23 hours ago, Adam The God said:

I do wonder how much our poor ball use from the midfield prevents our forwards from leading up at the ball carrier.

If I were a forward, I'd be leading up at Kozzy, Bowey, Salem, Langford and Lindsay. That's about it.

The rest of them wildly kick to the disadvantage of the forwards. Viney was back to his worst again yesterday. Like Rounds 2-5.

Compare Langford's kick on top of the head of a Port defender, which allowed Turner(?] to have the sit was brilliant.

I think we can turn things round, but I agree with you, @Howard_Grimes , we need to make some bold and aggressive trades.

I'm sort of confused by this reasoning. If the forwards don't trust the mids and the mids don't know how to kick it to the forwards then it speaks to a complete systemic disfunction on the field and essentially players going into self-preservation mode. We don't make excuses like that in other areas of the ground. Going against the team rules with regards to positioning or decision making is the kind of thing that gets players dragged or dropped.

Don't rate Buckley's analysis overly highly most of the time... but I thought some of his comments on us with Whately yesterday were interesting. It's easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

He mentioned that we've come a long way in changing our game style but still need to work on the last part (ie ensuring its engrained to not dump kick forward when we're under pressure). This means we might have to cop getting tackled and holding the ball in the defensive 50 from time to time. But reduces the long kicks down the line / turnovers as we're no longer setup for that.

This season has been very disappointing - but in some respects I can see some similarities with 2020 when after a terrible start (we were altering our gamestyle then too), for much of the season we were one of the most compeditive teams but fell short (partcularly due to poor performances against Freo and Sydney in Cairns).

Obviously there's still a bit to go and a lot of question marks over a number of players - particualrly regarding whether they can get back to their best. It's never as good / bad as you think it is etc. It may be the best thing for the long term if we see the back half of this season as part of the pre-season for 2026. Who do we need to develop more - can we fast track this by playing them in other positions, who has currency that is not adding value to us next year / going forward etc

I think somewhat controversially that after Picketts big contract extension (which I think is a good decision) that one of Petracca or Oliver MUST be traded. The AFL Salary cap is around $17.7 million so having 3 players account for nearly $4 million dollars of your salary cap for a team that has a high likelihood for bottom 4 is worrying. Not to mention a huge reduction in form, fitness and effort by Oliver, and incredibly poor attitude, body language and effort from Petracca (even after returning from a traumatic injury, the attitude and body language he is giving must be cancerous in the club rooms.) While these are premiership players, and it would hurt to trade them, it may be required to trade ONE of these players in the sake of avoiding bottoming out, which is where we are headed if no changes are made. Albeit moving one of these two would be the most complicated trades in history. I'm leaning towards Petracca due to likely having more trade value, if a team came to us and was willing to pay draft picks, and take most of his salary (we would likely have to pay part of it aka Grundy) we should seriously consider it. Petracca has still shown signs this year of being worth that contract amount. For Oliver to leave, he would have to take a massive paycut, which I don't see happening. If we wanted Luke Jackson back (yes please) he is on approximately 900,000 a year. This trade would be very difficult thanks to salary cap restrictions if we kept both Petracca and Oliver. There must be a turnover of players, and one of Ollie Lord, Callum Brown or even a Aaron Cadman as a dream target must be chased by us in order to help fix our forward issues. There also must be a midfield turnover as well, which can be activated by an aggressive and needed move in farewelling Oliver or Petracca.

