Deespicable

2019 Draft: 9/10 Trades: 8/10 The 2014 draft was where our culture was made, but the 2019 draft and trade period was where we sowed the seeds for the 2021 flag, solving our key deficiencies with pace a priority along with Taylor finally selecting the right young ruck/forward. And it took us falling off the map, we lost our last seven matches to finish second last, to do it. But just when we locked up pick 2 and access to Noah Anderson, who had trained with us for a week or two during the school holidays and left a strong impression, the AFL took it away and said Gold Coast could not only have Matt Rowell, but his best schoolmate Anderson as well. Plenty of pundits thought we’d take Dandenong’s Hayden Young and his booming left foot or Larke Medallist Caleb Serong, but Luke Jackson’s back-up efforts for WA had started to win everybody over and Taylor was a fan. Then there were the other two plays that Tim Lamb, our new upgraded list manager, had to orchestrate with Josh Mahoney’s guidance and you would really have to ask them to explain all the coming and goings that pre-draft season and even then they probably wouldn’t remember all the intricacies. The first was finding a player with outside run, we had the inside mids covered by then, but were deficient in the spread area. Somehow we managed to entice Fremantle’s Ed Langdon, a Sandringham mate of Angus Brayshaw who was taken at pick 54 in 2014. Only issue was that he had finished 2019 in ripping form for the Dockers, I think he came third in their B&F in 2019. That meant Peter Bell wanted more than our second rounder for him. We ended up swapping our second rounder pick 22 for their 26 and then gave them our 2020 second rounder as well in what was a big win for us I reckon. Then, possibly in the wake of missing out on the quality top-end of the 2018 draft, Mahoney and Lamb managed to present North with what on paper looked like a win for the Kangaroos. We’d give them our 2020 first pick (based on 2019 that would be around 2-6) and our pick 26 in return for their 2019 first rounder – which was pick 8. That gave Taylor two high picks like in 2015 and options aplenty. Possibly initially he had earmarked Jackson for pick 8, but it soon became clear he was racing up everyone’s boards as the quality tall. We also offloaded Sam Frost, who was out of favour, at least with Steven May anyway, for the Hawks 2020 second rounder. He’s already played 85 games for them, so that’s ended up being a poor deal I reckon. And we went hard for unrestricted free agent Adam Tomlinson – our original thinking was to also play him on a wing. Tommo cost us nothing pick wise, but he’s been on a big salary for a fringe player. But just before the draft we did another shifty with Freo. Aware that we may bid on their academy kid Liam Henry to force a fall and a loss of pick 9, Freo agreed to gift us picks 10 and 28 so that they could keep their high pick before a bid on Henry. And suddenly we had three highish picks plus Ed Langdon and the rest is history, although it took another year for the pace injection that came with Jackson, Pickett and Rivers to really bear fruit. 3 Luke Jackson – if you’ve been following this series you’d know that drafting the right talls hasn’t been Taylor’s strength. But Taylor loved his second efforts for WA and, having lost Anderson, rated him as a must-have. On his first day at training the 18-year-old took on Lever and ANB in a 400m time trial and showed his athletic ability – ANB did win though. By year two he was showing more than a few glimpses as Gawny’s back-up and then in the GF, his injection into the middle in the third term coincided with our hottest offensive period this century. After his third season a few family issues back home led to him heading to Fremantle – did we do enough to try and keep the emerging 21-year-old? That’s not a question for Taylor, but it is for Richardson, Lamb and Goody because you just wonder what would have happened if we’d offered him unparalleled top coin to stay. 12 Kozzie Pickett – Clearly we wanted a gun small forward and Kozzie and Cody Weightman were rated the best of that year and I think Taylor and his team were aware that neither was likely to be a top 10 pick, so having pick 8 was going to be a waste, hence the late pick swap for 28. Cody was the safe bet being a local and his aerial prowess for his size had already been seen. But Kozzie had shown a few magic signs and his crunching run-down bump video was eye-watering stuff. As it turned out, with Adelaide going McAsey (pick 6), our former pick 8 could have netted one of Serong or Young, both guns. But Kozzie has that special matchwinning ingredient – the ability to break laterally with his amazing burst of speed. I love how Serong plays but Kozzie is one out of the box and our point of difference. 32 Trent Rivers – with all the academy picks, we ended up at 32. I think Taylor was keen to get another WA kid Georgiades, who had a super bottom-age year before injury, but he went pick 18 to Port. It ended up being a really deep draft and it was a super year for WA prospects, especially after Jackson, Devan Robertson and Henry had inspired them to a rare win in the U18 champs. Rivers was one of the few players I’ve seen with the confidence to take a bounce and after a few hiccups along the way, developed last year into a quality defender before his recent metamorphosis as our best big-bodied mid. It's a shame we didn’t have another pick that year, as another of Jackson’s and Rivers East Fremantle teammates Chad Warner went at pick 39 and I’m sure Taylor would have been across him. Michael Frederick (pick 61) has also torched us with his pace. The rookie draft that year wasn’t super special, with mainly academy kids making it, so it’s good that we skipped it. We did however pick up a few extras via unusual sources. Tomlinson came as an UFA and finally seemed to find his niche as a backman in early 2021 and did a memorable job on Hawkins when a flailing arm sent Maysie packing early that year. You had to feel for the tearful big fella when he did his knee down in Tassie two weeks later. He’s got a huge tank and is a very clean footballer – he just seems to be unlucky – T-Mac’s reincarnation spoiled his 2024 for example leaving him with the unwanted tag as the best VFL defender going around. Ed Langdon spent his first few weeks standing out on his far wing and calling for the ball – half way through the year our mids figured out he was pretty quick and went lateral to him. We also took a punt on two players via the PSS – Harley Bennell and Mitch Brown. Brown proved a good back-up tall, while Harley showed glimpses but the heavy-tackling game of the 2020s meant there was little room for an outside player like Harley. Worth a try though. But ultimately it was this draft that gave us the speed and freakish unconventional skills of Jackson and Pickett that led to our flag in 2021. In my view, it was Taylor’s best year in charge.

