First Thoughts - Finals Week 3 (14.09.26)

0:00Kane and Kenny. Fire on! To the... 701ers. We are back. Good morning to you. We love you as well. We love the 901ers. We love particularly the 601ers. Benny Graham in the house. What a weekend for Benny Graham. He's proud as punchy eating. He was up at 115. Did he say he's a lot of him off this morning? Yeah, and I don't reckon he slept anyway. It's since Friday. No, what would he look at him walking on water? Big show coming up. Tom Morris, Turkey, Tom's in the house. So he's standing by ready to go. Lots we've got to get through with him including Maddie Nix at Adelaide, Jack Buttons and the backstory behind all of that. And all the trade news is that period set to really crank up. And Nathan Gardner has just delivered in the news for those that missed it. He went with this. This is growth. Powered by Signa Powerbanks. Good morning, ballers. I'm Nathan Gardner with SCNU. That's terrific. It's a big team in here. Little things just give me so much joy. JK's wiped his boots.

1:00It's a bit apart from that. It's a big thing. Everyone erupted out of the back when he said that. All right, our first thoughts, Brisbane through to... Is it their fifth preling final in a row? Did I read that? Wow. Fifth preling final in a row. Well, this is... And Chris Fagan is going to join us very, very shortly. Remarkable, King Eat, your first thoughts with the game. I was there and it felt like the game was over in four minutes. Is that accurate? Oh, four minutes. Yeah, 100%. We talk a lot of different things throughout the course of the season. And one thing that just keeps coming home to Roost in finals is being able to score in bursts. Yeah, powerful teams can put five on your nose in five minutes. And it always rings true that those teams that gap games against the also rents seem to find a way to carry that in all final series. And whether that's off the absolute start of the first sire and what they did on the weekend or at eight point in the game, like Jolong getting back into the game,

2:01we'll get to that later. But getting back into the game or actually gapping the game is a massive asset. And that they just... They still have these half-fords and sparkfords that just rip the heart out again. Rip your heart out. Yeah, rip your heart out. Look, they had that look in your eye. This is... I want to ask Chris Fagan this. When Cam Rainer has that look in his eye, and there's one moment which I thought broke Adelaide's heart. He picked the ball up out of the center-bounce, which he went to, doesn't go there often. He was about, I'm going to say, six metres away from Alex Neal Bullin. With his ball under his arm, he looked at Neal Bullin. He said, this is Rugby now. For the next two seconds, this is Rugby. Yeah. Good luck if you want to tackle me. And he just steamrolled him. I thought, where's this Cam Rainer every week? And it's not going to be every week that he's in that mood. And has that sort of sharpness about him. But it would be nice if it was not once every seven weeks for Cam Rainer. And he's now...

3:01I know, he's now in the prime of his career. So I thought he was symbolic of their attitude. I would love for him to be able to do that more consistently. When he plays like that, he's amazing. What Zach Bailey did against the team that he just rejected the contract. What Charlie Cameron did early. Nearly kicked five before half time. What Lohman was able to do. Yeah, when they're in that mood, good luck. I thought the high half forwards engaged in defense for the early part of the game at least. And there's a bit of vision first quarter. Zach Bailey and Will Ascroft, tackling Dawson at the same time. It forced the turnover. Went back for, I think, a mcluggage goal early. And I thought, you know, when you're getting those two involved, defensively, you're on... You talk of Rainer rolls right up the field high. And that's the one that enables the leap frog effect. I think it might have been a Lohman goal early. So they pushed right up the ground and got involved defensively. And it allows Rainer to have 22 touches.

4:03Now, it doesn't normally get that sort of volume. The one thing I'm looking forward to asking Chris Fagan later on. I want to know if there's been a shift with their center bounce crew. Locking Neil starting on the bench and prioritising Bailey in there over and above Locking Neil, I think, the shift. Nothing happens by accident at AFL level. I think they've gone away. And this is just outside looking in. I think that they know they can't have Will Ascroft and Locking Neil in at the same center bounce as part of that combination. Which has been, I think, a mainstay for the year. It's been, don't glee, Ascroft, Neil. Pretty much as often as they could get them there. I think there's a shift away from that because they know defensively. They leak too heavily. So I look forward to asking Chris whether that's, yeah, how much is he prepared to tell us? We all know that Locking's probably leaving. But what he did do, when he come on at the seven minute mark of the first quarter, he's fresh and he's just second wave mid.

