titan_uranus

He was never as bad as many of us (myself included) felt when he played poor games. Ultimately he was a solid but flawed footballer who didn't improve enough to press beyond those 81 games. No shame in that, but IMO the right call for our list moving forward.

On the flipside, they've just added Cameron to their forward line, Smith complements Duncan and Menegola on the other wing and allows Blicavs to go back into defence to cover Taylor, and Higgins is probably an upgrade on 2020 Ablett.

Point 3 is already happening, and is a step in the right direction. As to the centre bounce, I wonder whether we should get rid of the recall. If we're going to keep the bounce then we're at least in part keeping its randomness. If it skews off, who cares, just get on with it. Point 2 I'm not sure about and would be holding off on capping rotations further until we've at least tried some other, less radical, things that might have fewer side effects. Point 1 agree. Point 4 is tough - I appreciate reducing randomness and trying to get consistency in decision-making is important, but the pressure on umpires is tough enough as it is. Increasing their physical workload by 17% (from 33% to 50%) might be a bridge too far. But, one way to assist might be to vest more power in goal and boundary umpires - don't get the field umpire involved in decisions about score reviews, just get the goal umpires to do it. Let boundary umpires make calls on out of bounds and again, keep things moving quicker.

There are changes to the top 8 every year. Some of them are surprising. Would you have imagined GWS (6th on the ladder but made the GF) after 2019 to miss the finals in 2020? Of course, there's us in 2018, but Hawthorn in 2018 also finished in the top 4 but then fell apart. There will likely be at least one top 8 side this year who struggles next year. It might be Collingwood. Of the three players to leave only Treloar really hurts them. They were moving past Stephenson and Phillips. But the damage to their culture caused by flogging players off and mismanaging the salary cap could prove more of an issue. It might be St Kilda. I can't shake my view that they're flaky and play non-sustainable football. It might even be West Coast or Geelong, given their lists are older and the end can hit quicker than expected when players are past 30.

I'm something of an outlier but I don't believe the game's spectacle is so bad that rule changes are necessary to "fix" it. I don't agree that scoring = better product, either. But, if we are looking to reduce congestion, there are three things I would do before making changes that IMO will have unintended side effects (like reducing the game to 16 per side or capping interchange rotations): Get rid of the ruck nomination rule Properly adjudicate holding the ball and, possibly more importantly, holding the man. The biggest one here is gang tackles/stacks on. Make it one tackler allowed. If a team adds a second tackler, you're penalised. Why do we need two players jumping on top of the player with the ball? We don't. Start, within the current rules, penalising players for wasting time when they've conceded a free. How often do you see a player get caught holding the ball, but take an eon to get up, or pretends to be stuck on top of the ball without it, or whatever. All the while letting his teammates flood back. The rules prohibit time wasting so let's enforce them properly - if you don't get up, off the opponent and off the ball, immediately, you are penalised (either bring in a 25 metre penalty for these sorts of offences or just hit them with a 50 metre penalty)

Even if your fears were well-founded, that's not a good enough reason to hold onto a future first round pick. I have no problem with the club setting high expectations and accordingly trading away our future first round picks if they think they can be used to cash in for higher present value. We started last year's trade period with one 2019 first round pick and one 2020 first round pick. Right now we have two 2019 first round picks and two 2020 first round picks. Even if we don't get back into the 2021 first round, that's still a net gain of a first round pick over that time. I think Stefan Martin is their more important acquisition. Allows them to be competitive in the ruck and use English either forward or back, where he'll have more impact. Treloar alone doesn't really help them as they already had a strong midfield. They're just going to be squeezing more midfield minutes out of Dunkley and Bontempelli to fit him in (although I guess in the case of Bontempelli playing him more forward won't hurt!). But if they can play English as a sweeper defender or a third tall forward, they might improve their real weaknesses.

So the list has to be 37-44. We've currently got 39. If OMac, Bedford and Jordon all stay, we can take a maximum of five more players in the draft, rookie draft, DFA period and SSP period. I wonder whether we'll go under 44 to save money in the salary cap to work on re-signing Oliver, Jackson and Petracca.

Brown takes one of those spots so it's currently only four.

Really keen to see what price the Dogs ended up paying

Wow, so the Dogs' midfield next year will be Botempelli, Macrae, Hunter, Smith, Libba, Dunkley and Treloar. That is...insane. Plus Stefan Martin in the ruck to actually be a ruckman (improving on English).

Scratch that!

You have no idea if we offered that, or if he would have taken it.

Looks like Caldwell and Cameron made it, but Treloar and Dunkley didn't.

Maybe the thread title needs to be changed to "Welcome to Demonland Picks 18 and 19"? We now have 18, 19, 28 and 50.

We've turned 25, 68 and 69 into 18 and 19, at a cost of having to slide back from our 2021 first rounder to Brisbane's 2021 second rounder. At worst, that's a slide back of 35 draft spots. At best that's a slide of 1 spot. We'll be backing ourselves in to do well next year but Brisbane will too, which means in all likelihood we're sliding back 10-20 spots next year. Is that worth it to get 18 and 19 in this year's draft? Maybe we have a plan to use 18 and 19.

Well there's reason number 412309 to not rely solely on what you read on Twitter.

Given we only have to use one pick at the ND, is it possible we're looking to send 25 and 28 for a first rounder?

So we give up 33 for Brown, sliding back two spots from 26 to 28 which barely matters, and we likely improve on our 2021 fourth round pick. I think we have to be happy with this. Now to see how it all actually plays out on the field.

Further info from The Age: The AFL have reduced the requirement that clubs take three selections at the draft to just one. Most clubs will make more than one pick but several clubs are considering adding one player from the total pool and then using the remaining points to put academy, father-son or NGA graduates on the list. The second change is that clubs will be able to take selections into the national draft as if the primary list is still at 40. This is important as clubs have had to take as many picks into the draft as they had list spots available but the uncertainty around list sizes left them concerned about what they could do this season. Some clubs also wanted to potentially trade picks on the night so having an extra number would increase liquidity into the system.

It's been covered and I don't think it's perplexing at all. Smith was a free agent. Phillips will cost draft picks. So, whilst we were interested in a winger if he could come without a cost, we're less interested in spending for one (bearing in mind Phillips is on decent coin and, whilst good, isn't amazing). That could well be because we've got an overarching strategy to try to get higher up the draft.

My bad. I saw a whole lot of 3s in the picks and told myself it was a third rounder. Point remains: Brown for pick 31 or 33 is a good result (assuming the only other net loss is a slide back from 26 to 28).

So unless you're upset with sliding back two spots from 26 to 28, we'll get Brown for a third round pick (31 or 33). Sounds good to me.

Per The Age: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-trade-period-deadline-day-all-the-trades-and-all-the-drama-on-deadline-day-20201112-p56dvm.html North Melbourne and Melbourne are close to a deal to send Ben Brown to the Demons for an exchange of a suite of picks. The deal, which is agreed in principal, cannot be lodged until later today after an AFL briefing. The deal will centre on North giving up Brown and pick 28 and receive Melbourne’s pick 26 and either pick 31 or 33. The clubs will also swap future late round picks.