DeeSpencer

Given he's now been linked to us by a number of media outlets (potentially all just copying from Twomey's original report mind you) I think it's time for his own thread. Pros: - 25 goals in 9 games at Coates league level, including 4 with bags of 4 or more and 4 games of 19 or more disposals - Has a natural presence to the way he hits contests and uses his body - top 10 in agility - big wingspan and solid frame - competes at ground level - didn't look out of place in the VFL Cons: - Undersized for a tall forward and his midfield time looked like a worthy experiment more than a sure thing - Not a huge impact at the national champs - Field kicking looks a little shaky

I’m not so sure about that, 6 and 11 is very close to 2 single figure picks and we have a pathway to offer them 6 and 8. Especially as it sounds more likely than not that Curtin is there at 6 and Geelong’s first preference of Caddy might be gone too. And our future first is looking more valuable by the day with the way things are going! I still think the Eagles take the pick or North find a way to turn 3 and a heap of late firsts in to something the Eagles want, but I’m yet to see anything that completely rules us out.

We know JT always has his own order so I wouldn’t be surprised if Caddy, Leake or O’Sullivan go at pick 6 over Curtin or Sanders. And especially if he’s looking elsewhere at 11. Collard, Tew Jiath or Charlie Edwards wouldn’t shock me.

I’d be shocked if he wasn’t at least mid 80kg last summer, possibly more, he’s not that skinny. His fitness and health will be more important than size. Aside from evaluating the available alternatives I think they’ll be monitoring his fitness, if his groins hold up I’d expect he’d get another go

He probably is, but you take your chances when you’re in the window. Would love to take 2nd and 3rd round picks over keeping a few oldies on the list mind you, but upgrading the best 22 and filling in the playing list up to 30 or so useful players has generally been this recruiting teams focus rather than chasing talent.

As part of his firm - Half the league. Petracca, Daicii, Curnow, Toby Greene, Noah Anderson, Jamarra, Bailey Smith, Sheezel, Rayner, Wilmot

Don’t need a pick for rookie upgrade, they just happen. And pretty sure the draft has no limit either, you can trade out of your 4, 5th rounders and then you get 6, 7, 8 to make up the list spots. Richmond did very well to get Freo’s future 2nd for Soldo too. He’s worth a second, rucks are valuable. But that’s better than Grundy and he isn’t.

I’m weary of the 2020 draft, he’s looked ordinary and is likely stupidly overpaid as most of the Suns are, but geez, a future 3rd and a 2 pick downgrade that will be cancelled out by matched bids, that’s a theft.

Not sure they’ve breached any rules. Future 4th rounders can be traded now even if you trade your future first, so they’re fine on that. They can also promote from the rookie list and take picks at the end of the draft so they’ll have their 3 mandatory list changes From 2018-2021 drafts they have: Butters, Rozee, Dyl Williams, Georgiades, Bergman, Lord, Jones, Sinn and JHF. Thats a great haul and worth trading out of late firsts to fix deficiencies. The big question will be whether Esava and BZT will fix their issues or if they should’ve gone for a bigger fish down back.

Agree on half forward and wing, disagree on midfield. Assuming his body gets fit and healthy I think he can play the Pendles role who sits in the corridor and directs traffic and folds back to help the backline. He could even rotate with someone like Rivers taking more centre bounces then switching with Salo. If our aim is to move the ball with switches and corridor play then we could do with Salem as a fold back midfielder and ask our wings to push in and forward more. Our mids are contest to contest followers. We need at least one more creative midfielder who provides uncontested possessions.

All 10 had talent, I think it shows the impact of injuries and how you have to be really careful with the development of highly rated youngsters. 4 players completely ruined by health and fitness. Scharenberg and Freeman never got started due to injuries. Boyd ruined by injuries and the pressure of being pick 1 and having a fat contract. KK concussions. And Billings especially, Salem and Kelly have all struggled at various times with health. Salo had a slowish start and an awful last two years. Kelly had some wasted years before this year. Add in Luke McDonald being thoroughly Northed and there’s very few who have had a clean run of it.

Starting to come round to the idea purely because it would be nice to have a ready to go option when Hunter hasn’t hit a target in a month.

