Jaded No More

Nobody can ever really understand the mental burden that Jesse was carrying last year. Just waiting for the moment your father passes, then dealing with the reality of it, then getting cancer. Jesus if that doesn’t break you, nothing will. Had he said “forget footy” I would have understood. Hell if he said “I need to go back to Perth” I would not have begrudged him. But credit to his resilience and maturity, that he has come through the worst a human can go through, and is now better for it. I hope we throw a cheeky 5 year deal in front of him, with a nice number of zeros on it, so we can seal the deal. Trac, Oliver, Gawn and Viney are secured, he remains the last piece (and TMac/Omac but I assume that’s a formality).

We clean up the clangers and our inefficiency going forward and we will easily play finals. We don’t and it’ll be touch and go.

If we win today I reckon 45,000 is in the bag. Lose and the microwaves will be out in force.

Exactly. PJ has done nothing but improved our club financially! He isn't stupid enough to give up this type of revenue without knowing he can replace it long term. This is not 10 years ago, this club is actually run by people who know what they are doing now.

Jackson is a very smart operator as we know. I am 100% sure that he already has some revenue supplements lined up to replace pokies. There will be more sponsorship opportunities as a result, from “socially responsible” companies who wouldn’t sponsor clubs at the moment due to their involvement in gambling. Good on the club.

I call [censored] Proof?

Pray for the groin!

Wrong, we'd still be worried because Watts is not, has never been, and will never be a KPF. In fact he did best as a third tall.

Driving to work this morning I saw a massive ad for the Tigers who are aiming for 90,000 members this year. I thought to myself "not even with 8 flags in a row will we ever get to these numbers". If we start the season off well I predict we will push 47,000. But lose 2 of the first 4 games, and we'll be pushing to get to 42,000 again.

Didn't Frost miss 89 weeks with a sore toe before? *Enter panic mode*

And yet our list has never looked stronger.

We've changed our seats for this season, and have been waiting on new cards for over a month now... they've apparently been sent out twice yet never received. Not great considering we forked out over a grand.

Only two are actually proven quality. That’s not a lot.

Agreed. There is plenty of development left in Viney, Oliver, Gawn and Lever.

I signed up for the upgrade to finals tickets. $600 for a membership is super pricey especially as I’m moving house in the next week. But to me having the peace of mind that if we make it, I’ll be there, is worth it. I missed out in 2000 and although it was an awful game I still wish I was there. It certainly is an extreme expense and one that my partner just can’t get his head around, but if like me, you go to all games in Victoria and will be going to all/every final, it ends up being decent value for money. Regardless tho, as long as people buy the membership that best suits their financial position, that’s all that matters. Any membership helps the club!

Wonderful news. So happy for him and wish him all the best!

He’s currently in one of the most spectacular parts of the world according to Insta. He needs to enjoy it before the drab Burgo interviews start coming his way.

Low risk trade, if it works fantastic, if it doesn't, well we took the same punt as we would be had we taken pick 66 to the draft. Nice move given we have so many mid range picks this year we can't even use them all. Welcome Harley and best of luck!

What will people say if our 1st pick next year is pick 18? Did we pay over? We could finish top 4, and with compensation picks etc it might well end up pushing towards the end of the 1st round anyway. Besides, we have commodities on our list that we can trade for a 1st rounder next year if we felt very strongly after getting someone specific in the so called 'super draft' (e.g.- Salem, Brayshaw, who knows maybe even Weids if he has a good season). I'm not saying we should trade any of our better players, but if we desperately wanted to get back into next year's 1st round, we could make it happen. Everybody is so quick to think their club has gotten screwed in a deal, but sometimes it's a win win and believe me there isn't 1 Crows fan or administrator who wouldn't give us those picks back to still have Lever. He is an exceptional player with massive scope for further development, and he immediately makes us a better side. Considering we were 0.05% off finals last year, adding someone of Lever's calibre to the team is a huge boost!

We get deals done every single year because we are good to deal with! There is a lot to be said for being a fair and transparent club to deal with, it makes life a lot easier for us and encourages players to nominate us, as they know we can get a deal done. We didn't pay over and we didn't pay under, we paid market value for a gun 21 year old. Would you want less if Hogan was to leave? Trac? Oliver? No, we would want more. Lever is in the same class.

It was a gamble we took that landed us Oliver was it not? If history has taught us anything is that drafting key position players is such a big big risk. We've drafted a few with early picks and only Hogan has proven to be worth the price. Lever is a proven gun defender and he is only 21. We essentially drafted a top 10 player but he is ready to go and is AFL proven who has 10+ years left in the game! That is a very very difficult thing to achieve, and the chances of doing this in the draft are I would say less than 20%. How many draftees go on to be A grade players who play 10+ seasons? We obviously think our window is about to open, and are trading for the now. Anyone who watched us last season knows that we desperately needed help in defence, especially if TMac ends up forward (which I suspect he will). We never really recovered down back with the loss of Frawley, and Lever more than fills that gap for us now. Midfielders, especially outside runners, can be found later in the draft, and are a cheaper commodity on the trade table. Besides, who knows what pick 35 has in store for us, or what we will get for Watts.

It's a good deal and there's nothing to say we can't trade back into the first round next year. Glad we got it done.

We're just getting too old for this

Why are people worried about a salary of a player? I trust our club can manage the books OK. Lets worry about getting the deal done.

Anyone hear Scully saying Kelly should stay at GWS because money isn't everything? Oh the irony of that pathetic little lying turd!