Lord Travis

Here's our record against key forwards in 2017 Round 1 v St Kilda: Nick Riewoldt (4 goals, 7 marks) Round 2 v Carlton: Levi Casboult (1 goal, 8 marks, could've kicked 3-4) Round 3 v Geelong: Tom Hawkins (5 goals, 5 marks) Round 4 v Fremantle: Cam McCarthy (2 goals, including the match winner) Round 5 v Richmond: Jack Riewoldt (6 goals, 3 marks) Round 6 v Essendon: Joe Daniher (1.6 goals, 9 marks, could've kicked 6-7 goals instead) Round 7 v Hawthorn: Jarryd Roughead (4 goals, 6 marks) Round 8 v Adelaide: Taylor Walker (2 goals, 3 marks, well held) Round 9 v North Melbourne: Ben Brown (5 goals, 6 marks) We are getting destroyed by key forwards. Oscar isn't ready. Mac is being thrown around the ground to cover injuries and holes elsewhere. Frost is a decent rebounder, good when the ball hits the deck, but not the best defender in aerial marking contests. We need a strong key defender. It's our number 1 deficiency. I'd be offering up our first round pick for May and throwing in steak knives if required. He's a proven quality key defender, one of the best in the AFL at present. If he'd been in our team this year we'd likely be somewhere between 4th-8th on the ladder at the moment as some of those key forwards wouldn't have got a hold of us. He's also a leader and has some mongrel in him. If he was around when the North players were sniping behind play he probably would've lined a few of them up! Should be our number 1 target in the off season. Make it happen Dees!

Drag him along every week! May he bring us a premiership?!

I'll probably do all 3 if we lose I'll be that disgusted and furious. Surely after all this improvement we can beat a bottom 4 side at our home ground!

Irrelevant. Writing off 9 attempts is ridiculous. It's embarrassing that we haven't beaten North for over 10 years. At least with a team like Hawthorn or Geelong you know they both had eras of greatness so it's not surprising if you haven't beaten them for a few years. North however have been a bog average middle of the road side. We will beat them this weekend. If we don't, I'll burn the MCG to the ground.

I think this would be a good move actually. Our half backs have been shaky this year with two way running and defending properly. Brayshaw is a great tackler. The thing he did best in his first year was bursting off half back and using his great side step agility to dodge opponents and tear up the middle of the ground. I can still remember that beautiful run and long pass over the Pies press to a running Garlett like it was yesterday. He had a big impact running forward and creating like that. Put him back there and see what happens. He's obviously behind the current on-ball brigade in Oliver, Viney and Jones so why not freshen him up off the half back line and play to his strengths again.

Interestingly Roos said on Triple M this weekend that if he had to pick he would've taken Brayshaw at 1, Petracca at 2, and Mccartin at 3. Said Brayshaw has struggled with injury concerns and consistency but backed him to become a great player and the best pure on baller, while Petracca is more a forward/mid and impacts in bursts. Said once Brayshaw gets to spend more time on ball instead of being played in forward flanks and pockets that he will thrive.

Cripps is not far behind. Bont gets the nod as he stood up and lead when the heat was on in finals and was a key part of a premiership. I hope Oliver becomes our big match winner and helps us win a premiership. Or Petracca. Or Brayshaw. Or Viney. Or Hogan. Or Hunt. Or Salem. The talent is there, just need it to develop and click at the right time!

On output Bontempelli is the best of the 3. He's probably got the highest ceiling too due to his size and versatility. Cripps is already the number 1 clearance player in the league, and ranked 2nd in the AFL for contested possessions. He is unarguably better than Kelly on output thus far. On potential Kelly has the skills to surpass him, but he's still not a proven game changer. Cripps is. Hoping Oliver can become as dominant as Cripps is around the stoppages.

Hibberd is a great pick up for the club and immediately becomes our best halfback flanker. He's good defensively, has a bit of fight in him, and is a good rebounding halfback who can accumulate 20+ possessions easy. He'll be good for guys like Hunt and Salem to learn more off, but also so they can push further up and play on the wings. 29 is a bargain for him. He's borderline All Australian and Cats just gave up a first rounder for Tuohy, who is on par if not worse than Hibberd!

Surprised by the negativity here. If we pick up Hibberd as well, we are getting two experienced quality players in a good age bracket where we are lacking. Both are comfortably in our best 22. Melksham has decent pace, aggression and a decent kick too. Some of his kicks inside 50 or long running goals will be valuable to us. Hibberd brings a quality lock down defender who provides great rebound. He'd immediately become our best half back flanker, though Salem and Hunt both have the potential to surpass him. We should be excited we have 1, perhaps 2, quality experienced players coming in who can fill multiple roles and add a bit more aggression, pace and kicking skill to the side. Melksham can play half forward, midfield and half back, so he adds lends flexibility. Our currently gameplay with the half backs rushing forward to provide drive suits him perfectly. I wouldn't be surprised if Goodwin created the tactic knowing he'd have players like Melksham at his disposal. He won't be just depth, he will be a lock in the 22 for the foreseeable future. It's another good get by Jason Taylor. Let's hope Hibberd joins us too!

