D4Life

Assuming one of the reasons Pert on board was big sponsorship experience, although he did have Eddie in his corner previously.

All Demons supporters turn up and make it profitable for the club. A good chance to start the season with a win.

I’d rather punt on some kids and maybe find a gem later in the draft. We got both Macs at 53!

Bundle numbers 43,47,48&49 for Kelly!

The best thing about this draft is we already have a strong 22 with 6 decent players as depth. If we could snag a player ready for2019 would be great. Seems like a zippy small forward and another outsidemid with speed & skill would complement the list.

Hawthorn lost Buddy for pick 19 or thereabouts! I think after Buddy left the Hawks went onto three flags in a row. I’m not 100% sure if he played in the 2013 flag. Buddy was better than Hogan! Our list management team keep strengthening the team. If someone wants to leave, make the best of it and that’s what we did. I’m looking forward to the next five years after a very very good 2018 that beat my expectations in winning more than one final! Go Demons!

Agree the best teams just make it happen. Collingwood got to 3rd with only one win over a finals team, being us unfortunately. Then played a strong finals month. The Demons dropped 4-5 games by under 10 pts, Cats 2&3, Saints 2, Port 10(robbed) and Swans? We win 2or 3 of those and top four spot was ours!

The biggest thing about an easy draw is you win 2 more games and finish top 4! Collingwood & Hawthorn in 2018. North were only in final contention due to easier draw.

Eagles rag dolled us in Prelim, adding May & Preuss will definitely help!

I’m a fan of Jeff G, as the crumbing role isn’t easy to play! His challenge to overcome, is not playing more very good or average games, it’s turning his shocking games into at least making a contribution to the team!!

Looking at 1 page in 30 for this thread and not missing much! FWIW: Hogan for 5&6 - very good Hogan for 5&11 - okay Hogan for 5,23&30 - okay Hogan for 5 - feel screwed I’d still rather keep him! Fast forward 24 hours, to put everyone out of their misery!!

Very good 22, slight changes for me: Salem ahead of Lewis Fritsch ahead of Hannan Jones ahead of KJJ Joel Smith in 22 replacing Hannan Frost & OMac close between these two!

Outside the best 28, and a few younger project players, could nearly rotate out rest of list each. Probably leaves about 10 spots to move on. Sounds a familiar number!

That was crumber not crumpet!?

Pretty good team. Need a crumpet in forward line, so Spargo in for Hannan. Lewis by season end may be replaced by a Stretch or J Smith. Will see if KK better than J Smith, Hunt, Hannan after another preseason. Will be surprised if we don’t bring in some more talent over the trade period! Outside mid, small forward come to mind, in addition to May, Preuss and KK or maybe it is KJJ!

Hogan is two top ten picks, one goes to GC for May, we have an extra to trade or high pick from so called super draft! Kent played 5-6 games for season, his 3rd or 4th round pick can go to GC for KK, who they said to go look for a trade, so can’t expect much in return. Vanders played 5-6 games for season. We will get something extra in a trade for him, probably 3rd pick. Tyson 17 and most weren’t great, looked rock bottom on confidence. He goes to North for Preuss, plus possibly a 3rd pick. So we end up with a top ten pick and 1-2 extra 3rd round picks on top of May, Preuss and KK! Still rather we keep Hogan!

Freo won’t accept pick 4 for Lochie Neal, so what do they expect to pay for Hogan? It certainly isn’t just pick 5.

Agree with your view. Would be good to see a list of last 10 years number 4 and 5 picks. How many as good as Hogan?

How old is Kennedy of Eagles?

Correct, so does May. Eagles manhandled and bullies us last week. A couple of beasts in the team will definitely help. Another big factor will be our gun mids getting another preseason and a year older. Clarry, Brayshaw, Harmes, Petracca, even Viney, they all become bigger bodies. Eagles were almost a year and a half older on average than us, so a year makes a difference, also another older guy in May helps in that 26-29 bracket. Even Pies midfield of Pendle, SideB, Treloar, Adams that bit older than the Demons. Adding a few big tough bodies a bit of Outside run and skill, plus another year into our 20-22 yo players, it’s exciting thinking about next year.

