Little Goffy

Honestly, I'm not sure too much imitation will be inspired by this one. Any of the four preliminary finalists could've snagged the premiership this year, and there's a lot of variety in those lists. Still no denying the value of having confident, reliable players in key positions. West Coast's contested marking at both ends was quite something. Seven players with 2 or more contested marks, yeesh.

His younger brother never even got a chance to play at the highest level, and I hear he was even more talented.

That's more running bounces than our whole team currently averages per game! ?

Hibberd, Melksham, Lewis, Garlett, Vince. Frost depending on how you rate him. Anyway, the talk of an 'early first rounder' for May does trouble me a little and I'm wondering about the package deal options given Kolodjashnij, and also Gold Coasts picks 17 and 26, both of which seem to be in the high quality range of this allegedly deep draft. Could it be that Jason Taylor has identified a few players in that pick 20-30 range that he has a lot of confidence in? He can't spend his whole career picking from 40+, can he?

If the final result from losing Hogan is to gain 6, May and Kolonoscopy, we'll have done almost as well as West Coast did with the Judd trade (3, 20, and Kennedy).

Our depth mix is pretty good really. Lots of 'kids' who have pushed claims early in their career as well as a collection of players who have been in and out due to injury or fluctating progress. Hmm... if both Kent and VandenBerg leave, that would make our 'players picked 18th to 25th' something like; Smith, Stretch, Hunt, JKH, Fritsch, Spargo, and Hannan. Plus whatever becomes of the likes of Wagner, Petty, Baker, dare I mention Garlett, and about 6 draftees. Given that we have a great core of strong bodies to hit the contest with, there are good opportunities for young players to come in and contribute without getting monstered. Yikes... imagine the horror times Spargo would've had if he'd been added to our 2011 or even 2014 list? All that said, VandenBerg is a strong, smart footballer who has once again shown he belongs at AFL level when his body lets him, and it would be disappointing to lose him.

This, precisely. On the one hand I still think a 3-tall forward line can work if done right and given the diversity of the three talls we'd have. On the other hand, in a 'pressure and weight-of-effort' game style there's always room for another small-medium player on the field and we have a great stock of options to pick from there. It's all ok. Not joyful, but it is ok.

It ain't necessarily so...

Yep. Us.

Respect is the new loyalty and I'm ok with that. Clearly VandenBerg has fair off-field reasons to consider a move to Sydney and clearly there would be a comfortable place for him in their player mix. And no, it is not a 'side business', it is 'the family business', and I would imagine that like a great many small businesses you can't just toss it in and wash your hands unless you're happy with a great big wad of unresolved debts to deal with. Him leaving wont leave any gaping holes for us, but he is also a player we'd be happy to keep. I honestly can't bring myself to think anything more controversial than 'if he says that is good, if going is what he needs to do, then all the best to him and I'm sure we will get a reasonable trade'. Straight Swap for Lloyd, they might want to throw in Zak Jones.

For what it is worth, I'm firmly on the side of getting him. Yes, a little bit of risk but he very much fits into our list needs. Would not be crazy expensive in trade terms, and we can't just have seven teenagers come in all at once.

Could probably get Toumpas too.

Was ahead of our curve at Melbourne as far as developing a calm, humble and professional attitude. I'm quite sure he was a good example to the 'kids' coming through;, and his presence forever ready to step up would have been a good honesty check for the young talls. Can only speculate if his attitude also had something to do with how well several players responded to stints in the VFL, too. "Is Pedersen sooking? Then why are you sooking? Get on with it." I wonder what his ties with his junior/pre-AFL clubs are like, I can see him cheerfully dropping by to kick 12 goals in an afternoon while he is still fit.

Wasn't that long ago, the last time talk of Hogan leaving went ballistic, that I speculated that maybe Gaff and a good first round pick would do the job. Now, Gaff has become a free agent, Hogan leaving would open the salary cap space to grab him, and we'd realistically get two first round picks from the trade. Swings and roundabouts. I still hope Hogan stays and I think the three-tall forward line can work (Haaaa ha ha with Hogan playing the role previously held by Watts... sorry, I just said that to annoy people) given the versatility of all three. What I picture is a kind of 2xCHF set up, with the 3rd 'slot' being filled by the variations of Weid in the ruck, Hogan up the ground, McDonald pinching (only occasionally) in defence, and a true traditional stay-at-home FF - in a sense, a forward 'resting' even more forward! Between the double-CHF and those four variations you get 3 players on the ground close to 100% of game time, using that 'rest' in the goal square, cycling between the three as needed. I think the benefit of each tall adding an extra 10-15% of game time on field works out in as much as you can then give that '30-45%' to help the midfield rotations stay fresh. I also think, given our haphazard inside-50s, there is real value in having three clear options going on at all times - a CHF 'travelling' out to offer a link up the ground, a CHF staying roughly around that traditional zone, and a FF ready to attack the emergency long kick.

