demoniac

Bureaucrats ultimate acronym is the quango...

Good judgement and positioning in the air whether spoiling or marking and follows up well when ball is on the ground. With Brown entering his 29 yo season, May his 30 yo season and McDonald his 29 yo season and query on whether Weidemann entering 25yo season can be a consistent AFL footballer (hopes he's watching his 2018 finals series on an IMAX sized screen this pre season) its a prudent selection. Should be able to develop at Casey. His flexibility and ground game may see him some early games on a flank if established players miss games.

Phoned the club and for reasons unknown to me I was marked as choosing not to receive marketing emails. The 10 tix per transaction is interesting. Hope they have not wildly underestimated demand or there could be some unhappy campers!

Presume an email will drop in my inbox before tix go on sale.

To a degree its Alistair Clarkson and Graham Wright making life hard for Sam Mitchell with their list management post 2015 flag. Clear that Wright was unable to manage Clarkson like his ex Dees predecessors Chris Fagan and Mark Evans. Post Fagan and Evans there was no one in Hawthorn Football Department who could say no to Clarkson when he wanted to recruit Wingard and O'Meara at any cost. And then Mitchell as coach has to work with and rely on Mark McKenzie as List & Recruiting Manager and Rob McCartney as Head of Football. With the way the club has gone about its stated aim of improving its draft hand their competence must be in question. They overestimated market for their veterans and particularly willingness to trade top 20 picks. There are ways of managing contracted veterans out of a club. You've got to know what clubs have cap space and interest and agree on trade value. You've got to discuss with player if they're prepared to go to interested club. You can 'encourage' player by telling them that their current club wont be in a position to extend contract beyond current term but interested club will give them security by taking on current contract and agreeing to an extension. If you havent done this work in preparation for the trade period then you can't go into it publicly stating you want to improve your draft hand by trading some of your contracted veterans.

Joy!

I don't like to sledge a perennial cellar dweller like the Hawks, particularly when they've just sacked their most successful coach of 21st century and their incoming coach has looked at his ageing midfield and started throwing darts at portrait of that former coach.

My older brother is a Hawks fan so I'm enjoying their attempts to offload late career mids/fwds with large contracts into a market in which Hawks over rate their draft pick value, and which generally has limited salary cap liquidity. You can see the urgency. Having squandered 1st rounders on O'Meara and Wingard they then started rebuild with half back flankers/key position players. Mitchell knows that recent history is that to win a flag you need access to elite explosive bigbodied midfield talent normally taken in top 5, and then it takes 6 or 7 seasons for those players to reach their peak. And Sammy is impatient. And likely a bit angry at Clarko. Can they find an Alan Bond and use the cap space luckily created by retirements of Patton & Scully unwinding 2 bad contracts to absorb most of contract to essentially buy a draft pick. Port a chance for a mid as Hinkley needs a flag but their interests best served by adding to their young talent to add to their list build. But Hinkley is desperate. (16) Tigers a chance for mid or Gunston. (Tight Cap) (7, 15, 26) Freo a chance for a mid but should 28/29 yo + B grade mids be a priority for their early picks? (6,8,19,22) Giants obvious choice is Gunston after a searching medical to check his back injury but what draft capital would you give up for a 30 year old coming off a season missed with a back injury? Tight cap. (2CFCLOL, 13,....)

Good depth signing.

The alternative is alchemy using 2022 2st rounder and multiple 2nd/3rd rounders in 2021/22 to unlock a top 10 pick in trade with team needing points for father/son and/or academy picks. Players would have to be traded out to secure the 2nd and 3rd rounders.

Why would you play a 1st year small mid on Martin?

Petty at 197cm a better match for 199cm Lynch, and a far more natural overhead player than Tomlinson who at 194cm concedes 5 cm to Lynch. Frees May for Riewoldt which allows him to be more attacking with Lever's cover a support. Can't see room for Tommy Mac if Brown, Weed and resting ruck in forward line.Still good to see him back in reasonable form.

May if fit replaces Tomlinson. Petty a genuine key defender who can free May up. Tomlinson more 3rd tall/utility. Weed for M Brown. If B Brown comes in then its Tommy Mac out. Sparrow to full game in VFL after being medical sub replaced by Toby Bedford who should be in the 22 instead of Jones but fair play I guess to get Jones to 300 given what the club put him through with its deep dive into mediocrity during his footballing prime.

Nimble players who can hit targets inside 50 most welcome.

The politics are not that complex. Geelong is a Labor town. The Western District is Liberal and National territory.

