NeveroddoreveN

May just come down to price. Saad reportedly 500-600k. Zac Williams closer to a million. I think currently Saad is the better player, in a much worse team. Saad just wants to play half back and attack the game, said to be unhappy with being experimented in other positions. Williams has more versatility but has a huge pricetag for what he is. Would be stoked to get either honestly, both are great attacking type players with plenty of flair. A backline of May/Lever/Rivers/Saad/Hibberd/Lockhart or Tomlinson sounds pretty amazing/exciting. I hope we get one of these deals over the line!

Lucky you are not negotiating then! Saad is a gun that would be in first 6-8 players picked every week for us. If he's available we should be offering 4-5 years and get him in. He could take Fritsch role of last season at half back, this year it has been Harmes spot. Saad would be massive upgrade on either. I can only think of Zac Williams that comes close to the flair of this guy in his role. Dodoro may be hard to deal with but not impossible. Essendon love him because he tries to negotiate good deals for them. If it were Peter Bell i could understand being more circumspect! I can think of plenty worse...

If Viney is worth 650k, why not!!

Sad but i can't see any club being interested with his form over last 2 years. On 700-800K roughly a year, we would have to pay half of it and i still think there would be no takers. He has fallen so far in quick time. Hope by miracle he rediscovers some of his best footy, just seems really unlikely now :(

He actually gets a nice mix of lead up marks, but also natural instincts of roving off the pack. Exceptionally quick off first few steps, you can see from all his highlight packages, he brings others into the game.

I probably am being harsh on him....more frustrated on the back of a few good games he was extended for 5 years. Between Harmes/Brayshaw and Viney we have 3 players that seemingly can't or won't play other positions. All 3 lack a thing called versatility. I feel we are way too predictable with all of them in the side. Not half forwards, not half backs, they are mid or bust types. We just have too many similar types, and i think if Harmes were not locked into future years, he would be the first i would look to trade out some our predictability. The problem is a tagger is not needed every week, and a tagger must be able to win their own fair share of the ball anyway. Like i said in last post one of his biggest issues is he does not know when or where to run, as quite often he is caught ball watching or charging in when he should be waiting on outside. Decision making is always an issue. If he can develop some footy smarts he can improve greatly, just not sure he has any/many.

IMO Harmes is not a natural footballer, he rarely knows what to do in most situations. In the middle he has looked utterly lost at times playing a non tagging role and was constantly getting caught with the ball. He looked much better playing a tight tagging role vs good players, because they took him to the ball. Playing off half back his skill set of closely checking an opponent should have made him a good fit for this role. He tends to ball watch rather than get in the right positions, have watched him closely over some time now. For a player with his speed and strength, why is he never breaking lines? Why we signed him on for 5 years i will never know! I feel we will be much better when he is fringe best 22, not an automatic inclusion. He is hard to find a role for because he does not have much as weapons....strong for guy his size, reasonably quick, average hands, can take a mark, hit and miss by hand or foot. If he had footy smarts he would be good football player but he does not win his own ball often enough. His decision making is atrocious most of the time, from stoppages in the middle, to half back. Only role i see for him is a half forward pressure one, where he wears a good backman, and gets taken to the ball. He has lot of support from posters here, actually really surprises me....very average footballer. Any good tattoo shops on the Gold Coast, need another one for my Birthday!?

Stephenson i watched a bit of in his junior days playing for Ferntree Gully. Was a real stand out. At AFL level i think he has done enough to make any team interested. My guess for him getting dropped is he was waiting for easy balls on the outside. There is no issue with him going in hard from what i seen in both juniors to AFL seniors. He has exceptional pace and some real natural footy smarts, would love him playing for us!

I reckon he'll play to kill St Kilda haha....Probably be his last game of AFL. GWS should come out all type of fired up this week, they play anything like they did against us, they should beat St Kilda. They should all be angry, be a cracking match!

Luke Ball from Essendon and Lenny Hayes from GWS been let go too now. Lots of good assistants around, be interesting to see the changes coming!

I think there is something about Charlie but don't think it will be the Caleb type role. I could see him playing forward for a 200+ game career with us and have some big moments in finals. He has the grit required to make it and he has improved on every part of his game from what i can see. His tackling, his pressure, his kicking distance, he has kicked 8.0 for the year, he is accurate. He never seems to get too carried away when he does good things, and has that look on his face like he expects it of himself. We need to build a list of players that have skill, footy smarts, heart/courage, and that will to just win. I see him as an integral part of us becoming a great team. Anyone thinking he is a trade or delist currently will change their tune and want to ruffle his hair in the end! He is developing nicely. Respect little fella!

