titan_uranus

No. Wouldn't even think twice about it. Oliver is elite. Even if you think Kelly is elite (and IMO he has elite talent but doesn't consistently produce it), you don't just trade away your elite talent. I disagree with the notion that every player has a price. The idea that clubs are so soulless that if some sort of ridiculous offer was proposed, a club would just [censored] off their elite talent in the supposedly never-ending quest to get more elite talent. IMO, it's silly, and not just a matter of me wearing red/blue coloured glasses either.

It's May, not Lever, that we added after 2018. Which a season in which we were the league's highest scoring side but conceded goals too easily. I do love the whole debate around reviewing the West Coast game. Do you (and many others) think that a review would have changed 2019 or 2020?

You couldn't possibly downplay Brown's strengths any more unfairly, suggesting he's nothing other than an accurate kick at goal. One of our biggest problems is our inability to score goals when it goes inside 50. That's not all because we don't apply enough pressure. It's also because we don't take enough marks and miss too many shots. Brown helps us fix both. Not only that but he immediately attracts the opposition's best defender, giving Weideman the second defender. It also reduces reliance on Weideman as a target. Brown also has a big tank and repeat leads all day. Now, in saying all that, I'm not necessarily against us backing in TMac if we think we can get him back to 2018 levels. But in comparing TMac and Brown, let's at least be fair to Brown.

I'm not a fan of Oscar. If he stays to give us a depth option to plug a hole if May or Lever get injured, so be it, but IMO we can do better. I strongly disagree, other than with the scapegoat bit which is fair and true. Oscar's bad games are usually a result of his own weaknesses as a player. As @DeeSpencerhas pointed out above, he's weak in one-on-one contests, he's really poor when transitioning into offence, he regularly looks lost when the ball is moving fast, and he therefore adds nothing positive to our offensive game. These are weaknesses he's had in his game his entire career. There was a brief window early this year where I thought he might have improved. That didn't appear to eventuate though and the rest of 2020 turned out much like previous years. You're seriously arguing West Coast doesn't have elite superstars? Kelly, Kennedy, McGovern, Ryan, Shuey, Yeo, Gaff, Naitanui, Hurn and Darling isn't enough for you? (And that's without adding players like Redden, Cripps, Sheppard and Sheed). Port Adelaide have Boak, Gray, Wines, Dixon, Ebert and Byrne-Jones with support from Lycett, Powell-Pepper, Butters, Duursma, Rozee, Jonas and McKenzie. Those two clubs have far superior top end talent to us. St Kilda does not, but then watch their final compared to Port's or West Coast's and you'll see the difference.

Two things stood out to me across the four finals. The first was that the St Kilda-Bulldogs game was not close to the standard of the other three. The second was that Brisbane is the best all-round side in it this season. Can they knock off Geelong/Collingwood in a prelim? That, to me, is their biggest test. Their GF opponent will likely be Port (will back them in to beat Richmond/St Kilda at home) but I think the pressure of either Geelong or Collingwood will be significant. Yes but in the heat of the moment he's always going to pass that ball. The fault was Ah Chee for calling for it despite having Taylor Adams right in front of him. Shouldn't have called. Again, heat of moment sort of stuff, but had to let Kelly get up and go outside. It's so easy for disgruntled Melbourne supporters to feel jealous of Collingwood winning that final (or indeed, seeing St Kilda play distinctly average football but get a dud Dogs side and win anyway). But you're right, a lot went right for Collingwood. The accuracy, the freak goals, Cox doing something (had maybe 2 or 3 touches after quarter time), and no Dean Margetts umpiring. Chuck in their "relaxing" (by COVID-standards) run home too. They deserve huge credit for winning against the odds, but I can't help but feel if that had been us, the same disgruntled supporters would, as soon as we lose, discredit that win for those reasons.

It's always a possibility, but his form this year suggests it's not going to happen at Melbourne. Not every player can succeed at any given club. If he does end up somewhere else and he does get better, so be it, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should retain him. I'm not against keeping him as depth but having just re-signed Smith, I'm not sure we need to keep both of them, and I do not see OMac as a best 22 player for 2021.

I find him tolerable with certain clubs but completely intolerable with others. He's impossible to listen to when he's commentating Geelong or Richmond (and in previous years the same issue was with Sydney and Hawthorn). He's also not ideal with West Coast or Collingwood, albeit it's not as bad.

