rjay

Like him or not Patrick Smith put up a pretty good defence of the club today with KB. I don't always agree with Patrick but many on here write him off too easily, I think he has a different view on a lot of issues and whether you agree or not they are always well thought through.

Agree with you on this, I think if he is available at 12 they will have a serious look but won't use their first 3 picks, unfortunately for us.

Almost anyone would be a better back up ruck than Dawes, someone to pinch hit for a bit of relief, but that model was based around the 3rd tall. I would certainly rate Dawes a much better forward than Lynch. If they had kept Dawes then the strategy would be in tact but it's not. Agree and have posted elsewhere that I think they will look at Stephenson to fill the ruck void, they would be mad not to. Overall, I think their trading period has been overrated and the club has be derailed by the whole Cloke thing this year.

Time will tell 'H_T' , but on one point at 193cm Lynch offers little to no backup in the ruck and he hasn't had to play that specialist position with the Eagles. I think they don't know if they are a premiership threat or rebuilding. They are already at least one premiership shy on where they were expected to be with this group and I can't see them winning another which is good. That to me would be an epic fail.

I think Collingwood have been way overrated here and by the so called experts. They are a team in the so called premiership window yet they have done next to nothing about fixing their deficiencies. The late first round picks are what they are, late first round picks and a bit of a raffle. The biggest problems they face are no back up ruck for Jolly, one less key forward in Dawes replaced by Lynch who is not past it because he was never really there. Wellingham is another loss for them. Lynch was not in the top 3 big forwards with the Eagles and didn't have to do the ruckwork (Cox & NikNat) that the pies will require. I think time will tell that there were some bad decisions made by them including the previous Malthouse handover and that they were spooked by the thought of losing Cloke after an average year where his finals performances suddenly pushed his value back up. They couldn't go to the supporters with Cloke at Carlton and this has meant losing Dawes and Wellingham. These poor decisions have carried through to the free agency/trade period where Collingwoods performance in my view has been greatly overrated.

They do, but will they pay the price? I still don't think GWS will take him top 3 but let's wait and see, hope they do. He would have to be delisted to b a free agent and I don't think Adelaide have done that yet, have they?

GWS could well pick him up with there pick 12, I doubt they will use their first 3 picks on him.

Funny, was just telling a Collingwood supporter they should pick him up for a backup in case Jolly goes down, gives more time to develop the almost mythical Witts.

...and in part he is right. Not about the delistings and drafting decisions but about the decisions that were made previously that have brought us to this point. I have reservations about those still in senior positions that have overseen the disaster. Wouldn't happen anywhere else.

Same deal with altitude training.

No, the penny dropped for Sam and he realised he had to work hard to be a player and not just rely on his natural talent.

Some interesting reading looking through these posts, we can get a much clearer insight into Neeld's approach now and also see how some of the players stood up whilst many others have fallen by the wayside. Silvia is an interesting one for me and Neeld has really put the acid on him at times this season particularly playing him as a defensive forward on occasion just to see if he could do a team job. So far he has passed the test.

Probably right on this 'Ben', in his first game against Geelong they couldn't give a flying... how many touches he had and paid him no attention at all. They had some bloke called Ablett and a few others who seemed to be doing ok. It was only in the later games when opposition decided to tighten up a bit on him that you get a better gauge and he struggled unfortunately. Injury has also been a constant companion. The FD had a good look at him and he couldn't deliver what they wanted, a couple of the others Blease for one Silvia for another decided to pull the finger out on the track and started to turn their careers around. I know you're not a fan 'Ben' but I think Watts has started to turn himself around as well.

Wonder what happened to China, I know Neeld was keen but maybe Misson doesn't think that high altitude training is the go or maybe it's just a money thing.

Viney will make an instant impact don't worry about that. If he doesn't get rubbed out like his mate at GWS then the rising star is on the cards. Don't believe because he is a hard player he doesn't have class just think a cross between Mitchell and Selwood but a bit quicker than both.

That it is.

King was also complaining about Neeld not turning over the list, now he complains that he is turning over the list. Go figure.

We traded a group of players that were still contracted, it was the only way to get them off our list. Uncontracted players are still to be either contracted or delisted, don't worry there will be a few more moved from the list before this is over.

Think you are spot on 'old dee'. The AFL won't risk it. ...and by the way anyone who thinks Sydney didn't know about this deal is kidding themselves.

Wallace's view on SEN was more that he could see where we were heading and agreed with it in principle. His C rating was because he thought we paid overs on the Hogan Viney deal and as he said that was only his opinion that we could have done the deal with pick 3 alone. All in all he was a lot more positive than others about what we had done. To me Dawes is critical to how we went and we won't know that for another 12 months or so. If our FD got it right like they did with Clark then it's a master stroke. Then if Hogan is what we think he is (Viney I think is a given) this trade period will have set the club up well for future success.

I was concerned that we had given up Martin, Gysberts and Morton for what seemed to be next to nothing but thinking about it I realised that they were all contracted players that we no longer wanted on the list. The only way to move them on was to trade, they couldn't be delisted. It will be interesting to see who we pick up in the PSD and next free agency periods. Still plenty more to come here I'm thinking. At least we are doing something.

Trouble is we would've had to spend pick 3 on Viney. Barrett is a news getter more interested in the politics of the game, knows nothing about football like his mates Hutchy and Caro. Jacobs or Toy or another class player that may fall through. This looks to be the strategy with clearing more space on the list most notably Martin, Gysberts and Morton all contracted players who Neeld didn't want. The only way was to trade them out for late picks.

Edwards for pick 74 to Tiges, why are we contemplating paying overs?

Aaron Edwards for 74??????????????????