Pates

I’d say most of us here are laughing at the immeasurably stupid and arrogant position they have put themselves in as well as the way they have handled it. Comparing back to Melbourne I will say that I’m now extremely happy that we still have Nev and Jones on our list because they are senior players that have the love and respect of their teammates. I would hope that Clarry and Trac would see how we have dealt with them with respect and say to themselves, “this is a club I want to be at”. Clearly that’s not everything but respect goes a long way in relationships. EDIT also even though we would probably have preferred to send TMac elsewhere we didn’t play anything out in the media.

Agreed, if he said something like “I’m looking forward to learning a lot under Simon and Adem” all good with that. If he said something like “I’m looking forward to the learnings I will gain...”. ? Question becomes what number will he take on as a Demon?

I can’t imagine any Dees fan being upset about this trade, regardless of his 2020 form (which is difficult to read given the bizarre year) this is an absolute steal for a bloke who has consistently been up there in the Coleman medal race in a team that has been mostly mediocre. What Brown will give us is a true focal point to look to when going inside 50, there are players that “demand” the ball when they’re leading and Brown is one of them. This is a massive get for us and Josh has pulled off a great little trade period for us. Perhaps I would’ve liked a little more activity on the wing side of things but internally it sounds like they are backing themselves that they have the tools available. Big 2021 coming and I look forward to seeing Sideshow Ben kicking bags of goals in the Red and Blue!

If baffles me that the AFL didn’t decide/announce this prior to the trade period. How can clubs properly trade and negotiate when they didn’t know how many spots will be available?

If I was North I'd tell us to get F-d if that's the offer and let Brown walk to take a chance at the draft. He was god awful this year with lots of problems but you look at where he has ranked in previous seasons when fit and he's worth more than a future second rounder. It's actually intriguing that it sounds like we're the ones doing a bit of hard ball on the deal, usually Mahoney looks to get deals done fairly easily if there's a player we want. Not saying we should blink but Brown is a player we require so let's not go down the Blues path and force him into a draft lottery.

Viney, Jones, Smith, Spargo, Fritta, Harmes, and Lever probably all next in the firing line I would imagine. Fans will never fail to find someone else to bag.

It’ll put us a hell of a lot closer than two second round draftees in a very speculative draft. I’m still hoping we hold out, if we are to give up two second rounders perhaps ask for a third or fourth round pick back (if they have one).

As long as they’re postmarked on the day of trade period they should be accepted. Count every lodgement!

Genuinely looking forward to our first match against GWS. Max vs Preuss.

I think one of 31/33 with pick 43 is what we should holding firm on for as long as we can, perhaps drop that down to 26 if they really want to play hard ball. But we should not be letting them dictate terms by the way they have dealt with Brown. 2 second round picks? Hell no.

I think there needs to be a responsibility to accommodate a certain amount of fans, I love the hostile nature of a home but it needs to come with a little balance. The added fact that their ground is now essentially paid for by the government and not through their own funds means there should be a responsibility it have a minimum capacity allowed to travelling fans (particularly any Victorian teams). Fill the allocation from font to back and any left over can be bought by locals on the day. Even premier league clubs (with less capacity) allow more than what the cats do with their seating availability.

I liked Preuss but he was surplus to our needs given that he is a first team ruckman in probably about 5-6 other teams so I wish him nothing but the best of luck (except against us!). As for the trade, well done Josh. Pick 31 from Preuss is a damn good trade for us, I tip my cap to him. I had a bad feeling we would accept a low 4th round pick for him just to move on to other deals but having Preuss on our list did give us some coverage so he wasn’t without value to us and he was contracted. From Tyson (who did NOTHING) at North to Preuss who held up well when required, to pick 31. Gotta be happy with that.

I know it’s very early in his career to be trialling this but would Jackson be worth a crack on the wing this year? We know he’s got the legs for it, it’s just whether he has the footy brain for it (yet). I see Brown as the clear FF, and Sam goes to CHF. If, it’s a massive if, Tom were to become more aerobic again he could be used in a HFF position. I will say this, this is all unlikely as it makes us very top heavy. However this is also making the crazy assumption that all 4 of these guys hit irresistible form. Should that happen having marking options across the ground makes things happen.

Firstly because the ground belongs to the MCC and like all the clubs that call it home we are a tenant club (though closer aligned to the MCC than others). Secondly as stated there are such a high volume of games every week the curators have decided it needs that time through the week to recover. Even if we were to get on the ground it wouldn’t be major sessions so it wouldn’t really be worth it compared to doing a proper session at Gosches paddock or (hopefully in the future) an MCG sized training facility of our own.