10 minutes ago, KoltTheRam said:

I think somewhat controversially that after Picketts big contract extension (which I think is a good decision) that one of Petracca or Oliver MUST be traded. The AFL Salary cap is around $17.7 million so having 3 players account for nearly $4 million dollars of your salary cap for a team that has a high likelihood for bottom 4 is worrying. Not to mention a huge reduction in form, fitness and effort by Oliver, and incredibly poor attitude, body language and effort from Petracca (even after returning from a traumatic injury, the attitude and body language he is giving must be cancerous in the club rooms.) While these are premiership players, and it would hurt to trade them, it may be required to trade ONE of these players in the sake of avoiding bottoming out, which is where we are headed if no changes are made. Albeit moving one of these two would be the most complicated trades in history. I'm leaning towards Petracca due to likely having more trade value, if a team came to us and was willing to pay draft picks, and take most of his salary (we would likely have to pay part of it aka Grundy) we should seriously consider it. Petracca has still shown signs this year of being worth that contract amount. For Oliver to leave, he would have to take a massive paycut, which I don't see happening. If we wanted Luke Jackson back (yes please) he is on approximately 900,000 a year. This trade would be very difficult thanks to salary cap restrictions if we kept both Petracca and Oliver. There must be a turnover of players, and one of Ollie Lord, Callum Brown or even a Aaron Cadman as a dream target must be chased by us in order to help fix our forward issues. There also must be a midfield turnover as well, which can be activated by an aggressive and needed move in farewelling Oliver or Petracca.

Agree and have said much the same.

It's also about evolving your list and sometimes these kinds of decisions are actually the right ones as opposed to keeping everyone together cause we 'love them.'

I also think we did incredibly well to win a flag and that some of the talk around 'dynasty' and that we should have won multiple flags with the group is a furphy given how much the game has changed and constantly changes year upon year. I think that view gave many false hope that we were going to be a Hawthorn or even Richmond. The same problems existed throughout that 21' season.

I'd keep trac over Oliver though. Ultimately, he is the more professional of the two, has leadership qualities, can play multiple positions and this year is just an easing back in year given what he went through so I'm not going hard on his form, which aside from last week has actually been pretty good.

Oliver on the other hand has been a liability defensively for the last two years, still has issues that he's not over that have a big influence on his week to week and day to day training and then output. List balance, cohesion, connectedness and some fresh air for both parties imv.

Edited June 17Jun 17 by Howard_Grimes

57 minutes ago, Howard_Grimes said:

Agree and have said much the same.

It's also about evolving your list and sometimes these kinds of decisions are actually the right ones as opposed to keeping everyone together cause we 'love them.'

I also think we did incredibly well to win a flag and that some of the talk around 'dynasty' and that we should have won multiple flags with the group is a furphy given how much the game has changed and constantly changes year upon year. I think that view gave many false hope that we were going to be a Hawthorn or even Richmond. The same problems existed throughout that 21' season.

I'd keep trac over Oliver though. Ultimately, he is the more professional of the two, has leadership qualities, can play multiple positions and this year is just an easing back in year given what he went through so I'm not going hard on his form, which aside from last week has actually been pretty good.

Oliver on the other hand has been a liability defensively for the last two years, still has issues that he's not over that have a big influence on his week to week and day to day training and then output. List balance, cohesion, connectedness and some fresh air for both parties imv.

Sadly i agree. Oliver has a battle to get mentally well, get supervisor the role and then improve his disposal.

That’s a big task.

1 hour ago, Howard_Grimes said:

Agree and have said much the same.

It's also about evolving your list and sometimes these kinds of decisions are actually the right ones as opposed to keeping everyone together cause we 'love them.'

I also think we did incredibly well to win a flag and that some of the talk around 'dynasty' and that we should have won multiple flags with the group is a furphy given how much the game has changed and constantly changes year upon year. I think that view gave many false hope that we were going to be a Hawthorn or even Richmond. The same problems existed throughout that 21' season.

I'd keep trac over Oliver though. Ultimately, he is the more professional of the two, has leadership qualities, can play multiple positions and this year is just an easing back in year given what he went through so I'm not going hard on his form, which aside from last week has actually been pretty good.

Oliver on the other hand has been a liability defensively for the last two years, still has issues that he's not over that have a big influence on his week to week and day to day training and then output. List balance, cohesion, connectedness and some fresh air for both parties imv.

A lot of people on here are full of it though. Look how many came on here to gloat when Koz signed and now are nowhere to be seen now that we're talking about the reality of our list. It was their premiership for the year.