5:03So he goes in against Curtin and goes, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Well, that's what he did in the bounce chorus. Comes on after half time. Yeah, we did the same. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. First quarter, third quarter, seven minute. He's one guy with that against. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. That's it. God, if you watch the clearance, Curtin's still standing still. He's not ready or not geared right now to be a centerbynce mid. So maybe that's, that's, you know, we've pushed for that and maybe we have to retreat on that. But there's some work to be done there. But I loved the coaching of Brisbane. If you're not going to defend in there, we're not going to put you in there as a pair. What about their ability to respond? And I, you know, my commentary certainly last week was, how many times can you respond? Like at some point, you're not going to be able to respond every time, but they have done it. I think they're eight and zero in an elimination finals since 2023 ground final loss. Like when the pressure is on, this group has responded in that, no, the full credit to Chris Fagan for his ability to manage the emotions of this group.

6:05It's very, it has been a bit up and down. Certainly not smooth sailing over the last three years, but they are back in a preling final in a big way. So, it ends worth, we think he's going to be fit. And with Hawthorne's small forwards, including the whiz you pick him, I would think, Oscar Allen or Gallup, Von Rubell here. Ah, it has to be Oscar Allen, doesn't it? Because I thought hipwood was really strong. I thought he played his role perfectly. Hipwood? I thought Gallup was good too. It's really tough one. And in fact, doing a lot of different things, you've lived this guy to your club. Do you feel like you owe him a little bit? Do you have to support him and make it full? We kicked four E kicked four last week. Yeah, I think that they would stick with Oscar Allen. So who? This is the problem, don't they? And there's a great luxury to have, isn't it? This is the disc, and I think last week they got caught up in this. Oh, who's going to be the unlucky one for us, winning the flag or beating Sydney?

7:07They got caught up in this stuff. It'll be who it is and Faggs will sort that out. Emo, he won. My luggage turned the corner, I thought. He had to, he had to, he had to, much better. Was a big goal early, wasn't it? Yeah, huge goal early. Did he get him going? He had to get going. So I think everything they would have wanted to happen in the game happened. Response from Lomon who hadn't kicked a goal for the three games leading to that bang. Rainer bang. The midfield got going. Their forwards, the pressure that you spoke of. Andrews takes care of the full thought. No worries. And they're aggressive. And then you get humor, baggage back into the, at least looked like the humor, baggage that we know. The big difference and the Texas where I was asking for a defensive player to go in for stoppage. And I thought it might have been Charlie Cameron, but those half forwards rolled up really high and got involved straight away. They only gave up 24 points from stoppage. You look at the last two weeks, they'd given up 57 and 55. That's a, that's a huge number. When they outscortines from stoppage, 13, sorry, 14 and one.

8:10Because the rest of the game's so brilliant, they're ball movement and the aggression out of the back line. Zorco some big moments again. I love the arrogance that he brings to this team. That again, another big statement with that long goal, but they were hunting after him. And he's bringing it. Keep bringing it and get 100 meter penalty. Love see. He's just, he's just staging for. A couple of staging forans handed out. You know, so that often Rainer got one. Well, you're amongst Zorco and the lead company. Yeah. Among amongst the lead company. I was never fond of it. So there are plus 25 points from stoppage, which is, you know, which was absolutely dynamite early. The only, the only, the only worry for me, the only worry is that Adelaide still kicked, you know, 39 points, bringing the ball out of their defensive 50. It's a big number. It's not their strength either. It's not, they know good at that. And the other mob they're playing this week are deleted that. So that's just a little, little wrinkle that I think phase the okay, you know what, we stack the win we move on. If we're being, if we're being really picky, can't have that happen this week. Would you allow yourself to think of your dream

