RalphiusMaximus

Awesome write-up DD. Your input is very much appreciated.

Parrish was always a sure thing. He's an inside/outside goalscoring mid with first class disposal on both sides. The only knock on him is that he's a little short. I think you're letting your opinion of the Bombers cloud your judgement on this one.

I feel for you. You've clearly never experienced chips and mayo done properly.

I think we should do what Collingwood does and just ignore the requirement. "Our clash jumper is Blue body with a red triangle on a white background. What, you can't see the white? That's a shame!"

He gets points for being up front with the club and telling them right away what happened. It's still a bloody stupid thing to have done and not something the club can ignore. They say the leaders will have a chat. I'm hoping Lewis is invited to have some input as well. Roos was very big on Player-Driven culture and standards, and this is where those concepts come into force. This is their opportunity to make a statement and show that they are serious about those standards. It doesn't have to be a massive suspension of fine, but it needs to be something that shows they are serious about the standards they hold their teammates to. I like the idea of an object lesson such as assisting in an emergency room, but I suspect it's more likely to be attending an education program of some sort. As for comparing him to Sylvia, I don't think we need to worry. The kid has serious white-line fever. If we can get him to prepare properly there won't be any problems on the field. What's wrong with Mayo in chips?

So he's able to start playing again in April? He misses maybe six rounds? Great work AFL. Way to show a hard line on drug issues.

The only reason we'd upgrade one of them at this point is if we wanted more room for Cat B's. We can only have three and we have an option on a young kid to take as our third if he makes it through the draft. If we were looking at someone else to bring in then it could be worth upgrading Smith. Otherwise the downside outweighs any benefit. We'd be using more of the salary cap for no advantage since the upgrade rules are the same.

He's an undersized key forward. The big issue has been consistency for him. Points in his favour are his marking and accurate goal-kicking. He's also improved his defensive game this year. If he were to get picked up, I could see him playing a Howe-style forward role but with better defensive efforts. He likes to take a screamer, but probably not as often or as high as Howe. The real question I think is if the club trusts his effort off-field.

Poor Fitz. He had one moment of glory and was dismissed. Think we might rookie him?

Very close to my thoughts, but I would say the assurance and competence the club showed. We didn't leak like so many clubs (and like we used to). We had clear goals which we achieved with a minimum of fuss. When the opportunity arose we got the Lewis deal done with no fuss, quickly and cleanly. The Hogan signing is a symptom of the overall improvement in the club.

The off-field benefits are pretty hard to ignore. Not just the cash, but the academy access it gains us. It's something the club could turn into a real advantage if they play their cards right. Two games isn't much in that context.

I am actually really happy with our fixture. The only bad is repeat 6 day breaks, but given the rest I'll take that.

While I have no wish for us to pick him up, I would like to point out that The Blues have once again dropped one of their top goal-kickers. Funny.

And yet his girlfriend had contacted the club a number of times to tell them about his partying ways. Sounds to me more like he's an unsupervised kid who parties far more than he should.

I have absolutely no sympathy for Whitfield. He has no excuses. They are educated on drugs and the WADA code right through their junior football and after they are drafted. These kids occupy a position of unbelievable privilege when they go to AFL clubs. They are paid well above the average wage to do nothing but exercise and play the game they love. They are told right from the start that part of the payoff for that privilege is that they can't take drugs. These are the actions of a spoiled narcissistic brat who doesn't have the faintest idea how lucky he is or any appreciation for the work other people have put in to get him there. I say throw the book at him.

Very tough this early. We don't even have a final list for 2017 yet. This is what I'd like to see. I wouldn't call them predictions. I would like to see Joel Smith crack into the senior side later in the season (hell, early if he can). The Weed getting more games. Hulett to debut. Incremental improvement from the young brigade. Petracca to fix his set shots. The Dees to play finals.

Not only well put, but highly accurate.

He's a DFA, so no need to draft him. Personally, I wouldn't mind him on our list provided it was on minimum pay with performance-based incentives. I wouldn't use a pick on him or pay him even an average wage, but if he cost us nothing much then it could be worth the gamble.

The AFL gave themselves an out with the future pick rules. There's a clause in there that says a club can apply to the AFL for special consideration to trade picks they would otherwise not be allowed to. The restrictions were put in place to prevent clubs from trading away all of their future high picks chasing glory (as Brisbane did not that long ago). Given that the Hawks came perilously close to winning four flags in a row I think they have reasonable grounds to say that they aren't in danger of destroying their list by missing a couple of first rounds, especially since they've traded out their first round picks repeatedly to bring in quality mature players. I'm pretty sure a club like Brisbane wouldn't have been given permission.

I'm not backing us against either side to be honest. I think we're still vulnerable to pace and the quicker sides will run us into the ground.

So we've delisted/traded five and added three to our main list. Who else gets the chop? We need at least one more gone to take the mandatory three open spots into the draft.

So, what we have here is a 6'2" player who is rated an elite endurance runner but doesn't have great burst speed and is a good kick and decision-maker. He's just come off hip surgery so it might take a while for him to settle in and start producing. Didn't we trade him to Port a year or so ago? But in all seriousness, from the highlight package the kid has pretty good skills and he goes when it's his turn. He looks to be the sort who won't shirk the contest which will win him a lot of points with our playing group. I hope he's quicker than he looks because that is still a huge issue for us, but for a more or less free hit he could be value. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do.

We're looking for a ruck or two in the draft, so he's a very good chance.

Interesting listening to SEN discuss this. The opinion seems to be that next year has better talent at the top but drops away quickly while this year lacks great players at the top end but is very even and has unusual depth. In essence we want high picks next year while this year second and third round will still get pretty solid players.

You forgot his stint as a tagger.