Long term deals give security but in an age of free agency they aren't always worth the outlay. People are afraid that we might lose someone for nothing when the truth is the compo pick might be just as good or better than what you'd get in a trade.

The other thing is that they think we'll always be able to get the value of the player at their best. Who honestly saw Oliver's value plummeting when he signed his deal?

I'm sure some happy clapper will be ready to launch at anyone suggesting we trade one of these guys, just wait.

1 hour ago, Bowserpower said:

A lot of people on here are full of it though. Look how many came on here to gloat when Koz signed and now are nowhere to be seen now that we're talking about the reality of our list. It was their premiership for the year.

Long term deals give security but in an age of free agency they aren't always worth the outlay. People are afraid that we might lose someone for nothing when the truth is the compo pick might be just as good or better than what you'd get in a trade.

The other thing is that they think we'll always be able to get the value of the player at their best. Who honestly saw Oliver's value plummeting when he signed his deal?

I'm sure some happy clapper will be ready to launch at anyone suggesting we trade one of these guys, just wait.

I reckon Clarry has to go for his sake and ours. Probably best for both parties.

Clazz has more improvement in him on his current output than Trac does

Trac is a mental midget - luckily he's worth more in a trade!

On 15/06/2025 at 11:27, Roost it far said:

Rivers would get you a late first round pick in a weak draft so we'd instantly be worse off and then we'd double down and trade Spargo for a speculative third round pick and continue to be worse off. Do you even know how drafting and trading works because you ain't showing it.

I'm not against trading anyone but it has to make us better.

Id take a slightly different approach. We need to trade players to get draft capital and then use that draft capital to essentially pay for the gaps we have. Rebuilding from the draft is too costly and runs the risk of becoming the perennial mid table team. We need to identify talent from lists that are in need of getting back into the draft. Suns, Port, Sydney, GWS, Blues have talent and gettable based on various factors. You can forget targeting FA's as they wont come to us because we are not in the window. There are enough contracted players in those clubs that we should absolutely get around. 1-2 right now would be the difference between where we are and playing finals. 3 good choice trades would give us a crack at top 4 and 4 trades would put us back in contention. Now that doesn't happen in 1 year. Aim for some bold movies this off-season and follow up again in 2026 and we are back in it for 2027.

I'd be floating JVR and Rivers to WCE who are in dire need of replenishing their midfield (Tim Kelly and Yeo likely to retire this year) to support Reid and O.Allen who is likely to leave end of year. That is potentially a 2025 1st round and F1st pick in there. Id float Oliver to the Eagles and Bombers and see if they'd be willing to take his cap for a 2nd rounder. Geelong can GAGF - 2 firsts if they want Clarry.

Go hard at several players: Ben King (for [censored] and giggles and to get Pies to give up more); Butters (2 Firsts), Bergman (1st and 2nd). Id also look at Fletcher or Wilmont from Lions (throw some money at them to see if they bite), see if Milera from the Saints would love to work with Kozzy. Brown from GWS is 1st/2nd rounder. There are lots of options.

We just have to super super aggressive. For me the immediate priority is to get 2 established ball users- A half backer and an outside midfielder and displace one of Oliver, Viney or Trac from the midfield by trade THIS YEAR. Rinse and repeat next year for whatever role we need to top up - probably a KPD or KPF based on how Petty, Turner, Jeffo or settle into their respective positions.

2 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

Id take a slightly different approach. We need to trade players to get draft capital and then use that draft capital to essentially pay for the gaps we have. Rebuilding from the draft is too costly and runs the risk of becoming the perennial mid table team. We need to identify talent from lists that are in need of getting back into the draft. Suns, Port, Sydney, GWS, Blues have talent and gettable based on various factors. You can forget targeting FA's as they wont come to us because we are not in the window. There are enough contracted players in those clubs that we should absolutely get around. 1-2 right now would be the difference between where we are and playing finals. 3 good choice trades would give us a crack at top 4 and 4 trades would put us back in contention. Now that doesn't happen in 1 year. Aim for some bold movies this off-season and follow up again in 2026 and we are back in it for 2027.

