firstly, hello to robert, carl, haggers and fanta. good to see you at dockerland.

secondly, i hope you all do your pants punting on or against the dockers.

godspeed, young jeffery.

No he hasn't lost his mojo, if anything he's finding it, in different ways every game. Harves is playing him all over the ground and he's 'dangerous' everywhere. There may not be bagfulls of goals in his name but he's setting stuff up all the time.

I'm with you wholeheartedly Pollyana, Jeff is a legend, OUR legend, and he still has a wizard's hat full of magic to give. By all accounts he's good for morale off the field too, always making the boys laugh. Keep him for at least another year, he has loads left for the side.

Like Nat Imb... I'm torn.

I love Jeff - he's just so exciting to watch. He's cops a lot from the umpires, tribunal, media and other teams and so far he has had an excellent career.

But his form at the moment is poor.

I'm not too concerned about the loss of other leaders around the club - we still have Grover, McPharlin, Pav, Hayden, Carr, Haselby and Headland. And all of these players would be able to support/help develop young players.

Is Farmer keeping anyone out of the side?
Well at the moment - probably not, but drafting a Yarren, Walters, Jetta - he would be. Also, with a fully fit squad - he might be keeping someone out (with Haselby and Headland in the side - would Hinkley/Ibbo play up forward)

I've never doubted Jeff's defensive efforts - best at the club, but when looking at his offensive efforts (numerous leads, gut running to create space, putting yourself in a dangerous position) and then looking at Mayne's efforts - I think there is a decent gap.

Just looked up his stats because I wanted to check his rocord in finals, because they're the games that count, and that's where his experience may be benificial. Played ten, kicked 28.11 (including a bag of eight to get Melbourne in the GF).

Also - should have no effect on the club's decision but if he plays every game for the rest of the season, he ends up on 251 games.

The more I look at it, the more I'm not sure. Anyone have a crystal ball?

I agree with Jooter, Jeff has definitely been over officiated by the umpires. Have noticed when the umpires over officiate our games they stop the flow for us in the game.
Perhaps by hook or by crook they put us in the book.

I'm with you Pollyanna. Jeff's magic is not the ordinary, plodding, consistent type - it's the unpredictable white-hot incandescence of pure genius, interspersed with plain hard work.

I also agree with Jooter about the scrutiny on Jeff. This season he has been positively saintly on the field. I'm sure most of us would have snotted a field umpire or two if we had to do our jobs within such close range of them.

Freo wouldn't be the same without him.

Polly, I think you've got this all wrong (albeit for all the right reasons). There are no grounds for a plea here, or any reason for doubt. The re-signing of Farmer would, as a matter of course, be high on the club's agenda of things to do for the immediate coming years. Hypen's post nails the issue.

Without a shadow of a doubt Jeff will be re-signed for next year. Why wouldn't you re-sign one of the 3 most influential players at the club, Pav and Hase being the others?

Jeff won't give it away until 2010, when his age will equal the number on the back of his jumper and his goal tally will be up around 550. Two yrs later he'll be in the AFL Hall of Legends, and the bloggers on here who think he should be cut at the end of the year will still be bloggers.

For my tuppence worth (I love that saying, my grandma used to use it continually)I am not a Jeff Farmer fan but I can see he is still fit and he does have something to offer the team. I would agree on the one year thing.

Watching him on the weekend you could see he was often in line for marks but the ball would go over his head or Pav would call him out of the mark.

What we desperately need is for a small forward to get front and centre at Pav's feet. This is where Jeff is not the player he used to be, he is not getting to that spot where we really need him where the ball is brought to ground. From what I have seen of Mayne he has the crumbing smarts about him and seems to know where to go.

The other thing that is a little frustrating about the Wiz's play is that he is always looking for some dinky little pass inside. Even the pass on the weekend that set up a goal was barely 15 metres. In some ways he is trying to be too clever and the ball gets turned over.

If we could get a Yarran or Walters (who I have umpired in juniors and he is prone to the odd brain fade)and get the Wiz to mentor them we could really build a multi-dimensional forward line.