Part 6 of the series that looks at Jason Taylor's draft years at Melbourne 2018 Draft: 6/10 Trades: 8/10 Coming off our best season since 2000, our club was suddenly a desirable destination again and footy manager Josh Mahoney actually won the battle with Collingwood to secure the signature of Suns skipper Steven May for our pick 6 that had been gifted to us by Fremantle for Jesse Hogan. Hogan had endured a few tricky years with testicular cancer, depression, his father’s death along with a few serious off-field misdemeanours and he was injured during our almost triumphant 2018 finals campaign – so letting him go didn’t seem like such a bad thing then, although his resurrection at the Giants makes pick 6 look about right. Freo‘s boss Peter Bell had played hardball with us but eventually gave up their early pick for Jesse which we packaged up for the Gold Coast. It could certainly be argued that at 27, May wasn’t worth pick 6 which ultimately they used on Ben King. But the deal included Kade Kolodajshnij, who before his concussion run looked a future superstar. May had a dirty first year with us with hamstring and drinking issues, but since then he’s found the right balance and I personally reckon he now rates as our best ever full-back – and that’s after just six seasons. We also offloaded Dom Tyson to North for their back-up ruckman Braydon Preuss which meant we actually had a decent foil for Gawny and given Taylor’s ruck-prospect howlers, it was a clever move until we let him go two years later. The impact of the May trade and the Lever deal from 2017 meant that we didn’t get a go at the top-end of a draft that was rated the best since 2013 – so it was a significant gamble. The Power got Rozee (5) and Butters (12), while the Swans got Blakey (academy), Rowbottom and McInerny. The Blues got a superstar in Sam Walsh, but then in an act of excited stupidity by SOS, thought they’d charge up the ladder and offered GWS their 2019 first pick for Liam Stocker (pick 19). 27 Tom Sparrow – While the 2018 draft had a superstar top-end look, there weren’t too many standouts after Butters and Quaynor at pick 12 &13. Rowbottom at pick 25 is a quality kid, but I’m not too sure Taylor had him on his radar anyway and Tom was a strong-bodied midfielder who ultimately cost Melky a spot in our 2021 premiership team. There’s a few on Demonland who don’t rate him highly, but Goody certainly does. Bont destroyed his shoulder in 2020, but he returned in 2021 a better player and he nailed his spot on a flank just in time to be a key member of our flag. 33 James Jordon – Being the youngest in the 2018 draft, I think JJ was a bit of a punt by Taylor as he wasn’t regarded as a suoerstar at Caulfield in the APS or for Oakleigh Chargers until he played a blinder in the TAC Grand Final that got him noticed. But once drafted, he got to hone his craft under Ben Matthews and, along with Sparrow, matched up at training against Viney, Angus, Trac and Olly, so he definitely got the grounding that has helped him at the Swans. Our depth of midfielders meant Goody was only willing to give him a wing and whilst he was a hard worker, his lack of explosive pace meant he became known as a bit of a road-block for our attacks. We even rookied him in 2020, such was our lack of confidence in him making it. But he’s now winning rave reviews as a tagger in Sydney and will most likely play in their premiership side with Brodie – one better than being the non-utilised sub in 2021. 53 Aaron Neitschke – Another SA youngster, he was less of a punt by Taylor as he had some sensational junior form for Central Districts as a running half-back. But three ACL’s in three years meant we barely saw him, even at Casey. 56 Marty Hore – Marty was coming off a year where he was B&F for Collingwood’s VFL team and you could see he was mega classy from the outset and he won some rave reviews in 2019, but once Lever got over his injuries and on a roll, there was no sweeping spot down back for him and he’s not quite tall/muscular enough to play key defender and not quite quick enough to provide run. I was a little surprised we went back to him this year, but he’s certainly classy with his ball use and courageous under a high ball. 75 Toby Bedford – Taken by us via our academy, he took a while to develop an AFL-sized physique but he did play a few useful games for us, often as the sub, in 2021 and 2022. With Kozzie and Spargo around it was hard for him to break in, even more so when Chandler came on. Adam Kingsley was rapt to get him in 2023 and has given him plenty of gametime, even utilising his aerobic ability to play him as a tagger. As I’ve said all along, since Roos arrived, we’ve known how to train the kids. Having upgraded Category B rookie Corey Maynard on to our list, Taylor punted on another small forward – this time a SA country kid called Kade Chandler, who stood just 175cm tall but had shown a bit for Norwood juniors. We also snared delisted Roo Corey Wagner (Josh’s brother) and Casey’s Tasmanian Jay Lockhart via the supplemental selections. Chandler’s smarts and team play have made him a Goody favourite and whilst I’ve been a strong advocate that our list is way too small, I am starting to warm to him as our second small forward alongside Kozzie. He’s a nice kick and he’s got a great workrate and after Callum Wilkie (pick 3 of the rookie draft by the Saints) and Jordan Butts (pick 34, Adelaide), he’s probably the third best performed rookie from that year. Lockhart was a nice kick with clever vision and there was a VFL game against the Magpies where he looked a million dollars but he probably was just too small and left his move from Tassie a little too late to make it, while Wagner also found it hard to break into our star-studded midfield but was just so disciplined, driven and courageous, even after we delisted him, that he’s getting a game at his third AFL club Freo on occasions. Did Taylor miss much in 2018? Once we’d given up our high picks to trade for Lever (from 2017) and May (2018), he didn’t get a shot at what many felt was the best draft since 2001. But unearthing Sparrow and Jordon, was pretty impressive, even though they are hardly world beaters – yes they are premiership players and good role players but that doesn’t make them stars of the game! The only players after pick 27 who you’d look back and go ‘if only” from that year are Lachie Schultz (57) and Connor Idun (61) and more recently Justin McInerny (44) and Curtis Taylor (46) along with the unexpected jewel of the rookie draft – Callum Wilke. The pre-season supplemental picks saw Sydney snare Hayden McLean, while the mid-season saw Richmond grab Marlion Pickett, while Collingwood got John Noble. But despite the hype, it was hardly an earth-shattering draft, so Taylor gets a pretty solid mark. NEXT WEEK: His best year yet and his annus horribilus?

2017 Draft: 6/10 Trades: 8/10 If we thought the trade for Michael Hibberd was big in 2016, then have a think back to how the trade for Jake Lever eventuated in 2017. We offered young Jake a massive price hike, he was an emerging defender after all, and he liked the idea of joining forces with his 2014 Vic Metro mates – Trac and Brayshaw. It was our biggest trade heist since we lured Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore. And we had him secured before the finals. Adelaide kept pressing him for an answer and it backfired for them as it meant everyone at the Crows knew his answer and were really [censored] with the then 21-year-old and many say the whole issue impacted their grand final psyche that year. The angry Crows then played hard ball and wanted the world back and we, unlike most clubs, quickly agreed to getting the deal sorted by giving up two first rounders as requested - pick 10 of 2017 and our first-rounder for 2018 as well, although our improved year in 2018 meant that became pick 15. The result of all that was we needed some inspirational lower-order choices from Taylor and drafting three premiership players is a pretty impressive booty from that year by him. Goody’s decision to jettison Jack Watts meant that we did get back into the draft in the second round which ended up being crucial as it helped us snare Fritter. 29 Charlie Spargo – The more skilful son of a handy North player, it was a bit of a surprise when the Kangas overlooked him at pick 23. But then given his size (172cm), it was likely a bit of a Caleb Daniel scenario for most of the clubs and little Charlie is not a big kick like Caleb or Jake Bowey. But after 98 games for us, including a polished 2021 season, he’s been pretty useful and his ability to lower his eyes and find a target has been missed this year. My own view though is that we have too many small forwards on our list, so I’m not one who views him as a must keep. But back then he did provide a point of difference. The fact that the next pick – Carlton’s Tom de Koning went at 30 – has become such a standout will temper many people’s views on our choice. 31 Bayley Fritsch – His form in the VFL was hot and cold for Casey, but having won the best young talent award, several clubs aside from us were across him with Sydney (pick 33) a big danger. He took a couple of years refining his skills, but his class up forward was on show throughout 2021 (59 goals), not to mention that memorable grand final. This was the pick we got from Port for Jack Watts and he has topped our past four leading goalkicking charts, that’s four more than Jacky boy. 37 Harrison Petty – This pick was all Taylor apparently with his knowledge of the draft pool meaning he couldn’t believe Harrison was still around and that even though we’d outlayed heaps for Lever, he had to get the Norwood youngster. Some of you may recall his abysmal first game against St Kilda, when his first left footer dribbled off his toes like Chris Lamb a couple of decades earlier, but once he got over the AFL nerves he showed he could be handy and was trialled up forward back in 2020 before groin injuries curtailed that idea. In 2021, he emerged as a quality VFL defender, but had to wait for an injury to get a gig and with Tomlinson going down about round 6, he was summoned and had a very important year spoiling the third talls, usually ruckman and allowing Lever and May to do their thing. Our forward issues have necessitated another experiment and the wave of comments here this season has generally been unkind, he’s kicked four goals in 14 weeks as our star forward so you can sort of understand why. Worse still is that we could have had two first rounders from Adelaide for him last year and now we will probably just get their second rounder at the end of the season. On his day though, he still marks with aplomb and I reckon he could do a very good Lever intercept role at another club if their list requires it. Or who knows, he may yet stay. 48 Oscar Baker – A major speculative pick from Aspley (Qld), Oscar had a great ever-ready battery but probably lacked the class with his kicking and whilst he’s quick, he’s not explosive quick, meaning he was useful, but just outside our best 22 for much of his five years before we traded him on to the Bulldogs. He’s one of eight ex-Dees that have played this season at other clubs – Howe, Hogan, Harmes, Jordan, Bedford, Wagner and Grundy are the others – which explains why our VFL side is bottom tier this season. Instead of Baker, Taylor could have snared Bendigo’s Kane Farrell (pick 51) who is starting to look the part at Port, while Gryan Miers (57) and Dylan Moore (67) would have been better than any of our swag of small forwards taken in the past few years, Kossie excluded. And North got Tristan Xerri at pick 72, so passing on TDK (30) wasn’t our only solution to our current back-up woes. There weren’t too many gems unearthed in the rookie draft that year although Richmond again found another goer in Liam Baker, the Suns did likewise with Nick Holman, Sydney snared a developing tall forward Joel Amartey playing for Sandringham via their academy and the Giants got a quality defender in Dylan Buckley. The Pies also thought they had found a mature defender with Brody Mihocek, but got lucky turning him into the tough, dependable premiership forward that he’s become. We decided to maintain the faith with Filipovic, Keilty and Smith.