I'd be floating JVR and Rivers to WCE who are in dire need of replenishing their midfield (Tim Kelly and Yeo likely to retire this year) to support Reid and O.Allen who is likely to leave end of year. That is potentially a 2025 1st round and F1st pick in there. Id float Oliver to the Eagles and Bombers and see if they'd be willing to take his cap for a 2nd rounder. Geelong can GAGF - 2 firsts if they want Clarry.

Go hard at several players: Ben King (for [censored] and giggles and to get Pies to give up more); Butters (2 Firsts), Bergman (1st and 2nd). Id also look at Fletcher or Wilmont from Lions (throw some money at them to see if they bite), see if Milera from the Saints would love to work with Kozzy. Brown from GWS is 1st/2nd rounder. There are lots of options.

We just have to super super aggressive. For me the immediate priority is to get 2 established ball users- A half backer and an outside midfielder and displace one of Oliver, Viney or Trac from the midfield by trade THIS YEAR. Rinse and repeat next year for whatever role we need to top up - probably a KPD or KPF based on how Petty, Turner, Jeffo or settle into their respective positions.

Agreed, we have to be bold. How that pans out will decide next year. I still believe we’re comfortably a top 6 team with the right tweaks.

4 hours ago, adonski said:

Clazz has more improvement in him on his current output than Trac does

Trac is a mental midget - luckily he's worth more in a trade!

That's rubbish

2 hours ago, Roost it far said:

Agreed, we have to be bold. How that pans out will decide next year. I still believe we’re comfortably a top 6 team with the right tweaks.

Eagles will get a compensation pick 2 for Oscar Allan compensation. Do you go JVR and Rivers for Pick 2 and a F2. We can do a lot with that pick.

4 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

Id take a slightly different approach. We need to trade players to get draft capital and then use that draft capital to essentially pay for the gaps we have. Rebuilding from the draft is too costly and runs the risk of becoming the perennial mid table team. We need to identify talent from lists that are in need of getting back into the draft. Suns, Port, Sydney, GWS, Blues have talent and gettable based on various factors. You can forget targeting FA's as they wont come to us because we are not in the window. There are enough contracted players in those clubs that we should absolutely get around. 1-2 right now would be the difference between where we are and playing finals. 3 good choice trades would give us a crack at top 4 and 4 trades would put us back in contention. Now that doesn't happen in 1 year. Aim for some bold movies this off-season and follow up again in 2026 and we are back in it for 2027.

I'd be floating JVR and Rivers to WCE who are in dire need of replenishing their midfield (Tim Kelly and Yeo likely to retire this year) to support Reid and O.Allen who is likely to leave end of year. That is potentially a 2025 1st round and F1st pick in there. Id float Oliver to the Eagles and Bombers and see if they'd be willing to take his cap for a 2nd rounder. Geelong can GAGF - 2 firsts if they want Clarry.

Go hard at several players: Ben King (for [censored] and giggles and to get Pies to give up more); Butters (2 Firsts), Bergman (1st and 2nd). Id also look at Fletcher or Wilmont from Lions (throw some money at them to see if they bite), see if Milera from the Saints would love to work with Kozzy. Brown from GWS is 1st/2nd rounder. There are lots of options.

We just have to super super aggressive. For me the immediate priority is to get 2 established ball users- A half backer and an outside midfielder and displace one of Oliver, Viney or Trac from the midfield by trade THIS YEAR. Rinse and repeat next year for whatever role we need to top up - probably a KPD or KPF based on how Petty, Turner, Jeffo or settle into their respective positions.

said with more detail and reasoning than i could muster over the weekend. i agree, let's do it. rip that bandaid and get aggressive. we've had too many years of ****ness after the flag.

