Sydney_Demon

He is ahead of Harmes, Dunstan & Laurie. When Oliver comes back though it's between JJ & Woewodin who stays in the 22. And will Chandler come back into the side at some stage? How are we going to squeeze Hibberd back in? He was right to park contract discussions. Of couse he needs to know whether he's in our preferred 22 before he signs. How long's the contract? How lucrative is it compared to what he could get elsewhere? Signalled very early? Why, because he parked contract discussions. It was the right thing for him to do given the circumstances then and now. We pick our best side, regardless of whether the player is contracted for next year or not.

You're right. Spargo & ANB won't go because they're contracted respectively to 2025 & 2026 😀

But the games won't be meaningless because they'll determine where the sides finish on the ladder. The whole reason for floating this idea is to have more meaningful games between equally-matched sides which is what the public apparently wants. I assume it's influenced by the fact that no-one wants to see uncompetitive sides like West Coast pantsed every week and basically gifting games and percentage to other sides who arecompeting for finals spots. I personally think the proposal is an over-reaction and part of the beauty of the run home is seeing unexpected results where lower teams beat their more-fancied opponents. e.g the Carlton-Port Adelaide matchup woudn't have happened last weekend.

As I said, and I agree we can win from 2nd through to 4th. I'm not conceding we're going to lose any QF matchup no matter where it's played. But if we do lose a QF we don't want to be playing Geelong in a SF. Melbourne just need to focus on firming up Top 4 which is totally within our control. The rest will be what it will be (que sera, sera).

Well, surely whatever they come up with isn't going to reduce the length of the season. The rights holders aren't going to agree to that!

I agree with you about the media but surely Tomlinson would be open to a move. He's clearly behind Petty in the pecking order and is 29, Petty is 23, Disco 21. Tommo is contracted til 24 but who knows whether Melbourne would offer him a new contract at the end of next year? I'm not saying Tomlinson is not wanted by the Club but he's not getting game time at the moment and might get 2 or even 3 years at another club where he plays every week. I guess what I'm saying is clearly Tommo would be exploring all options. He'd be mad not to.

I agree with you re late round drafts picks & compensation. In any case the Club might be of the view that he's not worth more than Pick 57 (even discounted by 20%) so won't try to match with points if he goes above that. I think your last point is incorrect. Clubs don't need to trade for JJ as he's a UFA. He just walks. Maybe he could be traded if the other club has an unwanted lower round pick they aren't going to use, but in all likelihood wouldn't it be better for the other club to hold on to their picks and just let the AFL compenation pick work it's magic? Jayden Hunt was a UFA last year and wasn't traded to West Coast. Instead we got a compensation pick (52).

The best chance of finishing Top 4 is to get ahead of Brisbane. B have a massively better percentage than C but have drawn a game so their percentage is irrelevant. They play Gold Coast away R19 and GC would be favoured as the top team. They then play Casey in the last round at Casey, so if Casey win all their games and Brisbane lose to Gold Coast Casey finish 4th, Brisbane 5th. Casey are likely to finish Top 6 at worst and then would get a week's rest and play a Wildcard winner. The 5th & 6th teams have a big advantage over the WC teams in my view, even if all sides playing are likely to be Victorian (assuming Casey's one of them). The VFL & AFL Finals are out-of-sync with the VFL running a week earlier but on the positive side Casey should be playing a Final on the weekend of the AFL pre-finals bye which may help with tuning up players & finalising selections for AFL Finals. Anyway, let's start the process with a big win over Coburg 😀

@Bystander I can't see Casey getting above Box Hill. BH have games against Richmond (currently 8th), Sandringham (17th), Footscray (10th) & Frankston (18th). They would be expected to win all of them. Gold Coast and Werribee are safe Top 2. The best chance of finishing Top 4 is to get ahead of Brisbane. B have a massively better percentage than C but have drawn a game so their percentage is irrelevant. They play Gold Coast away R19 and GC would be favoured as the top team. They then play Casey in the last round at Casey, so if Casey win all their games and Brisbane lose to Gold Coast Casey finish 4th, Brisbane 5th. I'd agree Casey are highly likely to finish Top 6 at worst and then would get a week's rest and then play a Wildcard winner. The 5th & 6th teams have a big advantage over the Wild Card teams in my view, even if all sides playing are likely to be Victorian (assuming Casey's one of them). The VFL & AFL Finals are out-of-sync with the VFL running a week earlier but on the positive side Casey will definitely be playing on the weekend of the AFL pre-finals bye which may help with tuning up players & finalising selections for AFL Finals.

