Adam The God

I'm not saying I don't believe you, but if he's going to sign the contract, what would caps and list sizes have to do with his signature? That seems at odds...

So you're saying Merrett is the vomit, or you're saying our midfield is already the vomit? Given you've said the cake is made of vomit, I presume you're saying the midfield...

This thread is laughable, @picket fence. And @DeeSpencer, I'd take Tomlinson over Frost every day of the week. One is a headless chook, the other you don't see much of and the players around him step up. Classic role player. Frost... classic headless chook. The 21st century has seen a rise in project players. I hope we witness a decline in these speculative athletes with little football understanding. It's not something you can suddenly teach to a 20 year old that's used to running around in circles on an Aths track. Probably explains why he runs around in circles on a football field.

He made it up. For example, we're paying Goodwin $46 million a year.

I think what's going to happen league-wide is that the AFL will help pay out a strategic amount of excess FD soft cap at each club. Given they're imposing austerity measures, they need to be sure that club's can structure their FDs in a competitive way, otherwise it'll just mean the AFL has to pump more money into certain clubs down the line. In such a volatile time, the AFL has to make sure all 18 clubs offer their memberships something in the near future, otherwise we could see 2 or more clubs fold. This means smaller broadcast deals and the potentiality of having to up the number of yearly fixtures to cover the shortfall in the smaller broadcast deal. At a point that becomes unsustainable too. The 38 games in the English Premiere League season are not comparable with 38 games of AFL football.

Yeah, I know you were, but champion coaches don't always lose it at their second club.

Interesting, because a Freo supporter who spoke to Adem told me that one. It didn't entirely add up, so perhaps it was wrong.

Look, I'm inclined to agree, but at this stage, all we know for sure is he's left the Hawks list in a mess. Malthouse went to Collingwood after winning the Eagles' flags and still managed to pull out a flag, so there is a precedence.

Interesting. I heard Yze was close. Do you know if he interviewed for the Freo job?

This is why I'm not all in on Clarkson. Has he run out of ideas, as you say? It's a pertinent question.

That's a tall squid.

Don't bait back. Can we stop all this childish rubbish?

Smith has at least one more year left. It wouldn't be big money. He'd be looking at years in terms of security. So he takes a list spot up in year 2 or 3 (yeah, I'd look at a 3rd year trigger), his experience will still be invaluable. I'm with @Patches O’houlihan. I'd be going Gunston too.

You don't call them out. You continually bait. There's a difference.

It's possible we're targeting someone else, but I wonder if we're going for cheaper, serviceable options (Smith, Polec et al) and saving the cash for bumper contract extensions for Oliver and Petracca...

Certainly sounds like Trump.

We need fresh eyes. Pass from me.

So we've got Langdon on one wing. Who are you saying we've got playing on the other wing?

Gotta say, your posts are becoming tiring mate. Stop the bullying and contribute something of use.

I reckon a move like this foreshadows 12+ list changes. Those already gone or seeking an exit and those likely to go from the main list are: Jones, Kolodjashnij, Preuss, Tom McDonald, Oscar McDonald, Neal-Bullen, Jetta, Josh Wagner. You have to wonder about Hannan, one of our our mids (Harmes, Brayshaw or Viney) and Hore (who I don't personally don't rate). Then there are those from the rookie list: Bennell, Chandler, Corey Wagner and Dunkley. We have to be a little careful of have experience drop out the bottom of our list, so whilst Jones should have retired at the end of 2018 IMV and Jetta looks done after this year, we may look to keep one or both on next year. If we can get the currency to make some trades, I'd be looking at Gunston, Breust and Smith from Hawthorn. I'd be looking at Ben Brown, Polec and Higgins from North. I'd be looking at Hurley, Saad and Merrett from Essendon. We need to be able to bring in 4 or 5 players that are going to be immediately best 22 and add them to May, Salem, Harmes (?), Petracca, Jackson, Viney (?), Lever, Brayshaw (?), Gawn, Oliver, Hibberd, Langdon, Melksham, Tomlinson, Rivers, Weideman, Fritsch and Pickett. If we can do that, it'll be a very fruitful offseason.

Interesting development this. Hope we can hold onto to him.

It's a pass from me. In terms of older heads, I'd prefer we looked at Gunston and even Breust before Shaw.

It's a trash position. ? We have the best player in the competition in the position and we have an exciting youngster, a pick 3 no less, that can play the position. If we can improve our list in 2021 by adding a best 22 player and giving up Preuss, it's a no brainer. It tells you he sees himself behind Jackson and given Preuss has demonstrated he's not agile enough to play the second KPF, he's happy to look at his options.

Interesting. My sense is that Lewis' handle on the game, at least from an examination perspective is not that great. This is based on listening to his FOX commentary this year.

Those discussing smothers and shepherds, @Axis of Bob wrote an excellent post in the Jack Viney thread about the blocking that he witnessed when going back over the tapes. I reckon our blocking, shepherding etc is actually okay, we don't notice it, but it's there. It could be better, I'm sure. But how do we maximise our clearance work with the elite clearance mids we have? We went away from setting up too aggressively at centre stoppages after the Richmond game. I think we need to go back to being super aggressive with these set ups and we need to be aggressive for longer, show better forward craft and better ball use out of the contest. With another pre season under the belts of our elite core, I think should revert to the aggressive stoppage set ups, but that the press should remain the three wall set up that we played for much of the season, rather than the 2017-2018 18 man press that inevitably broke down and leaked goals too easily out the back.