Lord Travis

Agreed. He’s a first round talent who’s slid due to back injuries this year. He’s not really what we need, but if his body is ok he’d have to be considered. Very talented and determined young ball winner.

He's the better of the two Wagner boys. Perfect option for a rookie spot, won a VFL BnF for our affiliate club in Casey and therefore he knows the club, players, coaching staff and gameplan.

Matching picks due to Academy, Father/Son etc will mean our first pick is around 30. The player we'll be drafting is essentially pick 23 though, as the others bumping our pick back were not available to be taken anyway eg. Blakey will be picked up by Swans after a top 10 pick is bid for him, thus pushing our first pick back.

Good to see him impressing first session with his new teammates. He's a good runner clearly and I'm hoping he can make the wing position his own. By all reports he was also a stand out with the skills at training. He was an elite kick as a junior and before concussion issues at Gold Coast. If he can realise his potential, he will become a running kicking weapon for us. Great pickup for steak knives in the May deal!

There's definitely going to be some decent mids still available at our picks in the 20s, but I still feel we need another key forward on the list to develop, and Williams is the best of what may potentially be available. From the little I've seen of the mids, O'Halloran looks the goods across multiple matches. He's got good ball winning ability, pace, good burst from stoppages and can push forward too. Apparently a very good leader also, but may be gone by our picks. I've only seen Turners highlights package, but jeez it leaves a lot to be desired. Headless chook with poor disposal.

My understanding is they will enforce an imaginary zone of sorts, and have to start in the traditional wing position on the edge of the centre square. Nothing to stop them just charging back to fill space though, and I assume many teams without dominant ruckman and inside mids will use that strategy and quickly flood back and negate/congest. The AFL creating this new rules to combat congestion are ultimately causing more congestion. Coaches and clubs will always find a way to employ new defensive strategies within the rules. And fair enough too. Bruise free aerial ping pong is boring. Bring on contested footy!

I'd hope our coaches instruct our players to do this in that scenario. Giving away a professional free kick to clog up space is a viable tactic. It would also highlight to the AFL and rules committee how stupid the rule is that it can be deliberately taken advantage of to the detriment of the team being rewarded a free kick. We're lucky however that the 6-6-6 rule advantages us more than most other teams, as we have a dominant ruckmen and dominant ball winners. 2019 is going to be huge for us!

Will likely receive a bid anywhere from 30 onwards, which we would then match. We wouldn't match a bid higher than that and will use both our picks in the 20s to draft others. While Bedford has some good qualities, he doesn't have great output. Across 4 matches in the champs, he averaged 12 touches a game and didn't register a single score whilst playing as a small forward. The potential is there though, so I think he'd be a good addition to the list with a late pick. Definitely better than say Dion Johnstone. If he can build his tank to get to more contests he could have more impact, as he is competitive, loves to tackle and uses his agility to work through traffic well. Will need to start hitting the scoreboard though.

Pretty much bang on IMO. Our team looks well balanced. Williams would be a good long term tall option. Bedford could become a decent small forward who can push up the ground. A bit of more pace through the midfield and front half with the other picks such as O'Halloran, Sturt etc and we're sorted for options of all kinds all across the ground. I can't remember a better Melbourne list in my lifetime. The list we had in the early-mid 90s had stars such as Schwarz and Lyon, but weren't as well-rounded as this current list. Exciting times!

O'Halloran and Duursma would be good options. Haven't seen enough of Foley or Butters to make judgement, but from what I've read Butters will likely go in the teens before our pick. Turner looks average. There's a number of quality quick aggressive midfielders who are likely to be available at our picks, but they're all very short at 177cms or less. While I don't mind a short player if they can play (such as Viney or Spargo), we can't have too many of them in the team at once, so I hope we don't pick multiple short players. Williams should be taken at 23 if he's there. Fils our greatest need and has serious potential. Agreed on Williams. He fills our greatest need and has very unique and exciting attributes for a tall. With the quality and competitiveness of our list now, we can afford to risk drafting these types instead of going for more 'competitive' ball winning mids. Williams could develop into a very hard tall to match up on. Think Ben Brown with the leap of Joe Daniher. Whether he can reach the potential is the issue, as he hasn't been consistent and would be taken at the top end of the draft if he had. Bedford will come to us at a later pick, and looks a great option. He's quick, agile, hard working, does the team things with blocking and releasing teammates by hand etc. Could be a good small forward capable of pushing up the ground for patches. Reminds me a bit of Daniel Rioli, but slightly more mongrel and less magic. To say he's more impressive than Rankine though is a stretch. Rankine is a ridiculous talent who kicks bags of goals or sets them up. He's got elite pace, elite agility, elite skills, elite decision making, x-factor, you name it. Going by statistics, he should be the number 1 pick this year AND would've been number 1 pick last year as a 17 year old in that draft if eligible. He's the total package.

Still reckon Bugg offers more than a few others remaining on our list. I’d be happy if we brought him back, though I don’t think that’s going to happen. He’s got great work ethic and competitive attitude, on top of being flexible. He’s the perfect depth player IMO. Surely Carlton would pick him up. He’d be in their best 10-15 players.

Not sure what you mean? As steak knives to the May trade, this is as good as it gets. Former pick 5 who has already proved himself to be a good player at AFL level. Get him past the concussion/neck issues and we've got another Brayshaw on our hands (in terms of possible impact). KK's skillset and physical attributes make him a potential elite footballer. I hope he can realise his potential and pick up his early career form where he finished second only to Ablett in their BnF (ahead of Lynch, May and other very good footballers). We're crying out for a good wingman to compliment our tough inside midfielders, and he could be the perfect option there. Looks good in the red and blue!

