Leaderboard

I understand the attraction of this philosophy but I think for us it's flawed. We have some very good players. Petracca, Gawn, May and Oliver are very top shelf, they have few equals in the AFL system. We have some good support players - Langdon, Lever, Viney, Salem and Fritsch would walk into any AFL team. Harmes, Brayshaw, Weideman and Tomlinson are good players. We have some very promising youth - Jackson, Pickett, Rivers and Petty will all be long term and good players. But from here we fall off the cliff. Our last 6 or 7 players just don't contribute enough. Players like Hannan, Melksham, Hunt, Hibberd, ANB, AVB and other fringe players just don't contribute enough often enough and leave it to too few to do too much. You can debate where I've put players but you get the drift. We could put all our eggs into another "star" but I think we'd be much better to try and spread that money amongst 3 or 4 solid consistent role players who support the very solid base we have. Brown will cost half of Cameron and provide much more than half the value. Smith and Phillips won't cost a lot but are significant improvements on what we have. There will be others opportunities as well. This addresses the weaknesses of our team where adding another "big" just doesn't because we'd still have too many who are non contributors.

Yes Baker is worth persevering with on the list but I don't want to be relying on him to hold down a wing next year.

Baker hasn't proved himself yet, whereas Phillips can come in straight away and make an impact immediately. Let's not shy away that Phillips has been a big contributor for Collingwood when they have gone deep into finals the past few years. Maybe I am impatience, but Baker is still unproven at this stage. One of his biggest weakness is his tank. Phillips like Langdon, will run up and down the wing using his endurance power to run the game out hard.

Decided to pop over to the Carlton board to see what they were saying about the Oliver rumour. The very first post I read said that Pick 7 should get the deal done. I closed out and reminded myself it’s never a good idea to pop over to the Carlton board.

Worst possible result tonight. Richmond are just a horribly unlikeable group of tossers, lead by that whinging coach who personally attacks people. I’ll be supporting whoever they are playing against next weekend.

Very risky, imagine Jesse and Buddy both driving to training... Potential carnage

He would work well with Jason Taylor. Drafting and trading decisions are always better with Hind sight.

Well, I will be b--------. The bloke who says rumours are rubbish now brings his bat back to the crease, fixes the stumps and bails he knocked over.

I have suggested chasing Jordan Clark a few times and now Freo have names him as a target to return home, as he is apparently unhappy at the Cats. IMO he would be a good player to chase.

Can confirm that MFC did indeed speak to him as per his father

I don't rate Baker. We need either Smith or Phillips.

So we should hold someone to there contract with one more year even though he does not appear to be in our best 22 plans. Rather than let at his choice be traded to a club that say they want him there and for a longer commitment. Remind me which one is the right thing to do for a player your club respects? If this is what Jetta wants then this is a good outcome for player and club.

The hypocrisy of posters who sledge our own coach in a thread about the psychological stress on another coach is mind boggling!

I’ve cracked the Channel 7 commentary formula... ‘Recognised player x almost does something spectacular, but ultimately fails to impact the contest. Commentators talk back and forth about what was almost done, and completely ignore the action of what’s happening. Wait for the next stoppage to rejoin the action. Immediately comment on what a good job umpire (insert umpires full name) is doing. Wait until a player breaks free of the contest and immediately call their kick either a ‘chiseler’ or a ‘squeezy one’. Rinse and repeat.’ How’d I go? Do I get the job?

What are you waiting for?? Go and have a froth or two and see what you can find out. It's your Demonly duty.

Played cricket against him a couple of years ago, and he doesn't like a short ball much at all. good fit for us though, good pace, endurance, line breaking, can find the goals

Yes he doesn't show metres gained attributes with run and kicking depth, has strong turnover tendencies and he needs to be harder at the contest. I'm willing to give him a year to see but I wouldn't blink if he was delisted.

If Jetta played for Collingwood and Phillips for us, we’d laugh at the suggestion of a straight swap Phillips for Jetta.

Lyon’s response to the speculation is definitive IMO. Stop rumour mongering because you’re bored in isolation you bunch of nerds.

