DeeSpencer

'We believe in this playing group' Outside run was the priority, mentions 15 players on the wing again Won't talk about who they like at 3 but mentions they have 2 or 3 that they like at that pick Andy Maher now taking 3 hours to ask a question. Or ask a statement

pick 3, pick 8 not to be used on players, taken to the draft But then says trades can occur up until the draft, 'worse case scenario we use pick 3, 8'. I'm thinking they'll be pushing GWS right up until the draft

Think you can always just upgrade rookies or use picks at the end of the draft. Salary cap is probably the bigger concern, to land someone big we'd have to trade someone out. 2 deals from nowhere in the last 24 hours of trade period - seems unlikely

I’d rather have both, which we would probably have if we just patiently waited a year. Then our list is stronger. Stronger list = stronger training on the track and in the gym, competition for spots that breeds a culture of competitiveness, not risking injured players etc etc.

Why do we have no depth? Because for years we’ve given up 2nd round picks: - Vince - Hibberd - Melksham - Oliver/Weid trade ups - Frost Our drafts have been all top picks and 3rd round or later from 2012-2016. The last 2 years we’ve worked our way back in to the 2nd round but without first round picks. Apart from the fact that the first round pick could go belly up we’ve given up yet another 2nd round pick and the chance of building quality depth in the list.

Would North roll the dice on Ben Brown? He's nearly 27 and they have a really nice group of young talent, maybe it's time they go for a proper rebound from a fairly stable position and build around Tarran Thomas, Larkey, Davies-Uniacke, Zuhaar, Simpkin? That said, re-singing Goldy and Higgins don't really fit with that plan. And whilst some coaches would've pushed for a rebuild I don't think Rhyce Shaw will.

The cult of Hutchy. Serving up hot takes that are more fiery than hell! Even the fireman Cornes can’t put them out.

Drafting for needs is dangerous at any spot. The most important objective with pick 3 is to get a high quality player regardless of position. If we can do that at pick 6 (and I think we can) then that’s good too, but pick 3 gives us more certainty. 11 is more likely to get a nice player than 26 but not by a huge margin. To take the risk at moving back from 3 I want certainty with the other half of the deal. Yes we lack quality in the forward line but we are more than 1 or 2 kids away.

Maybe we finished 17th more because of lack of togetherness and selfless football rather than because of lack of talent. Jenkins would be a missionary keen for a media career. A self promoter and not exactly a team player. Do you think he'd be happy at Casey? I don't. I just can't see Jenkins being successful enough to bother. If we want depth then go find someone younger with upside, we found Tim Smith, there has to be a younger version of someone like him out there in the state leagues. If we want someone clearly better than Weideman then make a move for that kind of player.

Hawthorn giving up far too much for a couple of late 2nd/3rd round pick types. I could see the Hawks doing 11 and late picks for GWS' future first and Bonar/Patton instead of pick 26, but you don't go from 11 to 26 without something valuable thrown in. Bonar/Patton just aren't worth that level of drop. I wouldn't be overly keen on 3 and 26 for 6,11 because I'm not sure in this draft if 11 and 26 are all that different. We'd have to get some upgrades to use 3rd and 4th picks if that's the case.

Heath Shaw, Paul Seedsman, Rhyce Shaw, Heath Scotland, Sharrod Wellingham, Paul Williams. Even Josh Mahoney! Not many and they are pretty good at selling lemons. And we liked buying them. Aish will go to Freo, and we should always be buyer beware with all players up for trade. But I wouldn’t automatically rule out Pies players.

We just sunk over 1M and a 2nd round pick in to Langdon and Tomlinson purely to be hard running accumulating mids. Phillips would be another 600k and at least a 2nd round pick, too much to spend on one position. I’d only be spending that on a forward, a very underrated defender or a versatile skilled mid.

Signing a decent player who’s turned his career around under their new coach and knows his system isn’t reflective of that.

Fair enough, but the guy can play. The Pies don’t want him because they can find useful half back flankers on their list and their salary cap is under the pump with 3 guys about to make 1M per year. They have to dump someone. We tried for Elliott. I’d try for Mihocek. I’d probably have a look at Scharenberg. There’s a few young players I’d ask about - Flynn Appleby, Nathan Murphy, Tyler Brown I’d try to grab as well. Press them when they’re under the pump

Was soft at the Lions and took a while to become a man, that happens. He was very handy at half back last year for the Pies. Smart, skilled, hard running and far better overhead than I’d given him credit for. He’s better than ordinary but injuries, cost and ease to replace is why he’s on the table.

