DeeSpencer

I’m not so sure about that. The Cats best 22 includes SDK, Henry and O’Sullivan and they all average less than 13.5 disposals and less than 200 Metres Gained. Not sure any of them are amazing one on one either. They sit deep and outnumber to intercept. Then when they do win the ball back they’re very quick to spread and then take quick switch and go options. Which generally aren’t overly difficult kicks if you take them before the opposition are set. In terms of adapting the Cats game plan I’m much more concerned with how we get a midfield that can cover off well enough to create the extra intercept defenders. And how we can transition the ball through the midfield and of course inside 50.

What the heck are you on about?

No one wants him and he’s a good leader is my theory. If we get a third round pick and pay him 350k to play elsewhere, may as well pay him the full deal to play/coach with us.

Another tick for our amazing list management team gifting him an extra year last year when his head was turned by Carlton. Bet we end up paying a chunk of his contract now. He has his fair share of blame spilling marks whenever he has to sit under one and lax defensive transition. Glad to move on from that. But I’ll actually miss him barking orders, especially when he was the only one mad enough to have a dip at the captain.

Our list management team can’t afford Kayo.

Simpkin can’t kick, but what he does bring is run which we need and could swap between mid and forward. He’d replace Tracc and give us more run with less ball winning and different forms of bad kicking. Tracc more hot and cold, Simpkin more meh. But we can’t be giving up a good draft pick or stuffing our salary cap for Simpkin.

Plenty of ways to manipulate the list but so far we are: -7: Spargo, Billings, Fullarton, Verrall, Sestan, Brown, Hore +2: Henderson, Culley Strongly linked with 2 more: Heath, Derksen Probably drafting 2 more: White, Sinnema Hopefully anyone of quality that we trade brings in quality picks and/or players, but I’d have Woey competing for that last spot in Feb (if he wants it)

Mentha might be playing for Casey but he’s not a consistent performer nor does he have an afl tank, so he’s not really available for the senior side (which is fine, he’s a kid). Sharp can have all the availability in the world, he can’t pick the ball up under any pressure and can’t handball. Maybe a new coach can fix him but I’m so skeptical on players who are just awful at the basics.

I’m ok with signing Henderson now and a guy who gave himself a chronic groin injury doesn’t need to train any harder. But I 100% agree we need to leave list spots open for train on players and keep a spot for the mid season draft whilst we’re projected to pick early in that draft too. We didn’t have a spot for Culley or Henderson last year, couldn’t even invite Hendo to train with us given he was signed at Werribee, nor did we have a spot for mid season when we could’ve got a handy pick up.

Would be nice if we had some clarity about his form at Casey and injury. Spargo is gone. He’s ahead of Sharp and Mentha. Langdon and Sparrow aren’t world beaters (or even perfectly suited for the position) and Kolt has to make the leap to afl standard. Someone has to play half forward and it can’t just be Chandler. If King can get the team making faster and easier decisions he has the right attributes to contribute across half forward.

Remove all the BS from the draft. Publish salary caps with earnings for anyone over 500k and a total for how much each club spends under 500k. If you don’t want your earnings to be public ask your club to cap your wage at 500k. Those 2 things would quickly balance things up.

They’ve done very well, but the ability to add Impey, Scrimshaw and Karl Amon (who signed with them when they were rubbish over us when we’d won a flag) reset their backline. Along with Sicily it gave them a platform to take off once the rest of the side hit competence. Then 1 good year and Barrass and Battle lob in. Midfield they really built up from a lot of home grown players. Newcombe is an incredible find but they also got the benefit of covid keeping him hidden and the benefit of Box Hill’s decades of attracting quality. North VFL unearthed a good player in Cooper Lord who is at Carlton, they finally hid one away with Cooper Trembath. Forwards they’ve found some gems. Still, I’m not sure even Ginnivan and Chol level players sign at North, that’s how limited North’s ability to land talent has been until recently. I guess North tried a Ginnivan with Jaidyn Stephenson. They managed to keep making additions to some level even when they were in a position that looked kind of no where when Mitchell took over. Josh Battle also made some interesting comments when admitting he took less at Hawthorn than the Saints offer, something along the lines of the Hawks having access to investment portfolios to grow wealth. Extra earnings in business, marketing, property (cough Geelong cough) is what I’m suspicious about.

If you only ever use people who have done it before you’d eventually run out of options when they’re all senile!! One thing in Watson’s favour he had 5 different coaches, most of them with big weaknesses. We also had Green, Smith, Richo on the committee. So it had a lot of different football voices. I’m sure Ponissi would’ve been a great help, if you’re criticising that you’re just making up arguments.

He’s a shoddy ball user but he does work hard and offer a bit more versatility than some of our mid/forward types. If it’s Tracc out and no Flanders/Windhager in I’d consider it but 3rd round and his salary for years 3 and 4 better be reworked down to a role players number. Happy to spend some cap space up front but no point getting stuck with the back end years.

I don’t know why Scott didn’t overrule him but ultimately Scarlett and Clark both left Geelong. Clark down plays the riff but confirms he was moved to the midfield when he’s clearly a natural attacking half back. “My personal relationship with Matthew Scarlett, there’s no animosity between us two. We can easily have a conversation and get a long really well,” he told SEN Afternoons. “Like I’ve said many times, he’s a really good coach and was a really good player at a very successful club. “He runs a pretty tight ship back there and I had to go away and work on a few things in my game. He was one that was really honest with me at times. “In the end, I moved up into the midfield and played a different role. I couldn’t quite break into the midfield at that time.