James Harmes

[Grantysghost]

Yes and think that's a reasonable hit rate.

Poulter tick.
McComb cross.
Gardner tick. (come at me woof)
Gowers huge tick! (ok cross apart from one season)
Scott tick.

I'm not sure the argument that he was good before so he will be good again in the future holds any weight.

[The Underdog]

For me Jee I'd rather see proven VFL talent get a crack over washed up guys on the retirement plan.

Sullivan for eg would be my preference in this instance. Probably similar skill sets, about the same effectiveness in the VFL (actually Lachie played better when we smashed Casey).

I'm not sure if everyone is seeing the 21 version of Harmes in their minds eye, he's not been that for a while.

I hope he gets it back, however I'm not that confident.

We need depth agree.

A lot easier to sell a 28yo premiership winning 150 gamer as depth than a 26 yo rookie out of the VFL.

[Rocket Science]

I get it's all the rage to put shit on everything at the moment, but those keeping him out of Melbourne's side are a bit better than those who played for us. Bringing McComb into the conversation doesn't give any cred, we've let him go and Harmes is well better than he is and it's silly to suggest otherwise.

All the rage and largely deserved y'think?

We agree he's an upgrade on McComb and amusingly enough, Beach Rig's VFL averages this year are marginally better than McComb's, so that settles that and there's 20 seconds I'll never get back.

Let's look forward to him getting a nice long leash and the measured discourse to come!

[jazzadogs]

All the rage and largely deserved y'think?

We agree he's an upgrade on McComb and amusingly enough, Beach Rig's VFL averages this year are marginally better than McComb's, so that settles that and there's 20 seconds I'll never get back.

Let's look forward to him getting a nice long leash and the measured discourse to come!

I plan to be utterly ruthless in my appraisal of his game.

[bornadog]

I plan to be utterly ruthless in my appraisal of his game.

Why? He is a cheap pick up - who else could you get at that price? an unknown kid that is 100 to one to make it.

[Bulldog Joe]

I am seeing a lot of angst about this but I am not sure why.
I am currently overseas and have had a message from a Melbourne supporting mate telling me I should be happy and he is disappointed.
What I have see across the trade threads is that we basically should decide that we are no longer in contention and should be trying to rebuild for maybe 3 to 5 years time.
Personally I want to see us improve with a view that we can win in 2024.
If we look at Collingwood 2021, we are better than they were.
Maybe I wanted a new coach, but since that is not happening I simply want a better team.
Harmes is an improvement on Hannan from 2023.
Let's just set ourselves up to win the thing

[Grantysghost]

I plan to be utterly ruthless in my appraisal of his game.

Ditto. My pressure acts segment is making a woof come back just for Bali Jim.

[Grantysghost]

Why? He us a cheap pick up - who else could you get at that price? an unknown kid that is 100 to one to make it.

Cause he sucks?

[G-Mo77]

Why? He us a cheap pick up - who else could you get at that price? an unknown kid that is 100 to one to make it.

You can look at it that way the other way is that we could get a player to make us even better beyond those 2 - 3 years Harmes will give us. I'm not against getting him in but would have preferred our recruitment team actually got out and did their job and find us some hidden talent.

Lots of people even those within are using the lack of mid range picks as an excuse for our poor depth and that argument stacks up. We get a heap of picks in the 3rd and we trade them away for a short term player and the rest get eaten on F/S selection.

It just seems no one internally is on the same page? Are we contending? Are we rebuilding? Until we work things out internally we'll continue to be a directionless ship sailing aimlessly around the ocean.

[GVGjr]

You can look at it that way the other way is that we could get a player to make us even better beyond those 2 - 3 years Harmes will give us. I'm not against getting him in but would have preferred our recruitment team actually got out and did their job and find us some hidden talent.

Lots of people even those within are using the lack of mid range picks as an excuse for our poor depth and that argument stacks up. We get a heap of picks in the 3rd and we trade them away for a short term player and the rest get eaten on F/S selection.

It just seems no one internally is on the same page? Are we contending? Are we rebuilding? Until we work things out internally we'll continue to be a directionless ship sailing aimlessly around the ocean.

It's such an important part of entering the trade and draft periods to really know what direction the club is capable of heading in and I do wonder if we are in a bit of denial with that aspect at times. We picked up a couple of experienced players last year and we've already added a player with 150 games of experience this year and the message that sends is we are chips in on contending.
What we haven't been good at is delivering on that vision.

[bulldogtragic]

It's such an important part of entering the trade and draft periods to really know what direction the club is capable of heading in and I do wonder if we are in a bit of denial with that aspect at times. We picked up a couple of experienced players last year and we've already added a player with 150 games of experience this year and the message that sends is we are chips in on contending.
What we haven't been good at is delivering on that vision.

I hope they’re right. If there’s a decision to rebuild next year with no F1 then it’s going to a long painful rebuild and not the short sharp one I had hoped for. We will see.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Cause he sucks?

How do you rate McNeil?

[Grantysghost]

How do you rate McNeil?

Great biceps for a statue.

[hujsh]

Didn't listen but Harmes on Trade Radio saying his role will be as a defensive midfield and high half forward. Knocked back other interested clubs because of the pitch from Bevo and Power

[jeemak]

All the rage and largely deserved y'think?

We agree he's an upgrade on McComb and amusingly enough, Beach Rig's VFL averages this year are marginally better than McComb's, so that settles that and there's 20 seconds I'll never get back.

Let's look forward to him getting a nice long leash and the measured discourse to come!

I think people respond to asymmetric information differently. I'm not going to tell people their emotional responses to the current situation are wrong, they are what they are.

I'll expect the same type of discourse experienced with the likes of Lobb and O'Brien, noting it will take a long while for Harmes to be accepted as one of our own for a number of reasons.