I agree that Casey need to win all 4 games to finish Top 4. Am re-posting my post from Casey Round 17 Bye thread: The VFL is a strange beast with 21 teams playing (basically because Aspley dropped out of the comp before the 2022 season even started). The VFL was re-configured that year and included 6 teams (which became 5) from the former NEAFL (Aspley, Southport, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney & GWS). Basically it covers the entire East Coast. Port & Adelaide Reserves playing in the SANFL & West Coast & Fremantle (actually their affiiiate Peel Thunder) play in the WAFL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Football_League_reserves_affiliations I don't understand why there needs to be 4 byes (Casey's are/were in Rounds 8, 13, 17 & 20). Each team plays 18 rounds so they don't even get to play each other once. Obviously it would be preferable for everything to line up with the AFL but I guess that's impossible with 7 standalone VFL teams. As VFL players aren't full-timers it wouldn't be feasible for them to travel to SA & WA to play. As it is I don't know how you could be on a VFL list in NSW or Queensland and travel interstate nearly every 2nd week (a similar problem in the other direction but there's 16 teams in Melbourne/Geelong, 2 in Sydney and 3 in Brisbane/Gold Coast). This year there's a Wildcard Round. Accordingly, finishing Top 4 or definitely Top 6 at worst is especially important. It could come down to the last round for Casey against Brisbane to get that 4th spot.

I posted this earlier under the Wildcard Round thread but, just to open it up potentially to more Demonlanders, am reposting it here: I know they're all about getting more blockbuster games between equally-matched sides, but how would this work in conjunction with Top 8, or 9 or 10? You couldn't have the whole 8 open on this basis because the higher-ranked teams in the 2nd bracket would be extremely advantaged compared to the lower-ranked teams in the 1st. Even if you had the Top 6 quarantined after 17 rounds, you could have a ridiculous situation where say the 13th team after 17 rounds gets up to 7th at season end because they get 5 games against weak opposition!!! If people are currently worried about tanking, this would encourage tanking for 7th or 13th positions as well as 18th. Much easier. What's wrong with the current system? You get an easier draw if you're a bottom team because your extra 6 games are against generally weaker teams. It helps with equalisation which I'm all for. We can't play 34 games a years and I think the current system works so why compromise it? Also, the current system gives you the flexibility to play 22, 23 or 24 games. The 17 round option only works with a 22 round season.

I know they're all about getting more blockbuster games between equally-matched sides, but how would this work in conjunction with Top 8, or 9 or 10? You couldn't have the whole 8 open on this basis because the higher-ranked teams in the 2nd bracket would be extremely advantaged compared to the lower-ranked teams in the 1st. Even if you had the Top 6 quarantined after 17 rounds, you could have a ridiculous situation where say the 13th team after 17 rounds gets up to 7th at season end because they get 5 games against weak opposition!!! If people are currently worried about tanking, this would encourage tanking for 7th or 13th positions as well as 18th. Much easier. What's wrong with the current system? You get an easier draw if you're a bottom team because your extra 6 games are against generally weaker teams. It helps with equalisation which I'm all for. We can't play 34 games a years and I think the current system works so why compromise it? Also, the current system gives you the flexibility to play 22, 23 or 24 games. The 17 round option only works with a 22 round season.

We won't get compensation. He's not a free agent. He's contracted until thr end of 2024. It should be at the end of the 1st Round for McKay according to known criteria, but I agree the AFL can and are likely to come up with a fix. We can complain because Frawley was a much better player (All Australian) than McKay will ever be. I agree we'll slide back 2 spots if North get 1st round compensation for McKay as Jed Walter will definitely go before 5 (the new 4). Why would we hold him to his contract? He'll be 30 at the end of this season, we could get a low level draft pick for him which will be worth points, and next year he'll be too old to get any interest. This year some other club could offer him a 2-3 year deal which works for all parties concerned including Tomlinson. I've posted on this earlier. 2 years to run on reasonable money worked against him last year. Different this year with one year to run. A Club could offer him a 2-3 year contract and smooth out next year's money over the longer time period. I like Howes as a player but he's not a lock-down key position defender like Tommo. Disco is closer but still lighter-framed. If Tomlinson was 25 I'd be holding him to his contract but at this stage of his career he's be beter off elsewhere. It will free up cap space, a list spot and get us points towards a points swap with GCS.

No. 5 of 12, currently 8 of 18, so we're already ahead of that ratio. No-one's advocating going to 6 of 18 which is the pre-72 ratio. Frankly grouping people on the basis of some dreamed-up assumption that everyone against this just doesn't accept change is insulting and superficial. Why don't you try responding to the arguments presented rather than just taking a cheap shot.

