Lord Nev

The point is though, you're happy to be Captain Hindsight and pot decisions made by professionals, yet you're seemingly too scared to actually put forth your opinions based on future predictions. If you're not already in a recruitment role, despite apparently wanting the income, I'm not sure why you feel the need to continually bash decisions made by far more qualified people. I honestly would be really keen to hear your thoughts on whom we should draft this year. You seem to be really into it, and I've not followed the draft that closely the last couple of years.

Yeah true, did sound like he played in the middle a bit on the weekend again. Good point. I wonder if he could potentially play more forward of the ball where his delivery would have more impact where needed? From the previous link: "For the second game in a row, Jordan Lewis displayed the elite skills which have made him one of best footballers of his generation. Controlling the match from a muddy centre of Piranha Park, Lewis was immense for the Demons providing outstanding leadership, directing his younger teammates, calling out defensive coverages and setting up goals all leading to the victory."

Please post your full phantom draft, preferably up to at least pick 60, by the weekend. Might be great to CC it to Jason Taylor too, because clearly your credentials are imposing for him and he'll take notice. I'll then look forward to waiting 3-4 years before we all utterly pull up apart your selections. Cheers.

Yeah I like his marking and attack on the footy, and he does seem the athletic type that could really develop a great tank. He's an interesting proposition. Not 100% sure how we go with 'bench time' though given our known struggles with fitness and lack of preseason.

Not sure there's room for Petty forward though with TMac, Weid and Smith already there and working well last week. Wouldn't disrupt that, let alone add yet another tall into the forward line when we already struggle with ground balls inside 50.

Yeah for sure, that would be the ideal scenario. I do hope they're extra cautious though and don't rush him again.

IN: JKH, Lewis OUT: Hannan, Wagner I'm a Hannan fan, but he looks to be struggling to impact and 7 touches, 0 tackles is not good enough for a wing/hf role. JKH played that role really well for Casey by the sounds of it: "Another Melbourne-listed Demon to impact the match was Jay Kennedy-Harris. While almost every player struggled underfoot, the smooth-running Kennedy-Harris dominated along the wing keeping on his feet, racking up possessions and providing the key transition link to the forwards. Finishing with 22 disposals, Kennedy-Harris’ name will be amongst the selection mix come Thursday." Source Not too fussed if Lewis for Wagner doesn't happen. Lewis probably deserves it based on form, but Wags' better leg speed could be handy against the Lions.

Imagine constantly potting a player for not developing, building his strength, having good form, and then an article comes out explaining he's been doing those very things midseason, in a club infamous for poor development no less, and you take the opportunity to pot him yet again (on the internet). Our supporter culture is often as toxic as the club culture that's been worked on so hard.

He's been apparently doing a 'mini-preseason' according to the club. What do you know hey? Development. At the MFC no less. Coaches have been doing bits of it with him. Love it. Investing in a young player rather than 'delisting or trading' because he's down the pecking order currently. Source

Yeah I only meant for us to get access to the whole area including the existing footy oval.

Hey mate, I just posed the question as a hypothetical. You're welcome to discuss it, even provide some solid reasoning either way, I'm here to talk footy not take pot shots at strangers on the internet. Cheers.

Yeah I like your thinking. It would be a great location for us as a club and there's definitely the space if we had access to the whole thing including the footy oval. Not sure how we'd go 'kicking out' the Panthers, but I'm sure things could be worked out somehow.

How much of that whole space do they own? The baseball section alone wouldn't be big enough for an MCG oval, training and admin, parking etc. Does it include the area that the Surrey Park Panthers FC use? Or does the council own that? And the land to the east would fall under the Aqualink ownership I would think. Don't mind the idea as such, especially with all the talk about Box Hill becoming like a second CBD, just not sure on the specifics of the land.

Just to throw a random idea out there, but what about the MCC Kew site? It's struggled to survive even after the MCC took it over and invested heavily into it. Very much heartland as far as MFC goes too. Not 100% sure if the land size would cut it, but could be ways around that I guess.

