old55

I think we will make the hard calls on the list and Goodwin has a good history here - Watts and Hogan trades.

Lynch whinging to umps again - biggest sook in football

What am I missing here? PM if necessary please.

He has successfully changed the way he played in the contest to alleviate the frequency of concussion events.

Bitterly disappointing to lose like that. But we looked like a team playing for the coach. North seldom lose down there and pumped Port last week. A 100pt loss was a possibility if we didn't turn up, but we clearly did. It has been a horrible year but that team is still playing united.

Strangely predictable that a call to use Max more effectively turned into "trade him" - Demonland strikes.

Max Gawn has had another great personal season and his performance is a highlight in an otherwise very disappointing year. He deserves great credit for his preparation, the work on his game and his consistent effort from week to week. He is the premier tap ruckman. No doubt Max has a great personality and is a great leader around the club - he will probably be co-captain next year. Who killed Bambi? The problem is I think having Max Gawn play this way is a big part of our problems this year because he makes us too predictable. Last year this had the bonus of surprise when Oliver, Brayshaw and Harmes all made significant improvement, this year it's a liability. I've never rated tap outs and have mixed views about taps to advantage - both the lynch pins of Max's game. A contest in the ruck is vital because one-off matches with tap outs to advantage are very damaging, but consistent tap outs to advantage are very predictable and the opposition simply sweats on our first possession and tackles our inside midfield. No surprise that we are 17th for tackle differential - that's the key tactic applied against our contest based game. I rate around the ground marking and providing a marking target much more highly and I think this is where Max provides us with the most value currently. But his kicking remains a liability and this is an issue when he drifts forward. Quite frankly Grundy is a far more valuable player because he is an extra mid-fielder, can kick and can ruck and mark nearly as well as Max. There's no way we would even consider trading Max but we need to give some thought to about how to use him effectively next year.

I'd swim down there if I was guaranteed to see Lewis hit Cunnington.

Preuss is an adequate 1st ruck at AFL level, he was good against Carlton and Kreuzer in his one opportunity at it this year. He's hopeless as a forward/ruck option and is unlikely to improve.

No wait, I forgot the talisman Lewis Jetta.

Well by your own definition the last 3 flag teams have had ZERO previous flag coaches and ZERO previous flag players so we'll be in good company. Accurate user name though.

I'm not in favour of Ellis, he has attractive attributes but he won't put his body on the line.

Got any proposals? It's a problem invented by you. I don't see the problem. I've reasoned above that he's worth pick 20.

But we wont have pick 30 we'll have around pick 20 and pick 40

I'm a fan of recruiting Langdon, he's the right age profile and he offers us pace, endurance and field position in metres gained. There's some concern about his kicking but I think this may be overblown. I think most here will rate Salem as one of our best field kicks and they stack up reasonably similarly in the data below: Average Disposals: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_rankings?year=2019&rt=LA&st=DI Average metres gained: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_rankings?year=2019&rt=LA&st=MG Need to leaven this with average turnovers though: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_rankings?year=2019&rt=LA&st=TO Isaac Smith 74th for disposals, 17th for metres gained, but 10th for turnovers Brad Hill 51st for disposals, 11th for metres gained, 22nd for turnovers Ed Langdon 54th for disposals, 39th for metres gained, 78th for turnovers Salem 50th for disposals, 34th for metres gained, 76th for turnovers - very similar numbers to Langdon I like Isaac Smith and Brad Hill too but Smith is a lot older (30yo) and based on these number turns it over a surprising amount. Brad Hill (26yo) will be a lot more expensive in trade and salary than Langdon (23yo) and he too turns it over a surprising amount. I'd be happy to add any of those three, but those numbers make Langdon look attractive.

I think Hibberd, Melksham and Langdon offered similar levels of quality when they joined us. Or in Langdon's case when he joins us. Hibberd was 27, Melksham was 25 and Langdon is 23. Therefore that's the order of increasing cost because you get the quality for longer and that's what happened with Hibberd and Melksham. Hibberd is starting to look near the end. So paying more for Langdon makes sense - our current 2nd rounder.

Jones, Viney, Jetta and Gawn are the four in the leadership group this year. Jones wont be captain next year or in the leadership group, he'll be concentrating on making the 22. IMO it will be Viney and Gawn next year, with Jetta concentrating on getting fit to play. Hopefully Viney can have an injury free run and play to his capabilities. They might add TMac and/or Lever to the leadership group.

