poita

So far Lewis has played one very good game against St Kilda, one very average game against Carlton, and has spent the past three weekends scratching his arse. I can't see how you can judge his importance on that sample. I was thrilled with his recruitment, but he has let us down badly so far.

He is probably now the second best and most important player on our list, behind Gawn, which is incredible given his age and inexperience. Over summer he had to work on running out games better, which he has done. Now he just needs to fix up his kicks to handballs ratio, and he will be a genuine elite player.

Why waste any more time dealing with these pr1cks? There is zero interest in Hibberd from any other club, including Essendon. We have offered a deal that is probably over the odds given Hibberd's age, his 2016 suspension, and his playing history. After caving in to Essendon with Melksham last year, I'll be bitterly disappointed if we do the same thing with Hibberd this year.

As disappointed as I am that Grimes has been booted, I will feel ten times worse if any of Newton, Dawes, Lumumba, Michie, White, and King are still on the list by the end of October. I'd like to think the club knows what it is doing, but these are the same people that gave Terlich a two year contract and then refused to play him, when most people wanted to delist him.

Expect that (a) Dangerfield hasn't had serious injury issues in recent years and (b) Geelong didn't have to get rid of the best young key position player in the competition to land Dangerfield.

Are people blowing their load over Hibberd because they think he fills some desperate need we have, or because someone (albeit a middling player from a crap team) actually chose to come us (read: nobody else wanted him)? The last thing we need is another half back flanker, particularly one who hasn't played a game for 18 months. Offer Essendon a third round pick and move on if they won't deal. They need to free up salary space and we clearly paid overs for Melksham last year.

He has had 12 months to think about things, and get himself in the absolute best shape possible. I am not convinced about Melksham as a footballer, but I would be bitterly disappointed if he is not the hardest worker at the club between now and round 1. He should be absolutely desperate to prove himself to the club and to his teammates.

I'm sure if Lumumba does play on, he'll break a finger nail in round one and miss the next three months. I wonder if he genuinely wants to be here, or is just finding it hard to say no to the million dollars he is due for the next two years. If our football department had any balls they would negotiate a settlement and quietly usher him out the door during the finals series.

Delist: Newton, Terlich, Dawes, Lumumba (or "retire", call it what you like), White (R), King (R), Michie (R). If we need another to go, Matt Jones will suffice. Keep Wagner on the rookie list for another year, as he will be depth at best if they bring Hibberd in. Offer up Kennedy-Harris, Neal-Bullen, and one of Dunn / Garland for peanuts. Look to put JKH on the rookie list if he stays. I will happily keep Grimes, but suspect he will seek opportunities elsewhere. I will happily keep Pedersen as well.

Amazing that the price for Hibberd with his 80 odd so-so games (none for over a year), is about the same as what we paid for Vince (a former B&F winner at Adelaide). All you need is one bad decision (ie overpaying for Melksham last year), and that becomes the new normal.

A four year deal on good money for a 27 year old with less than 100 games of experience and who hasn't played for twelve months? No thanks, unless he comes for free. What exactly he is going to bring that we can't get from Salem and others? We should save ourselves the hassle of dealing with Essendon and move on. Draft a good kid with the pick.

Of course we are inexperienced. We play guys like Michie, Neal-Bullen and Vandenberg who aren't AFL standard. These guys are inexperienced because they aren't good enough to play at this level and therefore don't deserve games.

His game against St Kilda was as bad as any I have seen by an experienced AFL footballer, but I don't think that means we throw him to the kerb. Especially when the next in line is just learning to put his big boy pants on. Unfortunately we have a coach who plays favourites, and form is not a consideration.

Our players just need to learn to tackle better. The Bulldogs were able to get their arms free far too easily last week, then we kept whacking a bloke around the head this week (yes, I know he ducked, it happens, move on). Other times this year we have had a spate of in the backs paid against us because players dive forward in the tackle. We just need to adjust accordingly.

Number of games is a false indicator. Are players like Pedersen and M.Jones inexperienced, or just not good enough to have played more games? I can see that age is a bit more relevant, as a 25 year old will generally make better decisions than an 18 year old.

Of course, he could do his knee on day 1 of next season, in which case we would be two years into a four year contract for no return. It was a bad trade at the time, and this confirms it.

I wish Clayton all the best, but I can't believe we traded up in the draft just to get him when he most likely would have been available at pick 6 anyway. I was rapt with our selections last year, but am fairly underwhelmed by this year's crop.

Shaun Smith looked 40 when he was 25, but he hasn't aged a day since. Good luck to Joel.

Lumumba Riley Michie Newton Cross (served a purpose but already gone) Frost (played two games) If that is "generally knocking it out of the ball park with trading and drafting", then you are very easily pleased. By my count we have brought in nine experienced players under Roos for three wins - Vince, Garlett and Tyson - and six that have been of dubious benefit. Forgive me for not doing cartwheels over any of Melsham, Kennedy and Bugg, particularly when Hawthorn are about to add Carlisle to their list and West Coast have picked up Reddan and Jetta.

So glad we spent the extra 3 and 1/2 days ironing out the kinks in that deal. At least our negotiators can feel like they've achieved something this week, whilst everyone else is circling the big fish.

There seems to be three possible reasons for the delay in finalising the Melksham deal: 1. Essendon are being their usual dumb arzes and asking for more compensation, in which case we should stop negotiating immediately (and wait for them to come crawling back to us next week), or 2. We expect to get away with paying less compensation. I don't blame us for playing hard ball, but I think we are kidding ourselves - slap $1.6 million worth of contract in front of a player and there is a fair argument that pick 25 is reasonable compensation, or 3. We are still working on a deal for a much better player than Melksham (please let this be the case).

I'm still not convinced that Melksham is the player we need, but it's not up to me. The two things that really bug me about this are: 1. 4 year deals for average players are not good practice. By all means, give Hogan a 10 year contract, and the rest of your top 10 players 4-5 year deals, but we need to stop handing out long term deals to everyone else. Dawes, Lumumba, Jamar, McKenzie - the list of poor decisions is becoming rather long, and that does not include the inappropriate shorter deals given to Barry, Evans and Terlich. 2. Why make commitments to players, particularly average players, before the trade period begins? We have no idea who might become available once proper negotiations commence, and I would hate to think we might miss out on a quality midfielder because we have given up our 2nd round pick to get Melksham.

I'm not sure what part of the (proposed) Melksham deal is worst - the four years, the $$$, the second round pick or the player himself. It is a shocker in every respect. And whilst some around here are in love with Roos and co, I think our trading last year was a bare pass at best. Lumumba was a clear fail, the jury is out on Frost, Newton has been disappointing, and Garlett is a clear win.

Putting aside the WADA shennanigans for a second, Essendon are by a large margin the worst team in the comp to trade with. They severely overvalue every one of their players, which makes it almost impossible to trade with them. I wouldn't want the club wasting it's time negotiating a trade with these morons, let alone for a mediocre player like Melksham. We've got more chance of trading for Dangerfield.

The problem is that a number of the players in the gun are players that Roos brought in two years ago (Riley, Michie, Cross, Hunt, etc). And we will be having the same conversation about Newton and Lumumba next year if they don't improve markedly.