9:12grandfather on matchup like who you would like to see in the grandfather? My, my, my premiership cap. Yeah. Who would you like? Who would you like to see? You want fresh blood in there or do you? Yeah, versus Brisbane. Free O Brisbane. Yeah. You hate Hawthorne. You hate Hawthorne. It's my pie. Why do you hate Hawthorne, so? I don't hate Hawthorne. Would you not like to see? You've also had it. Young blood to fresh blood into the grandfather. I'm not going to call, we're not going to call them frown anymore. We're going to call them the Immortals. This group are going to be the Immortals. Yeah, do you think that's true though? Like, what do you mean? Well, like, is Sean running a mortal for a late, like did Sean run, is the first, like, like the fourth poor Adelaide players? Like, we're not Immortals. Like, it's been overstayed. It'd be amazing. It'd be great. It'd be brilliant. That'll be Immortals. They won't be a mortal. They'll be Immortals. It'll be the best. You can put orders to the right. It'll be the best two weeks of your life. And the connection that you have with your teammates will be so special forever. But like... You missed the emotion of Immortals. You're just too... Get less and cold.

10:12I don't sit there and go, G-SAM. I don't know. You have to run around the mortal. I'm going to tell you. I'm going to immortal. Because we won the first premiership for port. Like, it's been overblown. Just enjoy the moment, soak it up. It'll be the best. You're not Immortals. The fans have been through so much. Any racial or any more immortal, the Matthew Pavlett, if they wouldn't know. The Matthew Pavlett couldn't win it. I would guarantee you. He's man won the Bloody Norms, Smithman. Right. That was... There are mortals in... They're going to be immortals. They're going to be immortals. So get back to this side. We need to speak about Adelaide though. Here we do. We have to be... Well, what do you reckon, Triple Agent? We've got a few spots to get to. Now we're good. So... You wonder how they were going to be thinking about Matthew Nix after that. So was the report that Tom went with was one final's win enough to guarantee Matthew Nix's start date round one next year. And that has been confirmed. So soon after that loss,

11:13which was over in the first five minutes, Tim Silver's a CEO sent out a media release to the Adelaide members. There's been considerable commentary and speculation around our senior coach in recent times, but our position has not changed. We believe in Matthew Nix. We trust the program he leads and we remain aligned to the vision for the future. He will be our senior coach in 2027. It would have been nice if Tim had said that the previous week. I think it would have been nice when he was asked. He didn't. And now if that is the case and you genuinely believe that, sign him for three years. Sign Matthew Nix for three years. If you... And have to do that. Why not? Because you believe that the position has not changed. You believe in the coach. You trust the program. You are aligned with the vision. Don't go into 2027 with him coming out of contract. Sign him now. If you have that confident and you've got that much belief in him. But well, and then if they lose that belief, then they pay him out. Well, is that what we want to do? Well, they won't. According to them, they haven't lost their belief. Not today, but you're lucky to have a wife for another three years.

12:14Well, if that... If I wouldn't do it... I wouldn't do it. No, and that would be... No way I would do it. Because I'm saying, they're doing it either. But if that's what they genuinely believe and their position has changed to the point where they've guaranteed this, which they weren't willing to do last week. Sign him up. Now, I don't think you have to do that. And alleviate some of the pressure that's going to be on him and the club. Hey, handle the pressure. This is the gig. All right. I don't feel... Please... Have you lost trust in your man? Who? Nixie? Nixie? No, not at all. I just... I don't think they have enough match winners. Well, they... They're not getting any more. Well, they tried. Well, they're not now. So... I understand that. So, what's a pass mark next year? Well, this is the discussion. Eight years. What... Did you... They're not winning it next year. They're not winning it next year. Not with this group. Well, I think they've... I think they've recruited bland and they've ended up bland. Their only spark player is really... He's always at rankin'. The rest have been safe selections. I reckon in the... If you look back through their high end draft picks, I reckon they've been safe, good solid citizens.

