demoncat

I agree it’s clear we don’t rate it but I reckon that’s been a problem the past few years and has left our depth exposed I reckon we had/have multiple areas of need that should have been identified and tried to be fixed with more picks from the draft, rather than moving up marginally or trading for NQRs like Billings, McAdam etc (I mean when was the last time we bought in a Hibberd or Langdon?)

Logan Morris and now Joel Freijah Every week we’re being reminded of the second round picks we traded to move up and grab Tholstrup in 2023 😭 (still love you Kolt)

Reckon he’s more hit and miss then ‘horrible’ - have seen him hit some absolutely lace out passes before

Gee I hope we’re a chance at Bergman - he’d look great in the red and blue

Haven’t heard it but @Ghostwriter confirmed that they were essentially told this at training today (thanks for the scoop 👻)

Wow - both big calls and ones that I back 100% I love Lever but he was brought back in way too quickly and has clearly been hampered by his injuries - McDonald should never have been dropped to make way for him Windsor has also struggled this year due to injuries (and being played out of position in my opinion) - reckon getting him playing on the wing at VFL could do his confidence a world of good

I’ve seen the same intel posted on Big Footy (yes grain of salt etc) but I have to say I’m very concerned that we’re not going to be able to land anyone of note this trade period We really failed to capitalise on being a club in the window between 2021-2023 in terms of bringing in more A grade talent - could be a long couple of years if Lamb and co can’t start to bring in more like McKay, Bergman etc

It’s a common misconception that he’s a poor kick for goal Other than an admittedly very bad form slump a couple of years ago he’s actually been quite accurate and, as the stats show, has managed a lot of shots on goal

I agree regarding smalls/mediums being more impactful and ball use being king - but I think that’s contingent on at least having competent tall forwards who can compete aerially and lead to space Unfortunately we don’t have many at the moment who can do this and it’s making our smalls/mediums less impactful and making it even harder for us to enter inside 50 It’s no surpirse that Fritsch had his best season when we had BBB and TMac providing a forward presence for him to work from Our mids also had better targets to kick to even if they weren’t hitting them lace out on the chest You only need to look at Brisbane this year to see they’re missing Daniher’s presence (although Logan Morris is now starting to compensate for that) So while I agree you don’t need a gun key forward, you definitely need competent ones, and McKay may be one of the only options available to us this year I say get him if we’re a chance

I saw some people doubting him in another trade thread and couldn’t believe it - he is the prototype forward we’ve been crying out for years I don’t think we’d have the cap space to bring him in (as it currently stands) but we’d be crazy not to go after him He’s a great mark, a strong forward presence and an option as a second ruck - plus he’d offer great protection to our younger forwards in JVR and Jefferson as they develop Would give up a future first and more for him

Link? He’s a gun and would be a dream get if there was any way to bring him in

I like Kolt a lot and think he could be a great mid/fwd type long term but this is looking like a bigger and bigger mistake by the club Usually I’m all in favour of trading picks to get up the draft order but in hindsight we could have had Caleb Windsor, Darcy Wilson and Logan Morris in one draft 😭 Even if we didn’t want Wilson there’s every chance Kolt would’ve been there a few picks later anyway

The reference to GWS taking Windsor is based on this - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1064937/cal-twomeys-2023-phantom-draft-top-30-late-picks-club-whispers It was noted in various instances by Cal that they were interested in Windsor and I’m almost certain that he referenced us taking Windsor at 7 (knowing of GWS’s interest in him at 8) on draft night or one of his media platforms And I can assure you I’ve see plenty of Essendon games this year pal - more than I’d care to admit! I like Caddy and think he’ll be a good player but based on what I’ve seen I don’t think he’s shown as much as Curnow did If he wins the Coleman in five or six years happy for you to come back and quote me - not that you need much encouragement to try and prove people wrong Dazz!