100% agreement from me Pollyanna, the sooner the better. He is the essence of Freo always bobbing up with his special brand of magic. Experience is too readily being cast aside at present and not given its true value.

When next year we finally click as a team. The youngsters have a blinder of a year, putting us into a great position coming into the last few games of the season.

Heading into the games that really matter the youngins are hurt, bruised, sore and inexperienced, and Harves looks around the room and sees that he cut loose all of our experienced big game players just in case they were going to keep out some 17yold lower draft pick......

We still stumble into the finals with some big games at hostile away grounds, where our best young talent have played a hand full of cumulative games at the G, and never a game with more than 20,000 in the stands.....

Cut The Jesus?.......Fair Dinkum

Glad you're untrue to your nickname, Silence: well said.

In a rational world, your post would bring the ludicrous comparison of Medhurst to Farmer to an end.

But I'll bet it doesn't.

Signing up the best defensive forward in the AFL is the only option, he deserves another year.

the problem is that next year he may well not be in our best 22 and to use him only for the big games leaves him languishing at Souths. Not sure he's a good languisher. Hasn't been that good this year, not withstanding some good forward pressure and even that has been missing at times.

Depends on how Jeffrey goes in the remaining games. I think Harvs will give him a go for the rest of the season to determine exactly what Jeff's future value is to the team and whether he should be re-signed, probably on a year by year basis and at a reduced salary.
If Jeff gives the team in the remaining weeks what he gave against North Melbourne then he's safe for 2009 I would think. Consistently good performances is what Harvey would be looking for.

All this talk of re-signing Jeff or not ignores a small point of order that could influence any deals...

the availibility of suitable players to replace those already gone.

We've lost Belly.
Apparently, we're losing Black.
Half the known world have been telling us for years we should lose McManus, if I were him I'd have flipped the bird and taken the easy road by now... so he might.
My feeling is we lost Warnock somewhere in the pre-season.
Mundy might wake up in time to sign, or not... no-one knows for sure...


there's a fair swag of talent gone already.

Who ya gonna call?

You know, if I could overcome my racism and homophobia* I'd invite Jeff into my palace anytime.

Jeff stays or I go (someone had to say it).

* I'm not really a racist or a homophobe. Well, I'm not racist.

and you don't cut someone just because of a bit of poor form!! You cut them when they can no longer contribute.

I would imagine that every game he plays, the opposition is spending a great deal of time thinking 'how the hell are we going to stop jeff farmer?'. He is such a dangerous player that he takes the best defender after whomever plays on Pav. Hands up who dosn't get excited when he gets anywhere near the ball!!!!!!!

And he makes me shout, laugh, cry, scream, cheer.................

Look, I'm going to say it- Jeff has been a liability in his last few games. I'm actually dark about it. Not the way to go about getting a new contract.

First off, he is spending the ball like a millionaire at the moment, consistently choosing low return options, nothing is worse after the hard work gets it into the forward line.

Secondly, his defensive efforts have dropped off markedly, previously I would rate him top 3 in the league, not even on the radar at the moment.

Thirdly, rarely beating his man in a one-on-one, and certainly not giving us a convincing forward entry option.

Jeff, we love you, and so many people on and off the field defend you to the hilt and respect what you have achieved. Now go out there, prove me wrong and earn that contract extension.

The way he is watched by the umpires and the amount of decisions that go against him plus the watch the club keeps on him and of course I needn't mention the idiot commentator's remarks about him plus the s**t he gets served up by the localy newspaper well, it's no wonder his form gets affected.
Keep him surely, as he is one of the best.

If Jeff is not in the best dozen players at the club I will eat my shorts

I have been one of the Wiz's biggest fans. He has given the club great service over the years. But this year - he has not put his heart and soul into the game - there has been none of the flair of previous years. It has been a bit sad really. I don't know what to say about re-signing him - but a lot of thought will have to be put into it. It should not be automatic.