DeeSpencer

I think plan A will be Oscar but with a really simplified role for him defensively and far better midfield cover as well as Lever patrolling the CHB line and May the full back line meaning there's only so many opportunities for teams to get Oscar one on one. Plan B might be Lever as the 2nd tall. He has the height and should be functionally stronger this year, but I agree it's not ideal as he's never looked comfortable when isolated one on one. Petty the next choice, but the 2 I'd like to try are Weideman - I just think he has the physical tools and skills and it would be great for his footballing education. And Joel Smith, even if he lacks size he'll stick with a man and then it's up to the pressure being good enough to give Lever and May a chance to chop out. Full ground defensive system and maintaining possession are obviously big factors in making the tall defenders lives easier. Talent addition through the draft has to be a factor especially if we pick Young. Otherwise more of James Harmes on a HBF could be important. He's strong overhead and could make a difference in stopping the ball even getting to the big guys.

The question I want to know is who the hell is our forwards coach? If Chaplin takes the backs, Plapp and Mathews split the mids as they did last year and Richo takes a more wider role then we are still short a forwards coach.

Key forward 1: Tom McDonald. For half of 17 and 18 he looked like a top 8 key forward, if not higher. Stank last year until he got it together just before injury. Still think he can be a top 8 option, but right now I'd probably put him at 10/18. Key forward 2: Weideman or Petty. Both remain unknowns, but physically should be improved if they have big summers and have some skills. At a minimum they have the size to run and jump at the ball and create contests. Defensively not strong. Without counting up across the league I'd say they are 15/18. 2nd ruck: Preuss or one of the tall forwards ruck and we go smaller. Obviously a chance of a draft pick being used here. If it's Preuss when it comes to the forward line then until proven otherwise it's 16/18. Mid sized players: Fritsch, Melksham, Joel Smith, Petracca, Hunt, Hannan?. Fritsch's back end of the season as a marking tall was excellent. Melksham as a taller option was great in 17/18, a bit too much playing for free kicks and awful defensively last year. Petracca had an underrated season although should see more midfield time this year. Overall I'd say the depth and talent of this group is clearly the strength of our forward line. 6/18. Crumber: Chandler? Lockhart? Spargo? Hunt? No surprises we are monitoring the draft heavily here. 16/18 Flankers: ANB, Spargo, Lockhart, C Wagner, Nath Jones. Hard to get too excited here although I'd argue they aren't as bad as we probably think. Position wise we are mostly looking for the hard runner who gets to contests and out numbers. ANB still has potential to excel in this role with his tank but his skills/smarts are just too poor. Maybe 14/18 on the basis that we at least have a range of options.

I'm happy he's out there training and moving well, I don't care if he's still a long way from peak fitness as long as his base is good enough to get through the summer healthy, but geez our media team know how to make our players look bad.

Making the grand final is the reason they can afford to draft for need rather than best available, because Green will really have to be as good as Cripps to get a game over the next 3 years stuck behind Ward, Coniglio, Hopper, Taranto, Kelly, De Boer, Greene, Williams, Whitfield, Caldwell etc. And even then is he really making them better? If they don't match they'd have to be confident that whoever they take at 6 is super highly rated as well and if that's Young then there's your Heath Shaw replacement within a year or 2 and a major addition to the side. If it's Jackson then all of a sudden they've got a young ruck to play for a decade alongside the best midfield in the league.

It's really not. I think we'd be paying Ed Langdon something close to Martin's contract and there's still a gap between that and the deals for someone like Brad Hill that involve a top 10 pick. Any other club would've been forced to accept Carlton's offer of a future 2nd and 3rd round picks and would've gone to work making them in to something they like. The Suns have so many list concessions they chose to ignore the reality of the system.

I know you can't trade late round picks if you've traded a first but If we trade in a future first round pick can we trade out later round picks? Thought I'd saw that somewhere.

At what stage do the Giants think about winning a flag rather than assembling the best list of future talent. Ward, Coniglio, Kelly, Hopper, Taranto, Whitfield, Greene, Z Williams, De Boer plus Caldwell, Hately and others in reserve, it's a ridiculous collection of midfield talent. A lot of those guys are flexible but I'd argue if 3 of the less flexible inside mids in Ward, Hopper, De Boer and Coniglio are in the team then Green won't be for the first 2 years of his career. Meanwhile Mumford is done and being replaced by Jacobs who was done at the Crows and Heath Shaw remains best 22 as a backline distributor despite losing all pace. With Luke Jackson and Hayden Young sitting right there to fix holes it has to be mighty tempting. Especially with the way Richmond play with so much pressure and run it makes assembling a dominant clearance team not all that effective. I'm concerned Green would be wasted at Melbourne and we don't have nearly the midfield depth of the Giants.

