Pates

Tigers have played Grand Final footy; high pressure, contested. They've made mistakes but any time they have they've jumped straight back into the contest and won it back. Tigers are still definitely getting the rub of the umps but they've been in the contests for longer and that usually is rewarded.

It's taken till half way through the 3rd quarter before they finally delivered a proper ball to one of their forwards.

Jeez Adelaide are wilting under the pressure. No one is standing up for the Crows.

Crows are just bombing away, they need to lower their eyes (sounds familiar). Interestingly Adelaide have the ruck dominance but are losing it in the midfield. They need to find a way to get Walker into the game. Tigers definitely getting the rub of the umpires.

I wouldn't say I'd be gutted but I would be very sad if we were to part ways. There's been emotional investment on both parts, you only have to look at how much he and the Melbourne crowd embraced his moment in the sun against the Pies earlier this year to know that we really want him to be a successful Melbourne player. You may also be right though, a fresh start could be good for him and it could be good for us as well. It would help solve the issue of how we fit so many tall forwards into the line up. I still question whether the compensation would be worth the price of parting ways.

I don't see the value in trading Watts frankly. To other clubs he's probably only worth a second round, but to us he's class and poise when we need it. He was having a good year until he got injured but yes his comeback from injury was disappointing. I still say we hold on to him. Only a really good offer from another club and Watts saying to us, yes I'd like to have a go elsewhere would change my mind.

Tmac getting 9 votes as a forward. I think that's where he plays now, he just doesn't seem to have it as a defender.

If he gets a clear run at it he could become one of our most important young players. Big 2018 coming for him.

A really good article to read. He was honest, I don't think he held much back, it will be his lowest point for his career you'd think. The mark of the man is how he comes back from this. I think we played our best footy with him in there harassing and pressuring defenders, he got plenty of looks at goal but goal kicking let him down terribly at times. I feel there's a place for him in the 22, but he has lots to work on over the summer. Insights like this are important, they remind the public the players are human and not immune to online abuse.

Same could've been said for what Jeffy was about when he came to the club. We turned him around and got him playing the footy we wanted out of him. I honestly think Motlop should be seriously looked at by the club.

That would be one of the funniest turn of events ever! With GWS signing up Kelly maybe we should look at making a play for one of their young midfield guns, I'm not across their list like others are but I remember when the snatched Scully from us we vowed to get one back on them. So far Tyson, Frost, and Bugg are the only players of significance to come across and they aren't amazing in the grand scheme.

Interesting reading that bit about what Dangermouse went for, certainly puts things in perspective. Maybe our first round pick plus a sweetener like Kent or upgrading future picks will be enough. If we were to give up either Watts or Salem in the deal you'd hope we would get something back for them as well. Lever isn't worth a first round pick plus a best 22 player (anyone that thinks either of those two aren't are kidding themselves).

I wish him nothing but luck in the future, he really deserves it. It would be nice to see him picked up by another AFL club, even perhaps as a mature age rookie but as much as I would like to see it happen I doubt it. He doesn't look up to the speed of AFL footy and his weapons when he was a young player, power to bust through and accurate penetrating kick, appear to be behind him. We will never know whether it was the clubs poor management of him that affected/created the injury that crippled his career, but it doesn't take a genius to know it was a bad decision making him and Grimes co-captains. There weren't good options back then, but that wrong the wrong one. Good luck Jack.

I think this needs to be a clean break between us, he's not a part of our future. That is now a stone cold (sad) fact. I hope he gets another chance somewhere.

So no additional word? Seriously this kid can't take a trick. As for anyone thinking he shouldn't play, he needs games now and into the future. He's an AFL player, can't protect him forever

I'd prefer GWS going out in straight sets than Richmond. That said there would be something enjoyable about Richmond going out in whimper.

Worth a look IMO. We would get him cheap, would he be any better/worse than a 3rd/4th round smokey in the draft?

I feel like it could be one of those big complicated deals if it goes through as hoped. The Crows are in a premiership window so picks aren't aren't as important, could see a 3/4 way deal that sees the Crows receive a player as well as our pick 10 and we get Lever plus a pick/player. Who really knows though.

I don't think it'll be much but they will at least generate list space. Spencer could stay so we have coverage but if we can find another back up to Gawn he may move elsewhere. Of those available on FA Tom Rockliff and (ironically) Jackson Trengove would be the two i'd be interested in.

Still only a youngster so before we proclaim him a future gun pick up let's just see how he develops. (Having said that some of my earliest and best memories of AFL are watching the Wiz electrify the MCG!)

I'm hopeful of us getting Lever and it's sounding like we're very much in the mix but I'm concerned that it doesn't fix one of the main issues we have in defence. When we come up against bigger bodied forward we seem to get bullied VERY easily. Lever doesn't strike me as a gorilla defender more an intercept marker (which can help in these situations), but we still have the issue of one on one. I would like to see us go for a bit of a smokey trade like we did for Garlett, try to target a player with obvious talent but seems to be struggling with consistency. I also want us to try to hold on to our first round pick this year or at least trade into a scenario where we are in the first round. I don't think we've had a first round pick since Weids.

I lean towards the no side of things here, but I noticed on The DeeBrief facebook page there are rumours he is looking at other clubs. If this is the case then I don't think we try to convince him to stay, he's been around the club long enough so he either wants to be here or he doesn't. When he's up and running (and it should be said until he got injured he was doing a good job in a role not suited to him) he's a critical cog across the HFF in our line up, but should he go I think we can cover him.

For me he stays. I swear in his first year I thought he had so much better disposal efficiency. Sometimes I honestly wonder whether we do eventually Melbourne-ify players we trade in! But seriously his contested ball winning is still important to the club. I think we need to look at trading in a player more outside run and class, which will compliment his play.

I had to stop at this comment. Pathetically disrespectful to a guy who has been busting his ass for the club for years when we were putrid. He along with many others let the club down at the end, but show some respect. As for who gets the outright chop Trenners I'm sad to say has run his race. We'll never know how good he could've been had it not been for his foot injury and I honestly feel the club pushed too far with the first occurrence. But the game has passed him, I hope he gets a chance elsewhere. I doubt it though.

Someone with the patience to go through the stats may be able to prove me wrong but I feel like one of our biggest issues this year is not that we don't win enough quarters or are competitive enough, it's that when we do switch off we switch off badly. We allow a team to dominate a quarter to the point that it is lost in that one quarter. The fact that we won 3 out of 4 quarters on the weekend but still lost is ridiculous. From quarter time we were playing catch up and the Pies were able to keep us at arms length the whole time afterwards. Given almost the week to ponder it I'm able to breathe again and look at things calmly (don't get me wrong I still have fits of rage/devastation about it). For me it's too easy for us to point to the old "oh we're a young team" deal, this starts from the leadership group and they are very culpable for what happened in the last 3-6 rounds. I say 3-6 rounds because each of those games were opportunities, I'll give the boys the GWS game as they are a good team but Port, North, Saints, Lions, and of course the Pies all had opportunities that were given up because we weren't ruthless or hungry enough. Each game we just needed to do enough to get the job done, and in the North & Pies case it wasn't even that. That comes from the leadership group not pushing the standard. Collectively we were 10.9 to 3.3 at quarter time against teams who theoretically "didn't have anything to play for" and we were supposed to be better than. That is an out and out disgrace, and that above everything else needs to be rectified immediately. My only hope from this utter debarcle is that the players will use it to drive them forward, not hold them back.