He'll be a good addition next year. I think he's being underrated on here. He's slot straight into the midfield or half back and finish top 10 in our bnf, maybe top 5 depending on the role he plays. He's got all the right skills, decent pace and toughness, and in a fresh environment with the weight lifted he will flourish.

Hopefully he only gets a week, but the fact here were 3 punches doesn't make it look good. He might get 2-3 weeks if we're unlucky. We're no hope against the Hawks, especially without him there and firing. Hopefully he is back for the the game vs the Pies.

Here's this weeks edition of 'weak ducking cheat'. These players need to be shamed as they go against the spirit of the game. I'm glad we don't have any players that resort to this kind of rubbish. Hopefully someone knocks his head off or at very least rips a chunk of that wig off. https://www.facebook.com/Timmuns/videos/10154179287164110/

Love that Petracca was laying hard tackles today also. He needs to build the defensive side of his game to become a well-rounded player and he's already showing signs he has worked on it the last few weeks. Love how he gets around tacklers too. If he starts nailing those shots at goal he is going to be very dangerous!

He's up there behind Toby McLean and Lachie Hunter as a knee dropping cheat. What a weak peice of sh*t he is. Hope he gets his head ripped off. SOFT.

When's blokes half his size like Ben Kennedy can kick goals from further out more consistently... You got a problem. The coaches need to address it. His set [censored] accuracy this year is less than 50% when you take into account the shots that didn't even score. That's not good enough and well below average.

In the last 2 weeks from sets shots he's kicked 2.5 and 4 that failed to score. 2 shots out of 11 is a horrible ratio. He needs to fix his kicking or he becomes nothing more than an average player sucking up to much salary cap.

He's my favorite player and is already our best inside player. Not surprised our clearances drop off when he's not in there contested and releasing his teammates. This kid is special and we f*cking nailed this draft pick!

He just went home to visit family, all players get time to do this if they have family elsewhere. He wouldn't have been talking to anyone football related at all. I hadn't read anything about his father being sick until the last few days. Where did this news come from? if that's true, then he's gone and is Scott Thompson Mach 2. Here's hoping it's not true and he's still enjoying life in Melbourne.

Excited to see Oliver this weekend. I think his performance will be similar to the intra-club match. Have an impact and win a lot of contested ball in first half but tire in the second half.

The only thing I've read about him is someone posted on here he smashed ANB in a one on one ball gathering exercise 9 times out of 10. Has he been training exclusively with the midfielders? Is his fitness going to allow him to play midfield straight away like Bradshaw did? Or is he going to play in the forward line for a while before getting his fitness up like Petracca seems destined to?

Any news on how Oliver is tracking? Is he fitting in with the boys? Is he up the back in the runs or is he working his way up the group? Is he competing well in stoppage training? Does it look like he will be debuting in red and blue early in the year? He's an exciting prospect who might give us some x-factor sooner rather than later if he's developing well!

Don't know much about this guy as he seems to have come out of nowhere the last week or two. Very exciting to get another big bodied midfielder into the club though. We've assembled a big aggressive group of young midfielders now, if they all develop properly we will be a force in years to come. I like Olivers aggression in the highlights. Like Bradshaw, he really buries opponents when he tackles them. His kicking skills don't look great, mostly just bang it on the boot Brent Moloney style, but he seems very effective so hopefully his game translates well to elite level.

Let's hope he can get fit and get out on the park consistently. If he can he has all the tools to for a good pairing with Hogan up forward. He looks like have a really good overhead marks, good set shot and throws himself at the ball in the air.

Can't wait to see this kid in red and blue. He gets to the right spots, delivers it well to leading forwards, reads taps really well and has clean hands in congestion. He's such a well rounded midfielder, one of the best outside/inside mids in the draft and a really driven competitor. I love that he's known as one of the best slegders too, shows he has real confidence and attitude. He'll be taken at pick 3. His supposed smaller size is a non issue. In 1-2 years time he'll be 80+kgs and be the same size as Selwood, Ablett, Sam Mitchell, Boak, Robbie Gray, Nathan Jones etc. Hasn't stopped them being superstars! The only question left is who we will take at pick 7. Suspect Curnow is on the outer after his drink/driving incident. Also unsure what he will become at AFL level. His stint in the midfield showed he'll never make it there, he's not clean or smart enough. He is too small for a KPF, so he winds up a chunky third tall? Unsure how Weiderman tested the other day but he may be in calculation if the club believes they can manage his body right. Oliver has too little exposed good form so hope we don't take him. Francis is possibly the most talented but again what will he become? Third tall defender? He has shown a few good spurts through the midfield. Milera looks the goods, but will he be able to adapt to having less time and more pressure on him? Will there be a go home factor? McKay has huge potential, hasn't played the game as long and could become a superstar. If he was 6 days younger he'd be in next years draft and be talked about as Pick 1. Like Oliver though there isn't much good exposed form to judge from? It will be interesting to see who we wind up with alongside Parish!