Red and Blue realist

It'll be interesting to see what they do with lessons from last season around managing the team. For mine, I'd be brining in Kossie, and making Sparrow the sub. Melk to have a full game at Casey. Then BBB and Hibbo out, with thoughts of both coming back in Adelaide the week after. I'd actually bring in Schache to provide ruck support (along with JVR) and Howes to debut. Ideally we'd have a decent lead in the 3rd quarter and then bring Sparrow on for one of Trac, Oliver or Viney. Gives us a look at what Schache can offer, and a new guy to bring into the extended squad, I think we need at least 32 - 35 guys who are capable of playing at AFL level this year, and with only Max, Salem and Harmes out injured and TMac, Tommo and Laurie having played but now at Casey we're still sitting at 29 who are known quantities so far.

Thanks DW!!!

Yes, I got the same, but no code to be able to use on either???

Each year as members around this time of year an email comes through with a discount for New Balance - who've been a great sponsor! However, I've got the email this year, but there's no code attached, so the ability to obtain the discount doesn't show up when looking to checkout. When clicking on the email it takes me through to a page that welcomes Melbourne members, but there's no discount applied, even when getting right to the end of checkout. Has anyone else had this issue? Also, they offer this if you renew, so there's an extra incentive if you're waiting to sign up again!

I know father sons retain their status, do academy kids? As in, if he had a good year next year would we have the same access or is it just a 1 off?

Not in the AFLW!

I wonder if it's more a thought that if the player we are really after is gone at pick 13, we slide that back to pick 19. Say pick 13 and 37 for 19, 31 and either 58 or their future 3rd?

May was originally recruited as a forward (to Gold Coast) while Petty - despite a popular narrative on here - was a back man as a junior. May would potentially make the better swingman, if needed.

From all the phantom drafts and ratings it seems like 13 is way to early but 37 will be late - unless he slides even further. maybe we try and deal 13 to a side with 2 picks in the 20's and look at him there? Maybe something like 13 & 37 + future 2nd to St K who give us 28 & 32 and their future 1st. We still use the same amount of picks this year and enhance next years hand, while being able to go after a player like George. Of course the danger is we do something like that and end up without the player we traded down for, but it could be a draft night trade.

This is spot on, with TMac down for the majority of the year and BBB clearly hobbled both ANB and Spargo both had to provide more pressure up the ground, limiting their effectiveness to lock the ball in, which they did so well in 2021. I think that they might have delayed bringing in JVR to ensure he has the tank to do the running TMac and BBB were doing and will also be a big reason we went and got Hunter. Hunter is the exact player to perform the role Spargo and ANB were doing in 2022 out of necessity, so it should make them both much more effective next year. I still think he's got a far bit of growth and if he can increase a few of his stat lines - disposals, tackles and score involvements by around 10%, and doing that in the 2021 role, that'll make for a huge improvement to the team.

I can see us potentially trading this pick if the player we want is gone and there's not a slider. I'd think the teams most likely to want to trade a future 1st are those with new coaches - Nth, GWS or StK, with Nth and GWS holding other teams 1st rounders. So it could be something like Melb give pick 13, GWS give picks 31 & 57 (2022) and Rick 1st (2023). Guys like Keeler, Lemmon, Barrett could be still available at 31 or 37 (I haven't factored in the academy moves) to help top up our talls and then there's always a slider who was predicted to go earlier or the ability to get someone who adds the x-factor (like Munkura) at 37 and it wouldn't be far off the right spot. We'd then have an extra pick up our selves if a bid for Emile-Brennan comes earlier than expected. Hopefully he'll slip through to Cat B rookie.

I think he's done, and I highly doubt he'd want to come and do a pre-season and all the training just to be backup, whereas if he wanted too he'd still be no1 ruck at a few clubs.

I think this cycle has another factor, and that's salary cap management. We push picks down the line but need to bring in more cheaper 'rookie picks', which are generally paid less than drafted players. Might only be a small saving, but there's also more chance that a top level draft pick will be paid higher in a shorter amount of time as well, whereas a rookie pick comes in with some expectation of longer development. Pushing more into next years draft means we'll have more higher paid players gone or nearly gone (BBB, TMac, Max, Tomo, May etc. all 2024/25) when they are coming into the period where younger guys need to get bigger extensions.