Stafford is an easy target. He might be the problem, he just as easily might not be. He's been dealing with makeshift personnel since 2021. The one thing I truly believe is our forward line does a better job helping our backline defend than our backs do helping our forwards score. We have to be prepared to give up the occasional bad turnover goal, open up space in our defensive 50 and even get short a defender out of position by our backs being prepared to run and spread the ball. A simple rule of in one side, out the other for our backs will do wonders for scoring. No more bombing it down the line it came in on.

I answered that.

If we play 3 talls, McVee and good defensive flankers in Bowey and Salem (when healthy) then we really don’t need quality contested ability and marking for the 7th defender. Obviously Howes has to get stronger in the contest to become an AFL footballer but if he does make some improvements I prefer the balance of another runner and distributor. Maybe Rivers stays back and Salem on ball. Either way, more class on ball, fresh legs across half back.

Wouldn’t blame him, not sure the Hawks are better with Chol than with him, if I’m the Hawks I’m not giving him up for a future second without seeing him play another year. Did we consider an offer or only chase Fullarton? Is Kelly O’Donnell still our pro scout? And is he awake?

Kossie absolutely has the tank for midfield. He’s a great speed and endurance runner. He stayed forward as we had no forward pressure without him and because he’s had a long stretch where he wasn’t winning the ball. He fixed his contested ball late in the season.

If the Lions manage to prise Brandon Ryan out of Hawthorn for the ghost of Gunston I’ll be absolutely annoyed. He’s got a lot of upside as a forward/ruck. More natural than Fullarton.

It impacted Spargo all year and has lowered his value. Took Kossie some time to grow out of it too.

Here’s my plan on how we get better immediately: 1. Pickett and Rivers go in to the midfield and make us more dynamic 2. McAdam and Howes replace them, with similar output - whilst optimistic it’s not impossible. 3. Growth out of some of Spargo, Chandler, Bowey, McVee, Turner insures we have strong flanks. Again, not expecting world beaters but the competition for spots hopefully sees these guys keep us as a strong side. 4. Petty and JvR is a legit combo and JvR improves his tank and consistency - I’ve never thought JvR was going to be a super star but there’s hidden improvement from physical maturity and experience. Not buying that he won’t get better 5. Laurie, Woey prove serviceable midfield depth, maybe optimistic but these 2 aren’t skinny kids. Taj might still be a fraction light and Laurie a little slow, but JJ’s main attribute was his tank and that’s what these 2 can bring. 6. One of pick 6/11 hold their own at afl level, giving us both another depth piece and hopefully a star of the future. Ideally 2 depth pieces from day 1 and two stars but got to be realistic! Of course Jackson/Pickett is the dream.

He still has some talent but he had one move when getting the ball in traffic and it was throwing himself to ground and exploiting the umps. The moment they started actually enforcing the rules as written he lost a lot of his value.

Goodwin’s speech about culture at the B+F would look absolutely stupid if we got in to the Ginnivan business

FB: McVee May Tomlinson HB: Rivers Lever Salem C; Langdon Petracca Hunter HF: ANB Petty Pickett FF: McAdam JVR Fritsch Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Bowey Brayshaw Sparrow Chandler S: J Smith Depth (7) Back: Turner, Howes Mid: Woey (wing), Laurie (high half forward), pure mid? Ruck: Fullarton Forward: Schache, Spargo Draft: 6, 11 Old (3) Melksham, BBB, T Mc Developmental (7) Back: Adams, ?K Turner Mids: ???? (K Brown?) Rucks: Verrall, KFW Forwards: Jefferson, Sestan, ?AMW If we use 6 and 11 on guys who can contribute something in year 1 then we’ll have 32 guys who can contribute which is a fair number. Unless we draft a ready to go type like Sanders a capable on baller or wing and a back pocket would be the 2 positions I’d be searching the delistings/state leagues for in terms of immediate depth - JJ and Hibberd replacements. As well as swapping out at least one of the tall forwards for a mature ruck.

The reason we got him is because he’s a very good forward at VFL level and the hope is he’s not awful forward at AFL level. Most forward/rucks are ordinary up forward so the bar is low. Contest, be mobile, don’t get in the way of your own markers. Im as intrigued by whether he can hold up in the ruck. He’s never been tried as a starting ruck. He’ll likely struggle in hit outs and won’t be a dominant marking target around the ground but he could provide some much needed athleticism at stoppages.