DeeSpencer

Flat track Jezza will be a nice fit down there. GWS should match the contract and force a trade. They can pick up all of the Cats Tim Kelly picks, maybe even big Esava too. Gives them a nice draft hand. I still think Preuss is worth stuff all but the Giants might be prepared to work him in to a deal that involves a swap of higher picks and future picks if they end up armed with plenty of them.

Dunkley, C. Wagner, KK - 0 J Wagner - 2 Preuss - 3 Bennell - 5 Jetta - 6 ANB, Oscar - 7 Jones - 8 Hannan, T Mc - 9 We had 18 guys play 10 or more games, plus Rivers and Jackson play 9 and 6. If we only recruited 18 year olds it wouldn't be wise, but I think as long as we balance the draftees with some mature bodies either through trades, delisted picks or mature age pick ups we'll be fine. At this stage we aren't trading out anyone in our best 20.

Grundy was a free agent and one of the best players in the game, either you pay him a truckload for a slightly shorter deal or try to spread the load out over a period like 7 years, that's the new modern reality. Mihocek's easily above average, he's a good (not great) key forward in his prime seeking his career best deal. But he also seems a very loyal person so I doubt he held the Pies hostage for every last dollar. With Moore and Daicos also signed the question will be can the Pies just offload Phillips and keep everyone else. Or are they going to push De Goey or Treloar (or both). Or are they going to make decisions on different factors than the salary cap when it comes to either of those 2. Personally I think it's Mihocek and Daicos who were the Pies we could've had interest in. Phillips only if the price is very little. The 2 bigger names don't interest me.

No active role means we’ll be able to replace him in the supplemental period (assuming that rule stays in place). A 3 year deal who was completely unwanted by his previous club seems a mistake. But we have to assume other teams had 2 year deals on the table. The shame is he’s was the type of player we needed and at the end of 2018 we were in a strong position to recruit players. Anyway, hope he can get healthy

If we trade out Preuss, ANB and Hannan I can easily imagine us getting 3 players in of that quality. But I doubt we'd go for both Smith and Phillips. 1 wingman at a time I'd imagine.

Lever was the one who came to us when he had other options IMO. We paid him handsomely but I think other clubs would've too. May was good get but it was a marriage of convenience. Langdon and Tomlinson are certainly guys we were most desperate for. But all of the Saints recruits last year fit that same bill. They backed up stupid money and picks for Hill. Gave Dougal Howard a big pay day. Zak Jones was hardly a guy teams were desperate for. And Butler was off to Carlton until they signed Betts. The Saints might be about to land Caldwell, but could also be about to lose him to Essendon who roll out a far bigger offer. Carlton are also at the stage of their rebuild were they are desirable but again they are backing up the cash big time. If these 2 recruits don't work out they'll be back down the pecking order. The only true destination clubs from the Victorian clubs have been Hawthorn during their run, Geelong for lifestyle, Richmond signing Lynch and at times Collingwood - but they've always struggled to land the biggest fish. It's sustained success, wealth and off field connections that make a Vic club a destination. Otherwise there's just too much competition.

In what world can contracts be broken? Re-negotiated - yes. Broken - no. If you have to pay out a guy to retire a year early that's not breaking the contract, it's buying a list spot by spending salary for no return and hurts your spare cap space. If it's a 2 year deal with strong incentives for a 3rd year then that's different to a 3 year deal as well.

I get the feeling the Pies see a chance of pick 5 and a young key forward in the draft and the Suns see the chance of getting a gun mid when they've had a heap of picks as is. His biggest flaw is rushed disposal. His second biggest flaw is availability. But the deal makes too much sense for both clubs not to look at. As much as we need an injection of inside pace I don't think he's what we need or worth the risk.

They have to work out if there’s anything they could’ve done differently. A young coach, standing down assistants, delisting or trading a stack of players, awful losses with completely despondent press conferences, hearing very little at any stage from the President/CEO/Head of football. It’s easy in hindsight but it looks to me like there were plenty of opportunities to do things differently.

The issue with Oliver is the way he takes the ball stationary or going backwards and gives off a 1m handball to a flat footed player actually hurts the team. He has to improve his fundamentals - using his legs to drive forward, lifting his arms and drawing tackles before disposing, handballing to space and knowing when to kick and take ground. He hasn’t been developed properly. So instead of becoming a superstar he’s just a solid A grade mid. It’s not too late to fix it, but it needs buy in from everyone involved.

Has been a pretty open secret since about Monday last week. The media acted very responsibly (apart from one peanut on Perth radio) to let North release this on their own terms. The North board and administration need to review their actions in providing support in such tough circumstances. Not to say they did anything wrong but it seems so disappointing that a guy has ended up in this situation where there’s such doubt on if he’ll even coach again.

Oliver needs to play better. Either: 1. He doesn’t believe it. 2. He knows it and wants to be at another club that lets him do it. Both scenarios require a change. The best changes should be the coaching (assistant or senior) and the midfield mix. If the club doesn’t want to make those changes and instead wants to trade Oliver it would be one heck of a call.

