderline star).

What does he provide we don't already have? A-Grade midfield depth. If he's getting tagged no one tags Viney, Oliver, Petracca etc. Or they tag one of them and he's able to roam free. Meat and potato's? Yeah right. I'd have him in a heartbeat.

FWIW this topic wasn’t designed to create a new whipping boy thread. I liked what I saw from him at the back end of 2016 and I can see talent in him. I just find it strange that a high draft pick entering his 3rd year had such little written about him. He may just be someone we have to be patient with, but with TMac our I hope he views this as an opportunity to find his way back in the team.

So with TMac out until rounds 6-8 (at best given no match fitness) it means there is an opportunity for someone to step up into the forward line. Weideman showed a lot of promise at the end of 2016 but 2017 proved to be difficult for him and was arguably played when he shouldn’t have. I’ve heard a lot about plenty of other players but I’ve heard next to nothing about Weids. He was a high draft pick and showed some promise in his debut, I hope the coaches are telling him to work his ass off to aim to force himself into the side.

I don’t wish any ill will towards him, I hope he does well at port, as long as he’s cr@p when he plays us!

Like the look of him, seems to have really good balance and likes to take the game on (fits our style). Also appears to be a competitor, with some of those tackles in the video, but best of all his body will be ready for the rigours of AFL life already. Welcome Oskar! (Side note, the pic of Chewbacca next to him made me laugh so much. I'd love for his nickname to be Chewy shortened from Chewbaker!)

I don't necessarily have a huge issue with there being a white strip but there's two things I don't like: Firstly our current white strip is without a doubt one of the laziest designs ever, it's like they woke up one morning, looked through their agenda and realised New Balance needed the print that day to create the merchandise and just decided to slap the logo on a white background. For crying out loud Melbourne, get creative and make it a design competition on the website where it's voted by the fans. Secondly it's the hypocrisy of allowing other clubs to get away with no white clash strip. I can cop the Pies because they are already black and white, and the Eagles don't really clash with anyone else massively with Gold and Royal Blue. But someone like Essendon, tell me how we are different to them? If they have a reverse colour scheme as their clash strip than so should we. There's also the fact that we wear it when we really shouldn't need to. It should ALWAYS be the Red and Blue unless there is a direct clash. It's bad enough we have the stupid thing, but we shouldn't have to wear it unless it's really needed. Anyway, every year it comes up and every year the same frustrations are aired. And every year the result is the same.

I don't think he'll necessarily make us pay directly (though it does seem to happen a fair bit with our former players), but I think he could do fairly well at Port. Ironically with Port they turned to water against any formidable opponent whilst smashing lesser teams, whereas we seemed to player well against the better teams but failed to get the job done against teams we should beat. Both teams have mental fragilities, just at different spectrums. Will be interesting to see how he does and how the port fans take to him.

This is the list managements last chance to do a good/bargain deal for us. Can we please try to not give something too high for him.

It’s clear the club wanted to get this deal done and wanted to maintain the perception of being a good club to deal with. Personally I think we’ve paid a bit over for him but our defence had some serious issues this year and Jake can help with that. Will be interesting to see where players are shuffled to once he’s in the line up, does this free up TMac to move forward? Anyway, welcome to the club Jake!

Agreed, I know it’s his instinct to stick up for his son but what’s done is done. Adelaide have chosen to act like petulant idiots, let’s move on to the real business.

Adelaide fans retort to that is that Dangermouse was a free agent the following year so they didn’t have leverage to demand more. The crows have proven themselves to be the most petulant, unprofessional club with dealing with this issue. I have a bad feeling this will drag for almost the entire trade week. I really do think our offer of picks 10 + 27 is fair however if we are able to trade to a lower second round pick I’d be happy to give that instead of 27. This is a guy that they lowballed from that start and then didn’t even poll in their top ten B&F. How they can claim two first rounders is mind boggling.

I feel like Lever is the straw that broke the camels back, Adelaide seem like they’re losing quite a few players to interstate clubs and Lever is an easy target to get angry with because he’s a young up and comer and he is choosing us specifically. Scott Thompson’s defection to Adelaide stung me for quite a while, almost more than the likes of Scully and Farmer. We always knew he was going to be a gun and he was injury riddled at our club but we stuck fat and helped him through it. I still remember his management saying “he’s given good loyal service to the MFC” and I just thought, pull the other one! This will sting for the Crows, and all I can say to them is suffer in your jocks!

I gotta say, I'm actually getting a little bit of pleasure out of how the Crows/Adelaide media are throwing the toys out of the crib on this. Seriously how much more pathetic can they get with it? I will acknowledge this though, they've had some good players leave them recently to "go home" and it appears they will be losing two more in Lever and Cameron. But they opened the door for this situation by trying to pay such unders to Lever in the first place, Lever may have burnt the bridge but they poured out the gasoline. I still feel like Pick 10 and 27 is fair, maybe we can try to upgrade the second round pick or add a sweatener to it.

I haven’t been afraid to point that out many times that crows fans have been keen to call him a sook and and mercenary. Seems they’re quite happy to accept one but not so happy about it going the other way. Funny that.