I I agree that small forwards are more in vogue these days - I mean the Hawks used pick 5 on 170cm Nick Watson, whereas 10 years earlier Caleb Daniels, whose highlights from the carnival eclipsed Watson's, went through to pick 46 for fear that he would be exposed in match-ups. I suspect Taylor also learnt the value of smalls from his short stint at the Pies, who back then had pressure smalls such as Blair and Fasolo on top of Didak. But I just reckon our overall list balance has become too heavily weighted with smalls - that's a godsend when it rains like last Saturday, but in April and May or on a dry day in September it can hurt.

Yes Tubby is what I call most Taylor’s I come across out of habit and I suspect it is now totally inappropriate to do so. Apologies I will try and remove that nickname from next parts of series.

Part 4 of the series that looks at each of Jason Taylor's draft years and trades and swaps that influence his hand. 2016 Draft 2/10 Trades: 8/10 Finally Goody takes over from Roosy and after finishing 11th, our era of top-end high draft picks appears over. Goody first task is to lure Michael Hibberd over from a disjointed Essendon, where he served as an assistant. There’s a lot of pre-draft talk about them wanting a first rounder for him (which we don’t have, after offloading it to the Suns the year before) but eventually the Bombers agree to a second-rounder (pick 29) for him. Hibberd was so sensational in his first season that even after missing the first five games he made the All-Australian team. His opening-game goal against the Tigers on Anzac Eve is rated among our finest under Goody and he continued to be a strong attacking defender for us for 113 games and the next seven seasons We also get Jordan Lewis from the Hawks for a steal – a shuffle of third rounders – who brought with him toughness and smarts. The only downside being that his 30-year plus lack of pace could be exploited. And we also punted on promising Giant Pat McKenna, who ended up spending more time in the rehab room than on the field before being delisted. Having made our big plays in 2015, we basically had late-order picks, so could Tubby unearth a jewel. Sadly no, although Mitch Hannan provided the highlight in 2018 with his memorable goal against Geelong in the elimination final. Did giving up our first-rounder (pick 9 Will Brodie) the previous year hurt us? Probably not. Aside from the fact that we would not have taken a midfield extractor like Brodie, there were very few superstars unearthed in the 2016 draft, just a lot of good ordinary footballers as Jack Dyer would say. Hugh McCluggage (pick 3) is probably the closest to warranting the star label while Shai Bolton (pick 29) can go to that level on his day and Tim English (19) is a super mark and kick. Tom Stewart (pick 40) is the most celebrated player from that draft and only Matty Scarlett wanted him taken that high after seeing what he could do for their VFL team. Nick Larkey (pick 73) is another coup for North who also took Jy Simpkin (pick 12) that year. Coburg’s Luke Ryan (pick 66) was an inspired choice by Fremantle and Mitch Lewis (pick 76) has had some great moments at Hawthorn, when not in rehab. Then if you look at the rookie draft, we erred big time with again trying to find another back-up for Maxy – read on to see what we did. 46 Mitch Hannan – Goody had watched the then 22-year-old shine in the Dogs 2016 VFL Grand Final win over Casey and wanted the classy lead-up player. He often had knee issues for us, before eventually being sent back to the Dogs five seasons later. But when fit he had a great leap and a thumping left -foot and he was quick enough to run away from Jake Kolodashnij and take three bounces down the wing before nailing the sealer in our memorable finals win over Geelong in 2018. 64 Dion Johnstone – Taylor’s liking for small forwards was becoming an obsession. Dion was a huge stab from Oakleigh Chargers and was mega courageous but lacked polish and never really pressed for selection before being delisted. Given Luke Ryan and Nick Larkey came soon after, you have to wonder about our priorities, although clearly hindsight is a wonderful thing. The rookie draft was a horror show for Tubby that year. Four potential ruckman went in the first 10 picks and a fifth Oscar McInerny was stolen by Brisbane from our Casey outfit. Imagine if we’d taken any of Sam Draper (pick 1 of rookie draft), Rowan Marshall (pick 10) and McInerny (pick 37) on our list back then – not to mention Larkey. Instead we took Lachie Filipovic at pick 8, a mate of a mate of Gawny’s apparently. Aside from missing the quality rucks, it also meant we missed a shot at taking Cam Zurhaar or even Jack Henry. We also elevated two Casey regulars – Tim Smith and Declan Keilty. I am not against us elevating Casey players, you’d like to think that our scouts would be right across them and both did play for us and Smith in particular was unlucky with injury. But the Filipovic choice was mind-boggling and given the other bigs taken around him, has had an impact on us to this day.

6 McVee - could he win our B&F if Gawny is out a couple more weeks. So polished and had to play on Stringer for a fair chunk on the night and won that match-up hands down in the conditions. 5 Langdon - I was going to say Eddie everywhere, but he actually just ran up and down the AFL wing all game like he used to before Goody's experiment of playing him as a high half-forward this year. Missed the top votes because he was responsible for one of Essendon's best - Nick Martin - for a bit of the game. 4 ANB - Zac Merrett has been killing it in recent weeks and ANB was on to him making it tough for him from the first bounce. 3 Melksham - Not as classy as Fritter, but used his body and smarts to maximum effect to make Ridley accountable. 2 Windsor - What a goal and made sure his opponent - Cox - spends the rest of the year in the VFL. 1 Oliver - after being unsighted in first quarter, emerged from a rev-up to dominate second term and then just kept diving in like his good, old days. Apologies to Rivers whose disposal was appalling, but yes I did notice the presence and the height he brings to our midfield. If he'd hit a couple of targets he probably gets the 5 votes. Apologies also to Kozzie - another silly early 50m penalty but came back well after halftime and was clearly a big factor as well, especially given he was given a hard tag at throw ins and ball ups and worked through it. Votes should also go to Goodwin who decided to go small, against my wishes, and the weather gods looked after us and him. It was a bit like tipping a downpour at the GP and selecting wet-weather tyres.

