Simon Port

I think or best 22 for round 1 will be: Bowey May Lever Salem Petty Windsor Langdon Oliver Billings Petracca Turner Sharp Fritsch Van Rooyen Chin Gawn Viney Rivers Sparrow Langford Johnson Howes

Our most effective forward 7 IMO will be: HF: Petracca Turner Sharp FF: Pickett Van Rooyen Fritsch B: Johnson I think Trac needs to play more deep forward this year. Having Johnson in the side takes another big defender which can free up Roo and Disco. He's highly competitive and him as the 2nd ruck means Roo can play full time forward. Sharp will play the Nibbla role with his defensive run and line breaking abilities being important to the side. It's frustrating Mcadam got injured because in that internal match he looked like he was finally fit and he's a natural forward. Sparrow will play a fair bit forward and I think his strength, overhead marking for his size and booming kick could bode well. Tholstrup will hopefully come back and provide some much needed spark, energy and excitement. He's a medium sized marking option who could be a threat with his aggression. Generally all of the good forwards have some aggression and grunt to their game. Other options include Matty Jefferson who could work well as a third option as he's still not strong enough when he matches up against bigger bodies. I would even consider Tmac as an option down there as a big body if we sustain any injuries. A lot of demonlanders will also hate me saying this but, I still do think Petty could be a wildcard down there if Tmac can slot into defence. He's finally fully fit and was saying after each game last year he could hardly walk due to his lis franc recovery. He's a great mark and a good height which we are currently missing down there. Chin is out of form and needs to lift and Spargo will take a long time to build back up to AFL. Melksham is a proven goal kicker but, I'm not sure if his lack of speed and age will hurt us going back the other way. I think our biggest issue is there are a lot of options we could go to but, none are really jumping out at the page. I'd say the only 4 players that are locks in the forward line are Fritta, Koz, Roo and Trac (when he's there).

Mcvee May Lever Rivers Petty Windsor Langdon Oliver Sharp Tholstrup Van Rooyen Chandler Pickett Jefferson Fritsch Gawn Viney Petracca Salem Sparrow Turner Bowey SUB: Brown EM: Tmac Howes Moniz Spargo

We have always looked better with 3 talls in our side as well as Fritta. This is what we saw in the Premiership model with Benny Brown, Tmac and Dogga. This allows Fritsch to play the 4th banana and absolutely dominate his opponent. It often means one of the 3 talls will have a decent game due to a mismatch and has historically seen us have a lot more success. Especially because it is still a young forward line, spreading the load amongst the talls makes sense. They are also a mobile bunch which means you can afford to play 3 talls. I would play Van Rooyen, Disco, Fritsch and one of Jefferson/Petty/AJ. The rest of the forward line will consist of Kozzy, Chin and Tholstrup. To me that is a really well balanced mix of talls, goal scoring ability and pressure. We also sound like we are going back to the holy trinity defensive group in May, Lever and Petty. This has always suited us as well as it means Lever can peel off and play his true intercepting game rather than having to lockdown on someone a little undersized strength wise. Going forward I'd love to see us try and stick to the 3 tall forwards and 3 tall defenders in our line up. We have enough run and spread now to ensure it won't affect any ball movement. Go Dees.

Best 22: Mcvee May Lever Rivers Petty Salem Langdon Oliver Windsor Tholstrup Van Rooyen Chandler Pickett Jefferson Fritsch Gawn Viney Petracca Sparrow Disco Bowey Langford Next 18: Hore Adams Andrew Howes Tmac Moniz-Wakefield Sharp Woewodin Brown Sestan Fullarton Billings Mcadam Kentfield Melksham Verrall Allan Laurie The ones I found very hard to leave out of the 22 were Howes, Moniz-Wakefield, Sharp and Tmac. Could easily see all 3 of those players in our best 22. The 4 players most at risk to lose their spot would be Jefferson, Tholstrup, Bowey and Langford.

Pick 5: Langford (Marking, Goal Kicker, Endurance, IQ, Penetrating kick) or Jagga (Evasive, Agile, Consistent, Ball winner, gut running, accumulator) both would be great options in my opinion and would add a lot to the midfield. Pick 9: I think doubling down on either speed or exquisite ball use is the right play and there are a few players who fit this mould including Lindsay, Travaglia, Reid, Allan. The other option is sliding down the order to the giants teen picks and picking up the powerful forward/mid Cooper Hynes to pair with his best mate Langford. I'd look at drafting one of the above mentioned players who potentially slides to pair with him or Joe Berry, Taj Hotton, Oli Hannaford. Tauru is the wildcard and I would absolutely love him to slide to pick 9. Our key back stocks are starting to be very weak as May is getting on, Lever is almost 29, this will be Tmac's last year, Tomlinson is delisted, Joel Smith is banned and Petty and Turner who you would've expected to fill those spots have been swung forward. It makes sense to look to the future.

