Little Goffy

I'm warming to the possibility of Jagga Smith making it to our first pick. I think there's a certain joy for mature mids like Petracca, Viney and Oliver to have a noticeably dynamic kid running through the chaos. "Look at the little bugger go!" I'm less worried than some about his relatively small size because he has that sinewy toughness as well as peripheral awareness that will let him ride the collisions efficiently. Plus, he seems to be having fun in there. I can picture him playing round 1 with some small forward time until Pickett returns, to get a taste, with permission to be chaotic, and see how he goes.

That estimate of 30% of the salary cap typically going to the top 6 players at each club really highlights a few things to me; The immense value to a club when a top player says 'you know what, at ten times a normal full-time professional salary, I think I'll worry a little less about money'. A 15% pay cut for a top player is the difference between the club recruiting fringe players and hoping for the best, or recruiting targeted quality to meet identified needs. In the middle of the range, I think 'good' players are a bit undervalued. You could probably have Fritsch, Rivers and Salem for the same price as one of Petracca or Oliver. There's an argument both ways, but I have this instinctive confidence that if you get a best 25 or so who are all credible AFL quality, stars will emerge. After all, Geelong went from ZERO All-Australian selections to NINE in the space of a single year. And then there's the value in having a long 'tail' of draftees. Even with late picks, the worst that happens is they spend 2 to 4 years on the list and never quite make it, all at bottom dollar freeing up cap space to target specific needs with trades, or to secure confirmed talent on the list. Meanwhile, a good draftee who can contribute effectively on field in their first few seasons is list management and salary cap gold, because at very young ages there is always a little bit of a lag before performance is fully reflected in their next contract. The most famous of those situations being Lance Franklin who signed a 'pretty good for a young tall' contract for just a few years and then promptly kicked 73 goals then 113 goals in his next two seasons. To have Franklin, Roughhead and Lewis all surge the way they did in their 3rd and 4th seasons was an enormous list management boost for the Hawks. It got them directly from 'just kids in a developing team' to 'let's take unders so we can stick together and be champions' so quickly that Hawthorn skipped the entire hardest chapter of the list management cycle. Well, that post blew out a bit, but this is a proper discussion thread so there's some proper discussion for ya!

Just to illustrate how intense the competition is for mature-bodied forwards is at the moment, Darcy Fogarty just signed a fresh contract taking him through to 2031 when he'll be 32 years old. He just had his best season, with 41 goals from 23 games, as well as 1.4 contested marks and 1.7 marks inside 50 per game. It is the only time he's cracked 40 goals in a season. Those numbers aren't exactly bringing the house down (and are only about 15% ahead of Van Rooyen despite the extra 4 seasons to build a key forward's body) but the value of even a generally competent forward target is so great it earned a six year contract into the twilight years.

I'm sure he means it in the Shakespearean sense.

There's an edge missing from the draft excitement for me. I just feel like it is going to be fine. More than fine. I'm not worried. My favourite feature in any given player in any given position is initiative. The Musashi Miyamoto state of mind where very action flows into the next action and all with clear purpose of 'cutting the enemy'. This draft is loaded with it - I'd say led by Jagga Smith but there's none which seem to be lacking in it.

Appreciate the effort made to lay out in full your understanding of the situation. With (of course) all the usual caveats about information on forums, I'm comfortable saying that if Gary Pert has been doing backgrounding and raising player trades without explicit consultation with the footy department then he has to be dismissed. The problem is sorting such facts from the white-anting campaign which has been the backdrop for all club politics for the last five years.

Careful Deestar9 or he'll put you in the punishment box.

Midway through the third and Essendon have now lost more percentage in this game than the remaining difference between us and them. Come on North, there are records to be broken!

'Live life like everyone you meet is a BFF at your pyjama party'.

I presume that's Alyssa Bananas?

Had a worrying slump for a while there but at her best she is a serious weapon.

IF you've been talking smack about a club for three months including numerous predictions of players leaving at any cost during the trade period. THEN you'd better be ready to throw it all in the memory hole real fast at the end of trade period.

Excellent! That'll about cover the round of drinks for everyone on Demonland who had to take extra heart medication for two weeks!

Goes at least as far back as Shane Woewodin to Collingwood. We needed to move him off our salary cap and were willing to still pay part of it just to get the rest clear. So that's 20 years that I know of. Definitely becoming more common recently.