When McRae took over the pies he had a demands for his ideal playing list. This included making some big decisions on fan favourites including paying out contracts and accepting "unders" in trade compensation for both Treloar and Grundy.

Can't help but feel we may be fast approaching the need to take a similar approach to re-set and rebalance the list.

The trick is finding suitors, keeping enough talent on the list to continue challanging and acquiring our desired players.

We don't have the luxury of a Daicos walking into our list.

8 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

Eagles will get a compensation pick 2 for Oscar Allan compensation. Do you go JVR and Rivers for Pick 2 and a F2. We can do a lot with that pick.

I’d put Rivers in a deal for a strong pick or part of a trade. I’m not that keen on draft picks outside the top 6-8. I’d love to see us attract a Bergman type player, I believe Lord is a possibility although I’m not sure he’s what we need. I want 2, 23-25 year olds who are strong and can kick. I’d like to hang on to JVR unless the deal is compelling. The others I’d be happy to trade are Oliver, Petracca, Sparrow, Lever and then any of the VFL players if there’s any market. Originally I wanted to keep Oliver and Petracca, both of whom have worked incredibly hard with some excellent support from the club, however their disposal is just too much of a liability now. The question is how brave will the club be?

3 hours ago, Roost it far said:

I’d put Rivers in a deal for a strong pick or part of a trade. I’m not that keen on draft picks outside the top 6-8. I’d love to see us attract a Bergman type player, I believe Lord is a possibility although I’m not sure he’s what we need. I want 2, 23-25 year olds who are strong and can kick. I’d like to hang on to JVR unless the deal is compelling. The others I’d be happy to trade are Oliver, Petracca, Sparrow, Lever and then any of the VFL players if there’s any market. Originally I wanted to keep Oliver and Petracca, both of whom have worked incredibly hard with some excellent support from the club, however their disposal is just too much of a liability now. The question is how brave will the club be?

Whispers keep surfacing from Saints on Milera. I would prioritise him over any other player atm. He is one of the best ball users and HBer in the comp. Id pay overs for him as well - without breaking a sweat.

I bloody hope we have been into his manager. Getting Kozzy, Maysie and the other indigenous crew in his ear as well. This would transform our list immediately and give us some real ball use weaponry into forward 50. Would free up Bowey too.

We'd have to clear cap space to make it happen as he'd demand ridiculous, Kozzy type money.

1 minute ago, GS_1905 said:

Whispers keep surfacing from Saints on Milera. I would prioritise him over any other player atm. He is one of the best ball users and HBer in the comp. Id pay overs for him as well - without breaking a sweat.

I bloody hope we have been into his manager. Getting Kozzy, Maysie and the other indigenous crew in his ear as well. This would transform our list immediately and give us some real ball use weaponry into forward 50. Would free up Bowey too.

We'd have to clear cap space to make it happen as he'd demand ridiculous, Kozzy type money.

Whispers he’s coming to us? I thought he was heading home to SA?

1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

Whispers he’s coming to us? I thought he was heading home to SA?

Not necessarily. Whispers that he was not happy at St Kilda. Not a go home factor but wants to go to a more successful club. I can't remember where i saw it. I reckon he'd be excited to play alongside AMW, Kozzy, Maysie, Mentha

6 minutes ago, GS_1905 said:

Not necessarily. Whispers that he was not happy at St Kilda. Not a go home factor but wants to go to a more successful club. I can't remember where i saw it. I reckon he'd be excited to play alongside AMW, Kozzy, Maysie, Mentha

We’re going to finish bottom 6, if he’s genuinely on the Victorian market he’ll end up at Collingwood or Geelong.

Edited June 18Jun 18 by Roost it far

8 minutes ago, GS_1905 said:

Not necessarily. Whispers that he was not happy at St Kilda. Not a go home factor but wants to go to a more successful club. I can't remember where i saw it. I reckon he'd be excited to play alongside AMW, Kozzy, Maysie, Mentha

Ridiculous take 😂 He is 0% chance of coming to Melbourne, it’s Stkilda Adelaide or Port, been the narrative all year

Where did i say he was a chance? My point was that we have to be ready to pounce on players that leave the door slightly ajar on a possible movement.