Part 3 of the series that looks at each of Jason Taylor's draft years and trades and swaps that influence his hand. 2015 Draft 6/10 Pre-draft pick swaps: 7/10 Trades: 3/10 Another year when we fared pretty well at the draft, but ultimately our list-management trading (Todd Viney was still in charge I believe) let us down a bit. That is not to say then footy manager Josh Mahoney, who seemed to oversee the new area of pick swaps, didn’t do well. I mean this was the first of several years where we made pre-draft swaps which back then were revolutionary to a degree. Mahoney seemed to cotton on to the draft points rules pretty early and went to work with the developing interstate clubs. Somehow we got pick 3 from GC, after swapping them picks 6 and 29. The downside was that we also offloaded our first rounder for the 2016 draft but that year wasn’t rated so highly. We also managed to move up to pick 7 after offering GWS our picks 10 and 43 and 64, which helped them with points because they had a few academy kids on the way. I doubt we wouldn’t get such a great deal today. Maybe the Giants felt sorry for us, given we were taking Tom Bugg off their books. It is difficult to follow the paper trail as to how all this happened but it did and we emerged with two early picks (3&7) again which became 4 and 9 because of academy kids - Mills (3), Hopper (7). When it came to draft night, there is no doubt that the choice of Clayton Oliver with pick four (it was three but Mills being a Swans academy made it four) will go down as one of Taylor’s best pieces of work. Olly couldn’t even make the Vic Country side earlier that year and I suspect Taylor was watching when he played for Richmond reserves later in the season and dominated and his final six TAC Cup games were sensational – from memory I think he polled three votes in five of them to win the Morrish Medal. It was still a ballsy call by Taylor to pick him. Firstly there was the stigma that would have come from past coaches and Vic Country bosses who would have told the stories to Taylor of how he was an overweight kid and not good enough for their side, let alone an AFL one. Then there was the powerful Vic Metro movement who would have told him that Darcy Parish was a quality kid – the obvious choice for us. To be fair Parish is a pretty, handy midfielder, but Olly developed at a rate of knots and has won four B&Fs for us – I think by any reckoning it was an inspired choice by Taylor. Sure his off-field indiscretions in 2023 may have tempered our ratings of him slightly, but he’s proven to be almost as good an upgrade pick as Bont was for the Dogs. But Taylor’s judgment of bigs, particularly in 2015, may not quite win the rave reviews that he’s won in the midfield area. At that point we’d all lost faith in Chris Dawes holding his marks and the pressure on then youngster Jesse Hogan was immense. Taylor took three stabs at bigs, junior star Sam Weideman, who’d been injured for much of his pre-draft year, then way down the order he punted on ruckman Mitch King, who was another Murray tap prospect and left-field Stingrays pick Liam Hulett. Weideman always seemed to have the right attitude, and had the occasional standout game, but given Carlton snared two Coleman Medallists that year with Harry McKay (pick 10) and Charlie Curnow (pick 12), so it is hard to make a case that we fared well in this particular draft – Olly aside. Nor did we fare well in trades. The Pies stole Jeremy Howe and gave us back a small hard-working forward Ben Kennedy, who was great at VFL level, but not quite quick enough to dominate at AFL level. We also gave up our second rounder for Jake Melksham, who has been a very serviceable addition, but not in 2016 when he spent his first-year out under the Essendon ban. Tom Bugg added some grunt (Callum Mills might use another rhyming term), but he wasn’t a world beater and to be fair, was never going to be. He did do one incredible shut-down job on Sidebottom that I recall though 4 Clayton Oliver – Four best and fairests in a golden era for our club makes Clayton a great of our club, even though he’s going through some hard times at the moment. From day one he had such an innate ability to read the game and his quick hands and peripheral vision made him a standout midfielder. I remember going to an intraclub game out at Casey pre-2016 and you could hear and see the excitement coming from Goodwin on the sidelines just watching what the 18yo was doing. In 2021 and ‘22 his game went to a new level because he took things on himself, often breaking lines with his dash. This season he seems to have regressed back to that quick sideways dish to avoid errors and his “see ball, get ball” mantra has been lost a little as he follows other stars such as Cripps and Butters into a contest, rather than being the instigator. His inability to stick and hold tackles has also hurt, but that may be because of his thumb injury. Whether he can get back to being that fearless big-bodied extractor will likely determine if our season ends on a good note. 9 Sam Weideman – It is rumoured Tubby showed Jesse Hogan tapes of both the Weid, Curnow and McKay and Jesse liked what he saw of the Weid, who was a standout bottom-aged forward who was injured for much of his draft year. Curnow (pick 12) had misbehaved a bit in his draft year and was viewed more as a potential big-bodied midfielder back then, so you can understand why we overlooked him, although McKay (pick 10) had serious height and upside with his pace for a big bloke. Weid did have some great moments, remember the 2018 finals series when Jesse was injured, but he never quite developed into the star that we’d hoped and surprisingly we never tried to turn him into a defender either. From all reports I’ve had, he is a super bloke, maybe he was just a tad slow on the lead, but he had great vision and nice kicking skills. I’d actually be quite happy if we rookied him at season’s end (Essendon will delist him) and offloaded some of our other talls. 42 Mitch King – not sure why we needed another development ruckman given Gawny was already an icon and we had rookied Max King two years before and there were a handful of handy draft picks to come including one current standout skipper – Jordan Dawson (pick 56) - along with handy defenders such as Blake Hardwick (44), Werribee’s Sam Collins (55) and Nathan Broad (67). 46 Liam Hullet – Another tall forward prospect who had played a few games with Dandenong Stingrays, but wasn’t on any draft lists other than ours apparently. He looked the part with a strong body and he was a nice kick, but he just did not have enough pace to make it at the highest level. 6 Rookie draft - Josh Wagner – A nice left-footer plucked from Queensland. He was a handy hard-working half-back, who managed 42 games for us and a couple of memorable tackles – one on Gary Ablett when he was at the Suns I seem to recall. We also upgraded Joel Smith, who was starting to show some good signs, off the category B list and re-rookied Vic Michie. At this far down it’s all a bit of a lottery as to who comes on, but there were a few rookie gems unearthed by other draft gurus – Sydney’s Tom Papley, Essendon’s Tippa and Port’s Dan Houston stand out - and we did overlook another Aspley product in Mabior Chol, who has taken a long time to come on, but would fit our list profile perfectly now. So there’s probably at least six clubs who would reckon they did better than Taylor that year. Interestingly, and this is with the benefit of hindsight (a wonderful thing), for the third successive year Geelong’s most-celebrated draft guru Stephen Wells failed to really unearth a gem from his haul – Sam Menegola (pick 66) being the closest thing to a revelation down at the Cattery.

I had always understood that the recruiting team, led by our list manager and draft guru, sits down together and goes through options on a regular basis throughout the year and on occasions they bring in the footy manager and coach - maybe I am wrong about this as you seem to know better. Did you want to finish the series for me, or are you happy for me to continue?

I agree this is a game where we need to go a little bigger than normal because Essendon are so tall with Cox and sometimes even Jones on a wing. The loss of Gawn means that Fullarton will need some chop outs. Hence one of Petty (if fit) or Tomlinson should be brought back in. Woey goes back to VFL, leaving the choice of sub IMV between Bowey or Melksham (if Petty plays), although Goody will pick the youngster Moniz-Wakefield. As to tag on Merrett, we need a hard tag and ANB is perfect. Viney would be good too, but we need him going for the ball - we will only win this game if Viney, Rivers and Oliver can win enough clearances.

Taylor - Visionary or Over-rated - Part 2 (the 2014 draft) 2014 Draft: 9/10 Trading: 5/10 By this stage Taylor, Roosy and Todd Viney were all settled in and despite losing our AA full-back James Frawley as a free agent, the AFL felt some sympathy for us and dealt us pick 3 as compensation. The Hawks were fuming given they only got pick No.19 for losing Lance Franklin the previous year. The Frawley deal gave Taylor the trump hand of picks 2, 3 and meant that Roosy and Viney looked for more experience from our second and third rounders and swapped them for Sam Frost, Jeff Garlett and Heritier Lumumba (Harry O’Brien). Everyone knew Christian Petracca would go No.1 and Roosy was all over Angus Brayshaw having seen him at the Irish junior trip. Taylor apparently wasn’t so sure about McCartin and my understanding is that we were considering Brayshaw and Lever with picks 2 and 3. Getting Lever back then, rather than for two high first rounders in 2017 would have helped in hindsight. But just before the draft the Saints apparently decided Trac was full of himself (very few top kids aren’t I reckon) and went for McCartin. It probably goes down as the luckiest and best moment for us in drafting history – for once it wasn’t us making an error and the rest is history – two champion kids on top of two quality individuals (Billy Stretch and Alex Neal-Bullen) makes this Taylor’s key moment in resurrecting our list along with setting up the right culture. Overall the 2014 draft didn’t prove to be a ripper. The Giants had picks 4, 6 and 7 and only Caleb Marchbank (6) is still playing of that lot and that’s often for Carlton’s VFL side. Gold Coast got a bargain star with Touk Miller at pick 29, but didn’t fare so well with picks 8 and 15, while both Sydney (Isaac Heeney) and Brisbane (Harris Andrews) look inspired choices, but both were academy bargains anyway. The Dogs fared best with late-order picks claiming Bailey Dale (45) and Caleb Daniel (46). The rookie draft of 2014, by comparison, was one of the better ones – so clearly a lot of the experts got things wrong that year. 2 Christian Petracca – not a lot needs to be said given he has a Normie and very nearly a Charlie to go with it. He did take a while to become a star, but then again, it did take us a while to let him play in the middle and with freedom. He has a great profile, but more importantly seems to be setting a great example on and off the field for our youngsters. 3 Angus Brayshaw – a player with all the right principles, hence a huge loss this season. We all loved him in his first year when he helped us beat the Cats at Kardinia Park and after a few head knocks, he came back to lead our charge to greatness in 2018 and then ‘21. Would we have won the flag if he hadn’t been knocked out by Maynard? After 167 games will go down as a club great. As to the draft, Roosy was also keen on Isaac Heeney. It would have been interesting if Taylor had to choose between the three of them – Trac, Angus and Heeney – but back then Swans could Academy him. Time shows that only Jordan de Goey (5) can match the Angus choice. And ironically the Pies also got Darcy Moore (9), who was eligible for us as well, and Maynard (30) who we were across (via his dad being at Casey) but we didn’t have a pick around then having traded out of the second round. 40 Alex Neal-Bullen – SA’s under 18 side had won the junior champs and there was plenty of talent (if ever you want to see junior highlights have a look at how good Caleb Daniel was). The Crows were into Harrison Wigg, but I think Taylor had been over to watch Billy Stretch play for Glenelg seniors a few times and liked what Nibbler did for them as well. Ultimately he rated him higher than Daniel who went at 46 because of fears about his size. I think Dee fans are now aware what ANB brings to our club, although Daniel is a Doggie great as well (just don’t ask Bevo lately!). 42 Billy Stretch – was very impressive on a wing for Glenelg, so an easy choice as father/son for us. Ultimately probably needed a bit more of his dad’s height and athleticism to become a regular and I often wonder what might have happened with his career had he held on to the mark or been given a free kick for what would have been a matchwinner against North down in Tassie. Great workrate, just a tad small-bodied for AFL level. Great kid as well. 53 Oscar McDonald – I never have a problem taking successful brothers with picks this late because in most cases they are cut from the same cloth and may just take time – Dylan Grimes was a case in point. Oscar took too much time though. His kicking skills were elite, but he was just a tad slow and I wonder if an early head-high collision with Darcy Moore at VFL level in a match at Olympic Park, impacted his aggression. Amazingly, given his kicking skills, we rarely tried him as a forward, and he eventually got delisted and knee injuries have prevented him making headway elsewhere. Ed Langdon went to Freo with the next pick (54), so choosing him back then would have been inspiring, but with four young mids already taken by us that year, I imagine a fifth didn’t feel quite right back then. As for the trades, Lumumba looked good in his first year before falling to concussion syndrome, Jeffy was super first year and not bad in his third year, while Frosty made sure we got out of our seat to make sure he hit his intended target. He’s still going at the Hawks, so he wasn’t as bad as some of you make out I reckon. But thank christ, the top order lived up to the billing and our impressive culture was established. The other new addition down at training was rookie Aaron Vandenberg, who was so left field, most of us had to check he wasn’t a doorman. He had a 50-possession game with Ainslie which apparently excited Tubby, so he was taken with pick 2 of the rookie draft. He was a late starter with injury, but once he was fit, he played a practice match and looked way better than half our list – quicker, stronger and more confident. We also took a stab on Mitch White, who was a nice left-footer but a tad slow across the turf. He is probably playing his best footy now as our Casey skipper. It was a great rookie draft for a handful of clubs. The Saints got Jack Sinclair, Jayden Short and Jason Castagna were premiership players at Richmond on top of a Kane Lambert upgrade, Reilly O’Brien, Brayden Preuss (we got him via trade four years later) or Ivan Soldo would have been way better back-up rucks than any we have tried in the Gawny era and Gold Coast took Adam Saad at pick 23 (now at the Blues) and his pace and kicking has always amazed me. Throw in Sydney’s Nic Newman (also now at Blues) and it may have been the best rookie draft ever. COMING UP: 2015 - Taylor's most inspired choice but also possibly his worst draft in his 11 years.

