Lord Travis

Jack Vineys entitled to go on his honeymoon now our season is over. Wouldn’t have thought the finals series being on should impact. Was a pretty lackluster game last night. Very low intensity for a final. The tackle count was 43-42. That’s extremely low by 2019 standards. Finals series last year the average tackle count was nearly double that. Here’s hoping we get a better game tonight as the quality of matches this year has been the worst in decades.

Scott West and Gawn I’m assuming.

Won’t be watching tonight or likely all finals until the GF. As a neutral, AFL has become a crap spectator sport with the poorly thought out rule changes the past few years. If we don’t make finals next year then I give up on AFL. Unwatchable trash.

Disappointing to lose Rawlings. He was the most experienced and successful out of our assistant coaches this decade. He was also a real strong presence on the training track and drove standards there. He’s a casualty of a pathetic year by the club and will have a successful coaching career elsewhere. 2020 better be a much much better year or we may as well give up.

Will play the roaming tall role ala Hogan/Lynch(Ade). He’s an elite runner, so will be perfect leading up the ground as a linkman. Hoping we get him via free agency.

It’s fairly accurate. Flanders is a bulky half forward type who’s done stints in the midfield this year. His best work is up forward where he uses strength to outmark his opponents. Young is an elite kicking half back with average pace who’s done stints in the midfield too, more inside when in midfield. He’s competent inside, but is better off as a distributor coming out of the backline. Ending the year with pick 2 and winding up with only one of them to show for it would be a disappointment IMO. If that picks is pushed back to pick 3, we’d be better off trading it for Ben King or splitting it and taking advantage of the split picks to secure a Rory Laird type and a youngster.

Rubbish thread. We need KPFs, and he’s the only mature one we’ve got. Had a poor year by his standards, but is probably in a handful of who are off limits.

Would jump at Finlayson. He had a good year, kicked 37 goals from 19 matches. He’d help fill our tall forward list gap nicely. Would LOVE Caldwell, but they won’t let him go. IMO he’ll eventually become a gun mid, Dylan SHiel but a good kick. Has very similar attributes to Shiel, real good burst of pace, good ball winning ability, good running power, but has a much better kick on him. I’d give up a top 10 pick alone for him, let alone take him as steak knives! Hately is ok, but more of a flanker. Bonar is average IMO. Hasn’t come on yet and doesn’t address a direct need for us. Ther others I wouldn’t think suit us.

If we split the top pick, then trading 13 for Laird is not a bad move. All our small defenders are near the end (Jetta, Hibberd) and Laird would fill that hole and provide good dash and kicking from the back half for years to come. Not the most pressing need, but a need none the less.

He’s worth far more to us than we would get for him at the trade table. I agree that he is the least versatile and has the lowest ceiling out of all our core midfielders. Take emotion and family connection out of it, and he’d be my first pick to trade from our inside mids. Not going to happen though.

Doesn’t hit the scoreboard, average skills. He’s coming from a good environment at Richmond, but I wouldn’t give up a pick under 50 for him. He’s depth at best. He’s only a slight upgrade on what we have already and isn’t the answer to our problems.

Big yes from me. We’ve had a crack at him before, so clearly rate him. We never pick up free agents, only lose them. Instead we trade and harm our picks. Time to start loading up on free agents. Tomlinson is durable, has good running power, is tall and versatile. I’d offer him 600k and play him as a lead up tall forward.

If we wind up with pick 3 and take it to draft, it seems Young is the likely choice going by reports. He has elite kicking, so big tick there. Pace is average, and he’s more a defensive 50 player than a midfielder. Personally I’d prefer a pure midfielder, but I guess when you have high draft picks you draft best available not on need.

Off the top of my head: Tim Smith is 29 years old, is mostly injured, and depth st best when not injured. He’s delist/retire material. Corey Wagner shows a bit of pace and fight. I’d keep him as depth. Josh Wagner is pretty average all round. He’s depth at best, but we have the backline mostly covered now so I’d say delist. JKH is delist. Good at VFL level, struggles at AFL level. Doesn’t have pace or any elite attributes. 25 years old at start of next season. 7 years on the list. Clear delist. He is the exact type of player other clubs would’ve cut years ago, but we persist with. ANB retain as depth. AVB can’t get on the park. We’d be best to delist him, but for some stupid reason we gave him a 3 year contract so we’d have to pay it out. Lewis gone. Garlett gone. Jones one more year.