13:15No... No desire to bring a potential rat bag or two in that can... It could be a bit different. I'd love to see them get a string atop. Like someone who, you know what? It may be not gonna do everything. They're gonna dot every eye across every tea, but they might win you a prelim. I tell you what they don't need. Isaac coming, peatling a nil bullion. That's what they don't need. Yeah, nil bullion with disappointing back guys. These... These being ineffective. Archie ineffective. They're recruiting a piece. So... Yeah, but Keezes maximized himself. Good, terrific, right? But they're capped. They got a sealant. Keezes being there for a... He's done his absolute best in one of years. And the audience is on a best in fairs. But they don't separate big games. Yeah. So... Who's the guy that's gonna... It's Richelle... We've been told that Richelle have already been there for four weeks for three years. Is he that guy or not? Rankin. So this is what I did think it was poor coaching on the weekend, right? So he's had two clearances in the first three quarters. If you look at the first quarter there, they're 32 points to zero down.

14:18And they got him doing this three way run around. Just trying to... Because don't let them... Just crap. They're worried about dropping the tag. He's coming with you. Hey, Isaac, how about going and just beat him? You're our best player. We don't need you picking up Locky Neal. So now you've got two players to worry about, right? Go and be the guy. It just blows my mind how they dumbly start players down to meaningless roles. So he's chasing Locky Neal around having no influence in the game. And I'm thinking, what's the... How does that serve Adelaide? So let's talk about the... So if they're not winning it with it, because they're not, they miss Bayley, they're not getting any better. They're going to lose some depth. Perhaps Sputts goes to the Western Book. They're not getting any better. So they're not... They can't win it with this group. So eight years to Matthew Nick. What's the past might next year? Is it preliminal? Or if he doesn't make a prelimisy down? Like where is it? That's eight years in. He's won three of 16 quarters in finals. Oh, well, that's the nonsense. Not. Not. A nonsense, Dad.

15:18How many quarters has Chris Scott won in five quarters? Well, how many quarters is... But it matters on talks. What are you talking about? What do you mean? No one talks about how many quarters you want in five. I spoke about it a lot. They didn't win one. How many times you hear they didn't win one quarter in the finals last year after finishing on top? Yeah, it's just... It games over in four minutes in a semi-final king. Yeah, no, I understand. So how... Answer my question. How long are you giving him? I just think that's a nonsense, Dad. How long are you giving him? What's the past might next year? You haven't answered. What is it? You haven't really stopped talking. Well, I don't know today. Wait, wait, wait, wait. It's viable. Yeah, let's wait and see what happens with the trade week. They've missed out on Bayley. They know they're short of match winner. So is this the capability in the tournament? That's what it's coming. Is this the capability of this list? Well, they've set up for semi-final, and that's where they are. I'm looking to be pretty impatient if they get to this stage next year. But you can ask for what you can shoot for the stars, but you've got to have the counter. One more. If Dan Curtin... I've tried to work out what he's best case scenario is. I think he's best case. The best he can be is a Jordan Dawson type.

16:18That's his best. His worst is probably Mason Wood. Where do you sit on debt? Is he more likely to be Jordan Dawson? Or is he more likely to be Mason Wood? These are the guys that have got enough season. Dawson or Wood? I think he's more Dawson than Wood. All right. More first thoughts next. No, man, everybody. How many do you know about like this? How many do you know? Flow like this. Not many. And Finney. Not many. And Finney. Kane and Kenny. Last week was really disappointing. And thought, yeah, the players had a really good week. And yeah, I think it was a total different intent from the first bounce. And tonight. Yeah, so I was really proud of that. And really proud of the way that the players settled back into the third quarter and really proud of the way we finished the game off.

