DeeSpencer

If you're worrying about deficiencies too much then you're missing out on some seriously good highlights as well. - Quick and super accurate hands, releases team mates perfectly with both hands - Nice baulk and fakes to set up hands - Lovely footwork to create room around a stoppage, he doesn't get caught in at the contest - Excellent reading of the play both at stoppages and as a forward There's a craftiness that from our list only Salem, Oliver, Jetta, maybe Fritsch/Petracca and at his best Nath Jones have. I'd like to see more linebreaking and he does kick across his body a bit and slice the ball low (which honestly isn't always a bad thing). And yes the lack of size is a worry too. But there's a really high level of footy smarts on display.

Where's the evidence of this? I thought it was 44 players max on the senior and Cat A list. 38/6, 39/5 or 40/4. Then up to 3 cat B rookies. You can add more rookies as the season goes on if you place guys on the long term injury/retired inactive lists. But to start the season it's 44.

Fat, slow, injured. And looked about 5 years older than he was. Put a string of decent games together and seemingly had the skills but not the athleticism.

Yep sign him up and draft the kick who punched him in the head as well, that's old school defending.

Wylie Buzza just got delisted. He could be our Tim Smith somewhat ok key forward depth option.

Where abouts? If we can drag him to Eastern Europe I think our odds of a successful kidnapping increase significantly

There's no way to convince him if we can't even talk to him. And there's no way to talk to him if there's no threat of us taking him because his contract is impossible to match. In fact the best way to get him might be to deny any interest at all and hope Carlton and his manager then relax on the contract demands and put him in to the draft with something we can match. What's the plan here guys? Hostage situation?

He reminds me most of Elliot Yeo. Who's one of my least favourite players in the comp but also one of the best. I don't think he has near the skills or smarts of Bont, but the athleticism and size is very Yeo like.

He can dictate his contract. Given Carlton were willing to pay him 700k and Papley 900k and got neither of them the assumption is he could nominate with his 4 years at 700k but structured as year 1 - 1.5 M, years 2-4 433k per year. Doubt those are the real numbers or if it would go anything near that high but the rumoured 600k we had for Elliott or some other mystery forward would have to be stretched a long way and there's every chance we've already spent that on frontloading Tomlinson and Langdon. I don't know how much you can change existing contracts and the impact on the salary cap. Plus I'm assuming we have a bush league system where the Martin contract as above is counted against the cap in a similar way instead of a smoothing of cap numbers over the length of the deal. Frontloading should only be allowed up to a certain percentage (ie. 50% over the average figure and not 200%).

Zak’s not a wingman, plays his best footy on ball or at half back. Contested players without great skills on the wing isn’t a recipe for success. Langdon doesn’t have great skills but is a more natural runner. Tomlinson was free (from draft capital). I would’ve liked Zak but you have to draft and develop as well. Can’t be throwing 500k+ and 2nd rounders at every gap

There's a chance when we missed out on Elliott we heavily frontloaded Tomlinson and Langdon to buy us flexibility in the future. I'm not sure it's possible to rework deals to create more room, so we really could be low on cap flexibility for 2020.

That's from a herald sun article in 2016. My questions about Stephens are: 1. What's his contested ball percentage? 2. Does he have Brad Hill or Whitfield style speed/endurance that it almost doesn't matter.

A team that finished 4th a year ago easily could. It's obvious we've got money tied up in our backline and in the midfield - especially with 2 expensive wingers bought in and Petracca, Harmes, Viney all out of contract. Then Fritsch out of contract as a forward. We targeted Elliott and my guess is it was for about 600k. Martin was rumoured to be offered 700k for Carlton and if he heads to the PSD they'll look to ward off other interests by structuring that to make it uncomfortable. Should be able to make room for him but it might be the kind of deal that puts us in salary cap trouble next year and then we have to ship out a good player cheaply like the Pies/GWS have done. How exactly do we get compensated by Carlton for letting him slide? A one sided trade of draft picks on draft night maybe? But the AFL might not be too happy about that. I'm not even sure it's allowed.

I'm a big fan but I don't think he has the x factor to be the number 1 small forward, I prefer him as the number 2 small forward rotating up through the midfield or even getting a go at half back after a preseason. We need 1 more x factor forward but we can get bye pretty well if the whole forward line takes a big step forward with a functional structure, much cleaner entries and defensive pressure for all of the forwards. A combination of Betts, Rioli and Charlie Cameron all in 1 would've struggled last year.

