DeeSpencer

Geelong committed to Worpel. Saints to Windhager. 3 clubs in on Flanders. Eagles to Dev Rob. A lot of moving parts with midfielders. It seems to me either something changed or they really wanted the coach committed to this decision. Have to think we potentially lost value. Yet at the same time I get why King wouldn’t have wanted this done when he was preparing for the grand final.

Viney doesn’t have the speed and tank to play defensive forward. He’s a mid until the end. Can’t make changes to the style without change the personnel. That’s a square peg in a round hole. The style King wants to play requires elite fitness and ideally skill in the midfield. Oliver and Tracc can’t outrun their shadows or kick.

You know he's my favourite of that bunch. But also doubt GWS move him. Gothard and McMullin both uncontracted after 2026 and down the pecking order even with Darcy Jones doing his knee. Daniels, Bedford and Thomas are the best 22 options.

With 5 on the bench I think you can have a midfielder who only plays about 55-60% game time. I'd have Oliver and Green overlapping for about 30% in which case Oliver takes a more defensive role at stoppages. Then I'd have him as the main clearance player for 25-30%. Sydney with Heeney, Warner and Rowbottom have a lot of inside/ball players. Maybe you'd take him knowing the Chad is 99% gone in 2 years but otherwise I wouldn't change their mix.

With Daniels, Bedford, Jones, McMullin, Wardius, Hannaford, Gothard, Thomas and Delana the Giants have a crazy surplus of small forwards. We have a midfielder who could do with a fresh start and need small forwards. We got to get one of them smalls.

GWS a far better fit. They lack clearance on ballers, they have nothing after Tom Green.

Guerra actually said best 25. King seems genuinely disappointed in Tracc not giving him the benefit of the doubt to stick around. Same as Judd. Oliver might well have been 25th of 25. After meeting with the assistant coaches and fitness staff King might've had his opinion on Oliver lowered. That's not unreasonable.

The long term deal helps us in that scenario! Imagine if Tracc wanted to leave out of contract now and we got peanuts or free agency compo. Long term deals are a risk not for players leaving but for players regressing with injuries or off field issues. We have to make sure our guys are healthy in mind, body and spirit for long term deals and that's where we've gone wrong. I hope the AFL do move to limit deals to say 5 years but I'd still happily sign our best guys up that long.

I didn’t get the coaching job so I think he’s safe!

He doesn’t cut it anywhere else and we’ve got 3 more years to pay him! There’s a limit on how much we can pay guys not to play for us!

Assuming this is Laurie but you could tell me it's Billings, Woey, Kynan Brown, Mitch Hardie it wouldn't even matter, either way it's delusional.

We can scrape together our midfield but any injuries and our wings, half backs and especially half forwards will be diabolical.

If he's truly only 1.3 or more that's what it will take. Put it this way. If Clarry was a free agent. You have to give him a 5 year deal. What's the most you would pay him? For me, it's 500k pa.

There's a non stop trade radio show that needs constant content and player managers who love to fill it. But yeah, Clarry shoud've been told earlier. The only explanation is that King has a lower value on him than our footy department and has re-evaluated the plans. But even then the nonsense about a new role and wanting to coach him make King look like an [censored].

Unless he failed a medical this seems a very strange decision. Reading between the tea leaves it seems like our plan for key backs next year is Adams, Turner, Petty/Lever. Which is fine. But we need depth aside from ancient T Mc and there's every chance Petty leaves post 2026. Unless we've only rated Wade as a forward and not a back. Meanwhile our forwards even with Mihocek are still a bunch of ????.

Not your best few weeks Danny

So either King wasn't honest about Oliver in his plans or they've completely botched it. Either way, this now seems untenable but also how are we meant to even get another team to bite even paying 700k a year? Why not tell Clarry's manager to go drum up interest and we'll entertain anything they come back with. This seems like going the nuclear option after 2 years of failing the nuclear option.

Tracc is a move for picks and/or players IMO. He still has value now so why not cash it in if he doesn’t meet our timeline. Clarry is a move about not having 7 figures on the books in 28, 29 and 30 for a player unlikely to be playing quality footy that’s worth anywhere near that wage. In those years Pickett, Rivers, Bowey, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Kolt will all be in their prime (or close to it) and we’ll need the dollars to supplement them.

