RalphiusMaximus

I think Hunt might be playing himself into a new contract the way he's playing right now. Five goals the last two rounds playing as a small forward/mid with one of those games played in shocking conditions. I'm not sure if Cross will be offered another contract or if they'll try to turn him into a development coach. Pedersen I think we keep. He's better value than Dawes and given our lack of depth in tall forwards we probably need them both. With the rookies, vandenBerg has signed a new deal which pretty much makes it a certainty that he'll be upgraded. White has another year to go, so he'll be kept on. Someone said King was a NSW rookie and as such can get a third year? Not sure on that but if so he's a keeper. That leaves Harems as the big question. He's out of time as a rookie. Needs to get a string of AFL games together to show what he's able to do once he adjusts to the pace. I agree with the trades of Howe and Fitz. Not sure on the Toump. I think Riley is probably gone.

Why would Moloney know anything about the Melbourne salary cap? That being said I seem to recall Roos saying something about spending more of the cap this season to free up funds later. I question this as it is exactly the tactic that allowed Frawley to walk, but I guess the plan is to make Melbourne more attractive so players won't want to walk anymore, so that's ok.

Like the Hawks? Burgoyne, Lake, Gibson, Frawley, Hale, McEvoy, O'Rourke, Spangher.

So it was!

On the original list winning at Skilled wasn't mentioned, but I think this really should count as knocking off two hoodoos. That was just awesome.

There need to be some really hard calls made at the end of this season. The rookie situation is going to force it. Consider our four rookies. We want to upgrade vandenBerg. He's walked straight into our starting side and will only improve with more pre-seasons and better fitness. THe issue is that he can stay on the rookie list for another year if necessary, but we want to play him. White has only had one year and is progressing really well. He'll stay on for the second year of his contract. The only reason he wasn't taken in the ND was because everyone thought his body was too fragile but so far he's held up perfectly well so I think he'll be promoted at the end of 2016 unless something drastic happens. Harmes has run out of time. He's consistently in the best at Casey, but has never been given a senior game. We have no real idea of what he'll be like at AFL level. The good news here is that he can be upgraded at any time and given a game, and if we continue to suffer injuries to the ball-winning brigade we might just see that happen. Either way, at the end of the season he is either cut or upgraded. The same is true of King. This is his second year as a rookie, so it's either upgrade him or cut him. He's always been seen as a long-term project and he's showing clear signs of improvement, so I think he could be worth keeping. What we have then is three rookies who could be in line for an upgrade. That's three players on the main list who have to go to make way for them, plus any draft picks we want to use. I would think we'd want at least our first and second picks to be live, possibly more. The question then is whether we keep Harmes and King at the expense of two main list players or cut them? As I said above, hard calls. Who do we have who might make way for them? Hunt - Blistering pace, pretty decent kick. I've never heard his defensive efforts mentioned at all. Very injury prone. Terlich - Hard at it, wins his own ball, good rebound runner, but his kicking is shocking and he often forgets about his man and gets caught out. Roos doesn't rate him. Both of these are extra HBF types. Looking at the list as it stands, you'd have Salem, Grimes, Garland, Jetta, Lamumba and probably White ahead of them in the queue. I think Terlich is a certainty to go, and Hunt likely. McKenzie - The guy the coaches have always loved because he gives everything, but he's hit his limit and his inability to impact offensively is probably going to be the end of him. Cross - He's been great as a playing coach, but the dogs got rid of him because he couldn't keep up defensively and he's only getting slower. Might get another year or be moved into development coaching. Bail - Another one the coaches love for his endless run, but his skills and decision-making often hurt us. M. Jones - Similar to Bail. Has pace and endurance, very much an outside mid but his skills don't really make the grade. Then there's Newton, Michie and Riley who are pretty similar for our purposes, very much fringe players who are in and out of the side constantly. There is a good reason none of them could get a regular slot in their previous teams. They are all reasonable top-up players, but none of them would worry you to lose either. That gives us nine players from the list who could be let go if a better prospect were available at very little cost to our effectiveness. I don't see a realistic chance of a trade for any of them. I also don't know their contract status, so some of them may well be safe for now. The big question to ask though is whether vandenBerg, Harmes and King are ahead of any of these names? Safe to say that vandenBerg is ahead of all of them, so that's one gone. I'd assume Terlich given his 0 games this season. Harmes has to be ranked ahead of Hunt right now. I don't know whether they would give Hunt a chance because of his constant injury issues, but again this is the time for hard choices, so he probably gets let go. King is a big question. He's a totally different type of player, so it's really difficult to compare him to any of these others. Personally I'd like to see him kept on, but again that means that we move on one of the above. Then we need to make room for draft picks. Assume we want to keep our first three picks live, that's three more gone. We're now down to only three of that list remaining. In all this of course, we haven't even looked at trades because none of the players above would attract one. In terms of players who could move to other clubs, we have some quite decent prospects. I would not be at all surprised if Fitzpatrick went to the Bulldogs in exchange for a quick outside mid/HF, of which they have many. Garland is a FA and may decide to leave us. Howe and Watts will attract offers. Grimes we may shop around. Looking at the mess above, I think we may be surprised by how many players we wind up turning over once this season ends. It's Roos' last chance to shape the list before he hands it over to Goodwin. He'll have had two seasons to figure out who can play in his side and who can't. If you think for a moment that he's not really looking for the team to succeed while he's coach, but rather to lay a foundation for Goodwin to take to the finals, you can make some pretty good guesses at which way he's going to lean. The core of young, hard players being built up will be scary in a few years. He's holding auditions for the first ruck spot this season, and may or may not keep one or both of Spencer or Gawn depending on what they show. I suspect, as do a few others, that King will be kept on precisely because he has the potential to be a great foil for Hogan for a decade if he keeps improving. So yeah, I think we're going to see at least six players cut on top of trades. I would like to think that the young rookies have more potential upside than the Middling mature-aged mids already on our list, but who knows which way the club will jump there? I wouldn't be surprised to see ten plus changes to the list in total. I can't see this being a conservative trade period.

