Adam The God

But surely he knew that at the time. I did.

I've always liked the saying "it's the midfield, stupid". Whilst a hardened KPF would be great, I've come to the view that we need to add more elite talent to the midfield and even behind the ball. We have a number of needs. Midfield, half backs, a KPF and a genuine back up or transition plan for Max. I'd argue that the lowest of these priorities is a KPF. Would be nice, but we only have so much TPP and trade capital.

We play well at Marvel, I do worry about a shoot out again. If that happens one of our guys will kick a bag. Who knows how close we'll get.

Unless we prefer what Kolt brings? Like if Kolt was Trac (I acknowledge he's not), Trac would come straight back in. I think this says something about Laurie, but it says more about how we value Kolt. I think...

They clearly love Kolt ahead of Laurie. On first inspection given Laurie's equal team high score involvements last week, it's a bizarre decision. But if we love Kolt more, I wonder if Laurie will be encouraged to explore his options...

He's also from Geraldton (ie country WA), not going anywhere.

28 might be a little old, but he's often toweled up Max around stoppages.

No, I've moved on from Houston. Wouldn't say no if we could get him with a future 1st in 2025 or 2026, but it sounds like it's over.

I'm beginning to get very excited over this coming draft. It feels like 2014 all over again!

So there is some chance that we could get two top 20 players next year via F/S and our NGA. Even more reason to dangle our first rounder next year...

Thank you mate 🙏

This is it. My hope too.

I tried to change the name, but I'm stuck with it for a year haha. Apparently, we are actively thinking about putting McVee through the midfield next year, so we'll see. It's interesting RE Trac. Against the Blues, he almost single handedly played a forward hand and won us that game. Without him playing forward for the rest of the game, we don't stay in it. Then against Collingwood on KB, before he got injured, everything he touched across half forward led to a scoring opportunity. Often we stuffed the chance. When he went off, we had no forward half connector. Those two games show you how vital he has become for our forward half, that said he's a superstar mid too, so you want to try and get a 60 forward, 40 midfield split I reckon, depending on the opponent and the balance of the game. I've come around to the idea of trying to hit this top 20 in 2024 really hard. If we could land two midfield young guns (think Port in the 2018 draft), it changes our list profile and sets us up for 5-10 years. Use our 2024 first rounder on a young gun, and dangle our 2025 first rounder (and 2026 @old55?) to see if we can't land another.

A ruck fella. @ChaserJ or @dazzledavey36, I think I read it from one of you?

Does anyone have any information on ticketing for this week? I assume Level 4 will be open, but there's often a chance to get tickets on Level 1 too. Hoping that's the case as I hate level 4. Any deets, much appreciated. 🙏

Nice haircut, Binners.

I want Bolton if we can manage it. :P

In other words, I'd be trading out of the first round in those drafts because the first round will be mauled by Tassie access. And again, we have a F/S and an NGA next year that directly go to both weaknesses on our list. KPD and ruck respectively. Kalani White isn't going to GCS. That's nonsense. The more I think about it, the more validity hitting the 2024 first round really hard has. Use your future firsts to do strengthen your hand.

Yep, that's the essence of what I've tried to articulate a few times and people get triggered.

That's not giving enough credit to recruiters. Plenty of misses in the top 5.

Here's the thing. For argument's sake... Would you say it's overs if Houston helped us win a flag in 2025 and/or 2026? Many said it was overs for Lever, some weren't sure on May either. Myself included on the May front. I'm all for trading future picks, because we have F/S and NGAs, and we usually work out a way of getting back into the first round anyway. Alternatively, if JT rates the top 20 this year and thinks we can get two genuine midfield guns, I'd be trading future 1sts to strength our 2024 hand.

Kozzy was pick 12, basically pick 10, but Freo had a NGA pick in Henry at 9 and GCS had a priority pick at 2 and picked Anderson. The last time we had a top 5 pick we got LJ in that same draft, the 2019 draft. And the time before that we got Clarry. JT loves the top 5.

Given we have a F/S and an NGA pick in 2025, it seems like the perfect year to dangle our 2025 first rounder again and seeing if we can't land decent player trade or land another 2024 first rounder. I'm sure we're thinking that. I just hope we can pull it off. If we could land two of these young mid kids, it could set us up for a decade. We'd then just need to find a ruck to replace Max in 2-3 years and target FA for a May replacement or another KPF. I think Noah Balta is a good age to target in 2 years time to fill a potential KPP role. It's unlikely he'll play finals again at Richmond.

Agree, good post.

Disagree, he's a beautiful kick IMO, and has great vision. We must be watching different players. Rivers is already playing mid. If we had Trac available now, Trac would play mostly forward with Rivers taking more CBAs than Trac. It's McVee into the midfield hence our interest in Cumming and Houston we hoped, would add to our midfield. Who the hell knows what's happening with Houston anymore. He's either a good poker player or that's no longer a chance. I'm not sure he'd work in midfield either, but that's how to sell him on us. The old Jeremy Howe deal. Give him the promise of midfield minutes and if it doesn't work, back to half back. Welcome back. Binmans PA doesn't always disagree with you. In fact, you come up with good usernames for me. Keep them coming.