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You can't go from promising youngster to best full back in the game in 6 months, basically. Or at least, it's highly unlikely. He's showed what his absolute best output can be when all the stars align, but it's unreasonable to expect to see it like that every single week, especially while so young. There's nothing wrong with him, and he's going to make Frawley look average in comparison over the journey, but he's just not ready to be the best defender in the comp just yet.

That's a terrible justification for giving him a three year contract, FYI. Assuming free agency does get dropped to six years, then clubs lose an awful lot of bargaining power once the player has served for six years. IE you don't want them coming out of contract at the six year mark. You either want them out of contract just before that point - so you have bargaining power when negotiating the next contract (or trade) - or long after that point, so you get as many years of possible of service prior to the player reaching the open market and commanding a higher price. Toumpas has showed enough in my opinion to keep him on the list. I'd put a two year contract to him so that, if he does become the player we want, we get one more contract out of him before free agency starts to affect the situation. A three year contract puts us in exactly the worst position - it makes him a free agent (assuming the rules change, and they will) at the youngest possible age.

If Terlich plays I reckon it will be on a forward flank with instructions to tackle anything that moves. Garlett to follow him around looking to pick up crumbs.

I reckon this is a terrible idea. Footy is already a cut-throat industry where everyone feels under pressure to keep their job. This just gives coaches and list managers of under performing teams much greater scope to destroy a club than they already have. Look at Bribane post Crazy Vossy. Imagine if he'd sold off two more years of draft picks as well! I think AFL is already characterised by desperate individuals making self-serving, short-sighted decisions, and this will only exacerbate the problem.

Because predicting the future remains impossible, no matter how loudly critics will squeal if you make a mistake. I hear you squealing, but it has changed nothing, and will change nothing. But you keep at it, buddy. Everybody loves a broken record.

Jack Watts makes mistakes. Nate Jones makes mistakes. You make mistakes. Umpires make mistakes. Seriously, have any of you ever umpired a game? It requires an order of magnitude more concentration than playing does. At least the AFL now lets the umpires 'fess up and admit they made a simple mistake, and yet you idiots still want to flay them for it. The mind boggles.

I reckon Sandi is so much better as a tap ruckman than any of our blokes that trying to beat him at his own game is a waste of time. I reckon you bring in Pedersen and tell him to rove off Sandi's taps, or smash the first Freo midfielder that touches it, or create a lane for Bernie Vince / Jeremy Howe to go third-man-up. Sandi is so dominant that I reckon the best response to is give him the ruck for free and have an extra player on the ground at every stoppage.

Really? I don't remember. Can you recall which game it might have been?

I know this is never going to happen, but I'd like to see Terlich brought in for Kent. His disposal is iffy, I'll grant you, but he has plenty of hunger for the contest and tackles hard. If his primary job was to cause some havoc in the forward line (creating spillages that JKH and Jeffy could capitalise on) then I reckon he could excel.

Ah, football forums. Where people argue back and forth with uninformed anecdotal "evidence", and when someone finally turns up with the actual facts to end the debate, they're told they have "too much time on their hands". In other news, Brayshaw is a beast. I say this both from my own observation, and his ludicrous tackling stats. He's going to be really something.

We don't know that at all. My brother is utterly unlike me in every way with regards to effort and motivation. Zac could likewise be rather unlike Nate.

You really are deluded. With the possible exception of Watts for Yarran, no-one in their right mind would accept any one of those trades.

Disagree. I reckon Dunn is our best one-on-one defender. He's especially good at using his body to protect the loose ball, which is where Cameron usually excels. I reckon Dunn takes Jezza.

Different event. That free kick was for contact below the knees. The one they're talking about was when a GC player basically headbutted Crossy in the chest.

"Champ" What 21 year old footy fans call people on the internet in the hopes of sounding like a condescending w@nker, and succeeding.

Exactly. I'm not that much chop at footy, but even if I was the second coming of Chris Judd, I would have been undraftable at 18. I had the body of a 14-15 year old. I reckon there's still talent to be found in the lower leagues, for sure.

I think you and wrecker are onto something, except that your solution is not in the interests of the media or the AFL. Their job* is to occupy as many column inches with their product as they can, and taking all the drama out of player movement would cost them a lot of publicity. *At least, that's what they seem to think their job is. I think their job should be to make footy as good as it can be for everyone that cares about it. They seem to think world domination and financial prosperity is the goal.

You should bookmark that and come back in a decade. Ludicrous assertion that history will show to be utterly incorrect.

His name is Dimitri, not James.

Finally, some sanity.

Whether or not you'd like it to happen, it's not really feasibly possible anyway, because I don't think there's a single footballer in the land on a contract that pays them a certain amount of money per year. Most contracts are of the format: Base salary plus match payments plus B&F result bonus. plus performance threshold bonus (number of matches exceeds a certain number) plus bonus for AA nomination plus bonus for AA selection plus bonus for Brownlow victory etc. Unless you publish the whole contract, you haven't achieved the stated goal anyway.

Not sure the Pies would have won the Premiership without Nick Maxwell. Yeah, he's a bit unco and not the most gifted player, and yeah, he's about as attractive as the back of a bus, but the man was a bloody good leader. You only had to see the effect on the team once he did his ankle this year to know that his impact went far beyond what he did with the ball. I reckon Tom Harley is the same. (Oh, and for my on-topic contribution: Chunk I love you more than it is healthy for a man to love another man who he has never even met).

I say leave it Tulip up there by himself. I've never loved the banner more than I love it right now.

Oh, yes, because the life of "the Aussie battler" is so gosh-darned tough! My flat screen TV is only 54" across... the horror!

In this thread: a bunch of incredibly privileged people whinging about a small group of people who are just slightly more privileged than them. (Also in this thread: a bunch of people who ostensibly read the article, but totally missed the point).