Hopefully Knightmares draft comes to fruition and we land Bailey Williams with our first pick. He's got serious potential and fills the greatest need on our list.

Agreed. He might not be starring now, but Tyson played some quality football for us and has played over 100 games. In 2014 he finished second in the BnF to Jones in his first year with us at age 20-21. He was a bees [censored] away from winning it off Jones, and would have been a worthy winner after a stellar season. Knee injury 2015. Finished fourth in our BnF in 2016 against some quality players in a team playing well for patches and just missing the 8. 2017 he was limited by a knee injury. 2018 he struggled. The way he's been spoken about and criticised on here this year has been unwarranted IMO. I wish him well at North, as he's a good bloke who played some good footy for us and chose to come when we were basket case. Here's a bit of a discussion point; Tyson was better than Petracca at the same age! Regarding DFAs, doesn't seem like we'll pick anyone up. I'm a bit surprised we moved so many players, as our list appears like it will come short? Perhaps we will re-rookie some like Bugg?

Wouldn’t think we’d bother personally. He was poor as a forward and average at best as a defender. Better to move him on and get fresh talent coming through. Not everyone is Neville Jetta. He was the exception, not the standard.

If he’s there at 23 then surely we take him. Hasn’t put it together consistently yet, but he’s got all the attributes to be a damaging and dominant player. Does anyone have the jumping test results from draft combine? This guys got the best leap I’ve seen in years.

The players hold too much power. Only free agents should be able to nominate a club of choice. Contracted players should be forced to play their contract or be traded somewhere else of the clubs choosing. Free agency changed the landscape for the worse, and now the balance is just spiralling further out of control. You've now got clubs delisting contracted players and other clubs picking them up for free post-trade period. Lyons should only have moved in a trade scenario. Not only is the trade period too long as it is, now you've got players moving outside of it anyway. It's rubbish.

Financially it's the best fixture we've had in a long long time. We're on the up on-field, we've been on the up off-field for years now, and this will only drive us further up off-field. We're going to make a lot of money next year and start becoming a powerhouse again if we can be competitive for years to come and maintain this sort of draw and sustained success. In terms of exposure in prime time night games and free to air tv, it's the best fixture we've had in 15-20 years. This fixture is brilliant for supporters. We get to see a number of quality games in prime time, and more games on free to air than we've had in bloody forever. Neutrals are going to see more of us and our hard attacking brand and we're going to get more positive hype, media and exposure as a result. In terms of difficulty... it's rough. Really rough. We're a top 4 team now, and we'll be made to earn it. If we make top 4 again based on this fixture, we'll win the flag. We've got one of the hardest fixtures by a mile, but if we show up each week then we'll be fine. This will be a good test for the youngsters to see if they're maturing properly of if there's still a ways to go.

That's their main problem. If Hawkins doesn't mark it, it's coming straight back out with little to no pressure. If we want someone to kick 40+ goals a year and give inconsistent pressure, we already have them - Jeff Garlett. Garlett kicks 40+ a year every year if he is played. He's inconsistent and made a scape goat for lack of pressure at times, but he kicks 40+ guaranteed, which is more than most of our other forwards getting game. No need to bring in Menzel when we have Jeffy in the reserves who can already provide the same output if not better.

Agree to an extent. Petracca could be like De Goey and kick 40+ as a powerful mid sized forward. At present though his kicking for goal is so poor that he's a way off that output. He's clearly capable, but for whatever reason this year he completely shat the bed with his goal kicking. He was at 1.9 from set shots at one stage. If he tidies up his goal kicking, he immediately jumps from a 15-20 goal a season player to a 40 goal a season player and is talked about as elite rather than potential.

Not sure why some are laying into Hogan or saying he didn't perform. The reason there is so much talk about him leaving is because he is an elite talent. He is the best new key position forward to come through in over a decade, the best since Buddy. Fact. The numbers show that. He walked into a bottom team with little supply and poor quality supply and was able to win the Rising Star - rarely done by a key forward, let alone one competing with Patrick Cripps - kick 40+ goals and lead the league in contested marks as a first year player. He towelled up All Australian full back Alex Rance in one of his first games. He's ahead of all others in the league at the same age, and still has further improvement to go. He's already capable of being in the top handful of key forwards and goal kickers in the league, and will only improve further. He'd likely have wound up one of MFC's greatest goal kickers barring bad injury problems. Those talking him down are kidding themselves. We've lost an elite talent, but the club has made the most of him leaving to balance the list and keep pushing towards a premiership. While it's a shame to lose Hogan, it won't kill us like it would've 4-5 years ago. We're stronger now, and will keep rising to glory ?

Leave it the same for 2019. 2020 add Lever and May. Lewis will be gone end of 2019 and Jones can step aside from official leadership duties then also.

We've now got key defensive depth and a backup ruckman. Our tall forward stocks are lacking with Hogan and Pederson gone. It's TMac, Weid and Tim Smith. Others options like Frost have been tried forward with no success. What tall forwards are in this draft outside of those top placed ones like the King bros and Lukocious? Are there options for us in the 20s? This area is now the need for our list.

We've now got key defensive depth and a backup ruckman. Our tall forward stocks are lacking with Hogan and Pederson gone. It's TMac, Weid and Tim Smith. Others options like Frost have been tried forward with no success. What tall forwards are in this draft outside of those top placed ones like the King bros and Lukocious? Are there options for us in the 20s? This area is now the need for our list.

May and Lever... well that’s our backline taken care of for the next 5 years!