That's not right braithy. I wish you wouldnt make statements like this. I'm not picking on you, but I feel its the right thing to call out false statements just to keep things real.
Some people will believe what you say, as they have in the past, and run with it. That's how the vicious take hold. Please stick with facts mate.

Both Carlton and Pies didnt have a first round pick to win Houston's services after Houston decided against the move to Dees.

Houston made it clear he was happy to join Vossy at Carlton for obvious reasons.

We had the money! No one ever said we didn't till you did in this post. It was common knowledge. You know Austin can bank cap savings from anything not spent above 95%, plus there's always a bit of wriggle room.

We needed a first round pick. That's all.

When Austin got his hands on 2 first round picks from his clever trading, we all thought we have the pick for Houston and the pick in the deep draft which we were committed to.

When Austin cashed the 2 firsts for Pick 3, we had already made it clear we were taking a first round pick in the super draft, and there was no picks for the Houston trade.

In a nutshell, Austin preferred to go for Jagga Smith (a 10-15 year player) instead of a 28yo AA, Houston believing Carlton had the "2nd best list in the AFL", nothing to so with the state of our cap as you say. Nothing to do with our inability to pay $800Kpa for 5 years.

There was a lot of fortunate things that happened for Collingwood to get the trade done. Noble and Richards wanted out and made it clear they were heading to GCS and Port. There was a 3 club trade involving Port GCS and Pies where GCS sent their 2025 first round pick to Port. Lucosius went to Port, Noble went to GCS, Richards went to Port and Houston went to Pies. There were heaps of later picks swapped too.

Pies got lucky. Effectively, Traded Richards and Noble for GCS to release their first round pick to Port for Houston. Simple.

Carlton chose to not trade for Houston.

Nothing more, nothing less.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

i'm not sure what the soundbytes coming out from voss and the club publicly were bondi. but the reason we couldn't get houston was cap. there was internal convos about spending 2 firsts on houston and 2 firsts on making a play for jagga.

we needed to ship a player out for cap to bring in houston, and internally that was what tipped the scales into jagga.

i thought this was all public knowledge? either way this is all direct out of voss's mouth at xmas time. so you can absolutely take it to the bank old mate. it was everything to do with salary and our lack of it.

No way would Voss say that. Its not his area of concern. He's stepped over the line if he has.
The club wouldn't let him know the state of our salary cap, for good reasons. Its our IP.
No club should tell any coach what the state of our salary cap is, for obvious reasons.
Its easy to say to a coach the cap is tight. Best way to get them off their case.

There was never talk that Houston required 2 first picks, other than from Port during the season.
The proof? Pies sent their future 2025 first round pick to GC and their pick 36 which got them Houston.

GCS gave Port their first pick which was pick 13, and in the multi player deal, Pies pick 36 also got to Port.

We will see how our cap is in Austin's last Trade period come year's end.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

it was a xmas party back up in brissie with friends and fam and he was asked why no houston. his reply was the cap was tight which is why we chased picks - they're cheap.

he didn't get much into it, but he didn't look thrilled was the take from it.


lots and lots gets talked about mate, off record away from the media ... i'd go as far to say that 80% of what the media gets fed and in turned publishes is manicured soundbytes and blatant bullshit.

we were told by port nothing less than a 1st now and a future first would get it done. maybe when we walked away, they became desperate and took pies best offer a first and a second? that would be a common thing at the trade table. i'm speculating there, btw.

That old chestnut

As Bondi said, tell them the cap is tight to get them to @#$%&! off.

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

urgh, i think it's very fanciful to think a coach wouldn't know the exact state of the cap. jeez, plenty of spuds in the media claim they know our cap and it's rooted.


if our cap isn't rooted and some prick inside the walls at carlton thought it would be a good idea to roll out guys like motlop, fogerty, will white, francis @#$%&! evans and corey turdin and still be competitive, let alone a top 4 or 8 aspirant when we could have afforded better this offseason gone, then we are in much deeper shit than just leaders not leading, and coaches not coaching. our whole footy department is in over their heads.

why did we let owies walk if we had money? he wasn't much good, but he was the best small we had.

The old ‘I don’t understand, so it must be wrong’ argument.

Port took a better offer.

Owies would’ve been a bad contract.

Kennedy took unders to avoid mending the bridge.

Pennies were pinched for an offer that probably won’t be taken up.

Silvagni is suddenly worth more than expected.

Walsh is coming into a massive contract year.


Blood is in the water & you want to do your nut over a small forward?