17:19All right, that was our man who has still got his trip to the Mowdeves alive. It is alive. Our first thoughts for Co. of the state of Australia's most awarded extra virgin. Olive oil, free mountain getting it done by 14 points against you long. Like Brisbane, loved the response early. Shay Bolton went crazy in the first four minutes. Absolutely crazy. He was actually trying to tackle people. Then he got the offensive stuff going. And I thought everyone that needed to respond for free manual responded. Vast poor, great, Tracy poor. It was great. Amos was strong and physical in the contest. Thought their midfield centerbought stuff early was elite. And then we have to talk about Luke Jackson. Took them three years, but they worked that as a Ruckmon. So and World Un's of them for doing that. And what a performance from Luke Jackson. Yeah, and we've argued about this a lot. I was talking about this a lot. I think they've protected him across the stage. Of the season. You're one of them at their best in September. Not a midfielder though. He's not a forward.

18:19No, he's a Ruckmon. He's a worked that out finally. Well, I think they knew with that trade before in fairness. I think not a unicorn is a Ruckmon. Unicorn. If I hear there's two unicorns on the one field, I'll go crazy. I thought their composure was the gap. So the preparedness to, and they're talking about a lot during the coverage, the composure to enter traffic, handle the heat, step out. It's a leg drivers world. It really is finals. Where leg drivers go next. They'll be able to break a tackle. If you can step through, everything changes. So when you look at the confrontational side of the game. So they had 13 broken tackles on the weekend. But seven of them were between Bolton, Young, Brace, Shore and Jackson. So they were stepping through. It's long had 13 mistackles. They're most for the season. They're most for the year. They're most important time. Fremantle had four. And it wasn't a normal three-hour game. No one would chip the ball around.

19:19And those numbers can lie a little bit. But this was a chaotic game that required either make tackles or you bleed. And I just thought that those guys set the game up really well. And I think it's along had a few guys that took a few short steps. You're not happy with Brode Close. They had two horrific moments. When they were running, when they were out and going and making a real game of it in that third quarter seat. They had the big fumble on the wing. Then he dropped his head and dropped the mark. And it went down for a goal. And you go, you know what? You're just not going to win games like this with those sorts of efforts. And there were a few others. There were a few others. If you go back and have a close look, a Sullivan a couple of times. Humphrey looked really, really jittery, really fumbly. Brode didn't go back with the flight. He ducked his head. You know, there's just some panic crept in like Baile Smith to search handball for. That's not them.

20:20Tom Stewart when he's tagged is different discussion as well. Yeah. Is he ever beaten a tag? Tom Stewart ever? Is he ever beaten? There's Tom Stewart ever beaten a tag. He may be the most as good as he is. And as much as we love him and he's going to be a whole farmer, hoff or not. Don't worry about that. But I'm not sure he's ever beaten a tag. He might be the most vulnerable player when it comes to being tagged. Yeah. In the league. It's a great question. And I had this question written down for you. Is it their aggression to defend and cut the ball off at the midpoint of the ground? Does it expose them to games like this where they can be can be walked through if you get through? It's easy. Yeah. And then in games like this when that is going to happen at some some points they just they just looked all out of sorts of sorts behind the ball, which they can look like a time too long. They can. The credit to them though. The third quarter was like wow they're on here.

21:20They had all the momentum and probably unlike Brisbane they weren't able to maximize that momentum. I think they had 11 shots to six in the third quarter. I think they kick five goals six. I mean if that's you know they kick eight or nine in that quarter and make the most of them it's a different discussion. They had no answers for the the five minute patch for Luke Jackson in the third term and they've looked they've never gone for a rockman and it's been pretty successful. You told them you don't need a rockman. Well you don't tell me need just a good big grader for a great. You don't need to move in dollar rockman. No, it's what I've said. Well you also said that you don't. Yeah, we'll go back through the premiership winning in rockman. How many of them are a graders? I think oh well they're they're going many. They're going to help you aren't they? Well but the historic. The record of the race haven't needed. The game is huge. I grade rockman to win a premiership. Now the game probably said that before the new rules have changed. So clearly he was influential. You certainly don't need to all them and skinny Sean did a roll without him. So but they didn't have an answer. So whether they address that role in martial, speak to Tom Morrison, whether he is going to be the solution.