I think you should remove the points from pick 50, because even if it comes in a few picks it's likely to be outside the range of quality picks that Jason Taylor wants (he mentioned 35 or so draftable players on RTD). It's points value is drastically more than it's real value in this draft. That would make it a future first (planned to be at least in the 10-15 range) and pick 26 for pick 8. So we could then swap it back to becoming a pick from 10-15 and a pick around 20 and come out ahead. Gold Coast have the pick 11 priority pick next year as well, if they offered that up along with pick 15 and 20 for something back the other way then it's looking like a better deal even if we have to wait a year for that pick to convey. If we play finals next year and have upgraded from our pick to pick 11 that would be even better! It all comes down to how we rate the players and if there's a lock selection at pick 8. I think that's where the intangible factor becomes more tangible if you're drafting a kid with special skills and the right make up. Where's the cut off in this draft crop for truly elite prospects? Rowell, Anderson, Green*, Young, Henry*?, Flanders?, Jackson?, Serong?, Robertson? Kemp?

I only saw the running at the end but 4 of 5 are clearly in full training. Sparrow is an impressive physical specimen and was solid in the repeat sprints. You'd have to think he'll be in contention as a contest to contest half forward and some midfield rotations. I actually think Bedford is a little miscast as a small forward, I liked his work around clearances a junior and he's another who looked to be handling the running. Still skinny but doesn't look out of place out there. Same goes for Chandler. I was trying to think of players who have bulked up from year 1 to 2 as much as Jordon. Josh Tynan was one, that didn't end well. Chip Frawley another on a positive note. Considering he's pretty much the same age as a lot of the guys about to be drafted it's interesting to see the physical development. In the season review stuff they said they saw his future as an inside mid and he certainly has more of that build than the skinny flanker that we drafted.

As far as I'm concerned either don't advertise that there's a training on or do it at the right time. I know the club has much bigger things to worry about but it's a multi-million dollar business with a truckload of employees, one of them can update the website.

He doesn’t want a million a year, probably more realistically 600-700 and no doubt performance bonuses. But he can and likely has structured the deal with 1Mil for the first year. Exactly what everyone predicted. That number would force us to back end a lot of money and harm our chances of retaining Oliver and Petracca on good deals and then likely cost us player/s down the road.

Turned up at 10:45, 15 minutes after the advertised start time. Training finished after a minutes silence at 11. My report: it was sunny.

Assuming the talent levels are similar I think the big difference is that talented juniors from the Kimberley have a pathway through Perth and WAFL/WA juniors and things like schools and programs like Clontarf. AFL clubs and academies are likely the benefit of years of hard work. Again, not claiming to be an expert but what's the pathway for a kid from the Alice region? Is Alice Spring's still a troubling town that you want to keep kids away from? Is the NT program working (recent draft results say no)? The solution might be getting the most talented kids in schools in Adelaide.

That's interesting, and shows the media is slowly warming to it. There's absolutely an appetite from fans to know more. A slow process but in time the commentators who suggest a team needs to 'work harder' or 'win more contested ball' will be edged out by people who can actually say something interesting about the game. Then the coaches won't get away with such easy cliches either.

Pete Roberts was our head of football technology who’s also moving on. No doubt Burgess who have some of his own guys who come from a GPS/fitness analysis background. Not sure that’s entirely the same as someone crunching the numbers on stats for the coaches and recruiters. Ideally everyone works together across areas though. Amazing that clubs must have so much data but there’s so little out there for the public to understand. Then coaches get away with post game press conferences talking about junk like not winning the contested ball or playing our brand.

I reckon we'll know by about a month in to the season - even if we are 2-2 or maybe 1-3 - if Goodwin has a future and it will be because he'll finally relax in his media conferences and show a bit more of himself. Do that and I think a lot of views will change. Whether it's humour or anger it's time for passionate, dedicated and a more human Simon Goodwin. Needs to sit down with the Reverend and have a chat about how he did it. Then if the rest of the club comes with him in a positive and professional way (unlike mid 2000's when it was Daniher covering over the cracks of a decaying club) we'll be on the up. I know a player drafted by Melbourne who copped some stick from a couple of premiership coaches. The premiership coaches turned out to be right. The interviews and as the American's say 'game recognise game' can be a vital part of the draft process. I wouldn't want every player loving Goody, but I'd love to know who came away with mutual respect.