Sounds like this topic is one we will all want to comment on and tomorrow I will drop the 2014 draft. It was good to see the undercurrent of support for Taylor and how many are quick to defend his status as being more of a luminary than overrated. A couple of you were disappointed that I could rate his 2013 draft that year as just a 5/10, a couple of you wanted to make the point that Salem, Hunt and Harmes are all potential 200 gamers - which shows that Taylor was pretty much on the money. My own view is that you seemed to have missed the point in my overall comments - 2013 was one of the best draft years ever and while 2001 will always get the “best draft ever” tag, 2013 isn’t far behind. I mentioned five clubs have current captains from that year - in fact it is six as I forgot Alex Pearce, who was taken with pick 37. Three clubs - Giants, Bulldogs and Blues - snared superstars of the game (Kelly, Bont, Cripps) and Hawthorn (Sicily) and Essendon (Merrett) would also claim their recruiter did way better than Taylor that year. Salem, Harmes and Hunt are all good role players, but none are stars of the game in my view. And on the good average player selections basis, Port smashes us with Impey (21), Byrne-Jones (52) and Amon (68) all still going and all still a chance to make it to 200 games - if that is our gauge of success. Sydney’s draft guru would also feel he fared better that year as well, even if Hewett (32), Nankervis (35) and Aliir Aliir (44) are all at other clubs. And neither Port or Sydney had access to a high pick like us - which is my point in the 2013 pre-amble that one or two of you seemed to ignore - as I said oh to be a fly on the wall at the meeting when Taylor was asked who he planned to take with pick 2, before Viney and Roosy agreed to the Tyson trade. So I am quite comfortable with Taylor’s rating of 5/10 for that year and I feel Viney’s trade rating of 3/10 is on the money given we ultimately gave up Kelly for Tyson and the second rounder for Vince cost us access to Merrett and many other quality picks in a quality draft year. But Taylor fans don’t get too aggrieved - I suspect you might like how I rate his 2014 effort. One final correction to “what, say what” who clearly has got very excited by the topic and has jumped forward already with lists of talls etc. But in his original negative post, he seemed to be trying to allude to the fact that Jimmy Toumpas (who was drafted pre-Taylor) was the right choice and that he wasn’t injured in his draft year. Toumpas was brilliant in his pre-draft year(2011), standing out as a 16yo in the SANFL, and then captaining SA at the 2012 carnival winning AA honours. But towards the end of the year he sustained hip issues and had surgery, as a result missing all the pre-draft testing camps. That’s why it was a bit of a gamble because we didn’t really know how fast he was, although he clearly was a nice kick, something we lacked back then with only Jones and Watts able to hit targets at training. Viney wanted Wines, but was outvoted, which is what happens. End story.

Yes Caleb had his best game for the season and came after several average performances from him that made many of us feel he needed a rest. It was also especially timely for those of us who watched the Pies v Bombers game and were having kittens that we took him ahead of Nate Caddy - who just happens to play the position we are desperately crying out for and the one we overlooked in the draft last year in order to get Windsor and Tholstrup. Windsor adds pace and can turn on Robbie style weave or baulk, so there's plenty of upside in him. But Caddy showed signs of being the next big thing.

