Intro what's up everybody Paul here from the Hoops crew and let's talk about an exciting piece of news for cats fans maybe Melbourne fans and a little less so if you're a fan of the West Coast Eagles the news has broken across the last 24 hours that Jake Waterman is potentially weighing up offers from the jalong and Melbourne football clubs and I want to kind of talk with obviously a bit of a jalong bias and focus today upon what he could provide for the cats in the event that he becomes one at the end of season 2024 let's first begin by picking through the news as we know it now this is one of the Fox sports articles that compiles a whole bunch of different things that been going on at the moment um very much a news boiler style piece uh so we've got uh Vic Rivals ready to raid for breakout Eagle now of course there's been a few different players from the West Coast Eagles that have been mentioned in recent in recent days and weeks another one is obviously Tom barass and Sam Mitchell apparently flying out to wa to have a bit of a chat to him it seems like he's probably on the way out for the Eagles and now now I mean he's obviously a key an important Defender for them and now potentially one of their breakout forwards of the season in Jake Waterman is potentially out the door as well so the article Jake Waterman reads West Coast will have to fend off interest from Victorian clubs including jalong and Melbourne to keep breakouts star forward Jake wman Waterman's contracted until the end of 20 2025 signing a deal when his value was much lower than it is now he's reportedly on $400 to $450,000 a year on a cont track that takes him through to free agency but the West reports that the cats and demons are both ramping up their interest in mman perhaps making a move in this pre- agent year before he is freely available in 2025 strategic of course from both clubs and you know very well considered both clubs will reportedly put long-term deals on the table the cat seeking to replace Tom Hawkins who is likely to retire and the demons desperate to bolster their underwhelming forward line wman is said to be seeking a 4 to fiveyear contract he's keeped 44 goals in 16 games this season level with Caron Harry M to sit equal fourth in the Coleman medal race now could we picture Jake Waterman in the blue and white Hoops absolutely and The Cats I think one of the key things I guess one of the key pieces of rationale for the cats is of course what is highlighted in the article here where they talk about the cats looking to replace Tom Hawkins the time is coming and we're getting close whether it ends up being the season or not um regardless of our thoughts it is getting quite close now at this point the Tom for Tom Hawkins in his retirement and um you know they have to start considering what comes next the thing that I find fascinating about this before I kind of envis what it would look like if he would be a cat is this discussion as to whether we need him or not we obviously have Jeremy Cameron who in full flight and he's kind of had some off weeks he's had some ups and downs and those sorts of things of late but in full flight I think in arguably is the best key forward in the competition um he's electric around the ground he can accumulate a lot of the ball it can kick big bags of goals and it can completely pull a game away from a team who's playing better than the cats on any given night you've also got Shannon Neil who's coming through and has been doing a pretty solid job I've been really impressed by what shanon Neil has provided for the cats so far as a young and upcoming forward so to then go and add Jake wman on top well someone's potentially still got to fall out I know we're talking here about replacing Tom Hawkins but right now Shannon Neil is replacing Tom Hawkins and presumably will continue to do so going into the future so I'm curious I guess as to the the Fox Sports rationale here uh jong's rationale if that is in fact what they are looking to do to replace Tom Hawkins you're like okay well shanon Neil is doing that so what's the plan for shanon Neil and I'm not saying that we're trading him or anything like that I I don't think the club is considering that in the slightest but at the same time if Jake bman comes in does shanon Neil go oh all right I'm out I necessarily blame him if that's the case unless the club has put forward a really coherent plan for what that forward line would look like in the event that Jake wman joins it because right now I think and we we've had some games where we've seen Jeremy Cameron Tom Hawkins and Shannon Neil play together and obviously look Tom's been a little bit out of sorts at different points this year that's probably compounded things but I I think getting that Dynamic right has been a bit of a challenge they could also be looking at the three key forward um forward you know key forward kind of forward line similar to what we're seeing with the dogs which ultimately cut us to Ribbons in recent weeks where they had Sam Darcy they had Jamari ugle haen and of course Aaron Norton and there was nothing jalong could do about it I don't think there's many defense defensive lines at any club in the competition that can handle three high class tall forwards let alone someone like a sh Neil for example who's got some serious height on him like Ruckman style height so maybe that's part of thinking as well that maybe they're finding a little bit of inso from what uh from what the dogs are doing and what the dogs did to us with that forward line and going okay well maybe we can create that ourselves with three really Dynamic forwards and so if that's the rationale then I kind of get it um and I wonder and maybe with Hawk coming back in the next couple of weeks or being available for selection in the next couple of weeks I wonder if that's the tack that they're going to take going into the into the finals as well because the dog