KingDingAling

No Salem or May. Pretty much doing ok. Only downside I can see is we are susceptible to a crumber. Hibberd usually fixes that quick smart so he is our biggest loss.

Brayshaw can find more of the footy on the wing. He played a defensive wing style. But he was getting a feel of the role. I have no doubt he will find more of the ball as he gains more confidence in his position. He looked good in the practice match. I think he can improve his goalkicking, and push into the forward line, becoming an unusual defensive winger who can damage the scoreboard. That would be a very effective role. The more accountable he makes his opponent the less his opponent is able to be an attacking weapon.

West Coast have a lot of players entering their twilight years. They don’t have a great deal of youth coming through. MFC club on the other hand, we have a dynasty looking list right now. It may not end up that way, but Jackson would be weighing up the present. He’d have to be very homesick to consider leaving MFC. I don’t see it happening.

Scary that Oliver is only 24 and should sit as high as number 2 in our history already.

If 2021 is anything to go by Dunstan Is very good. Viney at his best I think has more to offer, but Viney is rarely at his best, whereas Dunstan is ultra consistent, improving, and could possibly work better with our midfield. Dunstan gives our midfield more versatility because he can be first cab off the rank, which makes Oliver/Petracca harder to tag at center bounces as they would be on the move. It’s just something else for our opposition to worry about. Dunstan is a very good ball winner. He is a magnet to the footy, just needs to continue to improve his usage. For a large part of 2021 we didn’t use Gawn’s taps all that well. Dunstan may be the guy who gets better use of them.

Dunstan will be the benchmark, and any midfielder not named Petracca or Oliver will have to be better than Dunstan. It’s a good standard to set. Jordan, Sparrow, and even Viney, will have to bring their A-game to get more midfield minutes.

Weideman is ready now. No excuses. He now looks physically ready to play his role - as drafted. It takes some players a lot of time. We expect them to go early, but not many do go early. Weideman had all the right attributes to be a good contributor. I suspect we will see it in 2022.

Agree. The hard yards were already done. She’ll have plenty of time to earn respect and get credit where it is due. She appears to be the right person to help land us new training facilities- which would really set the club up for a long time.

Brisbane is the best I’ve seen. WC was also up there. Both better than ours. If we get a third quality midfielder then maybe. Oliver is as good a midfielder as I’ve ever seen. Petracca can still go a level, and reach Martin levels. Rivers probably has the tools to go inside the center square.

25-27

Any draftee would be happy to land at MFC. Bowey shown what’s possible. The club also plays kids if they are showing form (sparrow, Jordan, Jackson). We might be a top side but unlike many top teams of the past - we do play youth. Should set us up well going forward too.

He will take 3-4 years before he rucks. And that is where he’ll do his best work. Hopefully he gets homesick.

It’s a raffle if you don’t take into account the mental aspect of a recruit. If you ignore that, and just go by needs, position, and even performance, you are throwing darts at the board with your eyes closed. The most important attribute of what makes an AFL player great, or even good, is not determined by the position he plays.

Some of these bottom sides need a lot of luck. We had a lot of luck. Petracca slipping to 2. Rivers sliding. Made luck chasing Oliver. Plenty of planned draft halls, but needed a lot of luck along the way.

Hopefully we land a player at 17. We have the best young talent in the comp. It would be great to expand on that, and land that superstar at this pick. In a Covid year, I reckon it’s a great pick to have, in addition to our later picks. Club is so well positioned after 7-8 years of planning. Many of the lower rung sides are rightfully excited about having good early picks. But it’s one thing to have them, and another thing to get them right. Hopefully they don’t get them right, and we capitalize at 17.

Depth wins flags. Do Carlton have depth? I don’t think they do. Also, are Martin, Saad and Williams producing any better than depth players? I’d argue 2 of the 3 aren’t, and they are getting super star dollars. If by miracle their depth does start firing, which it needs to, those players will demand to be paid. Right at a time where Walsh will be demanding a million plus. I think Carlton are finished before they started.

What they have now is their finished product. I’d have went about it differently. But history will be the judge. Personally I think Carlton have overpaid b-grade level players who were at their top prior to trading for them (Saad and Williams). Cerra isn’t a dominant impactful player, he is more of a “nice” player. Hewitt is a good pick up, but he is what he was at Sydney - midfield depth. I just feel they’ve overpaid complementary players, and paid them like they are bonafied stars.

I agree. Will be a good acquisition for the right side. He’d be handy for our depth aswell.

Carlton are a basket case

We would have to move someone out. Only player I could possibly think of, that could get us maybe a late first or early second round pick is Harmes. Most likely a second round. We’d still need to move on a player aside from him, worthy of a top 15 pick. We simply don’t have any that I’d shift on for that, because then you’re talking Rivers, Fritsch, Bowey, potentially Jordan, and it all becomes too much for Cerra. The upside of getting Cerra would be to inject a player of his age and Ilk into our line up as a good immediate and long term move. But it’s only good in the long term if we aren’t giving up any of our future to get him. We really are out this trade. We cannot possibly get it done. I suspect Cerra probably wants to come to the Dees, but has concerns on nominating, then being let down.

Same. Oliver the best I’ve seen too.

Agree. We have played like the Geelong game ever since. If we go back and watch our last game, and this game, it’s a continuation. Not just the trend of winning, but absolutely pulverizing the opposition. That Geelong game given us the confidence that we needed. We pretty much blew the finals apart.

They didn’t know what to do. We taken the AA ruck man out of the center bounce and the guy we put in there played like a ruck rover. How can you prepare for that? When the dogs were stunned and didn’t know why - it was too late. Jackson snuck up on them. He was roving his own ball, and as a side that planned their midfield around Gawns dominance, the bullies simply didn’t adapt in time. Jackson essentially turned the game of football on its head.

The Bulldogs clearly done their homework on Max Gawn. Jackson brought something else, and it was exactly what we needed. How do you plan for a ruckman who has a crack and gathers the ball like a quality ruck rover. His hands are like Oliver’s, yet he’s our ruck. God knows how well afford the kid when the time comes. But he’s already played a huge part in us winning a flag.

And similar to Brayshaw he had to change his game earlier in his career. Viney set the tone as someone who could adapt when he tempered his aggression under Roos. Brayshaw shown he could adapt changing his game in light of concussion issues. The evolution for both is one of sacrifice. Both players ultimately went that one step further and sacrificed their whole game for the betterment of the team. Just amazing teaching really, whoever got these guys to buy into this philosophy, and implement it, pretty special.