To trade or not to trade: Shakespeare’s hot take on the Gibbs non-deal

To trade, or not to trade, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outraged fandom,

Or to take arms against a sea of Victorians,

And by opposing end them: to win, too deep… in September

No more; and by a trade, to say we contend

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That footy is heir to? ‘Tis a consumption

Devoutly to be wished. To win, too deep… in September,

Too deep, perchance to dream… of Gibbs ; aye, there’s the rub,

For in that deep of Bryce, what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this fortnight’s toil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of season’s strife:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of journos,

The fan page’s wrong, the proud man’s caw

The pangs of despised clubs, the Commission’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy hot takes,

When he himself might his meme make

With a bare account? Who would frustration bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of next season,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No supporter returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us resent those players we have,

And fly to others that we know not of.

Thus impatience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Blues,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their beliefs turn awry,

And cry the name of Gibbs. Soft you now,

The fair Bryce? Gun, in thy wiki bio

Be all my sins remembered.

 

The Brown’s Notes version

The Adelaide Crows failed to complete a trade for Bryce Gibbs today. Gibbs on a long contract with Carlton wished to return home for family reasons. Adelaide made an offer that Gibbs’s manager deemed fair but was not willing to meet Carlton’s demand for the first round draft pick plus a player carrying almost as much value as Gibbs does at this point in his career (or in the case of Jake Lever a player of higher value). Both teams walked away – Carlton unwilling to part with a contracted player and Adelaide unwilling to pay the sort of overs the Blues deemed acceptable. Adelaide is not diminished as much as they would have been had they met Carlton’s demands, so chill out. No-one knows what the future holds.

 

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About Dave Brown

Upholding the honour of the colony. "Play up Norwoods!"

Comments

  1. John Butler says

    Hmmm,

    So Jake Lever is worth more than Gibbs?

    Explains why the trade didn’t happen in a nutshell.

  2. Dave I have no problem with Carlton wanting overs for a contracted player and I agree with the Crows not bending over and selling the farm as for the Crows seemingly having no other plan
    ( judging by Justin Reid on the radio tonight he was pathetic ) so we enter season 2017 lacking a midfielder to support,Sloane mmm ( v clever,Dave )

  3. Absolutely John. Lever is a 20 year old first rounder, already has 36 games under his belt as a key defender and has a much rarer skills set than Gibbs as a freakishly creative key defender. He has the best part of 15 seasons left in his career and is a good chance to be the next captain of the club. Gibbs possibly has three to four good years left and his skills set in terms of his career at Carlton does not clearly demonstrate he would actually be the Crows’ missing piece. Damn straight Lever is more valuable than Gibbs at the moment, let alone Lever plus a first round draft pick. Carlton appeared to have no real intent to trade fairly for Gibbs, as was their right – apparently they also asked for Sloane at one point (again, more valuable on his own than Gibbs). The Crows did the right thing in not making a silly deal. My confusion is why so many Crows fans see it as a sign of weakness on the part of the club.

    We have midfielders to support Sloane, Rulebook, providing the Crouches take another step up and some of the younger brigade get their chance to run next season. Also, we still have a first round draft pick and who knows what that will deliver. Reid’s delivery was poor but the rationale is not terrible – imagining that the perfect midfielder was just a surplus player and a draft pick or two away was a pipe dream. The Crows’ strategy may turn out to be wrong but I reckon over the last couple of seasons they’ve earned the right for it to be proven one way or the other.

  4. Burnt by the Balfours deal in the past, but reckon picks 4 & 20 would’ve got the Gibbs deal done. Any interest in Vilis from Norwood?

  5. Haha, very good Mike. Sadly the deal was flaky from the start with a bit of pepper added to hide the fact it was lukewarm at best.

  6. David Fordyce says

    Great poem.

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