22:21I don't think it is but that that hurt them as well. And then and then the long term discussion for too long now that they've missed out on Zach butters is danger field, Stuart, Blixarves, Cameron. What does life look like after them? Because they're still so alone on danger field, so alone on Stuart, so alone on Cameron. And Blixarves to sort of plague holes but not so how long you can be alone on them for. And Toby Green comes in at age what 32? Yeah and he'll be handy though. Oh yeah for a year or two. I look ahead my the fact that I get it. We're we're all doing and we all do and they're 10 points up with four minutes to go in the third quarter in a game. They look like getting smacked by 10 goals. So just just full stop the previous points. So when you sell out for the four and a half game, it's your point of difference. It's the reason you're going to win a quarter time. They had zero from four that five four and a half in the six. What's that about for nothing? No return though. So all this press now free I got through them.

23:24They're defensive half and kick three goals. So you're sort of you're selling out for something that's not paying the bills and it kills you just a just a cutler player as that I thought just just scream big time finals for me. I think Hayden Young that the NFL media God should have like some sort of sealed section lift out next year. You know he played the guys that are just that just are x rated. He played 60% with those and 67% I think it was and produce those numbers. Yeah. Well when they had to have it in the second quarter he played 74% of the second quarter. He had nearly 10 ratings points. The next highest was five at big goal and a center bounce. It's just craves moments. So they're the players. Change his angles with his ball use. You love him now. He'll have him take it risky kick. Yeah. No, he's good. I'd love to see him play a bit more forward instead of on the bench. All right, Ollie Henry can we give him a share? Great and has been maligned. But was X as had a really good year to be honest. So he's never kicked 50 goals. That means it's a great return for him.

24:26Fireballs for Kogan. They're on the back wall here. Find a better value phone playing. Kogan mobile switch week sale Kogan.com. Click and awesome and for chemist warehouse. They're there to stock up and save and shop. Half price vitamins now at chemist warehouse. They're right. Kubota. Yep, all of that. Pony more on fireball next. Next section. The K. She's shaking her way to Canada. In the bunker. Let him come. Drive for show. Park for dough. For golf clearance outlet. We beat everyone's prices. Golf clearance outlet.com. But are you? All the crew rocking up. Good to see Quacko. We are in an arm wrestle with our fantasy game head to head at the moment. Me and the Quack doc. Turkey Tom Morris is here. And he goes out the back. Sammy Watson. Sledo. All the crew starting to roll in as the coffee machine fires up in the cafe. But it's time now for our drive for show. Pup the dough for golf clearance outlet. We beat everyone's prices.

25:26This is your domain. Well, you thought Patti Voss. Yes. I mean, what a recovery that was. And it just brings so much energy. And I know we talk about him a lot. I'm not sure how important he is to them in terms of the way they play. I don't know. Some weeks he's good. Some weeks goes missing. Doesn't seem north about the emotions. The attitude. The emotional. The vibe. The vibe. The vibe. That sort of stuff. I'm with you. I'm with you. It does feel like when he's up and about. He's a bit paply-ish. He's not as good as Tommy Peppley. But he does bring a bit of juice. The biggest losers for Bostiacority can trust him along and be like, we're hardware and construction specialists. Can we just never ever say ever again that Chris got keeps his powder dry? I'm all the talk. Talk about after round 15. He's kept his powder dry. I didn't see any powder that was wet on the weekend that we didn't see in the first time they played against each other. What did he keep dry?

26:26Anything. Anything. What secrets did he keep back in round 15? Everyone was saying, oh, he's going to spring some surprises come finals time. Well, he did put Blitzer after Jackson. It just didn't work. It's because it's not a surprise. I'm just about the most obvious movie he could make. All right. What surprised him to be so wrong? Well, that's pretty obvious. Yes. I'm just trying to... What surprised him to be cute? What surprises. Oh, wow. So never again, never ever again, listen to anyone that says, Chris got us just kept some things back. Ridiculous. Yeah. Anyway. I could have named names, but I'm not going to do that even though we had a crack at someone. Well, you name him. No. No. This is follow-up. No. Are you taking shots? I don't know if it's because of tomorrow. I don't know. You'll see. Maybe your award's not tomorrow. See some people. You're chickened out. I can't believe it.