Pick 3 ought to get it done. We could use Izak Rankine. I wonder if, in the chaos of trade period, and throw all the other ifs in like Hogan actually going, it could happen? Picks bounce along, we end up with an existing top-10, package it with Kent and maybe something else, get pick 3, get the precise player we most need. Yes, obviously I'm just yanking the chain, like everyone else at this time of year.

For as long as I can remember, the Demons have been very influenced by the emotion and intensity of games and of streaks, for good and for ill. I recall as far back as 2004 Neale Daniher was adamant that we needed to develop a 'ruthless edge' that unfortunately never materialised, I would argue because of circumstance rather than any particular failure. All our seasons are characterised by surges and troughs, just like this season with two incredible surges either side of a major mid-late season stumble. Our team is young enough to continue evolving and maturing. We have to hope that the disappointment of that first half of the Prelim will sit within the players as a brutal reminder that passion and momentum can take you a long way, but it is professionalism and concentration that will hold you steady when emotions waver. Fact is, if we can add a bit more cold steel to the mental mix without throwing away the enthusiastic unity, we'll stomp everyone in our path, good day or bad.

Rule seems to be that if they don't get picked up in the draft by anyone else, we can take them as a Category-B rookie. If someone else does select them in the draft, then we can still grab them using the bidding points system. So the answer to your if/or question is... um... yes!

I feel confident that it is not so much a case of having cracks under wallpaper, simply because the coaches would be fully aware of what we need to add. This isn't an 'oops we forgot to sort that out' moment, it is just time to get that next step done. Will be interesting to see how Spargo, Hannan, Fritsch and Stretch progress next year. Even if they aren't outright speedy, they certainly aren't one-paced plodders. With the half-dozen places likely to open on our list, and a draft that seems to me (only on reading, no claims to real knowledge) to have a great many speedy smalls, the 2018 draft might just be Jason Taylor's personal Grand Final.

Geebus. This thread is still going? I'm seriously considering adding an inane meme-gif every time it gets bumped. It just beggars belief.

I'm not gutted. I'm barely even upset. I'll be looking forward to the 2019 season with more anticipation than any other I've experienced. We all rebound from disappointements at different speeds and process it in different ways, but I think soon enough everyone on here will be climbing the walls waiting for 2019 to start and for the next effort to get rolling.

Best of luck to Collingwood who have managed to salvage something after the bitter failure to follow through on the very youthful list that won the 2010 premiership. I'm not sure it is useful to compare them to us, really. They are in a way much like Richmond, a team that had a large group of mature high-quality players but lacked the depth to really contend, and took the risk to top-up with additional mature players with the final booster of finding a few good contributors in the draft just at the right moment. The only irritation is that I really think we'd be able to take Collingwood next week. Am I right in recalling similar frustration in the 90s, where we managed to find a way to not be in a grand final despite probably being better than the team which eventually won? 1998 Adelaide, yes? Anyway, given the ages of our top players, nobody is 'past' us. They are just lining up their old bodies for us to knock over as we get stronger, like Hawthorn and Geelong this year.

Anyone know more about this - Toby Bedford Vic Country/Dandenong Stingrays/Rosebud 27/05/2000 Height: 176cm Weight: 65kg Super quick and elusive small forward/midfielder who was outstanding for Vic Country against Western Australia where he collected 20 possessions, eight tackles and seven inside 50m highlighting his potential. An Indigenous player who is eligible for Melbourne under the Next Generation Academy rules.

Soemtimes feels like everyone has a Rioli except us. Must be strange for the family 'Oh, we have to go to another grand final'. Still, we remain the highest scoring team in the game. Can't say we are 'broken' so much, but no doubt an in-form and effective Garlett could've made us even more dangerous. With all respect to Nibbler, Spargo and Hannan, who contributed well, the 'small forward genius' is the one area we don't have any single elite player. Hawthorn barely scraped an elimination final win in 2007, were disposed of easily by North the next week, took Rioli at 14 then won the premeirship in 2008. Sounds good to me. Speaking of which, the North team that knocked out the Hawks in 2007 lost their other two finals by 106 and 87. Easily their two biggest losses for the season. That second loss was against Port, who promptly got filleted by Geelong to the tune of 119 points, which was more than double the margin of any of their other losses for the season. Just mentioning in case anyone has forgotten that finals are volatile and involve many more blowouts than the regular season. Anyway, I think we can say with confidence we have the grunt worked out, and if injury allows we have the key positions in good shape, so I'm definitely on the bandwagon for finding a bit of magic creativity.

And that was just using his forehead creases. 30kg an eyebrow, I hear. Speaking of coaches still in top physical shape, anyone else note Cross in the recovery pool during roaming Brian last week. Insanely ripped still. It took me a moment to realise it wasn't a player - an especially fit player at that.

I'm just a spinning wheel of emotion over this. Hooray for Smith! I really believe in him and he has had so much bad luck! Oh no! Poor Fritsch! I really believe in him and this is such bad luck! But I do feel like it is a sensible structural decision. I wonder if Fritsch will be back in next week?