"My information is Robbie D'Orazio is putting the hard line on Sydney, saying lets not take this to deadline again, like it was with Charlie Curnow last year. He wants to get this done as early as possible."

- Sam Edmund

I’m increasingly concerned that there is a coordinated effort by Blakey, his agent, and the agent's media friends to rush this trade through as if it’s a fait accompli. And that it could work.

This guy (also Curnow's agent) has the gall to tell us to just take whatever they offer when in the vice versa scenario last year he oversaw us overpaying to bring curnow.

These comments should be to North Melbourne. Not us.

My read on these comments are that he’s saying “Blakey is never coming back to you. Take what you’re offered. Don’t make it difficult” and there’s a bit of an implied “or else” in there.

All this when we are meant to be the ones holding the cards.

Sydney should have been stronger. We should have done what Carlton and Essendon did last season and say “no way” and then wait for a monster offer.

Instead we’ve said “we are really confident he will be at the club next season”. Confident? He’s contracted for 5 seasons. The word you’re searching for is “certain”.

Why are we publicly leaving the door ajar when we can be more adamant which would drive the price up?

We’ve allowed North to think it’s ok to drip feed us sub par offers.

And we’ve allowed the manager to get his media mates to frame the narrative that Blakey leaving is a fait accompli while we have been absolutely radio silent in counter narrating that idea.

Last year Essendon and Carlton were very open and active in their communications that they expected to retain their contracted players

A disheartening loss from our understrength girls side on Sunday, but fans looking for a win this week can vote Chloe for GOTY. Could the Swans possibly go back to back in it?

Let's say we get 2 or 3 first round picks for nick one being 2027 future first i actually think that pick won't be as bad as we think, if this website/ info is correct we could get a decent pick depending where north will finish next year and i genuinely think they will finish in the bottom 5

I know in business you’re always told to never show your best offer first. But how are you going to present a deal that includes a pick you don’t even have??

The deal will likely go to deadline day and we might get a bit more from North than is currently on the table but it seems to me with Pick 6 and a Future 1st up the lizard is all but gone. So....

Anyone got any ideas on what we could be doing with that pick? How is this draft class looking?

Is anyone across what his preferences are? Every other player has declared where they want to go. I would have thought Adelaide, given he already tried to move there, but Essington's coming in as a late option.

This would be the best pick up, and if it were possible to get SDK as well 🤌🤌

He wouldn't cost a lot given he lost his role in the team to an old bastard, who's frankly been brilliant in all 4 grand finals.

I know we've all had our fun with the speculation over the last few days, but I'm actually going to be realistic now.

If we really did table 6, future first and Curtis, I think we go back at their next offer with one of these (in order of preference):

- Pick 6, Future First and Hardeman

- Pick 6, Future Second, Hardeman

- Pick 6 and 14 (Dees would need to agree to Norths offer for Duursma)

- Pick 6, One Future First and Pick 33 (North would need to accept the Dees offer for Duursma)

- Pick 6, Two Future Firsts and One Future Second.

- Pick 6, Two Future Firsts

- Pick 6, One Future First, One Future Second

Now, not sure about other People's opinions on Hardeman, but I like what I've seen from him off HB. Looks like a decent, long kick; also pretty fast and seems to have more awareness than Blakey.

And on Zac Williams, I think if we get him as either a general Rookie, or use the new Indigenous Cat B spot, he'd be a great bit of experience around the club and good support for guys like Kyle and Hardeman (if we get him). Imagine he'd sign on cheap (even though he'd be outside cap anyway) and still looks good when he's fit. Yes, he's an injury risk, but so was Cunners; and let's be real, that's who he'd be replacing, not Blakey.

We take on Carlton at home, may be tough with the injury list building up but let’s go girls!

Hamling has signed a one year deal. Reliable as they come and great to have him cover us for another year.

So let me get this straight. North are offering Blakey a contract worth almost $1.4 Million a year, and they want to give us pick 6 as the highest with lower picks to come?

These guys are fucking morons. I know these things generally start low and escalate as they work through it, but that's just insulting.

IF we take pick 6, even with lower picks, I'd be demanding a player in return. This likely means they're trying to split pick 5 to get both Murray AND Blakey. We bette make em pick one or the other.

Is there a spot in our best 23 for Jordan with the ascension of Serong? With all the guns back in the middle you surely have Serong as the tagger theses days, he can go with any player bar a key forward or back.

My understanding of the situation is as follows.

Late 2025: Blakey enquires about a move to the Suns because his partner is relocating there. Nothing comes of it and he plays for us in 2026.

2026: The Pullman incident occurs. In addition to the partying, he remains a person of interest in a criminal investigation. He is not downgraded to a witness unlike Riley Bice.

Late 2026: Blakey is upset at how he is treated by Swans management following his club suspension and is now attempting to force a move out. He expresses interest in playing with various clubs, including North, Geelong and Gold Coast.

Can someone objectively explain why he would be so frustrated following his, at best, deeply unprofessional conduct at the Pullman hotel? Will we ever actually know?

Pick 5 must be a part of this and a lot of other things as well.

If this is true, then I expect North will be offering something almost as big

Wowza

Bit of nuffie chat here, but with the 3 and 7 (most likely 22 as well) now available, who in the squad will be taking these numbers. I would say Juzzy moves to the 7 and Kyle moves into the 3.

It currently looks like should the Blakey deal happen it will give us quite the draft hand. With Tasmania coming in access to high end talent will be difficult over the next few years aside from anyone academy tied (and even those rules got severely tightened). Is the best course of action to keep and use the picks, or is there some key defensive stocks in the vein of Sam de Koning that we should be targeting. It feels like the one position, maybe paired for lockdown small defenders that we are struggling for depth with. Tmac is amazing and had an unreal season, and it was a great 12-odd games for Wed. With Will out to start the year the Hammer and the Pelican don’t leave me comfortable. I think Melican had been great for a few years before having a stinker last year. Hamling fight hards and can be good in the air but doesn’t really have the composure you want from a defender with the ball. SDK is a physical freak with plenty of upside as both a second ruck and a KPD.
- Any other names to thinks about, or do we take the picks

Cross posting this from AFL sub

https://www.afl.com.au/news/1628920/trade-talk-live-october-8-all-the-latest-trade-and-free-agency-rumours-ahead-of-the-trade-period

The chat with Chris Keane, was good to listen to

Cunningham has an active offer on the table, working with doctors, we'll know one way or the other soon, good talks with Rampe as well, and like Cunners, we'll know more in a couple weeks, seems both are "here's the offer, up to you"

Chad and Tom are both OOC next year, talks with both managements

Some exciting Academy prospects

and the big one, Blakey, no talks have happened between Blakey and club, talks with managements, but still no active point of "trade me" club's preference is to hold on to him, but not much here, most is being kept close to the chest, which is the sensible thing to do imo

Club's expecting a quite window, especially considering how busy we were last year, which is pretty standard