Little Goffy

Poor Goodwin, like being dumped by your partner and moving to a new home for a fresh start, only to find your teenage brat already has a key. Whoa, Petracca is a great player and his 2021-2023 rivals Martin, but Martin 'does it himself' in ways that Petracca lacks the mobility and skills to do. Trac is a powerful component of a unit, while Martin actively changes the scenario and allows multiple other players to be 'good ordinary' role players. Martin is more like a 200% Melksham. That said, at his best 2021-2023, Trac's contribution was as effective for the team as Martin's was for Richmond, and plugging even post-spleen Petracca into a midifeld with Anderson, Rowell and Touk Miller is an awful prospect for all opponents. It is just as well Gold Coast will have their depth thinned a little since both Flanders and Humphrey are obviously coming to us. (wink wink oink oink)

Just going to add a bit of a pre-season and rookie draft supplement because a few solid names have been left out. 2010 Bachaer Houli, Michael Hibberd, Luke Dalhouse, Jasson Johhannnissen, Jeremy McGovern 2011 Sam Frost, Rory Laird, Jack Crisp, Mark Blicavs, Harry Cunningham, Jaeger O'meara (mini) 2012 Dane Rampe, Jack Martin (mini), Jesse Hogan (mini) 2013 James Harmes, Charlie Cameron, 2014 Jack Sinclair, Jayden Short, Adam Saad, Jason Castagna, Nic Newman, 2015 Tom Papley, Dan Houston

Yeah, but how important can they really be if you can't even spell three of them?

Adding all the mooted trades to the existing delistings, we would actually be going into 2026 as an exceptionally young team. May 33, Trac 29, Oliver 28, Billings 30, Spargo 25, Fullerton 26, Hore 29, and then fragments from the younger delistings. Realistically that's an entire year taken off our average age, even if a few we bring in are a bit over-age.

I'm fascinated by what our new midfield and wings might look like. Viney and Sparrow the only full-time insiders with the traditional body type to grind in the pack. Salem is a mature body and has always been chunkier than he seems. He's not fast enough to be in the open all day, so maybe the role move is finally on. Picket and Rivers have both spent time in the middle, sometimes with great effect. Both could spend significant time there in '26 and bring nice diversity of match ups. Of the youngsters; Culley might be a big enough body and able to contribute as a taller inside mid more often in 26. Langford you'd imagine will spend incrementally more time in the thick of it but you wouldn't want to rob him of his creative role too quickly. Lindsay and Windsor have also shown they aren't going to shirk it when it is their turn, but you wouldn't want them bashing around for too much of the day. Tholstrup might enjoy time in the chaos of it, but that can only be called a loose maybe as far as becoming a regular in the inside mix. Unless we have some special secret weapon coming in under the radar, it looks like our midfield will be defined by two heavily defensive insiders, then Pickett, Salem, Rivers, and a five talented kids given permission to take turns in there to be bold and have fun. Oh. I'm okay with that, actually. Especially if it is going to free up around 2mil in salary cap each year even after we subsidise some of it for new clubs. What the... when did I become an expert at talking myself into optimism? My own mother wouldn't recognise me.

The club has suffered heavily for trying to be extra nice to high maintenance players. Break ups are always hard but the extra time and attention available for everyone else with May, Trac and Oliver out the door will be priceless. Controversial statement; in the end, losing Gus and Nibbler will have hurt the club more than losing these three.

Awesome, I'm still in the game. Just need to switch from my anthropologist host to my ecologist hat. At this point his environmental management plan resembles a widespread controlled burn! Is this 'veil of negativity' clean out version 2?

Feels genuinely odd being thanked by someone (or more accurately an entity) to whom/to which I feel genuinely grateful to. One day I'll be rich and will slip you a fifty. For now, just bask in the glory of knowing Demonland is one of few online activities which survived the birth of my son. Does that make you family?

An alternative for these times, hmm... "Biologically cancelled." Wait.. I had an actual reason to be on this thread! The removal of the sub rule and introduction of a 23rd player; How will this affect Max Heath and in particular Tom Campbell. Do we expect to see Campbell adding his mighty jawline to our forward mix for long periods to ease our total rotations, covering some rucking in the forward line to minimise the risks of Gawn taking a shot on goal? And in all seriousness, would the list managers have known this fundamental change in the value of a variety of players was coming?

If Trac went to Freo maybe we could get Andrew Brayshaw in and finally be able to put some players back into the 'Brayshaw's Mum' development program. How we kept her off the soft cap books is a mystery almost as troubling as the Bellarine farms.

I'll take Butters, Walsh, Zac Bailey and Ben King. Not one of - all of. Enough run to overwhelm anyone anywhere, and a lump of a forward waiting for the ball to arrive. Probably about $6m/season between them, but hey who is counting?

There's something really iffy about a spouse whose actual job is full-time social media marketer of their partner. "Honey, I need your nonna to come up with some trendier classic family recipes".

To do what his instinct wants to do he needs to be that little bit stronger and that little bit fitter. 'Needs a good preseason' is a cliche but Tholstrup is emblematic of just how much more we should hope for and demand from our 2nd to 4th year players going into 2026. If they catch that energy as a group, we go big and player movement is all just blah blah blah blah.

