Lord Travis

Regardless of his recent form and issues, he's still a champion of this club. He's one of the best midfielders we've had in my lifetime, and I'd say he's possibly the best inside midfielder to ever pull on the red and blue. Peak Clarry was unstoppable around the contest and a key reason we won a premiership. He deserves a ton of respect and admirations from fans and the general football public. Two time AFLCA MVP - the only other player to do that is Gary Ablett Jnr, who's a potential GOAT. Even now while he's not at his dominant peak, his stats still stack up well against the comp and he's well above average for an inside mid, just not elite. Will always love Clarry!

That was from the match on the weekend. He was our hardest working defensive runner. He was second the week before too. It's a strength of his that the coaches love, similar to Nibbler over the past few years and Gus Brayshaw when he played as a defensive winger in our flag year. Just because you don't see it on TV doesn't mean it's not happening. If he continues to build his fitness and body so he can consistently get involved in more offensive chains and contests then we're onto a winner.

Thanks for hijacking the thread with emotional drool. You sound like the orange man in your avatar... and that's not a compliment. Back on topic, it will be interesting to see how Kolt progresses next season. I love that he goes straight for the corridor when he gets the ball out wide. His vision and boldness to be attacking stand out amongst his peers, and you see it at training too where he's often the one to execute the angle kick to corridor or into 50. It feels like his fitness is holding him back getting to the contests from the wing back to half forward when we have ball in transition. The lack of preseason and injuries are likely attributing to that. He always works hard with his defensive running, not dissimilar to ANB in years passed.

Ceiling: Toby Greene as a forward or Jai Newcombe as a midfielder. As a medium sized forward, he's powerful, loves a contest, can clunk a mark, is technically a great kick and can get under opponents skin. As a midfielder, has the attributes to be a well rounded mid like Newcombe who can win lots of ball inside but also get it on the outside and hurt. I love that when Kolt gets the ball be looks to kick into the corridor. He's more brave than most of his teammates, and they let him down at times. Floor: Tom Sparrow. Mid/defensive mid or forward role player who doesn't have big impact but plays an important role in a successful team. Either way, I expect him to make a decent AFL career. He just needs time to get fit. Coming into this season he was a 19 year old who's played about 10 games and had limited preseason coming off a 12 week foot injury. Foot injuries can be career enders, so it'll take him time to properly get fit and confident again. There are some posters on here showing how poor their footy knowledge is by writing him off this quickly. I assume they wrote Petracca off after his injury riddled and poor first few seasons?

Trading our Hogan and Watts won us a flag and were 100% correct list calls. We got May and Fritsch as a direct result of those trades. Without either of them, we don't win that 21 flag. Fritsch alone has kicked more goals than Hogan since that trade. Hogan wanted to go home and took 6 seasons to return to being a good player. He's a gun again now, but he's a 30 year old who's battled physical and mental issues for the majority of his career. He's basically at the end of his career. Watts is long retired. Yes we need a quality key forward now, but we made the right call trading those players out at the time. There's a seven year gap, and where we are now is not related to what happened back then.

Gun defender and the long term Lever replacement as our key intercepting defender. Great story and love his positive attitude towards life and the club.

Must be because most punters don't watch boring Melbourne matches late every Sunday arvo. I don't blame them. He's worth a bet at those demented unbalanced odds. Thanks for the tip!

Curtin has had a few good games recently, but across the whole season Langford is a clear level above. He's averaging 7 disposals more, more goals, more tackles, more score involvements, higher disposal efficiency etc. He's currently ranked in the top 100 players, with Nick Daicos the only other debut year player to do that since pre-covid. Levi Ashcroft is the only player eligible who could otherwise win it, though he's had the luxury of playing in the top team, getting lots of easy ball fed to him across half back and his disposals haven't been as damaging. Langfords disposal efficiency and hurt factor is through the roof. He's absolutely flying and looks like exactly what we hoped he'd become. Future star midfielder who hits the scoreboard - our next Trac.

