Fat Tony

This is similar to my post. The key is to give the players freedom to move but they have to pay a cost for disloyalty.

Unfortunately the Free Agency genie is out of the bottle. Now the MFC should be pushing the AFL for rule changes to the salary cap such that any new players drafted by a club, and that then remain loyal to that club, carry only a 50% weighting in the cap for their career. This would create an incentive for players to remain loyal to their clubs and would foster a culture of drafting and developing.

We need another target. Watts has shown to be better in the midfield because he doesn't demand the ball and Pederson is not the answer. Dunn needs to go forward until the cavalry return and Gawn should come in if he is fit.

Our best option, if we were to consider a relocation, would be to merge with GWS or GCS. Tassie would be disaster.

Tasmanians already follow there own teams and players won't want to live there. It is not a viable option IMO.

Especially if we are on the losing end. (Although with the AFL 'Anythings Possible'.)

It is mostly that we aren't getting it into our forward line fast enough.

We would be better off letting him go for $800K and then chase Lachie Plowman with a $400K offer through the PSD.

In: Viney, Blease and Garland as the sub Out: Byrnes, Fitz and Matt Jones And Pederson for Gawn (if fit)

He won't make it then.

And another point. Toumpas is too slow for an outside mid and not strong enough in the air to play as a permanent half forward. He needs to be developed as a small defender and should play on Devon Smith this week. This may cost us a few goals as he learns, but it will give us some badly needed skill out of defence.

The OP pretty much nailed it. I think Tom McDonald lacks the skill to be AFL standard. And IMO Howe is definitely AFL standard (although he has started the year poorly.)

Tyson looks to be a good AFL player. Cross showed why he was so loved by Bulldog fans. Dunn is a very good player. The Spencer experiment should have been terminated when he dropped the ball against North in 2009. We desperately need to recruit an athletic ruckman and I would be chasing Blicavs from Geelong and even consider taking Stefan Martin back. Watts was poor. Soft in the contest, dropped easy marks and missed targets. He was the most disappointing thing out of yesterday. Tom McDonald lacks the skill to be an AFL player and should be traded (even if Frawley walks). Fitz and Howe were disappointing, but the slow pace of our forward movement is the real problem in our game, not the quality of our KPFs. We need to be more willing to kick to a contest early in our attacking phase and use the corridor more. Roos has failed to get us playing with enough flair at the moment. He needs to be aiming to kick 13 goals (even if the opposition kick 25). Watching Nic Nat, Shuey and Darling dominate is sickening. Garland should be the sub next week.

The plan is ok when the other team's defence is set. It is still a work in progress going inside 50 however. But we need to be more bold and attacking when we first retain the ball and more willing to kick forward to a contest from a stoppage rather than always handballing backwards.

Obviously we cannot recruit mid-season and I gave a list of players earlier I would have targeted last year. This season we should use the 2014 cap space on an option over Frawley’s future contract if we can convince him to sign and likewise Dunn and other lesser players we sign. Going back in time, Neeld should have obviously have not driven out Beamer. I just think it is wrong to say we have no choice. We choose to spend resources on off field support, where the benefits to performance are overstated IMO. I am of the view that good players make good coaches, not the other way around.

On Frawley, I acknowledge it may not have been possible in this instance. Although I would find it surprising if Frawley was well outside our top 8 earners this season. And we have made a slight mistake in not understanding the rules fully if Vince, Tyson and Watts (all of which signed multiple year contracts and only Watts eventually becoming a FA) bumped Frawley outside the top 8 this year. Going forward, we know the rules around FA and should structure our cap to front load players like Vince, Dawes and Tyson, who cannot become FA, and back load the last year on Watts, Trengove etc. Overall, our cap should be mostly front loaded and fully paid.

Come off it Junior. You asked six questions. There hasn't been a plethora of players lining up, but front loading contracts gives us greater cap room to land a big recruit in future years. And by not paying the full cap we are a no go zone for quality recruits because they want to play in a successful side. Our total football spend is well above the cap at the moment. All I am suggesting is we make sure most of that is running onto the ground on match day. Not in the box.