"The expert at getting the enemy to make his move shows himself and the enemy is certain to follow. In doing so he moves the enemy, and lies in wait for him with his full force" Trac, go get us a Josh Kennedy.

For some reason that draft became a personal curiosity for me. It wasn't weak as such, but a funny 'shape'. The top dozen were looking great (and have for the most part fulfilled that promise) and then it got very even. After all, Sparrow and Jordon are among the most games played outside that top dozen or so. I'm sure we were banking on improvement, which thankfully came, but also there were three academy picks in the first round, and Gold Coast got pick 3 as compensation for free agent Lynch, so our traded pick ended up being pick 19, Liam Stoker for Carlton. From Pick 14 to 32, ten players are already delisted, and only five have played a hundred games, which includes Tom Sparrow. The late first round into the second round was kind of a soft belly. Not all of that could have been predicted, but the probabilities would have been considered. Anyway, just for amusement's sake, how much would you expect a discount to trade picks from 2001 for picks in 2003? Now that's a banger and a clanger!

The Jake Lever trade! You definitely have seen a club throw in extra on-paper draft pick value because the draft in question was expected to be weak. We really looked like we paid significant 'overs' for Lever but in the end, no regrets.

I'd be happy to have Flanders but not at anything like the rumoured 900k. Saints welcome to have him for pick 7. Similar and better players available as free agents next season and that's where I'd want us to be going hard with that kind of cap space.

How much do we need to win by to take Essendon one step closer to folding as a club?

I am convinced it is a pattern. 'Normal' progress can get a team into contention and build a great list, but the extra push to Premierships, and obviously dynasties, needs to come from a burst of kids brought into that 'contending' environment and attitude. Obvious singular examples are Selwood and Rioli, while the biggest would have to be the double-surge Richmond got from simultaneously trading very well and nailing a couple of drafts. Richmond went from a bit of a joke where only 15 players total had shared any spots in the B&f for seven seasons and their position had hovered between okay and insignificant... to a historically notable run of dominance. Quick tangent - aside from Martin, Richmond didn't do all that well in the early draft rounds for almost a decade prior to their premiershi. The 2014 draft which changed their whole game plan with Butler, Short, Castagna and Lambert only started striking gold (or at least a lot of good silver) by round 3 and later. See also Jackson, Pickett, Rivers, of course. Without making too much of a fuss of it, this is also why the excessive academy perks are such a problem. The chances of a "nepo baby" club getting a big extra boost when already a contender is far out of proportion to other clubs.

Seven disposals, 2 marks, 10 hitouts and 1 clearance a game at just 34 years and 6 months. He's like the reverse Luke Jackson. We should take him if someone offers us two first rounders to do so.

The cruel and entirely appropriate response would be to point out that their most pressing need is a consistent gun midfielder with great leadership who can unite the team. Besides, pretty sure Zac Bailey is coming to us as a free agent at the end of next season.

Unless we move a genuine big fish and place ourselves in the very top handful of picks, surely this draft is mostly about White, Sinnema, and the Cat B rookie whose name I've forgotten. Possibly even Yze Jr at the very back end. Eight(?) players out already, being a mix of young players who never quite got there, and recycled players who never quite got there. May would make it nine and be a variation on the theme. Couple of 'AFL grade but depth' players coming into the recycled churn, though these seem more based on evidence than the mere hope of some of our recent acquisitions, and perhaps Flanders at a much higher price. How is this a McVee post? Hmm, I guess I'm just mentally mixing his apparent departure with a bigger picture of a major list turnover. Who knows, it could all boil down to being reduced to depth behind Salem, Flanders, Rivers, Lindsay and Windsor, with the prospect of 2026 free agents like Butters and Walsh making the 'tall running midfield and halfback' even more crowded. If King wants to make that our A-grade aspect, McVee isn't good enough at that, and if McVee doesn't want to be boxed into the mid-sized hard defender role, yep, he'd want to move. Put another way, perhaps McVee wants to be 2017 all-Australian Micheal Hibberd, but the club wants him to be 2021 premiership Michael Hibberd.

Given every advantage short of the nepo-baby academies, on and off the books, and have an unmistakably exceptional list, but have fallen short so many times. Geelong's motto should be The Spirit of 2008!

Starting to look like a discount brand Tom Scully situation. Miserable experience and disruptive to the club, but in the end he is not a crucial player. I'd still be happy if it turned out Cal Twomey had it wrong. I suspect a Jeremy Howe style mirage would strike him, where he thinks he is going to fill Fyfe's role, but actually replaces Aish.

The 'inside bulls who feed it to the users' conception is a trap. The lesson of Terry Wallace's Tigers struck me deep - his 'types' became pigeon holes and the moment any cog in the machine wasn't in its exact place, the whole thing [censored] up. Neither Petracca nor Oliver nor Viney are excellent users outside of the clearance chaos, but we've seen the power that can come even from a 'clumsy' but direct and dominant set of clearances. Also worth noting that our big run to glory rode a wave where Petracca and Oliver both had significantly good form on their disposal efficiency - whether because the team systems worked or because they just had their eye in for that time, I won't say. But, putting it all together - Petracca is a powerful inside midfield extractor who also drives the ball forward effectively, whether or not it looks pretty every time. That is tactically invaluable for any team, and any coach.