Probably big names players wanting out. Petraccas manager sat down with the club recently. Wouldn’t be surprised if he wants out. Brayshaw has looked unhappy all year. Wouldn’t be surprised if he requests a trade to WA to be with his two brothers at WA clubs and his family living over there. People being defensive need to realize we have had a horrible year, and coming off the back of so much promise has made it even worse. Defend the club all you want, but fact is the club is currently failing. Financially, this year will be a shocker. Onfield, well best not to talk about it and thank god for basket case expansion club saving us from yet another wooden spoon.

It’s a combination, but in my opinion it’s our inability to develop young talent moreso than poor drafting. We haven’t had high draft picks since 2015, so our ability to bring in elite young talent has been lessened. I think the club was right to trade in mature leaders in Lever and May to sure up our defense and have us ready to challenge, but I believe we overpaid. I still think we’re poor at developing players. I’d argue the ones who have thrived like Oliver would have thrived regardless of environment due to their skill set and natural drive. Others such as Weideman, Petracca etc are still yet to realize their potential. I think our inability to develop young talent goes back to the mid 2000s. We’ve had more high draft picks than nearly every club and are still barely able to develop any guns from all that elite young talent. I truly believe if players like Watts, Sylvia, Petracca were drafted to a stronger club like Hawthorn or Geelong from the start of their careers that they’d have become the superstars they promised to be. Like at Worpel as an example. Drafted later than expected by Hawthorn, now in his second year and he’s already become a better midfielder than any we’ve had for a decade bar Clarry. He’s been developed well after only showing glimpses to start his career. We can’t seem to get our young players to get past the showing glimpses phase into fully performing consistent players. I’m not sure what the answer is, but in my eyes we need to focus more resourcing and effort into development of our young talent. Go out and poach the development staff from the strong clubs?

Realistically he can cover decent ground and can hit the scoreboard too, so he’s not the worst option. Just wouldn’t give up much for him. Token 4th round would be fine for depth.

Throw sh*t at the wall until it sticks.

One of my highlights for 2018 was when he got buried by Jetta when we played them. Powell Pepper had been mouthing off all game, despite not doing anything. He got then ball, tried a don’t argue on Nev Jetta, and was absolutely buried into the turf with a crunching tackle that left him acting like a scolding dog with its tail between its legs. Top 5 2018 moments for me. Powell Pepper is a legit faux tough guy and average footballer.

Big no from me. He’s an average inside midfielder with a real arrogant streak that he can’t back up. Poor kick, average pace, average ball winner. He’s essentially a bulkier, slower, worse version of Harmes. He’s exactly what we don’t need. He’s suit a team like Essendon who are desperate for inside midfielders. For us, he’d be depth at best and would be worth a fourth rounder or avoid.

Get him a fourth rounder and I’m all for it.

Says more about how broken and lost the club is that we can bring in some of the most proven leaders in Roos and Lewis and still be in disarray. Anyway, congrats Jordan on a brilliant career. I hated you as a Hawk, but appreciate that you chose to come to us, and what you brought to our club. You’ve had a better career than any Demon since the 1950s and IMO could become a successful coach.

I was the one who initiated the Ben King thought train back in the trade+draft thread. I still think if we lose Anderson, aka pick 2 gets pushed back to pick 3 due to GC gaining a PP st start of first round, then we attempt to trade pick 3 directly for King. We’d get a decade out of him as a quality KPF. It’s fill one of our biggest holes.

Target Langdon. Much better value financially, cheaper trade option, and 3-4 years younger too. No to Hill, especially at 900k! That’s superstar money, and he’s no superstar, just a good outside player.

Yes. Max is the only one showing any passion for the club. He’s the only one who is giving 100% out there and the only one around the ball trying to organize and inspire his team mates. He’s developed his leadership skills immensely this year. Neither Viney or Jones are natural leaders. Lead by example at times, but neither organize the players and constantly fight for the jumper. Both of them have walked away from on ground conflict this year. A good example was when Max got put down by the opposition in round 1. Viney was right there and just walked off. Harmes was the only one who showed any ounce of fight or comradery. Jones has been the same. Neither should be official on field leaders at our club moving forward. If either are, then we’re not progressing.