DeeSpencer

How does the club get a value on Oliver and decide to trade him if they don't speak to other clubs and his manager and actually get a read of the room? Can't wait too long either because clubs will allocate their picks and cap space, has to be done now to see if there's a deal that benefits the club. Can't do anything about one of the other clubs then leaking it to the media. You can argue we shouldn't even be willing to discus trading Oliver. But there's enough smoke in this thread already that says we absolutely need to get a read of his value and decide what to do.

The club spent all year dousing Oliver rumours. It would be crazy to put this out in the public purely as a wake up call. Especially if he's genuinely struggling. The Suns have their picks dedicated to the academy players and are tight on cap space. I could see Essendon pivoting away from Gresham and dumping Shiel on us or another club. St Kilda surely are an option but it wouldn't start with a good pick. Geelong would find the cash because they are Geelong and they'd probably offer us a [censored] sandwich of picks.

The self tattoing story is out now. The issue we have - just like the Hogan days - is we're looking at a situation where there's so much smoke now there's no way we get full value. It's both hard to see us winning a trade and hard to see Clarry trusting and committed to the club, back to full fitness and health, working on his game and developing as a person.

No idea if he can coach, didn’t do much to inspire with his opportunity. Chucked the veterans on ball to help win a few games. But the Hardwick endorsement holds some weight. And the Richmond fast ball movement is something we badly need a good dose. The biggest McQuestion is what line does he take care of? Midfield would be favourite but forwards or backs shouldn’t be ruled out.

The 3 first round picks (and one last year) in any fair system would indicate they weren’t getting pick 3. And would arm them with easily enough ammunition to: Turn pick 2 in to pick 1 so they can celebrate Reid OR Trade up for pick 4 so they can trumpet having picks 2 and 4. The best thing for the afl would be North getting Reid and the Eagles getting Curtin and a stack of picks so they too can improve quickly. I bet they’d like Essendon out of the dog house quickly too. Now that Carlton are up and about they won’t want one of the big 4 left behind.

Grundy was overpaid for what he was - a decent starting ruck but no longer a game changer. The Pies had 2 decent rucks and needed to get the Grundy cash off the books. Harry McKay is still a 1 million dollar a year forward IMO, purely because of the scarcity of the position. Carlton are rumoured to be fairly tight to the cap but no one is saying they need a firesale to remove a bunch of cap space. I still think they're better with the 2 key forwards but even if they aren't it's a good problem to have and they surely wouldn't be desperate to make a move for less than the full price for a very talented key forward in his prime.

When the average player will soon make 500k it’s not that much. Im not 100% sold on McKay either but McKay and a rookie is likely a better result than 2 x 500k players if you don’t have a mature key forward.

Donald or David Cockatoo-Collins?

We've got the list spots and would be paying him to rehab anyway. I see it as him being the assistant forwards coach and working closely with JVR and Jefferson. Joel Smith too. If he makes it back to play and can contribute that's a bonus.

If Adelaide desperately wanted to win the flag next year - and crazier things have happened - they could grab Chol to fill Thilthorpe’s role, he’d pair perfectly with Tex and Fogarty. Then get Petty in at CHB who would drastically improve their backline. Meanwhile Thilthorpe would be a perfect fit as forward/ruck and JVR with another summer can play more chf. But the age of Tex, the age of May, how high the Dees rate Petty and how high the Crows surely still value Thilthorpe I just don’t see it happening. Nor can I see the Crows giving up Thilthorpe for picks alone.

We haven’t lost Brown (or T Mc) yet and even if we do their money probably stays in the 2024 cap. Melksham, at a minimum will be owed match payments for 2024, so no real saving there. Probably have to pay a chunk of Harmes’ deal to play elsewhere too. JJ and Hibberd, not big money there. At least half, if not 80% of Grundy’s money probably goes to finding a replacement. Im guessing we don’t have the space to bring in a big deal and there’s no point trying when it costs a stack of quality picks that we need to refresh the list. Wait a year and we can target someone and pay for it with junk picks!

Woewodin is a versatile midfielder with decent size. Not sure why he’s in that grouping. Sure, he plays half forward at times as most young mids do. Including Pickett we had 6 small forwards on the list in 2022, 7 if you count ANB, that probably is too many. But Moniz-Wakefield is a Cat B rookie and you take what you can get for those bonus spots. Pickett, back up AMW Chandler, back up/competition Spargo ANB, back up Laurie Laurie has looked to be vanilla at AFL level so far. But he’s far from vanilla at VFL level where his skills shine. I have doubts he can do it at AFL level but if he can find a yard of pace and strength he has tricks. So far he’s a rare Jason Taylor misstep but there’s still time for him to change that. Joel Smith was the back up to Hibberd in 21/22. Deakyn Smith was a back up lockdown defender. Rosman was trialled until last year. Kye Turner was added to the list to be an athletic 3rd tall defender. McVee was drafted and we got lucky that he took the back pocket role and did a great job. I’d be finding the best 188-192cm lock down defender in the state leagues and adding them to the rookie list this year but I’m not too concerned we’ve tried to fill that role with rookie picks. Same goes for Chandler, Bedford and AMW with small forward depth.

In fairness to the coaches he filled in numerous times at half back after injuries (they day Lever did his knee being one such example I’m 95% sure) and was excellent. Good defensive traits and strong marking for a flanker As soon as he moved there full time he tried to do too much both with and without the ball and his lack of feel for the position was found out.

Still in the race, but I think the Eagles are heavy favourite which might be why we pick off Jamieson. Flynn probably a bit expensive.

Our backline, mids and high half forwards were just about the same all year. And if anything less forward talent and cohesion should be a reason to move the ball faster. Watch how often our backs turn boundary side and go short to a winger or bomb it long. Often after holding it up. And how the 5 defenders without the ball will do nothing more than a token fan out for a switch or maybe point for a corridor kick. It’s a midfield problem too. Langdon will ask for the quick wide handball - but gets it less without Jaiden Hunt to give it to him. Hunter won’t, he’ll go straight for the 15m chip. Brayshaw will make position to get used, which would be good if his decisions with the ball weren’t either hold it forever or bite off more than he should. The other mids will at times but generally they just plug themselves in to the zone holes, there’s no coordinated movement to create gaps and then run in waves from kicks to them. In summer training we used Pickett in the midfield and he’d drop to half back to get kicks and light the ground up. Obviously that didn’t last in to the season. Hopefully it does next year. I’d try ANB, Chandler and even Spargo, Laurie on ball for the same reasons. But also hope we get more from Oliver who at his best is a dynamic runner with the ball (even if the kicking is a mixed bag). Rivers, Bowey, Salem (healthy) and McVee all have the movement and skills to make decisions on the run. They just have to work harder and smarter to get the ball, and our tall defenders have to trust them. Lever and May take intercept marks and rather than take the game on like Howe and Moore they call for a time out and stop the ball moving.