DeeSpencer

Clearly he didn’t get on with the coach. But they have Steele, Crouch and Jones ahead of him as primary mids, then Bytel who they like, plus a fleet of options like Gresham, Byrnes, Higgins, Clark, Sinclair. And are committed to Ross (free agent but never leaving) and Hannebery, both who offer more on the outside.

If Hamill really thought he was an elite midfielder he wouldn’t be saying it publicly, he’d be pleading with Carlton to sign him. I said earlier I can see the appeal. I’ve changed my mind, the bloke is Dom Tyson 2.0, what’s the use in a slow mid with shoddy kicking?

Impossible to tell from the outside but I remember when Mahoney left after we moved Richo in to head of footy that I was pleased Dan was still there to provide experience at running the day to day stuff with which Richo wouldn't be as familiar with. The covid protocols, the drug testing and AFL compliance, all those aspects of the job. And all things we really did well in since Mahoney took over. Things you don't notice unless they've gone wrong. Obviously Richo has now had a year to get acquainted with that stuff and they can probably bring someone else in/up/on etc. so hopefully it isn't an issue but credit to Dan for keeping the trains running on time. McPherson came with Roosy so hardly a surprise he's off to North, but good on him for a solid stint that ended with the flag.

I'd like a backup to Langdon that I feel more confident about than Baker and Rosman, but I sense Goody actually prefers a Brayshaw like 2nd winger. And JJ can develop as Gus' understudy and push him along. Harmes can also be used in that Brayshaw role. The biggest increase to our outside run came from ANB getting back in form as a half forward runner. Sparrow has the fitness to keep progressing in a similar way and Spargo and Kossie hopefully build fitness and strength from clearances to move up the field. Overall it's probably run and class through half forward and in to the midfield where I'd want more than a pure winger type. Laurie's clearly one hope there but it's such a vital position. Half forward in general might be a weakness both with the depths of midfield rotation types but also with Tommy Mc. I'd like a young mobile 188-195cm CHF to suddenly come on board if possible! Don't have to be a star, just prime Tom McDonald/Jack Darling hybrid ideally. Someone fit and agile enough that they can work around Brown, Fritsch and the resting ruck. Not asking for much!

Nik Cox is different but somewhat similar. Rory Lobb and Rhys Stanley too. I don't know where Mac falls on the continuum but the Giants were absolutely desperate for Jacko. If Mac is even remotely similar I'd imagine they'd be super keen on him as reports indicate.

The number 1 priority for most players is to actually play regularly so they can forge a career - both for the money but also for the games played. Fringe players leave good sides for that exact reason. Unless we promise him a certain role which would be very unlikely, or no one out there can sell him a bigger role I'd expect Dunstan to go to a club that gives him opportunity. Even if it's a one year deal he's a much better chance of having an extended career if he can play 15-20 games next year rather than 5-10 from mostly outside the best 22 at Melbourne.

Free agency boosting the salary of top line players and teams getting smarter with leverage at trade time has absolutely made it trickier, plus the covid impact on the cap. So I'm not so much complaining as just pointing out the reality that we've extended long deals to players to keep them happy and sticking around rather than potentially upping the money for less years.

Potentially but from what I’ve seen of Casey I’m not overly impressed. The talls make sense. Weid’s still good depth. Majak is fine. M Brown is silly but whatever. J Smith one more go. And apparently keeping Melk as medium options. Those guys are excellent VFL players who know the system. I like the idea of giving Declase, Turner and D Smith more time. They all impressed from what I saw at VFL level. I’m a little iffy on keeping Hore even though I dislike cutting injured guys. And then wonder if all 3 of Baker, Chandler, Bedford stay on. Chandler improved a lot at VFL level, not sure the other 2 got any closer Without a lot of cash to spend or draft picks I’m hardly expecting a lot of changes but we might be a little too loyal.

Unsurprisingly no one wanted him. Hasn’t played well since 2018. Possibly another preseason trial on the wing. Otherwise break in case of emergency half forward. Makes even less sense that we’re keeping M Brown as well now. The clubs strategy of long term deals has helped spread the salary cap but has meant we’ve kept a lot of players 1 or 2 years passed their used by dates.

As good as our list management team have been there’s only 1 former rookie in the premiership 23 in Harmes and the 5 players traded in have all been for 1st or 2nd round picks. Ben Brown might’ve been the cheapest. It’s actually been one heck of a run of first and second round picks from JT and co, but we haven’t maximised our rookies and bargain buy pick ups. Would like to find a couple of Marlion Pickett and Sydney Stack (the good parts) pick ups on the way through now.