I too thought it was a go-home factor , until i saw/read that it was possibly due to Saints prospect for success. I know we are bottom 6, but we have so much more upside than St Kilda atm.

1 hour ago, Greg Schneider said:

Ridiculous take 😂 He is 0% chance of coming to Melbourne, it’s Stkilda Adelaide or Port, been the narrative all year

Probs will not go to the Crows whilst Tex is still there

18 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

Id take a slightly different approach. We need to trade players to get draft capital and then use that draft capital to essentially pay for the gaps we have. Rebuilding from the draft is too costly and runs the risk of becoming the perennial mid table team. We need to identify talent from lists that are in need of getting back into the draft. Suns, Port, Sydney, GWS, Blues have talent and gettable based on various factors. You can forget targeting FA's as they wont come to us because we are not in the window. There are enough contracted players in those clubs that we should absolutely get around. 1-2 right now would be the difference between where we are and playing finals. 3 good choice trades would give us a crack at top 4 and 4 trades would put us back in contention. Now that doesn't happen in 1 year. Aim for some bold movies this off-season and follow up again in 2026 and we are back in it for 2027.

I had been thinking along the same lines but the more I think about it the more I think we need to go to the draft again.

I’m in favour of making aggressive moves to give us capital but I think it might be smarter to invest that capital in the draft.

We have more or less a full fit list at the min,I think we would need 6 players to have us contending again. 3 quality players like you said and another 3 role type or good depth players. We would require another 3/4 the following year after some retirements.

I just can’t trust the same people that have been responsible for our player trades post flag to get that many successful trades done.

Our success rate has been much better at the draft( apart from key forwards). Maybe we just need to take our medicine and suck it up for another couple of years. I think we need to assume that both our FF are going to be top 4 picks we need to make sure we nail whatever players we bring in with them. Draft seems safer to me.

Our problem this year is that we have very little draft capital for trades and our position on the ladder makes us well down the pecking order when it comes to a player's club of choice.

Having said that, our best hope at luring a player is still Luke Jackson, assuming he is insistent that he wants to head back to Victoria and be traded to us and he would largely solve our bigs issues and give us a Gawny understudy again.

But against that Freo would have to be willing to accept our 2026 1st rounder, our 2025 second rounder (currently pick 22) and presumably a decent player - we have four WA options on this and all are potentially very good players for us - McVee, JVR, Rivers and Tholstrup. All would be missed, but if you are talking securing Jackson then almost anything should be on the table. But it seems highly unlikely Jacko will move.

So our next hope for a big will come down to whether we get Kalani White to choose us ahead of the Suns. The fact that they have four very good Academy picks ahead of him helps our chances and being under the tutelage of Gawny and TC also helps the allure, but he may still choose his mates ahead of us. Hopefully not and also hopefully a rival bid comes after our pick 22, which will end up being about pick 35 on current academy/father son expectations.

But regardless, Kalani is unlikely to impact any improvement we make in 2026 (he's just a kid after all) - that improvement will come from Langford and Lindsay and Windsor growing into their roles. Trac and Oliver will again be talked up as potential trades, but I doubt either will leave - they are on too big a salary for most teams and their disposal this year has meant clubs will have misgivings about them anyway.

Of our current list, there are a heap of players still up for contract renewal and to be honest McVee is the only one we need to sign up now - the rest can wait until the last couple of weeks of the year or post season even. This is what I'd do with them.

Billings - he was a bit stiff not to play Rd 1 and he has worked hard all year in the VFL, but he's 30 and his papers have been marked and to be honest now's his chance to enter the corporate world.

TC - He's 33, but I'd defintely ask him to go another year. He's great for our VFL side, works hard at training and from all reports is a super bloke.

