1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

only played a half

He should be getting 6 touches a quarter at that level, at a minimum, while playing midfield. 
 

6 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

He should be getting 6 touches a quarter at that level, at a minimum, while playing midfield. 
 

If BigFooty is to believed, his off season made Clayton’s issues seem tame.

It’s been a very abrupt drop off

6 minutes ago, BW511 said:

If BigFooty is to believed, his off season made Clayton’s issues seem tame.

It’s been a very abrupt drop off

I’ve heard very similar and I don’t read BigFooty. 
Hard to see him retained on the list beyond this season. 

2 hours ago, Bleasey as that said:

There’s no debating our list is devoid of a genuine experienced mature ruckman. I could talk about that for days.

 

But you are clearly ill informed on Fullarton. And haven’t shown anything to prove “a ruck is his intended role”….

He is playing 95% Ruck for the past few weeks as his form is good and the FD needed to make sure that he could do the ruck role. 
We already know that he can play as a forward - I think he kicked 40+ goals for Brisbane in the VFL last year.

We have SO MANY forwards.

Jeffo, Sesto, BBB, Schache, Fullarton, Verrall, Kentfield, McAdam. 
with most of these being key/tall forwards.

This is not even counting, some of the small forwards, such as Billings, Spargo, Tholstrup, and the incumbents in the AFL side.

Meanwhile, Verrall, who has shown he can ruck against AFL level opposition (Fort, Campbell, Naismith, Ryan, Meek…) is getting 5-8 mins a quarter on ball.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see another team (Crows? Port? Pies?) offer him a deal. 
 

From memory Will Verrall had 26 hit outs last week?

Only saw the first quarter last week - Verrall seemed to be getting a lot of the ball, but must have dropped off afterwards.
Just looked up the stats and he had 28 hitouts to Fort’s 23, and Farris-White had 11 to Smith’s 21.
Looks like we got smashed by the Bris onballers. Think I heard Bill only had a half, but since the injuries earlier this year we are seriously missing big bodied VFL onballers. 
The dozens of forwards we have just can’t get any supply! 😳

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

I’ve heard very similar and I don’t read BigFooty. 
Hard to see him retained on the list beyond this season. 

I would say there is virtually no chance he is on our list next year, lucky to be on it this year. 

Just now, ANG13 said:

I would say there is virtually no chance he is on our list next year, lucky to be on it this year. 

The only thing that may work in his favour is that we already will have a large list turnover. They may keep him on if he’s willing to take a small contract, as we do lack depth in the midfield.

He is not a bad depth player, but culturally he’s a liability. 

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

The only thing that may work in his favour is that we already will have a large list turnover. They may keep him on if he’s willing to take a small contract, as we do lack depth in the midfield.

He is not a bad depth player, but culturally he’s a liability. 

I will be as shocked as seeing WCW in the Essendon cheer squad as Hunter being on our list next year. I won’t be surprised if he retires in the next few weeks though. 

Just now, ANG13 said:

I will be as shocked as seeing WCW in the Essendon cheer squad as Hunter being on our list next year. I won’t be surprised if he retires in the next few weeks though. 

He may well retire especially if he has another calf injury.

Not sure how we fill all the list space we are likely to have, especially as we don’t currently hold a second round pick. 
At the very least we will have spots left by Gus, Smith and a retiring Ben Brown (can’t see him getting another contract). Schache is unlikely to have his contract renewed. Then you have Tomlinson as well, and that’s not even taking into account that Tmac may retire (hopefully not, but he was set to retire heading into this season), plus other delistings such as Hunter.

Given we rarely pick beyond round 3 of the draft, we will need to find some decent free agents or get some trades happening to fill those vacancies. 
At least we have debuted plenty of youngsters this season to allow us to make some good calls on their future. I was sure AMW would be delisted, but he’s proved me totally wrong!

4 hours ago, kozzyisalegend said:

so mid season draft is all nothing picks is it now?

Yes.

It is a selection from the players who weren't good enough to get drafted last year, including the rookie draft).

It is basically a delayed rookie selection after you see a bit of exposed form and development as an under 19.

15 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

He may well retire especially if he has another calf injury.

Not sure how we fill all the list space we are likely to have, especially as we don’t currently hold a second round pick. 
At the very least we will have spots left by Gus, Smith and a retiring Ben Brown (can’t see him getting another contract). Schache is unlikely to have his contract renewed. Then you have Tomlinson as well, and that’s not even taking into account that Tmac may retire (hopefully not, but he was set to retire heading into this season), plus other delistings such as Hunter.

Given we rarely pick beyond round 3 of the draft, we will need to find some decent free agents or get some trades happening to fill those vacancies. 
At least we have debuted plenty of youngsters this season to allow us to make some good calls on their future. I was sure AMW would be delisted, but he’s proved me totally wrong!

I’m sure the club (as it has done so well) is managing the list well with what’s is leaving and coming. 
 

My wish list would be 

Out - Schache, BBB (massive thanks) Smith, Gus (champion) leaving 

in - Free agent (hopefully Battle) plus three draft picks. 
 

Melk and TMac deserve another year with current form. Both are competitive and are Benjamin Button types. 
 

The only other change I hope for is a viable second ruckman. Verrall needs another year or two. 

Last 2 seasons trade recruits 

Grundy - traded to Swans after one year   Almost All Australian ruckman for 2024

Hunter, Schache, Billings, Fullarton, McAdam - all playing at Casey  

Hunter and Schache will be delisted in my view. 

