DeeSpencer

I don’t. But I do know there’s no collective agreement. I also know the history of list management and football administration from Pert’s time at Collingwood. In the last 6 months we’ve handed out long extensions to Ben Brown, Viney, Gawn and Lever. All who might’ve peaked as AFL players and all who have significant injury histories. Are we paying for future performance or past performance with those guys?

Not really. He’s a top 10 talent just waiting to get a good run at it and is at the club with the best recent history. Add in some practice match form and you couldn’t leave him out of the top 50 projections

Oliver was lucky to be top 50 based on last year, but I wouldn’t swap him for any midfielder outside the top 10. Andrews, McGovern, Moore and May all too low based on last year. Liam Ryan too high but I like him top 30, he’s freakish and well rounded. Overall it’s a pretty solid list.

True leadership and loyalty would be Gawn and Lever getting the players to agree to across the board pay cuts as a lot of the good clubs have. Instead they’ve gone down the Nathan Jones style of leadership and getting their cash first. It’s still about the individuals at the MFC.

Ask Pies fans how they are feeling about that contract. A 5 year commitment given this year to a 29 year old is too much. The captaincy is a honour in itself. Why do we have to dish out a big deal too? 2-3 years once he got through this season would’ve been fair. To back up 4 years right away is a huge investment unless we are getting a bargain deal.

Cox saw the writing on the wall and finished up at 33. Martin looked done last year. Sandilands was only just going for several years, he didn’t play more than 11 games after 33 and certainly not great ones. We’ve just spend a super high draft pick on Jackson. Already that’s an over investment in the position but I can understand it’s how the draft fell. Max may be healthy now but he’s had more than his fair share of injuries and isn’t the most mobile ruck. Teams will find more guys like Jackson, Marshall, a healthy Grundy and they will be hard to stick with when he’s 32.

2 years too long. Which club was racing to sign a 30 year old ruck to a 4 year deal? Unless we got a significant discount it’s a bad deal.

I’d put more faith in Burgo and the gps data than Picket’s eye test. But I will say Daw can simultaneously be a fair bit off match fitness AND still one of the most ready ruck/forward options outside the AFL system. The state leagues aren’t stacked with viable ruck options and there weren’t many delistings of big men last year. To illustrate the point Carlton have Oscar McDonald playing CHF/back up ruck tonight. Maj could still be ready by about round 4 or so if he’s the type who can build match fitness whilst playing. I’m glad for him that he gets a game to show his stuff and to put up some gps numbers. Some guys just aren’t great trainers but can do the running when it matters.

Richmond doing the same with Caddy and Brisbane have evolved to similar with Berry and Ely Smith. He’s not the quickest but I’m surprised Jordon hasn’t been given that exact task. I’m not convinced he what our on ballers need and think he might struggle at half forward (as most resting mids do)

Could've had long odds in November about the McDonald brothers lining up at CHF in round 1 for various sides. Casboult probably gets back to take that spot for round 1 but the Blues may well keep Oscar for tall depth, primary down back but whilst their forwards are injured he's a chance to fill in. I was happy to move on from him but he never got the chance to be a depth player and work his way through the grades with sustained VFL form.

They’ve missed pretty much those exact players (Rioli at one stage not Castagna) in both of the last two years and have hung around the lower part of the 8 before revving up to a top 4 spot and flag

I don’t think I am. We scored at will against bad sides in 2018, struggled to score against good teams. It was a reflection of the hot and cold nature of our mids. Last weeks game was a reflection of our mids playing solid footy against a good opponent and the forwards doing well. It’s not 1994 anymore. The top 4 sides really only had 1 dominant forward each, Rich (Lynch), Port (Dixon), Geel (Hawkins), Bris (Cameron). Both grand finalists sent their best midfielders forward at times to attempt to kick goals in finals. We need at least one tall really up and going, but after that it’s about guys playing their roles. The second or third talls don’t kick 50+ goals these days, they compete, chase, go in the ruck, tag interceptors etc.

I agree it’s really tough to have a high octane big scoring forward line. Consistently scoring against the top sides is a huge challenge. But I’m not so sure our forward line has such a huge amount of room for improvement compared with our other lines. The way the midfield drops away against good sides compared with the way they’ve often stomped on lesser sides is the initial fix I want to see. If our mids can lift the way they play against the best sides I think we’ve got enough to be a solid finals team.

He hasn’t played in years and currently is out with a hamstring. It’s a bit like predicting Bennell would be top 10 in our B+F last year but in a strong team ie. 2018

I’d imagined that was the case, especially if we aren’t hearing about him. But I also thought Gus hadn’t done much until very recently.