Fair comments, like the old/young concept, only area I feel we’re fine compared to you is the mids. Rotation 1 - Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes. Rotation 2 - Viney, Petracca, Jones. Others - ANB, Salem. From my recall of finals matches Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes, and Viney covered about 80-90% of centre bounces, so get Petracca to play a little more mid time. Tyson, AVB didn’t get much time in middle. But maybe amongst the 8-10 picks we look like having, might find another inside mid in the mix. To date keep hearing a lot about ins: Preuss great to support Max and if anything happens. May gives us a gorilla tamer and hard but which is good. Thought he was going to Pies! KKK who may be an outside mid for us, particularly if his skills are good as reported. Outs: Hogan - big loss. Kent - while occasional very good game, lots of so so games and injury prone, which is unlucky for him, so minimal loss. Tyson - first two years were very good, but last few only fair and skills fell apart. Losing a reasonable depth / interchange back up mid. AVB - love his pure aggression and tackling, skills ordinary, will be missed as a handy bottom six player. Always felt he was similar to Bugg. Delisted guys - can all be replaced. Should be interesting to see what trades we do, assuming Hogan gone if we have 5 & 10 as replacement, might go for one of the gun kids in the super draft with 5!

Forwards: If Spargo steps up to 1-2 goals per game, and Weideman continues on his improvement, with TMac, Melksham, and Trac it looks very good. Better ball delivery into forward line will make the highest scoring team in 2018 even better. Hogan is a loss! Recruiting a quality quick crumber would be good. Backs: Lever coming back will help and if May joins, he adds that gorilla owner that we lack. He also has a bit of mongrel that premiership teams need. Mids: Give Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes another year, Viney a preseason add Max with a backup and they are elite. Tyson and VDB were rarely used, covered by Petracca coming in occasionally. Outside mids: This is a soft spot, for mine Fritsch should take a wing and hopefully Stretch is fit and steps up. Maybe Salem, but I like him in backline. We need to recruit a class outside mid. Depth: We lost Lever, Hogan and Stretch when he finally looked good, and managed to win two finals, so I think our depth was pretty good. I always compare depth to other teams, and only Eagles, Collingwood and Richmond were perhaps slightly better re depth and not really sure on Tigers as they didn’t lose any of Rance, Riewoldt, Cotchin, Martin or Nankervis. If they lost Rance as we lost Lever and Riewoldt Vs Hogan, they couldn’t replace them. So they have no spine depth, only Eagles & Pies with better depth for mine! Next year a different ball game, looks like we have 8-10 players to replace, so once trading is done, will then be able to better judge how we look!

Lewis played some good football for the Demons this year. Shocker on Saturday but had nearly 21 mates in the first half. Obviously next year will be it, as falling to ground, speed etc will just get worse. Trade was worth it! Not sure if alternative pre season with martial arts training incorporated may improve his balance & strength, for one last season!

Delist: King & Filipovic (we got killed every week in ruck in VFL, especially if Preuss in they both have to go!) That gives us 5 spots with retirements. Sounds like Tyson trade likely that’s six spots, and as much as I like Garlett he will be another trade, making 7 spots available! Then Bugg to trade, or Johnstone or McKenna delist and we have 8! 8 is plenty to trade, draft or deal, a very good spot to add into our existing list, with only one Tyson being in our preliminary final 22. Tyson best spot is inside mid and I’d put at least 6 in front of him (Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Harmes, Petracca, Jones) and could add Salem, and AVDB, maybe more! Trading, delisting eight looks great!

Thanks for all the years and blood, sweat & tears, and terrific effort in 2017. Gun in VFL, just lacking the little extra to be a permanent fixture in The Ones! Best of luck for the future.