Lil_red_fire_engine

In my view the Cats are deluded. They have a dads army list who this year granted made the GF but in shortened games, in a shortened season, predominantly played on the moderately sized grounds. The standard season will wear and tear on them significantly. I would not be surprised if they dont just fail to contend but drop out of the eight. They are a few soft tissue injuries away from disaster with limited quality depth.

Its an A for me, It would be hard to argue a better trade for expected output and need vs trade and contract cost than Brown. Once again trading into the first round is a Mahoney special. Particularly in a draft with a lot of unknowns at worst having three throws at the board in the top 30 is a great outcome and room to move up on the night if teams need to pivot. It’s a shame we could not move out TMac or ANB/AVB to clear some room as would have been interesting to see if we would have got more involved in the Piefire sale. You cant trade though if there’s no takers.

We finished 9th. Ben Brown is a 200cm mature proven key forward and goal kicker. 5 of our 8 losses we won the inside 50 count. Yep disappointing.

Wow they’re coming through fast now. I cant keep up :)

Except Hind is ridiculously quick and a neat kick.

Wife barracks for Essendon and even with my MFC bias I couldn’t agree with this. Saad is better defensively and is more attacking I would suggest both are probably on par with their kicking. Salem is good but should be more damaging.

We do know they can trade for players that were not born in their state yeah? I would suspect if two one would be ANB but I think its fair to say the other may just be someone looking for more opportunity at a club and not care where (note i have no inside word).

It is pretty clear we have a strong interest in Phillips if the price is right. I think we are waiting for a last minute fire sale by the Pies.

I do wonder what happened to our planning when we saw that Ben Brown was gettable for unders and would solve our biggest problem. With no round 1 pick and what appears to be a relatively tight cap I assume we have had to adjust our plans accordingly. I would suggest anything else we may choose to do will be how much if any of TMac’s salary we can lose. Otherwise with the mature players we are likely to shed keen to see us make some astute selections from others lists to better fill roles we have available. We dont need stars we need consistent role players worth their salary week in week out.

I wonder what’ that stat was like before they’re signed him on a 5 year mega deal. He has never been a damaging kick.

Happy with this. You cant clear all your depth out and he has quality attributes and can play multiple roles when and where required. Is still young so two years I suggest was to ward away other teams offers.

I assume those offers are subject to what you are paying him out of your own books.

I know that we at least have had a conversation with Phillips and that it included Trac who knows him from junior footy days. This was before we missed on Smith and before the heat increased in the media on Pies having to dump significant salary. I dont know how it went but even if it was promising I suggest at this point we may be more keen for Collingwood to show us how much they need to relieve themselves of him or Treloar rather than us showing how desperate we are to bring in a second wing. I think Baker has potential but if anyone thinks we will be sitting back and not trying to solve our outside run or bringing in more mature consistent role players at a suitable cost then they underrate how we work. You just need to look at how much mature depth we are trying to push out the door.

If he has the last spot on our list in 2021 (whatever that number is) on a performance based wage I will not see issue. Showed enough to be a good mature age key position cover at either end.

Even with our gap in this role I did not expect him to sustain a senior spot all year which he did. I actually think he gets to exactly the right spots but rushes his decision making which made him double grab as well as miss shots. That will go as he adjusts to the pace of the game. In saying that did things that not many can do and with his field kicking would already be in our best 5 with ball in hand.

My view appears to be Philips is better 2 way runner, Polec is the faster player, Polec the better kick, Phillips the better bloke.

No. Philips proven ability to gut run the wing consistently at quality and gettability does it for me. What would it take to get the contracted Clark out of Geelong? He is contracted and would not be costing them much yet. If he was good enough he would have got a game over others this year so he no sure thing in my eyes. They will need some quality young players when the aged care plan #getdangeraflag fails. I am looking for us to get role players we need at a suitable value for worth.

Assuming Brown is secured I would be turning all my attention to Tom Phillips, including picking brother Ed up from the Saints on the way through who’s is OOC. If not and we can clear some space with Tmac any half decent offer for Polec should be next port of call. Narkle also interests me as a worthily OOC option as well as any potential way to get Jack Sinclair out of the saints. More run and outside polish is needed once we land the big fella.

I disagree. This is what 2020 was about, to give him a chance to get to 300 and hold his worth. He showed when out there he was barely hanging on and had multiple soft tissue injuries which are the mark of the ageing warrior. This is taking a spot in 2021 from someone who could develop or make a difference.

Would be good to get him but not the end of the world if we don't, particularly on a 3 year deal. Assume we will then turn our attention to further available options to fill the same like Philips and back to Polec. The good thing is there are gettable options out there.

Billing’s for Brayshaw does not really make sense to me. Yes he is more outside, a bit quicker and a bit better kick but he doesn’t really clearly solve something for us. His top level form is as inconsistent as Brayshaw and I am unclear on what role he would play. With Higgins as well what is he solving? He is not a pressure forward but he is smart half forward with reasonable speed but many tricks. Certainly an upgrade on our forward line and best 22 I guess but not one I would expect us to be looking at for what I would suggest he would cost. Are we looking to improve our quality and connection into 50 I get it but would not necessarily be where I would focus.

I cant see us playing even a semi permanent run with midfielder which is his jam. He clearly is not suited to a half back role and if you haven’t nailed a wing with MFC before 2020 I cant see someone suddenly becoming one now. Most likely and best opportunity would be to overtake Melksham’s half forward position with a defensive bent which I would already have a preference for him to do. If they dont see a role for him in our best 22 then he is more value as trade or list management than at Casey for injury relief.

A proven quality wingman from a successful club on I suggest a moderate wage but longer than preferred contract at no draft or player cost. To fill a significant gap in our list for year one, year two whilst unknown options compete for the position and I suggest develop our youth at Casey our provides good depth in year 3. This or a 2 year deal that he doesn’t take with us banking on Baker becoming an ok wingman in 2021 or us trading for a suitable player (cant think of any other OOC or FA) at a a higher cost.

Let’s look back at the swell of people upset at what we were paying contract wise for the three at the time it was done. The same I reckon at Lever. You have to take their exposed form on face value and a confidence it will continue. I suspect there was little concern at the time due to their output other than the Harmes 5 year deal length. With Tomlinson and Langdon I suggest we are not paying them in our top 5 but you clearly pay more to get them in than renew if you had them.

We have 3 of the top 10 players in the league (champion data) We paid overs to extract May and Lever and I assume Langdon and Tomlinson to a lesser extent. We unfortunately triggered contracts on TMac, Brayshaw and Harmes and peak form that we have not seen since. We have kept fringe players too long on deals too good (hence the clear out this year I anticipate).