[Applause] hello hello sers welcome back to the YouTube channel welcome to the first official trade Talk video of 2024 obviously it was going to be about Josh battle and that situation so Jack steel has just spoken up in an article that um has just been posted and makes for interesting reading I'll read a quote from it um we can decipher This Together put it in the comments um but he said so the article says but steel who joined the Saints the same time as battle in late 2016 said his teammates seem genuinely torn and could yet stay quote absolutely I think he is still weighing it up steel said he loves the club and he has been part of this club as long as I have so I know if he did leave he would be pretty sad about it so I'm hoping he doesn't depart I hope he stays he's a valuable asset to us and what we are trying to do as a team hopefully it swings our way but we will wait and see we love him he's a star that's what Jack steel has to say about Josh battle there's been mixed feelings across the fan base um it seems to be changing drastically this is the time of season isn't it Silly Season we don't know what to believe we don't know what's news we don't know what's real all that sort of stuff so last week we all know leading up to this game that he wanted to run through the banner uh with his daughter and people kind of I guess saw that as proof yeah he's leaving he wants to run out and have one final moment as a SAA with his daughter to basically cap off his final game and I believe the AFL said that they basically said no you can't do that because it's a non-m milestone game um I'm not sure if he still did it um someone said he might have I honestly can't remember what he did when he ran out so confirm it in the comments but I mean I wouldn't necessarily read too much into that you could misconstrue that and think that it's for Father's Day coming up and he's just wanting to do that and maybe he's never done that before and it's a complete coincidence or some people will flip it and say well no that's him just kind of hinting that he's fully committed to the club and it's a family and we're together and this and that now at the end of the day until it's announced that's what it's going to be but the Crux of it is that um Hawthorne from the from the word go the talk was that hawthor was offering enough that we would get first round compensation and everyone was pretty excited about that obviously devastated to hear that we might be losing you know our our second best defender behind Cal wil to be honest our best Center half back a real only Center half back um and he's only really hitting the peak of his powers now so to lose him at this point in time to a team especially like hawthor are on the up and when you know they're kind of one of the teams we're competing with to really get into that top eight top four situation it would hurt I know he's a lifelong Hawks fan his email has got Hawthorn in it from a kid you know I think he's got potentially a tattoo Hawthorn tattooo I don't know um so yes there's a lot of persuasion towards the Hawks and obvious ly the way they're playing they're playing finals that doesn't help our cause but what helps our cause is our form in the back end of the season um the fact that we might not get a first round pick at the moment from the talk so apparently Hawthorne offered 850 over 6 years I believe um and that doesn't trigger band One compensation I think that is forcing silda into some sort of action I think we've probably gone in and I'd like to think we've gone in and maybe up that to the 900 Mark and whether that forces Hawthorne's hand and they need to go overs and we trigger that band One compensation which means we'd get what pick seven and eight or 8 and N whatever it may be and or he decides to stay because at the end of the day we are going somewhere we're not middling we don't have some sort of optimism I think the back end of the year finishing eight wins from the final 12 games is really important to not only make his decision a little bit more difficult um in making cuz if we had have just Fallen away and finished bottom three I mean it's a no-brainer on his side but the fact that we've turned the corner a little bit at form line we won some unexpected games against some pretty good opposition the culture seems to be really strong and um you know that can help to keep players like him but also to maybe entice some players from other clubs so that's really important but I put it to the viewers of this video what is the ideal situation is the draft pick more important or do you think keeping players like Josh battle who a lot of people see as that sort of heart and soul player you know a lot of Premiership sides need these He's not unheralded cuz I mean he's being talked up and he you know clubs want him and um you know he's demanding quite a lot of money because of his season his last couple of seasons have been excellent um but he's got that sort like I've met him I've spoken to him I've interviewed him he's just an awesome guy so those are the sort of players you want to keep at your Club you know it's not just oh well we might get a draft pick and it's you know that's going to be great for us but also we talk about that culture piece Ross L mentioned it in his press conference after the win against Carlton it's a culture piece and you need certain types of personalities at a club um to have that culture that can then build into a successful team on and off the field right so losing Josh battle we don't know how detrimental that could be until you know if it happens or not we don't know and if we lose him and we get picked 25 or 28 or whatever they're saying it might be because at the at this point in time we the only thing silda can do is offer him more money we can't make him stay he can choose Hawthorne even if we offer him a million dollars a year it's his choice at the end of the day we have no saying it it's not like last year with Gresham where we had a say this year is completely different it's out of our hands which is unfortunate but our form the players coming out and saying they love him and acknowledging he's a star obviously it could just all be fluff and alluding to the fact that maybe we've already lost him but um I like to think we're just going to make his decision a little bit more difficult because we all love him you know every silda supporter out there love seeing him play for our club I'd hate to see him leave I mean I'm of the boat that if it's not going to trigger a ban one compensation that we need to do everything we can to keep him and not to say that I wanted him to leave just to get that but I mean if you're losing a really valuable player you might as well get something really good in return and quite frankly I don't think what's being rumored to be coming back the other way is worth it um I think it's more important to keepy players like him especially when he's 25 26 and just hitting his Peak um and our backline is so strong with him they him Wilkey and duges they've looked really good for the last 10 weeks together jailed they all bring something different to the table um and there's just this amazing chemistry in that back half between these players which you know we'd have to sort of rehash and rejig um to fill that spot if he did leave so put it in the comments saying it's just a bit of a quick video here to talk about the Josh battle situation there's not really much else to report on that obviously trade talk I will bring as much information as I can um to this topic and other other topics I do know that Tomlinson from Melbourne who's only played like what 15 games in Four Seasons that could be one that we're looking at um he only played the one game this season he's 31 I think that's a Hail Mary in case we lose Josh battle some people think Ahi could replace Josh battle if he does leave I'm still not sure about that he's to me AR is still very much more like wilky where he can intercept and run off I don't really see Josh battle like Ari as a like for like Josh battle replacement perhaps C perhaps C goes down back who knows um he can go fullback dugle Howard go Center halfback Kell wil do his thing there's there are ways around it um but I always think you know the the keep posts the fullback Center halfback full forward rcks they're so much harder to find they're so much harder to get right to lose them hurts so uh let's see how this goes there could well be some traction by the end of the week Hawthorne obviously don't play for another fortnite so whether he waits whether the decision is on hold for whatever happens with Hawthorne I don't know but if he wants to stay you'd imagine in the next week um we'll hear some sort of confirmation so that's trade talk on Josh battle at the moment saying as Jack still coming out saying he loves him surprise surprise the captain coming out and saying he loves a valued member of the club hopefully maybe that's code for hey maybe he's going to stay I don't know that's that's me being blindly optimistic but we'll wait and see there's obviously going to be Dylan Shield news and all that so stay tuned for all that and obviously um all the content out during the week so thanks again sers comment your thoughts let me know how you feel about this situation and uh we'll chat very soon no doubt about it take care and as always go your Mighty sers see you guys