Little Goffy

Davey - 30 yrs, 178 games Rodan - 29yrs, 185 games MacDonald - 28yrs, 124 games Sellar - 24yrs, 44 games Gillies - 23 years, 15 games Davis - 21 yrs, 2 games Tynan - 19yrs, 2 games Remembering that 22 games by 22 players is 484, those retirements and de-listings mean we finish the year with 66 less games experience than we started. If each of those players are replaced by an 18 year old, we've also dropped 40 or so 'years' of experience, enough to bring our team average a full year lower. Which could be a way of saying 'average age and games played means nothing' or could be a way of noting that we continue to be rebuilding and only one year in the last seven has our list become more experienced. LOL - for comparison, GWS' four delisted veterans (Brogan, Cornes, O'hailpin and Thornton) have more experience than the rest of the list combined! :D Much more important of course, is that this year at least we haven't lost much in terms of on-field contribution, whereas last year there was a fair bit cut out.

I completely disagree with the point that 'you can't just have a best 22 and kids'. I think that is EXACTLY how to run the show in the current game. A high-low approach to the salary cap, as it were. Make sure the team has a good core of reliable, high quality AFL players, then hve a steady churn of fresh draft picks as you look for new talent to continuously boost your list. If you have an injury-ruined year, so be it, collect your earlier picks, move on. It's not like having three or four extra Joel MacDonalds in your team was going to win you the premiership that year. And if instead of those depth players you have one extra young gun on your list long-term, well, it's a pretty good deal. But the super-years come when that core mostly stays on the field, and the churn of youngsters mean you have a bit of surprise packet talent coming through as well. It's not a coincidence that Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney all punched through for premierships in years where they got the 'bonus' ready to go elite players like Selwood, Rioli, and Hannebury. ven Collingwood took the extra step largely because a collection of young mids pushed to the next level at the same time. That is how you keep the 'window' open - an elite core, then keep on trying to ride a wave of young talent that peaks together if you're lucky. Maybe I'm just embittered by the fact that we missed out on Dylan Grimes for no reason except to give Newton a seventh year. But that is a salient example of what I'm talking about.

I really think there are only two things missing from Watts' game at the moment, but they sure make a difference; Collision play. I wouldn't say soft, just not enthusiastic or confident. It's much like when people hover around an unfamiliar photocopier; they know how it works but they feel like there might be something different that they'll miss and that'll screw the whole thing up, so they linger, stuck in a mental fog. Straight-line running. Great lateral movement, pretty good acceleration, but it's not often you see Watts steaming along at top speed for sustained stretches, whether to get the handball receive or break a line. Obviously Adam Goodes is the pinnacle example of a tall player doing this (and a big part of why he is a champion) but for Watts it is completely missing at the moment. Both aspects are trainable, I'd say. And both are very much between the ears more than they are a physical limitation. So, we could see Watts make a dramatic step up, no doubt about it.

Here's a very useful article that mentions most of the relevant names, give a little blurb. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-09-06/who-becomes-paul-roos-no2 From memory, Ratten did a good job with our Midfield, and Wellman was coaching the defence at the time that it turned from 'spud-machine' to truly competitive, featuring an All-Australian Frawley. He has also been responsible for the impressive growth in the Essendon defence; Jake Carlisle being the obvious standout. By the talk and mentions that make it to the media, Jade Rawlings is held in very high esteem by the players at Melbourne. He was also well respected at Richmond under Wallace (including being apointed caretaker at the end of that era). You'd think he would be the most likely of our present assistants to be retained, particularly as he has coached most areas of the field. One thing I do like about this whole situation is that there are a lot of really good assistant coach candidates available, and the prospect of being mentored by Roos (an explicit part of Roos declared role) would be a desirable feature whether or not they were the 'anointed' successor coach. If our coaching panel starts with a great one-two of Paul Roos and a genuinely exceptional senior assistant with a good relationship with Roos, then we would be in a very happy and effective place.

