Surely Warnock couldn't be on that sort if dough....no wonder Eddie Bettes wanted more money, what idiot signed off on Warnock's contract?

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They only topped up with Lake when they were actually right near the top and would have spent SFA to get him.

Carlton went after Thomas while the club is in no man's land, committed big dollars and lost a lowish pick at the same time.

All clubs make list management errors, but Hawthorn don't make monumental blunders like Carlton made with Thomas.

The key is...do you ever see Hawthorn overpaying?

Lake
Gibson
Hale
Spangher
Mc Evoy
Burgoyne

6 out of 22 came from other clubs.

Lake, Gibson and Burgoyne came to the club on good money but probably slightly less than they might have earned elsewhere because of the prospect of playing in premierships.

Hale, Spangher and Mc Evoy are handy at best but fill a role.

The key to Hawthorn is they have a core of leaders in Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis and Roughead who have been at the club all their careers and would die for each other.

We don't have one player in that category at the moment.

Gibbs (and possibly Henderson) are the only ones I can see who could be that type but two just isn't enough.

Somehow we need to find a group of young guys within about a three year period who can grow up together. They need to be midfielders and key position players whose quality as players is beyond question allowing them to form a unit that drags the club along with them.

If we can find five very very good footballers with great work ethics and unquestionable hardness, get them to 150 games each, add ten good players from the draft and then top up with half a dozen ring ins to fill the gaps then we're a chance.

Shouldn't be too hard.

And we had Alfred E. Neuman who couldn't give a frog's fat arse about leadership. Judd would do it all. There's half the reason we are so far behind other clubs.
But hey, according to some, MM and DT have sent the club backwards. Go figure

Firstly, I was not a fan of recruiting Thomas. Bottom line is that he's the same age as Gibbs, was not even expected to play this year and had no pre-season. Happy to give him next year to really judge him. Could still give us 5 good years if the body holds. Woulld I have preferred we didn't go after him? Yes! Would I have preferred we used a little extra cash to pay Betts? Yes!

Thomas is so far down the chain of what you call "monumental blunders" it's not funny

* Ratts chasing after McLean like he was being hounded by 15 clubs and giving up pick 12 is a monumental flower up
* Ratts chasing after Warnock and paying him 3/4 of whatever Thomas is on. Another MFU
* Lucas over Fyffe............FMD
* Watson over Darling
* McCarthy, Mitchell, Russell, Temay, Bower, Hampson, Benjamin, Austin etc etc etc. They're the big scale monumental blunders that Hawthorn don't make and we made.

Same age as Gibbs? DOB 15/3/89 and 21/6/87.

Why do some people always make it Ratten Vs MM? Battle of the egos. Both made monumental blunders...they need to be minimised! More Doc trades!

Many clubs passed over Fyfe....he was a raw skinny kid with talent and someone who scouts were unsure about in terms of would he put muscle on and what position would he play.

It will be interesting to see what is offered for Jaksch given someone like Gunston was traded for a 2nd rounder (+ some later picks)...hopefully if he nominates Carlton it makes the deal easier (like Doc).

Waite confirmed with us this morning that he is leaving.

The club's "leadership IQ" just increased a few percentage points.

Do we get a compo pick for losing Waite?

Do we get a compo pick for losing Waite?

Do we get a compo pick for losing Waite?