Yes, but only if you're in the top 70% of salary rankings for players of similar experience. Ultimately it would depend on how much another team might pay him. I'd suspect we'd get no compensation. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-trades-2020-free-agency-compensation-formula-how-does-it-work-brad-crouch-adelaide-st-kilda-free-agents-details/news-story/538e998849aa96d921d7da512ff8793e Jayden Hunt moved to West Coast last year as an UFA and we got a 3rd Round Pick (52 at the time) as compensation.

We've got to find a way of keeping JJ. We need to heep him and at the same time trade Harmes out. We need Harmes' list spot and might get say a 3rd round draft pick back for him. Next year he leaves as an unrestructed free agent and at his salary level I assume we'd get no compensation pick for him. It would also be in Harmes' interest to leave now as he'd be a better chance of getting a longer-term deal and more game time elsewhere. If there's no interest during the trade period, I guess he sees his contract out.

It's a typo in the article. The fewer years part is incorrect. Read the following paragraph of the Fox article. If your quote was correct it would mean the top 25% salaried-players would be a restricted free agents every time they came out of contract whereas the less well-paid players wouldn't be.

As has already been posted, free agency is only there because of concerns over restraint of trade. It won't be going away. Of course the Clubs want to be able to trade players against their will. They also want a mid-season trade period. I'm against both. AFL Players aren't paid enough for the former to be agreed. Imagine in your profession if you were told you would be moved to another company in another state and had no say in it. At least you could resign but contracted AFL players wouldn't be able to. One of the reasons why the mid-season trade is a thing in the NBA is because elite players want to be able to force their way out of underperforning teams, and teams want to buy championships and overcome existing list management ineptitude. It's ridiculous. AFL fans don't want to see players they identify with sold part-way through a season. And it would actually enhance existing inequities in the system.

Let's hope some b**stard other club doesn't select him at 56 to thwart us! It's estimated he'll go somewhere between 45 & 60 and a pick below 73 isn't worth any points so we'd have to go into deficit to get him.

Thanks for that. I couldn't find anything on this scouring the internet. Say their 3 adademy players go at 2, 6 & 10. After the 20% discount they would need about 4,500 points to secure them. Currently they have 3,973 but that would increase if they traded out 6, so could conceivably do that without going into too much deficit 🙁 Frawley's flag doesn't count. Clearly that happened after the compensation pick went to Melbourne.

I sort of get the idea of compensation for departure of free agents. If they weren't free agents and just out of contract you get whatever the other club is prepared (or able in the case of Jacko to Fremantle) to give you. But another argument is that if a player has been with you that long you've got the service out of him that your original drafting of him entitled you to. Of course the main reason for compensation is in recognition that it's difficukt for less successful clubs / clubs based in non-AFL States (Gold Coast fall into both categories) to retain free agents. Of course Ben Mackay's not worth a first-round pick based on known AFL criteria, especially when that pick would be Pick 3, but the AFL is deliberately non-transparent on this. I don't understand though why the rule is that the compensation pick has to be after the side concerned's usual draft pick or at the end of the round. Why couldn't it be for a particular draft position?

Matthew Pavlich. Jeez? Let's get him, whatever it takes 😀

The work ethic is definitely there. He seemed to be at nearly every stoppage against Vic Country.

Look, we're as well placed as any. I'd say Western Bulldogs, then us, GWS.... We actually currently have the 2nd most draft points of any club (4,503) behind only West Coast (5,304). But there's so many other factors like trading future picks which is not really in our favour as we're one of the top clubs. Having said that, GC don't need future picks, they need points this year (but other clubs could trade future picks for current picks and then on-trade to GC). Also the unknowns like compensation picks for free agency moves, possible North Melbourne special assistance (although hopefully that would impact the 2024 rather than 2023 draft), .... Here's a fairly old Fox Sports article explaining how the AFL free agency compensation pick works although in practice the process is extremely opaque: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-trades-2020-free-agency-compensation-formula-how-does-it-work-brad-crouch-adelaide-st-kilda-free-agents-details/news-story/538e998849aa96d921d7da512ff8793e

Looking through the current club draft picks, I think there are about 6 clubs really in that area where they can package picks up below 6 in exchange for 6: Adelaide, Essendon, GWS, Melbourne, St Kilda & Western Bulldogs. Add North Melbourne to that assuming they get late 1st round / early 2nd round free agent compensation for Ben Mackay. I reckon the Bulldogs are well-placed. They could do 12 & 16 (2,335 points) for 6 & 44 (2,113). Anyway, there's a lot of footy to be played which will affect ladder positions (and accordingly draft order).