The Cats probably just chimed in to make us go to 3 years. Doing a favour for Liam Pickering. Being the gutless club that we are we immediately went to 3 no doubt.

Might just looking for a cheap experienced player - the Pies will lose a few older guys this year. And if he doesn’t work out they can retire him and pay him outside any cap to work in their community department. Could have little to do with on field stuff and all about stealing a good person.

If Rebel paid for it then good luck to them. If the afl or mcc are picking up the cost then thats stupid

For Collingwood is it all about the off field or do they think they can do something with his body to turn back the clock? This year he looked too lean to me. Like they tried to get him really fit which isn’t his go. He’s a back pocket nugget full of explosive power, he’ll never be a good endurance player who runs both ways. Has Burgo tried to get him too fit at the expense of the way he plays the game?

I don’t want him playing for us next year yet alone 2022. But I want him at club in some capacity. Sadly if he gets a 2 year deal from Collingwood I have no idea how we balance those two factors. We have to give him our blessing.

Fritsch was good on the wing and I think very good at half back in 2018 (less so in 19). But finding half backs shouldn't be that hard. Half forwards who get as many shots on goal (even when played deep) as Fritsch are just too valuable - assuming he starts splitting the big sticks. The longer quarters should see Jackson having to ruck more. So I think we can add a 3rd tall, it just wouldn't be a guy with limited mobile like Ben Brown. I'm thinking Petty, or Mihocek or even a 190cm type from another list or the draft. At the moment it's Melksham, probably swapping with Petracca. Do we chance our arm at Caddy. That's all for another time I guess. Fritsch can crumb, he can chase, he can get up the ground and run the ball back and he can kick inside 50. He does pretty much everything you'd want in attack of a small. Plus I don't think he causes too many issues with flying for marks, not compared with some of the ways our other players crash in to teach other. It's really just the lack of defensive pressure and intensity. Once he's in defensive mode he can be clever and intercept/cut off leads. He's not so lazy as to just give up. How hard can it be to train him up to get in to defensive mode and lay a few tackles? He could well end up at half back, but to me that's the kind of cop out that we've allowed of so many of our players. Bayley knows what he needs to do to be a complete forward. The coaches know. Make it happen.

There's at least one *more spot for a pressure player even including using the rotating mids. Hannan at his best is perfect for it and his pressure was great at the start of this year, then it just disappeared. Hunt's never been a great tackler or pressure player that's for sure. We certainly need to find at least 180+ and ideally more flanker sized mid/forward types.

So why Phillips and not 1 of the other 15 or so well paid players they have?

I look at it and think - what truly does impact us in Australia and what is us getting on our high horse because we see a country failing and like to feel superior. Gun control, health care, education, racial injustice...there's a lot that should change but at the end of the day, not my circus, not my monkeys. For decades the most important thing for us has been our military alliance with the Americans and US foreign policy. Sure they've dragged us in to some wars that they (and us) had no place in, but largely it's worked in our favour. And Trump's one man plan of Mutually Assured Destruction seems to be working for him and so far for us. But it's now abundantly clear that Climate Change is our biggest threat. The world has to put the same effort and spending in to fighting climate change as it has Covid 19. The US is in prime position with it's tech industry and with just enough manufacturing still around to really make a huge difference. Biden's far from perfect but the world can't afford to have climate deniers in the White House.

Any decent wingmen would, but that's not really the question. The questions are: 1. Does his limited skills and contested ability see those B+F results start to slide over the new few years - he wouldn't be the only hard running type of player to have peaked by 23 (see T. Bugg or A.N-B). 2. Is Isaac Smith (for free) better for a couple of years for free whilst we work on a long term replacement who we can draft with the pick we won't have to give up for Phillips I'm not so sure the Pies would be so keen to move Phillips on if they thought he had 100 solid games left in him. Chris Mayne's their other wingmen and he's just about done, they could find a way to hold on to the salary if they really wanted to. 2 years of Isaac Smith and allocate the draft resources towards finding longer term solutions - in particular guys who can kick would be my preferred result.

I'd say our pressure forwards rank: Pickett, Spargo (strong end to season), Hannan, ANB, Hunt, Bedford/Chandler. The aim should be to only have 2 of them in the side and get more pressure out of rotating mids, medium and talls but that hasn't been a strong point. Generally we've needed 3 strong pressure guys to play the game on our terms. Even though they are flaky the likes of Hannan and Hunt are important as they are the only two with any size. So Hannan probably is more important than some think and could easily be like Kent at St Kilda if not better where he gets a game any time he's fit and we wonder why we didn't keep him. But also like Kent I guess the issue isn't so much letting him go but failing to find a better and more consistent replacement.

The St Kilda runners can kick though. Paton, Clark, Billings, Sinclair, Hill, Butler can all hit targets. The Saints have his brother. Similar player. Elite tank and runs all day. He played 4 games for the year. We desperately needed a guy like Langdon to add some run, but given our inside mids aren't great kicks either do we really need to keep adding shoddy kickers for short term gain?

You don't remember when we recruited him to do just that and it was a disaster? Doesn't have the heart or desire to play down back. Or really anywhere I feel.