Why? The Pies lured him with a contract offer. Then twice asked him to shift money into future years - second time they had to extend contract out to 2025 expiry to smooth the deferred payments for ongoing cap management purposes - because they'd stuffed their cap by offering Beams 4 years at 600K when they had not planned for that contract, and by generally handing out inflated contracts post 2018 granny. He is not getting $900,000 to play for each of next 5 seasons because hundreds of thousands of that amount is deferred payments from previous seasons. The Pies cap is a cluster of highest order. They need to salary cap dump a 5 year contract that includes deferred payments from previous seasons that make the contract untradeable without Pies paying 1 to 1.5 million over the 5 years for Treloar to play for another club and that'll go in the Pies salary cap each year. In most businesses staff involved would be sacked except Eddie was driving force behind Beam's return so action unlikely.

Turning Dom Tyson into Pick 31 is good work indeed. If Preuss can minimise injuries and be a regular he'll be a good get for Giants.

$700K for Adam Treloar is full or over market value. And then there is the 4 years post 2021 which take him to his 32 yo season. With his history of soft tissue injuries any club taking on the 5 year contract would have to mitigate risk that he won't be available consistently. That mitigation would be Pies paying part of contract of each of the remaining 5 years or Treloar agreeing to contract variation. But why would he? Pies have twice pushed back money owed to him. The Grundy contract is another shocker. 7 years at million a year ending at his 33 year old season.

The 900K and then the 4 subsequent years on his contract? No club in their right mind is going to take on that contract without Pies ponying up hundreds of thousands of dollars of payments that go against their cap. Its not just the 900K due in 21 in his 28yo season, its the 4 subsequent years for a player who has had problems staying on the park due to soft tissue injuries. Its a terrible contract.

The Pies were not far too smart to mismanage their player contracts to such an extent that they appear to need to salary cap dump multiple contracts including a player in his 28 yo season in 2021 with 5 years to go on a contract and dodgy hammies, which has $900,000 due in 2021 and who they extended and backended to fit in Dayne Beams. They gave a 7 year $7 million contract to a ruckman who'll be 33 in the final year of the deal. They handed out above market contracts to other players after 2018 Grand Final which they're now looking to dump or extend years to smooth the yearly cap hit. Its a giant cluster.

Treloar turns 28 in March 2021 so the 5 seasons left on his Pies contract covering his 28 to 32 year old seasons. He's had recent history of significant soft tissue injuries. His contract pays him above market terms based on his ability and recent availability and it runs for another 5 seasons till he turns 32. Hard to see how Pies can shift him unless they agree to cover ballpark $1,000,000 of his contract over remaining 5 years. Or a combination of Pies subsidy and Treloar agreeing to take a pay cut (Why would he?). Pies have next to no hand. Treloar can say no to a trade and force Pies to honour contract or tell them which Melbourne based club he has agreed to go to and with which they make a trade. Salary dumps are common in salary cap sports but a salary cap dump of a contract that has 5 seasons to run requires a special kind of stupid. What a salary cap cluster seemingly caused by above market contracts post 2018 Grand Final and unplanned for trading back in of Beams. The later requiring the disastrous extension for Treloar to push back money to fit Beams in. Overpayed Grundy and signed him till 2027 ie his 33 year old season. Pendlebury in 33 year old season in 2021 and I'd suspect he is still in upper echelon of player contracts despite being past his prime. Good luck Pies. OK. Not really.

If Pies are paying Tom Phillips $550,000 in 2021 which could've been $600,000 with a good 2020 then their cap woes are understandable. It reads like Essendon post 2000 when cap increases were lower than they had budgeted for and they got rid of Caracella, Heffernan and Blumfield in a fire sale. Challenge Pies face is players in contract can choose their new club which may not be club offering best deal for Pies. In short the player has the power. Langdon played well and I like Baker but Phillips would be a good addition to out wing stocks at the right price. May we never play inside mids on the wing again.

You forgot former Dees Winger Dom Tyson. It was perplexing that we waited till last few games of season to play 2 wingman. Landon had a good year, Baker showed good signs when he finally came in. Both back pocket to forward pocket runners who can get forward or back to cover a team mate or be an option. Philips disposal may not be perfect but if he has those attributes we'd have room in our 22. All depends on what Maggies want trade wise and his choice of club. If its a salary cap dump then Pires don't have a strong hand.

He may want to leave. He may want to go to Carlton. That happens. If above is fact then the ball is our court as he is under contract for next season and will not be a free agent at that point. He is a 23 year old All Australian so his trade value is high. The question is what can unlock to allow us to replace him with a player of his, or close to his, quality.

If Jones gets to 300 games next season the match committee is not selecting the best 22 every week.