DeeSpencer

Could be helpful for a trade, could be unhelpful if we do the Cats deal for 17 and they take Kossie Pickett at 16!

I watched the NAB league highlights of his games in rounds 14/16/17 and honestly I was a bit underwhelmed. The first 2 he played a mix of half back and on ball, the 3rd one it was some forward and on ball. The kicking is legit. Even under pressure he has excellent vision and can nail a kick. And he has easy distance. The right foot is steady as well. But he's a long way from a midfielder as is and possibly ever - which overall is fine but points to some flaws in his game. Under any kind of pressure his handballs get smothered or intercepted (likes to attempt around the corner handballs) and he doesn't seem to create space by accelerating through a stoppage or drawing a tackle. It's either there is a quick handball option - which he'll take - or he's in a bit of trouble. He'll put his head over it and win the ball and he's a willing tackler but he doesn't look like a natural at either of those skills. Took a number of nice marks throughout the game but they were largely floating in or across uncontested, there was little that looked like a strong aerial game that would hold up at AFL level. At 188cm if he's going to be a true intercept mark or defender capable of playing on taller opponents then he has to get off the ground in contests and he rarely jumped more than what seemed like a foot off the ground. There wasn't one pack crashing spoil yet alone a pack crashing mark. Some nice intercepts floating in but against what quality coming the other way? The lack of top end pace and lack of strength both concern me. Without either of those how are you winning a stack of contests at AFL level? A freakish kick who can drill it anywhere up to 60m and under pressure, but not the all round package. A more technically correct and more well rounded Matt Suckling but not anything close to Luke Hodge.

He’s just back from a 2 week trip to America doing other things whilst the younger coaches took charge. So you aren’t entirely wrong. They have less than a month of training now until Christmas break. Monitoring every live second of it should be his job! The skills and ball movement drills are vital to get right now. When they run at Goschs he’s usually talking to coaches, injured players or support staff or setting up drills etc. Hardly pushing the stop watch. The time trial is a bit different. I think the coach wants to see times as well as who’s really pushing themselves. Plus be there for support and motivation.

Did not have an uninterrupted preseason. Was in rehab with Melksham for long parts of the summer after his 2 hamstring injuries in late 2018. Started the season very slowly once the vfl started. I thought his kicking was far better than expected. The penetration was there and decision making was solid. Just drifted out of games and they didn’t trust him defensively so moved him forward a lot. If he can run at afl level he’ll be a player. Unfortunately he’s currently MIA for preseason. Wheres he at @Satyriconhome

If it isn't the old pirate demonland reporter in the background of the second shot as well.

Impressive stuff from Toby Bedford and Jonesy running 2nd and 3rd in the time trial. The old and the new pushing for ANB's high half forward role but naturally he's still leading the way. Hopefully plenty of PBs

I haven't seen him out there in any of the pics or mentioned in any of the reports. Has he gone under the radar as mystery injury/absence?

I think it's time trial day so I didn't go down, but will be interested in some results. Gold Coast used a few professional pace makers at strategic intervals to help their players beat PB's, I wonder if that's something we'd do.

The Freo game had Tim Smith do a very efficient tagging job on Luke Ryan whilst also kicking and Weid had an important 6 touch, 1 goal game. ANB did what he does. Hannan did nothing but I guess stayed as a deeper forward with some forward nous. Lockhart was very good at half forward and Petracca did well too. Tom finally started leading because the other forwards gave some support and cover. Plus no doubt Rawlings came in for that game and got everyone back to basics and to stop stuffing around. We really only won because they had in game injuries but our system looked so much better. I think the hope for this year is that Tom can play the lead up CHF role that he excels in because we have goal kicking options in behind and we aren't so worried about getting flawless play through traffic then out the back. Hogan was largely inefficient inside 50 particularly against good sides, but at least he gave Tom the confidence to lead up at the ball knowing he'd be the deeper option. A tall coming on to help out would be nice but Fritsch looms as the guy who at least has some presence inside 50 and can demand space. Similarly the hope will be Melksham can provide both ball use and experience around half forward that helps buy forwards space. 1 on 1 with confidence a good run and jump Tom Mc surely is as hard to stop as anyone.