Appreciate the response and you raise some fair points. Often back pockets wind up moving up the ground and becoming attacking half back flankers or midfielders as they develop. Mcvee seems to be on that path - I doubt he'll stay a back pocket for much longer and it seems he's losing his way down there anyway. But that raises the concern about who replaces him in that role. Imagine we're lining up against Brisbane in a final tomorrow. Charlie Cameron, Kai Lowman, Zac Bailey and Cam Rayner are all smaller options up there who can turn a game and require close checking. You can't lockdown on them all, but Cameron in particular requires close checking. Mcvee has down the job on him before well, but imagine we no longer have Mcvee available or in that role. We're playing.... Bowey? Salem? Howes? Rivers? as lockdowns on Charlie Cameron. None would do the job satisfactorily, and if you were Brisbane coach playing against us you'd basically clear out the forward line and leave Cameron alone to tear it up and kick 6 etc. Agree Taj and Sestan won't make it. Unsure on Brown unless he can make a role like back pocket his own. AMW strikes me as more of an offensive type than a lockdown, but I may be wrong, and that's assuming he makes it. It might not be the most impactful position on the ground, but it's important in the modern game and I feel we're lacking there. I wouldn't be surprised if Mcvee left and wound up at West Coast as floated. He's leaving contract talks right until the end, and his form is going backwards, so it's not like he's adding extra dollars or years to a new contract by holding off. If he does leave, left hope we get something decent for him and can get someone to adequately fill that small lockdown defender role!

Wanted to highlight this bit. I don't agree it's an easy spot to fill. A good lockdown small defender is crucial these days given how much of am impact small forwards have with ball movement being quicker in the modern game. Small lockdowns defenders are possibly the hardest position to find. They need to have pace and agility and be selfless in focusing purely on stopping their opponent. A good distributor like a Bowey or Salem or Rivers would play as a rebounding halfback and would struggle to lockdown on quality small forwards such as Kozzie, Stenglein, Higgins, Watson, Curtis etc. They'd be wasted playing lockdown small. Howes is too big, lacks the pace and agility to play on those types. Brown could potentially play that role. Taj and Sestan don't have the right attributes. It's actually a challenge to find a quality one. It's why Nev Jetta was such a great player for us. We also had Hunt and Hibberd capable of that role. I personally feel it's a clear gap in our list, especially if Mcvee leaves.

Second round pick. West Coast are a bottom team, so the pick would be early in second round if he went there. That's best case scenario unless he is part of a package to get Jackson or a star somehow. If you take the emotion out of it, turning a rookie lister into a second round pick is good business. Would prefer he stayed, but if he did want to leave and the above early second round pick trade eventuated, you'd say we've done well.

From the genius who brought you no free to air footy on Saturdays, "Round 0", the stand rule, the pre-finals bye, and "interpretations" of RULES, comes... a second tournament for rubbish teams mid season! The AFL is a pathetic basket case. Is there a worse sports governing body in the world? Andrew Dillon is completely unfit to lead the game and may go down as the worst leader of all time. His administration makes FIFA look smart and just. I am close to giving up on the sport I have religiously followed since the 1980s. We've moved beyond a sport and into sports entertainment at this stage. The game has never been worse.

If we're having a go at players based on nothing footage like that then we may as well pack up shop. He's a 19 year old who's just been benched and his team is losing after fighting hard all day. I've seen far far worse from senior players, including Gawn, every week. Kolt's not setting the world on fire, but let's not attack his character as a person over nothing. Really poor behavior on this forum recently!

Great chase down from Langford on Nibbler there!

He's not on over two million a year you pelican. Pull your head in! He's been one of our best so far today. If he'd slotted the set shot he'd be having a big day.

Has had a few injuries, been mostly been pushed out of his position on the midfield and wing the last 12-18 months and struggled to find a new role. Swans mate reckons they're getting run from guys like Blakey now, so he's struggled to find his place and lost confidence as a result. Would be a great target for us if we could get him for a second rounder in a trade IMO.

It is frustrating that we couldn't capitalise on being a top team like other clubs have. We were a premiership team in 2021, and yet failed to land any quality players as a result. Other clubs like Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Brisbane etc all managed to sustain their successful periods and be destination clubs. It sucks seeing all the decent players linked to other clubs, while we get the dregs or overpay to keep the decent ones we have. It's actually damning how poor our list management has been since the premiership. Since end of 2021 as reigning premiers, we traded in: Grundy Schache Hunter Fullarton McAdam Billings Sharp Instead of becoming a destination club where players wanted to come and experience success, we got the above list. Embarrassing. We're now in the position we were in the mid 2010s where we need to build around top draftees again, but our overused strategy of trading up each year has diminished the quality of the top enders we've drafted. We built a premiership around gun midfielders taken high in the draft with Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw. We're now robbing ourselves of being able to repeat that, and we don't have the trade currency to bring it in without trading Petracca or Oliver and paying some of their salary.

