So, let’s take the article at face value, and Freo takes what is purported as ‘fair’ from both parties. It takes pick 5 (only) from Brisbane and gives Melbourne pick 6 and it’s second round pick for Hogan.
Should Freo be happy to pay a second round pick to ‘upgrade’ from Neale to Hogan? Maybe, maybe not.
Even if you say yes, we don’t have a second round pick. Is Melbourne ok with next year’s second? It’s unclear. The mechanics might not work. It depends on what Melbourne wants it for.
I’m then not sure whether Lobb comes off the table. We’d need to trade pick 5 or 6 to another club for a combination of picks better fitting Lobb’s worth (or to secure that second rounder Melbourne wants). Didn’t we just do something that looks a lot like this?
You could re-write the whole article to say Brisbane’s reluctance to add a second round pick to the Neale deal is stopping Freo from doing a deal with Melbourne. Or how Melbourne’s insistence on a second round pick is holding it up. Or how Gold Coast’s insistence on a second round pick for May is holding it up.
Instead, because Freo tried to lure Travis Cloke a decade ago, for some reason Freo should have done the deal with three days to go in the trade period based on everyone’s first real offer.
Freo made themselves a target by sending Bell an Rosich. I get why the article was written. Perhaps Bell is trying too hard to put his stamp on things. I don’t know.
What I don’t get is why people on here are lining up to bag him five days out from the end of his first trade period. If at the end of the period it’s obvious he stuffed it then fling a few arrows. But I’d probably wait for his side of the story and not just Cleary and Bowen who haven’t been in the room.