 

36 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

 

Not sure how we fill all the list space we are likely to have, especially as we don’t currently hold a second round pick. 

We have Sydney’s 

20 minutes ago, Jeremy said:

We have Sydney’s 

I thought we had their third round? Either way their second round will be quite a late one

5 hours ago, drysdale demon said:

Picket fence kidnapped him

The good oil is that Jeffo had Covid.

17 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I thought we had their third round? Either way their second round will be quite a late one

Yep it was a future second for Grundy that will basically be the start of the third round. If JT really rates this draft I’d be shocked if we’re not aggressive and get back in somehow 

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Last 2 seasons trade recruits 

Grundy - traded to Swans after one year   Almost All Australian ruckman for 2024

Hunter, Schache, Billings, Fullarton, McAdam - all playing at Casey  

Hunter and Schache will be delisted in my view. 

 

Grundy - paid pick 27

Grundy - received future 2nd and pick 46

Hunter - future 3rd round (around pick 50)

Schache - future 4th round pick

Fullarton - pick 47

Billings - future 3rd round pick

McAdam - future 2nd round pick

 

The Grundy trade has basically broken even. Sure it has tipped slightly their way with their good year, but no major damage.

All of the other trades except for McAdam have been for a bag of chips. And they are bags of chips we probably wouldn't have used at the draft anyway. 

Given the cost was so low, the trades were probably worth the gamble, with high upside if any of those players turned it around at Melbourne at virtually no cost.

McAdam hasn't performed yet and we dropped down the ladder, so that trade looks like it might be a bust (although make a prelim and the cost decreases significantly). But McAdam has found some form at VFL level and it's possible that the injuries and lack of preseason are the major factor, meaning he has a role to play over the next 3 years. Jury is out.

 

All in all I think this list of players is "low cost gambles from a team with little capital to spend". If one of Fullerton or Schache played 50 games we'd be laughing.

I was at the game and aside from freezing my nuts off I was pleased with some of the development from our younger players. I won't comment on all players as most completed their roles as required.

Laurie has some tricks in his bag and just needs to figure out how to make the jump to AFL. His game was fantastic and he looked dangerous with ball in hand. 

Sesto is a natural footballer and he has the footy smarts to play AFL football. He looked good out there today and has that frittata 6th sense of knowing where the goals are at all times 

Pup Brown will push for selection again this year. He is developing nicely. 

Blake Howes murdered whoever he was playing on. He was reliable and was the best of our back 6. He was terrific.

Some of our senior boys didn't have noteworthy performances.

Hunter worries me, he looks like he's going through the motions. I'm not sure what's going on with him but he should be smashing vfl football.

McAdam struggled with the conditions and couldn't influence the game. I'm not writing him off yet.

Fullerton has some good patches, and then some poor patches throughout the game. 

Billings had a good game and was a key contributor. BBB was solid up forward and contested all day.

I can't report much on Noah Yze sorry as I didn't really see much of him.

 

 

11 hours ago, DeeZone said:

You are correct when we ran out of tall forwards in ‘22 & ‘23 with disastrous results Fullarton was bought in to hopefully provide some coverage as well as doing the JVR chop out ruck role. However, JVR is a far superior chop out but it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul as he’s not kicking goals and neither is Petty. The fact that the coaches refuse to play Fullarton means he is a bust, so we definitely need to pick up a ruckman in this years draft.

KFW any chance? 2026? Or cut?

6 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

I thought we had their third round? Either way their second round will be quite a late one

At the moment our draft picks are
Round 1 (MFC)
Round 2 (MFC)
Round 3 (Western Bulldogs - Harmes Trade)
Round 3 (St Kilda - Traded for 2023 pick 42)
Round 4 (MFC)

We traded our 3rd round pick to St Kilda for Billings & Sydney's second rounder that we got for Grundy to Adelaide for McAdam

2 hours ago, Wilson7 said:

At the moment our draft picks are
Round 1 (MFC)
Round 2 (MFC)
Round 3 (Western Bulldogs - Harmes Trade)
Round 3 (St Kilda - Traded for 2023 pick 42)
Round 4 (MFC)

We traded our 3rd round pick to St Kilda for Billings & Sydney's second rounder that we got for Grundy to Adelaide for McAdam

I'm pretty sure we traded our future second and kept Sydney's.

3 hours ago, Wilson7 said:

At the moment our draft picks are
Round 1 (MFC)
Round 2 (MFC)
Round 3 (Western Bulldogs - Harmes Trade)
Round 3 (St Kilda - Traded for 2023 pick 42)
Round 4 (MFC)

We traded our 3rd round pick to St Kilda for Billings & Sydney's second rounder that we got for Grundy to Adelaide for McAdam

Second round pick this year is Sydney’s not ours 

12 hours ago, deanox said:

Yes.

It is a selection from the players who weren't good enough to get drafted last year, including the rookie draft).

It is basically a delayed rookie selection after you see a bit of exposed form and development as an under 19.

Delayed rookie selection is a good way to put it.

Didn't love it at the time but I'm fine with it now. Gets an extra 6 months in our system than others who could be taken in this year's draft. Gotta have some projects on the go. 

11 hours ago, Hawk the Demon said:

The good oil is that Jeffo had Covid.

That is correct and what I was told!