We're now in rebuild mode and need new leaders to guide our kids like Langford, Windsor, Lindsey, Mcvee etc for a few years. Similar to bringing in Vince and Lewis, we need leaders who are solid players and won't cost much in a trade. We can't afford to trade away 2nd and 3rd round picks to upgrade into the first round and shoot ourselves in the foot again. Those are the picks where you build depth and leadership, which we sadly failed with the past few off-seasons.

Settle down with the emotional delusions. Fritsch is about to enter the top 10 all time goal kickers for the club. He's a 5 time leading goal kicking. Have a bit of respect and take off the brown coloured glasses. We could sure use some "lucky" goal kickers to kick us 50+ goals a season again.

Tricky one, as Lever and Gus were the obvious ones to take over as official leaders. I expected them to take over sooner. Gus is medically retired. He left a serious hole at the club from a leadership and cultural perspective, probably more than most realise. Lever is now 30 and battling form and injury. Other option is Trac, who is also 30 and perhaps not the right fit culturally after last year. May has one season left on contract and is declining rapidly. We have a serious list gap through mid 20s, as it's a key reason we're now struggling on field. That next week of players after our star senior core never came on. Guys like Sparrow, Spargo, Petty are all 25 years old, should be at their peak and the core of the team now.

We need to pump games into him. We traded picks 14, 27 and 35 for pick 11 and took him. That's a big commitment. I dare say we were trying to package up 6+11 for pick 1 (Harley Reid) and it didn't work out, but nonetheless when you draft a player at pick 11 you expect a star or a good 200+ gamer who's a core member of your team long term. Kolt needs time to build his body. He's 1.5 seasons in and hasn't had a proper pre-season yet due to injuries. He's playing in a woeful forward line. That said, he's shown little ability to find the ball and use it well either. He's struggled for form at both VFL and AFL level. It's one of those cases where we need get his body right and pump games into him due to his draft position, then you hope it clicks. He was drafted as a powerful forward-mid. Those sorts of players are game changers, and we've been chasing one for a while (tried trading up for Bailey Humphry and Harley Reid). We need him to become that player. If he doesn't make it as a forward-mid, then backup plan is develop him in the back pocket as a lock down defender and rebounder in a McVee/Hibberd type role.

Suns by 41. Think we start dropping away over the second half of the season and see more kids getting games pumped into them. That's probably where we need to be at now. We rightly or wrongly paid a premium for guys like Jeffo and Kolt, so need to give them a run and see if they'll become what we hope and need. Suns are pushing for finals and are usually strong at home, so expecting a strong win by them today.

Derksen is playing as an intercepting defender, so while he is playing well, he's in the easiest marking role there is. He's played 12 VFL games to Jeffersons 6 VFL games also. Jeffo is playing key forward in a poor team bombing it on his head. He's also missed a few VFL games through injury, but mostly because he was playing AFL too. He's also banged through lots of goals over the last two seasons to be one of the highest scoring players in the VFL since his debut. Derksen is a 24 year old mature ager who can't crack an AFL game despite injuries. He might become a decent role player, but let's not kid ourselves - he's unlikely to make a difference to our team at AFL level. Jeffo might with time to continue building strength. Those comparing him or preferring him to someone like McKay, who has won a Coleman medal, is insulting and laughable.

We tried to get McKay a few years back. We offered him 6 figures in 2023 and he rejected it and stayed with the Blues. We are now a worse club with less money to offer him - unless Petracca or Oliver leaves. I'd be all for landing him if we can, though agree we'll probably be overpaying. Can constantly clunk a mark and kick a goal, which is more than can be said for any forward on our list sadly. We can't expect to land Jeremy Cameron, so let's be realistic. A Coleman medalist who can hit the scoreboard is a better option than battlers and NQR suggestions like Lord and Derksen who can't even crack a game.

Fixed that for you. Most supporters don't even get to that level, they just want to watch their team win and have a good time. Goodwin's fate seems sealed at this point, it's just a matter of if we can afford to pay him out end of 2025 or have to wait for contract end of 2026. Let's hope there's some good senior coaching options out there. We're not big or rich enough to poach a proven one, so we'll have to go for either a sacked one like Longmire, or an up and coming assistant coach we think will make a good senior coach. None of our senior players like Gawn, May, Viney, Petracca etc will be part of our next flag tilt, so hire someone who will be best suited to the kids we are building around now. Two bottom 4-5 finishes in a row is a clear indication that Goodwin's time, and this current groups time, is done. Will be forever thankful to Goodwin and those players who delivered us a flag, but it's now time to look to the future.