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

lol i understand just fine ... so you don't believe our cap is rooted? let's revisit this in due course. i won't even say i told you so.

but, if you think the cap isn't rooted and running out a not even vfl standard small forwardline was part of the 2025 plan, i'm not sure what to tell you.


houston nominated us, and port and cfc loosely agreed to an offer. all this is fact.

cfc then made kennedy and a few others available. all of which had to go in order to afford houston the other way. cfc refused to make harry available to clear the cap and get a return on picks. houston by this stage, was desperate to leave port, heart set on melbourne living.

enter the pies and whoever the other team was, suns i think, and the super complex shit flying everywhere trade that happened.



heard a little rumble that they'll let walsh walk just like tdk, too. whether that's sudden fiscal management, or they don't think walsh and his back is worth it, or we just don't have the cap for such expensive things ... we might not ever know.

Actually that comment's not quite correct Braithy. Houston didn't nominate us. He had conversations with Voss but Voss doesn't make the decisions (and rightly so)
Houston wanted to get to Carlton but our list management weren't interested in the price Port wanted. No agreements were made between the clubs. But you're right when you said that Houston just wanted to get back to Vic.
Once Collingwood stepped in, he was keen to go there. But he knew by that stage that Carlton were out of the equation.

Personally, I think we dodged a bullet.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Same BV.

i think houston would have made us a much, much better team. kicking and delivery becomes contagious, and we need something there.

we were close to getting him for about 2-3 days of the trade window. list management wanted houston, but were painted into a corner with the cap, more specifically fitting him in under ours... and i guess they liked who they had and didn't think they needed houston to win now - some might say overrated what they had, bcos they thought we'd be top 4 and beyond, & here we are, we might flame out and not even make the 8.

and look, newman goes down for the season, jagga not long after. the route they took; i wonder if they regret it?

if they all lose their jobs, i guess the answer is yes.

I don’t believe Williams is on 900k. I believe more than 700-800k. Wasn’t it front loaded as well?

I don't usually watch the Pies, but I did last night.
I especially watched the kicking skills of Houston.
Bullet passes, pin pointing players inside F50.
He'd be the best kick in our team, by a long shot.
Aside from his suspensions, I'm not sure how he has been playing in other games, but last might he was sublime IMO.

However, I am aware that we would've beaten that out of him by now if he came to us.

I've seen Collingwood a few times and last night was the first time Houston was truly influential.

I don't think we would "beat it out of him", in the sense that we would want him to be our chief playmaker, but I can see him getting lost and confused in our system. He strikes me as one who needs to be part of a functioning system, not a bull-by-the-horns, instigator of change. I hope Jagga will prove the wise choice, and even in the absence of evidence to that end, I still don't feel a lot of Houston regret.

Houston would not have been the answer, not fussed at all we didn't land him.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Our skills are laughable because we have a system problem.

We'd destroy Houston like we do everyone else... and the interwebs would be full of criticism of how much $$$ and picks we wasted on him.

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

This club needs to get serious. Success isn’t build with just the right amount of tall/small forwards or how many half backs can kick or how many top picks you have. Success is built on culture. Nothing less or more.

Does the group have the right focus, are they determined to give their all, including sacrificing for each other for the ultimate prize? Give me 30 players that just give there all for 2 hours a week and I’ll give you success.

I see our games and at the end of the of the game our group is going at 50%. Others are still running at 100% with a endeavour to finish with a win. Sydney game was a huge example. No determination to fight.

Culture is built by the whole club, I don't think we are there yet.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Thanks for sharing this with your TC brethren braithy. I believe this happened. I believe that's what Port asked for.
I think Voss genuinely wanted Houston, but Austin genuinely preferred to go a different way.
18yo 10-15 year player vs 28yo good kick with 3-4 years left.

Picks are what get you talent without the ridiculous price tag. True.
But to get good picks tells you picks are not cheap either, but highly prized.

I have to agree that most speculation fans run with start from the media. Salary Cap squeeze is media made, but the difference is they do it by raising it as a question, not a fact. Its fans that turn it into a "fact".

Its not new for Sydney to target Harry or Charlie. Making that into Carlton have to squeeze one out to keep TDK is a bit of a stretch. Carlton have offererd a Million for TDK, which similar to what our stars could get in the market, is unders, to keep the spine together. Because this is what we CAN afford.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

There could be something in that, but you see vs the Swans how many times we literally gave the ball, by foot, to Heeney and Warnock? Can't blame system on those turnovers.

When you watch them at training, you realise its not the game plan/ system that affects their disposal. Athletes vs Footballers has always been an issue.

The players missing targets is the players missing targets. Don't read too much into that. If you can't fix them, replace them. We have heaps to replace.

Have a look at the 2 new recruits Ben and Lucas. Both come from great lineage. Their father was a great kick, great mark, great handball. That's what footy required back then as it does now.

Do you think we have drafted two good kicks? Is the system going to stuff up their kicking? Isn't it already a bit stuffed?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue