Fat Tony

We would be much better off going for Tex Walker.

We did it before the season which was a stupid and completely unnecessary decision.

I am in favour of letting May go, but Adams is not the solution either.

Why did we re-sign him at the start of the year? Our list management strategy is a shambles.

Equalisation is a massive issue. Solution: Make the salary cap smaller for the top clubs from the previous year. i.e. Give $100k extra in the cap for every ladder spot. Make the draft order giving 2 picks to the non finalists before the finalists get any picks. Allow free agency after the first contract but give a loyalty discount in the salary cap for players who stay with their initial club.

Melksham is a clever player who can play different roles in the forward line. His 2025 average player rating (9.7) was above Larkey, Hogan, Ben King, Chol, Walker, Curnow, Morris, Mihocek, Georgiades and Fogerty.

Hodge is right. We need to move off the trio of Petracca, Oliver and Viney and find midfielders with better disposal. Viney and Oliver are esentially untradeable unless we pay a chunk of salary - so they should be the ones we retain. I think if we trade Petracca and not pay his wages we won't lose that much. Petracca has lost some of his breakaway speed and his tackling is a liability. I see him being a bad contract going forward.

Good luck King. I think it was a strange decision by Buckley. Tassie is no certainty to even come into the competition and they will be a cellar dweller for the first 3-4 years if they do come in. He should have been 100% in on the role. I think Tassie will be a disaster. The club needs to work out if we’re still a premiership chance with this list or not. This is the key decision, more so than the coach.

Field kicking is actually two skills. 1. decision making and 2. kicking accuracy. Players can be good at decision making which makes them look better kicks than they actually are. Goal kicking is actually the purist assessment of kicking skill we have. Lindsay needs to kick the goals to prove he is a good kick at AFL level.

Kossie would like this.

And Bowey

Of course kicking includes goal kicking and Gawn is not a good kick. He is fair around the ground and usually takes safe options under no pressure (after a mark or free) but he is not a player we want kicking inside 50 or for goal. He was one of the worst set shots in the competition. IMO our good kicks are Pickett, Fritsch, Melksham, Chandler and Langford. JVR is an excellent set shot. The rest are AFL average or poor.

Come on Gator. Don't wee on my leg and tell me it's raining. 6 goals from 25 shots this year.

Added to that Gawn is a poor kick and Langdon below average. This is not fixable with coaching and has been our problem for the last six years. It was less of an issue when Petracca and Oliver had elite breakaway speed, but they have both slowed down now and the skill level across the competition has improved so that sides are able to pierce through defensive zones and score more regularly from the back half. My take is that Oliver and Viney are not tradeable because the contracts are so bad, but Petracca is tradable.

I watched Yze play a half for Old Melbournians against Old Ivanhoe in the midfield and thought he looked like an AFL player and he looked great yesterday. I still think the club will know more because they will understand if he has the running ability.

The top 10 according to Wheelo ratings is Bont, Richards, Anderson, Xerri, Rowell, Heeney, Tom Green, Serong, Butters, Wanganeen-Milera. Maybe Wanganeen-Milera as a half back, but he moved into the midfield.

And the ratings systems all favour centre square midfielders. Ratings of 11-13 are nothing special. Petracca is behind Sam Durham and Oliver is behind Josh Ward. These players are on less than half as much.

Better off taking a lesser pick for Petracca than paying him to play for another club. Cap space is more valuable than picks.

Hopefully Hawthorn lose next week and believe they are one big bodied midfielder away and target Petracca. My view is we need to shake up the midfield with a bit more polish and we are stuck with Viney and Oliver. The new coach should get a say in this decision but not the final say. The impact on our salary cap to trade Viney or Oliver would be crippling. May is another player we could look to move on from and potentially the Dogs would see him as the missing link for them. He was looking like he was done in the last two weeks and I am not sure he is in our window even if he is able to regain form next year.

Petracca is such a butcher by foot these days. Needs to be traded if we can get off his money.

Petracca is 4kg overweight and below average kicker. If we could get off his money, I would let him go.

Howes was defenitely tighter than May but was still too loose. The other thing was the trial of Bowey in the forward line threw out the backline. I can see why they were experimenting but I am glad they reverted.

The initial decision to play May on Gunston was a shocker. Petracca is 4kg too heavy.

Culley looks good but he needs to stop providing soft drop crumbs in the backline. He did that twice on the weekend and it cost two goals. That said, he looks like an AFL player.

The club might need changes but I don’t like sacking coaches with a year to go.