27:27All right, let's talk about Zack Butter's next show. Can I tell you about the dumbest thing in foot? He went in Ruffman, give away free kicks inside the oppositions forward 50. Edwards gave away two. Yeah. He got the space of five minutes that swung the game. Yeah. You peanut. You... You peanut. You peanut, Mitch Edwards. Our first thoughts are going to continue. We want to speak about Zack Butter's who's going to sign or has the richest deal in football history. Desperation from the dockers or great move. We'll discuss that next. Kane and King. Fire on! All right, you're listening to Fireball. Time to fire up the discussion. Tom Morris, we said, get him in. We're going to talk about Zack Butter's he's got some info. Welcome to you, Turkey. Yeah. Kane, Kane, good to see you both. Sorry, NFL. Sorry. Good day, the NFL. Great day, the NFL.

28:28Couldn't say the game because we were seeing level one, MCC, which was disappointing. It was good to catch up with you. Didn't see you there. No, you did, we chatted. No, no, no, no. It didn't happen. Let's talk about Zack Butter's where would you like to start? I just think chronologically, let's lay out a timeline. I'd have this played out. So, let's start in mid-August. At this time, Jolong believed that had him. Jolong had essentially been told that Butter was going there. Why who? So, his management. Right. And the... They wouldn't have gone down well. And the dogs had essentially been told, your second. So, the dogs had one or two out of ten confidence at this point that there would be a change of heart and Jolong just believed that this was as close to a done deal as it possibly could be without being a complete done deal. Any reasoning given as to why they were selected at that stage? Uh, not that I'm certain of. Only that's when the reports came out that Jolong were ahead. Because there was reasons behind that. Because Jolong were told they were far ahead and the dogs were told that they were second

29:29and then Richard was third. So, that was it. Nothing was confirmed. But the cats believed that had him and the dogs believed they didn't. Now, in August 24, Luke Beverage went on AFL 360 and said, you're always working out what we can do. Have you spent everything you can? At this point, the dogs, as I said, were two out of ten confident. In the 48 hours after that, the dogs increased their offer. So, between August 24 and August 26, the dogs offered jumped. This was later accurately reported by Sammy Edmund. Now, Jolong and Richmond believed this jump was significant up to $3 million across the life of the deal is what they believed the increase was. It's three million. Over nine years. Over nine years. Yeah, over nine years. And if it didn't put the dogs ahead of Richard and financially, it certainly stretched the gap by at least three and a half million between the dogs and the cats. So, Zach Buetters' motivation has been nothing about winning or premierships. It's been money. No, no. I wouldn't go that far. Well, that's the decision. Hang on. Let me finish. Jolong are in front in August.

30:30Yeah. Bulldogs come back with three mil and that changed his mind. So, his motivation is money. That's why I'm saying there's more to this now. Okay. So, it was the last throat that sums financially from the dogs, but they also tugged on the heartstrings of butters one more time. They had one more big crack at him. And this was an all-club approach. I'm told the president was involved to a degree. The Western Bulldogs have a CEO and a footy boss that are former list managers. Their list manager, Michael Reagan, used to work at Port Adelaide with Jason Kreeps. So, conversations were going on there as well. They had one last crack at asking Zach Butters if you could live with the fact that if you didn't play for the Western Bulldogs and they want to flag how that would sit with him. So, this was in the end. In the end, it was a decision for the heart, but clearly the finances played a role as well. Now, the other element here is that butters had a medical on Friday at the Western Bulldogs. That's when Peter Lenton butters manager told the Western Bulldogs that the decision had been made. I'm a good job, Peter.