Jason Taylor’s draft years It is easy to make comments with historical hindsight, but the following is an attempt to look at whether or not Jason Taylor has been a visionary recruiting boss or, god forbid, overrated. Taylor’s now been calling the shots for us at draft night for 11 years. And invariably we all fall victim to lumping the draft gurus in with the overall list strategy and that’s a little unfair given the list manager (currently Tim Lamb) is responsible for overseeing the entire list strategy and has the right to trade picks before the draft gurus gets a shot at them. Then there’s the often-underrated aspect of player development – the coaching once a player arrives at a club that comes from assistants, fitness bosses and weight room leaders. It is fair to say that we really struggled with our internal developing of players in the Bailey/Neeld eras so some of that poor recruiting is a reflection of our own incompetence on the training track, rather than just poor draft-night judgment. As a semi-regular track watcher, I have to say that from the moment Paul Roos arrived on the Melbourne scene and brought with him some quality assistant coaches things improved and most players have had a chance to live up to their draft number. All of a sudden 150-minute sessions on the track became part and parcel under Roosy for a game that lasts for roughly that length of time. With astute assistants such as Ben Matthews (now gone), players were being tutored better in the demands of the current game. Ditto Choco, who is a great assistant, even at his age with clear instructions - even if they must get a little repititous for the players. It's quite possible that Taylor’s predecessor Barry Prendergast(ly) was overly maligned because many of his choices weren’t given fundamental assistance from their arrival – the Jack Watts, Sam Blease, James Strauss draft of 2008 is a case in point given all three were highly-athletic teenagers who never went on to become greats of the game. Then there’s the case of 2012 when a coach, in this case Mark Neeld, overruled the list manager (Todd Viney) and Prendergast and demanded a certain type of player – hence we added an outside player who had been injured for much of the season in Jimmy Toumpas because we already had a tough inside player in Jack Viney coming in to the club. The fact that Todd and Jack were keen on Ollie Wines (they had him living with them so knew exactly what type of kid he was) will go down as one of our greatest errors. At least the error precipitated the changes that led to Roos, Taylor and eventually Lamb (2018) taking over and heralding our best era since the 50s, with apologies to John Northey’s late 80’s resurgence. Enjoy the read, I will drop a year every few days for the next few weeks – I will avoid game day. And feel free to comment but remember it is easy to be wise in hindsight. 2013 Draft Rating: 5/10 Fair Trades: 3/10 Poor This was Taylor’s first year since moving from Collingwood and undoubtedly all parties were a little unsure of their place and role. Roosy had just been appointed and was keen to get in some quality experienced players, given our list was rated the worst in the league. His arrival meant we offloaded ‘problem child’ Colin Sylvia but managed to get Bernie Vince from Adelaide with his compensation pick along with free agency trades for Daniel Cross and the more speculative Aidan Riley. Viv Michie was a late order trade, but the significant switch that impacted Taylor’s draft hand was dealing our No.2 overall pick to GWS for Dom Tyson. We did get back pick 9, but also lost our second round pick 22 in the deal. Was it Roosy who wanted it, was Todd Viney happy with it, did Jason Taylor give it his approval thinking that he’d still most likely get to draft a quality pick anyway with No.9? Oh, to be a fly on the wall back then. Tyson was runner-up in our best and fairest in 2014 so he was hardly a bust, but ultimately it was a big call – because with Tom Boyd’s flurry of TAC Cup goals in the finals, we could have had Josh Kelly. That’s right, a quality left-footed wingman that’s been missing from our line-up for much of the past decade. There were rumours back then that we thought Kelly wasn’t tough enough – you have to remember back then there was a feeling we were a little bit too soft - that’s why we went with Mark Neeld before the AFL sent us Roosy. So my guess is that even if we kept pick 2, we would have taken Jack Billings (3) who I believe Taylor rated mega highly. I am not sure Taylor would have been willing to promote Bont up the order to No.2 although reports back then were that we were clearly into the Dogs skipper. Once we got back pick No.9 in the Tyson deal, I think we had hoped to use it to obtain Bontempelli, but there was a late rush on the Bont and he jumped right up to No.4. The 2013 draft goes down as one of the best and deepest in history – five current AFL captains were part of it – with 4 Bont, 13 Patrick Cripps, 26 Zach Merrett, 35 Toby Nankervis and 56 James Sicily. So giving up pick 23 for Vince was huge. Bernie did give us mature grunt and won a B&F (2015), so he wasn’t a bust, but it came at a cost on draft night. Looking back - hindsight is a beautiful thing when you talk draft picks - we erred in giving up picks via trades and maybe we should have trusted Taylor’s judgment more implicitly in year one. 9 Christian Salem – we may have missed Patrick Cripps (13) and Zach Merrett (26) but when Bont jumped up in pecking order we went for the best kick ahead of the pacy Nathan Freeman (10) whose dodgy hamstrings ended up restricting his development anyway. Salem has been a very useful and worthy top 10 pick, just not the superstar that Bont and Cripps became. 40 Jay Kennedy Harris – not sure he was the right choice given we had holes in our list almost everywhere and we missed out on Tom Barrass (43), Aliir Aliir (44), Ben Brown (47) and James Sicily (56). Another more like for like was Scotch boy Darcy Byrne Jones (52) or even Karl Amon (68) if pacey/clever smalls was what we were after. 57 Jayden Hunt – Once you get down this far in the order, it is all speculative and Jayden was a very lively player for us, albeit a victim of many who felt his kicking wasn’t up to it. I still reckon we did the dirty on him in 2021. But after 114 games for us, he was a bargain at this pick, and he has also done well at the Eagles – fourth in their 2023 B&F. Only Amon and rookie/academy picks are still on other club lists after this pick. 82: Kept Mitch Clisby – As above, gems are hard to find this late. Trades for Dom Tyson, Bernie Vince and Viv Michie, free agents Daniel Cross, Aidan Riley. There were plenty of picks in the rookie draft and we were one of two clubs (Adelaide somehow stole Charlie Cameron) to find a useful gem – James Harmes with pick 2 and we also re-drafted Nev Jetta as a rookie. Taylor did have a crack at a couple of others in the rookie draft. Max King from the Murray Bushrangers was the first of what has become a growing penchant for drafting the wrong rookie ruck prospects, while Alex Georgiou was a mature-age defender from Norwood who played a handful of games but you are doing well if you remember any of them.

It's funny but I actually thought we were better than we've been n several areas this week, but it was comical some of our misses and it started with Gawny hitting the post and Kozzie doing likewise before Turner went further and hit the outer behind post on the full. The positives for me was that Goody actually figured he needed to deploy a tag on the best player in the game and ANB was fantastic again - he did the same to Sam Walsh when sent to him after half time two weeks ago. Maybe Goody will even think of doing it regularly now! The second positive was that Bailey Laurie got a full game so we could see what he was capable of and he actually was handy and clever - although his lack of size and pace means he will forever be up against it making an impact at this level. The third positive was that Rivers finally took the game on in a big way - he looked like an attacking defender and that's an area that we definitely need. Salem was also mega clean and aware all game - he's almost back in business I reckon. It was also nice to see Daniel Turner heavily involved in another game and while his disposal was so poor that he has to go back for a week or two to the VFL, he showed enough to indicate he may be able to play at this level. the trick is deciding whether his future lies in attack or defence. And Rooey showed he's ready to play a big role in our run home. Can't believe everyone teeing off on Viney - very courageous effort to play today but he is clearly injured and may need a week off to get his calf and shoulder right. Gawny was also injured and impacted big time but he stood up manfully. Hopefully he's right in 12 days time or we will probably lose to the Roos as well. There's a lot of player's who Goody has to make hard calls on - that's the role of the coach ultimately and hopefully he realises now that if he doesn't the season is over completely.

Rivers - lost his dash Salem - poor under pressure Sorry JoeBoy - go back and watch the replay and send us all an apology for missing their contribution today. Other verdicts I can cope with although your May one seems to have forgotten Hoskin-Elliott - one of their best three - played on him for the entire first half before Goody realised May wasn't quick enough to man him.

6 Gawn - clearly playing hurt in second half - but still the most dominant big on the ground. 5 ANB - shut down Walsh two weeks ago when sent to him after half time and his effort denying Daicos was superb and shows the value of tagging and not relying completely on a zone. 4 Salem - one of three mega impressive defenders for us - clean and quick to realise danger situations. 3 T-Mac - another strong game with some clever baulks. Lost Krueger early on one of his goals, but very reliable, although hard to understand why he ain't being sent forward when we are so bereft of form up there. 2 Rivers - possibly his best first quarter ever and constantly provided drive and aerial support. 1 JVR - our only aerial threat up forward once Trac got hurt. Makes you aware of how bad the others are going.

Surprisingly I still think we are a chance against the Pies because: 1) I expect our players to be so fired up for battle after last week that we would be a danger even to Sydney. 2) The Pies are so injury-decimated at the moment that they are the second smallest side in the league behind us, so we won't face the aerial demolition that Freo gave us. Having said that, an unmarked Daicos can still cut us up, so hopefully a hard tag is applied to him and by hard, I mean someone who doesn't have to observe our zone defence rules and mans him, side by side from the word go. Daicos is mega evasive and he's really quick, so the tag probably has to be either Sparrow or ANB, but personally I'd go radical and give Bowey the job. And Ed has to go back to the wing and tag Josh Daicos - he's too important. A lot of people will say Petty should be dropped and they'd be right if Lever was playing. But Petty as a defender is our best intercept flyer and I'd swap him and T-Mac - at least until Petty gets his hands back. We also have to have some fresh blood to spark some enthusiasm - if Goody goes back to Billings and Ben Brown it's season over, even if we win. Our only chance this season is to unearth a few surprises. The first one is Moniz-Wakefield who takes Bowey's spot down back. I accept that MW may not have the kicking skills, but his run and pace has to be given a chance and we need those qualities. The second one has to be Fullarton, who may not be tough enough ultimately, but deserves a chance and in theory with Cox out, he may be able to win some hitouts when Gawny is resting. We can't continue to go small and at least we can always sub him out, if we want some more last quarter run. And I'd also bring in either Tholstrup or Sestan. Both have a crack at it and we've had McAdam for three weeks now and how many goals? Tholstrup's tackling deserves a reward, so i'd go with him. Hopefully JVR is over his concussion and can play, so that we have a tall potentially powerful forward set up that could exploit the inexperienced Dean and the injured Howe. And with the Pies being so small at the moment without Mihocek, Cox, Elliott etc, I'd leave out Tommo for this game - sorry but I can't see an opponent for him as Markov and Schultz are their key forwards with Frampton. That means Howes can come back and play on Markov, who has pace. i love Windsor, but unfortunately he needs a week off to watch from the coaches box - unless Goody prefers to make him the sub, rather than Chandler. Out: Hunter, Turner, Tomlinson, McAdam, Windsor In: JVR, Fullarton, Moniz-Wakefield, Tholstrup, Howes B: McVee May Howes HB: Salem Petty Rivers C: Langdon Oliver Woewodin HF: Petracca JVR ANB F: T-Mac Pickett Fritsch Ru: Gawn Viney Bowey (hard tag on Daicos) Int: Fullarton, Moniz-Wakefield, Tholstrup, Sparrow, Chandler (sub)