I think Ash's draft range is about 6-15 and given trading pick 3 is still not out of the question and trading pick 8 is a distinct possibility he's a good chance to be on our board at multiple stages. I don't think follow up post exams interviews or further time with the coaches should change a recruiters decision on pick 3, Jason Taylor surely has a preference. Even a Charlie Curnow drink driving shouldn't change a pick now - if character was a concern they wouldn't be an option, if character wasn't a concern you'd pick them anyway. But the realities of a trade and a Tom Green bid mean there has to be contingencies even with the first live pick of the draft. When it gets to pick 8 there's going to need to be about 10 different contingency plans. If we took pick 3 and were seriously considering the Cats trade of 8 for 14/17 I wouldn't be surprise if we met with about a dozen players between the end of the exams and the draft. A few for the top pick and then up to about 10 who could come in to consideration at 8/14/17.

There was mention of one more coaching hire a while ago. Goody - head coach Richo - mentor, senior assistant, head of coaching Egan - development Rooke - development? Chaplin - backline Plapp - mids Matthews - stoppages Will they move to just 1 midfield coach and have Plapp take the forwards? Or go with Rooke again but give him some more talent to work with? Does seem strange to not have it assembled and announced ready for the main group sessions.

The AFLPA have already hinted at ridiculous suggestions like banning anonymity on the internet and asking social media sites to strictly monitor comments. All I'm suggesting is players lose a small liberty of having strangers comment on their postings and in turn establish a barrier between the peanut gallery and themselves. There's still going to be plenty enough opportunity for people to post trash and get called out for it.

AFL players of any race, religion etc should limit their instagram comments to only people they follow. Similarly turn off Twitter notifications. Whilst horrible there’s not really anything legitimate about this comment. No one is killing children, with a traditional weapon or otherwise. It’s a sad attempt at getting a reaction. Prevention is better than a cure. If players keep themselves open to this awful abuse then they are needlessly inflicting pain on themselves.

Papley was on offer for pick 9 and 900k and the deal didn't get done, a player of his quality won't be on offer too often. There's probably only 5-10 guys like that in the league. Martin is on offer for 625k and a first round pick and probably isn't a small forward anyway, he's a flanker/mid Gray isn't much good, I like him but he's not solving our issues just adding depth Betts is ancient. A 30-40+ goal kicker with elite pressure is very hard to find. Not that I'm racing out to draft a small with a really high pick but I think teams are drafting them earlier and earlier and know what to look for now. Waiting for a late trade or late pick might see you waiting a long time.

A reminder for about the 100th time in this thread that Jackson was 2nd in the Larke medal count, so whilst he has a long way to go to play excellent AFL footy he's not all potential when it comes to games against the best players his age. We've also drafted a lot of players who had excellent starts to their careers and then have faltered, regressed or failed to reach their potential. Angus Brayshaw was pick 3 and had a great debut year and whilst he was very good in 2018 I think the jury is well and truly out on whether he'll be a talent or just a guy for the rest of his career. Meanwhile someone like Fritsch was left out of TAC teams and came through local and VFL footy and I hope will be a big success.

I'm thinking we're just evaluating the likely draft orders and deciding on: 1. Bid on Henry and trade 8 to Freo for 10 and 22. 2. Use the threat of options 1 and 3 to trade to the Cats for 14 and 17 3. Trade to the Suns for 15 and 20 and maybe something late in the draft OR 4. Use the threat of 1, 2 and 3 to get the Suns to give up 15, 20 and next years priority pick 11 with something back the other way. Our list needs multiple skilled additions and especially if we go Jackson at 3 (which I think is fine) we have to look to divide 8 and get multiple classy players.