@SthSea22 "Kozzy will officially ask for a trade to Port Adelaide this week Source is from someone who wouldn't b [censored] to me. Gave me the heads up due to me being a massive Dee. Have seen screenshots of the cover letter that had been written up by his Manager The wellbeing factor is the main reason to leave Melbourne DEVESTATED" "Announcement after the BnF lads Reading the comments from Tom Morris and then the direct feedback from Koz's fam confirms that i will never acknowledge what the media put up He is gone fellas." "Would you trust Morris or Koz himself? I'll come back to this comment next week when it's made official that he wants out Carlton will come into the discussion which will see Pick 11 head to us and Koz to PA." I won't shoot the messenger but if I had a horse I'd be storing the [censored] ready for your next visit.

Hi Just Koz, welcome to Demonland! I'm going to have a 'think out loud' about this; I feel like this problem has been clinging to the club for decades - since the Lyon-Shwartz-Neitz period the only exception was the brief moment in 2021 when we had all our tall forwards together for about 10 games and thumped our way to a premiership! I feel like we nearly nearly had the recipe in 2023 but there were simply too many injuries stacked on top of each other, and since then the forward line hasn't been able to find an effective rhythm. Optimistically, Van Rooyen and (when in form) Petty can both contest effectively and are both pretty good at getting around the ground. They're nicely balanced tall forwards. I'm confident about Van Rooyen's future but the 'when in form' part for Petty is a massive issue. Our tall forward group is now amazingly young with Petty the oldest at 24 and the others 20, 21 and 22. I agree that a mature hand would be helpful but when the names on offer are Darling, Lynch, Membrey and Stringer I'm just not getting enthusiastic. There's only a few free agents of interest for this area in 2025 and I don't hold high hopes for any of them moving. Oscar Allen only if he's willing to move across the country and take less money just to be away from the Eagles. Darcy Fogarty would depend on how the talls pecking order plays out at Adelaide, but with Walker surely finishing soon he's unlikely to be on the outer. Tom De Koning would be rolled gold if he was willing to be a forward first and ruck second and presumptive Gawn successor. But my main thought is that getting a key forward who is mature and effective is one of the hardest tasks in list management, and recruiting them from other clubs is seriously expensive. For now it looks like we're going to persevere with our kids and hope for a generation of home-grown talent to deliver, and that's not a bad decision but I do share your concerns.

To be fair to India's remarkable rail service, it is relatively few derailments per passenger-km and cargo volume km. In contrast, on some demonland threads the only sensation of movement at all is the derailments!

Pfft, I can easily run 2k in 2hrs, with ot without socks.

It isn't MFC related but I stumbled over this and felt a need to share a bit of vintage culture. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9mMg3jC6PQ/ From the very start where it looks like a Monty Python sketch to the end where you realise the guy is just 46 years old, it is magic.

Gold coast with two extra first round picks in 2025. What? Is their academy closing down? Clear winners out of this, not only in trade value. Can you imagine the joy of death-riding BOTH Port and Collingwood in the same season?

Amazing construction effort if true. Out that way $100m will only buy you about 15 houses.

I'm not going to go all gooey-eyed over 'athlete does training' in itself, but I am feeling positive about Petracca having this chance to reset mentally. That program goes into astonishing levels of analysis of breath, blood, wattage outputs and probably stool samples as well. They also have multiple cycles of previous records to refer to and give Trac feedback on every aspect of his body. To be away from routines, pushing yourself under precision monitoring and guidance, and getting instant feedback on how your body is going - it seems like an ideal way for any player to restore confidence after a major injury. Got to wonder if something like this should become a common offering for players almost like the concussion baseline test. Maybe the special feature of new players' second pre-season?

Someone at the club saw Clarrie's interview on Unlaced and thought deeply about the story from an early training session where Nathan Jones gave him a whack to the throat. That'll be Jones' main job; giving Clayton Oliver a regular whack to remind him he's in the AFL now.

Seems there are many 'midfielders who can also play forward' if that'll do. Murphy Reid is probably the standout mid+forward or forward+mid - constantly described as 'smart' 'clever' 'effective' and 'value per disposal' at the same time as accumulating plenty of disposals when in midfield. We'd be lucky and thrilled to get him at 5, I suspect. Josh Smillie is the 194cm midfielder who has also kicked a steady flow of goals. [must not compare to Bontempelli] Bontemsmillie? Likely available at 5 but unlikely at 9, but not impossible. I think at this stage that would be my dream pair. Two radically different midfielders in both body and style, who are both capable of adding some spice to our attacking movement. In Taylor we trust. Amen.

Brainwave! We're confident we're going to get Kalani White as a F/S next year and that we'd likely have to burn out first pick anyway for points.