praha

Why wouldn't he? I know he has to agree with it, but Watts ain't no Dangerfield or Buddy. His weight in this instance is limited exclusively to that very clause: he has to agree with it, and it would be a professional courtesy to agree to it considering the 10 years we've put into him. Players rarely say no to say trades. The ramifications are huge, and why would you want to stay at a team that is packaging you? Even Trengove agreed to go to Richmond. IMO we're likely going to have to part ways with Watts or Salem to get Lever. And I doubt either of them is going to hold off the negotiations just because they don't want to go to Carlton. Watts might have the right to say no, but at the same time, he doesn't.

We'll need to trade to secure a second pick. Adelaide want two first-round picks, which is fairly reasonable because they have good luck at the draft like the Eagles. If it goes in that direction, we'll trade one of Watts or Salem for a pick in the 12-15 range, and then package pick 10, new pick, and maybe a player of the Kent variety for Lever and their first round pick. This could all also be part of the Gibbs trade, which might see: Adelaide: Gain - Gibbs, Pick 10 Lose - Lever (to Melbourne), Pick 17 (Carlton) Melbourne: Gain - Lever, Adelaide player filler (who is a reasonable option in this scenario?) Lose - Pick 10 (Adelaide), Watts/Salem (Carlton) Carlton Gain - Watts/Salem, Pick 17 Lose - Gibbs End of the day we're either trading for another first-round pick, or we're giving up players in the Watts/Salem area. Such a trade would probably include packaged players as fillers for Melbourne seeing as both Carlton and Adelaide have high second round picks that probably won't satisfy us. IMO this direction seems most likely. Not sure Carlton would go for this, although Salem would be another fine piece to add to what is already a good backline, and they're crying out for some forward line coherence but Watts is more of a "cherry on top" and not someone you draft to improve your forward wares.

Verbally committed means absolutely nothing in the context of a legal transfer. Anyway, I'd dump Watts, Frost, and a second round pick for Lever and a first rounder.

Is it?

Finals have been a KPI for 2 years. Failed both times. If we don't make finala next year then Goodwin would be under enourmous pressure. Top 4 should be the goal. However many wins that takes.

One thing I have noticed is the style dictates high percentate shots most of the time. We go for the short pass when entering 50 so we rarely have shots on goal on the run. Collingwood pansied us on Saturday by running and streaming down field and taking their chances. We get a shot within 50 and pass it off to a player on a slightly better angle, who misses. Why the [censored] would Mcdonald pass it off to Tyson who hasn't kicked a set shot goal since under 10s? Against Brisbane we ignored open shots and instead tried the short option to Hogan. Brisbane went bang bang bang and arguably cost us a finals spot. We played too safe. I think it's less the style itself and more so players being unable or unwilling to take risks. We may have played a hard and aggressive style during the year but there was nothing flashing or overly exciting about it, which gives off the perception that the year was tough to watch, which it was. Games were mostly either tight wins or losses. Make no mistake that missing the finals wasnt just about losing games. It was also about being unable to really bury teams when we had the chance. We were hit hard by injuries but that doesn't justify 7 straight goals by the opposition, or allowing an opponent to cut down a 40 point lead. Collingsood was great on Saturday but part of the reason why they're not playing finals is because they let teams go on runs like we did, something like 7 of the last 9 goals. That's the different between finals and Mad Monday. And we fit firmly in that basket with the Pies. Just an average team that doesn't know how to *really* get it done.

Joel Macdonald retired years ago...

Thomastown Bears.

Oppo fans loudly proclaim he's overrated which generally means he's hated which means he'snow officially a star of the game. Once he gets respect, he's a HOF.

St Kilda lifted their game big time. Nothing more, nothing less. Saints were going to answer eventually, and they did. The good news is that we held on and steadied as we have a few times this year.