There was a graph someone made back in the day that showed picks 1-5 were excellent, pick 6 stank, pick 7 was great and most of the first round after that was very even. Then picks 20-45 were similar too. I think we have to grade the draft in to order and tiers and then work out if there’s a trade that keeps us in a similar tier. I can see that being the case as I outlined above but obviously I have no idea how Jason Taylor and co has graded the players.

Athleticism - tick Ball winning - tick - he's not all potential, he was the 2nd best player in the national champs Skills - hand ball looks good, tackling, marking needs work, kicking not as bad as people are saying But the big one is character that always plays a huge part, if they think he is really coachable and can develop as well as be a leader then that might get him over the line.

We are considering taking the player we think will provide the most value over the next 10-15 years. Positional needs have no bearing

So let's assume Rowell, Anderson, Young, Jackson, Green are gone in the first 5 picks as the TIER 1 - potential superstars prospects. With pick 8 that becomes pick 9 (after Green) has us looking at the next tier of talent. TIER 2 - high quality players: Serong, Flanders, Kemp, Ash, Stephens, Robertson and I'd put McAsey in that group (and Henry but let's exclude him for simplicity). That would get us to pick 12, whilst the Geelong deal would slide us to pick 15, is someone from that group going to drop 3 more spots? After that TIER 3 - high upside/elite positional players comes in: Weightman, Bergman, Sharp, Rivers, Day, Worrell, Gould, Pickett. I'm happy to do the Geelong deal based on 3 criteria. 1: Are we sure we aren't missing a superstar if we keep the original pick? 2. Are we sure we'll still get a very good player with the first pick we swap for? 3. Are we sure this isn't a move purely designed to get a small forward for needs?

Good counter. Maybe not as much as I think. Ball drop is definitely more important than where the arm goes. But I don’t think either Petracca or Nietschke were lining up 60m laser kicks in the pics above. Outside of goal kicking I think the 2 most important kicks in afl footy are being able to kick a good reliable 50+m kick to space and most importantly the 15-30m quick hit. You only need a handful of players who can do the 30-50m difficult kicks. From training last year and his highlights Nietschke knew how to get the ball but was Billy Stretch like slow at getting it moving because his kick is too slow and jerky.

Was just too fumbly, caught of position and ineffective when down back the last two years. If that’s the case he can’t play there. Forward and in short bursts on the wing I think. Desperately needs to be taught how to pressure and tackle effectively. Some of his high motor just keep chasing pressure was good but his overall forward pressure is bad for such a quick player. Lets see if a good preseason and some agility work can sharpen him up.

Today’s bugbear: Extravant balancing left arms waved above head high. See: Petracca and Nietschke. The pace of the game is too quick to waft your hand like an orchestra conductor. Extent it out for balance but at the same time keep it in tight and quick. Petracca’s high ball drop has hurt his kicking efficiency and Nietchske doesn’t look quick enough to be a good afl player unless he’s got very good skills. Sharpen it up lads.

Yeah I reckon adjusted for the rise of the salary cap in the last and next few years 625 pa is about equivalent to what we would've paid Melksham and Hibberd (both 2nd round trades). Or Jack Watts to Port (although we chipped it 50 or so). Completely reasonable amount of cash. Unfortunately what's unreasonable is the 2M in the first 2 years and that's Carlton's gain and the Suns loss.

We'd almost have to win the flag to ever get in the conversation for signing a gun tall as a free agent. They come around so rarely and usually go to the best clubs who have won flags. Lynch - Rich, Buddy - Syd even Frawley to Hawthorn. Trading for talls, sure, but May and Lever are also about as good as we've ever done there. Trading for depth rucks is easy, trading for a Grundy style game changing ruck isn't. The only reason Jackson is in the conversation for pick 3 is because they think he could be a game changing level of talent. If they really are confident in that assessment then they have to pick him.