Adam The God

Yep, we'd have to trade, but if we can convince him to nominate us, that'll go a long way to a deal being done. Given our good trading history with GWS, I reckon we could get the deal done. The way they're intent on spreading the age of their list, I wonder if GWS would take our next two first rounders? At this point, I'd back Jason Taylor with second and third round picks to keep improving our list.

Agree with the sentiment, Moonie, but not the targets. I'd be having a big crack at a Dylan Shiel (he is out of contract at the end of 2017). Quick, ball magnet, perfect age bracket (ready to explode) and disposal is improving. Dusty and Fyfe are too expensive and Shiel is two years younger than both.

Tells me Adelaide's midfield works a lot harder than ours. As our midfield progresses, and it's making great gains, we'll find Oscar becomes even sturdier as a defender. He stills plays a bit like ANB, in that he can panic, but I suspect that's an experience thing.

Slightly digressional, but Stretch's speedy development is something that has far exceeded expectations, surely? His sound decision-making and speed add so much to our midfield. I hadn't previously included him in the same conversation as Oliver, Viney, Tyson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Jones, Lewis, Salem and Vince, but he now sits alongside them and compliments them well. He had a terrific first half yesterday (aside from one costly clanger). What he's now adding to his game is the ability to find the ball consistently. He gets himself into good positions, which makes the opposition accountable.

It's worth noting that even in a game where he started with a hard tag and wasn't at his best, he still managed 28 disposals, 5 clearances (equal third most on the ground) and 8 tackles (third most on the ground). He is going to be a super, super player.

I reckon he was tagged during the second and early part of the third last week.

Not gonna happen. Carlton will want two top picks for Gibbs and will probably not want Bugg, despite SOS' involvement.

I'd also add that he's a lot better kick than this article gives him credit for.

And then it looks like ANB falls out of the bin...

Brayshaw was ordinary on the weekend, but he's being played out of position and will be a very good player when he gets a run at it. He showed this in the middle towards the back end of last year. If you're going after Lever, it's draft picks. You don't take from the midfield we're building. We still need to strengthen the midfield, so taking another player from that area is stooopid.

Nope, unfortunately. Upon reflection, I just can't see us satisfying the Crows. We might be able to convince Lever, but can't see the Crows coming to the table.

I still reckon we need a big A grade midfield acquisition, but adding Lever's composure to our backline would be massive. Maybe it's a case of putting up our first rounder this year and a future first rounder to acquire Kelly and Lever? If we could manage that somehow, we'd be a real shot at the top 4 next year.

Once they knew he wanted to go, they used it as an opportunity to spread the age of their list. But make no mistake, he would have been a massive loss for most clubs and may still prove to be a massive loss for GWS. And yes, his kicking is his weakness, but it's also the weakness of a lot of A graders.

Who was he behind out of interest? Just want to brag about him to my Carlton mate, unless it was Cripps that garnered more votes.

Bingo.

I think some are certainly catching on. If Oliver turns it on again tomorrow, there'll be no hiding it.

He seems to be playing high half forward as you say and historically he's struggled there a little bit, but seems to have some intensity in this position this year. I'm hoping he gets some midfield minutes soon. He was dominant for a period against the Saints last year when playing in the guts.

I want Gus to really lift his game this year. He's fallen behind a little bit.

I'm slow to the party, but his finals series last year swayed me and he's started beautifully this year.

I just wonder whether their easy draw last year covered up a few cracks in their drafting. They're certainly well coached, but my question over them has always been their lack of midfield depth.

Agree to disagree then about Bont.

The Bont is now elite IMO.

I think what will propel us up the ladder sooner than was anticipated is if we can develop the Hannan types into B graders. As long as our Hogan's, Oliver's, Petracca's and Brayshaw's continue to improve every couple of games and begin to show consistency, the lower picks like Hunt and Hannan fill the holes we'd otherwise have in our bottom six. Most people use the bottom 6 of a best 22 to decide the fate of a football team. Our current interchangable bottom 6 would be: ANB/Kent, Hannan/Kennedy/JKH, Frost/Smith/Garland, Weideman/Pedersen, Bugg/Vandenberg and White. Now if ANB can provide Kent with decent competition for that half forward role our forwardline is immediately improved and harder to match up on. If Hannan develops into a good player and JKH can show us something to put pressure on Hannan, that's another string for our forwardline. If Frost and Smith get a good run at the third defender role without injuries, our defence will look a lot stronger. If Weideman continues to develop and starts to clunk some of those marks, Hogan, Watts and Weideman are a tall and mobile set of key forwards who could get in top of most defences. So looking at the remaining guys from above, it means our bottom 3 or 4, particularly with injuries are still a worry. But with another trade/draft season or two, those holes should be filled. If we can make our 2017 picks count and get lucky with a talented FA sometime in the next two years, we'll be superbly positioned in 2018-2019 to make an assault on the flag. As PD says, Kelly would be the perfect addition to our midfield, although I worry about his hardness. I'd like to see how Dion Johnstone develops, because he could also be the answer to our small forward problems. But looking through this bottom 6 shows me that we really have assembled an exciting list.

I'm excited by Petracca's potential and Stringer may not be elite, but as he showed last night he's a gamebreaker. If Petracca gets to his level, we've got a good player on our hands. Petracca's ceiling is marginally higher, because his skills are better than Stringer's for mine. Having said that, Oliver is comfortably ahead at this stage.

Not many of those. Tommy Mac does, but most KPDs aren't great set up players. They mostly just defend brilliantly. Rance is a decent set up player, but I take your comment to infer you want a Rance with Suckling-like disposal. Pretty damn rare. I think we'd be stoked to get a Frawley equivalent, which is around where we selected Frawley anyway. But I reckon judging by Goody's comments last year, we'd prefer the extra quality mid and would look to develop role players for our defensive zone as plug and plays (ie Frost and McDonald type athletes).