Hmm that really does make you wonder. Better midfield coach i think we need either way. Feel like considering our onball talent ,there is a very limited amount of craft going on. Both Petracca and Oliver do some sublime things, both can become so much more. Exciting that i think neither are close to hitting their ceiling yet. Brayshaw too has not hit his ceiling either. I find Jack hard to rate....i think he has lot of things he could do to improve upon, and many of them are relatively simple fixes. Ultimately i guess we need to find a way to get the best out of all of them. Each of them to me want to be champions of the game, particularly Clayton and Petracca.

He has another year to run anyway :) I reckon we are harsh on some of the players trying to make the step up from reserves grade football to the Seniors. It takes time to feel at home amongst a bunch of idols and peers that have bigger bodies and more preseasons. Oskar had played 3 really good games in the Covid affected 12 or 14 a side scratch matches. I am glad he did not get dropped after one week in horrible conditions for anyone to really show their skills. I feel Bedford is another who deserves more than 5 minutes in the team, will surprise many when he gets going. It took Max quite a while before he had a breakout game. Seasons in fact. I think we need to give younger players a bit more leeway when it comes to judging them so quickly. Too many are labeled spuds or cop unwarranted criticism imo. Senior players should be much more accountable and consistent. The only players i got annoyed with last night overly was Melksham and Lever. Lever i can forgive because he really played great in the last quarter particularly, and made up for some of his earlier screw ups. Melksham played different role in last 2 weeks but i know he can give more, and expect him to give it. Spargo/Kozzie/Rivers were all great at times too. Young leaders that i hope continue to grow/develop!

You must miss Oscar. Can't agree with any of what you said above. He is not getting paid a fortune.

Nice to get bit of inside information on these type things. Curious did he elaborate much? Did he also have good things to say? Was not questioning the original post on this at all, just have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to remembering names.

Jetta will not play, his last heroic effort saw him get injured :P

I must watch a different game. Tomlinson has been one of our most consistent performers over the last month at least. He gets in the right spots, holds most marks that come his way, is neat by hand or foot. Definitely goes hard when it is his turn to go. No way he will get dropped with his body of work. When he was dropped earlier in the season that was for lack of effort. Since then he has shown himself to be a very valuable player for us. Constantly doing the team things, has been a great pickup for us imo, and has some versatility to play a number of positions/roles.

We'll get in some good assistant coaches at least after the year we have had. Maybe another video series in 2021 to give you some hope. To Hell and Beyond!

GWS tried their guts out last night. Much like us they had been pretty average the last few weeks and were not getting team efforts. They looked a 10 goal better team on paper imo. Had we played like last few weeks it would have got ugly. We fought hard and more than anything it gives us hope for the future. One of best games we played all year vs a decent opposition who turned up to play. That in itself for MFC should enthuse you.

Someone mentioned that some of the coaches thought our midfield was uncoachable. Would not surprise me if that revolved around JV. If there was any truth to it anyway! See Clayton and Petracca as absolutely coachable. Brayshaw also seems like a smart guy and although a bit lethargic at times totally coachable too.

I would say from observation that Viney was not quite 100%. He took some big hits the week before! He seemed to be playing a half forward role with the license to roam, but not much further than half back. Would need to look at his heat map to be entirely sure, but was definitely playing some new role. Coaches should be doing quick handball drills with Viney and telling him to get the ball off much quicker, tries to take on way too much at times. If he was Cripps size he might be able to get away with what he is trying to do. Needs to play within his limitations more often and do the team things unerringly. Love Viney but he needs to add layers to his game. When Jack starts to add finesse he will become a great player, not just a bash and crash type.

Props to Jack Viney for questioning the umpires. Overheard him just before half time saying something like "He is just trying to bash/hurt our players". The umpire responded they would check the tapes at half time. No guesses as to who he was in fact talking about. Thugford played well overall though and really did his best to rough us up. Respect to the whole team for standing up under pressure at different stages. Very few passengers, was super proud of the team and even moreso the team effort.

Almost knocked over my cheese platter with that ANB commentry. ?

Logical deduction! I think we'd be derelict to at least ask the question with both Lyon/Clarkson at a minimum. We got no idea how this will all turn out but having some discrepancy plans put in to play would make a lot of sense.