I watch a lot of Richmond because my family is split 50/50 and as dumb as Richmond supporters are, they are correct in that thet really do cop it, and have for years. Umpires always seem to murder them. It's funny but also tragic. On the flip side, the Bulldogs always seem to get the rub of the white/yellow/green, dating back to the 80s. We've always been the middle ground. Few games this year where we got a good run with the umps.

Nature of the club I reckon. Poor rehab and training facilities. Our best players always seemed injured. Jakovich goes out with a bad back and then retires...comes back for the Bulldogs 12 months later. Granted not the same player, and also he was a lazy trainer, but if he were at say a West Coast, he'd have come back at full strength and played 200 games. We were still an amateur club up until a few years ago. And by amateur I mean we struggled to make the transition from VFL to AFL. Oliver imo is the best talent we've had in my time following the club. Had he been at Melbourne in the 90s he'd be out every second week with hamstring problems.

Tingay's 94 was very good, not elite, but close. I think he was AA that year. And repped Victoria. What accident are you referring to? I was young when he started so don't quite remember

He'll play 300 games for North and might guide them to a flag.

Good thread. Mentioned something similar in another thread. Consistently winning by 30-40 points leads to a healthy percentage. The problem is that we had a string of a month and a half where only one win was truly percentage boosting (Bulldogs) but two losses (Sydney and Adelaide) essentially undid the percentage gains. If we close out the season with 3-4 wins of 30-40 points and keep our losses to less <20 then we stand to be close to the 120% mark. At the end of the day, big winning margins mean squat if you can't defend as well as you attack. That is why percentage is such an important metric.

And 1997 I believe was Round 1, North were hot favourites, we came out raring to go and beat them. The following week we lost to Collingwood by 100 points.

That is truly amazing. Can't think of any other team having such a bizarre statistic. For another Melbourne-based team, it fits firmly in the "embarrassing record" basket.

McGovern

Just watched the replay. He was generally awful but stood tall in the final stanza to draw what they a "professional" free kick. Anyone saying he should go to the VFL has rocks in their head.

Nice one. I remember that Charles goal against WC like it was yesterday. '93 I think it was? They were flag favourites and we were struggling but we smashed them that day. Beat the Bombers as well that year...but lost to Sydney lol Typical Melbourne!

IMO it wasn't even that good a moment, hardly representative of what made the wiz the wiz. It was a free kick in front of goal...hardly "Wiz" material. I get that it was against his former side which gave it preference, but still. He had a number of really great games at Freo, pity that was the one they those to use.

Very much this. I hope we are never factored into these "*club* is throwing millions at *player*" news reports. Essendon is throwing a million at Dusty because they're desperate. I don't believe for a second that they're finals-worthy or have the depth that their fans seem to think they have. They're going to start feeling the pinch of last year for a number of years yet. They need to recruit and draft very aggressively. Their current list can't cut it. North seems to be putting all of its eggs in one basket. It knows it can't afford to crash and draft slowly so it's going for the big guns. Richmond will be regretting having thrown so much at Prestia and Caddy. They will lose Dusty. No chance he stays if they can't get to at least within 80% of the best offer.

IMO it's actually a struggle to utilise the space. Not sure that playing in NT this week helps. We need consecutive games there and haven't since the Freo-Richmond double. More than ever, we needed this upcoming week's game to be at the MCG. We have two consecutive strings there, one two weeks in a row, and three to end the year.

We're still battling with the concept of two-way running. Works better on smaller grounds because there's less space to cover. Watching yesterday's game, North seemed to always have 2-3 more players in their forward line because their mids and flankers just appeared to be everywhere. Despite playing all of their games better at Etihad, they ran harder and utilised space superbly compared to Melbourne, who plays half of their games on the MCG. IMO it's as much a reflection of experience (or lack thereof) is you'll find. Sometimes the players just seem run out on their feet. Maybe it's for the best in the long run. Or maybe we're still behind the 8-ball when it comes to training practices. I'll tell you something, leaving the MCG and having North supporters laugh us out of our home ground, jeering "10 YEARS!" is something that almost pushed me over the edge.

Except for Essendon and Richmond