Not a chance. Way too much.

I have it on reasonable authority that the Doggies will make an offer for Fitzpatrick. The fact that he's been playing in the backline will only add to his value to them. I've also kind of been wondering about Kreuzer. Spencer and Gawn are both being given the chance to show that they have what it takes, but if they fail we're going to be hunting for a ruck in that sort of age bracket. He's had massive issues with injuries, but when he's fit and in form he's pretty decent. I just have a feeling we might be able to get him for a reasonable price. It's obviously a gamble given how fragile he is, but it could be an answer to our ruck succession problems and I don't know how many others could be on the market who would be better options.

He was also 22 when he started playing for us. Meanwhile, the Hulk looks like holding the lead in the contested mark stakes, one ahead of Hooker from the Bombers. They're starting to put a gap on the rest of the field. I think Hogan had significantly harder conditions to play under to get his as well.

Either last year or the year before.

He'd be well worth a look. I'm sure the recruiting department are keeping an eye on him to see how he adapts to the game. How awesome would it be to have Lovett extract the ball, pass off to Stretch on the wing who nails the inside 50 pass to Lyon?

We go into the draft with two live picks and I'm backing Brayshaw and Lever to be the one's we take. Brayshaw has been a lock for quite a long time and Lever looks like he could be a great player with his impressive work ethic and athletic attributes (plus Roos likes the kid).

Petracca or Brayshaw look to the be the options, but Roos tends to surprise so I guess we'll see who he likes the look of.

I've been liking the look of him too. I know it's unlikely, but I'd hope if he slipped we'd snatch him up with our second round pick or if we'd traded for a later first rounder. Agree with this. The Saints are desperate for a quality tall forward so Nick isn't carrying the side on his own, but they also only have a couple of decent mids and their backline are all getting to their used-by date. They even need a ruck. There is seriously no area where they don't need players, so it's far from a sure thing that they'll take a tall early, especially if they can trade for one from somewhere.

Is Nev's lady pregnant? If so we need to get him up to the 100 game mark in preparation.

So if Mitch wants to go to the Saints as some are reporting, we'd want to include swapping pick 2 for pick one in the deal. Otherwise they get their key forward and Petracca and we're shafted again.

I saw him play once. He wasn't great, but there were a few flashes of awesome in there. When he gets in space his pace is blistering. He just needs to get a bit bigger so they can't just bully him out of it. Saw him do an amazing run down the wing and nail the pass to HF which led to a goal. Even if he doesn't play next year, I think we'll be keeping him on past his first contract.

The footage was interesting. He can take a mark which is always nice to see. He stands up in tackles and dishes well under pressure. His hand pass is good, his kick is long but average. Looked to be a fairly high trajectory which I don't like. It was hard to get an idea of his pace, but he seemed to have a pretty quick first few steps to get a little space. I'd say concerns over pace and kicking, but a legitimate ball-winning mid. I'm not sure I'd rave about him the way some are, but I'd need to see more than that clip.

They make him sound a lot like Dangermouse. He seems to have broken clear to be the highest ranked mid in the draft, and we could certainly use someone with those attributes. Sadly GWS also seem pretty set on him, so it could be difficult. What are the chances of the Saints surprising everyone and taking him instead of a tall forward with fist pick?

What we need is to put "leadership" and "potential" at the bottom of the list and "Able to play the game" and "Can hit a moving target" right at the top. It's a bit of a reversal on what we've done the last few years, but I think it could pay off.

SEN were talking up Wright as being the best tall prospect they have seen. They rate him higher than Danniher. It would be awesome to have Gawn rucking with Wright and Hogan forward. Imposing. Especially with Watts and Salem delivering the ball to them.

I actually really rate Cross. He may not be in the same league as Vince on the field, but he is setting such a good example around the club. Ask a Bulldogs supporter and they will tell you that he had a lot to do with the development of their young mids through is mentoring and training example. He's doing the same thing with our group now and we are going to see some huge benefits from it in the next couple of years. If we're lucky we'll manage to shift him from playing straight into a development/coaching role in a couple of years and continue to benefit from his skills in this area.

Did really well in the agility tests at the combine and has shown that he can play. We could do worse, but as has been mentioned, would probably want to go to a WA-based side.

The manager stands to make a lot more if he goes to Carlton. There are plenty of little brown bags to go around, plus jobs at Visy and sponsorships. Totally agree with this. Even if you look at the way Roos played the game, he wasn't overly physical but he held his own, didn't shirk and could stand tall and take the contested pack mark when it was there to take. He would be a great playing model for Jack to emulate.

The problem with Watts is that too often when he's in a position to contest for the ball he gives half an effort and the opposition get a clean possession. We saw it on Sunday a few times where the ball was loose in the forward line. Despite his clear advantage in speed and size he was unwilling to throw himself in there and his opponent won the ball through a superior show of desperation. This is something we see week in week out from Jack and it needs to stop. He suffers from the same issue as Jamie Bennell in that he always tries to avoid body contact and instead wants to ghost past the contest and pinch the ball on his way through. It works maybe once in ten or twenty tries, and the rest of the time the player who goes in with their whole body makes him look hopeless. I don't know if it's possible to cure him of this, but it needs to be attempted if he's ever going to be any real use.