DeeSpencer

With Zac Williams coming in I don't think Carlton will be able to front load any contract to the same extent this year and there's more than 2 teams ahead of them in the PSD order, including Essendon and the cashed up Kangas who were also keen on Saad. In Saad's case I'd imagine the PSD threat is an empty one.

Tom McDonald was very good in a ruck/forward role in ‘17 as well. But the fact is he was out of contract after ‘18. We can’t time travel and ask him to have played better footy before that. I don’t think it was a monster deal, it was the deal you give a 50 goal kicker. Harmes - I’m convinced the length of deal was to lower the total per year. Harmes is going to be around for 5 years in some form. It’s a non issue. Tomlinson - absolutely agree. A desperation move after trying 15 wingmen the year before. Goodwin changed the defensive system with good effect this year. He finally got improvement with our mids going inside 50. Not enough but it was the right step. We’ve made a heap of mistakes the last few years, I don’t think any individual is to blame. The way I see it is Goodwin and Mahoney took too much reinforcement from decent results and the Roos, McCartney, Jason Taylor school of contested ball and competitors. We missed out on Williams and Saad but we’ve seen the impact Langdon made last year compared with Brad Hill. If we’re turning over the list and improving the game plan we can make big steps without big names (or sacking Goodwin and Mahoney)

If we’re having to beg Smith to join us with a longer contract then we should back away from the deal. If we’re a 9th place team with a bright future bound for finals then he should be keen as mustard to join. If he’s not, let’s find someone else

Preuss would only be competing for a spot in a sides best 22. Until he shows he can get fit and stay fit for a full season he can't be considered a lock best 22 players. Every year there are ruckmen who hit the 23-25 year old age range and become ready made rucks. It's not rare at all. Teams are competing for Preuss' signature, they won't be competing for offering us more. We can set a minimum bar of what we'll accept in a trade but if it's a high second I think every club will say thanks but no thanks. He's just not worth that much.

You can stay on the rookie list whilst making more than the rookie minimum. For the last 2 years he would've been on at least decent money. Do agree that this is his best chance of a pay day and he deserves one.

1. Will there be a midseason draft? 2. How do we pay him to be a coach/player under the playing salary cap and then retire him? 3. If Jones has played 6 games by midseason just how stuffed are we?

The case for it: 1. Essendon haven't won a final in 14 years, the only way a key staffer like Dodoro keeps his job with that record is to keep having reasons why they haven't gone up the ladder. First it was the end of the Sheedy era, then the problem was Matty Knights. Then it was the supplement saga. With a new coach who they want to give some time and space to reset the game plan and list the best way to save everyones job is to have one big clean out. They won't be completely hopeless next year with or without Merrett, the list isn't that bad, so you go backwards for a year but you've got 5 first rounders in 2 years to show for it. For all his trade shenanigans Dodoro has always drafted well enough to hang in there. 2. If Merrett leaves in free agency he'll have to get a bigger contract than say Brad Crouch will get this year. And if Brad Crouch is only getting an end of first round pick then maybe Merrett's in line for similar. You have to assume we'd offer up our future first to start negotiations. I like Merrett but I don't love him. There's not enough smoke just yet to make me think we're all that keen and I think Essendon would certainly rather keep him. But it's an interesting one.

There probably is a number that someone tries him for but if we're paying him 400-500k a year to play against us we may as well just pay him the full whack to be with us.

Surely the reason Tom McDonald is staying is because we've tried to shop him to 17 other clubs, even with a huge discount, even with this story about magically shedding weight (like that wouldn't have been tried last year post a knee injury) and he's just no good. Picture yourself at any of 17 clubs and think would you take on Tom McDonald, even for a 5th round pick and on 100k a year. Who says yes? So we're stuck with 2 more years with Tom McDonald at 700k+. Which in turn means bringing Ben Brown in at a decent wage is tying up a lot of cap space on two ageing big men with suspect movement. Big key forwards don't play well after 30. Brown will soon be 28 and he's never turned all that well. Ben Brown's one of the best goal kickers in the league but even then he's 3 goals a game from a heap of inside 50 targets. That's what he is and what he does. A couple of contests up on the wing but no tackles, no defensive pressure and I doubt that he's keen to start back up rucking again. The Weid can mark it, he showed that. Fritsch can absolute mark and get shots on goal inside 50, even if they are points at this stage! We've got Jackson. We've got Petty. Petracca will play more forward in a longer season. Maybe we should just stick to what we've got for this year if there's no perfect options. If Tom comes good, great. Odds say he won't, but then he'll only have 1 year left and might take a payout or be easier to move on.

