ChaserJ

From the media, yes. We’re generally rated a premiership contender with a generational list that has a deficiency in one area of the ground. I don’t necessarily prescribe to the theory that we don’t already have the talent in place to address this, but the consistent narrative will be ‘will Melbourne try and fix the obvious problem, or stubbornly stick with what they have already tried’.

Remember hearing the same thing. I get why they're making the link, but I don't get why we'd pursue Lobb whilst ignoring Chol. Whatever flaws exist in Chols game, Lobb has the same in spades (echo that for strengths). From a long game perspective, if it's true that having Lobb on the books is making it difficult for Dogs to re-sign Naughton, Ugle-Hagan,etc., I'm happily letting them struggle and see if Naughton can be lured over as a FA in 12 months time. There's no one else taking Lobb and his contract off their books, they can keep and we should have a crack at picking off bigger targets from their list. Decent odds on it being reasonably messy at the Dogs this time next year.

And also pick 4 being traded away from GC.

Not against it (particularly if p5 is not part of the deal), McKay one of the few key forwards that has troubled Steven May in direct match ups in recent years. May has owned Charlie, but McKay’s height and deceptive mobility has challenged Maysie. The only reason there’s any possibility of Carlton moving McKay on is that his kicking has been inconsistent, if he’s a dead eye, Blues would not be entertaining any trade.

Apparently we’re keeping an eye on Bulldogs pick 10, which is widely reported to be going to GC. We’ve also been linked with a future 1st from Port (don’t think both of these could happen concurrently). If either eventuates, we could easily send Blues a couple of first rounders for McKay whilst retaining pick 5.

Would be massive. Everyone has been speculating on what triggers band 1 compo, and I think if that number from Essendon is remotely accurate (the Age gave an approximate of 750k a few weeks ago, so either agents are backgrounding or clubs have made an informed guess), no one would expect that to trigger band 1. Clubs were already angry about the assistance package, the compensation pick is going to be a massive watch.

Old mate Trade Whisperer has just dropped this one on Twitter as well.

Need to see what Blake Howes can do as well.

He was there. Featured on some of the red carpet coverage, looked like he took a mate to the event.

Jon Ralph speculating (both OTC & I assume in HS article that went up at the same time he went to air) that the Essendon contract to McKay may not be big enough to attract band 1 compensation, stating that Essendon were only prepared to offer McKay what they thought he was worth (rather than pay more just to prevent North from matching). He reckons Essendon have offered incentive laden contract worth around 780k, so without AFL ‘massaging’ the compensation, doesn’t seem to rise to band 1 level.

Would be happy to get Jiath in with a second rounder. Would give us some real speed out of defence, pretty good kick as well.

Sydney have some talented midfielders but have struggled with contest & clearance since Kennedy went out of their centre square rotation. Parker can’t do it all by himself (and he’s getting on), Dow would make a lot of sense. He’s a fairly one dimensional midfielder, but just happens to be strong in the area Sydney’s midfield is lacking. JJ has probably been told he’ll get a good crack at CBA’s as well.

Hey mate, yeah, O’Sullivan’s a good user of the ball and a reasonably good decision maker, would be comfortable if we went that way. Much surer with ball in hand than Petty (as an example) and could either play key post or third tall/intercept defender. Overall, Watson’s kicking depth is ok. What I’ve seen over the course of the year is that he can rush his kicks and can be inconsistent by foot. He can do the brilliant (and does so quite often), but I’m not sure if he puts a bit of extra pressure on himself to do too much to make things happen, but that’s when he can get the timing wrong with his kicks. That’s how it looked in the GF. Eastern’s overall depth and scoring power wasn’t great this year, so understand why Watson might have felt that. He plays a million miles an hour all the time, if he drops that just a little and picks his moments a bit better, I get the feeling that his field kicking and overall game will be the better for it.

Oh man, not the riddles…

Take your point, but this year's crop was projected to be lacking midfielders from a long way out. Was all about the flankers this year.

Smillie should go top 10 next year. Typically a Cripps type inside mid, but just was his first game back from injury. Midfield group has a fair bit more quality and depth next year.

Worth noting that the player taken with the pick we sent to GWS for Hogan (we held pick 3 & 4 due to Scully compo traded 3 & used 4 on Toumpas) ended up being Lachie Plowman. Plowman had an underwhelming career, largely at Carlton, and he has now just retired. Not a whole lot of quality out of that 2012 crop as it transpired. Thankfully Viney worked out! Another traded pick that started with Melbourne, moved to Adelaide in the Lever deal and finished with Carlton in the Gibbs trade was pick 10 from 2017. Carlton used the pick to select Lachie O’Brien, who they just delisted. Thing’s didn’t turn out too badly for us in the end.

Read like we’ve asked but he seems a longer way down the track with WC. They’ve probably given him an indication that he’ll get a good look at more regular game time. Especially if Williams will be deployed up forward more often than not.

It was quoting Sammy Edmund. I listened to the segment and thought he meant to say West Coast, but said Melbourne. He might have just had Melbourne on his mind, because he also suggested Dees could still have a go at Pick 1. That said, if Roos would still like to take Sanders, they could probably split pick 2 (or a band 1 compensation pick for McKay) with us and still be pretty certain of getting him with our pick from Freo (would be independent of whether they land pick 4).

Best chance for McKercher is if North go for Sanders early or we trade up. Sanders isn’t the distributer by foot that you’re describing in your post. He’s neat when in space, but not elite by foot. If had that hurt factor with his kick, he probably would have been sitting in the top 3 or 4 in the pool.

Not just the one game, reflective of his overall game. Averaged 10 kicks and 19 handpasses across the CTL season. Across his 4 games at the Champs went at 12 kicks & 23 handpasses. Does most of his work inside to release the outside runners.

Big Bang? Not that many I would have thought. Given a key forward is where we’d try to splash, even fewer. Cameron, Oscar Allan or one of the King twins probably the only one’s Big Bang worthy. Naughton wouldn’t quite get to that level for me.

Watson’s highlights from the CTL GF on Sunday:

The McKay deal has been estimated (by Marc McGowan in the Age) as 750k per year over 6. Not a slam dunk for band 1, don’t have faith that AFL won’t still make it happen though.

Marc McGowan in the Age suggesting that the offer is expected to be around 750k over 6 years: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/north-melbourne-get-three-first-round-draft-picks-in-afl-assistance-package-20230925-p5e7fg.html Could be right on the edge of band 1.