Lord Travis

True. He is more reliable having shots for goal than passing to teammates inside 50 after one of his trademark dashes. Jones would be top 5 in Sydney's bnf this year and would be a good pick up, but only if we got him cheap. We have greater needs with quality talls at both ends.

Did you just describe Zac Jones or Jayden Hunt?

Agreed. ... so that gives us a month or so to dream!

He's a club captain and one of the best key defenders in the league behind Rance and Talia. We pay a first round pick and get him across. We have enough young talent to build around. We need leadership, mature bodies, mongrel. Our biggest hole at the moment is a quality key defender. We are getting destroyed by oppositions tall forwards every week. You have to pay to get quality. First rounder for May is fair. Take it and laugh all the way to the bank. He'd help us become top 8 straight away and give younger talls time to develop at Casey as they should be.

I'd recruit this bloke just so he can line opposition players up with his trademark big bumps. I'm sick of seeing us pushed around by mediocre teams like we did on the weekend.

These are excuses to try and rationalise our failure. Until we as a club stop falling back on excuses we will never achieve success. We have lost 4/5 at the MCG, yet we have won 3 out of 4 elsewhere, with the same players missing and no proper ruckman. We are failing at the MCG. Fact. Why are we failing and how do we fix it? The answer cannot be "get player x back and get player y back". The team is bigger than 1 or 2 players. Yes they are important, but the team has to be able to function without them or we fail. Personally I think our zone pushes up to high when we play at the G and we then struggle to close up the space we've created when the opposition is on the rebound (often after we fail to put on enough pressure in our forward line to lock the ball down our end).

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!

In 2017 we've now lost 4/5 at the MCG. All of them were easily winnable, and the one win we had against Carlton was not convincing. We've won nearly every match away from the MCG, so what has happened to us at our home ground? These games at the G should be as simple as us rocking up with the right amount of effort and we bank an easy 4 points each time. Teams should always make the most of their home ground advantage. What is causing us to fail there? Is it all mental? Do the players feel expectation when playing there and then wilt under the pressure? Is it our gameplan? Does the bigger space spread out high zone too thin so we get cut up by teams on the rebound? If we can't win at the MCG, we can't win finals, and most importantly we can't win the Grand Final. We need to get back on top at our own home ground. Thoughts everyone?

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.

He kicked it more this week and he's usually damaging with his kicking. He obviously kicked a miracle goal, but he directly setup another goal by pulling the trigger and kicking long instead of hand balling it off like he usually does. Goodwin has started resting him forward too which is a good move as his hands are strong and he's setup a few goals now while resting down there (set one up for Petracca last week and two I can remember last night). This kid is already a great player, but he could be a star of the comp in the very near future. So excited to have such a talent playing for the Dees!

It's a tricky one, as Oliver and Heaney have less exposed form to go off. 1. Bont - Hard to argue he's not the best young player in the league. He's the most proven, stood up in finals and is still very young. Match winner with versatility and x factor. Hard to believe he's only 21 with 67 games to his name and is already one of the best in the league! 2. Oliver - Best inside mid going around and still has a lot of development still left in him. Could become the best of the lot if he can learn to rest forward and hit the scoreboard. He has good kicking skills and decent pace, so if he can make use of those more the sky is the limit for him. 3 - Heeney - He's already kicked bags of goals as a forward, and shown he can be damaging as a midfielder. We bid pick 2 to take him, so rated him highly. Could become the best of the lot. 4 Cripps - Gun inside mid but fairly one dimensional. Doesn't have the pace or kicking skills of Oliver so don't believe his ceiling is as high. He's got more exposed form than Oliver and Heaney, but think he won't improve much further and they pass him.

The betting apps offer a 'cash out' option most of the time these days. So if you place a bet at say $10 odds, then the odds come in for whatever reason, e.g. 4 of your 5 teams win in your multi, or in our case Oliver continuing his good form so his odds drop, you have the option to cash out at the rate offered instead of waiting for the bet to end. Oliver has already come from $67 to $51 since that article was published. If he keeps this form going and comes in to say $15 I will be able to cash out and make a profit without waiting for the Brownlow to happen. I did the same thing with Gawn last year and made a few bucks. Oliver's in tremendous form, but I don't think he'll win the Brownlow. Maybe in a few years when umpires recognise him more and stop pinging him for throws. Tremendous young talent and so happy to see him stepping up at such a young age. Hopefully his teammates in Petracca, Brayshaw, Hunt, Hogan etc can all find similar consistency and impact as they are also very talented footballers.

I threw $20 on him at that price too. He won't win, but I'll be cashing out once his odds tumble now that he's getting some media recognition. This kid is an absolute star. A teenager with 19 games under his belt and he's already one of the best inside mids in the league!

True. He was running at 34% disposal efficiently late in the last quarter. Absolute nothing game he played and did not deserve any votes at all unless there was a turn over merchant award.

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.

Watts got pulled into a scrap and then the umpire didn't let him into the centre square as he was getting ready for the bounce. Same thing would've happened to Gawn if he was there and no-one would've made a big deal of it. Because it was Watts of course it's being blown out of proportion. Ridiculous. Anyhow, how about that Clayton Oliver kid? Having a ripping year and looks set to become our first elite player in a long long time. If he can maintain his current form while copping the attention that will come his way then he'll be top 20 player in the comp within a year. Love him!

Oliver is my favorite player and could be a star of the competition if he can build enough of a tank. He's so damaging around the stoppages with his quick decision making and sure hands, but it's good we are starting to see him create space for himself and use his brilliant kicking skills. Gun. Parish is very good also, and was the better of the two players last year. Oliver will be better long term if he gets fit enough but that's no slight on Parish. He looks a gun also and only a fool suggests otherwise. He did a few Cousins-like things last year grabbing balls out of packs and using agility and gut run to break away from opponents.

Misread the title as Clearance Oliver. Fitting really! Can't wait to watch him progress this season. He's my favourite player and has potential to be one of the best players in the league.

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!