Adam The God

Unless Wines is willing to come back to Victoria for less money, there's no way he'll come here. Our list strategy has been pretty clear for the past 4 years. Draft and develop from within, trade for needs. As much as Wines would walk into our midfield, we can do without him and we have more pressing needs, such as securing a plethora of young guns to long term deals.

I was speaking to a mate whose cousin is an up and comer at one of the big Melbourne based clubs and apparently many of the year 1 to 4 players are on between $150-250k, even with the new CBA. So I reckon our figures are all out of whack here. It's not as high as we'v always thought.

Love this thread. Am currently developing a doc series on youth mental health. Obviously, a massive issue. We need to talk about mental health and too much is left unsaid.

I also rate their list. Their midfield might not be as deep as ours, but it is chock full of elite talent. Reckon Daniher will win the Coleman in 2018 too.

Oldie but a goodie, mate. ?

Does anyone know how Spargo rated in the kicking test?

How the heck did I forget Jeffy? Anyway, add Jeffy to Hannan, Spargo and Petracca. And I'd agree about Weideman, but his leg speed is an issue in this sense IMO.

This is the key ingredient to the last two flag winners' success. Hogan and TMac are the talls, with Hannan, Petracca and a Spargo providing forward pressure. I'd consider moving Hunt forward at times again too. His pace and marking overhead are handy and as Richmond's smalls showed, if you work hard, tackle and tackle, and work to keep the ball in a dangerous area, you will eventually get just reward for your toils. One of the major deficiencies of Hogan's game I'd be looking to rectify over the off season is his inability to lay tackles or chase. He needs to build his tank and improve like that pill Riewoldt did. TMac has enough aerobic capacity to put enough pressure on too. Another pre season with Petracca will also hopefully see him improve in this pressure area. If our forwards can lock the ball in better and our backs can repel consistently (Lever helps in this regard enormously), we will finish top 4. Our midfield (with a fit Gawn) is dominant enough to beat any opposition. And if our forward pressure improves and Lever continues intercepting everything in sight, we really don't have many weaknesses.

Yeah, looking at his highlights, if there are any injuries back there, I'd say he'll get a look in if the FD are convinced he has the fitness base. The thing about Lever is he has been known to pick up a hammy or two. So there may well be a few games in 2018 that we can use to give Petty a look in.

It's a good point this, Daise, he may well be back up for Weideman as well.

Does anyone know much about him or seen him play? We seem to have a few scouting experts in these parts. Would be keen to hear their thoughts. Looking at his highlights package (I know, I know), he seems to read the ball beautifully and reminds me very much of our own Jake Lever. For a kid his age, his seeming ability to intercept mark is incredibly exciting. I only coach and I don't scout, but I don't recall too many young defenders with such an impressive intercept marking highlights package (outside of Weitering, who was always a top 3 rated kid).

Neither do I, but I really don't care. As long as we return to being a successful football club, the type of jumper we wear means little IMO. It doesn't bother the Manchester Uniteds or Liverpools of the sporting world and it shouldn't concern us. That is 21st century sport. Jog on.

My MFC/MCC membership rolled over earlier in the year, but the other membership numbers are certainly worrying. There should be no denying that.

Gee, Mahoney's hopeless.

My hope is that we turn 29 and 31 into a first rounder. Turn 66 into Balic. And take a first rounder, pick 36 and pick 47 to the draft.

It's crazy talk all this. Why are we even discussing the idea of player Lever anywhere else besides back? You don't bring in a gun forward and then try to work out ways to play him back or in the midfield. Play Lever in the bloody backline haha.

Yep, I remember reading that on here. That Roos wanted him as a big bodied mid.

So is Lever, unfortunately. Don't mess with it if it isn't broken. We've just paid an extremely high price to ensure we get our defensive lynchpin that sets up our backline. If we're looking for contingencies, I'd be looking at Schache or going to the draft. And we have Weideman developing.

Staggering that you'd want to move Lever anywhere else but back. Each to their own, but I'm extremely confident we'll be playing Lever permanently back.

How's that for a spine too? Elite talents in every area of the field, all in the same age bracket. It's a bit insane really. If Salem and Gus reach close to their potential, we are going to have a scary amount of elite talent. That's not even including the support crew of Hunt, Hibberd, Jetta and even Jones and Tyson. Very exciting. And all pretty much down to this current FD. The one some are [censored] on.

You really think the MFC didn't have a word in his ear about that? You're pretty naive if you missed that.

On the contrary, I'm sure he's getting a reputation for being someone who 'deals fair' and if ever karma was actually a thing, it'd be in AFL trading stakes. What goes around comes around. I can understand why some MFC supporters miss the obvious here though. Hope in the draft is about all we had for close to a decade.

I'm rapt too. Getting the deal done this early (comparatively for a standard trade fortnight) means we almost certainly have something else in the works. I reckon we're looking at packaging 2 or 3 second rounders to trade back into the first round this year. We'll then shop that first round pick around and if we fail to land anyone, take a top 20 pick to the draft. In terms of our list, our area of weakness is certainly our forwardline, but as Richmond have shown with their mosquito fleet, you can build a forward machine with speculative picks. For the moment, we need to keep building our engine room and adding that outside speed that you refer to. Hogan, McDonald, Garlett, Petracca are locks for the forward half and in 2018 Hannan will be around about too. We need some more speed and a goal sneak partner for Jeffy. Is that going to be DJ? Who knows. I'm not sure we'll be able to play Hogan, McDonald and Weideman in the same side. Not enough forward pressure, but we'll see.

Nope. And it was very noticeable, because he was a pivotal reason we struggled against them the second time. He's very Rance like. Sides have to keep it away from him otherwise his positioning and ability to spoil is so good that he kills the contest. Cannot wait to have him in the red and blue.