DeeSpencer

I agree. It doesn’t make sense that they wanted Melk gone last year but will now keep him this year. Even if his salary is drastically reduced. He can only play 1 role - undersized tall distractor. I think he was actually ok in that role is most games but it’s still not going to be a first or even second choice role next year. I guess he takes Mitch Brown’s list spot in the ‘why is he on the list’ role. Which might be about having a forward line coach at Casey. Still, I’d rather fill that via Casey not with an afl list spot.

At his best - a very good player due to his mobility and follow up at ground level. And he ability to play 85% in the ruck. If he’s lost any significant amount of that mobility he won’t be as valuable. That was made clear in 2020/2021. If he’s asked to play forward his value drops yet again

You can’t just make a guy run faster and jump higher. If we could do that we’d start with half our own players

Is he a smart tap ruck - no, the pies consistently struggled to get value from his taps Can he play forward - no Does he take a lot of contested marks around the ground - not really Is he so skilled that his habit of racking up a huge amount of the ball really is useful - no. Honestly I worry we’ve been seduced by the desire to replace Jackson and the fantasy of Gawn up forward rather admitting we need a back up ruck and a forward who can pinch hit in the ruck. Plus a genuine key forward solution. Instead of making 3 moves to fix 3 problems we’re going all in on Grundy.

Not at afl level athlete

How many players sign contracts late in the season more than a year out? Compared to how many players sign contracts over summer when their managers have had a chance to fully assess options. I’m not saying he isn’t a chance to leave but this is a fair beat up that’s really piggy backing on the Jacko situation. I don’t think we should be worrying until at least April next year. If talks are delayed or not progressing by then it’s worth talking about.

Bears and Texans were tipped to be the worst 2 teams in the NFL and I really think both teams are going to be too well coached and organised for that to be the case. They won't be good, they lack talent and have limited offenses, but Lovie Smith got elevated in Houston just do a solid job with a roster that's slowly trending the right way. And whilst the national media have crapped all over the Bears for not giving Fields enough blocking and weapons the word out of the Bears from anyone who's seen them train or play so far has been that they're really professional and organised. Fields looks a long way off consistently running a seamless offense, especially one this devoid of talent. But what he can do is make huge plays. The Bears will try to stay in games for as long as possible before Fields makes a couple of huge throws and wins them. That won't beat the elite teams but it's not a terrible recipe against the lesser sides.

Is it too late for me to change for the Eagles in the NFC East, Dak's injury just about dooms the Cowboys. Liking the Vikings in the NFC north too but let's see what Rodgers can do with these young receivers with more time. Oh and Bucs to win the NFC looks likely but I'm still a bit worried about Brady.

Baynen Lowe one to watch for fans of #draftsillynames and the Redlegs.

The selectors clearly gambled on an underdone Salo and he didn’t deliver. They gambled that Salem’s cool head early in games was more important than his ability to run out of a full game. Lever, Salem and Petracca after breaking his leg did not fire in the finals. Neither did Gawn, and whilst they aren’t stars but we obviously got very little from tall forwards. If we got 2021 Lever, Salem, Tracc, Gawn, Ben Brown then we we’re in the grand final and no one is complaining about Spargo, ANB or any other role player.

Salem is a star player a mile below his best, the answer is getting him back to his best. Same with Lever. Same with Petracca. All impacted by injuries. Collingwood have 3 new young players in their side: Nick Daicos, McCreery, Ginnivan. We could do with a young gun like Daicos in the draft, but I’m happy with Spargo and Pickett over the pies small forwards. Collingwood have got their stars healthy - namely Moore, Howe, De Goey and Jamie Elliot. Otherwise they have a heap of role players like Mihocek, Murphy, Noble, Cox, Hoskin Elliot, Lipinski, Bianco all firing because the stars and team are firing. They aren’t suddenly good or bad players.

Idiotic. If we’re replacing 5 premiership players with unproven kids and spare parts picks up then we will absolutely be going backwards. If we got the finals performances from Lever, Salem, Petracca and a couple of half decent key forwards we’d be in the grand final with all those role players.

The other terrible thing this would do is encourage bad teams to sell the chance of improvement by bringing in mature players for more picks. That further encourages the scorched earth rebuilds that the Dees tried for a decade, Carlton, St Kilda, Gold Coast’s entire existence, North Melbourne and so on. And at the other end the best teams get better. The AFL should be doing everything they can to encourage an even spread of players from 24-30 at every club. That way you get a more even competition and more ladder variation each year. As it currently stands there’s usually 4-6 teams each year who physically just can not compete week in week out due to list profile. This kind of move is just a disaster for the ‘any given Sunday’ nature of the league that we should and could have.

The clubs who can attract talent already have a huge advantage. Look at Geelong, look at Richmond buying a new midfield, even the pies got the cap well out of shape not helped by covid, and have already bought in Lipinski and Krueger last year and are now targeting McStay, Tom Mitchell and Bobby Hill. If you effectively expand the salary cap limits by teams buying picks the big clubs will just keep shopping.