A very good thread by Spirit of Norm Smith, but I actually disagreed with almost every one of the 10 or so suggestions. The exceptions were the following two which are pretty well spot on in my view. Step 3/ STOP LAZY PLAY STOP SLOW & WIDE & BORING FOOTY Scared footballers take easy 15 metres sideways kicks , even when running through the midfield MOVE THE BALL QUICKLY WITH INTENSITY BE BRAVE NOT SCARED!! The issue is that we don't really have a lovely long accurate kicking or pacey defender who can hurt teams so that we can break lines or invoke a quick switch on a regular basis. Some sides have a thumping kick such as Houston or Dale or Duggan or Hinge or Impey, some have pace such as Clark or Blakey. The best line breaker from back we have got is Rivers but he doesn't really use his long kick very often and Bowey (a longer kick than many realise) rarely goes down the middle, preferring to play safe. Salem is a very accurate short kick that can diffuse the situations. McVee is safe, shortish and reliable. Maysie has a booming left boot but as we don't switch it that much, he doesn't get to use it to the max and he's not going to run it 25m before kicking it. And being a left footer he's more accurate kicking it up the left side and on the left wing we generally have either Billings or Hunter (lately) who don't have line-breaking pace, so it's usually when we go right to Ed or Windsor (before he got tired) that we take the game on. The only other time that we really take the game on is when Trac has the ball - he's our only long-kicking, line breaking option and the main reason we aren't in the bottom handful. In 2021 and 2022 he had an in-form and confident Clayton who had discovered just how dangerous he can be when he takes the game on. But sadly Clayton of 2024 has gone back into his quick handball give, kick safely or long bomb out of trouble player. If you watched his goal against Freo, you could see he really didn't feel comfortable with the ball and wanted to give it off but there was no-one else around and he was forced to maximise his talent. Of the others, Nibbler and Viney try to break lines but they are not thumping kicks, Sparrow has yet to show he's got AFL level peripherals and Kossie looks too short or to his mate McAdam. So game plan wise we are stuck relying totally on Trac creating dangerous forward plays or Ed or Windsor breaking lines through pace. The other major factor is that we don't have a reliable tall lead up marking player such as a Daniher, Curnow, McKay etc. Goody was hopeful that Petty could play that role but he has been effectual in one of 10 games this year - against Geelong. that's not good enough. JVR does it as fairly well and has great tackle pressure but he needs another sidekick aside from Fritter - a reliable mid-size flyer like a Fogarty or even a Jamie Elliott. What we'd give for a young Sam Darcy or even Riccardi. And because we are so small (we are the smallest side in the league with Richmond and Collingwood the only others in our height division), we lose confidence. Step 4/ STOP TURNING BACKS AND FORWARDS INTO MIDS (RECRUIT MIDS) The engine room is so critical. It all starts in the middle. Real quality mids are the stars. Even with a generation champion Ruckman, our mids are losing big time. No more Riv or Kozzy experiments. We need them doing what they do best. Kozzy kicking goals Riv being courageous and defending for his life Recruit mids. We have enough backs and forwards- talls mediums smalls. Why are trying to turn small forwards into mids. Stop It I don't totally agree with your point that Rivers has played as a midfielder. Yes he's gone there for a few minutes but generally has played down back. But Kossie has spent a lot of time in the middle, especially in the Alice and yes we are definitely robbing Peter to pay Paul and it's not as if he's been a match winner in the middle. The biggest problem in the middle is that Clayton has lost his amazing mojo and barely wins a clearance and if he does it's a lame handball sideways or backwards. He also seems unable to stick tackles like he used to. He still runs his butt off, so I disagree with those who say he ain't fit, but he clearly lacks confidence and it affects the whole team. Invariably he lines up next to a Cripps or Butters and you know that he'll be beaten because his body-language tells you before the play. The mongrel in him is gone and unless he rediscovers it, our midfield will remain second rate. My suggestions: I say these with the proviso that the season is gone and some of these are too left-field for Goody, but maybe another loss to the Pies before the break may force Goody to rethink. And I actually reckon that we are a chance against Collingwood because as I mentioned before, they are a small side and we won't be exploited by size so much. And if we happen to use a hard tag on Daicos and allow that player to forget about the zone, who knows what could happen as I'm sure after our loss last week we will be fired up. But back to the rejigs: Firstly we have to go back to T-Mac playing forward. Yes I know he's too slow, but he gets what's required and it allows Petty to go back and play the Lever intercept role and get his marking confidence going again. Then, and this isn't radical to those of you over 40, we can actually switch T-Mac and him around after half time and see if Petty can take his confident A-game there. Secondly we have to get more out of Bowey in a role up forward or in the middle. He's got a thumping kick and he's got great courage. There's no reason why he shouldn't be one of our midfielders applying tackling pressure and he's also got the smarts and leap to be dangerous alongside Kozzie as a small forward. That means Goody has to drop his love affair with Chandler, but unfortunately Kade just hasn't been a reliable small forward - he either moves to the left wing or he moves to the sub role where we saw he can impact with his skill. Thirdly we have to continue to go big, even though our bigs are by and large not good enough. Totally relying on Gawny is not fair on him and the rest of the team. Yes we will lose some pace, but we have to play three bigs because it allows Fritter to get a medium tall defender. Among the calls that has to play includes Fullarton and Jefferson, who I suspect aren't good enough, but at least we can start their development, not leave them to rot in the VFL like Schache or Mitch Brown etc. Turner was worth a try, but one good game (against Richmond) doesn't 't mean he plays there all season. Fourthly we need to find out if our better-performing VFL players are any good. Moniz-Wakefield has pace and deserves a couple of games to see if he can cope with the level (i'm dubious about his disposal skills, but he deserves a chance) and by sending Bowey forward it frees up a small spot down back. Sestan is also ready for a couple of games and with McAdam failing, can play the same role with better tackling ability. Tholstrup just has to play again and again - we have to progress his development. All these young guys may fail, but at least we can mark them off, rather than letting them rot in the twos. Finally the tricky one is Clayton. How do you get a guy who has been one of our greats to perform with the confidence of a great. I don't have an answer and so far neither does Goody. Will the axe send him spiralling further or has his game already spiralled. That's why I have great sympathy for Goody. He's shown great loyalty to his core 22, but that's because they have performed week-in, week-out. But on Sunday, the return of the loyalty from the players went missing.

Just in case anyone thought our loss to West Coast was an aberration, we got confirmation that finals are beyond us this year and a reboot is required. The loss of Lever and Van Rooyen hurt, but it was more the lack of unity across the entire ground as kicks were missed and confidence level dropped to the Neeld era. It will be a huge task for Goody this week to restore our players faith in each other.