I do rate McDonald and Melksham as decent but not superstars, Fritsch the same. Although that's 3 players without defensive games. Weid who knows. Petracca required in the midfield. I think we need either a tall forward or a mid sized marking player to pair with Petracca for mid/forward impact and clearly we need a proper dangerous small with a defensive game. Weitering was up, then down for a couple of years but very much up last year. Big and strong enough to win one on ones now and a great interceptor. If you didn't watch him last year and see improvement you've missed out. SPS I rate, was good when moved to half back under Teague and just has to keep building his tank and attacking the game more. Talent is absolutely there, was just asked to do too much as a young midfielder. Dow might turn it around, his speed is still enticing. Marchbank is a serious footballer just in need of some injury luck. O'Brien the kind of elite runner who's a bit soft to begin with but becomes very useful once they start moving the ball. Setterfield still has a huge ceiling and started to produce late in the year. Cripps - who Sos inherited, plus Curnow and the number 1 picks in Walsh and Weitering are easily the standouts of the rebuild but I like their spread of talent and I think it will start to shine this year. Considering the potential for disaster in tear down rebuilds I think Sos has done really well.

Well we are all eagerly awaiting your draft guide. Go ahead and compile all the stats and draft combine results and compile a list of over 100 players.

We added (at different times) both Jay Lockhart and Corey Wagner last year and the Saints added Jono Marsh and Sam Rowe. If we've got the list spots and taken the mandatory 3 picks in the draft then I can't see why we couldn't add both. Not convinced either is a great pick up, one might never play again and the other might be no good, but yes we can get both. The supplemental selection period is the likely time frame for Murray and any other delisted free agents. They are unlikely to get picked up in the National draft - regardless if they nominate or not and can then withdraw their nomination for the rookie draft and sign with their club of choice after it. That's what Corey Wagner did last year.

The AFL endorsed message in hiring Roos was very much please stop losing and improve immediately. We did that, but Tyson and Vince are gone and Hibberd is on his last legs. And the Lewis experiment is mercifully over. Meanwhile apart from a priority pick situation allowing them to get a couple of mature players the league has been happy watching Carlton accumulate talent. The tangible evidence is the fruits of our rebuild in terms of young highly rated talent. Top 30 draft picks between 2012-2016 at Melbourne: Inherited for 2014: Viney, Toumpas (ouch), Hogan (departed as the club culture/professionalism/injury prevention didn't harness his talent) Drafted: Salem, Petracca, Brayshaw, Lever, Oliver, Weideman. Total: 9 players, 2 since departed. Top 30 draft picks between 2013-2018 at Carlton: Inherited for 2015: Cripps Drafted/Traded: Pickett (bust), Marchbank, Weitering, Kennedy, McKay, Curnow, Cuningham, Setterfield, SPS, Fisher, Dow, O'Brien, De Koning, Walsh, Stocker Total: 16 players, 1 departed. Even if you remove the guys in the 20's (Fisher, Cuningham, De Koning) it's still 12 v 7. Short term ladder position isn't a major concern in assessing a list build and the job of a list manager. The aim of the game is to win a flag and Sos has put Carlton in a very strong position. Melbourne aren't in a bad position and if winning a flag is climbing a mountain then we got some elevation last year, but have fallen down and need to regather. The closer to the summit the harder it gets but Carlton have a pretty clear path to zoom straight up to base camp and then have a good window.

No, I’m comparing list build strategies and think Carlton’s was far superior to ours. Helped by them having the cash and seemingly backing of the league to do a full tear down rebuild. I don’t think Roos and co did a bad job, they had no option but to bring in talent and get immediate improvement. Only we’re now stuck in the middle of the ladder list wise and need to absolutely nail some top picks and trades this year to get momentum back.

He took on a bunch of the GWS players he didn’t want to absorb list spots or salary to get the ones he did want - Marchbank, Setterfield, Kennedy, Plowman - at a discount price. Top 10 picks for 2nd rounders. Shifted out the right players in Yarran, Henderson, Tuohy. Drafted a heap of talent in Curnow, McKay, Weitering, Walsh, Fisher, O’Brien, SPS, Stocker etc. Apart from possibly a bad miss with Dow I’d say he’s done a heck of a job. Especially once they land Martin. The best example since GWS and then maybe going back to Hawthorn before that of the complete rebuild. It will undoubtedly pay dividends over the next 5 years. I’m convinced of it. Unfortunately we stuffed up the rebuild twice so had to bring in Roos who traded away a bunch of high picks for instant starters in Tyson, Vince, Hibberd and Melksham and we didn’t assemble the right depth of youth. We’ve had to pay big money for key defenders, we’ve been found severely wanting in midfield run and we aren’t sorted with forward line talent either.

Not sure if there's anything stopping Freo trading 10 for Gold Coast's 2020 mid first round priority pick and pick 20, using 20 and later picks to match the Henry bid, then trading Gold Coast's future mid draft first with another club for a pick around the 15-20 mark to use on draft night. Instead of using 2 clubs to rig the system clubs will just have to use 3 or 4. At the end of the day academy players are still going to come incredibly cheaply as clubs slide as far down the order as they can to match a bid and trade back in to maintain a nice draft pick. The only incentive to get Freo to trade up with us for pick 3 or pick 7 is that it will delay the Henry bid by at least another pick. It's far more likely they just plan contingency trades based on moving down the order.