deanox

Damn you Song. Now I have high expectations for today!

King well be retained. He will pay some VFL seniors this year and will then pay all of next year there. If he played seniors this week he would be the third ruck behind Jamar and Gawn. Better he gets a full game.

Any comments Hogans_heroes?

I wonder if you could apply a similar system rate the club's list of 40 players as a way of providing draft assistance to clubs that need it?

He isn't named for Casey. Not saying he is a definite starter but it is an interesting idea.

Play as relief ruck / forward? Allows Hogan and Pedersen to pay as full time forwards and Watts to play around the ground. Not saying it will happen just suggesting a possibility. Not sure of another way Fitzpatrick could fit in to the team.

Fitzpatrick to run with Cordy? I.e ruck against him and follow him down back?

Wow. Massive power play.

I must admit, while 21 and 24 touches are nice, it is likely that that would translate to 10 or 15 touches at afl. I would like to see some 30+ possession games from some of the casey players.

It would cost Howe and our first pick and maybe a swap of later picks as well. I'd take that no worries. If we managed to get Prestia AND manage to get another mid through FA who is in our top 5 mids, next year will be a different year.

While I definitely wish it was going faster, I don't think Roos should be judged 7 games into his 2nd year here. We knew he had more to do than just recruit a couple of blokes. It isn't like we had the castle and were looking for a coaching master mind. Roos' job is to change the culture. And he is doing that. Slowly. It will take time. Expect big changes again at the end of the year so that hopefully we have a) 30 afl standard players to pick from and b) hardly any players left scarred from the last 7 years. Honestly i don't expect us to compete well regularly until 2017 (When i think Roos will have created a new list). Until then we will be inconsistent. Changing the culture will take 3 years. After that it is about performance.

Fair call. I thought you did pretty well except for what I mentioned but here is my best 22 on talent/when in form: Fbacks: Jetta, TMac, Garland Hbacks: Salem, Dunn, Lamumba Centr's: Vince, Jones, Watts Hf'rwds: Brayshaw, Dawes, Kent Ff'rwds: Garlett, Hogan, Pedersen Follwrs: Jamar, Tyson, Viney Intchge: Cross, JKH, VandenBerg, Howe Established depth: Frost, Newton Known quantity depth (i.e. may be moved on): Grimes, Trengove, Michie, McKenzie, Riley, Spencer, Fitzpatrick, Bail, MJones, Terlich. Developing potential depth: Petracca, Hunt, Toumpas, Stretch, Gawn, OMac, ANB, Harmes, King, White The problem is we really don't have much established depth. Players we are happy to take a spot in the 22. Most of the South is the clearly not up to it basket or very under developed kids. Overall I'm not unhappy with that 22. We need more quality mids and a better ruck, but at least the 22 players in this list are of afl standard.

Hard to take serious any "best 22 when in form" without including Watts in the team or even in the 14 depth players mentioned... Also i don't think Grimes is best 22 anymore.

We did last week. Maybe not by design; the swans dropped a player back and ours didn't go with him. I think we are better off playing man on man than spares anywhere. It means we don't have anyone to kick it to when we win the ball.

would like to point out that while we did have about 3 priority picks (nothing like expansion club concessions) we also managed to get them in average drafts. Everyone was picking Watts, Morton, Scully, Trengove (maybe martin got a jumper instead of Trengove) and Toumpas. Yeah we have stuffed some up but we haven't had the luck either.

Was that paid for holding the ball?

Would be staying for Casey next week of weer didn't have Jamar, Gawn and others there. Really need to bring on a "ruck/forward", maybe the most important individual position in modern AFL as it makes selection and team balance so much easier.

7 of our "best 22" missing, 9 of you include petracca and Trengove, 10 if you include Jamar. Our list doesn't run that deep that we can afford to have players 25-32 and not get belted.

I liked Dawes comments. Not something we have heard from the team very often in recent years. It is important we play with aggression to back him up. After comments like that, losing is Ok but rolling over is not.

I'm not sure it does. I think it highlights that "midfielder" is a loose term we use to cover a whole number of roles/positions from extractors at the bottom of packs, inside distributors, outside receivers/links, outside distributors, taggers, run withs, etc. Without a good mix of all these types a midfield performs poorly, looks one paced etc. A genuine superstar can play any of those roles as required, but there have been very few pages in the history of the game who can do that whole surrounded by substandard team mates.

I don't think it is unreasonable. A big play at a star via FA, trade our first pick for another mod who will be in our top 6 mids and a lower trade for a fringe player at a good club who may push for selection. Trade players for a ruck if needed, keep our second pick for the draft and get petracca and maybe Trengove back as well.

I'd try and buy three mids this year. One big fish, one other starting mid and a third young mid who isprobably best 22. Don't mind if we get one FA and trade for the other. Agree about the ruck but I don't want to spend big on one unless they are a forward/Rick who can play on the same team and share the ruck work with another ruckman.

Nothing wrong with those comments at all. Surely there must be something more to it?

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-05-14/dawes-aims-to-expose-frawley-fitness “He’s [Frawley's] missed about a month of footy, so he’s going to be vulnerable, in terms [of his match fitness],” Dawes said “I imagine he’ll go to Jesse Hogan, [with] him being the No.1 forward, but if he comes to me, that’s certainly what I’ll be trying and do – work him around and try to exploit his lack of match fitness.”

Without the burden of fronting up for 22 matches this year, he really has an opportunity to do a 12 month preseason. Hard running, weight lots and strength training that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It sounds like they are making use of it.