Adam The God

Hang on. What? How do we know Tom has overcome his injuries? He was clearly playing injured all year. As for this idea that Tom is a better defensive player than Brown, I'd argue both are as poor as each other. Ever since Tom's played forward, he's rarely laid tackles. This bit seems a bit revisionist for me. I've been thinking about what @Pollyanna said about us not needing another KPF. I'm not entirely in that boat yet, but I'm not sure how we play Brown and Weideman in the same side. I worry that we become too easy to rebound against.

The not reviewing the prelim has become a bit of an urban myth on these parts. Goodwin said he never reviewed it with the players, but you can bet they reviewed it as a coaching group. What's the point in a deep review of a game where you don't turn up? I was at the game and we weren't on from the very first bounce. What would sitting around saying you should have done better done to the players? They know they needed to be better that day. What we need to become is consistent. Some can call it ruthless, but consistency is the key. Particularly if we get our forward structure and craft right, and use the ball better from midfield in a more attacking way. With consistency we turn up and give Port a shake. With consistency we beat Bulldogs, Sydney and Fremantle. We tidied up our ball use by the end of the year, but the ball use in the second half of the year matched with consistency and we probably beat Geelong (a kick after the siren remember), Brisbane (a simple Bennell shot at goal) and go much closer to Richmond (our ball use that day was horrendous). We're not as far off as some think.

I agree with the first two mate. Haha. Come on, Moonie. Join me over here in the book nook. I'm also wearing some prescription glasses when it comes to Gawn. I'd trade Max if the right offer came along, but the club won't do it and I doubt there'd be a good enough offer on the market. Max for Merrett and Saad I'd do though. ;)

Each to their own mate, except if we're talking about wearing red and blue coloured glasses, I think you can take out the red and blue lenses and put some prescription lenses in, because even contemplating trading Oliver is absurd.

Completely disagree. Oliver's a far better player off his 4 seasons in the game than Kelly's 6 seasons. Oliver is our Sam Mitchell. Our gun extractor. You can say what you like about their disposal comparison, but Kelly struggles to win his own ball, particularly in recent times. Oliver is untradeable.

No, no I wouldn't. There wouldn't be a realistic price you could pay to trade Oliver. And it certainly wouldn't be Kelly, who IMV is no better than Salem on recent form. Oliver is an incredibly durable player. Since his first season, he hasn't missed a game. You watch when we don't have him. Our midfield will be nowhere. Fast becoming the most underrated player in the competition.

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.