Adam The God

And different people giving the votes. With any luck, most of those that gave the BnF results will be out the door soon.

Cause Swanny was a real oil painting.

We need to turn over that bottom 10 or so and if we can add 4 or 5 best 22 players and maintain fitness, there's no reason we can't give 2021 a good shake.

That to me perfectly represents what we have, an elite midfield that we absolutely need to get more bang for our buck from. A decent forward set up and some good outside ball users will help this.

As I mentioned the other day, the positioning of our list is very Richmond 2013-2016. An elite core with some decent support players and then a marked drop off at the bottom. We've now even got the Martin going to North equivalent with Clarry to Carlton. It can turn quickly. I reckon Richmond's Brownlow spread would have been similar in those aforementioned years to ours tonight. Fix the system, bring in Yze, two or three other highly rated assistants, add Brown, Smith, Phillips and a speedy pressure forward or two and we'll be in the top 4 mix next year. The competition is soft. Richmond can't keep it going forever, Geelong are getting old. No one else scares me.

I reckon Petracca, May and Oliver were easily our three best players. I felt May was slow to get going but was dominant in the second half of the year, whereas Clarry had a difficult patch mid year, but either side of that was usual Clarry eliteness. Trac struggled in Round 1, but after that was consistently elite. Hard to split May and Clarry, but I prefer midfielders, so I'd probably lean slightly towards Clarry. No doubting in my mind that they were easily our three best. Langdon was 4th, with his consistent gut running and I thought he got better and better as the year went on. After that, it was a raffle.

Clarry finishes 9th in the league and doesn't finish top 3 in the BnF. What a joke.

Lol, how does Gawn get two votes in the Carlton game when a rookie broke even with him?

My feeling on Mahoney is he'll stay, but I expect forward, midfield, defence and development coaches to be replaced. Yze will likely take the forwards. I wouldn't be against Richardson taking the development lead as his history is strong in this area. So then we'll be looking for a midfield and defensive coach. Let's hope we can approach some Port coaches this week and some Richmond (or even Geelong) coaches the following week.

If Martin retires, I wonder if Preuss could change his mind and try to get back to his home state...

Gee, Brisbane are crumblers. We've won more finals than them in the last 3 years. ?

It's good IMV that things haven't been announced yet. Port were only just knocked out and Richmond are still in it.

I've no particular problem with Oscar moving on and I wish him no ill will, but not sure I agree with this. The reason we were never really in consideration that year is because our defence leaked goals. IMV that is partly system, partly personnel. It's not coincidence the next off season we went after May.

If he's cheap, it doesn't bother me.

Yep, our window with our midfield and defensive core is 2021-2025. If we can win a flag or two in that time then we'll be able to prolong that window by topping up with FAs to address needs. Even better, my son will be able to grow up with a successful Melbourne. That'd be nice.

Interesting. Nice spot mate. I'd say we probably view Hind as a cheaper option than Higgins. I'd take both though.

Our bottom 6-8 aren't good enough. IMV we need to turn over that bottom half of the list to see if we can find some competent and consistent role players for 2021. Fair enough. I can see that.

We need both IMV. Smith and Phillips, that is.

Why? We need pace in the forward half. Hind knows how to find the goals. Smith and Phillips will play off half back and the wing respectively if we land them. I think we could well get them all. I'd still love Jack Higgins, but he may not want to leave Tigerland.

Agreed. The core is strong and reminds me of Richmond's side from 2013-2016. Elite core with not enough support or system around it. Role players is the way to go and then strengthen the system over summer. Reckon Hibberd can give us one-two more good season(s). Melksham could be an extra half back flanker back up, but I wouldn't have him in my team every week. Hibberd/Lockhart - May - Lever Smith - Tomlinson/Petty - Salem Phillips - Oliver - Langdon Fritsch - Weideman - Jackson Pickett - Brown - Petracca Gawn - Viney - Brayshaw Harmes - Rivers - Jack Higgins - ? small pressure forward / or can we get back into the 1st round (McRae) The forward balance is probably out still in this line up, but there's good run and carry, there's a bit more class in there by playing Fritsch up the ground, Smith, Salem. I wouldn't mind trying Salem at half forward and occasionally switching Fritsch to half back. Defensive system certainly got better this year. Our forwardline is a mess IMO, and I hope Yze can reconstruct it to ensure we get bang for buck out of midfield.

We're basing a lot of this on speculation. The speculation says Collingwood are looking at Nev for a multi-year contract. They want Nev and they're happy to part with Phillips.

No we wouldn't. They need cap relief and Nev is contracted. We have the whip hand.

Do you know anything mate or are you just running around trying to put the fire out?

I'm only disputing that West Coast remained a strong club after Judd left. It's untrue and their performances showed this.

Well, the year after he left they finished 15th (second last). The year after that 11th. The year after that 16th (last). It took them another 4 years to get back into the 8. This is with the best resources in the AFL. They didn't shrivel up, but they went from competing for flags to nowhere...