I hope he tells the club as soon as possible but I hope the club keep it under wraps as long as possible. I hate the way trade talk takes away from the finals. It’s so unnecessary and unbecoming

Sturt’s got talent but he’s had a heap of injuries and clearly can’t pressure well enough to get games ahead of Freo’s 4 smalls or Bailey Banfield. Poor man’s Fritsch. His 1 year deal tells me the Dees did the due diligence and weren’t prepared to offer 2 years. If we wanted him we’d have offered 2 years and had him as the steak knives to Jacko. Now…Liam Henry on the outer. That has me interested

During last year's Trade Period, some clubs enquired with the League about whether they could directly pay contracts of players who remain at other clubs in exchange for a draft pick. Of all the dumb ideas the afl have considered this would absolutely take the cake. So much of the system - academy, father sons, Gold Coast and GWS existence - creates deals that benefit the 2 clubs doing the deal and screws the other 16. This would be about the final straw for any integrity.

Harmes is an excellent puzzle piece with the speed and gut running to play wing, mid or half forward. Salem is a gun half back capable of moving on ball if we want to mix it up. We had the right player to let go to freshen up the midfield mix and we inexplicably gave him a 6 year deal!!

How many teams have their most skilled player predominantly on the wing? Seems like a waste the way footy is played. Wingers get more of the ball in slow defensive half back situations than half backs do! If you want to get maximum value for Salem’s kicking then he has to be on ball. Getting the ball through the corridor to forwards. There’s 3 different ways to achieve this: 1. Start him as a midfielder, he’s a big boy, about time he plays like it 2. rotate him from half back on ball, similar to Nick Daicos 3. rotate him from half forward or some wing minutes, with Petracca forward or Harmes/Gus wing.

Paddy was always a great mark and kick, had an underrated burst of speed that gets hidden by his waddle and you don’t go pick 1 if you can’t read the play. Plus they had him in their VFL program for a year, it wasn’t just one summer. Weid’s slower and hasn’t demonstrated reliable reading of the play. At this stage constantly doing the same thing with him is crazy so I’d be more than open to try it but I wouldn’t have high hopes. Weid’s best attributes might be his tackling and handballing around stoppages, which makes him a really good VFL ruck as we’ve seen the last 2 weeks. But I don’t think he’s big or strong enough to be an AFL ruck.

AFC East - bills North - ravens South - Colts West - Chiefs WC - Bengals, Chargers, Raiders NFC East - cowboys North - packers South - Bucs West - 49ers WC - Eagles, Vikings, Rams Wow there’s a huge discrepancy between the afc and nfc. I considered Denver, Miami, Patriots, Steelers, Browns, Titans all for playoff chances. That’s 13 of 16 teams! In the NFC it’s probably 9 teams that feel they’re playoff quality and 7 more who’d probably take an 8-9 season as a win. Bills over Packers in the SB.

Niners, ravens, chiefs

Midfield rotations and more run and skill through the mids and half backs have to be big addition. And of course key forwards. FB: Petty May Xxxxx HB: Rivers Lever Bowey C; xxxx Salem Langdon HF: xxxxx McDonald Viney FF: Fritsch JVR Pickett Foll: Gawn Petracca Oliver Int: Harmes, Sparrow xxxxx, xxxxx Back pocket: Hibbo, Hunt, J Smith Back flank/mid: ???, Brayshaw, Hunt Wing: Brayshaw, JJ, Howes Half forward: Spargo, ANB, Chandler Ruck/forward: ????, Petty (Turner back), Ben Brown If we take a page from the pies playbook and rotate a mid through half back then Salem is an option. That gives us some badly needed skill on ball too. Of course that then means we need another quick skilful defender. Similarly we can then rotate a mid through half forward more often which takes the load off the big 3. I don’t mean to be a downer because they might improve quickly but I think we need to be realistic about our young players outside the best 22 apart from JVR. They struggle to regularly impact at Casey so are unlikely to leap in to the side in 1 summer. Every mature player we lose in this trade period might need a mature replacement even if it’s a dice role on delisted or state league types.

Fairly confident Smith was only used forward because of lack of medium/tall options with McDonald out. He’s just as scary down back but we do need that ready made mid sized defensive depth especially if Hibbo retires and Hunt leaves. ANB’s a tricky one because his effort is undeniable but his ball use, particularly in traffic can be horrific. But I’d also say when we moved the ball really well in 2021 ANB used the ball more than well enough. So maybe if we fix the upfield stuff and get the ball to Nibbler hard running in space he’ll find targets. Especially if the key forwards are much improved. Is ANB, Harmes, Sparrow, Spargo too defensive a midfield rotation/half forward group? Potentially. But who else is available? We haven’t been linked to any upgrades. Bedford probably leaves. Chandler might get a look but I’m underwhelmed and then it’s the other kids on the list.

Rivers still has a lot of value to me because he’s a very good 7th defender who can do a bit of everything. Turner’s in contention for a tall spot, Bowey should be a starter as a flanker, but a defender who can lock, rebound and intercept like Rivers is very useful. Rosman got concussed because he took short steps and fumbled then dived in after the ball. I haven’t seen why growth in his smarts or skills.