Fev at Carlton?
Not necessarily because of a "grass is always greener" mentality in terms of what we could obtain in return for trading him, but because of just having had enough of his indiscretions, poor attitude and inability to use his head at the most simple of times.
I don't buy the idea that he is "truly a Carlton man", at least not any more than any other player thats been traded from their team before. Any others on here who attended the 2005 B&F count, would have remembered his efforts to sway attendees to "follow him to Richmond". Not to mention the escapades following the final siren on Friday night.
Nor do I subscribe to the idea that he'll turn it around, or at the very least, will do it far too late. The bloke is 27, with perhaps 5 years left. When exactly is it all going to come together?
To look at it from the aforementioned "grass is always greener" side, I'm not necessarily interested in players we can trade for, as it's all fairly relative and interchangeable. Instead, I prefer to see it as a more preferable way to invest the 850k a year that would be freed up by his departure. I see it as similiar to how Hawthorn offloaded Everitt. Sydney offered up players (which in hindsight, given the career trajectory of messrs Saddington and Powell, was very well played), and instead took draft picks. This measure was of course assisted by an unforseen improvement in Robbie Campbell, however, who's to say that a similiar improvement would not occur with perhaps a Hartlett, an o'hAilpin, Edwards, Kreuzer, etc?
Whilst some may believe that having a full forward who can kick 100 goals a year is a necessity to ultimate success, our current situation of having scored 1468 points for the year puts us on part with Sydney (1431), who have been without their key forward, Barry Hall for the most part of the year, (if not physically, then certainly mentally), Adelaide (1406), who have struggled for a key forward since the departure of Modra, and yet consistently been a top 4 team since, and Richmond (1556) who have moved their key avenue to goal in Richardson, up the ground, and relied on relatively unproven forwards in Hughes and Riewoldt for theirs?
Although I advocate the eventual Fevola departure, I'm not entirely against the resigning of Fevola, although, if the current idea is to trade him, it is a certainly a mixed bag. On one hand, resigning him ensures that if you were to trade him, you eliminate the potential of Fev walking and nominating for the PSD. On the other you're effectively eliminating a large chunk of potential suitors by naming a set price, unless you're willing to offer to pay a % of his contract. However, should Fev resign, it also means that he must agree to any potential trade, further diluting the pool of available suitors, with the target club having to be one that fits Fev's criteria and also has the draft picks/salary cap space to fit him in.
That latter aspect brings a touch of interest to the middle table finishers (i.e: those not tanking). With Essendon and Richmond making respective late charges for the finals, and the Kangaroos/Saints destined to finish thereabouts. One can't help but wonder whether or not if a like-for-like swap for Fevola was to be considered, the desired outcome of the last 7 games would again be looked at as losing, in order to finish 12th/13th, and get a decent enough draft pick to package with Fevola, perhaps with downgrading the pick in mind.
Like looking at a middle range player hitting his strides, one also has to factor in if Fev's value will ever be higher? I doubt it.
I'm not into speculating about X pick or Y player in return, but certainly I'm all for the eventual ending of the Fevola/Carlton partnership at the end of this season, whether it be for Fevola the individual's flaws or what Fevola the individual attracts in return from other clubs. Something tells me I'm not the only one either.
