Adam The God

I'd certainly have a word with his management. We can offer a lot more than North in terms of top 8 potential and we're equally based in Melbourne, so if it's about a money increase and moving to Victoria, we can tick a couple of boxes. $600k is a lot more than he'll get at GWS.

I'd be offering Kelly no more than $600k. Good player, could play an important role at Melbourne, but he's not worth paying anymore than that. $800k is absurd. That's a sure fire way to demolish all the good list management over the past 3 years.

Yep, I agree, mate. The Stringer model. Oliver, Viney, Tyson, Brayshaw and Salem gives us plenty of elite talent to vie for starting mid positions once Jones, Lewis and Vince hang up the boots. Petracca, Hogan and Watts for bursts as well.

I'm surprised very little has been made of Oliver's stats in comparison to any other midfielder in the modern era. He has better stats than Greg Williams at this point...

Still remember that great contested grab in his first game against Ward. That's my favourite Clarry mark, but the Essendon one was a beauty too.

I maintain I said it first. Haha.

How was I wrong here? I said he wouldn't go out...

His mark today reminded me of his contested mark on the wing in his first game. It was taken on the GWS captain, Ward. Very Michael Voss too.

Agreed, mate. I think often people feel like they have to point out an area of focus to work on, but I think this is misplaced.

I was born in 1987, so only saw videos of Robbie.

I think he had 28 touches to three quarter time, so had 4 touches for the last. Haven't been able to confirm that anywhere though. I don't. I yell it out and commentate his every disposal. He's a genius. The most exciting footballer I've ever watched in a Melbourne jumper. Ahead of Jesse, Hunt, the Wiz, Davey, Gaz, Schwarz and for a short time, Jackovich.

In Cripps' breakout season (2015), he had x4 30+ disposal games. x7 30+ disposal games in 2016. In Rockliff's breakout season (2010), he had x3 30+ disposal games. It's also worth noting Clarry's CPs are a lot higher than Rockliff's were at the same time. There is a similar correlation between Cripps' CPs and Clarry's though. I'd argue Oliver's breakout has been this season, rather than last, so he's taken slightly more games to hit 30+ disposals, but is now doing it with such regularity that he's having a steeper climb in form that than other two and being more consistent about it. But, we're only 5 games in. It'll be interesting to see how he tracks this year.

I know we keep going on about what a special talent we have, but statistically, he's currently tracking better than any other midfielder in the modern game (post 1990). He's on par with Greg Williams, regularly cited as one of the best midfielders of all time, and who started in the 1980's, so I won't count him. His hands are Williams-like and his kicking is strong. Just his ability to be so clean in the wet the other night, said so much about his talents.

Aliir Aliir, as has been mentioned, would suit our system to a tee. I reckon we could play Aliir Aliir, Tom McDonald and Sam Frost in the same backline, as long as a wise head like Lewis, backed by Jetta and Hibberd. A good mixture of experience, pace, height, good ball use and offensive-mindedness. Jones has improved, but would much prefer Aliir and he suits our needs a lot better.

Completely agree with this.

Yep, probably, but where does that put Kent? If he got the same attention as Dom, people would be saying he'd never play again. Despite his brainfades, even ANB has been improving. Harmes is a more solid player this year too. If we can convert some of these C graders into solid B graders, we'll be ready to challenge come 2018. Until then, we have to back in our FD and that goes for Tyson and Viney's development too.

He's had a history of slowly working into seasons off the back of reduced pre seasons, so I'd say there is a relevance. As much as we'd like our 70+ gamers to be hitting their straps right now, sometimes the reduced pre season does impact on their ability. His kicking the other night was probably the worst I'd seen for the season, but his hands were cleaner. Tyson is in exactly the same basket as Viney is. He needs to work on his disposal and his decision making. But both players are doing the team things and tackling. It doesn't bother me that you don't rate the tackle stat, but I can assure you the FD do. That's why turnover merchants like ANB keep getting games and why JKH is likely to get another game too.

He's coming off an injury interrupted pre-season and is getting involved despite really struggling. His ceiling is a lot higher than he's given credit for. It's tiresome reading the same posts over and over again, so that's me done for this thread. We'll agree to disagree. You've got your thread to talk about Tyson. Now it won't need to be brought up in every second thread.

Averages 24.8 disposals, 5 tackles and is going at 65% DE. His DE is the lowest of our mids and he's not scoring goals. They are the two things he needs to work on. The knocks on his defensive game are a myth. The only way he goes out this season is for his DE. I can't see it being this week.

This is a distinct possibility... Round 1 - C Oliver, 3 votes. Round 2 - C Oliver, 3 votes. Round 3 - C Oliver, 0 votes. Round 4 - C Oliver, 1 vote. Round 5 - C Oliver, 3 votes. 10 votes to Round 5 is gettable. Staggeringly good for a second year player. He's in the same basket as Hogan - a statistical anomaly.

I think when you really know your brand and every player understands what is expected of them and what they have to do to complete their role for the team, weaknesses are a lot easier to counter and work on. If a player like Harmes can improved his DE (a statistic that I'm not fond of, but I think says something in the case of Harmes and Tyson), he becomes an invaluable contributor and another Jason Taylor genius pluck from nowhere. If we can get our 'system' up and running, I'll back Taylor's ability to give us 4 or 5 plug and plays almost every year. With the coaching team we currently have, I'm confident our guys are receiving the right advice to continually improve on their game. Just back on Harmes too. I suspect his ability to know his body is what's holding him back just at the minute. When he turned it over at one stage against Freo, that was after he'd covered a lot of ground running hard to get involved. Get his fitness right and an ability to know when to steady and ensure he hits his target (ie. experience), will make him a much, much better player. We will see and it's one of the reasons I'm finding the 2017 season so exciting. We're seeing incremental development across our entire list. So much so that when a player seems to be struggling, they stick out like a sore thumb (Tyson's DE% and Brayshaw's inability to find the footy).

I think we judge young players incredibly harshly these days. Especially, when you think of some of the greats of the game. Blokes like Judd and Ablett weren't tearing it up in their first seasons. It took them 5 and 6 years respectively before they reached even a good, consistent player status. KPPs take even longer, as we've seen on countless occasions and yet people get frustrated that these young guys aren't immediately delivering. Jesse Hogan is not the norm. Clayton Oliver is not the norm. I understand it's frustrating when you see Sam running around and struggling to impact on the game and I share your sentiments, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's due time down at Casey or that he'll never make it. He needs time at AFL level and a base level for Weed should be his Round 1 performance. As PD has said a few times, he averaged acceptable numbers alongside Hogan in the first two weeks. This is the base level that Sam must achieve each week, but we've seen how much a talent like Darcy Moore has struggled without the foil of Cloke beside him. The same could be said of Weideman minus Hogan over the past fortnight. Let's keep things in perspective here. And that goes for the knocks on Brayshaw as well.

Far be it for me to be an apologist, but the corkie was clearly hampering him, Red.

I'd rather a decent KPF than a small forward. Sorry.

For me, our ideal future midfield is Oliver, Salem, Petracca, with Brayshaw on a half back flank and rotating into the middle, as Petracca goes forward. That is some serious talent, good ball use and x-factor. They could be our Mitchell, Lewis and Hodge. If we can get another A grade mid from elsewhere that takes the pressure of these guys as they develop, we are going to have a seriously A grade midfield in 2-3 seasons.