Don't understand threads like this one and the ANB one. We have more than 40+ players on our list and I don't see us using the same 22 every week for a whole season. Depth and development have been the things we've bemoaned so much about our club but then as soon as a bloke is out of the 'best 22' people are wanting them delisted and the like. Oscar might develop into a great spoiling backman and help us succeed, or he may just steady the ship when needed as a backup player (and help us succeed), and his contract status and opportunity will be determined by how he performs within that framework. It's not a matter of either 'he'll be a star' or 'he'll be delisted', there's so much space in between those things. Out of all the years for people to struggle with the concept of depth, who would have thought it would be this year.

Sure, did great in the first half, disappeared in the second. I like him, and think he'll be a weapon after another preseason or two, but he would disrupt the balance we saw on Saturday and his lack of fitness would cost us, particularly given it's so incompatible with how we're playing style wise and the speed and run of Brisbane. Sydney are a slower side so we got away with it for a half.

This isn't a serious question is it? Momentum, positivity and around about pick 7-8. Heads down, negativity and around pick 3-4. Not exactly a hard decision.

Disagree mate. Preuss would do well for a quarter, but Andrews has a good tank and would end up leaving big Preuss in his dust for the rest of the game. Would be a bad move IMO. We also have Smith too remember.

Just for clarity sake, in case it wasn't explained well enough in the OP, this isn't a thread to say Angus is not a very good player and ripper young fella, this is to discuss the possibility of trading a very good young player for another very good young player that may have more strengths in the areas we have weaknesses. Seems to be a fair few saying 'don't trade Gus, he's a great player!', when that only backs up the point about him having value on the market. FWIW I would prefer to keep him, he's a quality person, but I'm open to any ideas that can improve our list balance.

Gotcha, makes total sense mate. From what I've found figures wise, that means he could be on 100k or he could be on 400k, so the released figures don't exactly help! Can't find figures in relation go games played/age etc. unfortunately. Yep, agree on the salary cap stuff, we have that minimum % we have to pay, but the one thing I think Mahoney seems to nail is the contract situations, and we seem to be well known for front loading and back loading so I do believe the stories around about us having decent cap space this year, although the caveat will be that we'll need a bit for Oliver's next contract you would think. We'll have Lewis off the books this year, so would think that will help a fair bit. Then, aside from Jones (whom I think will play on), we mainly have 'depth' players who will either be re-signed relatively cheaply or will make way for incoming draftees/trades. Garlett is certainly an interesting one contract wise, really would be a 50/50 proposition as it stands, so I feel for the bloke. Apparently had a tough year personally last year, and this year he's playing for his career.

Why would you use the median? Seems an inaccurate way to do it to me. I'm no maths genius though to be fair. "The average player wage last season was $362,471, an increase of $10,000 on the previous year." Source Frost has been a pretty consistently best 22 picked player for us over the last 2 years, so I would suggest the club would have had his contract figured in at more than 250k. Just opinion though.

AFL average salary is around 380k now, I would think the 'spreadsheet boys' had more than 250k penciled in for Frost. Also, we have plenty of salary cap space. From a Herald Sun article in March: "The recent trade period activity fuelled beliefs the Demons would go quiet in the player exchange market over the next year or two. But some clever list management means Melbourne has enough salary cap space to go selectively shopping again for another key target in October." And I'm not sure how it's 'ironic' that you think a deal for Frost would seal Garlett's fate?

All of TMac, Smith and Weid played well, and all of have them have a far better tank than Preuss, which is as important as ever against Brisbane. Barring injury, I can't see a scenario where Preuss comes in.

Was a bit dumb by Jones, but I didn't mind it in a sense in that there had been talk about disharmony between him and Viney and he was going at him after Walters tried a dirty snipe attempt at Jack. (didn't quite go to plan tho!)

Rawlings wasn't "sent" to the VFL. He's a rising star as a coach and wanted/deserved to be in charge of a team in his own right to continue his development. Won coach of the year last year too. It's more that he's been "sent" to Melbourne now, rather than "sent" to Casey previously.