Fullarton - as with Billings his papers are now stamped. Been surprised he wasn't tried as a key defender at VFL level and his body is quite ripped now, but as he showed against Richmond in Rd 7, he's just not physical enough for AFL.

T-Mac - he's soon to turn 33 and now one of our greats when it comes to games played. Goody prefers other talls to him, so as much as he adds to our gp dynamic, it's time to retire. If Lever bows to his chronic knee injury at season end or Petty heads back to SA, then I'd review that decision, but only then.

McVee - as stated above he's a must-sign. The only way he's expendable is if he's a necessity in a Jackson trade.

Melksham - he turns 34 in a couple of months, so age is against him. He is still in incredible shape and looks like a Marvel Superhero so I'd be inclined to ask him to go on for one more season. Unlike his teammates, he usually produces kicking smarts and he's a certain coach-in-waiting.

Spargo - after three injury-reduced years it's hard to feel confident about re-signing him. But he's only 25 and he's one of the few players that can hit a target, so if he agrees i'd sign him on for just one more, with his body determining whether he gets two more.

Woewodin - Taj is still only 22, but it just feels that he hasn't really come on this season. He's got nice skills but he's not mega-quick which makes it really hard to make it. He'd have to finish the year on a high for us to keep him.

Kynan Brown - Really like his attitude and his effort. Very happy if we added him to our list on a two-year deal. Even happier if the coach gave him a go in the big time.

Jai Culley - Looked good pre-season and he's done well in VFL. Probably needs one more year as a rookie before making a firm decision.

Jack Henderson - I feel sorry that Goody rushed him in for Rd 1 because I don't think it gave him a chance to settle into his role. But after five games, it was clear that he's got class but not quite enough pace or body strength to be a factor.

Marty Hore - a great bloke and lovely left-footer but it's time to let him go.

Luka Kentfield - He's made some progress this year and is now massive upper body. I'm not sure that he has enough footy smarts, but I'd certainly give him another year to be definitive.

Ollie Sestan - He needs a game or two in the AFL before season's end, otherwise it's a really hard call for any list manager. Given I already have six list departures, I'd try and sign him up for one more.

Will Verrall - He's improved this year and his intensity is now AFL standard I reckon, but he's probably never going to be quite tall enough to make it. If we get Jackson, then he's a delist. But most likely he gets another year and works with Kalani.

AMW - Clearly Andy showed enough last year and pre-season before injury to warrant an upgrade and most likely a two-year deal.

Mentha Jnr - he's shown enough to get another year as a category B rookie.

Others already contracted:

Jed Adams - as with Jeffo, he's starting to become a very good VFL player. But please Mr List manager, there is absolutely no need to sign him or Jeffo up beyond 2026 just yet. Wait until early next year to panic.

Bailey Laurie - he's a star at VFL level, but barely gets a run from Goody. Ultimately he may be just a tad slow to make it, but it would be nice for him to get a decent chance - in the midfield and not as a sub. Otherwise I'd see if anyone wants him for a third-round pick.

Shane McAdam - Injury cruelled his year, but he's 31 next year and appears a bust for us. If we like a player pre-season or need a list spot, then I'd pay him out.

2 hours ago, Colm said:

I had been thinking along the same lines but the more I think about it the more I think we need to go to the draft again.

I’m in favour of making aggressive moves to give us capital but I think it might be smarter to invest that capital in the draft.

We have more or less a full fit list at the min,I think we would need 6 players to have us contending again. 3 quality players like you said and another 3 role type or good depth players. We would require another 3/4 the following year after some retirements.

I just can’t trust the same people that have been responsible for our player trades post flag to get that many successful trades done.

Our success rate has been much better at the draft( apart from key forwards). Maybe we just need to take our medicine and suck it up for another couple of years. I think we need to assume that both our FF are going to be top 4 picks we need to make sure we nail whatever players we bring in with them. Draft seems safer to me.

We don’t need 6 new players! We need White, Sinnema and 2 good disposers of the ball who don’t [censored] the bed in traffic.