Adam The God

With another genuine winger beside him and I reckon Ed will take the next step. He spent half the first part of the season playing defensive cover and sweeper. Had elite metres gained. Needs to hit the scoreboard more, but IMV he was top 5 or 6 wingers in the league. I think next year we can expect better things from Lever too. I think he'll be helped by having two big bodies to take the two biggest opposition forwards, allowing him to zone off, plus the continuity gained from this year. I'm really excited by our defence. I think we can find one or two more plug and plays that will fit into that system. May, Tomlinson, Lever, Hibberd, Salem, Rivers, Lockhart and Melksham would be my picks for the back half.

It's very difficult to get elite talent like Clarry and Trac. We've never had two midfielders as good as them in my 33 years following the club, whereas very good ruckmen can be brought in off the rookie list. Time and again we've seen this. Midfields win flags.

Yeah, disagree. Langdon is elite. He has more levels to go to, but he's elite IMV. I can see why Lever doesn't get that tick. He was elite at Adelaide and I reckon he can get back to that sort of form next year. He and May got better as the year went on.

What difference? We've kept adding and building in a very similar way. They've been a project that's been building under Hinkley since 2013. You talk about little upgrades year on year. Well, how's Lever at the end of 2017, May at the end of 2018, Langdon at the end of 2019. We've brought in three elite acquisitions in three years to go with a midfield we essentially built between 2014-2016. We're a year or so behind them.

If you look at Port Adelaide, they've been nowhere for a long time. They may well win a flag this year. They had a superb 2018 draft by nailing three of their top 20 picks, but the key to their success this year has been consistency (outside of the Geelong game). Their team had some good players in the midfield and forwardline that they recruited and traded in over the years, but could never get it all to click consistently. They would often fall away in the second half of seasons. I'd argue we've had a similar yet somewhat different trajectory as a list and as a club. We've struggled for consistency within games, but managed to play most seasons to the very end (the exception being the final round of 2016 and 2017). But we've built an elite midfield core (the fundamental core of any aspiring premiership side), addressed our backline deficiencies by recruiting Lever, May, Hibberd, Tomlinson to go with Salem and now Rivers. We nailed our 2019 draft, bringing in a key tall and ruck, a zippy mercurial small forward and a gun half back (someone who can probably roll through the midfield in time too). These three compliment three areas of the ground. Rivers adds to the backline; Jackson adds to the KPF stocks and forward structure as well as an extra mid or ruckman; and Pickett adds pressure and creativity to our forwardline. I think one more off season of adding to this team, get the structures right and I think we'll see greater consistency next year. This will convert to more wins and should see a top 4-6 finish. We should be aiming for the flag next year and it's not as far off as people think.

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.