DeeSpencer

It makes them 25% more expensive to move tho. Which limits their choices. If your boss said you’re going to cost 25% more and you won’t get the money then a lot of people would be fired or quit! If you gave them a cap discount for staying they’d at least get the extra cash. That’s worth considering. But I don’t think we have a problem with too many players leaving, we have a problem with the design of the system.

No it doesn’t, it’s an arbitrary barrier. Melbourne of 2018 shouldn’t have had restrictions the same as Richmond. It has to be the same system for everyone. Without free agency coming in there would’ve been a court case at some stage and the players would’ve won. Trading for Uncontracted players just doesn’t make any sense. How can you have trade value without a contract? Hawthorn lost Buddy but got Frawley. Net losers. Cats got Danger for cheap but so far that’s about it. Richmond have been the biggest winners getting Lynch for free but they’ve also got draft picks for players leaving. Allow their mid tier players to leave for free too and they would’ve lost a bunch of them.

Then it would be taxed agency, not free agency

No the initial contracts should be expanded to up to 4 years. Draftees should do their time just like Uni students, apprentices, young doctors or people joining the army. But once you’ve done your service to the league you should have the right to play where you want to play. The key is proper restricted free agency that make it so clubs can match, trade or let guys go.

The choice to pick your employer is almost a human right, the AFL did very well to get the restrictions they have in place. Top 4 bans and stuff like that are nonsense. Would never happen. The issue is the initial free agency was meant to be a stop gap solution for a proper expanded system and its never happened. Expand restricted free agency back to 5-6 (or even 4) years and then unrestricted free agency after that and the salary cap would be more of an equaliser. GWS will match and force a trade I’m fairly certain. But if they didn’t match and just signed Cameron then other teams should be able to swoop in and poach a lot of Geelong’s lesser players and hammer their depth. As it stands teams don’t want to do that because they have to give up draft picks.

It's pretty much all pressure and ability to withstand and move the ball through pressure. Geelong and Richmond both have huge work rates that allow them to always have pressure on whilst not allowing space out the back. We made some decent progress there this season. Port press too high, Brisbane are just not there yet, although both sides are very good. So get rid of blokes who can't or don't run. Get rid of blokes who aren't sure in their abilities to win or halve contest - you don't always have to win the ball in every circumstance but you can't lose them. Then work out a system that organises your players to attack based on a scheme or philosophy. Richmond just handball and kick forward and swarm. Simple (in attack) but devastatingly effective. They always have numbers on the outside pressuring in so any opposition turnover becomes Geelong's defenders spread and their midfield has a huge work rate and ability to create space for short kicks. Players lead and replace in a pattern that looks far more like soccer than footy. Their backline aren't amazing kicks but the work rate and discipline is so good that everything flows. The biggest challenge for us is to decide how much we want to be a kicking v handballing side, and how direct we want to play, and then proving our midfield group has the fitness, skills and discipline to pull it off. Richmond and Geelong play like well oiled machines largely unbothered by the opposition. We might have the talent but it's hard to believe we have the discipline or the coaching to instill that discipline.

Thank god we didn't ruin Neale's career. We recruited the best young player from Kybybolite and stuffed his career, we didn't need to do it to the second best young player from there too.

He needs time but he's got a future as a ruck/forward I think. He'd be a very nice partner for Jackson when he's the primary ruck. But I don't think we should spend the resources on a player like that whilst Gawn is the number 1 ruck and Jackson is the support man. Hit the draft and find the next Esava now so he's ready to go in a few years. GWS really should grab him in the Cameron trade. He'd pair nicely with Preuss.

He's a ruck forward who would pair really well with Jackson, but it might be too early to put too many eggs in to the life after Gawn basket. I'm not sure you want him in the team if he's not rucking. The way the Saints used 2 mobile rucks both capable of playing forward is how I'd like use Jackson and a player like Esava in the future. The Cats actually do similar with Stanley and Blicavs now.

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?