certainly I mean look Jong made some selection de uh decisions that were poor going into that game but uh it might have been a bit of a different story that particular night if we had the full compliment of to forwards available if we had um Tom Hawkins Shannon Neil and Jeremy Cameron all playing in the forward line supported by the cast of Ole Henry and Gary row and Tyson stingle Gran M Brad close etc etc I wonder what that would have done The Dogs for the dogs lineup because they they don't similar to what I said about most clubs in the comp they don't have that many tall key Defenders that can deal with that that much and so maybe they would have flipped some magnets around maybe one of their forwards would have had to come out leveling the contest significantly and you can extrapolate this for every other team in the competition were they to be facing a jalong team in the future that has Jeremy Cameron Jak wman and Shannon Neil in it my hope is that maybe that's what they're thinking and so I guess that's where I kind of see things coming together if he were to join the cats the other half of the scenario of course is the Melbourne football club who's putting together a pitch as well and of course as the article talks about the D's for line is pretty pretty flat um what their salary cap allows them to do though is a whole other thing they obviously have some pretty premium players on the list that are that are costing them a fair bag whether it's Christian Peta uh Max Gorn whether it's um o sorry Clayton Oliver etc etc Stephen May Jake lever they've got some really topend wellaid Talent there and are they in a position to for Jake wman what's likely to be double what his current pay packet is maybe as a minimum if if uh this forward line pitch is kind of what what his future is going to become um you think about the the dog sorry the dogs the D's forward line and we're talking about Jacob van royan who's got buckets of talent and is going to be I think a real like a long-term key forward Prospect for them and is developing into one very very nicely but he doesn't have any support beyond that Ben Brown is is not the player that he was and then it's then it's a bit of a mosquito Fleet around him from there obviously bayy frit does an awesome job Coy Piet does a great job but um in terms of key key forward stocks they're kind of lighted on right now and Jake wman would absolutely fulfill a need so jalong has to contend with an offer from a team who's going to be presumably far more desperate than jalong so then it's about the pitch what can you offer well I I genuinely think and I think most people are seeing it right now the D's are kind of sliding off the cliff a little bit at the moment and part of that is injury part of that is form part of that is a whole range of different circumstances on field and off Jong football club is still buzzing around the top half of the ladder we're still lingering around fourth right now we're we're making a play for fourth on the ladder by the end of this season and you know from there who knows in probably the most even season we've seen in decades the J fo0 Club has a chance Melbourne probably doesn't at this point and so that that's part of the pitch that you're making it's won Players over in the past and it's likely to do so again in the future if we can hold that so my hope is that Jake wman does in fact become a cat sorry to Eagles fans um I think when it when it comes to what that does to the Eagles forward line stocks what it does to their team especially if you factor that they're going to lose Tom brass as well this is a team that's on its knees already and I don't see that getting any better if they lose both of these two players in fact that's a very very lowly spot for them to be in and I feel a bit sympathetic for for Eagles uh fans and and the Eagles uh whole football Department in the event that they lose both of these players even one of them is a devastating loss but to lose two would be awful for them but of course football's a business the mechanisms are in place that allow for free agency for trades those sort of things and if if you know we're going for him as a pre- agent then that means that a trade's got to be put forward and you know the Eagles especially if they're dealing with the c after the Tim the Tim Kelly thing have every right to charge a premium on their key forward and I hope that they do and I hope that jalong is willing to pay the price because he's proven to be an a pretty incredible forward um a lot of people were calling him Wayne Cary early in the season he's he earned that based on his form at the time anyway cats fans let me know what you think how does this fit in the p in the puzzle alongside Bailey Smith who obviously being touted as a future cat as well can the cats make all of these things work can we pay the price can we find the picks can we do what's required to pull both of these sorts of players into the jalong football club it's going to be tough but I hope that they can pull it off let us know in the comments what you think let us know on social media the Hoops crew let me know what you think at Paul James games check out our patreon where you can get one week of exclusive access if you're not already a patron one week of exclusive access to all the stuff that we have there to kind of try before you buy and then for the cost of one coffee for the month for an entire month like five bucks six bucks you can join the patreon and continue to enjoy that exclusive and Early Access content until next time cats fans hopefully Jake Wardman a cat let's watch this space closely a bit like the Patrick dfield story of all those years ago we play them in the final home and away game for the season in jalong maybe the the cats fans will start applauding him just like we did danger let me know what you think anyway thanks a lot for watching remain you long strong and I'll see you later