Adam The God

You are kidding? Trade Oliver? Wow. I don't think you'll ever come back from that.

So it's certainly worth noting that Port, Brisbane, St Kilda and now Collingwood (who look like they're home) are through. Of those four teams, Port we failed to turn up, Brisbane we were a simple set shot from Harley away from winning, we beat St Kilda and we beat Collingwood. We missed a shot after the siren to Geelong and stopped for a quarter against the Bulldogs and Richmond. The latter game we used the ball terribly in. Despite not getting the job done this year, it has to be said with a few tweaks, a few new additions to the best 22, another pre season under Burgess, Goodwin's job on the line and increased consistency and we're not a world off 4th-6th position next year.

Better than Oliver, Lever, Weideman, May and Langdon then? You know, our spine.

There are two potential answers to this question. 1) having a smaller coaching staff will help bring down overall running costs. 2) I wouldn't be surprised if the AFL provides greater flexibility to the soft cap for 2021. This would enable us to go after 2 or 3 key assistants, at the same time as cutting superfluous staff and running a leaner machine. The AFL needs clubs to perform next year, otherwise membership bases with kick a hole through the balance sheets of clubs and the AFL will have a larger problem on its hands with a new TV deal on the horizon.

I would have re-signed him too, but a few saying 'he will only get better', well, he's only gotten worse as of late. Hope he can get his set shot routine working, work on his contest side/tackling and I hope we get a forward coach who can use him in a more productive manner. Why would a left footer, constantly lead to the wrong pocket? With added forward craft from a good forward coach, he'll hopefully have a greater chance of improving his conversion.

This would be gorgeous. Yze as forward coach, Leppitsch as defensive coach and Michael Voss as midfield coach. I can dream.

I'm not sure we'd be paying anyone that sort of money, but who knows.

The third poster I've heard that from now. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Welcome home, Adem. ;)

I reckon you'll find it's an external review, which would not happen every year.

Here you are @old dee. Now you can truly believe in the FD review.

Oliver or Petracca giving to Merrett is elite enough for me. I agree that we need to address functionality and efficiency of our midfield, but Merrett is the sort of player that is a beautiful user on the outside. Petracca is one of those guys like Dusty who will turn it over from time to time, but the rest of the time, he'll create gold and scores. Oliver is similar and will get better the more he accelerates out of stoppages. I think we'll be able to address that second winger position come the start of 2021 too. It's about getting the forwardline balance right and the the best efficiency from stoppages IMV.

Our backline is the opposite of completely dysfunctional. I'd argue it was elite this year. It's a system, so if we incur injuries, we have Smith or Petty playing back. It's about improving our best 22 and at this stage, we're short for picks, so I think you'll find we're trying to ship out players for picks or straight up best 22 players. Oscar for Polec or Oscar for Smith would be wins.

Yep, and re-signing Sparrow speaks volumes to me. I hope we're making a serious play for Merrett, but I certainly haven't heard that we are. Would make our midfield immediately the best in the league. Oliver, Merrett, Petracca in the one midfield is an embarrassing set of riches if possible.

I wouldn't trade Gus if it was for a draft pick. I'd rather we keep Gus, but if we were any chance to land an elite talent like Merrett who would perfectly compliment our midfield (can play inside or outside in our midfield and on a wing), I'd trade Gus every day of the week. Gus has struggled on the wing and up forward. He wasn't bad off half back in his first season, but otherwise he's not flexible enough and he's not as good at winning the ball as Oliver.

Merrett's been far more consistently elite than Gus. I love Gus, but he's had one consistent elite season at AFL level - 2018. And even if you remember back to that year, he started the season out of the side and had to work his way in. Merrett's been elite for 5 years. If we take our Melbourne scarves off, Merrett's body of work is far, far greater and more impressive than Brayshaw's.

I would too (RE Viney), but will they? Fritsch Jackson Melksham Viney Weideman Pickett That's a reasonably mobile forwardline. @Patches O’houlihan and I were sharing teams in PM yesterday and I'm sure he won't mind me putting forward his idea of Melksham off half back. I know Melksham played half back at Essendon to inconsistent success, but I reckon this would be a brilliant move. Use his kicking off half back, next to Salem and Rivers. It then opens up that forwardline to: Fritsch Jackson ? Viney Weideman Pickett If we could bring in someone like Brayden Ham or another zippy small like Jack Higgins to play at half forward, that would give us Higgins, Viney, Pickett and Jackson to apply pressure at ground level and bring x factor and unpredictability. Fritsch, Jackson and Weideman as the marking targets. I think moving Melksham out of there, moving Viney and another small into the mix, as well as Petracca rotating through there, provides far more balance to the forwardline than we've had at any point during 2020. Then one of Merrett/Polec/Smith/Phillips and Langdon on the wings. Oliver, Petracca, Harmes and Brayshaw (?) in the middle. If you got Merrett, he'd replace Gus as a midfield rotation and a wingman. Otherwise, Gus would be another midfield rotation, along with Viney. We can dream.

Sure, I don't rate Smith either. I guess I just meant Hore probably won't be on the list, so the comparison will become moot. I wouldn't have either on my list post 2021. I'm not sure I agree with either of these points, but each to their own mate.

I think if you're bringing Merrett in where does Gus play? You've got Viney, Oliver, Petracca, Harmes and then Merrett. Maybe Merrett plays on a wing and that enales Gus to play midfield, but it's tough fitting in all those mids, particularly when Gus has shown he can probably only play one position to a high level.

It seems clear neither McDonald will be on the list next year. If we can get a pick for Oscar, we should do the deal.

Hore is a turnover merchant and I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved on.

There's ruthlessness and then there's stupidity. I don't rate Sparrow or Smith, but the reason for Smith's re-signing is down to defensive cover. We're moving on Oscar and as @Lucifer's Hero said, we need defensive cover. I hope Petty ultimately goes back next year, but we've got to get his body right. Hibberd probably has one year left in him. For a year, we can't afford to go into 2021 and not have enough defensive KP coverage. If we want to go deep next year, we need this cover. I'm reading between the lines here, but given they've re-signed Sparrow, I'd say we'll trade one of Gus or Harmes. The latter two are eminently better players and natural ball winners. Sparrow doesn't win enough ball and as @rjay has previously touted, would be better tried in defence where his role is locking down and not accumulating.

Sure, but I meant more that Malthouse managed to win a flag at Collingwood after winning two at the Weasels.

I meant Hawthorn during Clarkson's super team era, not the 80s/90s.

I'd trade Gus and a future first for Merrett. Would Essendon? If we could convince him, I reckon they would.

Is Mark Stevens an Essendom supporter?