DeeSpencer

In hindsight if the club wanted to keep him for another year they should've sent him back to Melbourne or even Perth once it was clear he wasn't going to play for the rest of the season. Seems abundantly clear that the Gold Coast isn't a good spot for him. He really did seem contrite about doing his best for his family. Would be very sad if he spirals out of control.

Yet Viney was probably our best midfielder over the first 2 finals and set the tone with incredible tackling and defensive pressure especially against the Cats. Then won a heap of the footy against the Hawks. If all our mids bought the pressure and intensity of Viney we'd almost have no choice but to find a way to move the ball because we'd be creating so many turnovers and loose ball gets the rest would work itself out. That's pretty much the Richmond model, the biggest difference is they surround their traditional mids with skilled flanker types who pressure.

Specific targets: 1. Build a time machine? Oscar just hasn't become more physical, progressed to taking intercept marks or found the ability to track a lead and move with an opponent. As the game keeps getting quicker and quicker and he doesn't (both by mind and feet) it's hard to see him improving. If you ran 100 simulations of Tom's career post 2018 I think this would be in the bottom 5 versions, but it's very hard to see where he finds the movement and confidence to bounce back from. This year was meant to be a bounce back year and to various extents Viney, Vanders, Spargo, Weid, Hibberd even Lever a little did bounce back. The McDonald's didn't fire a shot.

1. Money 2. Development - he knew he didn't have the fitness or ruck craft to be an effective starter 2 years ago. He had to build his tank and work on his tap work. 2 years as Gawn's apprentice gives him a much better chance to lockdown a starting job.

Doesn't really matter if he was behind Polly Farmer and Dean Cox too, the lack of games hurts his value. Trade week isn't an auction. Preuss seems keen to leave. We seem happy to get something for him otherwise we would've told him he's staying. So he'll find a club and we'll haggle over his value. The bar is being set very high when I imagine the club has a more realistic target on what they want back.

He left the hub - as is his human right to do so - an employer doesn't control your freedom of movement outside the work place, and didn't ever re-enter the hub. And now he's no longer on the list. So why do we have to pay a fine? Sad to see him screw up after working so hard to get his life on track. But the club can gamble on a worn down body if the mind is strong. I worn down body without full commitment isn't worth the risks.

I think he’s a promising ruckman who isn’t willing to play ruck. A lot of similarities to Brad Ottens, just not as good. It depends on how we see Petty and what the price is but I’m not sure he makes it past the kicking the tyres stage.

49ers, Bucs, Packers

6 years on AFL lists for 18 games. Has struggled to get fit. Has battled with injuries. There's very little evidence that he's ready to be a starting ruckman. Apart from GWS those other clubs you named have much more reliable options and don't need to desperately gamble on Preuss. There's no way that 2 years of doing stuff all at Melbourne has suddenly increased his value.

That’s like saying Melbourne’s got Fritsch would they swap Kieran Briggs for Pickett.

Preuss is this years Frost. Yeah he’d be nice to have but we’ve got plenty of assets tied up in one position. We have to reduce what we’ve spent on rucks to fill other needs. We traded Frost because it gave us the cap room for Tomlinson (winger - oops) and the picks to make a swap for Kozzie. Any hope of Preuss earning us a high pick or good player outright is a pipe dream. Academy pick points and future pick swaps gives us a chance - but that kind of wheeling and dealing comes later. If a team values Preuss for an early 3rd rounder that’s realistic.

I’d be worried his pace might not last at 32 and length was always the strong point of his kicking. He’d get some long kicks in quickly but I wouldn’t expect him to hit many short leads

I don’t think I could handle more leadership from a 30+ Hawk on a superannuation contract.

A few weeks ago he was reporting that the Army were about to invade Victoria to perform a coup. Also seems unlikely that Rutten has a strong bond with Saad when he's only coached him for 17 games as a senior assistant.

Richmond have won 2 of the last 3 flags by having more speed all over the ground than any other club. Players spend 100 minutes running for about 15 touches. Running is pretty much the predominant skill of footy and speed absolutely matters. But it’s positional and related to footy and has to be trained in to game plans. As someone said Langdon’s repeat 100m sprints are likely elite. Petracca’s power over 10 steps is excellent. Top speeds aren’t that relevant because rarely do guys get to or need to run 50m+ in a straight line to get top speed.

McDonald has 2 years left and I’d be imagining they’d be asking us to make 700k become a whole lot less. Over the course of the contracts you’re talking well over 1M saved. Add in the top 25 pick they’ll get from Brown and it’s adding up to a big difference. They’re also likely to draft a young key forward who would take the spot if not immediately then well before Brown’s contract is up. It’s best viewed as 2 different deals. First is to decide Brown isn’t a long term part of the future. Second is to decide on who they can find as cheap mature age depth. The options for mature depth forwards are incredibly limited. Hence why we have Mitch Brown.