Coaches' votes in the past two rounds https://www.aflcoaches.com.au/awards/the-aflca-champion-player-of-the-year-award/leaderboard/2019/20190121

He's a capable 1st ruck - he was good against Carlton and Kreuzer, strong in the ruck contest and provided a good marking target down the line. From MFC pov he's good injury insurance for Max but they can't both play together because neither has good forward craft. The move from North is not so good for Preuss, particularly if Goldy is moving on this year - but we all knew that this time last year and were puzzled by his thinking.

I had the good fortune to meet Brendan on 3 occasions and hear his football views thanks to the great man @george_on_the_outer Brendan has an uncompromising philosophy on the lifestyle sacrifices, and the skills and attributes required to make it as an AFL footballer. It's a tough philosophy that I find it very difficult to argue against - I didn't notice you doing that there either. IMO he made an invaluable contribution to both Geelong's and the Dogs' premiership success. His message is very tough and it probably has a use-by-date and I'm a bit surprised he was at Geelong so long, but he was a younger man then. I've got no doubt his contribution will be key to the premiership success of our current group at Melbourne and I'm thankful for his input. I wish him all the best for the future.

mccartney-sees-bright-future-for-dees You were saying?

Yes all class there and very positive about the future.

I'd like to see Viney tried as a small forward. He has some real acceleration, could get to fall of the ball and win the contest, is a generally clean ball-handler, and would be a genuine tackling threat that would spark fear and panic in opposition defenders. There has been some resistance raised from a good judge because his kicking is not great and our inability to convert has really hurt us. This could well be the killer but he could not be worse than ANB.

I agree that I don't see the match-up for OMac this week and I'd prefer to see Hore playing in his place, but the hyperbole about his play against the Tigers is completely over the top. Lynch and Riewoldt did not dominate the game and Frost and Omac both did a decent defensive job. OMac had 8 1%s - the most of anyone on the ground and 5 intercepts. Lynch kicked 3 goals but he only took 4 marks - he got 3 of the softest free-kicks ever given - he went to the Matthew Lloyd FF school of acting and is one of the biggest stagers going round. In one instance at the Punt Road end Southern side he pushed OMac fair in the chest when the ball was miles away and was awarded the mark - I was OK with that but not in the context of him getting frees from OMac simply touching him in the marking contest. Similarly Riewoldt played well enough but didn't dominate like he has in the past, sure his 0.3 could easily have been 3.0 but that's still a modest return with the service he had. OMac has his limitations and a couple of time was caught out on the lead, his lack of body-on-body in these instances is concerning, but when he did apply legitimate pressure he was free-kicked. He does turn it over too often for my liking for someone who generally takes the safe option, unlike Frost. But people have set opinions about players and can't see the forest for the trees sometimes.

Yes, I think it depends on what "big" turns out to mean. I expect us to pick up someone who can play on the wing - probably Langdon, maybe B.Hill (probably too expensive) or Z.Jones. I'd like us to find a small forward who can apply pressure and is dangerous around goals - ANB and Jeffy aren't up to it for different reasons and Spargo definitely stalled. Maybe one of Richmond's surplus - but I wasn't impressed with Butler last week and he has been dropped for Stack I'm guessing. Not sure about other options - maybe Lewis Taylor. The FD will have a target if they think, like me, that it's a need. Getting Papley would be big. I think they are substantial changes - adding hopefully 2 players to our best 22 and we should add another one with pick 2 - IMO we should definitely use this in the draft, I'm not expecting us to see picks anywhere near that early again for many years. Others are advocating for a marking forward - that's more likely to be the "big" category, but who is really available - Patton? There's Jenkins, Westhoff and maybe even Jarryd Roughead for a year as a bridge for Weid, but I wouldn't call any of them big gets. There's also been talk of Keath and some good judges I know are keen. Picking him up is not a big get in itself, but what it says about our structure is pretty big. We paid a lot for Lever and May (good gets IMO) but to add yet another key back would be a big statement when Frost is having a very good year, Petty is showing some great signs and they're continuing to select OMac. I suspect if Keath comes that means one of Frost or Petty may go - we need to pay for the winger and the forward and retain pick 2, so someone decent has to give. Mahoney does a great job IMO, he's proactive, has his targets lined up and generally gets his man. It will be fascinating to see what he has in store this year.