Just had a look at the points deficit rules, I thought you could rack up a big tab but seems I'm wrong. So if we trade 3 for 6 and the Green bid comes at pick 4 (2034 points), less a 20% discount becomes 1627. Assuming these rules are correct the most the Giants can carry over next year (less a first round pick) would be 1723 - 985 = 738 (less if they use pick 19 rather than pick 18). https://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-12/afl-closes-draft-bidding-system-loophole So the Giants would need 889 points in this years draft which they don't have. They've really stuffed up not getting an extra 2nd rounder so they can offer us more and have the flexibility to match any bid with a deficit.

40+59 = 32 based on points. Could be a team in the 30's somewhat interested in that. 6, 32, future first has me at least interested.

I can't see what's stopping Gold Coast and Carlton doing a trade of picks at any stage between now and the draft and then Gold Coast delisting Martin once that occurs. They can pretty much just extend the deadline until the draft. Clever.

C. Good: - Langdon Meh: - Frost out - Tomlinson in, he might be useful but he's chewing up some serious salary. Bad: - Refusal to trade out anyone aside from Frosst to redeem value whilst they still have it - Gus Brayshaw mainly, although I wonder if Melksham and Hunt had interest. Ugly: - Not turning over the bottom of the list - Not bringing in a variety of players Expanding on these two I just don't see why we've kept the Wagner's, Jones, ANB etc instead of signing a key forward/ruck, a small forward, a key defender, outside speed etc. I look at Ryder, Butler, Cutler etc getting traded for nothing and think why not us? Incomplete: - The pick swap deal with North - Plans for the final couple of list spots

Hardly a surprise given the Tigers game plan lets inside mids without great skills rack up the ball. And McCluggage was good in both of Brisbane’s finals and maybe best on against the Cats in round 22 that set them up with home finals. The point is I don’t mind giving up a Taranto if we get a McCluggage and Berry and ideally a 3rd piece.

Being the second best team in the comp behind GWS is a pretty good situation. Richmond were that and just won the flag by 89 points. In 2016 Brisbane traded pick 2 and late picks for 3, 16. Taranto for McCluggage and Berry. As good as Taranto is the Lions got 2 core pieces of their rebuild who both stuck around and a couple of years later really should’ve beaten GWS in a semi final.

Unlikely but we can always hope. I think GC would agree to delist him and let him sign with Carlton rather than have him come to us in the PSD, no point being cruel if you’re already getting nothing but who knows. I’d call his manager and the Suns and say we’ll find pick 30 and 500k a year for him if he wants it.

It's not just 3 spots in the draft for them it's the chance to get 2 top 5 picks. 27 and a GWS future first is probably worth about pick 12. We paid a lot more (given our likely ladder finish) to North for pick 8. 12 and 6 for 3 is about right. 6 and a future first isn't enough, has to be at least another 2nd round pick.

Forget pick 50, it's not worth much when there's preseason and midseason drafts. The point system is rubbish valuing a pick that late. So it's Pick 9 (after Tom Green bid) for pick 29 (at least 3 father sons/academy picks - Greene, Henry, Maginness) and a future first rounder. If we finish 7th then we give over pick 13 (Gold Coast mid first round priority pick) which after 3 academy picks in the top 12 which recruiters all think is very likely it becomes pick 16. Forget about points. Pick 9 - with a years development and hopefully some games - for 16 and 29. Is that really losing? IF - and it's a big if - but if we play finals next year the deal will work out. North are banking on us missing finals.

That's what he's saying after trading up for one of them and with another on the market to sell for a big offer. If he's realistic about where the list is at and if Jason Taylor has the confidence to nail some picks then pick 3 should be split to 6 and a fair bit more and then we should really consider moving around at draft time. Pick 6 should get us one of the top guys on our board, unless it breaks just right there's no point using pick 8 almost straight after it.

If it were up to me, I'd do: 3 for 6, GWS' future first, 33 (Bonar pick via Ess). That's the price GWS. Then I'd go to Geelong and say how about 8, 33, Hawthorn's future 2nd for 14, 17, 24. Hit the draft with 6, 14, 17, 24. Or take out 24 and 33 from above and go with 6, 14, 17, 33. Then I'd even consider trading back with 17 on the night if I can get a pick in the 20's or 30's and something to carry over for next year. We need quality, but we also need to bring in a depth of selections. We need a quick mid, a small forward, at least 1 young tall prospect (ideally 1 at each end) and some kicking skills. Overdrafting a small forward with pick 8 does not interest me. Pick 8 is a nice rental so we can say we split 3 in to 6, 8. Once we get pick 6 and restore our future first and a mid round pick it's time to split pick 8 in to some more useful pieces.