ChaserJ

Also, AFL is paying for grandparents to be included in the hubs?!

Reported as Richmond, North & Carlton.

Rapey tone notwithstanding, they are quick to turn on a team that’s top of the table!

Thanks for posting the examples DS, had been discussing this with Dees twitter post game. Drove me nuts on Sunday! Happens to.Clayton every week and a big part of why we can’t capitalise on Max’s ruck dominance.

With rucks being so influential this season, there could be a decent market for Preuss. Can't see his fit going forward with Max still going strong and Jackson looking so exciting and ahead of Brayden in the tall rotation. He probably has some strong currency with the clubs that are regularly getting monstered at the clearances by Gawn, Grundy, Goldy & some of the other good rucks at the moment. GWS & Essendon immediately come to mind. I also wouldn't be against pursuing Caldwell from GWS. An inside mid, but with a good inside outside balance and a point of difference to our current inside mid group (CP excepted) who are pretty similar in how they play. Was considered to be in the upper tier of that stellar crop of 2018, has had a tough run till now with injury, but had a few games in now & Burgess would keep him on the park! Saad would be well worth pursuing, his defensive game holds up pretty well considering he is known for his rebound. Ess wouldn't let him go cheaply though. Another key forward is needed, but Ben Brown not the one for us.

I wonder if we could arrange to head to Tassie direct from Adelaide? Might give us some sort of leg up on North as far as the travel goes.

Such sad news. Leaves behind a young family. Gone too soon, but hope he finds peace. RIP Tucky.

Bailey Smith would have been the other one in consideration in the hypothetical world where we didn’t trade for May. The top 7-9 in that draft were highly touted, so my gut was always in knots about trading out of that draft. My understandings that we tried to get a pick after 10 to get Butters, but didn’t happen.

Makes for some bleak reading now: https://www.afl.com.au/news/81078/patton-hogan-daniher-or-boyd-who-s-the-next-great-power-forward-

Develop and keep. I'm very concerned about what is happening with our development of young talent at the moment. Petracca aside, a lot of players have stagnated.

We got access to Rivers after we traded back to pick 10 from 8 & also got pick 28 back as part of the deal with the Dockers. Once all of that trading is factored in, the extras balance out, we effectively traded this years first rounder for Kozzy. And I'm ok with that. The one that could really bite us, more than any other trade or draft blunder in our history, is the May over Ben King decision.

Was only the public narrative. There's apparently a fracturing between Daniher and the fitness dept and a bit of a blame game being played over the management (or otherwise) of his injury. JD has reportedly moved out of Melbourne & commutes in from the country, so maybe a little in the 'getting out of the limelight' angle, but still manageable. I don't think Sydney is really an option anymore given the number of injured tall forwards they already have. I can understand the folks that don't want him, I'm all for asking the question. When fit (the crucial element for mine), Daniher's numbers are comparable with gun key forwards in his peer group (Lynch, Cameron, Hogan) and we desperately need a quality key forward. Our forward line is bereft at the moment. It would have been great to have kept pick 6 & selected Ben King in '18, but the list is what it is at this point. His fitness issues are where we could.offer a strong point of difference, particularly if Bennell settles in and performs without setbacks over the course of the season. If Burgess thinks Daniher's injury issue are recoverable, then it'd be irresponsible not to investigate. Burgess probably would be critical in the recruitment process tbh. Another selling point would be the number of familiar faces currently at the club (although none are probably all that popular with the fan base rn). The other player i'd try and hit up from the Don's at the moment is Saad. There's some back and forth around the contract discussions and would absolutely fill a need for us. If we were able to add those two and integrate into the line up, we would have a very different look and arguably be much better equipped to play the style Goody wants to employ.

Will stop being too soon when a premiership has exorcised that whole period. Think JTR mentioned that the coy inference from Mahoney (in response to the observation from one of the members) was that Hibberd's inclusion would allow for Harmes to play more midfield minutes. Wonder if Harmes will run with one of Geelong's big 3 in midfield. Might help with our two way running in midfield, which is an area where we struggled in the second half against the Blues. Geelong will slaughter us if we can't put defensive pressure on in the midfield & won't matter who we've got playing down back.

The other element Mahoney mentioned was that with Hannan & VandenBerg in, both haven't got a lot of miles in the legs after their injuries, and the coaching team didn't want to carry (for want of a better word) Bennell, who at this point would only be expected to see 60% of game time (FWIW I did have a similar concern going into the Bombers game when Bennell & VandenBerg were both selected). On Weideman, Mahoney said he's going ok, but they (coaching panel I assume) wanted to have a look at the forward line structure with just the one tall for a period of time. Sam will be right in contention when they decide they want to switch to two talls. I think we are going to see a fair amount of experimentation with the side for a block of the season before we settle into a team and game style.

The state of play is reasonably summed up here: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-afl-draft-2020-afl-draft-top-prospects-draft-order-geelong-north-melbourne/news-story/be1c9373cdef2c24790960f0af72fbbf As SONS points out, one of the best mids in the crop, Will Phillips, is unlikely to last long enough. Top of the tree is Ugle-Hagan, who is already attached to the Dogs as NGA. Best case scenario, Dogs finish low without finishing bottom. Grainger-Barras will rival JUH for top spot, a seriously high quality key defender. With the number of academy selections, the opportunity may be there to bundle up picks if we want to move up the order.

Preuss for Daniher?

Not sure if this is covered off anywhere else, but Paul confirmed that Casey did lock in Baldi. Really liked what I saw of him at Gippsland, small but a good user and handy near goals. Was very surprised that neither he nor Sparks ended up on a list. Eagle eyes who saw part of the Dees prospect rankings on Ep 3 of 'To Hell & Back' will have noticed that we had Sparks ranked at 36 & Baldi at 47. Good chance to have a look and maybe draft then down the track.

Donahue has been assisting the Storm for years, and pretty sure a couple of AFL clubs have engaged him in the past as well (possibly Carlton a few years ago): https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/get-a-grip-how-wrestling-turned-the-game-on-its-head-20070526-gdq8fr.html

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year Demonlanders. A disappointing year on field, but always nice to have this place to vent, dissect and hope. Appreciate everyone's banter and insight, enjoy the season and look after yourselves.

This is a companion piece to the video. All the wheeling & dealing that influenced the 1st round. Good read: Inside the draft's first round: Twists, turns, bluffs and the big calls

All the clubs get relatively glowing assessments, but worth noting how highly Mick Ablett rates Trent Rivers kicking. He made a point of it on Fox's draft coverage (pretty sure Dazzle quoted on another thread), and makes it again here: AFL draft gurus assess every club’s draft haul – and there’s some clear standouts

A little bit. Half forward with good speed and skills. Went missing a lot in the champs, which is why he wasn't in the top 20 mix, had a slight injury cloud. Good in SANFL reserves, can kick bags, but don't think he's what we'll be looking for. Would have liked more consistent performance from him, at the back of last year he was in the mix to be the first SA boy picked.

He's the one I'm really hoping for, but Brisbane have been the most likely to pinch him for a while.

A good number of clubs seem to have made the call to not even consider. Hawks, Swans and the Dees seem to be three who would be willing to give him the chance. We may pass now that we have Kossie though (if Swans haven't already taken him at 28).

Sorry mate, haven't seen him play. Had read that Richmond have some interest and possibly will be a value pick up for someone due to his injury, but I don't have much of a reference point unforts.