If the answer to TMac is as simple as strip extra weight off and all of a sudden he's back to 2018 TMac, I'm a massive, resounding yes. But I'm relatively sure it's not as simple as that.

I'm not a fan of Smith and would not have been upset if we had let him go. A one-year deal is not the end of the world though. We can't delist everyone and if the rumours suggest we're looking to move on from OMac, then it makes a bit more sense to retain Smith.

All I saw Stanley do was drop marks. Worst part of last night was Bruce McAvaney's Geelong-biased commentary.

Good on Frost for a top 10 B&F finish. But that's not really evidence to support the argument that we were wrong to trade him.

Good to hear!

Seahawks, Ravens, Broncos

I see the pros and the cons with Smith. I think ultimately I see the pros outweighing the cons, but I won't exactly be upset if he re-signs with Hawthorn (which you'd expect him to do). I don't know how the others compare but Smith only played 10 games this season.

We had very few soft tissue injuries this year. I have no medical background or expertise at all but it wouldn't surprise me if there is a link between aerobic/physical fitness and soft tissue injuries. Hopefully someone like @Webber can tell me whether there's any link. But putting that to one side, we won 11 fourth quarters (4th best for the league) but also drew another two, which overall made us the 2nd best team for fourth quarters. Our fourth quarter percentage was 164.85%, a clear second (Geelong was first at 179.9%, St Kilda third at 134.88%). We outscored our opponents in fourth quarters by 131 points across 17 games. We also went 6-3 in the last 9 games of the season despite having a league-high three four-day breaks across the season and no bye in that period. Despite that, we didn't have players breaking down, and we continued to run games out well. So, I think our fitness levels were pretty good, and even if they're not superior to other clubs, this year showed significant improvement to 2019.

If this is the end for him, it's a sad finish to what's been a fine career. If it's not the end for him, I hope he continues somewhere other than Melbourne. His form this year was not good and he is 35.

I'm not sure it tells us anything about the club's thoughts. Papley sought a trade at the end of last year. Didn't mean Sydney wanted him out the door. How long do you think Goodwin should have trialled the dual rucks for? And do you think Preuss can work as a second ruck, requiring him to spend long periods of time somewhere other than in the ruck?

Petty and Hore.

Where is there any evidence the club is pushing him out or wants to trade him? All we seem to know at the moment is a report from one journalist that says Preuss wants to leave.

This doesn't help the whole "he's contracted so let's drive a hard bargain for him", unfortunately. Also, what exactly did he think he was signing up for? Did we suggest to him we were going to go down the two-ruck path?

A bit like Sydney, who finished in the bottom 4 but haven't made a single list change yet? Or Hawthorn, who also finished in the bottom 4 but haven't delisted a single player yet? Or GWS (also no delistings)?

@Axis of Bob's post is exceptional work. Contrary to what some think, it isn't just a cover for "Viney is a flawless midfielder". As other stats AoB's posted show, Viney turns it over a lot. But none of our midfielders are flawless. Some of Oliver's clanger kicks this year were just absolutely terrible. But we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater on Oliver because there are so many other things he does that are vital to our success. This is the same argument for Viney. The difference is, unlike Oliver, most of us don't notice Viney's positive impact on the side live. So you just see the turnovers or the free kicks against for holding the ball. With Oliver, you see the clearances, quick handballs, etc. and you walk away from the game having seen how the positives outweigh the negatives. AoB has given everyone the opportunity to reflect on their views on Viney and his role within the side. Some, like @A F, are genuinely taking that opportunity to reflect. Others are, clearly, not.

Disappointing all round. I was all for taking him on, I was all for getting him into the side, and I was all for us priming him for a bigger impact in 2021 after a full pre-season. It's hard to understand what's gone wrong: various reports suggesting the breach was bad, or the breach wasn't bad but it's all about how he's responded, or that we'd already decided we weren't going to keep him anyway. I saw a future for him with us and I had genuinely thought he'd made improvements in the way he conducted himself to be past doing the sort of things that run you into this sort of position in the first place. I hope he's OK, I hope he can work things out in a post-football life, but the lasting feeling I have is disappointment: for him, for the club who invested so much into him and get left with a $50,000 fine to show for it, and for anyone at the club who might lose their income/job because of the fine.

This pretty much covers my thoughts on this right now.

Jeepers, if we had actually made the decision to give him another contract, we'd want to be 100% sure about cutting based on this incident. I'm not saying the incident couldn't be bad enough - we really just need to be absolutely sure this is the right call.