31:31Yep. He then waited until Jolong lost on Friday night to inform them on Saturday morning they missed out. So, by the time the cat's gone the plane home from Perth, they knew they missed out. That's how it played out. And clearly the financial turn of events played an important role. But the dogs weren't just relying on the money as well. They're relying on their entire full court press from the entire club. They have been obsessed from a club perspective in getting Zach Butters in for 12 months and it reached your crescendo after August 24th. So, they're going to pay him about 11% of their salary cap. You know, a team that has 44 players call it on all this. So, around $2 million here. They got way too desperate here and I think I've overpaid. 11% of your salary cap on one player for nine years. He's 26. This is not Buddy Franklin. This is Zach Butters. I've heard you're talking about for two years. He's a great player. Top five player in the league. Don't worry about that. That's what you're paying for. He's not Buddy Franklin.

32:32He's a top five player in the league. So, you're comfortable with paying him $2 million a season for nine years. Quite 16 games this year. Some guys out there getting 1.2 that are no-one to do. No, no, no, no. As long as you're comfortable. Well, I'd rather have the player. It's very... Well, you've banged on about their list and not depth and don't have enough and they're back six. So, don't talk about that ever again. Hang on. Well, can't... We're all about things every game. Because you decide. Because you're comfortable. You're comfortable with him getting 11% of the salary cap. That means you're not going to have depth in your list. Because you can't pay everyone. So, you can't have it both ways. Who's having a bet? I'm just... Let's just talk about Zack Butter's. Yeah, it's a bet. But don't. Because there's a flaw in the fate of this. I'll give you the flaw in the fate of what is it. If he goes to Jolong, you've got to combat him at Jolong every final series. He's now yours. They've got to worry about him. So, don't worry about what the bank balance is or what you're paying. When you absolutely have to have a clearance, I'd rather have Zack Butter's playing with me that against me. But when you absolutely have to have someone defend one on one,

33:33you're not going to have decent defenders. You keep telling me... You keep telling me they're on one on one. I think they're falling. I think they're falling. They're as good as calling with us. So, stop talking about that. I'm not talking about it. I'm saying paying one player 11% of your salary cap is an overspend, an overreach, a desperation. Too much. What else do you want me to say? Because you're not getting in for nothing as well. Tom, you're going to have to satisfy what I'd like with the trade. You're not getting in for nothing. They've got a win flags. Okay. They're in a position where they've got... They've got Marcus Bontenbelle, in his prime for another three years. So, no, you've got to get a... What I don't want to... What I don't want, because their list is great. I don't want anyone ever for moving forward to talk about the Western Bulldogs' depth of their list. Of course you're going to talk about it. You can't talk about it. Of course you can. You've got the best... You've got five of the best 15 players in the league in your team. Just 15. You're paying one player, two million dollars. Doesn't mean you can't talk about the quality of the list of the depths. You can't get quality of the paying one player, 11%. Which you're happy to do. So, there's a has to be a flaw in effect to this. Yep. You can't have...

34:34There's not... But rather than taking a million salary cap. I'd rather take the risk and sit on my hands and watch him go to Jolong and have to play against him for the next three years. So, when you talk about Bucco, I'm going to say, well, you can't go and get Harris Andrews because you're paying butters 11% of your cap. Well, Bucco can't assign for five years. It's significant because he's close to Zach Butters. Team English, he's locked in. That was important as well to project stability. We're going to get you back. Okay. You hold for that. We're going to get you back. Have a good deal done for next thing. We will talk about that on the other side of this. Kane and King. Fire on! I was great to be down at the Paul Manon Friday Glen delivering coffees like the legend that he is. So, check them out if you're looking for premium accommodation. Can we do a Twitter poll, please? Yep. On which side of the argument the listeners are sitting? I don't think it can be a bulldog supporter. That's the only problem like they're going to do it. The discussion is not necessarily about the dogs. It's about bringing a player in on that figure, impacting the bottom six of your selected 23.

35:34Would you still take the risk to do that? Or would you try and fatten the bottom six? What does Bond get? Is it because that now make him the most underpaid player in the league? If he's on 1.2, Butters is on 2. Yeah, I mean this has been Chris Fagg and is talking point for a long time. Absolutely. And they've probably had to overpay themselves with Zach Bailey. So, we'll check the folks about that. RSN and SCN Track Witnesses are off to giddy up with Garathole. Tom Morris with more New Jax.