Little Goffy

Brisbane and Fagan did brilliantly (and I've long loved Fagan since his time with us, increased by his underdog credentials from his time applying for senior position after senior position and getting knocked back). But I'm pretty sure every Melbourne player who ever made the all-Australian shortlist squad of 40 was either injured or just plain had a personal stinker in 2024! Koleman, McCarthy, Gardiner and McInerney is a problematic hole. Petracca, Oliver, and Brayshaw is >20% of the salary cap value of the team. That's an abyss. Having said all that, I actually agree we still have a problem with mental brittleness within games and over the season. A problem we've had for... as long as I can recall, actually.

I congratulate you on learning how to use thesaurus.com to bypass the auto-censor.

Presumably I cannot describe how noxious and vain posts like this are without getting some kind of black mark from the admins, but it gets so boring wading through this stuff and the sheer volume of it even in unrelated threads is slowly driving me off the site.

Choosing a reply from so many options; "I guess it is nice for Essendon supporters to have a team to follow where the ladder position matters." "That's fine, but still nobody cares where Essendon finishes."

Take Brayshaw out of Melbourne... #maintaintherage

I thought it was related to indigenous smoking ceremonies. As in, an autochthonous censer.

It is like walking through a shopping mall food court at 5.50pm on a wednesday. If there's one last bento box left and you want it, it is yours.

I'm sorry, but, you think that is a woke thing? Like, you're joking, right?

Pickett and Neville Jetta sealing the deal during social football over in WA the other day? "Uncle Nev, I've had an idea."

Does this mean we have to get Paul Kelly as midfield coach?

The 'soft cap' is called the 'talcum cap' down on the peninsula. What a f'ing disgrace.

Pretty sure that is Robert Harvey with heavy plastic surgery, in a final ploy to crack 400 games.

Plays a role, is positive for culture, presumably taking very minimal salary cap space and even if you think he's a list clogger he's only clogging it for one season where the alternative, draft pick 127 or so, would have a minimum two. In reality, signing him now is part of the planning process for hunting one of the still significant free agents available in 2025. Also, there's still a real chance he'll take the step to being an AFL-level regular. He's not some useless clutz.

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.