Watch the AFL media tone down the Freo persecution today but without any apology. Yesterday was a perfect example of why I hate the current state of 'journalism' in the AFL. They let their emotions and bias, based on almost zero information cloud their judgement of the situation. We as AFL fans can do that ourselves thanks... but whilst we are the reason AFL journalists get a pay cheque I think we should expect far more professionalism from them.
Cast your minds back to last trade period and how Lloyd (and Freo) was characterised as being completely unreasonable for wanting pick #2 for Weller. We were the loonies from the other side of the country... nek minut the trade is done in the final moments of the period and everyone is gobsmacked. No apologies by the many journos who stuck the boots in. Instead they reluctantly gave us a thumbs up... but focused more to painting Gold Coast being crazy instead.
They clearly haven't learnt from that mistake last year. No doubt Steve Rosich and Peter Bell are ruthless operators with some ego attached but both are reasonable people who would be extremely well informed before entering trade negotiations. They would be asking all the important questions like why are Melbourne wanting to offload a supposed gun in Hogan whilst in premiership mode? We have clearly done a thorough risk assessment a fair bit more detailed than "Freo really needs a gun KPF up forward, quick throw two 1st rounders at the first one willing to come to us".
I suspect this negotiation is all about determining real value with the risk factor built in. We can't be expected to pay full price if there is considerable risk attached. It sounds like the risk discount needs to be massive in this situation. I suspect Melbourne know that but understandably still want to get something that they can then use to improve their list immediately (ie May).
tl;dr - The AFL media are mostly dense. Hogan + risk != 2 first rounders. Melb and Freo are haggling over the value of that risk. Gut feel says this will still get done. We'll accept the risk but Melbourne will pay (discount) for it.
Cast your minds back to last trade period and how Lloyd (and Freo) was characterised as being completely unreasonable for wanting pick #2 for Weller. We were the loonies from the other side of the country... nek minut the trade is done in the final moments of the period and everyone is gobsmacked. No apologies by the many journos who stuck the boots in. Instead they reluctantly gave us a thumbs up... but focused more to painting Gold Coast being crazy instead.
They clearly haven't learnt from that mistake last year. No doubt Steve Rosich and Peter Bell are ruthless operators with some ego attached but both are reasonable people who would be extremely well informed before entering trade negotiations. They would be asking all the important questions like why are Melbourne wanting to offload a supposed gun in Hogan whilst in premiership mode? We have clearly done a thorough risk assessment a fair bit more detailed than "Freo really needs a gun KPF up forward, quick throw two 1st rounders at the first one willing to come to us".
I suspect this negotiation is all about determining real value with the risk factor built in. We can't be expected to pay full price if there is considerable risk attached. It sounds like the risk discount needs to be massive in this situation. I suspect Melbourne know that but understandably still want to get something that they can then use to improve their list immediately (ie May).
tl;dr - The AFL media are mostly dense. Hogan + risk != 2 first rounders. Melb and Freo are haggling over the value of that risk. Gut feel says this will still get done. We'll accept the risk but Melbourne will pay (discount) for it.