Hmm... Upside: Hogan and Boyd together for ten years. Downside: Possible over-stacking of tall forwards for next couple of years. (Boyd, Hogan, Dawes, Clark, Fitzpatrick) Mitigation: Clarke and Fitzpatrick rotating through ruck. Possibly Clark close to full time ruck if Jamar remains injured/retires.

Another reason I'm a big fan of trading a top pick and 'sweetener' for a mid first-round pick. I'm just convinced that there are so many good midfielders available that it is not so necessary to cling to a top ppick. Also, I have a draft policy of 'only fun names' - Bontempelli is a pretty good start.

What about pick 1 (so many clubs want/need Boyd) out in exchange for a decent (non-star) mid plus a mid-first round pick? Or the possibility of a three-way trade where Pick 1 goes to (for example) Fremantle and Fremantle sends 'x+y' to GWS in order to give Taylor Adams and 'z' to us. The possibilities are endless. Gold Coast's midfield is fine and dandy, maybe we can bring Presita home? I'd still be surprised if we got pick 1, despite our finishing position and % being the most obvious 'entitled to pick' situation in the history of priority picks.

Scully got to 3rd in the GWS Best and Fairest the same way that Lynden Dunn got to sixth in ours; Consistently good-ordinary performances in a team where most others were wildly up and down. My comment about us having players to 'pass' him is more about the development to another level that I hope to see; consistent 'actually good' performances from more players. It's easy to imagine half a dozen players push up a gear, such as Trengove, Clark, Grimes, Frawley, Howe, Watts, Viney, McDonald. Come to think of it, that group plus Jones, Garland and Sylvia would be a likely top ten collection. Apologies to the surprise packet first year players and to Jooooooordieeee McKenzie.

Yeah, the lying is pretty much the only mark I could bother having against him. As it is, his price tag might just cost GWS a premiership in the long run, so eh. If he'd been at Melbourne, he would've come third in our B&F, too. Hopefully next year we will push past that line, with development and injuries clearing up. That's all that matters.

He's not a bloke who would die for the jumper. He's not even a bloke who would play in a slightly unfamiliar role for the jumper. Much better and younger and more suitable midfielders out there to hunt for, too.

I'm convinced that is we get a priority pick it will be end-of-first-round, not number 1, simply for the sake of avoiding a kerfuffle (a known AFL HQ decision-making criteria). And that's fine, we'll have options there, plenty of tough inside mids and guys who 'have everything but 5cms' to choose from, well into the pick 20s and even 30s. If pick 2 could be traded alongside that pick 19ish to get an established good midfielder and something like pick 10, that would be ideal. From everything I've read and been told there's a whole swag of quality midfielders to take at the top end, maybe not even that great a difference from 5-12. Also, we all know we have a host of players who have many good features but somehow can't reach the level of consistently effective AFL players. Particularly the grunt hardworker inside midfielders who there's no doubt Roos loves to get the most out of.

Where do I sign to help out?

On the Terlich-Roos topic, I think there's a big percption difference between being a 'rookie who plays loose and gets away with it in the 2s' and a 'young player who has shown a bit but needs to be more focused defensively'. One you let go, the other you put extra work into. Terlich's 2013 was clearly break-out, we'll see where he goes from here, whoever the coach may be.

I'd be astonished if we got pick 1 as a Priority pick. Would believe it if someone said we would get an end of first round pick, though. That'd leave us with 2, 18 (no essendon!) and 20. Surely 2 has to be one of the collection of superb midfielders available to draft. 18 and 20... hmm... I speak only with the meta-knowledge of having read a bunch of phantom drafts (official and amateur) but it really looks to me like most of the top 10 will be midfielders. I wonder if we could do a deal were pick 18 and 20 and a player were moved on to secure pick 7 and a mature midfieder? I'm firmly convinced that the only way we can dig ourselves out of our hole is to go for a 'high-low' strategy with recruiting. Target serious talent with everything we can use, trading out good-midrange picks, and then churning through late picks with a view to finding the occassional diamond in the rough. So instead of 1st round, 2nd round, 3rd round, 4th round, I would want 1st round, 1st round, 4th round + Or the equivalent. Plus, we have to hit free agency with everything we can throw at it. Wow, Roos would make a difference there!