Gee I loathe Richmond. All the sooking and free kicks and the dirty play. I guess they have earned the right to be smug, but they are a detestable bunch.

There's been a lot of talk about how much the Academy and Father-Son selections are going to mess with this draft, so I took a moment assemble a quick list just so the information is handy. (Will add in another post) But what has really struck me about this is how in particular the 5 NGA picks expected to go in the first round, and also the five more expected to go in the second round, will have a very strange warping effect on the draft, disadvantaging at some points but actually offering advantage at others. Example one - You have pick 20. By the time your selection comes around, five separate academy picks have been taken. the clubs with those academy options have burned through all their second round, third round and later picks to get the draft points and effectively jammed that value into the first round. Five additional selections have been made before the draft reaches your pick 20. You are, in effect, taking the 25th selected player in the draft. Example two - You have pick 55. For each one of those first round NGA selections, you get pushed back one because of the insertion, BUT for every pick ahead of 50 which a club 'burns' to get the draft points, you move one ahead in the order. If first-round NGA selections use an average of three other picks (above 55) to 'purchase', then that's fifteen selections gone. As the dust settles after +5 and -15 movement, your pick 55 is now going to be the 45th actual selection in the draft. The effect is of course much less for the NGA/FS players expected to go in the second round as they are more easily 'paid for' by the next available selection with maybe a top-up, but it will still see more picks consumed than selections actually taken. Put another way - A 2020 fourth round draft pick (55-72) is worth almost the same as a 'normal year' third round draft pick (37-54) in terms of how high up the pecking order you actually get to choose a player. A 2020 second round draft pick will be at least 5 draft selections lower in real value than a 'normal year' second round pick. So to get value this year, either get into the top half-dozen selections, ahead of the NGA picks, or bail out and try your hand in the fourth round which is actually the third round!

Neither port nor brisbane deserve to be in the final. Both had home advantage and couldn’t get the job done.

To be fair, Oscar and Frost were the two defensive pillars of our team that finished fourth in 2018. Neither are great players, but they’re both capable of playing their role. I wish Oscar all the best. Copped it from fans for not being a superstar and he always put in and got the best out of himself. He’s achieved more than most players drafted at pick 53.

St Kilda should be relocated to their rightful home.

A 30 year old on his decline with one top 10 B&F finish in three years who finished the second half of the year out of our best side Vs A 24 year old coming into his prime with 2 top 6 finishes inn three year who lost his spot due to injury. I know they need to clear some space but surely it will cost us more than Jetta?

All my hopes lie with the Lions. A Richmond Geelong final will be hard to stomach.

Agree on this... Any running type of player over 30 is in the High Risk for soft tissue injuries. We should be gunning for Lachie Hunter...! I think he is the most damaging wingman in the game. If Carlscum can fit Saad and Williams in there cap I’m sure we could Lachie...

I feel for richo. i would definitely ask people to consider the drastically improved backline system we've had this year, i think Richo has had a huge amount to do with that, and some of our players improved form. It's so difficult to gauge the influence of an assistant but i think Richo has made a big difference to our club this year.

Alan Richardson is of interest for North for their top job, not sure if he'd be the front runner but they're keen to speak to him. I'm not sure if Richo is keen to be a senior coach again. Ross Lyon is also someone they want to speak to, but i don't think he'd want to go to them

At least I can sleep well in the knowledge that 50k members from BOTH Geelong and Richmond won’t be able to go to the grand final. Small mercies.

The umpiring in this game is close to the worst I've seen in a final. 10 - 2 Brisbane's way but it's beyond these simple numbers. It's Cats being pinged for everything and Lions being let go. How was the call against Ablett for the shot at goal! You cannot tell me that such lopsided umpiring doesn't effect momentum and then result. The Brisbane in GF narrative is surely a compelling one for the AFL

These umpires are cheating. Get Brisbane into a GF clearly the objective

Goodloss? You're better than that, OD. Be critical as much as you like, but no need to pull this five year old stuff out.

Budget Stephenson without the Sportsbet account -

Yeah, my mate lives in Clunes and Hind's father owns the pub there.