I can see the appeal. JJ might be needed to cover a wing. Sparrow and Harmes did well as the 4th and 5th on ballers covering for the big 3 and a bit on the wing, they can play more midfield but then they need to be covered. And surely we finally learn the lesson to save Viney for when it matters. Plus we likely have to do that for Petracca and Oliver if needed. Tracc should play more forward in the home and away season. But I just don’t love the idea of bringing in a limited depth player who’s negatives - disposal and speed - really show up at times. And is that what Dustan wants at this stage of his career? Surely he wants to push his case at a club with more room for him to do so. If we’re chasing a mature on ball depth player after losing Jones and Vanders is there no one else who has upside and versatility? Delistings are very thin so far. Bewley as a wing. James Cousins as a mid. But young mids in the draft and state league guys are often ready to go pretty quickly. I wouldn’t want to pull the trigger on Dunstan before surveying all options.

Apparently Sos did a good job of front loading contracts. Remember the Jack Martin deal they gave to stop us poaching him? But apart from that the likes of Dow, O’Brien and so many other young players just haven’t come on. The amount of money we have to set aside for the likes of Jacko, Riv, Kos and so on they can just spend on imports.

They were keen on Treloar 2 years ago more than last year, but they now have a very talented list but can’t bring it together to form a team. They have about 15 talented young players who all get massive overs to stay. Then have about 15 senior guys who all took similar contracts to either stay or go there. The crunch on list spots and salary cap has really hurt them as it is all clubs. But Melbourne go to Gawn, Lever, Petracca, Salem, Viney and give them extra years to take the cap burden off. Gold Coast can’t do that because they don’t have reliable veterans that they trust to carry extra years. Witts, maybe Swallow, maybe Collins but really it’s slim pickings They’d like to do that with Max King and Touk Miller but those guys are committing or certainly not at below market rate

Given the likelihood of a top 15 type on our list coming in seems very unlikely I’d say the 3 priorities are: 1. Cap space - don’t jeopardise our ability to retain our most important players 2. Draft position/capital. Obviously there’s room to go in various directions 3. Depth upgrades So far we seem comfortable with Tomlinson, Weed, Daw and Brown as the back up talls. Hunt, Joel Smith down back. JJ through the midfield. Laurie is a talent. Melk at this stage as well as Chandler and Bedford forward. I’m a little surprised we’re happy with keeping lots of our own guys and havent left more list spots open to survey the market.

Interesting that we went 6-3-1 in our double up games, but 11-1 in the other 12. We also went 4-1 the first time we played sides in the double ups with the inexplicable loss to the Crows. But 2-2-1 in the repeat games with GWS, Dogs, Hawks find a way to improve on us. Not entirely sure that means much though. GWS might've beaten us the first time around if not for injuries, the Dogs probably match up better against us at the G and that game was closer than the result says and the Hawks played us pretty tight both times. Once we put the game to bed with a huge last quarter as they were tiring, the 2nd time we stuffed around enough to keep them in it. The 3 sides we played in the finals for the 2nd/3rd times we obviously went 3-0. So if it was coaches figuring us out a bit it didn't last.

We came to within 4 points of the Dogs at the start of the last quarter despite them playing with 3 extra players on the field. 25-11 free kicks, it was a bit of a joke. But we allowed too much room to Bont - which didn't really occur in the grand final - the mistakes in the grand final were mostly getting the wrong match ups inside defensive 50 for 2 of his goals. And we just couldn't punish them inside 50 even with Keath injured and Schache at full back. Ben Brown was only just warming in to Ben Brown form. The Hawks draw and Crows loss were both a mix of mental lapses and being unable to full recover when we weren't switched on. You can't be 100% switched on every game but it was disappointed that we got it together enough to win then didn't. GWS beat us around the ball and defended really well, but we simply didn't have the forwards to over power them and when we sent Hunt forward to win it he decided to run, bounce and get tackled rather than kick maybe the 1 goal we needed to put doubt in to them and break them open. I left that game feeling we either had to win the midfield, get a target inside 50 or pressure like crazy to win games and we went 0-3 against a tricky match up and still had every change to pinch it. The Collingwood game was our 1 truly awful performance. Nothing went right that day. Weid was awful. The midfield banged it around and had no accountability. We didn't adapt to the width of the ground. The key defenders were panicking and the match ups were bad. There were few redeeming qualities to that effort at all. It was very 2020 and had me worried.

