Pates

What did he do as different Hibberd and Melksham? For me have him as a mature age rookie costs us nothing and gives us depth. Not so sure about using a proper draft pick and senior position for him.

Amazing that they even rate the Roos. They didn't do anything! So much for their "war chest".

I think whether you see this years trade period in a positive or negative light largely depends on how you rate picks vs players. For me a feel we have paid too high a price for Lever but he's going to be around our club for a very long time, and hopefully will become a champion elite defender. He was a big fish available and he chose us. We got him well done to us on that. The Watts trade wasn't well handled by the club in my opinion. Regardless on whether we wanted him out we came at the trade with a disadvantage by making his position at the club very difficult to work with should a trade not happen. Pick 31 and paying part of his salary feels wrong. Port won this trade massively IMO. Balic for 66 is a definite win. I know very little about Harley but I have heard there were good wraps on his as a youngster. Moving across the country proved difficult for him, with us he can have a much better chance to thrive. Pick 66 might as well be a shot in the dark. I think we did ok without doing amazing. I think we've got to become better poker players at this, Fremantle did incredibly well at this with Weller. I still can't believe that trade.

So obviously Gawn is our number one and I’m confident that a pre-season to get over his injury from last year will help restore him to one of the premier ruckmen of the competition. But should he go down again I am concerned about where that leaves us. We have Pederson as our chop out ruck should he (hopefully) continue his form from last year and TMac. Trading Watts and delisting Spencer has also meant we have lost two of our other secondary options. Do we need to look into drafting a mature age ruck as a back up?

Sad end for Col. He had some good years, a couple of particularly good years in combo with Chip. But we’ll done to him for seeing the writing on the wall. With Lever coming to the club there was no chance of him finding a place back in the team. Good luck on the next phase of your career with us!

You can say that for practically every coach. That’s their job, simple.

Footy wise pick 31 for Watts is a ridiculous steal. You can only assume then that footy isn’t the no 1 issue here. Me personally I’d prefer we have Watts.

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.

If we play Port at the G always remember Dees fans, he wanted to stay. Don’t boo him (unless he does something dirty, not a huge chance of that). Look at how the Pies treated one of their former favourite sons this year, they looked like complete idiots. As for the trade itself, I’m not all that happy. For me I feel like we’ve sold Watts short and overpaid for Lever (don’t get me wrong I’m glad we got him). I’m a fan of Mahoney and Goodwin and the overall team we’re building but I feel like we’re going to look back on this years trade period as a year we hurt ourselves. It may well have been a trade we needed to do but if you look at how the Dogs, Essendon, and even the Crows have gone about this period they’ve stuck to their guns. Farewell to the most polarising player in the history of our club. I’m genuinely sad he never got to experience finals in the red and blue. I wish you luck, except when you come up against us!

Very different players, Tom filled more of our tradition CHF/FF role in the absence of Jessie. Jack is more a link man, being able to spot targets and excecute good field kicking. Though I will agree that the revelation of TMac as a forward may have been part of a catalyst for this. Too many talls to fit up front and we’ve still got Weids waiting in the wings.

Even with getting Ablett? Surely getting their favourite son home is going to be a priority over Watts.

According to the stats (yes the stats can be misleading at times) he’s actually not as bad as we think with his tackling and pressure acts. I feel the clubs biggest frustration with him is his performance levels being so extreme. When he’s bad he’s a liability but when he’s on he’s our link man delivering the ball on a platter for others. The other major frustration (if I’m reading into what’s being said here and in the media) is that he doesn’t take ownership of his standards outside the club. The coaches and leadership group have spoken to him about it but it sounds like he shrugs them off. Nothing concrete has ever been confirmed about his pre-season this year but clearly he wasn’t up to standard. If he stays (and I should say I’m one that would like that) then those areas will need to be his focus. If only there was a way to imprint Viney’s hunger and attitude onto Watts’ mind!

Not going to read the whole thread here, I’d imagine vast majority don’t agree with your sentiments. On your first point, Tyson was EXCELLENT in his first year at the club, we needed midfielders that were in a certain age bracket rather than developing another one and what we got filled our needs. Tyson then got injured and I’ll admit hasn’t been what he was since. Salem had a good year, nothing special, but enough to tell me he’ll be valuable to us in the future. Vince for 23 has been brilliant! He brought experience, a different attitude, and some class to our VFL level midfield. His recent move to defence for me isn’t working but I look at it this way: we lost Sylvia and gained Vince, that’s a definite win. Melksham was overs what we paid. I wasn’t comfortable with it at the time but credit to Melks he found a place in the team. Hibberd on the other hand (you conveniently left him out) has been exceptional, package those two together vs the picks and I think we’ve done pretty well. The Lever deal, time will tell. I feel we have probably paid a bit over what I would’ve liked, but we obviously didn’t want this to drag out. He’s a fantastic talent and will only get better, he also fulfills one of our list improvement requirements. Our defence was a real issue at times this year, look at our instrumental Rance was for Richmond.

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!

For me Watts for 29 should be the breaking point. If we can’t get that done then I say we keep him, though I can also envisage a complex swap of lower picks to get it over the line. But for me this is basically fair, we rate him higher than other clubs but to be fair he’s played one and a half really good seasons (2016 and first half ‘17). The rest have been very up and down (and I’m a fan). He could well become a better player at another club, or he could go a similar way as Col Sylvia (though not as bad).

I wouldn’t imagine it being the most comfortable situation to be in where you are not only put up for trade/told to explore your options/being pushed out but then standing your ground and saying “I’m not going”. Puts you at odds with those in charge. I still really want the club to play a hard game with him, have a target minimum in mind and if it’s not satisfied we keep him. The way Mahoney spoke the other day has me thinking it’s back on the table. Would make for a fairly awkward return to the club for all involved though.

Bumping a thread a bit here but could the FD trading Watts be a sign that they have faith in Sam making the step up next year? Perhaps they felt that with Sam getting into a point in his career where he should be making an impact that there wasn’t enough room for Hogan, Weiderman, and Watts. Add in that Pederson had an excellent year and Tommy Mac showed some very good attributes as a forward. If so it’s a real roll of the dice that Sam takes that step up next year.

Boy oh boy wowee!

Clarry second year B&F is an awesome achievement, the kid has such an great future ahead of him. Hibberd not in top 5 boggles the mind. Having said that deserving accolades to all top 5 places. Nev Jetta’s 5th placing is one of the stories of the year. Great stuff from him. Will be interesting to see the top 10.

Heh? Where’s this coming from?

Heh? Where’s this coming from?

He’ll be fine, he’s well liked by his teammates and I can’t possibly see any reason why he’d be near a mic at any stage. I’d expect he’ll knock back some beers and relax. Off topic but did the players end up having a mad Monday? Usually we hear more about it but there was absolutely nothing this year.

I would be filthy if that happened. This has been my biggest gripe with this situation is that it’s made our bargaining position very shaky. How could Jack possibly return for another year after everything that has happened? He can’t, which means I feel like the club will be forced to accept a lesser deal for him. We SHOULD get a 2nd rounder for him, and bugger it if we can’t get a satisfactory deal then keep him. He’s a professional, our clubs professional, we’d find a way to make it work. (At least that’s the impression we have to give)

I actually feel like Geelong could be a good fit for Jack, I would imagine he’s going to try to go for a club with a proven finals track record. After everything he’s been through at Melbourne it would make sense. Plus it’s still Victoria so the family will still be close. Would this be the best scenario for us?

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.