Billings

[older saint]

Reporting Melbourne are interested
Swap Billings, 21,40 for 11 and 42 ( makes billing worth pick 41)

[skeptic]

First round pick + Billings and a second rounder!!!

I don’t think I’d do that deal if I was Melbourne.

[B.M]

Reported as being a good deal by Twomey and that idiot he spruikes with

Billings for a late pick plus we pick up half his wage

Good deal for Melbourne- they get an AFL quality player for nothing whilst we pick up his salary

Exactly what do we get out of that deal?

A late pick?
lose a AFL standard player and pay for him to play at Melbourne

We aren’t getting him off our books - we will still be paying for him!


It is appalling list management if we do that!!!

[B.M]

I also think we lost out on the Gresham deal

But took the hit

Why are we taking hits on a player In contract

[skeptic]

Reported as being a good deal by Twomey and that idiot he spruikes with

Billings for a late pick plus we pick up half his wage

Good deal for Melbourne- they get an AFL quality player for nothing whilst we pick up his salary

Exactly what do we get out of that deal?

A late pick?
lose a AFL standard player and pay for him to play at Melbourne

We aren’t getting him off our books - we will still be paying for him!


It is appalling list management if we do that!!!

Sounds atrocious if true.

I’d rather keep him

[MC Gusto]

Not a chance pick 11 is on the table. Tell him he’s dreaming

[Vortex]

Reported as being a good deal by Twomey and that idiot he spruikes with

Billings for a late pick plus we pick up half his wage

Good deal for Melbourne- they get an AFL quality player for nothing whilst we pick up his salary

Exactly what do we get out of that deal?

A late pick?
lose a AFL standard player and pay for him to play at Melbourne

We aren’t getting him off our books - we will still be paying for him!


It is appalling list management if we do that!!!

You ever play for a club that had a player or players who had the shytes with club? They tend to be like cancer.

[shanegrambeau]

..

I’d rather keep him

Why?
Is he a ‘quality player’ as BM suggests? Now? After back surgery?

It isn’t JB circa 2016..

Maybe he could be handy?
Is that what you suggest?

I’d be interested to know what people with better football brains and eyes than brilliant Shane think about this.

a can he leap?
B can he twist?
C can he burst away?

Maybe yes?
Maybe he would have been as good as Mason Wood had he been available. Wood wasn’t that great after his shoulder went, but with no DMac and JB he had to bravely soldier on.

[Vortex]

Double

[CQ SAINT]

So, do we have one more move?

[cwrcyn]

Billings is skilful but one-paced. He has no turn of speed. He's a cruiser, much like Acres. The difference is that Acres is powerful and can contest better in the air.

I like Billings, but he's been cruelled by injury since early 2020 after some really good form. Has a chronic back issue, a chronic foot issue, so maybe that was a factor in Lyon wanting him moved on. Lyon also saw him only as a small forward and due to his lack of pace and defensive pressure he was going to be on the fringes.

I hope he has a successful time at Melbourne. Seems like a very modest and likeable character

[B.M]

Never said quality player

I said AFL quality player

There is a big difference

He will 9/10 be better than a late draft pick

He isn’t a cancer - consummate professional

2016 wasn’t the last time me he played well - 2019 he finished 4th in the best and Fairest

Why are a better team than us interested in him?
Because he can play very good afl footy if fit

[B.M]

I cannot stomach paying someone to play somewhere else

[cwrcyn]

People have always judged Billings by what he should have been as a pick 3, not the reality of what kind of player he actually is.

A lot of people have been attacking his output, hiscourage etc.

The guy has been a real pofessional, who has has sh#t luck with injuries for much of his career. Some of character assassination I'm reading from our fans on Bigfooty is pretty nauseating.

The reality is that he's a competent and skilful AFL player with neat skills who reads the game very well. Very much an outside player, but with the game shifting to an emphasis on outside players with real leg speed, his value has diminished

[maverick]

What makes you say he was a consummate professional?
From the outside he never worked hard enough in my eyes?

[Beno88]

If we pay Billings to play elsewhere, does that fall under our salary cap?

If so, it could be a handy way to achieve the minimum total player payments, which I think is 95% of the cap.

It would help ensure we meet the minimum without inflating existing contracts, and would give us plenty of room to move at the end of 2024.

[Vortex]

I cannot stomach paying someone to play somewhere else

I agree but can you stomach having a teammate who is completely open about not wanting to be on the team?

You just can’t have that in any team sport especially at the elite level. Goes without saying.

Clearly billing’s presence in the club become untenable.

[CQ SAINT]

The consumate professional was pulled up in 2016 or 17 by Riewoldt and dropped by Richo for claiming to be fit but appearing to be avoiding tackling.
The consumate professionals tackle, if they deem themselves fit. Riewoldt was instilling standards.
Riewoldt got retired, Joey got retired. Richo got sacked, Newnes played 100 in a row, Seb Ross was our best player by a margin, Jack Steven was doing whatever he liked. Ross and Geary became standard setters and if you trained hard and maintained stats, you were earning big cash.
Billings isn't and never was worth more than $600 a season. He is probably worth $400 now and we copped another couple of $100k on the $1m we just lost on his last 11 games.

I wish him all the best.

[meher baba]

I cannot stomach paying someone to play somewhere else

I agree but can you stomach having a teammate who is completely open about not wanting to be on the team?

You just can’t have that in any team sport especially at the elite level. Goes without saying.

Clearly billing’s presence in the club become untenable.

But how much is Billings's absence going to be worth to us? I'm not sure there's going to be a deal that doesn't hurt us.

It's crazy that things have been allowed to get to this point. Billings would have been worth retaining given Gresham's departure and (in my mind) the uncertainty that Higgins can recover his best form following his disappointing second half of the 2023 season. We could potentially find ourselves with fewer players who can fill the small forward role than we would ideally like.

[Sainternist]

Bloody glad to finally see the back of him. We wait an entire decade for that milquetoast to come good and he never delivered. Good riddance to him!

I cannot stomach paying someone to play somewhere else

Maybe it’s time to put yourself out of your own misery? You could apply for euthanasia

[Vortex]

We could potentially find ourselves with fewer players who can fill the small forward role than we would ideally like.

Weren’t we overstocked, isn’t Higgo our number one small forward with Buttler as his backup?

[meher baba]

We could potentially find ourselves with fewer players who can fill the small forward role than we would ideally like.

Weren’t we overstocked, isn’t Higgo our number one small forward with Buttler as his backup?

I've never been totally sold on Higgins. Inspiring back story, endearing personality, good overhead for a small man, and quite a smart footballer. But, as a small forward who doesn't tackle or chase all that much, he's really got only one job: convert opportunities into goals. And, for mine, he's not an A grade player in that department.

[cwrcyn]

Silvagni just on trade radio. Said he hasn't even spoken to Melbourne yet about Billings, so whoever posted that a deal had been finalised is wrong. Silvagni also said that Shiel will be at Essendon next yesr

[magnifisaint]

The ether conjures up a lot of bulls***!

[Scollop]

Higgins won the lottery when King and Membrey were out preseason. He became the number 1 marking and lead up target in our forward line and his figures for 2023 flatter the real value of the player

If you have a look at how many times we targetted him inside 50 and how many opportunities he had to kick goals (i.e his % accuracy) he is bog average imo