The AFL get kicked a lot and rightfully so, but the footy department cap has to go down as one of the greatest rule changes I can think of. The big spending teams - Coll, Hawthorn, Geel, West Coast, even Sydney and Brisbane that invested a lot in the early 00's were winning all the flags and were a mile ahead when it came to drafting, fitness, development coaching and so on. Now the Dogs, Dees and Richmond (before reaching full powerhouse off field level) have all won flags. The Bailey days particularly, but also the Neeld times, were a direct reaction to what happens when instead of even a playing field from 200-2007 you have clubs spending millions more on their footy department whilst we had Neale Daniher and the possums at Junction running the show. Once Neale couldn't keep it together any more we were in a huge hole. And there was no disincentive to sacking a coach either. Sure you had to pay them but you could lean on influential members who loved a good sacking to chip in some cash and go hire someone else. The cap punishment for sacking someone is now so strong it makes teams stop listening to the peanuts in the cheap (or very expensive) seats and start fixing their issues. And members are coming around to that view as well which is promising. They're starting to question clubs rather than just blaming it all on a coach. Even some Carlton members had some sympathy for Teague! Without the footy cap I'm not sure we keep Goody. I'm not sure we sign Yze - the Hawks probably just chip in to keep him. And surely we don't get Burgo who probably takes top dollar at a big club who can easily afford to fit him in and move on whoever they had.

Honest reflection on how stressful these jobs are when losing and not meeting expectations. Must be incredibly hard to destress when you're a public figure and the week to week grind is so time and energy consuming. The energy healer isn't really my cup of tea but mindfulness and reflection are so important to know yourself and know what you need to provide to your colleagues. There must also be a lot of stress lifted when you're a premiership coach too. Goody now joins Chris Scott (with the aura fading on that one), Longmire, Bevo, Hardwick and Simpson as the only active premiership coaches next year. Also I like the way we've pretty much just copied most of Richmond's culture and game style but it hasn't felt like a bad imitation. We've made it our own. It seems a lot of the changes have happened somewhat organically. Goody has turned things around. A female President has taken over. We added valuable assistants. The players bought in to selfless acts. The defensive system, pace, pressure all hallmarks but all our own way rather than desperately shoehorning things in. Clearly we've looked at what they've done and aimed to be similar but then made the organic changes to get there.

Maybe we can clap for the people in lockdown at the 20 minute mark like Mayor Basil suggested

Yes I agree

- he has a feeling of content - knew the club was back on track after the Hawthorn win in 2016 - Goody was hired based on his high performance program and a respect for Neil Craig - Disappointed for Jones - you can message him on insta and he'll reply congrats

He needed knee surgery in February then had to do a mini preseason mid year to really find his fitness, form and confidence again. There's every change he doesn't get through a full season again. In fact we should manage him to make sure he's right at the most important moments. I think that's a big reason we've kept Weideman.

Yes I should be clear I agree entirely with that. I meant at his time at North I reckon there were plenty of occurrences where he'd go up in a pack and flop around. That might be wrong and seeing him through opposition glasses. I thought he competed very fairly throughout his time with us and the arm chops on grand final day were all there.

He hadn't been getting his free kicks this year either. A sign that he wasn't getting first to the drop of the ball or in synch with team mates. I thought he'd left his umpires with him at North. I don't want him to go back to a player who chases free kicks, that's not sustainable, but if he gets first hands to the ball he will get chopped a lot and deserve them.

Max talks about his team mates (and coach) the way we do on the forum which I find equal parts enjoyable, funny and worrying. But he's true to himself I guess. That's the most important thing. I wonder if it was poor player leadership, the coaching or just the reality that maturing takes time that saw Oliver, Petracca and many others take time to buy in to really playing selfless footy. I don't think it detracts from the job of Goody to hold it together and the club to find the right assistants to provide an excellent structure around the players, but it's undeniably been a turnaround from the players that got things rolling. Geelong have the famous leading teams meeting where they called out Ablett, the captaincy change to Harley, Scarlett and Mooney laying down the law and 18 year old Joel Selwood giving them all a nudge along. I don't think our transformation has been quite as drastic. They flicked the switched in a year, where as we made progress through 2020 after a horrible 2019, but the end result is something similar.