If there was anything like a story about Melbourne in this, I think we can be sure the 'sources' would have leaked all over the place and at the very least Caroline Wilson would have declared us a criminal organisation. We only had any kind of contact with Dank for a month or two, he never had an official position and we never had a program of injections. Although I heard that someone heard Todd Viney say that Hogan would be a great CHF because he was 'like Jack Watts on steroids'. So we'll probably all be executed.

Lynden Dunn, playing substantially across half back and amassing a large number of disposals, still didn't get anyone marking him. Kind of sums up the situation there; he is no threat to the opposition when he has the ball, and honestly doesn't obstruct much of the opposition's attacks in turn. To me, Lynden Dunn is in the same group as Joel MacDonald - deserves respect for their career and efforts, but can't stay on the list.

I am 100% confident that an effective coaching group could have this team (plus new arrivals of course) competitive in one year and in finals in the second year. Mark it for 2 years' time.

I'm right on the bandwagon for pushing our list to a mix of outright 'premium' players on the one hand and a host of young, low-cost 'potentials' on the other. I'm Dunn (see what I did there? So clever. ) with having a list loaded with average-at-best players who are very low value for the list space or the salary cap space. Literally half of our delistings this year should be players over 25 years, and I'm in favour of quite a signficant clean out in general. That said, I do agree with a few other people here that our problem is not so much a lack of underlying talent as a deep, deep malaise in confidence and teamwork.

Top observation Mr Bizkit. A very specific problem that needs to be ironed out. Disproportionate impact compared to the relatively small amount of regular work needed to build a better habit

Yeah, uh, quick pull up, try not to use rape quite so trivially, eh? I mean, you're from Toowoomba, couldn't you just go with 'Fracked'?

I guess that's why Neeld targeted Byrnes and Rodan, trying to shore up midfield rotations while offering forward crumbing as well. I think we have a certain luxury with our forward line in that Clarke and Dawes are both hard workers when it comes to chasing and keeping pressure on inside 50. Given that Watts and Fitzpatrick are also pretty mobile for their height, if they can build the habit of hunting down defenders then we have a good amount of forward 50 pressure ready to be applied. While a quality small forward is a great thing to have, I'd be prioritising midfielders who also have a good instinct up forward. Let's face it, you wouldn't blink given a choice - Brent Harvey, David Zaharakis or Cyril Rioli vs Lindsay Thomas, Stephen Milne or Eddie Betts. You have to be a brilliant specialist to build a career as a small forward because quick and creative midfielders can adequately cover a lot of that role. So my obsession stays 'midfield midfield midfield'.

Good luck to him. Something went wrong for him early in his career after a promising start. We will all wonder whether that was a club thing at Melbourne or there was a psychological lack of resilience and the confidence simply dropped so much he couldn't focus to perform. I'll always feel a little twinge remembering all the wasted draft picks whenever I see the likes of Gysberts, Morton and Petterd running around, mostly in the 2s, at other clubs.

Max Gawn is absolutely essential to our future. An effective ruckman who can take a mark up forward and also works hard to offer leads in the midfield, and can even play ok and lay tackles in the wet! With all respect, Jamar is not performing at the same level and it would be a disaster if retaining him cost us Gawn's signature. I'd basically roll the hypothetical 'what Jamar would have been offered next year' into Gawn's contract offer. Not to mention, he's also a charismatic and visible player with marketing value. The guy is needed at every level. Fitzpatrick and Clarke are back-ups, and recruit a speculative/mature-age ruckman or two in the draft, or retain Spencer if you have belief in him.

Not often there's a game where both sides lay 100+ tackles! 120 hitouts in a game is incredible, too. Shame about the scoreline, annoying we failed so much when moving the ball forward. But I'm hardly shattered. Already thinking about next week.

Disposal and decisions have improved over the course of just a single season. Has also been getting the ball more and more. Early in the year my call was 'love his effort, love his style, but anxious about disposal - so many clangers'. slowly that's turned into 'I'm going to sit back and watch a good career unfold'.