So far up to 0, I guess you’re counting the extra picks and maybe Flanders? I’m sure that’s the plan and exactly why Judd leaving hurts but geez, would be nice to be linked to at least one quality runner coming in.

The Morris stuff seems to be straight from the Oliver camp. Dannyz might be just following up to the panicked reporting. But either way after 2 years of this exact drama why are we following up with a 3rd? What could possibly be so important to tell Clarry that’s worth the drama? We’ve seen the last 2 years when he gets put up for trade he responds terribly and then the club look like absolute morons. I can’t imagine there’s any kind of specific role for Oliver other than maybe more of a defensive focus, and either way he has to get fitter and use the ball less horrifically. Nothing that can’t be hashed out in 3 weeks when it’s not trade radio silly season.

So who is leaking it to the media and causing the panic? Something is very wrong if they can’t have a simple meeting without a meltdown

Kelly no Kayo! I’m not sure Brown was offered more than 3 anywhere else and I’d have just paid more cash than more years. Maybe it got to a point where the 4th year to spread the money out was the smartest option. Especially coming out of Covid. Either way, he’s the one I’ll wear a bunch of dead years on him for how crucial he was in September. Much like Tom Boyd at the dogs.

That’s a charitable recollection that skips over the Viv Michie’s, the Lumumba, the Ben Newton’s, the Ben Kennedy’s, the Chris Dawes, the Tom Bugg’s, the Aiden Riley’s. Goodwin brought Hibbo and Melk. We were especially lucky with circumstances to get a star in Hibbo. Then combined with all our picks and cap space we were in the most desirable situation Melbourne has been in for 50 years to actually get stars. So we target Lever, then May, then Langdon (but also Tomlinson). We’ve been undesirable for a few years due to much bigger factors that go from the board, the CEO, the head of footy, the coach. That’s why you can’t launch a big play for a big name. And the only way to combat that would be a St Kilda style massive overpay with cap space we don’t have. I’m happy to blame the list management team for poor choices in filling out the back end of the list because that’s what they can control.

Long term deals were used to keep everyone’s salary down. It actually helped us keep our 21 core together through until the end of 24 or even now. You got to be proactive in moving guys before they drop off. Luke Jackson made that decision for us. Brayshaw is one I’d have let go, instead we got the worst possible result with a stack of dead cap. Not being proactive and not having a culture of continued improvement I think we’re big reasons we lost JJ and Bedford. Sam Butler stays at Hawthorn despite playing most of the year in the VFL because he trusts he can get more of a spot, our fringe guys bailed. Our long term deal issues: 4th year for Ben Brown. Super long term deal for Clarry - although he never had a verified mistake or missed a game until the deal was signed. But then more recently Viney, May etc asking for more cash last year. Still, it’s Oliver and Tracc regressing that has done the most damage combined with the game shifting away from a contested inside game. Unfortunately Geelong control the rules and when Chris Scott and Shocking wanted a more outside game they made the rules reflect that!

Why is using cheap trades/list spot for a back up and successor to Max a bad idea? Every club has young developing rucks. There’s no indication we’ve paid the world in contract or in trade currently for Heath, he’s just a swap for Verall. Nor did we pay big time for Preuss, Verrall, Fullarton or anyone else they’ve bought in. Grundy was a move for something different to replace LJ knowing we couldn’t get a key forward and might’ve worked if Max and Brodie parked their egos. Brisbane just won with 2 rucks. This is an over the top gripe. What like Langford, Lindsay, Windsor and Kolt? Jason Taylor and his team have clearly adapted their recruiting to fit the modern game and are getting those mids. Unfortunately we don’t have an Ashcroft/Fletcher father son pipeline to get them for cents in the dollar. Unfortunately when you try to pick up those types on the cheap you get Harry Sharp more often than not. We took on too many has beens and our scouting has been poor. I’d be happy for changes in our footy department, but no point getting upset with the media spin or suggesting they don’t know what we need. Everyone knows what we need, trying to get it with limited picks and the opposite of a destination club is really tricky!