jnrmac

Sah-lem??

Would we have picked up Paddy if the Aints had taken Petracca? Sliding doors perhaps.

Some snippets: One of the first things we got right at Melbourne was cohesion from the top down. The coach has to be given all the responsibility and authority. You can’t have a high-performance manager coming in on top of the coach. teams that win sports championships throughout the world are the best defensively. Offence is talent, and defence is mentality. Build a defence that no other team finds easy to break. It was our mantra at the ­Demons — be the team everyone hates playing. (we are the opposite!) If you’re a behavioural-based team, your performance rarely drops. I think of Hawthorn and the Melbourne Storm. If you’re a talent-based, experimental team, you’ll have your good days when you beat one of the better teams. But it won’t last, and it will crack under pressure (very astute observation)

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rugby-union/lessons-for-the-wallabies-from-our-rebuild-at-the-demons/news-story/211fb983d86ee5c1960404e34cd8a46d It's paywalled but will try to update with comments later

One of those players that can mark the ball at his highest point as it were. Makes it very difficult to defend against. Took a very positive step fwd this year. A lot to look fwd to.

Definitely something there with Oscar B. Has vision and the abilty to use pace and side step to give himself extra time. They're good qualities to have. Also seemed to deliver the ball quite well. Seemed quite comfortable on the field and would expect to get beter with more game time.

Another year like this and its a delist. If he could have more composure he could be a very good player. But his handballs to peoples feet, fumbles at critical times and poor delivery make him a liability.

In theory yes but there is a price and he isn't really a 'proven' performer. He is a reasonable player with a lot of potential. At the risk of setting off a firestorm I rate him like Jack Watts. Could be anything but will probably end up middle of the road.

He is a poor man's Zac Dawson sadly.

As a fwd he's hard to stop on a lead and he can lay a tackle. The fwd pressure was sadly lacking this year from most but he equipped himself quite well.

I distinctly recall this scenario when the talk was that we would pick Luke Ball when he was available on draft night and we called Luke.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Tapscott

Why dont we get his ex-captain to have a word about the dees...

It's the off season.

It's been obvious to many on here for a long time that our two way running is below AFL standard. Our midfield is lazy, unfit or a combination of both. It's why teams play the chip and hold and switch game against us. You see how poor we are defending opposition transition very clearly when sitting up high at the MCG. Added to that we have been a very poor one on one defending team - hence the recruitment of May and Lever (not so much for one on one but intercepting transitional play). Some pointed to the pre-season injuries and lack of training as a reason we were particularly poor this year in this area. It's one of the reasons for sure but we haven't had the personal. The club has taken way too long to solve this issue - maybe they thought JKH and Stretch might fill these roles - but the recruitment of two gut runners in Langdon and Tomlinson bodes well. Let's hope the game plan under the new team of coaches is able to be carried out by the players at their disposal. Would still like to take 3 and 8 to the draft to get some silky delivery skills.

We let frost go AND 3 draft picks for 2 picks back. I'd say we rolled over and he had zero trade value.

Problem is he can nominate his salary and that may be too high for them. And if he doesn't play its wasted money.

This is hopefully the year where we can get 2 x elite talents into a pretty reasonable list We may not get a chance like this for a considerable time. Need to make the most of it. Everything the recruiting team has done, rightly or wrongly, has been done for a reason. so far they don't seem to have put a foot wrong - altho aside from maybe Oliver & Gawn we still lack a damaging game breaker like Martin, Danger or Cripps. It has to be an extraordinary deal to give away 3 and/or 8.

"It's too early to tell" - Zhou Enlai

You think Bell -end would do that trade? Unlikely

If Melbourne wanted martin we could afford martin. There are all sorts of ways to engineer a salary package. Reading between the lines I'd say that the pay he was looking for(going by media reports) is well over what we think he is worth and so they wont make the effort to try and fit him in. As for Carlton - if they wanted to tie up $1.5m for Papley and Martin they have rocks in their head.

I think picks can get traded up to and including draft night so I wouldn't expect a deal today....

Maybe they could get Garlett back....

Gold. I'll have whatever it is you're taking....

But the "brilliant" assistant coaches have all been punted or been forced to change their role....

Says a lot that a guy with zero trade value finishes in our top 10 B&F