Very Jaded

Oliver was by far the best player out there. He is an absolute freak. Barely no pre season and after two shoulders operations. He is the player who will win us a premiership. Impacts every contest and barely misses a target. TMac looked horribly out of form/shape and slow. A massive worry as without Hogan he will be our biggest forward focal point. Preuss was disappointing. Does he have no tank or is he a little sore? Barely rucked for longer than 5 minutes. JHK, Wagner (Josh), Strech, ANB and Hunt as underwhelming as usual. I thought Hore was quite good as was Jordon (looks like a young James McDonald). I missed the first quarter. Can anyone tell me why Grimes was wearing a Batman mask?

Good performance considering half our team was missing and they had an almost full side. My only worry was TMac. He looked shockingly slow. What’s up with him?

Doesn’t look like we are taking this very seriously. Preuss isn’t even taking Centre bounces.

1. Got engaged 2. Quit my job 3. Missed footy

Exactly right. Drugs are illegal. You get caught you get punished. Sure you don’t get a jail sentence on a first strike, but you’ll likely get a good behavior bond, maybe community service or a suspended sentence. Why are AFL players excluded from that?

That’s true. But social media has become yet another avenue for bullies to be bullies and it is far harder to monitor or punish people online who use fake profiles and false identities to be [censored].

The problem with the internet and social media, is that now the countless morons who's opinion nobody cares about, get to voice their racist, homophobic, idiotic garbage opinions for all to see. The internet has made us more aware of how many scumbags there really are in the world.

Name a Melbourne player more universally adored than Jetta... he embodies everything I want our players to be. Tough, determined, team first, never give up attitude. A no brainer in the leadership group. Lewis out and moving into more of a coaching role is also interesting. This will be his last year you feel, so perhaps they’re looking at offering him a full time coaching role in 2020. I think he would be a very good coach.

So.... like half of our best 22....

Our list feels 'complete' now I can't wait for the next 3-4 years!

Forwards win matches. Defenders win grand finals.

I can’t begin to understand losing a parent and having cancer. Maybe if I went through those things at 22 I would have a very different perspective on life. But I don’t want footballers at our club who are so readily willing to give up success. Hogan clearly is not motivated by premierships. So Freo are a perfect fit.

Love him. Can’t wait to have him in the side next year. Could not be more optimistic for 2019.

Need a vomit button. Freo will still struggle to kick goals. Gained a forward. Lost a mid.

I reckon we might pick up a few delisted players with late picks.

No issue with people being disappointed. We invested a lot in him. Sadly the same can’t be said for Hogan, who was always one foot out the door. You don’t win flags with players who aren’t committed to your cause.

The footy department clearly does. We are not winning flags with Frost.

And if they do? We needed defenders. I want to win a flag next year not in 5 years when a 2019 draftee peaks. This is a very good deal for us. As always you win some you lose some.

I wanted more, but such is life. At the end of the day Hogan had no real desire to play for this club. He had no real desire for success. His sole motivation was being close to his family and friends. There is nothing wrong with that, but I only want players who want to succeed and want to play for our jumper. Hogan did not. Lets get the May thing done and lets move on. At least we never have to have this "will he won't he" distraction again.

Only because he got injured. Same people were saying he was a bargain when he was dominating before his knee.

The big problem here is that we are all dependant on mother [censored] Freo, the most useless football club in Australia. We've been waiting for a week for them to get things sorted, and here we are, a day out, and they haven't even traded Neale who wants to leave them, for which they already have a good deal on the table from Brisbane.

If Rance and McGovern both played for GC, those players are still kicking bags. Gold Coast are a terrible terrible team. The ball spends more time in their backline than anywhere else on the field. On a side note, if we trade Hogan for just pick 5, it tells me there is something NQR with him and we want him gone.

Yep. Buddy is in a different atmosphere to Hogan and even that is a dumb and risky deal. Sydney wouldn’t have done it now had they known that COLA was gonna be taken off them

Hogan’s manager is deluded. Nobody is worth 8 years. Nobody! That is an insane risk to take in such a combative sport, especially for someone with back and now foot issues. Maybe they were trying to play on Freo’s desperation and see how far they can push their luck. Maybe he doesn’t really wanna go there and is using it as a way to block the deal or raise his price with Melbourne. Either way this whole thing stinks and I would be very annoyed with Hogan if his unrealistic management stand in the way of our list improving AND he refuses to sign a long term deal with us.

Agreed. We will clearly try and package May and KK for pick 5, which we will receive from Freo for Hogan. I'm waiting for the Neale trade to come thru. Once Peter Bell gets off his high chair and gets this done, the rest of the dominoes will fall very quickly.