mo64

Correct. Blues had Cerra well before season's end. We made a late play but never a chance.

I forgot Steven Pitt. I still think he should have been a late inclusion in the 2000 GF instead of Ben Beams.

Grundy is under contract, and the Pies want him gone. That's the definition of a player they do not need. And Grundy is nothing like Jackson. Jackson can sprint forward of the contest, which is something that Grundy cannot. Under Buckley, it was easy for Grundy to accumulate possessions. The only thing they have in common is that neither are good contested marks.

How do we fit Grundy, Gunston and McKay under our salary cap? We might have allocated some cap space for Jackson, but who knows whether that was used for Gus. If we think that Brown and T Mac are on their last legs next year, why bring on more aging players like Grundy and Gunston, who have both had long term injuries in the past 2 years. I'd go all in for McKay, take a fly on Gunston as an UFA, and get a cheap Meek as part of Jackson deal.

And John Dellamarta

There's a difference between being a better player and a better option. There are more reasons for Meek being the better option than there are for Grundy.

Agree. Butters is a very good footballer, but is best suited as an on-baller. He doesn't replace Kozzie .

Getting Gunston makes perfect sense, but it makes no sense re-signing Melksham if that was the case. And the only key forward that GNF is alluding to, who would get demonlanders knickers in a knot is Taylor Walker.

We do know. If Grundy's contract was back ended, the Pies wouldn't have had to salary dump last year. Grundy's salary was the primary reason.

That's a bit simplistic. You still need team balance, so having 2 pure ruckmen on the ground for large percentages may not help us win. It made sense with Jackson, because he's more of an on-baller than a traditional ruckman. But if you want to give our explosive mids more rest, you should be looking at Spargo and Sparrow, who average between 65-70% game time, which is the lowest in our side.

TBH, I wouldn't trust Colin Young. He was trying to get both Bobby Hill and Lobb to break their contracts last year. I don't blame Bell for standing his ground. At the moment, everything is in the favour of the players/managers. Good to see a club stand it's ground. Having said that, the Lobb trade is interesting. With the development of JUH and Sam Darcy, I reckon the Dogs have gone cold on Lobb, and are only interested if it's a salary dump. They've probably offered a token pick, which doesn't give Freo any reason to trade Lobb.

Grundy is not on $600-$700 a year going forward, and if he was, Collingwood isn't handing over a pick for us to take on his contract. And I don't see how Grundy makes us better. The 4 remaining teams in the finals have got there with either a 2nd string or a journeyman ruckman. Having a dominant ruckman isn't a prerequisite for success.

GWS and Richmond have a fair bit going on.

All you have to do is ring up Trade Radio, and the rumour will gather some legs.

Good pick up by North, and a smart decision by Logue. I'm thinking North's 2nd round pick or priority pick will get the trade done, with maybe a late pick swap North's way.

Sounds great in theory, but there are so many ways to work around it. How do you stop a Zoom meeting? Player managers have clients amongst multiple clubs. So whilst re-negotiating a contract with player x, they could be discussing a move to that club for player y. It's been said many times that a lot of the player movements are locked in well before the season ends. Then it comes down to negotiating a trade.

Anti-tampering is too hard to police. Every club is guilty of it, so I don't see an issue.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Small forwards like Kozzie impact results more than a ruckman like Jackson. It would be a disaster to lose a small forward who has kicked 40 goals in both of his full seasons. We have 2 X Factor players in our forward line in Kozzie and Fritsch. If anything, we need a couple more who can take advantage of our midfield dominance. Are you expecting Spargo to take up the slack?

Tom Harley?

Disagree with your take DS. There are multiple factors that make a decision to get Grundy baffling. Most of these factors have been well articulated. B&F placings don't necessarily reflect the quality of performance. A player may finish high in the B&F purely because they played a majority of the games, and other key players missed chunks of the season. Finishing top 10 in a team that finished 17th is hardly a reflection of an outstanding season. Anyone who saw him play could see that his performance had fallen from his AA years.

That's more relevant than his previous great run with injury. We're picking up someone in their late 20's on a 5 year deal, who's just had back to back long term injuries. To say he's injury prone may not be correct, but his long term durability is questionable.

Name some pack marking forwards in the AFL? Better still, name a club that relies on pack marking forwards. The 2 beasts of the comp in Lynch and Hawkins rely on one-on-one strength to beat their opponents. Our game-style worked in 2021, but better teams combatted it in 2022. It's up to the coaching dept to come up with a game-style that suits our list.

I didn't see much evidence of us counter attacking from the back half. I haven't got the stats in front of me, but I recall seeing that our scores from defensive rebounds was pretty low.

From a list management perspective, the right call was to delist Melksham. What Melksham showed in the back half of the season was adequate, but he's hardly a lock to be best 22 next year. If you look at the make up of our taller forwards potentially next year, we have a lot of players with question marks. There's a lot that could be playing at Casey. BBB - Knee is shot. T. Mac - Had his injury concerns and is not getting younger. Weid - Seems like the coaches have put a line through him as an AFL forward. Joel Smith - Now playing up forward for Casey. Shown very little. Grundy - Shown nothing as a forward. Gawn - Shown little as a forward. JVR - Hasn't played a game, but we have high hopes. Fritsch - The beacon in our forward line. Melksham is a medium sized forward, which we badly need. But he's also old and slow, and doesn't change the dynamics of our forward line. Very few of our medium/tall forwards apply defensive pressure at ground level. I'd rather have chased a proven goalkicker in Gunston as an UFA, and not re-signed Melksham.

How about Lloyd Braun.