I mean I compared his potential and not his output to Gulden’s but whatever And someone else just posted his stats against Holmes in his second year, who also had similar numbers before becoming a midfield star (and I think is another example of the type of player Windsor could be) I’ll give it to you that Caddy has similar numbers to Curnow but that’s not what I said - everyone could see the physicality Curnow had from a young age which is a significant part of his game It was only his off field discretions which made him slip to into the teens of that draft Anyway I’m sure if we all listened to you Dazzle we’d be kicking it on Caddy’s head so it’d be a moot point discussion - meanwhile Windsor would be tearing it up for GWS (who were going to take him with the next pick if we didn’t)

I also think the timing of the draft played a part - we had taken four key position players in 2021 and 22 (Disco, JVR, Jefferson and Adams) You can argue that you always have to take best available but I think it would have been overkill to draft another KPP when we needed to start replenishing our midfield stocks

I don’t see Windsor as being solely a wingman long term I think he has the capacity to be a CBA midfielder, even if he wins more ball on the outside than inside Look at guys like Gulden for the Swans - yes Windsor doesn’t have his kicking skills but there’s not reason he couldn’t have a similar output from a disposal and metres gained perspective I’m not downplaying the importance of gun CHF and CHBs - I mean we won a premiership in part because of our gun defenders - but at the end of the day you need gun midfielders too And I reckon it’s a bit early to be comparing Caddy to Curnow - he has nowhere near the physicality and contested marking that Curnow showed at a similar age You kick one goal over your head and suddenly you’re the next Coleman medallist 🤣

I reckon Windsor showed more all of last year (and in his better games against Hawks and Sydney this year) than either Caddy or O’Sullivan have in the same timeframe No disrespect to either of those players as I think both will be stars in their own right, but Windsor has already shown capacity to have 25+ disposal games with high metres gained and even a goal here and there Plus I’d argue he fit our list needs more than either of those players I think he’s just struggling off a limited preseason from his foot injury as well as growing pains in his new half back role (which I’m not convinced is best for him) - he’ll be fine long term

So we bring in a guy with significant government and industry contacts/experience to be our CEO, but don’t want him leveraging that until we say so? I have to say I don’t understand why he couldn’t have preliminary discussions with these stakeholders, especially seeing as securing a home base is so far overdue It also seems like the club’s expectations around securing funding/total cost of the project are way off initial expectations It just reeks of more amateur hour decisions from this club

The outcome of the club’s off season review was that we have a list capable of playing finals and that all their efforts would be towards realising this outcome Well this will now be back to back years not playing finals, so by our own assessment we’ve failed to realise the potential of our list I don’t blame the club for thinking this way - it’s clear our best footy matches it with the best in the comp But we continually seem to make the same mistakes week after week and I just don’t know how that changes without significant change to either our coaching or playing list I don’t want to be the new St Kilda - stuck in no man’s land year after year - so the club needs to use this opportunity to reevaluate where this list is at and make changes accordingly I’m not going to name names, but will point out that at the end of 2020, Collingwood traded Treloar and Stephens Then at the end of 2022 they traded Grundy They were torched for it at the time - two of those players were A grade fan favourites - but look what it enabled them to do in subsequent years If the club genuinely believes that we can get back to finals with the improvement of this current list, well, good luck to them, but if not someone needs to start making the kind of tough decisions we’ve been avoiding for years now And after the past few weeks, I know which way I’d be leaning…

Butters is just about my favourite non Dees player in the comp Yes he’s a [censored] talker but no one puts their body on the line like he does And he hits targets - imagine that!

This is probably a question better reserved for the end of season podcast, but what we are going to do about our midfield balance going forward? Viney, Trac and Clarry are not the players who are going to win a game in the middle of the ground for you in 2025 Every contending club has speedy and skilful midfielders who can extract AND hit targets - we have crash and bash midfielders who almost look like they’re from another era I acknowledge that the club has gone some way to addressing this by bringing in good ball users and revamping the game plan, but as long as those three continue to be our leading possession getters it’s going to continue to lose us games

Season over if we can’t pull this one back Reckon the club are going to have to have some really serious discussions about Viney, Trac and Clarry this offseason We can’t keep carrying so many mids who bang it on the boot and can’t hit targets

A good signing I feel Blake still has a bit more development to go before he starts hitting his straps but you can see the talent there I’m not convinced playing back is his best position but hopefully he can become that hybrid third tall/flanker type that can intercept but still take the game on with a bit of run and dash

I do hope we’re into Sam Flanders if he’s looking to get back to Victoria He’s exactly the type of midfielder we need in our engine room - fast, skilled and able to rack them up at will A nice age at 23 too - we need more in that 23-25 age bracket If we’re to avoid having an unbalanced list

That would be the logical thing to do… So of course Freo won’t do it 🤣 In all seriousness Dogga thrives in the #1 ruck role and I can’t believe it’s taken Freo this long to realise it