Wiseblood

I think that speaks more about our usage going forward than our lack of targets. But I'm happy to agree to disagree. I don't see him as someone we need to even glance at, but if the club sees it as an area of need then there isn't much I can do about that.

I love the idea, but in true Melbourne fashion, I could see Gold Coast taking him instead and we miss out entirely.

Couldn't agree more, mate. I always like seeing players stick with their clubs for the long term. The fact that it means Carlton and Hawthorn miss out is the cherry on the top.

Well if you look at the Top 4 right now, you'll see that their key position stocks up forward aren't a whole lot better than ours. Geelong relies heavily on Hawkins, and gets plenty of goals from their smalls. Brisbane has Hipwood and, to an extent, Dan McStay, but rely heavily again on Charlie Cameron and their mids to hit the scoreboard. Richmond do have Riewoldt and Lynch, but don't have a whole lot in reserve after that. The Pies have Mihocek and Cox, but get more of their goals from mid sized forwards like De Goey, Stephenson and Elliot. That's a small sample size, but I think with the above talls to go with Fritta, Melksham and to a lesser extent Petracca, then we're not too bad in the tall forward stocks. The other teams have a few but not much else after that, but are creative enough to get goals from more players than we did this year.

No argument from me, BA. I think we it's a glaring weakness in our side at the moment. How we fix it, and fix it well, is anybodies guess right now. We might have to get a little creative and look to the state leagues to help us fill the gaps.

Well we do have more than one focus - outside run through the middle of the ground and small forwards. We've seen teams get by without much of a key forward this year at different times, so I think it's further down the list from me. However, if someone of quality is up for grabs then I'd be all for it. I just don't think Casboult is that player. I think a forward line with Tom Mac, Weid and Fritsch as those marking type forwards works well, and then you have Petty waiting in the wings. Melksham has also shown the capability to play as 'key' forward when given the chance to be one out with his opponent.

Thoughts? Massive no from me. I don't think we need to recruit key position players unless it's someone of high quality to play alongside T Mac. Outside run and small forwards should be our focus.

Yep, pretty much around the mark there LT. He is one player suggested in here that I wouldn't mind getting IF he was actually available.

A lot of 'what ifs' for something you claim is 'looking like a disaster'. Plenty to play out here and I'm just going by this year. Anything can happen in the ensuing years. We can argue that point after it's happened.

I'll change my username to this as well: NoPreasonInjuries

If we get Jeremy Cameron to the club then I'll change my avatar to a pic of Saty for an entire year.

Pick 3 for Picks 18 and 36 then.... ?

They're trying to outdo the Roos in their bid to throw money at anyone out of contract.

Two things. One, Steven May proved when he was fit that he'll be a massive asset in our backline. True, he could have been more professional in his approach to pre-season training which then hampered his year, but I've seen enough to be convinced that getting him is the right move. Two, it's not as if Hogan set the world alight at Freo. His foot looks to be a long term injury concern for him so it's not as if he went and kicked 60 goals for the season. And Dean Kent did what we all knew he would - play decent footy and then get a long term injury. Regular as clockwork.

Imagine if we had picked swapped like we did with Lever and someone else ended up with Pick 3 while we got Pick 12 or something. I think we would see a few jumping off the West Gate if it happened.

True. Who knows what is happening behind closed doors, but after this season, I'd like to think we are leaving no stone unturned in improving our list. No doubt some players might knock us back, but I think that would be similar to any year no matter where we are on the ladder. We can't win them all. As Clint mentioned above, it may be a money issue - Jack Martin may be demanding money we can't afford or are unwilling to pay. If we are into Ed Langdon then a large chunk of what we have to pay and therefore we are looking at the opportunity to offload others, or we are going to attempt to fill some gaps through the draft.

Conigilo and Whitfield are right up there as well, but I think you're point is right more often than not. There are other examples, such as Hodge at pick 1, Roughie at pick 2 and so forth, but there have been plenty others as you've mentioned that came outside those two picks and turned out to be gun players. I don't think this change in pick order matters much at all.

It's a fair point. I had a quick look at the drafts since 2010, and apart from a few of the earlier ones where Coniglio, Whitfield and Josh Kelly were taken within the first two picks, the rest of the drafts were a little on the underwhelming side.

Sam Walsh goes alright. But I get your point.

How do you know we aren't? How do we know we have enquired and been told he's not interested? You might be right, but in truth, we know nothing.

I'd love Tom Papley to be honest, but I don't think we'll entice him to join us, nor could we satisfy the Swans in a trade.

Can anyone tell me why we need an external review? The internal review should be enough.

Yeah he doesn't really get the juices flowing anymore. Injuries seem to have slowed him down a bit and the Saints would probably demand a high price because of that. Unless they're willing to sell low then I doubt they'll get much interest.

Do we really need him? When I say this, consider that we have Tom Mac and we've had good success with Fritta over the last 5-6 games up forward as well. Weideman is the question mark as the other tall, but when you also add Melksham in there and hopefully at least a Hannan (who can get back to his 2018 form by getting himself fit!) I'm not too sure there is a place for him. I think a quality small forward should be the focus for us this off season. Where we get that player from is the issue.

The feeling is mutual my little troll. Love to hear why you think any of the people you mentioned would be interested in such a role. Of course they have Richo covered in win/loss ratio, but none of those you mentioned are realistic candidates for the gig. Why would Clarkson or Simpson give up a plum coaching gig to come to us to pretty much work under Goodwin? Why would Malthouse come out of retirement for it? Why would Roos come back? You haven't given one single suggestion that is realistic with the mild exception of Ross Lyon.