Jude Bolton

[Bron]

Jude has the attitude and commitment that we need at the Club. He is accountable. He takes responsibility. He goes beyond himself. Watch him (you need to be at the game to see what he does). He is always encouraging, urging, directing. We need those who will rally the troops. This is a different leadership skill to the inspirational, "do the deed" leader. Stewie (and of course Kel) will do a "captain's goal". Jude is there urging, encouraging and showing leadership throughout the game. Watch him in the Bazza incident. He is "protecting" and managing the outcome. This is why he is FSC. He needs to be a contributor, he doesn't need to be a star. His behind the scenes work is essential.

[caj23]

anyone suggesting that we trade JB when we already have a poor midfield has absolutely no idea about football

Fhead the fact that you would accept a 2nd round pick for him is laughable, thank god you don't have any input into our recruiting

Even if we could recruit a gun midfielder (highly unlikely) you still need another 2-3 quality onballers to support him

shakes head

[dendol]

Originally posted by footyhead
I think the administration has come to their senses and realized that Jude is askin for too much money.
We should get an early 2 and round for him, or him + Foosie +3rd round for a good young KPP.
If he goes however I would caution that we still need to recruit young midfeilders in the draft. We still have a long ways to go in the middle.

He is worth a first round, a latish one at worst. Star midfielders go for at least top5 draft picks PLUS another decent player. Jude isnt an elite, so a first round draft pick sounds about right. With all the young kids in our team, it would be absolute folly to trade him now for a draft pick.

If we gave him up for a second round pick, I'd be seriously questioning the sanity of the decision-makers of our club.

A good young KPP is hard to come by so will demand at least a first round pick, not some average player + a 3rd round pick.

[Schneiderman]

Unless we do a straight swap for Lenny Hayes to correct the "mistake" we made the first time around (and this is debatable), there really is no other obvious option out there. We certainly wont get a better midfielder for Jude than he already is, and we'd be better off using a top draft pick to pick another young player or a more experienced but unproven KPP.

[Jimmy C]

Originally posted by Schneiderman
Unless we do a straight swap for Lenny Hayes to correct the "mistake" we made the first time around (and this is debatable), there really is no other obvious option out there.

I'm with you. Maybe another option would be Bolton for Bizzel, allowing Saddo to spend lots more time up forward.

[Bart]

Originally posted by footyhead
I think the administration has come to their senses and realized that Jude is askin for too much money.
We should get an early 2 and round for him, or him + Foosie +3rd round for a good young KPP.
If he goes however I would caution that we still need to recruit young midfeilders in the draft. We still have a long ways to go in the middle.

You are an idiot. You bag many on this board for knowing nothing about football. This makes you a hyprocrite. If you think the club would sacrifice Jude Bolton and Fosdike for Round 2 and 3 picks, you are the one who has no @@@@ing idea.

The only reason I read your post is that it had only a few lines compared with the diatribe you've been spouting recently.

If the Swans make you so miserable, head north.

[dread and might]

don't think melbourne need a jude type player, nor would they be getting rid of a defender like bizzell. i would hate to get rid of him.

Serious question now: do people really think Hayes is that much better than jude?

[SimonH]

Good on you, Bron and Will.

Jude is not as efficient a disposer of the ball as he'd like to be, but the fact is you've got to get the pill first before the issue of disposing of it rears its head, and I'm sure that if you look at effective disposals over the year (and 2003), JB would be near the top for the club and in very good company in the AFL as a whole.

Plus there are all of the little things (I hesitate to use the torturous phrase 'one percenters') that he does to put pressure on the opposition and lift the team. No one person will ever bring us a premiership- a great team game will.

If you want a player, you re-sign him for whatever the market rate is. Neither Jude's manager nor the Swans management would be unaware of going rates. Cost isn't the issue.

No club is going to give us a straight swap of a superior midfielder, and giving away an established early-mid career player for a draft pick (where you then budget on spending 2-3 years in development for a mere probability that he'll become a first 18 player) is laughable. So we would only contemplate trading him (and/or any of our other midfielders) for a KPP if we decided we already have a surfeit of quality mid-fielders. Hands up who believes that.