DeeSpencer

Petty and Howes were both the last picks of the 2nd round. Taylor has had Harmes (13), Vanders (14) and perhaps Hannan (16). From 2017 onwards including preseason and mideason picks ups so far he’s gone 0 from 15 up until the Turner pick which has promise. I’m not expecting miracles, but in the same time frame Collingwood added McCreery, Ginnibin and Ash Johnson to completely rejuvenate their forward line. Geelong have picked up Close, Miers, Henry, Atkins, Zuthrie and Stengle. That’s over a quarter of their side! That’s how you stay at the top for so long.

The NFL actually has a very simple draft and free agency system. Teams sign non guaranteed contacts and cut players if they get too expensive. But the draft locks in players for 4 to 5 years and the free agency market is very open and allows teams to restock as they see fit. If you want a league where player movement becomes a bigger spectacle than the games and where the league divides in to haves and have nots, then it’s the NBA.

I’m fine with teams dumping players and paying for the right to do it. I’m not fine with the idea of teams could simply give a pick for the right to free salary cap space. In the first case a struggle side gets a player. Even if they don’t think the player will be much good at least they add some experience. In the second case the gap between contending teams and rebuilding teams would become rather silly. That could possibly help us now - although I don’t know who we’re salary dumping. But over time that would very much favour the clubs that consistently land trades and free agents (not us)

I have no issue with aggressive salary dumping. No clarification on whether teams can get picks purely for purchasing salary without getting the player. That sounds incredibly dangerous and hopefully hasn’t been allowed

These guys already complement our star players by bringing pressure, speed and work rate. I’d love for them to be more skilled too but super skilled role players are very hard to find. Whilst our game plan is built around Clarry, Tracc and Viney we aren’t going to line up with super skilled fringe mids and half forwards anyway, we can’t lose our 1 wood which is crash and bash. Jason Taylor has an awful record outside the top 2 rounds of the draft and Tim Lamb’s favours conservative list management holding on to fringe players for way too long. It’s hard to see how shipping out our role players for at best late 2nds or 3rd rounds Ie. not much coming back in helps. If we had replacements at Casey or if we were linked to someone like Amon, perhaps Bobby Hill, Acres etc to swap in for the right guy out I’d be for that. I guess there’s still time for more players to declare their intentions but so far it’s all very quiet

Have you seen him play? He’s not very good. Tried to tag Oliver and got demolished. Not an outside runner so he doesn’t give us what Harmes and JJ do. Can’t pressure up forward line ANB. Skills and ball winning for a mid are both ordinary. He’s still young with room to go but at the moment he’s pretty much a lesser version of Sparrow. We loved Lewis Taylor in his draft year. That’s about as relevant as loving Dev is.

Sparrow’s not amazing at pressure but on transition he cuts off the corridor with his defensive motor, change of direction and frame. Plus he wins or nullifies contests on the outer ring of contests. His defensive running tops the Telstra tracker each week and highlights why we don’t get opened up in the middle. He plays a lot of midfield when Petracca takes a centre bounce and goes forward. Brayshaw’s made our midfield too slow, too ball focussed and hasn’t added any skill. We started playing just like 2018 again. It was worth a try but the Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca midfield has never worked against the best teams. Plus we still have stuff all depth unless we’re planning to draft the Casey bash brothers in Mitch White and Jimmy Munro.

True, but Petracca kicks goals (or points) or set them up directly with his kicking. The umps often like a bit of flash

There’s 2 big challenges for Clayton: 1. kick more goals and become more damaging with his disposals so that it’s undeniable he’s the best in the comp 2. get the umps on his side. Less back chat, less diving, less whatever it is he does to annoy them. He gets far fewer free kicks than he deserves and has consistently missed out on Brownlow votes

You want to trade Sparrow - a super dynamic forward/mid with elite pressure - for a half back flanker who can’t string together games for Adelaide? No thanks. Our elite defending comes from Sparrow and guys like him sealing the corridor. His ball use can sharpen back up when the forwards and runners are predictable to him. JJ has cleaner hands but he doesn’t have the speed to pressure and play half forward like Sparrow does. Kicking is no better either. JJ is wing/mid. Sparrow is forward/mid. Both are vital. Look at Casey - we have no midfield depth. Bowey at least gives us backline depth. Robbie Fox is Sydney’s lockdown defender. Geelong rotate Zuthrie, Bews and Kolo. If Hunt stays I think he can do the job as he did until Hibbo came back in this year. I’d definitely be scanning the delistings and state leagues for a specialist.

It’s a gambling event not a footy one

Unless we make a move to open a spot in the best 22 for him he’d be crazy not to leave. He’s a Dean Kent level player, would be nice to keep him but it’s time for him to spread his wings. If we can enough get trade currency to bring in someone useful that’s a good deal for us

A ruckman or key forward is highly unlikely to have 43 touches, you are correct. But Oliver was wasteful with the ball and turned it over or hot potatoed it to team mates, it wasn’t his best game. Cox was a monster behind the ball and forward. That Gawn was dealing with a nasty injury is irrelevant. Gun Midfielders get 30 every week. 40 is impressive but means little by itself. Tom Mitchell has had 40 multiple times with little impact

Cox was best on ground not Clarry anyway

It was nicely written but he read it like he has permanent brain damage

Joel winning the Stynes award partly for his Auskick work which is a paid gig to skirt the salary cap.

Pats, Vikings, Bengals

The entire first quarter was played on the opposite wing to his. Not sure why you’d leave a player stuck on one wing but that’s Melbourne/Casey. Second quarter he had some contests that provided chances to get involved and didn’t win them. Nothing awful, seemed to make good position just didn’t get the ball. At some stage after half time he seemed to shift forward and got a few touches. He might have to shift to half back similar to Rosman to learn the game. Or go to half forward which was his juniors position before going on to the wing. He’ll be better with more continuity as well, was a good effort to play some handy games after a 3 month break

JVR, Turner, wait and see for the first year kids. Hard to see anyone else who will play 50 AFL games out there today, not when they’re stuck getting 8 touches a game

Never said it was Casey’s decision. Carrying Brown, Baker and others on the list was a waste of list spots. And Munro, White, Dunstan and Grey playing most of the midfield minutes is someone’s decision. Its hard work watching Melbourne young players stuck in peripheral roles. They finally gave Weid a job of holding the number 1 ruck spot and he has developed more in 4 weeks than in the last 4 years.

Good for Casey, but for the sake of Melbourne we can’t carry so many experienced fringe players and VFL players chewing up important minutes. Casey’s first priority is to develop afl players and that needs to be reinforced next year.

Logue was always the 3rd key defender they just didn’t need. Not much else you can do than play him forward then let him go. The Acres situation is weird. They rejuvenated him as a player. Got him playing really strong footy on a wing and now they’re losing him for only a few dollars? He’s the kind of player that can frustrate a coach but with Mundy retiring and Fyfe under threat of injury Freo shouldn’t be losing experienced mids. Capable wingers are hard to find too.

He’s not good enough to be a pure full forward, no one is. If we want to play a more up tempo aggressive game plan - a plan that will ultimately help Fritsch - then we need two things. 1. More forward pressure. 2. More midfield rotations. Come finals next year Fritsch might never leave the forward 50, but next season should start more about the journey than the destination. A clean slate of positions and roles is important to that.

There’s no reason Fritsch can’t add it to his game if he’s coached up and coached hard, he has the physical tools it’s just attitude and technique. He should also be rotated through the wing to see the value of forward pressure. No more dining out on the grand final for Fritter.

Just needs 4 more years on the list to come good