I’m a fan of trying Melk as well if we don’t bring in Polec or similar. The defensive work on the wing is often less intense than at half forward, not as many quick changes of direction and less congestion. I get the feeling Melkshams work rate is find, it’s his intensity that goes missing. Plus he’ll find more of the ball and it opens up a half forward spot for a better defensive player or another tall.

It might not be any more to blame than Petracca’s love of mums home cooking but he’s certainly struggled to get to peak fitness. The extra diligence needed with diabetes doesn’t make it easy.

I'd say it's about $1.50 odds he signs at the Cats. His talent is very similar to Hawkins if he were to get it all together. I wouldn't say no entirely but I'd just be really concerned that his diabetes hampered his fitness, which led to make errors in the way he attacked the ball, which led to him sustained far too many hits to the head. 10months training at home doesn't strike me as the best way to get on top of those issues. He almost should be made to play in a local league and then a state league before returning to AFL.

North have a huge age gap from 25 to 30 on their list. Even if they move on Higgins their over 30's are ok - Ziebell, Hall, Tarrant, Goldy. But in that prime age they'll have Cunnington, Tom Campbell (a break glass if needed ruck), Atley, Walker, Dom Tyson (if they keep him) and Garner (if they keep him). They don't want Polec, they'll bring in Corr and they want to trade Brown now whilst he still has some value to get more draft picks. So they desperately need good solid citizens in that mid to late 20's because otherwise not only will the side be terrible but the leadership and training standards will fall off a cliff too. Tommy at CHF with Larkey as the main inside 50 target probably pairs better for Larkey's development than a lot of other options too. It's not as good as Brown in full flight and Larkey up the ground but it might not be hopeless. It reminds me of the way Brad Miller played 2 seasons at Richmond for Jack Riewoldt. Or even the same way Daniel Cross played 2 seasons at Melbourne on a wing or flank to help our young mids. They have to spend the salary cap someway and they won't be signing any big name free agents or trades (heavens knows how much they paid Corr but they didn't get Williams and will be long odds to get Saad). Jade Rawlings knows Tom so will know his character and off field leadership. If I were North I'd be reluctant to publicly confirm interest because it does look like a big step backwards going from Brown to Tommy Mc, but to me it does make some sense. If you delist 11 players and trade 3 of your best 10 you're going to have to find senior players from somewhere.

Agree on the inconsistent kicking of contested mids, although there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement. The bigger problem is Oliver has games, or probably more correctly first halves where he’s just making life more difficult for his teammates by going backwards with 1m handballs that don’t release them in to space. His quick hands can be such a weapon but are too often a liability.

Shuey tucks the ball in his left arm rather than keeping his arms free. Turns and lowers his body so the tackler can't get around his hips (not that they'd want to, players are told to tackle pinning the arms). Polec's arm comes across the mid point of Shuey's upper arm, miles from his neck and aiming to pin his arm and lower chest. Shuey then keeps going lower whilst raising his arm and once the tackle goes high he throws his head and body back whilst Polec is left watching. Polec should've been stronger to stop the arm lift, but this was disgraceful from Shuey. Thankfully the umpires have caught on since (after a decade of Selwood doing it) and largely stamped it out of the game. Anyway, Polec's tackle numbers have generally been decent. I don't think it's a huge strength or weakness of his game either way.

I don't know if we have $1 or $1Million spare. It doesn't really matter. Either way we've got a lot of top line expensive players - Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Lever, May, Langdon, Brayshaw, McDonald and hopefully Viney. We paid up for Tomlinson -free agents are never cheap and it was reported at the time that we paid up to get Preuss. This years re-signings might not break the bank but next year we have to factor in new contracts for Oliver, Gawn, Salem, Weideman and extensions for the 3 draftees in particular Rivers and Jackson. Any opportunity to get cash off the books that isn't delivering a strong return is worth exploring.

Too many fumbles and skittish disposal to be a stoppage player. Goes to ground too often as well. Then there’s the tank issue. I assume Hannan can run pretty well but he hasn’t had a full preseason in yonks and has at least 1 dodgy knee. His first month back was great. He was top 5 in the best and fairest. Then the body and confidence seemed to drop. Im not sure if he stays on the list, but if he does he has to have the perfect summer to save his career. I’d start there before worrying about moving positions

He's a very ordinary kick. More penetration than Langdon and doesn't mind a goal - has played half forward a fair bit the last two years - but his kicking is very unreliable. He'd come cheap with the Pies dumping cap space but at some stage we have to find long term upgrades rather than pay up for a guy with shoddy skills.