DeeSpencer

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!

The AFL don’t have any rules around ‘tampering’ ie. stopping contracted players meeting with rival teams. We can try to shut down any trade talk and can hold him to his deal. But we can’t stop him meeting with anyone he wants to meet with.

That’s the issue. To get the real game changing talents more often than not you need to be bottom 4. Building around nice picks in the 8-12 range of the draft often won’t really help you. And to get those top 5 picks you have to stink. Even more so now that so many of the elite talents are taken out of draft order by father son and academies. North haven’t developed players well or even chosen the right guys at times but not having access to the true top line talent (apart from JHF) has really set them back. You can rebuild without the very top picks. Hawks have done it with Will Day (mid first) and Newcombe (mid season and Covid related) as their best 2 players. But it takes the ability to attract and retain guys like Amon, Impey, Gunston (going and coming back), Sicily or you’ll be stuck in no man’s land.

They work miracles to stay up without an official academy, no significant father sons (for the first time in yonks after getting huge advantages there) and no early picks. But the one year they got across the line it was soon after an influx in elite talent in Cameron, Stengle and Isaac Smith. Most years they just restock here and there. But if they a star and some quality they leap right up. Bailey Smith was another who boosted them along.

Shai Bolton? Not sure there was ever a time for us to make a move for him. We were heavily linked to Meek when we lost Jackson got Grundy. Meek might’ve even been first choice. A mega deal for Treacy after first few years would’ve been super gusty but turned out great. He signed a 3 year deal in 2023 indicating interest from someone, you’d hope one of those teams would’ve been us. Upped it to a 4 year extension in 2024 when he broke out tying him until 2030. But hey, let’s go one better and hire David Walls as our head of footy. Freo do a great job improving their list year on year.

He’s 33 by the time he next plays, doesn’t kick a lot of goals and I’m worried we’ll give out what will effectively be a 3rd year deal. It’s not exactly a no brainer. Hopefully we can get both because we need to turn over our key backs too.

The vision

On ball and feed him the footy. I don't think he breaks the lines quick enough to be a gun half back, hence why Dimma replaced him from that role with Rioli and Noble. We'll see if he's got enough burst to start in the centre bounces for 20+ a game or if he starts forward and swaps with Pickett post clearance but try to get him the ball in transition as he'd immediately be one of our best users.

7 defenders. 3 talls, 1 lockdown small, 3 attacking smalls. Starcevich with Zorko, Fletcher, Wilmott for Brisbane for example. I'd be signing a back pocket and having Salem and Bowey both play some wing in preseason and Judd and Bowey also play midfield. Geelong model uses a lot of flexibility with wing/half back and different players in the midfield especially post clearance.

JVR's not a world beater but he is a decent young player. A good coach would be every chance to unlock Jeffo, there's no shortage of talent there. And Luker is more talented than both of them. We're super reliant on our best half dozen or so running players and there's a huge drop off to the guys on our fringes and beyond. That's a bigger issue going forward than our talls even if they aren't world beaters.

Teams play 3 attacking back flankers these days, but otherwise the answer is pretty simple, Salem's.

No Derksen mention, him arriving might be contingent on May leaving to free up cap space and open more room in the team. If the choice was between Mihocek and Derksen I’m not sure who I’d choose.

I’d rather Schultz, Houston, Perryman, McStay, Membrey not to mention keeping at least some of Nibbler, Jackson, Bedford, JJ, Spargo and McVee and still be in top 4 contention than where we are now. Not to mention trading guys away from a position of weakness. Adelaide can smell blood in the water from 700km away. Our pursuit of Houston and our pursuit of key forwards indicates that we haven’t made a conscious choice, we’ve just been left with no better options. Not only is our list rapidly declining but we’ve lost any semblance of premiership IQ across the board, admin and almost all the footy department: coaching, fitness, list management. Jason Taylor, no pressure mate.

Pro: more money, picks and game time Cons: more likely we suck. I’m not sure the Saints will finish better than 7th but I’d probably chose them because that’s a lot better than 17th

Roan Steele, Ted Closehy, Jai Serong, Ben Jepson. Not sure there’s anyone out of contract who moves the needle at all.

For a very good defensive player he's not physical, he rarely takes the body when spoiling. But good coaches can teach that. And he does plenty of brave things. He's just a player that favours evasive maneuvers over physicality. Maybe Melbourne haven't gone all out to keep him as they think that lack of physicality might come back to bite at some stage. But I'd hope now, as the game seemingly only gets more and more spread out and reliant on skills.

Brownlow votes because he’s a high possession player. He did have a few great games, was mostly ok but he has a few stinkers as well and generally just looked pretty close to the end. Multiple things can be true at once. Maybe a new coach and a new fitness standards can help he regain the lost step. It does happen, but not often. I don’t care for his disposal efficiency when he didn’t make a risky choice all year. A 3 for 1 deal with the state of our list would be a stinker unless we absolutely nail the pick. If anything after doing so many trade ups we need to be doing 1 for 3’s the other way.

Someone bookmark this when AMW is delisted and Judd’s playing in a prelim next year. Clearly it’s not the same as losing a star but it’s closer to that than nothing. In terms of players we couldn’t afford to lose: Pickett, Langford, Turner, Bowser, Lindsay, Windsor are the only ones I’d have ahead.

Salem’s best and fairest result was a joke. I’m pretty certain we inflated both Christian’s to try to offload both. Yes, he’s a veteran quality half back who knows the role but he was beaten by anyone quick and/or dangerous. Not to mention his disposal that even helicopter parents thought was too safe. Judd was the Salem replacement, now we have to start again probably with a middling pick in a [censored] draft. Judd had work to do in his half back play. But he needed the opportunity to do that work. He has tools Rivers seemingly will never have which is poise and control with his short kicking.

Ahhh yes, I was totally benchmarking him against Will Ashcroft, that’s totally what I was doing.

If we could cover it why didn’t Judd play back flank when he came back in to the side? Maybe 5 years ago Salem sure, but it’s clear as day he wouldn’t have the pace. Maybe if Willie Rioli unretires and doubles the keg he might be able to catch him. Howes is seen as a lock down defender because he can’t do stuff all else at afl level. But any small forward with any smarts is running rings around him. At Casey he’s an intercepting and rebounding half back which is where he should play at AFL level but the game is too fast for him. I said last year go and get a lock down back so Judd doesn’t have to do it. But no, Timmy Mutton Lamb and co stick with Marty Hore. This is the result.

Langdon the last good player we took from someone that actually wanted them. 5 years now of being nothing but a farm team for the league to take the likes of Bedford and JJ and now a really classy player that we couldn’t afford to lose.

9th in our B+F year 1. 7th last year. Beaten by a couple of good players when our backline leaked like a sieve. If you don’t think this is a terrible result for the footy club you’re kidding yourself.

I’d care if Judd on his worst day wasn’t twice the player of Howes on his best day. If Howes could actually play like a proper footballer rather than a deer in the headlights that would fill some of the void Judd leaves but I doubt it.

I’m fine with 2 plus a trigger as long as the trigger is >30 games AND >15 in 2027. Ideally it’s front loaded too.