Adam The God

Yes, it's Craig. He's now the strategy coach at GWS, and you'd have to say has his fingerprints all over their ball movement.

Interesting @Whispering_Jack. If we can split 9 for 15 and 16 and land Hotton and Hynes, on top of Smith or Langford at 5, that would be 😍

There's a contest in one of the Draper reels where the ball is in dispute on the ground. Draper vs Smilie. Draper wins it easily, and Smilie ends up looking like Jack Watts (sorry Jack, contest was never your strong suit).

I do have questions on his contested play. When the ball is in dispute on the ground, against men, I think he may struggle, but when he puts on the frame, if he can hit the contest harder he'll be okay. That's the question mark for me at this stage.

0.23, bombs long, should cartwheel. 0.48, does handstand instead of exploding from pack. 1.23, loses arm wrestle, arm detached, shouldn't have lost arm wrestle. 2.32, good handball. 3.45, school ends. 4.52, he's very small, should be taller. All in all, I wouldn't be taking him. (he's okay, would prefer Hynes)

Spargo is like McAdam? What are you talking about?

The least interesting of all the mids IMO, but he's always been linked to Carlton, I assume because of the Walsh connection.

Strongly disagree with this. The central style means using the wings to bring the ball into a central hot spot 30m out directly in front. You can of course also run the ball through the corridor higher up the ground/through the centre square, but you use your wings and flanks to move the ball quickly to the hot spot. It also means that when the opposition intercepts in the corridor inside your 50, you can cover the transition that is likely to ping back the other way. In fact, having two aerobic beasts on the wings is a huge asset when playing the corridor game.

Just on these guys. Add Smith or Langford to that group, on top of Smilie or Hynes, and that's the next generation of midfield set for the next 12 years. This draft could be a game changer for us with Tassie on the horizon.

I think it showed a willingness to get the ball forward as quickly as possible, which kept the forward line relatively spacious and most goals were scored from 30m directly in front, which is actually how Collingwood got many of their goals in 2022-2023. Our set up in those days was also two talls inside 50 and smalls and mids getting to the foot of the contest or working back into space. I really hope revert to two talls and Max. When JVR rucks, we play 1 tall and hybrids like Trac or dare I say Langford.

That's a big call.

Rivers, Windsor and Kolt. I reckon McVee will stay at high half back. He might play off the back of the stoppage, but reckon he's better with the play in front of him and is so brilliant 1v1 that we'd lose more from our defensive set up than we'd gain from our midfield. Particularly agility, speed and ball use is what we'd want from him in midfield. Windsor can bring that. And Kolt can bring the power, again, probably as a high half forward that becomes an inside slider. I think it also speaks to the draft as well. I'm really hoping we go mids with both, but I'd be staggered if at least one of our picks wasn't a mid.

Yep.

The last time Chaplin was involved with the forwards, we had a very aggressive, central/corridor ball movement game. I'm hoping we're bringing that back.

It's the power that I love, but it's a great call RE "weird things". He's definitely unpredictable. That's kind of what I was getting at with my Stevie J comparison early on.

He was a development coach wasn't he? I looked him up a few months back.

Would love that. A lot would have to go right for us there though.

I'm glad we've got a structure that eases him into the big time coaching ranks. Giving him stoppages is a smart start. I suspect the soft cap has had something to do with the midfield appointments too, although I could be completely wrong there.

Way too slow for me. Great to look at, but a bloody hard watch. We studied it in film school.

Really happy they've shifted Chaplin back to the forwards. As I've said a number of times now, he oversaw the highest scoring forward half in the league in 2018. I'm a big fan. Bassett with our defenders is going to keep things going at that end, maybe even add a more attacking flair to our backs. And whilst I'm not excited by the midfield coaches (would have preferred Teague), I like that they've broken the midfield into two line coaches. More hands on deck at midfield level will be handy, particularly given experience levels there in the coaching ranks. There were hints in that Green email today that game style won't change dramatically, but be calibrated to the list we have. Which for me is forward half territory (based on smashing sides in the contest) and trying to turn the ball over through the middle part of the ground. I think what we do with our two top 10 picks will be instructive RE our midfield. I'm not saying we won't pick best available, but if we feel our midfield needs more support, we might look to split that second pick. Be interesting to see how our mids in particular set up next year.

Disagree. Elite with ball in hand. Has a good fitness base. He is our Myers if he can stay on the park. He's best 22 for mine.

He literally just accepted the CGS job. He won't be coming to Melbourne.

Bartel is head of footy at Caulfield Grammar. He won't be working for Melbourne too...

I'd like this. George was one of the candidates that PJ put forward initially...

I'd be more down for this.