So I’m going to throw out a hypothetical situation just for curiosity’s sake. Tom isn’t getting huge amounts of interest on the table, gut feeling (lots to play out though) is that he will still be a Demon next year. Rather than be doom and gloom about it I’m going to come at it from a position of positivity. Right now he’s working hard to shed kg’s and become leaner and more mobile, one thing I used to love about Tom was his elite fitness meant he could run his opponent into the ground. So let’s throw out the best case scenario: We get Ben Brown and he’s the key forward we’ve been wanting for a while. TMac returns to some good form, Sam continues his upward trajectory, and Jacko just keeps being Jacko. Thinking creatively are there ways to be able to play all four in the side? Are there previous Premiership winning clubs that have been able to manage that many tall forwards? Don’t want to hear people bagging Tom, we all know he’s been way off since the end of 2018 (I’m sure he would know better than we do).

It happened the moment we put all our eggs into the Tom/Weid basket, I remembered thinking when we traded Hogan (and we can argue that was going to happen regardless) that this is a big gamble to be saying we expect Tom to be able to perform that way year after year. Sadly it was a gamble that definitely has not paid off. We also expected Weids development to shoot up in 2019, but that still hasn’t really happened (improved in 2020 but still not to the level we need him to be).

When they do get to that 40k capacity it’s time the AFL force Geelong to increase allocation to away fans up to a national minimum standard. I would be saying about 5000 seats and not in a s-hole pocket but behind opposing goals. Particularly as this upgrade is getting paid by the government and not through Geelong’s coffers If they want to host more Victorian teams then they need to start letting more of those fans in.

True it is a sad reflection on US politics that the age of the two candidates are mid and late 70’s. I’m sure this would be seen as unconstitutional but they should be making and age limit on nominations. I think Biden’s alright and should he continue the current trajectory I think he will be a good president for trying to reunite the country rather than divide it as Trump has so skilfully done. I thoroughly dislike Trump but one thing I will say that’s good is he shook up the political landscape. For so long there were things just expected of leaders and America in particular, but he put his foot down and played by his own rules. A lot of it was bad, some of it was good, but the system needed a shake up.

Had to laugh at Trumps comment of voter suppression. Firstly numbers of votes this year are higher than ever, that’s a good thing as it shows engagement to the democratic process. Secondly the republicans have engaged in so many voter suppression tactics over the years geared towards preventing African Americans from being able to have their say. For a country that prides itself on being seen as the shining beacon of democracy they really do a lot of nasty tactics to discourage certain demographics from voting.

Still a lot of water to go under the bridge here, Nevada is tighter than a ducks a-hole and having that shift could be big. Arizona is still in play and Trump is doing better than expected there, Biden has a lot of ground to make on the other states mind you he did it in Wisconsin and Michigan. It’s been like the slowest game of AFL, you see one side get ahead and you think it’s over but a little momentum shift can flip everything.

Ummm Pies with Treloar.... Both clubs and players are no longer respecting the idea of a contract and what it means. Clubs see it as insurance to make sure if the player wants to leave they have all the power, players are seeing it as cushions for job/salary security but then suddenly if there’s the chance to play in a premiership contending team they get “disgruntled”.

We talk about whether we should be keeping him, surely Tom must be thinking that the moment Sideshow Ben walks through the door he's got an uphill battle to earn a spot in the 22 (which he already had before we started chasing Brown). So for his own career the best thing he can do is get his manager to pitch him to clubs requiring a key forward to get first team action. If, and I stress IF, he doesn't end up leaving there needs to be some creative conversations about how we approach the rest of him contract. He was very mobile prior to 2019, if there are discussions had between him and Burgess to work out a new fitness plan could he be turned into a Richo style winger/HFF? I honestly think his defending days are behind him and his form is reflective on his own confidence as well as fitness. I think the best thing for him is to look for another club but for someone on such good coin we cannot let them stay stuck at Casey doing nothing.

The King v May argument is moot, we were never going to keep the pick to use it was always heading north so we could pick up May who was our immediate concern. His first season with us was a disaster, 2020 he should've been AA. He's become one of my favourite players.

Damn I was hoping that Adelaide would match St Kilda for Crouch, solid pick up for them. GWS did well with Jesse, basically a free hit with him. If it doesn’t work out then nothing really lost on their end. As for Freo, another big trade bust for them! ? EDIT also wanted to mention it’s absolutely incredible the clubs are going through the trade period without confirming what the list sizes will be. Amateur hour from the AFL.

The rule says something along the lines of starting their usual routine. It’s the reason why those who are lining up for snaps are more likely to be called to play on as they get caught looking at the clock. I confess that whenever I used to watch him as a kangaroo is was a constant source of annoyance but if he puts it through the big sticks as a demon I couldn’t care less!