Little Goffy

I always rated Brett Ratten right from when he had a great effect on our midfield waaaaay back in the day. Possibly even under Daniher! He has also clearly done great work getting St Kilda organised and focused and competitive, making the most of a list with few stars but I'd argue reasonably even quality with a short 'tail'. BUT Before starting at St Kilda he had a six year term as a senior coach, and for all that he clearly was a good coach it still took him five years to win his first final. His winning percentage over those six years was coincidentally almost exactly that of Goodwin's so far at Melbourne. So I would argue it is perfectly reasonable for Goodwin to have 2021 to prove he has learnt more about this coaching caper. I'd also say that based on our (and Simon's) known/apparent deficiencies, Adem Yze would be a sublimely well-matched assistant/sparring partner for Goodwin.

Great signing. 188cm defenders with good mobility, game sense and kicking do not grow on trees. I don't know if Rivers will be the 'best' of the three 2019 picks, but I'm not sure 'best' will be a sensible way to look at them when they are three such completely different types each very suited the role they will be expected to develop into.

Don't forget Dom Tyson.

Basically, what @Lord Nev said. From kicking/goalkicking specialist, to versatile line coach, to match day strategy. Is a legitimately desirable target. https://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/710789/yze-promoted-to-assistant-coach "Yze played a key role in harnessing the Hawthorn players' elite kicking skills as they developed into the AFL's deadliest team in front of goal over the past two seasons. Since 2010, the team's accuracy has soared from 48 per cent to 57.1 per cent." https://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/227910/adem-yze "Yze was promoted to Assistant Coach at the end of 2014 after establishing himself as a respected teacher at Hawthorn. ... After four years as a line coach, Yze shifts into the role of 'Head of Match Day Strategy & Opposition' in 2019."

Wouldn't be the first time that has meant coming to the Demons!

??????? Look at all those chickens! Although even if they do all hatch, I'm worry we'd be feeding a couple of cuckoos int here to. And that's my quota of bird metaphors done for October.

I just showed my wife some highlights videos of Yze and she quickly noted, "Oh, he is in Fritsch's spot" because of all the close-to-the boundary 40-out beauties Yze was slotting. A theory is born - Yze is coming to Melbourne specifically to sort out Fritsch's kicking. Worth noting - in his third season Yze kick 9.16, so he knows how to miss and knows how to correct the problem.

It would be acceptable to me if he left to refresh his career, and I'd expect only minimal trade return, but can people not throw abuse at the guy? Seriously, act like adults. There would be a question on our defensive depth but who knows, maybe the plan is to send his brother back there. T.Mac had a couple of seasons in defence almost as good as his 2018 in attack. Maybe being relieved of the pressure thanks to May and Lever being the 'stars' will freshen him up.

You didn't say it had to be real! You said 'real or fake I don't care!' And now the experiment is ruined, unless Sam McClure has already tweeted it...

Darcy Fogarty may do better at a new club and Adelaide is considering letting him go; Pick 23 (with some decorative swapping) and Neal-Bullen are a possible start point of discussion but perceptions of his value are highly variable, both positive and negative. If Essendon lose Daniher as expected, compounding their problem of aging talls at both ends of the ground, they may opt for a single trade to acquire both McDonald brothers. My understanding is the Bomber's and their supporters aren't willing to bottom out completely for a rebuild cycle so they are willing to bring in mature 'meat and potatoes' to help with depth and competitiveness. (Behavioural economists call it the 'sunk costs fallacy') Possibility of a pretty complex three-way trade involving Brisbane's Alex Witherden coming to Melbourne and all kinds of junk late picks flying around for Academy points etc. Melbourne is seriously considering 'opting out' of the draft if they can't manipulate a way well inside the first round and just keeping very late speculative picks given the chaos of the year, with the focus on known 'natural footballers' rather than finessing the athletes and potential. Already a lot of effort invested in 2021 where we are hoping to use fewer but 'better' picks.

His dramatic improvement thanks to manifestly superior coaching certainly is notable. In just one year he's gone from 9th B&F in a bottom four team to 7th B&F in a bottom four team. Best of luck to him and there's every reason to believe he'll crank out three or four more seasons of respectable football, but there's nothing of great importance to Melbourne in this. Just be happy that Frostball didn't propel Hawthorn back up the ladder and we've now got (Hawthorn's) pick 23 in this draft thanks to the trade.

Maybe I have an aversion to North players, but I thoroughly don't want either of Brown or Polec. Both would be on far more coin than their real value and both have the real potential to stink it up and in the process break morale at the club.