Is Schache better or worse than Weid - the answer is neither. Is pick 37 better than 54,72 & future 70s pick - for sure. So, if Schache is on a lot less coin than Weid, which I suspect, this is a pretty handy trade, it's no world beater but a shrewd piece of trading.

We might want some open spots for the mid season draft, or be happy to go with more rookies this year - I think you have to have a minimum of 42 players but up to 6 can be rookies. We could be trying to even out some of the big spending we've done lately (Clarry, Trac and Grundy) so we have some room next and in future years?

He's not great, like a lot of forwards who only do very part time rucking. I think they even used Bruce instead of him a lot of the time, but if he's still probably better than BBB. Still I doubt he'd be coming across as a ruck back up.

I'd be guessing that Weid being in contract might be on $350-400K, whereas with Schache out of contract and seemingly on the scrap head - we might be looking at a delisted free agent not a trade - he might be on $100k or more less. Could they both turn it around with a change of clubs - maybe? But at least we'll be saving some $$ on the similar player.

He might have when much younger, but at the more 'elite' junior levels he was a defender - here's his draft profile https://central.rookieme.com/afl/player/harrison-petty/ I don't mind the idea of both Petty and May becoming more adaptable as swingman, but neither should be transformed into full time forwards unless we got a full time replacement in the back line. Turner is too raw to back in for a full season and Tomo is 4th in line, we'd really have nothing else behind them - Smith maybe but he's not that real lock down key defender.

I'd say there's a chance the club had a target in mind to move up the draft for, and now that chance might be gone - for instance if we thought Cadman was around pick 5, but now the talk is he'll be in the first 3 and we know we can't get there. So maybe they think the slide back from 13 to 16 won't really hurt as we might have half a dozen names around there so we'll get 1 of them. Seems like we don't really rate this draft - already saying we're just taking 2 picks, so our focus might be more on moving next year.

We had a lot of interest in Flynn in his draft year, my guess is we'd be after him?

Because they've got 14 players who'll be over 30 next season (assuming no one else leaves or retires) and of those only Cameron and Stewart (the youngest as well) are likely to be on longer more expensive deals. Some of the others have been extremely highly paid during their careers and in order to stay on a list they would have accepted a lower contract - exactly why I think guys like Hibberd and Melksham can be useful. They managed to get the flag, and good on them for that, but it could have gone the other way and they could have gone the way of North a few years back.

Interesting article, not just on Jackson but using various data sets what the players are likely to produce compared to what the average player taken at the corresponding pick will produce. Jackson they have at pick 2 (same as kozzie) while both Oliver and Trac better than pick 1 - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-04/why-noah-anderson-is-the-most-valuable-player-in-the-afl/101498378

With the soft cap reductions, although they have been eased somewhat, I wonder if most clubs will be hanging onto an older player or 2, who really only plays if required as compared to demanding a spot. Then they become nearly like assistant coaches around the club and in the VFL. I know Hibberd was a near consistent best 22, but could be pushed out this year while Melk might that hybrid player/coach, along with Tomo, as the rest of our elder players (those over 28) were all best 22.

At the moment GWS have draft picks 3, 12, 19, 21, 44, 61 and 63 and will clearly be getting in more picks for Hopper - potentially 31 this year and others next year (plus they already have an additional 2nd round pick next). So there's no need for us to do anymore than wait for the Giants to finish the Hopper deal, see what picks/players they get to see how many draft picks they'll actually use. By my count they've had 4 players (on the senior list) go out, with another to go, but potentially 1 to come back in. So there likely to only use 4 draft picks, so one of 19, 21, 31 or 44 will be useless to them, let alone 61 & 63. So were in a position to aim for a good deal for Bedford, I'd like to upgrade 27 further to say pick 19 and have the Pies pay even more of Grundy's wage.

I'd be guessing that Brissy will probably swap picks with Gol Coast, who have a heap of picks in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, as compared to us. I'm sure we probably asked the question of a few clubs and Port must have come back with the best offer.