Howe has been playing in a side with a third world midfield. The reason we have only seen flashes is because the ball has been at the other end most of the time. He would win the Coleman at Hawthorn.

1) Howe had a bloody good direct opponent. 2) Our ball movement was too slow and meant our forwards were outnumbered. 3) Our forward entries were woeful. As much as our forward line was dysfunctional and Pederson and Howe were ordinary, the problem was more to do with our lack of risk taking up field.

5 of the last 12 flags have been won by clubs paying around 110% of the cap. We have been paying 92.5%-95% for the last seven years and have won between 2 and 8.5 games with a soft draw every year. The impact of the cap is obvious. And front loading of contracts is not the reason for our predicament. It is bad recruiting and Mark Neeld. On Frawley, the FA rules couldn't have been foreseen, but once they were introduced we should have shaped the other players contracts to ensure he was a RFA.

We should be paying the full cap and sacrificing in other areas. It is only about $500K, but it makes a big difference because of the cumulative effect. Personally I would have tried to get Dustin Martin, Andrejs Everitt, Shane Mumford, Jed Lamb or Mark Blicavs in the PSD with above market offers. If we couldn't land a player, we should be front loading the contracts of players like Vince, Dawes, Clark, Pederson, Jamar and Tyson. (i.e. any player on big money unable to become a free agent.)

The physedders are witchdoctors. We would be much better off spending the money on paying the full salary cap.

My thoughts: That was a very disappointing performance. St Kilda were as bad as GWS last year. Our poor goal kicking really cost us. It is a disaster to have so much of the salary cap on the sidelines in Round 1, particularly for a bottom club paying only 95%. Watts was excellent and will only get better as a mid as he gets fitter and stronger. Roos has done well over the preseason on teaching him to use his speed more effectively and we need to keep feeding him the ball. Next Watts needs to develop his ability to mark at the highest point, rather than being too cute. His tackling will always be a weakness IMO and it still needs to be a focus. Whilst picking up a lot of the ball, Tyson was slow and made some bad errors. He is also very one sided for a slow player. I thought Michie showed a bit to suggest he could be a good player. Toumpas is developing but will never be the star we hoped. JKH will need to become much stronger to make it given his lack of pace. As much as it hurts to say, Byrnes is ahead of him at the moment. Georgiou looks a good honest footballer and is already in our best 22 IMO. His recruitment and Dunn’s great transformation to become a star will put pressure on T McDonald to remain in our best side when Garland returns. Spencer never has been or will be the answer in the ruck. I didn’t think Roos had his greatest night in the box. The slow reaction to move McDonald off Riewoldt was very costly, particularly when Frawley was the alternative. Also I thought we were overly defensive in pushing midfield numbers back AND allowing the spare man. This meant we had too many players behind the ball and our forward transition was too slow. The Saints were then able to pick us off on the counter attack enough times to kick a winning score. As ordinary as Pederson and Howe were, I thought our forward entries were woeful and it wouldn’t have mattered who was down there. We needed to hit up the short lead more often to draw the defenders out or run the ball to the 50. IMO we need to become a bit bolder in our ball movement from the backline at times and use handball as an attacking weapon. We tried this once (which was the correct tactic) but Frawley made an error and they got us on the counter. While our kicking possession game makes sense when the opposition’s defence is well organised, we should look to attack more like Geelong once the ball is turned over and/or when we enter our half of the ground. As much as it would hurt against us, we should play Blease in defence.

I think Nic Nat is a star but I am not sure you want to pay anyone 10% of your salary cap. I would go hard after Blicavs from Geelong instead.

We drafted weaklings. Picking out players such as Watts, Strauss and Trengove and pointing to a lack of development on our part is all hypothetical. The question is 'would they be bigger and stronger if they were drafted by another club?' If you think yes, then ask why didn't Morton bulk up at West Coast? And then ask, what would Jack Darling look like if we picked him? Moreover, Misson has been with the MFC for three preseasons. He is using the same techniques to bulk up Watts as he was using for Barry Hall. I completely disagree on Frawley BTW. And they are correct. The talent on our list was suppressed by the worst coach the game has seen.