Awesome.

vintage enyaw

Just remember fellas. We're about to hit off season. That's when all the weirdos will come out of the woodwork!

Now that it's the end of the season and with the draft ahead as well as trade period I'm going to have a look at our list.

Dunn: I always rated Dunn and thought that his best position would be up forward but he has proved me wrong. A good player that is playing career best football.

Watts: May have good games where he finds the ball and uses it well but I'd rather him attack the footy and man any day of the week. Would've liked to have seen the back of him a couple of seasons ago but fresh coaches have fresh hope for watts but he never comes through.

Jamar, Jones, Terlich, Fitzpatrick, Michie, Newton, Kent, Mckenzie, Trengove, Dawes, Pedersen, Riley, Bail (13 players there that are all good vfl players but will never be more than list fillers . Cut them all excluding maybe Dawes for Hogan backup and Trengove and Kent. I'd also cut Grimes and Watts regardless of their contract situation.

Interesting about Dunn and Watts.

They have a lot in common. Both players who have played every position but never owned one. Will probably take Watts 10 +years for the penny to drop too.

Kent has A grade attributes but has never sustained a stretch of games. Gets injured regularly hence poor tank. He has to be a question mark.

Don't really disagree with much.

Now that it's the end of the season and with the draft ahead as well as trade period I'm going to have a look at our list.

Grimes: Not sure why he was ever captain to be honest. Great leadership qualities but doesn't lead by example on the field. Needs to improve decision making and turnovers but is a fringe player at best.

I don't understand what this guy has to do to make some people happy? Since coming back from his injury he has been nothing but quality, has even been in the top 6 players recently. He deserves to stay.

Edited September 8, 20159 yr by Barra17

Just remember fellas. We're about to hit off season. That's when all the weirdos will come out of the woodwork!

Cue Satyricon Home

Wow. People can't even read. I said Kent and Trengove to stay on the list. People need to take off their rose coloured glasses glasses. We have a long way to go. Sure we had some good wins but we also lost to carlton, essendon and st killed twice in pathetic efforts. Let's not get comfortable with a win over GWS. Stretch's foot skills are no where near as good as Salem's. I don't like the ball in stretch's hands but I do in Salem's.

Grimes has always been too poor in decision making. You need your defenders to be good decision makers. Grimes will cost you 2 or 3 goals a game from poor decisions.

Interesting about Dunn and Watts.

They have a lot in common. Both players who have played every position but never owned one. Will probably take Watts 10 +years for the penny to drop too.

Kent has A grade attributes but has never sustained a stretch of games. Gets injured regularly hence poor tank. He has to be a question mark.

Don't really disagree with much.

Thank you. Some people here just are so biased they can't see the truth.

Wow. People can't even read. I said Kent and Trengove to stay on the list. People need to take off their rose coloured glasses glasses. We have a long way to go. Sure we had some good wins but we also lost to carlton, essendon and st killed twice in pathetic efforts. Let's not get comfortable with a win over GWS. Stretch's foot skills are no where near as good as Salem's. I don't like the ball in stretch's hands but I do in Salem's.

Grimes has always been too poor in decision making. You need your defenders to be good decision makers. Grimes will cost you 2 or 3 goals a game from poor decisions.

Billy started us off several times yesterday, thought he was good Sunday.

Stretch hit basically every target by foot yesterday.

Pretty much every game. No a long kick but a neat kick and decision maker.

2016 lineup while I'm in a positive frame of mind.

B: Frost Dunn Jetta

HB: Salem McDonald White

C: Stretch Jones Vince

HF: Kent Hogan Petracca

F: Garlett Dawes Harmes

R: Gawn Viney Tyson

I: Brayshaw Trengove vandenBerg Michie

E: Lumumba Garland Neal-Bullen Kennedy-Harris Newton Pedersen King

(Unknown: Howe, Watts, Grimes, Toumpas)

Midfield depth still an issue so trading in another quality mid will help a great deal, but a hell of a lot to get excited over about that side regardless.

Edited September 8, 20159 yr by P-man

2016 lineup while I'm in a positive frame of mind.

B: Frost Dunn Jetta

HB: Salem McDonald White

C: Stretch Jones Vince

HF: Kent Hogan Petracca

F: Garlett Dawes Harmes

R: Gawn Viney Tyson

I: Brayshaw Trengove vandenBerg Michie

E: Lumumba Garland Neal-Bullen Kennedy-Harris Newton Pedersen King

(Unknown: Howe, Watts, Grimes, Toumpas)

Midfield depth still an issue so trading in another quality mid will help a great deal, but a hell of a lot to get excited over about that side regardless.