Slightly surprised at the sheer volume of movement from Weideman. At least we know total workrate isn't a problem. No doubt he still needs to find that last aggressive step more consistently but it is of intetest to note that he's ahead of Ben Brown on basically every stat in 2020. Salem is starting to build a case as the consummate all-round professional. If you got six Christian Salems from the mid-first round of six drafts you'd be laughing.

Even if WA has gone a bit neurotic asking people to quarantine when they have been isolated for months AND constantly tested AND only been in low-risk states... Hogan still is accountable. Just glad the matter itself seems very minor. It ought to be handled as any other breach, and that actually seems to be how it is going. Be funny if the restrictions are lifted a bit for new arrivals the next couple of days but Hogan still has to spend another week+ getting cabin fever.

I've always liked Nibbler and he played a non-trivial part in our 2018 surge but he is in the clutter group where we have numerous options. I think his presence on the fringe creates too much tempation to give him a run in a role where we actually need 'fewer but better' rather than 'lots of okay'. While acknowledging the 'Steven Armstrong rule', Neal-Bullen isn't going to make or break our 2021 finals campaign. Would happily and respectfully welcome a trade that suited him.

The trouble with delisting Oscar McDonald is he is our third best key position defender. Necessary depth at this time. Even if Tomlinson does move primarily to defence I can't see him as a true 'key defender' A similar argument could be made for persevering with Tom McDonald except he is on at least double, perhaps three times as much money as he's worth if all he is is a depth player who might regain form 'some day'. If we're delisting from defence, surely Joel Smith if finished back there. He's either moving to the forward line in 2021 or out the door.

I think players like Harley Bennell are (yet another of the many excellent) one of the reasons supporting the case for significantly upgrading the resources and profile of the second-tier competitions. There are many hugely talented players who are a joy to watch but who lack either the 'completeness', temperament or fanatical level of professionalism needed to play at the top 0.1% level. Imagine the magnificent teams you could assemble from the not-quite crowd.

Had an impressive 2018 but didn't back it up. He's practically a Demon already. What really bakes my potatoes about Ronke is that he laid ten tackles to go with those 7 goals. It would have to be one of the best single games by a small forward, ever. I can't recall but wasn't it also 7 goals, no behinds? If it was the draft and we were talking about a kid who had only shown glimpses but those glimpses were the best TAC games ever, and he was still available in the third round... For what it's worth I think his 2020 was written off by injury, take that as a positive that he hasn't had the chance to show maturity, or a negative that's he's buggered his hips or somethingand will never get back the agility he needs. I say pick the kid up cheap and feed him to Burgess and see what gets spat out.

Yes, they would be wanting some strong bodies to support Cripps, absolutely no would they be offering up either of their two potentially gun key forwards. After McKay and Curnow they've got McGovern and Casboult then fringe players. Their game style also loves being able to push a long leading tall well out on a long lead to then bang it to another tall target inside 50, so there's plenty of room in their forward line. What Carlton would like in the middle is a couple more Ed Curnows on the cheap, not any need for more outright guns. A couple of years ago we might have been able to slip the Dom Tyson for something handy, but right now we actually don't have much in the way of strong, mature-bodied midfielders who are supportive grinders rather than centre of attention.

Jack Viney plays his best football when he is assigned a clear defensive task and then counterattacks when the opportunities come. It focuses him and also minimises the weakness of his 'impulsive' ball use because the occasions when a tagger gets the ball are rarely part of plan A. Put him on the opposition's best and/or softest inside ball user and tell him to dominate that opponent. When he's not doing that, put him up forward and tell him to hunt at will and to be as impulsive as he wants. Do it right and we'll be talking about Mitch Wallis as the proverbial poor man's Jack Viney.

Demons are into Ben Ronke as part of deal for Preuss.

No, no, I am just noting that there has never been a time when there have not been rumours about Jesse Hogan. I know nothing and, I expect, that's as much as almost anyone else!

Rumours about Jesse Hogan. Less well known of Newton's Laws and one of the least useful of the 'universal constants' in physics.

My spouse-person refers to T Mac as 'Luther' from Umbrella academy. I would certainly understand him wanting to leave if the changes to his body shape are due to being injected with chimp-serum. That's Essendon-level stuff.

The tackling is definitely an issue and more generally we make quite a few mistakes or ineffectual efforts when we are in that close physical zone as defenders. Throwing ourselves at players we should be impeding, over-committing to tackles, or simply chasing to where the opponent is instead of moving to intercept. This is definitely something that can be coached, so, add to the shopping list 'tackling and pressure coach'. On the principle of send a thief to catch a thief, someone like Sam Mitchell might be an interesting person to approach as a specialist consultant.