Great to see Jeffo a lot bigger and stronger, I have a good feeling about him going forward. He has a lot of natural ability and he just needs to get his body right. I feel like he needs a few chiropractic adjustments to straighten his back up, it doesn't look right. Surely the club is suggesting he see a medical professional to help his posture because no doubt it would benefit his footy. It's definitely something you can reverse with the proper treatment.

there's absolutely no way we should be giving up our first pick in the draft for Houston. Future first or no deal imo.

We cannot give up a first rounder this year for houston, it would be stupidity.

We should not give up 2 firsts for Houston it would be malpractice. He's nearly 28 and it could end up being 2 top 10 picks. Absolutely ridiculous.

We cannot give up 2 firsts for Houston. 1 pick, take it or leave it. If they don't accept that then we take a star mid in the draft and pick up Cumming, Perryman or another half back for far far less. If we finish 13th and then somehow miss finals again next year, we could end up giving up pick 6 and roughly pick 10. No player in the history of the game has ever been traded for that much. If we were getting prime Buddy or Dusty then sure, but we aren't. I love Houston as a player and think he would fit in well but, we must stick fat and not sacrifice the future. He's also nearly 28. It could be a Taranto and Hopper situation if things don't go well. Not worth it imo.

In my opinion we don't want to give up 2 firsts for Houston. We have done a great job at regenerating the list drafting consistently in the first round. Especially because our pick this year is looking likely to be a top 10 pick now, a singular pick would get it done. At the same time I wouldn't mind picking up the best midfield talent with that pick also. I would target isaac cumming as an unrestricted free agent to be able to hold onto picks. Cam Rayner as a game changer half forward/mid. He has wildly underperformed given his talent at the lions and if he has a pre season like trac did in 2020, it could be a great get. He would add another dimension to the forward line. Target a genuine back up ruck for Max which has been an issue since Jackson left. Ned Moyle would be ideal but, he probably wants to play as the number 1 ruck. Could both of them play? Otherwise I'd be going for Toby Conway, Nick Bryan, Alex Mirkov, Max Knobel, Max Heath types. We need to target quick and skilful mids. If we are unable to land houston I'd do everything possible to get Zak Butters into the club. Other options would be Sam Flanders, Finn Callaghan, Zac Bailey, Ed Richards, Justin Mcinerney. We haven't landed a big fish since May in 2018 and I think considering the amount of youth we have coming through, we could really do with targeting one of the first few I mentioned in this group. I think the midfield is currently our biggest problem, it needs some regeneration and spark. Target other mids around the competition who were early picks and may not be getting the opportunity they want. A few examples include Neil Erasmus, Josh Ward, Ben Hobbs, Deven Robertson, Angus Sheldrick, Will Phillips, Braeden Campbell etc. This would not only add depth but, they would be relatively cheap with lot of upside.

Clarry to Hawks? has anyone else heard that? heard strong whispers over the weekend.

We clearly need some key position depth, ruck depth, mid talent and depth as well as some speed and class. I've leant towards targeting free agents and players out of contract because I think we should bring in a top end midfield talent in the draft if we miss finals and have a reasonably early pick. I'd be going after the following players: Josh Battle- Unrestricted Free Agent who would be a long key position defender for us to replace the loss of May. Was also drafted as a forward and has a great set of hands... Reef Mcinnes as a young, developing key forward at 194cm who is mobile and versatile. Won't get games once Mcstay, Mihocek are both fully fit. Ned Moyle- the long term Gawn Replacement. High priority imo. Conor Nash- Unrestricted free agent, mid depth. Has pace and great size. Will Phillips, Josh Ward, Ben Hobbs - Mid depth with upside due to potential lack of development/injury troubles. All high picks. Have also heard we are into Ryan Angwin from the Giants for some outside run/skill. Seems like a depth player at this current point in time but, was an early pick. Pipe Dream: LDU- star Finn Callaghan- could build our midfield around him for 10 years, best mates with howes.

Ultimately I think Bowey and Salem come back in for Woey and Billings over the next couple of weeks. It will be very interesting to see what we do with Mcadam over the next couple of weeks and whether we take out a tall in Van Rooyen/Turner or if we give Chin a chance to rest his knee. Otherwise the side is really settled which is great for overall cohesion.