DeeSpencer

Ineligible. Too much afl, not enough VFL

But too slow to pressure effectively or burn off an opponent the way Toby does. Chandler is and always has been a midfielder with forward craft more than a forward. He’s an excellent link player through the middle of the ground. He’s yet to master clean hands around a contest though to really push his case as a high half forward

What on earth. Not a great umpired game but miles off what you’ve suggested

Just like Melbourne late this season this backline is short on players looking to win the ball back, they're all keen on the intercepts falling to them out the back or happy sticking to individual opponents. Midfield and half forwards getting smashed is the bigger worry though. Casey are stocked with pressure smalls and can't get any pressure on.

Mitch White should go to half back to provide some skill, get more pace in the midfield too

Delist Tomlinson at 1/4 time

Atrocious free kick against Melk

If Chandler could actually give a first option handball rather than attempting hero mode that would be great

The Pies forward line for the bulk of their streak of wins was Cox/Cameron for maybe 70% of game time, 2 mobile talls in Mihocek, Ash Johnson and a gun small marking player in Jamie Elliott. Gawn/Grundy can do the same job as the Pies rucks. Whether it’s worth the money I’m not sure but they can do a job. Fritsch has a lot of similarities to Elliott as a goal kicker, without the defensive game. This summer he really has to develop his game. Can we get Mihocek and Johnson performance from McDonald and JVR? Yes. Would I like another mobile tall so we have depth - absolutely.

Cerra didn’t get big money from Carlton according to reports. And we might’ve had to trade out a player to get draft picks to up our offer. Not convinced Cerra alone means we have a 600k or more lying around unless players go out. But at the same time I agree with your overall assertion that we can’t be sure we don’t have cash. Especially if the cap rises. Who can actually know? We also went extra years over dollars to sign Oliver and Tracc long term. Brayshaw too. Guys like Langdon and May should’ve been front loaded before we had a full cap. Gawn, Lever, Salem, Viney have all done extensions to spread them over multiple years. And if we work on a balanced list where no one position group gets overloaded with money then even worse case we really should be budgeting for key forwards from 2025. We might even be able to dip in to that key forward budget ahead of time.

His burst speed for a strong inside mid is incredible, and whilst his kicking isn’t perfect he gets it to where it needs to go a lot. One of my favourite players to watch

For a correct decision?

Finn’s a terrible person who makes jokes about Jake Melksham’s child and is a difficult team mate. (None if that is true but we need to keep spreading information to make sure he doesn’t go top 40)

Sounds great, where can we get a Blicavs? A capable back up ruck who predominantly plays as an on baller due to his elite fitness and mobility. Oh crap, that’s Jackson, who were losing and sure isn’t Grundy.

Twice we had Wilmot done cold holding the ball in the back 50 last week and twice it wasn’t paid. Of course it gets paid against Geelong

So Pickett’s no different to about 100 players out of contract next year that teams have interest in. Glad we cleared that up.

The ruck playing forward goes to where the long bomb is needed. Coming from the back half that should at chf. If play stalls or on repeat entries that will be deep. There will be plenty of times Gawn gets long bombed at chf to allow Fritsch to lead back in to space which is something he’s very good at. We’ve seen Max ruck against second rucks a fair bit this year. It can be good, it can result in Max doing too much Max (attempting hero mode).

Jackson’s an incredible runner capable of high minutes. He was playing big minutes at the start of 2021 when we just played the one tall. He’s battled some niggles this year but I also think the coaches didn’t trust him forward and didn’t get enough out of him in the ruck to keep Max forward either. Plus Ben Brown and Gawn in the same forward line was a non starter. Grundy should be more trusted in the ruck, but they’ll still have to keep Max forward when he wants to ruck to get good minutes out of them. Tommy Mc getting two way run out of those beating up feet and ankles and JVR being a good two way player will be vital to making a 2 ruck system work.

Off field supporter cash. The Dees coteries and networks aren’t nearly on the same level as Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton, Geelong. The salary cap and footy department cap have levelled things up a bit. Lever and May in back to back years as we were a side on the rise was as good we’ve done in decades. But once you have a premiership quality lair that gets paid like it there’s not a lot of room if you’re very much constrained by the cap. It’s got to be a player go out to get a player in. Sounds like we’re replacing Jackson with Grundy. If no one else of any note goes out then very possibly we won’t have room to bring anyone in.

Lobb stayed last year, has a great year. Bobby Hill stayed, had a Bobby hill year before unfortunate illness. Dunkley stayed multiple years. My guess is Pickett won’t even try to leave because he knows what the answer will be. And port won’t even try to get him because they know what it will be too - for one they’d have to pay double what the draft capital price could be in a years time. They’ll all look foolish. This is really a story just for clicks.

It’s really not that hard. You simply stop players meeting with clubs or clubs talking about other players. Of course they will be sniffing around with agents but the whole process is delayed if they can’t get busted meeting with or discussing rivals.

The NBA has nonsense of star players demanding trades and breaking contracts, plus teams so happy to tank. But the one thing it does do is lock top draft picks in for 4 years and realistically 2-4 more before they talk about breaking extensions. I’m ok with more player movement as long as it isn’t designed for tanking and super teams, but the one thing that’s way out of line at the moment is how little leverage clubs have on younger players. If they need to go home that’s ok, no issue losing Jacko for that reason, but there shouldn’t be contract incentives that favour moving for young players.

This is why the league needs anti tampering rules. There’s no reason for Pickett to cop this speculation now and for an entire year. Its all so Craig the Labrador Hutchinson can make money from his pitiful media empire one click at a time. Who on earth is Michaelangelo Leonardo Roccaceli anyway? One of the leftover ninja turtles? For all we know he’s about as well connected to the trade market as Melksham’s baby.

Oscar Allen’s the only good young player on their list. Pick 5 is great, but pick 2 is even better. Trading back makes sense a lot of the time but not at the pointy end of the draft I’m still a huge Jacko fan but I think he’s a luxury a really bad side can’t afford. He’s great for Melbourne and for Freo who have building blocks in place. If I’m the eagles I’m going midfielder, gun forward or backline general rather than a ruck/utility.