Gator

As Old has mentioned, McKernan makes perfect sense. We need a mature ruck backup. Mitch Brown is hopeless in the ruck and Jackson is a baby. If Gawn is injured there's no mature backup. If it's not McKernan it will have to be someone else.

Brown will play for Melbourne for the next few years. I'm pleased without being ecstatic. BUT I'm not ''underwhelmed'' by this bloke, as some seem to be. In 3 years - 2017-2019 - he kicked the MOST goals in the AFL (188 frigging goals), which is no mean feat. And he hardly had the best midfield slotting it down his throat. I watched every one of his 65 goals from 2019 and two thirds did NOT come from leads. They were a combination of frees, contested marks, tackles, ground balls, and general play. And plenty of the goals from ''leads'' were not lace-out. In fact, only a few were. Plenty were just getting separation with smart leads and speed. Both Brown and Weideman cover a lot of territory. It's great that Weideman will get the second tall. Jackson will relieve ruck, play a bit on-ball, occasionally push deep as well as resting on the bench. It's a good get for the MFC.

May/Langdon.

Interesting. They're only 4 months apart in age and both played junior footy at Beverley Hills Football Club. Good get, BRFE.

There is literally no chance Cameron isn't at Geelong next year. It's zero.

It's almost like Frost's year has been elevated because he wasn't horrible and in fact had good games where he defended well. He was no better than he's been at Melbourne. Hawthorn got what they paid for, i.e. the good the bad and the ugly. Kent was Kent. He was a fringe player at Melbourne and he's a fringe player at St Kilda.

Notwithstanding the above ^^ assessment, I'd love to get him in a Dees jumper. The ability to rack up possessions is underrated and this guy does it in spades. He's also got plenty of toe. Yes, his kicking has gone off from his earlier years, but he does a lot right, which is why he's nearly always top 5 in the B&F. And until this year he was a goal-kicking mid. He usually kicks 12-13 per year. Obviously if we can't afford him we can't afford him. And I'm not suggesting we jeopardize recontracting the likes of Oliver, but I reckon he'd be a good fit in our midfield with his outside ability and pace. I know plenty won't agree.

It was a rookie error by Evil to be so adamant re his mail. Always leave yourself some wriggle room. As for Geelong ? Was it the oldest GF team in history ? And they're just getting older with Higgins and Smith. Somewhat baffling. Oh how I'd love to beat them in a final again at the G in 2021 and watch Smith trudge off.

He's only reporting what he's been told. There's too much talk on the personality of the journalists for my liking. They all get it right and they all get it wrong. Unlike some here, I don't believe any of them make it up. Some mail will be stronger than others. There are degrees of everything.

I have faith in your contacts, but it could be that despite previous utterances to the Melbourne camp he's changed his mind.

Perhaps. However, some gems have come from even the rookie draft. Back yourself to get some new talent in the door.

I would have cut him. He's finished. But I suspect the handling of McDonald was in the back of their minds as well as the cultural contribution he can provide. Then there's the 300 games... But if you can come up with other reasons they retained him I'm all ears.

I like Treloar and unlike some if we could manage it I'd like him in our midfield. But Oliver is a demonstrably better player, whether it be contested footy, loose balls, ground balls, etc. Oliver's combined speed and inside ball winning abilities are a more valuable combination than Treloar's accumulation, break away speed and sometimes questionable distribution. I think Oliver's loose ball and ground ball get abilities are sometimes overlooked. He's been the best in the league for the last 3 years. The ability to get first use of the footy and be the best in the league at it is huge. And we're yet to see the best of him. All he needs to do is use his legs more, which he started to do, and tidy up his disposal and decision making, which is quite within his capabilities. He's only just coming into his prime years.

Dear God. Oliver has made the AA team, Treloar hasn't. Oliver has two club B&Fs, Treloar none. Oliver is 23, Treloar is 27. Finally, seeing as though Brownlow votes are for some reason significant to you, Oliver averages 1 vote for every 1.8 game he plays and Treloar averages 1 vote for every 2.3 games he plays. So even on your very flawed metric Oliver has him covered. Treloar's Brownlow tally after his first 5 years is 33 votes compared to Oliver's 54. Treloar 101 games and Oliver 99. Oliver's average should go higher seeing as he hasn't even reached his prime years.

As George has alluded to, they didn't want to repeat the McDonald fiasco.

Of course, Hogan's off-field issues may or may not have been impacted by his Father's death or his brief cancer episode. They may be completely separate to each other. Or they may not. In essence, all the club can do is make decisions on what his behaviour actually entails. Clearly, we've benefited from the decision to trade him and there's absolutely nothing to suggest he's improved his off-field behaviours. It appears worse, although it's well-known Melbourne did a good job protecting the player and the club's image while he was here. I'm only interested in the best interests of the club and they don't appear to be best served by revisiting the past with Hogan. In fact, we've made our decision.

He means Baggy Bob, not ''chap''.

AFL Trade Rumours @InformationAfl · 8m Collingwood have officially put Adam Treloar on the trade table and are prepared to pay part of his deal.

I like learning from experienced players that have played in premierships and been part of a rebuild. Players that have seen the whole journey up the ladder. And I particularly like listening to Luke Hodge. He talks sense and is straight to the point. Very recently he said that the difference between being a good team and becoming a flag team is recruiting role players. Obviously, the stars are already in place, but a handful of stars aren't enough if you don't surround them with players who can help complete the task. Think Hale, Poppy, Guerra etc. at Hawthorn. You really need 22 players performing their role to a high degree. 21 or 20 will leave you short and cost games. Richmond are a perfect example of how lesser lights who perform their role to a high level make an enormous difference. You only need to look at the top 20 of our B&F. There was a chasm between the top 12 and the performances of the rest. In reality, to win more games than we lost shows how good our better players performed, because they weren't being supported. I blame the lack of quality role players, but also the coaching panel, game structures, etc. I think we've got the core group of stars or very good players already on our list, but we're lacking quality role players to take us forward. A great core group, but not great/quality depth. Not every player we're looking at recruiting this trade period needs to be a star. They'll ALL have deficiencies that Deespencer can pick apart, but if we choose wisely we might just bring in players that can have a significant difference to our overall fortunes.

Do supporters realise there's a limited pool of players moving club each year ? Do they realise their club is restricted to those limited choices ? Do they want their list to improve ? You may not be overly excited by Polec, but do you think he'll make the list worse ? Who else do you think is available if you don't want him ? Ball butcher Phillips ? Who else ? Not to mention I reckon some people posting here have no great grasp on opposition players anyway. They see them fleetingly yet make concrete opinions based on small samples. Yet when one of their players is set to be traded, like Preuss, they're suddenly worth a pick in the 20s. What if I said to you we can recruit the player who's kicked the second most goals in the AFL since 2017 without giving up a heap ?

Out of courtesy to a player who spent many years at your club from the age of 17 you'd speak with him. It also may mean we're confident of getting Brown. Ultimately though, we let him go for a reason.

I think Polec is more damaging with ball in hand.

Posted in the last 10 minutes fwiw.

You're conflating eras. Not a great current team, irrespective of whether they win tonight, or not. However, they are a great great club, which is a different issue.

The Bulldogs aren't known as a great side. They had a great year. As I said, clearly we disagree. And there's no point having a backwards and forwards tennis match. I'll leave you to your opinion.