Looks a good size and a smooth mover. Must be so hard to draft given the standard of opposition seems pretty week so I guess you look for skills and traits and there's certainly some smart stuff on display here. So many of the existing players are either athletic but poorly skilled or well skilled but with shoddy athleticism. I can see why the Dees headed to the draft. The draft highlights show good skills and clearly they are developing athletes as well. As the level of competition improves at the junior level the level of talent will only improve too.

Williams tore Collingwood apart in a prelim this time a year ago, he would've been a full time midfielder at any club other than GWS. Walsh is ready to move on ball - though they do need a wing replacement. For some odd reason Teague was more focussed on using Walsh's run to help the teams outside game rather than just releasing him as an inside beast. Cripps, Walsh, Williams is a great start to a midfield. If Martin wants to be his best he'll rotate in. Saad they plan to use in the Kade Simpson sweeper role. If he gets 20 kicks a game up the ground rather than deep he's a core part of the team. There's always enough cash to pay everyone. My concern for the Blues would be they've quickly accelerated their time line adding a pair of 26 year olds and their depth is shoddy.

One reason they have so much cap space is their next generation of mids - Dow, O'Brien, Stocker and even Kennedy and Setterfield haven't come on nearly as well as predicted. Williams should play as a full time midfielder and Martin should rotate in. Depth and trying to find a way to bring in any future recruits might be an issue.

Maynard and Walker were category B non footballers, they don't count, throws at the stumps with little downside. Matty Jones was ok, if we could draft him again now I almost would, 5% more skilled and tougher and he plays 150 games. T Smith had the talent, the perfect kind of player we need just never had any luck. Let's see with Hore. Hannan not a failure and Vanders was a success - a poorly managed success. We don't need miracles, and a Tim Kelly comes along once in a life time, just a couple of better fringe players and maybe one above average best 22 type. Mature agers let you turn the list over quicker too. You usually know full well if they are any good in 2 years and you aren't weakening the training standards or VFL side.

The Cats keep topping up because their best players remain in the window - Hawkins, Taylor, Ablett, Selwood, Dangerfield, Duncan - and some of them are too old that going backwards to go forwards isn't worthwhile. Plus they have the advantage of being confident that they'll get more out of veterans for a number of reasons. Well coached, good leadership and probably the biggest one that they bring a lot of locals home who will be happy to be home. Guys are moving back to Geelong to be happy with their families, they want to keep playing and play well. For all the reasons you laid out we shouldn't be opposed to veterans but I think we should look to add guys who are likely to settle in with the group and have a reason to play well or even improve. Brisbane have been the best example getting Hodge and then Birchall, getting them fit and them being half backs (or pockets really for Hodge), so playing them in spots where leadership and experience is at it's best value. Flying Jetta back across the country when he's already moved home, whilst probably retiring his cousin Nev doesn't really fit the bill. I'm a bit worried about his ageing legs but Isaac Smith makes more sense especially if we keep the kilometres low. There's probably others to consider as well. The other thing the Cats have done is had good success with mature age draft picks. Tim Kelly, Stewart, Menegola, Atkins. That's something we should keep trying to do.

Doubt he'd be cheap. Excellent pressure player who can play forward and on ball. Scrappy by foot but isn't the only one there. I doubt the Cats are even thinking of letting him go. I'd like him but we'd have to move out a mid to get full value from him I think.

He has a nice 30-40m neat kick usually to the boundary that comes on the back of a couple of slow paces. Which is certainly better than some defenders we've had (see McDonald, Tom) but doesn't make him a candidate for kick outs. When he's asked to run the ball out of the backline or change direction and kick quickly he's incapable of doing so. Which pretty much sums Oscar up. Handy enough when there's no pressure but ask him to do anything with any intensity and he's just not up to the pace.

There’s a difference between almost no chance of happening and not worth trying. Offering a 3rd round pick for Dusty Martin isn’t worth trying. Combining picks 20, 40, 60 and 70 for pick 1 isn’t worth trying. Daicos is out of contract. Collingwood have a tight salary cap limiting the amount they can pay him. Assuming we have cap space there’s no harm in offering him a deal that would tempt him that reflects the value he could give us. ‘He’s a Daicos’ is not a valid reason not to make him an offer.