There is always a game where you realise your side and list is not quite good enough to win a flag and this was it for me. It was also a game where we all saw why we offered three first rounders (two last year, one this year) for Harley Reid which at the time I thought was exorbitant, but clearly was not given his match winning ability. Based on Goody's post-game quotes, it appears that even Goody is aware that his list has flaws and he will need to tinker with things to give us a better shot at it. Some of the tinkers will come at the mid-season draft where Tubby Taylor should get two shots at unearthing players who could add something - replacements for Brayshaw and Joel Smith. The others will be to his line-up for the Saints and while I reckon his conservative approach will see just three changes, he could make a statement and make up to five. Clearly we missed both Langdon's run and Rooey's competitiveness and they are montes to come back. And we will lose Lever. Ben Brown's mobility at 31 means he is also out. Jack Billings is tricky in that he is set to play his old side and will want to make a point. But I think we again saw when he again missed a set shot from close range that the mental side of his game has been ruined by being at the Saints for so long. Billings is a beautiful kick and has amazing vision, but sadly in front of goals he loses his mojo and he no longer has the line-breaking ability or the presence in tight. He was worth a try and for all those who think we got it wrong, please remember that Collingwood was also into him and could see the potential if he could overcome his mental gremlins. Blake Howes has taken a huge step forward this year and being a quick defender (yes he was a winger last year) with good height he has the tools to make it. He has also now had a good taste of it and shown that he is almost there. But he now needs to go back for a few weeks and dominate at VFL level and take the game on more. As a medium defender with a long kick, he has to provide instant rebound and so far he's shown us that he can play pretty tight, but he lacks the physicality and the attacking presence. Tom Sparrow is a goer. He works his butt off and he is genuinely a key member of our midfield grunt team. But he's just not impacting enough in the midfield transition and his link-up work lacks quality. It is time for a new role - some would say in the VFL, but I reckon he's so disciplined that a role down back beckons. A few of questioned McAdam, but he's only played one game and deserves another shot at it. Complicating things is that Sestan, who can play the similar goal square lead-up role is ready to debut. Sestan's debut will have to wait but at least we have another option. Chandler is another who needs a rethink. He's too small and not quite quick enough to be an explosive small forward against the good sides, but like Sparrow, he has an incredible attitude and his work ethic is top notch. He is also clever and has good vision and he can kick it a long way for a little bloke - to me he's ideal for our left-side wing. I's time to try Bowey in a new role - to me he deserves a shot in our midfield or as a small forward, because if he gets it around the 50m mark he can go bang or is clever with his dink kicks. As a defender he's just not quite providing the drive we need and we want the ball in his hands because he can use it. Finally the Petty situation is also tricky because aside from the Cats game, the switch forward has been a flop. Yet he's the one player who can mark it when he goes the big fly. With Lever out, he's ideal to have a week off forward duties and play the sweeper/intercept role on Owens. Tommo deserves a game but I don't see T.Mac being capable of keeping up with Owens, so he has to play on Caminiti with Maysie on Max King. Finally there are many who say Windsor needs a break this week and they might be right. But if he plays he will be able to play on Darcy Wilson and that is an ideal match-up for both of them. As to who comes in aside from JVR and Ed, we do need to see what Fullarton can do. Sure he may not make it, but we recruited him as back-up and he deserves a shot at it. And if he can't win it, then sub him off and flip Petty forward. The other player that is an obvious sub is Tholstrop. In terms of Saints, Ross loves tagging and will have a plan for Trac, but I'd start him forward each quarter and give him a run on the ball midway through each quarter. Apologies to Moniz-Wakefield and Sestan but I'm sure they've been told they are close. So after all that: Out: Lever (conc), Howes, B.Brown, Billings In: JVR, Langdon, Fullarton, Tholstrop. B: McVee May T.Mac HB: Sparrow Petty Salem C: Windsor ANB Chandler HF: Bowey JVR Langdon F: Pickett Petracca Fritsch Ru: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Rivers (def), Fullarton (fwd), Woewodin (wing/def), McAdam (fwd) Tholstrop (sub)

While I like the fact that you have spotted the key changes, please don't try and make out that Goody is a clever coach. We are now in an era where the coaches train players in their three parts of the ground and generally are way to scared to rock the boat and switch them. In the old days when players actually had a direct opponent and not a zone area to man, coaches would swing players who were getting beaten around all the time - the Rev was a master of it, while further back Barass made his reputation on it. Not for the first time this year Petty was getting beaten, as was Turner - both defenders by trait. Weitering is a great player, so Petty was always going to be up against it, McGovern had Fritters measure, even Cincotta was chasing down Kozzie. Down back T.Mac had made two massive howlers and was coming off a five-day break and is 31. At what point did the coach think, hey I'll send Turner or Petty back and bring T-Mac forward or if that doesn't work, take T.Mac off early so we had more run. That is not a slight on T-Mac, he's been pretty handy this year, but he's 31 and coming off a game where he had to run everywhere to keep up with Cameron and that's they type of scenario when five days can be a factor. You are allowed to switch players or sub them off - have a look at what Freo did last week - they played Fyfe as the sub so that he could play a full game tonight because there was just a five-day break. That's smart management. Goody has never understood that stuff. True, Goody figured that given Trac couldn't get it in the midfield he'd send him forward - that in itself is a huge lightbulb moment for Goody. And after kicking our first two and getting the momentum back, what did Goody do - he watched as Trac was taken off right in front of him because of rotations - don't worry about the fact that we were finally on a roll and our forwards were gaining confidence having Trac around. Goody allowed the same thing to happen in the third term. It was only in the last term when blind freddie could see that Trac was the factor that he left him on the entire quarter as full forward. Using ANB as a Walsh tag was also in the captain obvious category. ANB has always been our fittest runner and is the only player with the tank that could go with him. Yes it required a restructure and yes I should give more credit to Goody for allowing it to happen. But don't tell me it was revolutionary. What should happen now is that Goody should start thinking are there any other gun midfielders who we can use ANB on to quell - most likely after halftime when tiredness creeps in for most - Lachie Neale rd 16 is one I'd have in mind for ANB. There's no need for it to happen every week - just use it was a weapon when needed to break up our predictability. What I do give Goody credit for is that he seems to have the players' support - I think in his desperation to cover up any of his own misdemeanours, we the public don't really get to see the confident supportive character that I suspect he is behind the scenes.

6 Petracca- what a game as our full forward - kicked five and set up at least four others - plus was sent to the bench every time he kicked a goal in first three quarters - that way Goody made sure we didn’t get a run on. 5 ANB - what a super job after half time shutting down Walsh. 4 May - with Lever beaten early and T-Mac making howlers - Maysie was our best defender. 3 Viney - with Olly well beaten by Cripps and co and Gawny negated, it was up to our G&D man to spark us up in the middle. 2 Langdon - I really loved his run all night - made a mockery of Hollands early and then played half forward with ANB tagging. 1 Sparrow - would have been in our best three if he lowered his eyes a few times. honorable mention to Rooey who was almost in our best six.

I just hope the match panel learn from what happened when we went with virtually the same 22 in games against Port and Adelaide with a five-day break followed by an embarrassing loss to Brissy. The Cats and Blues games with five days between them should be viewed together and plans made to overcome the fatigue that such a schedule entails. To me that means having Fullarton playing at least one of the two games with the hope that Gawny can have a bit of a rest in one. That also means clever use of the sub in both games to ensure at least one prime mover (Trac, Olly and Viney) isn't too sore from backing up. The thing is the Cats are a physical, intense team, but apart from Holmes they aren't especially quick, so we need tough bodies for this one. Then against the Blues we will need more pace because they have outside runners like Hollands boys, Cottrell, Saad (if fit) plus quick small forwards - Owies, Fantasia. There were only two players who on form come out of the game against Tigers - Petty and Woey. Chandler had a howler, but has been great for five weeks, Howes and Billings both looked more comfortable but are still on my watch list, Sparrow was poor but is well-suited to take on the Cats where his bodywork on Danger and Bruhn will be key or if we decide to use him in a negating role on Miers. Some will say Hore should replace Joey, but we need run from down back and while Bowey is getting close, I suspect he will need one more week - he's an ideal inclusion for the Blues game I reckon if fit by then. To me, I'd be thinking about match-ups v the Cats - McVee on Stengel, May on Hawkins, T-Mac further up field on Cameron, Lever on O.Henry, Howes on Close and Rivers on the spare and then the decision on who to play on Miers is crucial. He's their most dangerous player at the moment and must be tagged/played tight - part of me says send Sparrow back, part of me says select Hunter for the job because as we saw last year, he's mega disciplined and hard and smart. He's not mega quick, but neither is Miers, so he won't get exposed for pace, like whoever plays on Holmes or Close will. If Sparrow is chosen for the job on Miers, then I'd take the risk and name McAdam as the sub. So I'd go: Out: Petty, Woey In: Fullarton, Hunter If he's not the sub, then I'd also have plans to just play McAdam for half or three quarters of the VFL game on Saturday, so that he comes straight in the following week with Bowey.