I don't mind the way that you think however:

1) I might swap Dunn and Frost

2) I see that you haven't been able to make a call on the emergencies (as distinct from the interchange)

3) ditto comment applies to the four (unknown) players that we cannot assume will all leave

4) interesting that the only player that you haven't promoted/retained is O. McDonald

Edited September 9, 20159 yr by CBDees

4) interesting that the only rookie that you haven't promoted/retained is O. McDonald

He's not a rookie. He was ND #53.

I'm sure there will be at least a couple of imported players in next year's regular team if Roos' comment that "we will be active in the trade period" is true.

I am not sure that I would rush to offload Michie and Newton. They were good contributors to yesterday's win and are good depth players.

I agree you have to watch Michie closely all game to see his impact. Far from our worst and he knows that you have to actually clear the ball wide as compared to our other midfielders who handpass 1 metre to a guy under pressure. Definitely a keeper.

Newton is a smart footballer and know how to find goals keep and develop as small forward/half forward.Others to go before him.

I think a healthy Frost really allows us to move players around. He could really put pressure on anyone not performing forward or back. With Oscar pushing through we might see some changes to a very settled back 6 next season.

If we recruit Bennell, our pre trade and draft midfield list looks like this:

Vince, Jones, Viney, Kent, Brayshaw, Petracca,Trengove, Bennell, Tyson, Vandenbeg,

with emergencies

Newton, Michie and probably Toumpas

The starting group is beginning to take shape, but probably only one of Michie, Newton or Toumpas will make it through to a steady place in the team.

I am beginning to feel OK about our midfield for the first time in ages

Dunn: I always rated Dunn and thought that his best position would be up forward but he has proved me wrong. A good player that is playing career best football.

But he's 192cm....

This is Melbourne and Demonlanders time of year to shine.

I'm quite bullish about our squad after what was a really, really outstanding 2014 draft/off-season.

Hopefully Taylor/Viney/Roos can orchestrate something not too far off what they achieved in 2014 and hopefully pick up what I see as our four main priorities:

1) A qualify outside/inside midfield speedster - maybe Bennell if he passes the no dic'heads policy.

2) A skilled tall forward option - maybe Lynch

3) A quick tall defender (assumes Howe leaves) - maybe Plowman

4) Another left-foot medium defender - this maybe via draft, although I'd be rapt if I heard we made a play for contracted injured Eagle Liam Duggan, but can't see this happening.

The good thing is that Gawn's arrival as a player mid-season solved one of our biggest problems and means we can prioritise other areas.

We also don't need another small forward anymore - Petracca and Kent will be like new recruits next season anyway.

If our kids improve how I envisage, then I reckon we will be surprise finalists next year because I really think we are about to see a changing of the guard at the top - Freo/Sydney/Hawthorn/North and Geelong all have serious speed issues that they can only cover by free-agency stealing.

Obviously Roosy may need to spend the off-season tweaking his stoppage-based gameplan which is now a little out of date. But I'm sure he and Tammy will watch a bit of US sport over the X-mas break and come back refreshed and willing to try a couple of things differently.

I don't know if we will be able to get a 'skilled tall forward' but I think the other 3 are definitely possible.

I think we should look at another forward. A lot of people have very high hopes for Kent but I wouldn't want to put too much pressure on the guy.

Would have been nice to get Tom Lynch as a medium forward who can mark well. I think we will look around for a similarish type player. Curnow could even be that player.

forward line for me at the moment looks like

F: Garlett Hogan ??

HF: Watts Pederson Kent

I know there are players who can slot in to the forward line ANB, Petracca, JKH, Newton, T-Mac, Howe if he stays etc.

But I think another consistant goal kicker (like Garlett's avg) would be really great.

I would hope if we can get one more marking forward it will mean Dawes can become a reserve. If we got real depth Pederson could be too.

Edited September 10, 20159 yr by mongrel

Could also add JKH as that other small if he gets his form back.

So much wrong with this thread. For starters. Dunn has been bog ordinary this year. So much so that Roos acknowledged this with Mike Sheahan recently. How is a feckin awful kick of the football. Stretch on the other hand is a good kick. Kent is a potential gun and Pedersen is a keeper.