Adam The God

Perhaps I'm being overly cynical here, but the AFL want their licensees to turn a profit and continue to be (or become) stable businesses in their own right. My bet is they'll be relatively strict with the reduction of the soft cap in FD expenditure and fire a lot of AFL staff (already have), but if the clubs pay a bit outside of the cap to keep their best players, I reckon the AFL will look the other way in difficult times.

I wouldn't be paying through the roof for someone if we didn't want them play in their natural position (ie mid). I think this is where most clubs would sit TBH. Carlton would be the no brainer option to my thinking. They need mids that can win the footy outside of Cripps. They may have spent their pennies on Saad and Williams though. I'd take Treloar every day of the week before either of those, particularly Williams. He'll certainly find a home. He's a gun IMO and an A grader.

I'd be keeping Treloar before De Goey, I'll tell you that much.

Smith is coming to Melbourne, just like Brown.

Wanted him a few years back, but his contract is too big for us if we want to keep Petracca and Oliver happy.

Completely agree, although I'd add that we have to get our systems right as well, because we chopped and changed so many times, I wouldn't be surprised if the players didn't know whether they were coming or going. Variability and flexibility is fine, but let's stick with one system and try and master it before we try and complicate it too much. The other thing we have to get better at is selection. I reckon we get a bit too cute at times. Maybe this is partly a lack of depth issue too, which will hopefully be solved by this off season period.

Indeed. Pickett as well.

Nah. Billings has still not achieved anything. Angus has only had one good season, but it was a far superior season to anything Billings has put together. Playing Brayshaw in the midfield as q midfielder would be really nice and will do wonders for our set up. Looking forward to seeing what Yze implements there.

A forwardline of Brown, Weideman, Jackson, Fritsch, Higgins, Broad, Petracca, Harmes, Viney and Pickett is not too shabby.

Speaking purely as a narcissist, there are plenty of critical posters on Demonland and that's natural given the lack of success. You've been called up because you attack posters and make it needlessly personal. Let's just move forward and make it about the opinion, rather than the poster. We are all here because we love the MFC after all.

Thanks mate. In answer to your post then @adonski, I wouldn't trade a future for Higgins. I want Macrae.

I can't remember what the rules are around trading futures. If we wanted to trade our future first, could we also trade our future second?

I'd go for both of them. The problem with Higgins is coming up with the pick to land him.

I wouldn't do Brayshaw for Billings. The former is a much better player. Sure, Billings had a better 2020, but it would take more than Billings to make me trade Gus.

Longer contracts are the new bigger dollar contracts. In an incredibly difficult time, players want security of years.

Can we keep the thread on track by not baiting each other? Be interested to hear whether those two names @Dr evil alluded to are the same two names @Patches O’houlihan has heard.

I have rarely witnessed this problem. I've been a poster now for over a decade, but when I first came on, I didn't feel unwelcome. I think it depends on how we post.

Richards would be handy on a half forward flank and an upgrade on Melksham IMO. Not BIllings' biggest fan, but another lefty with good ball use.

RE: Petracca mid v forward - it's an interesting one. Although Petracca's ball use resulted in scoring assists more often than Oliver, Petracca still has a lot of work to do on his defensive game. IMV, Petracca is a liability at centre stoppages if we don't get first use. He's a lot better around the ground though where we can crowd the stoppage more and offset his defensive work with others. This is not to say Petracca can't improve, but Oliver is a far superior defensive player IMO. This is Petracca's next step. If he is going to be the most rounded player he can be, then getting better in these situations will make him the complete player. As for Oliver, he needs to back himself more out of stoppage and when he has an opportunity to kick a goal, kick through the ball like he is perfectly capable of doing. I find this frustrating because Petracca and Oliver both have areas of their game that they could improve, but only Oliver seems to be held to a different account. I'd be playing Petracca 60-40 forward-mid.

He will develop a lot quicker if he is not the number two man.

Every time ET posts in here I get excited, thinking he's about to post his next big scoop. But to no avail. I wonder what it would take to prize Devon Smith out of Essendon. Probably too much.

We shall see. If he can kick 30+ I'll be happy. I'm hoping Brown can kick 40+. If qe can get more goals out of midfield, Fritsch and role players we'll be well on our way to the finals.

I meant that it'll take Jackson at least a few years to hold his spot as a genuine KPF.

He changed that to before the end of the year. There's no way.

Completely agree. Can see us holding our forward structure a lot better this way too. Keep one or two of Brown or Weideman or Petracca always deep and the other up at CHF. Gawn and Jackson as the exit kicks as you say.