rjay

Never hurt Gibson, a very valuable player at Hawthorn. A couple of B&F's in premiership years. Look he's still a developing kid but with some runs on the board. I don't think we will pay overs for him and his best is yet to come. I wouldn't define him on his career to date apart from saying noting his talent, and I definitely wouldn't define him on last nights game where he wasn't a standout but played his role. He had some really good moments and a few average ones that you would expect from a player of his age and experience.

I shudder when I see an under age player staring in the SANFL. Toumpas was a gun for Woodville the year before his draft year...late debut coming into finals. Should also add Aish and a number of other kids who have struggled after good seasons in the SANFL. Unfortunately as we've found out, SANFL form doesn't necessarily translate.

Can I post a like for 'Rhino Richards' liking your post(s)...'Vogon'.

He will evolve as player in the next couple of years and we will see more of his kicking, marking and goal kicking game. He's already given us a taste of these attributes. That will take him to the elite level, quick mids or not.

A month will be plenty to get the deals done, no more going behind anyones back. The only reason it stretches out now is because agents know they have time and they are hoping to increase value or see where a club is heading by the end of the season. Well guess what, they will know what they need to know and there will be no need for guess work. Trade week can be trade month. Clubs can set up their targets but not approach them until this time and sort out their list scenarios and get the deals and signings done... As for Storm, they've lost big name players...it's not just them, I've heard a number of NRL people say they don't liked the implication of disloyalty attached to their system. It's not particularly mature, in fact the way some of the situations have panned out it seems particularly childish.

So 'Abe', I've heard this talked about and put up in the media but I've never understood what makes it mature. Often it's in the context of the NRL being so mature about how they handle these player trades when players come out and give their intentions 12 months out. However if you ask the Storm boys they don't like it. I've heard Cam Smith and their Footy ops man say this a number of times...it causes to much trouble. To my mind a more mature approach would be to have a strict trading period at the end of the season and no one allowed to talk to players in season and no contracts to be signed outside of this period. To hold this in place there would be massive penalties for any team/player that steps outside of the rules. No talk of player movement, no more stupid press conference questions about when are you signing. A true mature approach...dare I say too mature for the AFL...

Sounds like some of the EFC supporters on Hibberd last trade period, nothing good to say about him. ...and how did he turn out???

After a quick read through it seems an old favourite (with a new name) has jumped up with the latest plausible information claiming it to be a scoop and from inside information. Hmmmmmmmm Now let me see, we've had the inside running on Lever for a while now & a reliable poster has confirmed that. So lets make that a scoop, use a later media story for reference on the time line. Gaff's name has been thrown around a bit so lets take a punt on that and if it doesn't come through we can always use the Eagles wouldn't release him from his contract That should do the trick. Mention a 3rd player, don't know the name despite the inside word. This is a no lose, we are certain to trade someone in so whoever it is can be the unknown 3rd man. ...and if all fails, it's just gossip.

Well of course we need to appease their supporters 'steve'....not.

For those not so enamoured with getting Lever...think Josh Gibson, who would have guessed he would be the player he became. Yet this guy is a no brainer, at worst he's going to be a very good player. We're cherry picking to build a team people. We either sit on our hands or do something proactive. The football department have marked KPD as a weakness from last season, this hasn't changed. I like the approach, we need some class down back.

Yep, win win. We swap our VFL level player for their WAFL level player...

Is this a trick question 'Red'? I think it's pretty obvious who the 18 coaches would select, they like giving him (Oliver) votes and the other 17 coaches for some reason that seems to escape the AA selectors like to tag him. Obviously a waste of time for someone who doesn't do any damage with ball in hand. Maybe they should watch the games and not just go by the metres gained and handball stat sheet.

Will need pick 10 for Lever anyway 'steve'...

I also think he has a way to go 'Diamond' but to say he is not damaging enough is not correct if you take in the view of the coaches. He's the only player we have that is consistently tagged and I've heard the Richmond FD in particular say that their defensive planning revolved around stopping Oliver. Stop Oliver and we are in some trouble, Collingwood worked him over and it worked early on but he got out and with Trac was responsible for our comeback...they couldn't do it on their own. This is also backed up by how he has poled in the Coaches award. My own view to back this up is that when he gets his kicking & outside game together, and he is a very good kick, he will go to the elite level. He's already there with his inside and handball game, there is no doubt in my mind that he's now the most damaging player with hands in the competition.

Ah yes I forgot the plural... Kornes Family - a tribe of irrelevant F...Wit's

Kane Kornes - definition; Irrelevant F....Wit

If we only lay 9 tackles in the first Q, none in the first 11 mins of the game, then I know who I will be blaming for todays loss. ...and it aint the umpires.

It's not about the match ups 'Fat Tony', it's about the skill level. We can't afford the 3 with kicking/decision making deficiencies along with Hunt in the same backline.

Failed forward/ruck...doesn't have the football smarts to play anywhere else but as a defender. An athlete, not footballer.

I think we're better off putting our work into getting him as a free agent in a couple of years (if we don't already have someone else in our sights)...he is likely to sign a 2 year deal with GWS.

I think Smith & Laird would could be considered as take the game on defenders. Happy for them to take Frost if they want him as part of the Lever deal. We definitely need to add class to our back 6...Lever with Hibberd balances out the team nicely.

Frost is depth, he would only be a big loss if we were competing in the footy olympics. He's never going to tidy his disposal at AFL level because it's his decision making that's the problem and it's hard to fix. If he's a part of getting Lever over the line then it's a no brainer...

Totally different players...same type of build that is all. Track has amazing awareness (peripheral vision), Col had none and that's what really held him back.

Maybe Littlefinger will be done in next episode and Arya will use his face to find out who he's been scheming with... Somethings brewing back in the North so that's my take.

Whilst I agree that the state of umpiring of the game in general is a problem, I don't see it being any worse for us than a lot of other teams and the game in general. What's the fix? I think the first thing they could do is start to acknowledge mistakes, Kennedy is making a farce of it with his crazy interpretations. The next is stick to the rule book and not make up new rules in the guise of interpretation. The 2 things are really connected; when an umpire makes a mistake Kennedy introduces another interpretation to make it right.