Oliver’s bad habits - 1m handballs, inability to absorb contact then handball to space, rash playing on in traffic, refusing to drive forward from a stoppage and kick to space - have to be corrected to make him the player he should be. If the coaches know this and there’s tension with Oliver then good, he’ll be a better player for it. If Oliver knows it and the coaches can’t help him then maybe we’ll wake up and fix the coaching.

Absolute bull dust. There wouldn’t be a player on the list unhappy with having May after this season. The players know across the industry if you change clubs you have to pay more. Lever and Tomlinson have been disappointing but neither of them were handed mega deals that completely blew up the cap. Harmes, Tom McDonald and Brayshaw have been more disappointing and we paid them too. Oliver either already does or will get paid more than them, he won’t be worried about Tomlinson’s wage. Coaching, direction of the list and role in the side are surely far bigger factors.

Because the speed of a key defender doesn't have anything to do with the issues you are complaining about which are flanker/outside mid speed. I'm sure the plan was to have Oscar play a role similar to Jordan Roughead as the Pies or David Astbury at Richmond. The 2 best backlines in the comp. A big defensively sound tall who positions well and does the simple defensive acts. While May and Lever - who are both well above average speed for tall defenders took the quicker opponents. Our backline did a very good job this year with very limited 5th, 6th, 7th defensive starters for most of the year. In many ways that franks the decision to move Frost on whilst he had value. Oscar just hasn't been good enough. We don't need a super quick player to replace his role, just someone far more defensively sound.

Viney's not signing for a 2 year deal. It's either keep him for 4-5 or lose him, probably for a 2nd round pick in compensation. We had to give Vanders 3 years or lose him for stuff all to the Swans. Given he was in the best 22 and an important player we made a reasonable choice. Jetta and KK may well retire, we haven't heard anything that says they won't. But payout negotiations take time and depend on list sizes, salary cap etc. KK was a mistake, hence why we have new fitness and medical supervision at the club now. Jetta's deal wasn't, he deserved a long extension. So Port chopped a whole bunch of bad players, how is that relevant to their current success? It didn't help them build their current best 22 who have all either been on the list for a long time or were picked up with first round picks in the 18 draft. The only player who's come on as an unusual addition is McKenzie and he's exactly the kind of player you're saying to get rid of. They are also the club that picked up Watts, Trengove and Toumpas. We've kept too many players for too long but the bigger issues are poor draft/recruiting, inconsistent development and inconsistent team play. It's really hard to rate the performance of the fringe players when the best players in the side don't provide a solid base.

I heard we were hiring a guy named Adem and assumed it was Adem Somyurek

You can't be an outside player, get as much as the ball as Langdon does and kick the ball as poorly as he does and be elite. 2 goals for the entire year. 3.2 score involvements for a guy who got a stack of it. Not sure he's going to improve either. He's physically at the top of his game and his kicking probably is what it is now. I can't see how he's suddenly going to find more penetration and power in his kicking at age 25. He'd pretty much have to completely retrain his action and maybe change his body. We should get 100 very solid games out of him Lever's one who can take a big step forward, his best games were very good. He's had a full year to get confidence in his knees, but I think it's next year or never.

Colts, SeaHawks, Bills

I've thought of that, and the answer is Fiji (or similar resort location). Use it as a pit stop for the quarantine for maybe 7-10 days. I'm not a fan of taking on 3000 yanks sight unseen but with regular testing and 10 days in Fiji I'll take our chances. Politics would come in to it though. Would be a bad look for all those stuck overseas if we put thousands ahead of them. I think you could send a first wave of 100 per team. 50 players, 50 staff. Each team was allowed 100 staff in direct contact with players and that's at home bases where they have a heap of training staff, an excessive amount of coaches and people who feed the players and clean up etc. A first wave of 50 staff would be an adequate coaching, fitness/medical, welfare and media team. It will never happen, but I'm convinced it's achievable. The issue is it's not practical because you couldn't foresee Aus (excluding us Vics) and NZ getting almost a clean bill of health and you can't be certain it will last until Feb either. The issue the NFL has is it's just too big for an NBA bubble and too risky to do an MLB dig in, grind out games and hope for the best.