This is the issue...if we lose Hampson and Betts, we should retain the picks and NOT go after Thomas.

Once again we will be blowing the opportunity to have more earlyish picks. Instead, the club will put all its eggs in the Thomas basket. Of course he is a good player when fit but look at our list, our lack of quality young players coming through and it is clear we should be focussing on the draft.

The club needs to invest in the draft and development, not the old cheque book method. Have a plan for once!

I think you read that incorrectly bluebo.

That's not loyalty you're talking about there. That's self-interest, just not of the monetary kind. Those Geelong boys stay because they want to remain part of something special, not because of any loyalty to the hooped jumper.

Sacrificing income for success is a very different thing to loyalty. Asking Betts to stay at Carlton instead of going to Adelaide is asking him to sacrifice income without any real likelihood of premiership success.

I wish we had a club culture worth selling to players, but we don't.

Yes, our club's list will arguably 'improve' next year but there's no sense that we are doing anything other than taking every year as it comes.

Most interested in how we handle the Hampson trade.

Hoping for overs.... expecting unders

Shane Rogers just on Trade Week Radio:

Rogers on Betts: We feel we've made a decent offer. The rumour is Adelaide & North Melbourne have put in offers. We haven't heard from them.

Rogers on Betts: Since about halfway through the year his manager has said 'another couple of weeks'. Those talks have been on hold.

Rogers on Betts: We obviously think something's up. We assume he'll let us know soon.

Rogers on Betts: It's a lot more money than we're offering. Eddie's got to fit in to the pay scales we've got at the club.

Rogers on D.Thomas: That will come to light over the weekend. You're right, we've obviously put in an offer, we haven't made that formal yet.

Rogers on D.Thomas: We're just waiting to hear back from his manager to what Dale's thinking. We're quietly confident.

Rogers: It's very rare you'll trade to players from Collingwood to Carlton or vice versa. Essendon**'s a bit the same.

Rogers on D.Thomas: We've put him through two or three medicals, we've got information from Collingwood as well.

Rogers on D.Thomas: We're comfortable with what the doctors have told us. We'll proceed down that path.

Rogers: It's the first I've heard about it (Mitch Robinson rumours). Under no circumstances is Mitch Robinson going anywhere in my view.

Rogers: We would have spoken to 15 different players from different clubs. All shapes and sizes, to do due dilligence.

Rogers on Scotland:He's probably going through whether he goes on. We don't actually know (whether he goes on), we've had a bit of a hold up.

@camluke to Rogers: Has Scotland been offered a one year deal? I can't answer that at the moment.

Rogers: Jesse White was of some interest, it was down the pecking order a bit

Is B.Staker above the pecking order of Jesse White? Rogers: We probably won't go down that path, we think he's a required player at Brisbane.

Matthew Kreuzer and Bryce Gibbs are required players. I can't see under any circumstances they are going anywhere

Rogers: Richmond has shown the most interest (in Shaun Hampson). We've had some interest from other clubs

Rogers: I think they'll (AFL) really investigate it (Buddy deal). If they find there's a loophole, they'll come down pretty hard.

Sorry JM, we'll have to agree to disagree.

It's not self interest at all. Whenever we do something purely for ourselves, we make an assessment of the chance of success. In most cases, we go for the consevative approach to attain that success

Eg. If Corey Enright is offered 150000 more after the 2009 GF and chooses to stay with Geel, how is that self interest? He's won two flags, he knows what a feat that was already and he's taking a mighty gamble to be part of a third premiership era.

The conservative approach would have been, "I've won two flags, I've paid my dues to Geel, now I want some security-$150000 GUARANTEED"

Instead, loyalty to the club/team mates etc tells him that the chances of winning a third flag are much smaller but he's prepared to risk it because money is not the be all and end all.

What likelihood of success did Travis Boak think PA had last year?

If you listened to Rogers interview, there appears a marked improvement in strategy/direction compared to the last 5 years. Whether it yields anything is another question

For instance:

His rejection of staker was refreshing
The targetting of Thomas which will cost us a 20s ( Betts compo) pick is far better than Mclean which cost us pick 12
Talking to Adams/Docherty
Open to a trade on Hampson for a second rounder.
Also made the point that we will be addressing our needs through the draft.

* It would be good to focus on draft picks but if the value in this draft is in the top 15-20, it won't be easy to trade up & loading up on picks 20-40 may not provide much value.

So I find it hard to see that we have not got the strategy largely right.

A lot of the criticism so far has come from previous scarring of past trade periods.

As soon as a name/rumour is thrown around we all jump to conclusions.

Theres been a lot of jumping at shadows, when fact is what we do know so far seems to be.....

We are not paying 1mil a year for Franklin....................................But we should have gone harder for him. We're so soft
We didn't offer Martin a massive contract....................................Why not, He's exactly what we need.
We are not offering a 3 year deal to Matt White (unlike Port)..........We could do with his speed.
Staker and White are not priorities..............................................They'd be our FF and CHF. How can we not go for them?
We have no interest in Dal Santo................................................And someone will get him for nothing. We should be going hell for leather.
We should get Thomas..............................................................Don't need him and too much money. We're mad.
We are Docherty's club of choice................................................Another HBF'er. This club is making me so angry and frustrated.
We are going hard for Adams......................................................Another midget? What are we thinking?
We haven't been linked to Chapman............................................Chappy? The perfect Betts replacement. We want.
We don't seem to be in the mix for Shaw......................................He'd release Walker. Much better than that dud Thomas.


...and trade week hasn't even started.

What the bed wetters will say.......... .....................unfortunately though we haven't the really, really angry and supremely frustrated emoticons.

A lot of the criticism so far has come from previous scarring of past trade periods.

As soon as a name/rumour is thrown around we all jump to conclusions.

Theres been a lot of jumping at shadows, when fact is what we do know so far seems to be.....

We are not paying 1mil a year for Franklin.
We didn't offer Martin a massive contract.
We are not offering a 3 year deal to Matt White (unlike Port).
Staker and White are not priorities.
We have no interest in Dal Santo.
We should get Thomas
We are Docherty's club of choice.
We are going hard for Adams.
We haven't been linked to Chapman.
We dont seem to be in the mix for Shaw.
We have some interest in our middle tier players (rather than signing them to long term contracts)
Mick has said he wants mids, a KPF, and a KPB.
Mick has said we'll invest heavily in the draft.

...and trade week hasn't even started.