Seems like they might be learning with Viney that playing it safe beats the alternative. It leans towards yes for Koz but ‘available’ doesn’t mean he’s a certain starter. I wish he was asked about Melksham and Hibberd too. Hibberd could be crucial to curtailing Fyfe and Walters if he’s fit and ready to go.

When did ANB ever play in the midfield? I can’t remember him ever getting extended minutes apart from at Casey where he was a dominant accumulator but ok ball user. He isn’t hard. He doesn’t bodyline the ball, it’s mostly at arms length. He has good athleticism but isn’t a natural mover through traffic. He has no left side and too often tries to kick out of traffic. His first kick on the weekend tried to go through 6 legs. He probably should get some more midfield rotation time but he has to earn it by showing he’s stronger over the ball and better with it. Plus we’re stacked with mids. He showed some improvement last year. Clearly the scratch matches helped him find a stack of the ball and get better with using it. There were some positives on the weekend with a few clever underground handballs. That’s a rare sign of him adding a skill rather than stepping to his right foot and hoping it works out. Ideally he’d add a left hand and a left foot but if it’s the underground handball then that works for me. Overall though he is what he is - a tireless worker plying the hardest spot on the ground. High half forward is mostly a midfield position. The bulk of his time and possessions will come between the arcs. But he has to win and use the ball better under pressure otherwise he goes from a useful role player to sub par.

Could be, maybe the biggest take away from Friday’s games was Casey is light on and sure could do with some class. Good find. I’m all for cycling through as many players as we can to find the answer on the wing. His VFL stats show a lot of handball receives, decent possession totals and about a goal a game. That could be indicative of a winger.

I expect the inclusions of Higgins and Smith who have more to give, plus Cameron who is best running to space will take the load off Selwood, Hawkins and missing Ablett. Combine that with home ground average and it’s a finals team. But their game plan is very labour intensive. Id have West Coast as the old team most likely to struggle. They weren’t anything like a finals side when not at home last year. The key forwards are ageing and the backline is too. Yeo still out. One or two key injuries (Nic Nat, McGovern, Shuey) and Freo can flip the power balance in the west.

We’ve had 3 gaps for a while now though, and surely they’ve had a read on Farmer and Smith for a fair period of that time. I understand bringing Majak in as a flexible tall to cover the key forward injuries. I’m more surprised that they want to give an ok VFL player a look for 1 week - not long enough to really evaluate - on the back of an injury to a guy who was unlikely to play seniors anyway.

I’d give Goody an allowance for 2019, we shouldn’t have finished 17th nor won so few games. He contributed to mistakes that made us fall back to earth after 2018 - lack of run and skills - but the size of that drop isn’t really a fair indication of his coaching. The way I see it is he took over a rebuilding below 50% team, got them up the ladder and is now rejigging that side for another climb. His win percentage is lower than other coaches because we didn’t stay up for long because the list was really flawed. If he gets back in to the top 8 this year then he’s back on track

Was there some kind of hotdog eating contest to measure this hunger? Or is it a special sense that you have? How would you have measured Port’s hunger before last season?

Forget the AFL clubs, they aren’t all that important, it’s the AFL’s relationship with the MCC and their relationships as owners of Marvel with the companies they deal with that matter. When combined with the egg on face on fixing a problem that shouldn’t have happened to begin with the games were never going to be swapped. There’s still time to find other ways to move Essendon and Hawthorn if they really want. Swapping it with North v Port the next day and moving it to the G is the obvious one. Just have to give 7 a slight IOU for moving their Saturday night game to Bris-Sydney.

I’m trying to understand the logic behind this move at such a late stage. I’m assuming in December they were comfortable with the list composition and just wanted to give the young guys a look. Then the 2 big forwards, an intercepting 3rd tall defender and a flanker/wing type went down. Maybe Nietschke’s spot will be filled by Deakyn Smith in a like for like role, thus meaning they can be more specific with the other additions? Which means they are now targeting tall depth to replace Hore and/or cover the key forwards? Majak, Petty and possibly Tomlinson can play both ends so they might be thinking another versatile tall completes the depth options? Or are they not impressed by Majak and looking further down the list of tall depth? Im just struggling to see how Nietschke going down suddenly opens the door for a guy who they probably need a lot more time to evaluate even half decently. Unless they aren’t so worried about positional depth and he’s just the next best option.

Anyone else heard Kye Declase invited to train?