I'd delist Baker. I cannot see what anyone sees in him. A very soft and ordinary player. Sorting out the opposite wing this trade period is an absolute must. That's if you want to improve in 2021. If you don't then keep stuffing around with vandenBerg, Baker, Brayshaw (inside mid), or some other spud that won't work.

How many votes does Oliver have to poll for him to stay at Melbourne?

Might end up something like this. Out - Preuss , Jetta, TMac ,OMac In - Brown, Smith, Phillips, 2nd round pick. Gives us some more outside run , a big forward target and a kid to develop.

Everything has changed with Covid. 12 months ago I could see only 1 change and that was 1 of the Suns or North relocating to Tassie. IMO that was still a fair way off My biggest concern is that Covid isn't going away and the financial impact on clubs it will have. Members stayed on board this year, but if it continues into 2021 with fans unable to get to attend matches, clubs will face financial crisis some will not recover from. I was fortunate enough to attend Amateurs and/or WAFL games every week in 2020. My two boys also managed to get scratch, home and away, finals and development games in. So we weren't impacted as much as those back in Melbourne/Victoria. I noticed a realisation by people/players on return from Covid interuption how much they loved/missed footy. I also noticed a distinct shift in many towards grass roots footy and an anger towards the AFL, with everything always being about them. Those of us involved in community footy have known about this for years but the awareness grew this year. The game as we know it is going to change. The TV deals, amount of clubs, how clubs function, second tier comps is all under review. I don't believe it's only us, Saints, North and Dogs under the pump. Some of the bigger clubs will also be under massive financial stress, which they can not recover from. 2021 and beyond will be interesting

So a few posters here heard Oliver was unhappy a week or two back. And he may well have been. What 23 year old wouldn't occasionally express annoyance in their workplace ? Or even be momentarily unhappy if significant events happened in a short period of time that didn't please them in what's a cutthroat and emotive industry. For all we know he was annoyed for a short period but has now settled down. It will still be reported that he's unhappy, even though no-one posting here knows his frame of mind today. I'm not concerned, but agree 2021 is huge on a number of levels. I remain bullish about next year, but it's an important trade period and summer.

Please take Richardson

I hate Richmond, they can get stuffed

The gesticulating by every player within 50m of the ball appealing deliberate out of bounds is what gets me

And that has zero to do with him allegedly being racially vilified As usual you are using the straw man line. Big deal if he's an odd cat. Does that justify him being called a monkey? So you don't like him because he's an attention seeker. Seems to me the one person on this thread seeking attention is you

Coaching is a tough gig. All the best to him. Would prefer Roos to come back to us though.

Hearing Yze is working very hard go get him accross and he's strongly leaning towards coming. not quite 100% but very close to it.

I really don't know what this is all about but I'm certain of one thing - if Kennett is involved, altruism won't be on the agenda.

So two of the clubs that benefited from the dilution of the talent pool, and compromised drafts while they were at the top, are now arguing we can't support this many teams any longer, because they have finally started to bottom out? Sounds legit.

Geelong has a culture that is better than probably all 17 other clubs, that's undeniable and a testament to their management and leadership. They've also got some unique attributes that Melbourne-based clubs can't offer (e.g. not being in Melbourne, "country" lifestyle and associated cost of living benefits, etc.). We're not the only club who missed the finals who could use Jeremy Cameron. You also don't know what's been done by the club behind the scenes: again, the key issue is that the world doesn't work in a way that says we should be able to convince any given player to show up and play for us. IMO this is baseless, @Lucifer's Hero. Suggesting we were May, Lever, Langdon or Tomlinson's "only option left" is ridiculous and unfair. Suggesting the only players who come here don't "really want to play for us" is ridiculous and unfair. Complaining about paying "overs" is also unfair. How do you think Carlton has attracted Saad and Williams? Bucketloads of cash! Almost every club, if not every club, pays "overs" to attract A-grade talent from other clubs. May was in AA form this year. Lever is a previous AA squad member. Langdon showed enormous promise and made us a significantly better side this year. Those three acquisitions have been great. It's revisionism IMO to suggest we haven't able to attract good players over the last few years.