Adam The God

He's certainly not a player that outwardly lacks confidence, but I reckon at this stage it's superficial. He doesn't know what it takes to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. He has the attributes, but he hasn't felt that moment yet where no one is going to stop him. I predict it'll happen next season.

If that's right, I hope bloody Collingwood get a much tougher fixture, because their fixture was far more favourable than ours. Given they finished higher, I would hope theirs is tougher or comparable.

Haha, I'd just be sending Gawn and Viney up to lift that cup.

I'd give the all important 23 to May, the 12 to KK and 16 to Preuss.

Is that you, Karl?

And he was ahead of De Goey in many other stats, without having a break out game.

Might have been 'very hard to deal with... the speculation that came with his contract renewal every season or so'. Also, in regards to who replaces the goals kicked by Hogan, yes, Weideman, Melksham etc, but the guy who many are overlooking is one, Christian Petracca. He had a pretty consistent season and matched De Goey's stats without having a breakout game, yet journalists are frothing over De Goey. Petracca is the one for us. If he kicks into gear next season, which feels likely, we're going to be incredibly difficult to beat, providing our midfield can maintain its consistency.

Yeah, I don't like commenting on a player based on a solitary YouTube video, but he reminded me more of Harmes with a quick burst of speed. Looks rough, but could well translate those ball-winning attributes to the big time.

They're clearly thinking the midfield is where it's won. Adding Beams strengthens that. I agree with them. However, their soft draw played a big part in their top 4 finish and I have them outside of the top 4 next year, unless they improve significantly. FWIW, I'd rate our trade period as a B/B+. We addresses our back problem, added some slightly speculative outside run in KK and some important back up for Max. If we'd landed a Gaff or Kelly, that's what really brings your trade period up to an A/A+. That said, I wouldn't have thought anyone really aced it this trade period. Richmond got Lynch for nothing and Essendon got Shiel (whom I rate highly), but I'd argue we addressed more needs to round out our list than they did.

Well, yeah. It exemplifies why we can't play both Jones and Lewis. Fritsch is on the bench in place of one of those guys.

You are difficult to interpret sometimes, mate.

All that needs to happen is for us to strongly challenge for the flag again next year. We then approach Kelly and tell him where we see him fitting into our plans and improving as a better player, and hope that he comes across for $700k, spurning multiple opposition offers in the $1mill region. Dream on, Adam.

See, I disagree with this mentality. If Jones is the leader we believe he is, he'll do what's best for the club as a whole and not his ego. Even if he wasn't a member of the leadership group, we'd still expect him to provide leadership. In the same way, I expect Lewis to provide leadership, without (potentially) being in next year's leadership group.

Gawn (co-captain), Viney (co-captain), Jones (co-vice-captain), Jetta (co-vice-captain),Tom McDonald. Apologies to Lever and May. I'd look at them coming in to the leadership group from 2020 onwards, probably at the expense of Jones (if he retires) or simply as an extension of the leadership group.

Rather than looking at who becomes a FA in 2019, it might be better looking across the competition at who becomes one in 2020. Clubs who cannot get those FA's to sign by the end of next season will look to trade ala Hogan, May, Shiel etc. Does anyone have a list of those who become FAs in 2020? I think we should continually look to add to our team. Oliver, Brayshaw and co will be well looked after, but we must instil a want to take unders in order to keep the list together. It will also enable us to continue to bring in players that fill a gap in our list. And although we've got quite a well balanced list now, in two years time we'll need further midfield depth (with the likes of Jones and Lewis gone) and our backline will also be on the older side. Now that we've drafted our elite midfield talent (everyone under 25), the next 5-8 years should see us follow the above strategy of topping up.

Well, if driving to a local cafe is considered 'travel', I'm pretty sure I found myself following @Demon Disciple in his car today. His avatar stuck on the back of his window and a 2018 membership sticker nearby. Surely? Very random.

I'd argue we got May as a result of FA. As @Fifty-5 says above, clubs are trading players before they get to FA status. May is certainly partly in this boat.

Hang on. Not shooting you down here, Moonman, but Jesse "never felt fully accepted" at Melbourne? Surely not. And if there is even a skerric of truth in it, I wonder if it might have been because he never committed long-term?

I've never tried one of these, but here goes... 1. West Coast 2. Richmond 3. Melbourne 4. Essendon 5. Collingwood 6. GWS 7. Hawthorn 8. Adelaide 9. Port Adelaide 10. Sydney 11. North Melbourne 12. Geelong 13. St Kilda 14. Brisbane 15. Fremantle 16. Bulldogs 17. Carlton 18. Gold Coast I reckon Essendon are going to do a lot of damage next year and I think Sydney, despite their record, will take a tumble.

It's incredible how many left footers we have in the likely 22 now. I remember when we used to lament our lack of left footers and how this often gave Hawthorn an advantage. May, Salem, Lewis, Viney, KK, Hibberd, Hannan and Fritsch, with Wagner on the outside of the 22. Eight out of 22 is the second most in the comp, alongside North, who just traded in three and the Bulldogs, who traded in one. Amazingly, it's St Kilda who now lead the comp with nine (having traded in two this off season). The next closest is Hawthorn (who also added two left footers in Scully and WIngard) and Collingwood with 7 too.

Obviously, the FD would have preferred to keep Jesse and extend his contract long-term, so there'll be a certain amount of testing the waters next year to strike the right combination. Jesse's incredible ability to come straight in and perform from day-dot is rare and it's taken Weideman a little longer. The beauty of having Jesse on the list (aside from the obvious reasons) is he protected Weideman's development. Now Sammy will have to take that step up next year. The spotlight is firmly focused on him. That does make some players, let's hope he can build on his form in front of two successive 90,000+ crowds in big pressure finals, but there's certainly a possibility he might still be a year or two off. I just think it's important to remember as supporters that I'm sure in a perfect world, our list management team would have Jesse lining up next year in the red and blue, but that's not the case, so we work with what we have. Fortunately, we do have cover for his position.

Won't make it. Bookmark it. Same as Frost. Got no game sense. Is hard at it, but a liability by foot and his decision making is so-so.

I reckon the idea of putting May forward is akin to putting Tom McDonald back. It's not going to happen. Particularly, as we've just paid an early first rounder for him to strengthen our defence. He's a better player than OMac or Frost, so he's already in before them.

Helps when you're on the good stuff, mate.

Wowza. Look at the leaderboard. Lynch at Richmond, KK and May at Melbourne, Dixon at Port, Hall at North, Saad at Essendon, Ablett at Geelong and Matera at Freo. Two players from the top 10 left. Crazy list changes. Just shows you, doesn't matter about having all the talent in the world, if your coaching, development and game plan is no good and your culture is putrid, nothing good will come of it.