Dallas Seattle Philly

It's a tricky situation for all involved but Dodoro's outlandish public demands (or reports of them) and reputation usually hide calm and reasonable decisions. Peter Bell may have surpassed him when it comes to making big statements and having them backfire.

Either getting Sydney to put a future pick in the deal or trade a current pick to a team for a future pick next year. Similar to what Adelaide did with Carlton. Or the opposite of what we did with the Gold Coast back in the Oliver/Weid draft. With live drafting now I'm sure they'd be an opportunity, just a matter of taking the risk and knowing they'd have to be patient for a year. In fact I think we'd very much consider trading pick 3 for pick 6 and GWS' future first so we've got 2 hits at next year as well. Patiently waiting for that pick to come isn't ideal but it could pay off next year, especially if the Giants don't back up.

It's all bluff. Dodoro plays the media and fans for fools and everyone buys in to it. The days of Essendon being unwilling to trade fairly are well and truly over. They've done deals for Shiel, Stringer, Saad, Smith in and Hibberd, Ryder, Melksham out and so on without too much drama. Yes some of them went down to the wire late but that's the reality of how most of these guys negotiate not Dodoro being unreasonable. Asking for Heeney or Blakey is all for the media to focus on whilst he does his job, which should be chasing Florent or Parker if he can and otherwise either getting a huge draft haul or keeping Daniher. If acting like an idiot is whats required to stall time to either get a great deal or keep Daniher then I'd be all for it if I were a fan. Of course there's valid questions about just how well he does do his job in terms of building the list but I think they are due to Essendon being unable to have a stable coach and list build since the Sheedy years and not because he's unreasonable at the trade table.

Interesting to compare the teams: Langdon v Hill: 600-700k pa v 900k, 2nd round pick v at least pick 12 and a fair bit more. Hill's the better player but Langdon's the better value I'd suggest Tomlinson v Z Jones/losing Jack Steven: Both guys who should give you 22 serviceable games for a few years. Saints need more inside help and grunt like Jones, we needed more of an outside spread player. I prefer Jones, but it's a case of keeping the 2nd or early 3rd round pick when you get a free agent. The counter to that is the Saints are shipping Steven out to create the pick and room for Jones - or at least that's what the plan might be. Losing Frost v losing Bruce: Probably like this for the Saints more because they have Max King ready to go and are bringing in Ryder for cheap depth where as we are possibly turning to Oscar. Pick 3 v Dougal Howard: I like Howard and he won't cost the saints pick 3, most likely 18 will form the basis of that trade. We could end up bringing in a player like Howard (solid, high upside) next year after either using pick 3 or splitting the pick this year staying put v Butler/S Gray/Ryder: All depends on how our later draft picks and players on our list go. Probably prefer the Saints approach here to make sure they've filled holes. For some reason we've kept all our depth in place rather than chased replacements. I probably prefer the Saints moves more, but they'll also be left with their best players coming from a group of: Gresham, Billings, Max King (+/- his brother), Brad Hill, Marshall, Carlisle, Hunter Clark maybe without a lot of room to add players unless they get lucky. If we get it right at the top of the draft and add another young star then we might have a brighter collection of top talent and more room to work with to fix the gaps. We will bought in Lever and May the Saints were hitting the draft, now they are paying up for Brad Hill whilst we should draft some high end talent.

Max has also signed until 2022, no doubt on generous but not over the top money. But if Ben has a great season he'll get offers of huge money, hopefully not Tom Boyd level stupidity but it could be close to the 1M a season. Will the saints have the salary cap after their splurge this year? I doubt they'll want to pay him that to play CHB. And if Max is the better footballer then all of a sudden you have to pay him 1M+ on 2023 on. Essendon banking the draft picks and cash from selling Daniher then offering it up to the Suns seems likely to me. The romance of playing with your brother might not be worth another million or so in the contract.

Not just related to this comment but in a packed field Ralph is about as useless as any reporter. To claim free agency is working because Ellis and Tomlinson signed with bottoms clubs and that cancels out Lynch joining the premiers is ridiculous.

Port traded up to get Rozee. Rankine signed an extension until 2022, not entirely convinced it means he stays, he might just need the financial security after missing all of this year with injuries. Lukosius is in the same boat as Ben King. I expect the Crows in particular will be circling.

Good call. Pick 22 seemed about spot on for Jack Martin, we might've been working with Carlton on a deal to get them that pick.

Probably because the social media team make the highlights not so much the recruiting team and it's easy to search through footage with 'Langdon + goal' and grab the highlights than searching line breaking runs throughout games.