Fat Tony

Now that Petracca has stated he want out, we should be making clear to him that we won't be paying him if he leaves and he will need to take a pay cut.

It is $1.3 -> $1.8m as the salary cap increases. It is a bad contract now. We signed it to win when we were in contention but we are paying the piper now.

I am still not convinced Essendon will trade Merrett. I was talking to one of Hawthorn's assistant coaches on the weekend and he was saying how poor a kick Petracca is.

Strategically, we should be taking a step back and resetting our salary cap. Max might have one more year as an elite player but I doubt we can win the flag next year. Petracca is a good player but he is a below average kick and has become a poor tackler. That said, we should only let him go if the deal works for us. Bring in some no names on short deals and turn the list over in the next few years. I know this sucks, but we need to think like St Kilda in 2012, Hawthorn in 2020 and Richmond now. Look at Geelong's grand final team and there were a lot of players who were picked up with low picks. It wasn't all rorting and lucky free agents.

I would much rather see us trade for less in picks and keep our cap clear. We can find good players lower in the draft.

I thought Harvey played a very good game against us and looked skilled and has AFL qualities. I wonder if he is not coachable.

He is not playing midfield for Freo.

Looking at the prelims and grand final, it is clear that the key is fast small forwards who are good overhead. This means they can halve contests. You need key forwards who are good on the ground and small forwards who are good in the air and everyone needs to be able to apply pressure.

Why odd? Culley looks to be a midfielder and would compete with Flanders for minutes. Do we expect Langford to go into the centre/midfield next season? Oliver and Vineyneed to play in the middle. Pickett should play in the middle as much as he can. I like Windsor in the middle as well. We have enough average midfielders and don't need another one on big money.

I see a B Grade midfielder who has no ability to play forward. We already have enough of those (Oliver, Viney, Culley). We need players who can impact on the periphery. The game has changed and we need to go for high half forwards who can transition run.

We must inject some more skill and pace into the midfield. Oliver has a big negative contract and cannot be traded unless we pay half his salary. Viney also has a negative contract. Neither of these players can play anywhere but midfield. (No Viney can't play as a defensive forward because he doesn't run well enough.) That's around 50% of our inside midfield minutes gone. Petracca being traded is the only logical move.

GWS have a surplus of small players. I would start there. That said, I think we have two options this trade period. Go for the flag in 2026 while Max is still a star. To do this, we keep Petracca and May and hope we can get Oliver and Petracca back to their best. (The problem with this strategy is we are unattractive to star players.) Or B, trade Petracca, reset the salary cap and hold future picks. I would go for B, because I see us as only 2-3% chance of winning the flag next year if we go for it. We don't know if we are Arthur or Martha at the moment.

The solution would be to distribute midfield minutes across Oliver, Viney, Pickett, Langford, Sparrow, Windsor, Tholstrup, Langdon, Lindsay and Culley (assuming Petracca goes). Flanders is a B grade mid and a C-Grade half forward. And he will demand good money. I don't think Flanders improves our midfield that much and he isn't good at any other role. We would do better to get another high quality small forward.

He was ranked 233rd in the league for AFL player rating and is in his prime. Matthew Kennedy was given away for peanuts and was 43rd in the league this season. Jack Macrae was 49th. B grade mids are the last thing we should be chasing for first round picks.

Not sure what the big deal is with Flanders. Surely we can find another B-grade mid without paying up. Even if Petracca goes, we would be better off using the cap space elsewhere.

He looks strong and co-ordinated and a dead eye kick for goal. I just wonder if he is fast enough and/or tall enough to make it as a key forward at AFL level. He might be a better defender at AFL level.

We would be much better off going for Tex Walker.

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.