DeeSpencer

FB: Jetta May Frost HB: Salem Lever ###### C; Langdon Oliver ##### HF: Melksham T Mc ##### FF: Fritsch Weid/Petty #### Foll: Gawn Petracca Viney Int: Brayshaw Harmes and any of the rest of our depth players. To bounce back hard I really think we need to fill 5 spots, with Langdon filling one. The Geelong team we beat in the finals last year added 5 new players to their line up and went from elimination finals to top of the ladder: Rohan - trade Dahlhaus - free agent Atkins - mature recruit Jordan Clark - first round draft pick Miers - 2nd year player All quick, all good 2 way players and a mix of skills. We've got guys like Lockhart, Baker and Chandler who could break out with good summers. We've got the chance to nail a draft pick or two. Skills will be important and especially at least one good goal kicking option but we don't have to work miracles to find the missing pieces to help the current team bounce back.

Tex still has the skills but his athleticism is shot. We're all hoping Tommy Mc gets his athleticism back and then confidence in his skills, we don't need to add a second older slower player next to him. If there is a Crows key forward to go after then I can reluctantly see the benefit of having Jenkins for a year or two so there's some genuine competition and depth.

I'd feel a lot better about him signing on if he was on 276 or 296 games. Instead he's at 286 and you just know the club will feel the pressure of getting him to 300. I thought he was ok at half back, although Salem's form started to suffer with Jones down back, possibly because Jones took the worst forward or played highest up the ground. He wasn't terrible at half forward in the last two rounds either apart from losing the game with an awful kick. But the reality is he's going to be a limited defensive player at either end and so you're relying on him doing a fair bit with smart positioning and with ball use to provide value. Positioning he can probably do, ball use I doubt. I'd probably have him train with the defenders over summer but I'm not entirely convinced of that. The one glimmer of hope is Jones had an interrupted preseason last year and maybe he can shed a few kilos and actually have the body of an outside runner instead of an inside mid. That's his best hope of playing good football

Collingwood would've had to give up good players, they nearly lost Tom Langdon last year. Richmond gave up depth and moved money around. But they both went hard at Lynch because he was a need and they are bigger and better clubs than we are, to get in the conversation we'd have to have blown them out of the water. Which with McDonald and Weideman we didn't feel like doing. We should have the money on hand for a bid at a player that makes list sense. Only then will we find out just how well they've managed the cap.

With Collingwood and Richmond offering Lynch over 1 mil a season what were we meant to do, go to massive money? That wasn't happening. We'd have to have moved 2 of McDonald/Hogan/Weideman and tipped our hand at doing that just to create an opening. Same with Coniglio, Hawthorn got rejected and Carlton got knocked back at 1.4 a season. What's the sell? We'll trade Viney and/or Brayshaw, open room for you and pay you crazy cash even though you've been banged up a fair bit in your career? There's no point being North Melbourne and getting a reputation for failed trade attempts. If Brad Hill was currently a free agent I'd expect we'd have a big offer on the table. If Josh Kelly opts out of his contract and becomes a free agent at the end of 2021 we should have a deal on the table - assuming the list stays the same. Whitfield etc etc.

Read the thread title. I assumed your retort was based around thinking Lewis could coach. If it was just to imply I should be nicer because a Hawthorn player won a bunch of flags I really don't care. I'm only biased on who can and can't help us.

Same number as Martin Pike, we should get him as an assistant. Similar number to the 2 Rooke won as a player and 1 he oversaw as a development coach. Lewis was able to provide some on field instruction in his time as well as no doubt be a good sounding board for the coaches, but nothing in his on field actions or personality has looked like a future coach. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if he [censored] away any goodwill the other players had towards him by a lot of his ordinary efforts over the first 2 years and purely by playing on this year. When Sam Mitchell wanted a career in coaching he knew he had to retire from the Eagles before he overstayed his welcome as a player. By all reports Hodge is about to do the same at Brisbane this year. Lewis clearly wasn't interested in coaching when he played on this year.

Richmond gave up their best depth in Lloyd, Ellis, Miles and Stengle to get Lynch, it's only because their recruiting in Soldo, Stack, Ross and Bolton in particular was so good that they weathered injuries this year. If there was a big name free agent out there for us this year or last year I think we could've also rolled the dice on depth and have made some moves. God knows we have far too many depth players as it is. For example if Hogan was staying we could've signed him to a long term deal (the lack of long term certainly surely was a huge part of why were happy to show him out) and traded out Weideman and one of Frost/Oscar and moved on someone like Stretch, JKH etc. As far as I know we haven't messed around with front and back loading deals like the Pies have and I believe like the Tigers have too. Hogan and May on long term deals - and McDonald, Brayshaw etc would've given us more flexibility. We might be the best in the business but I do think there's competency

I'm not convinced he's all that quick or skilled, and I think his best footy has actually come as a back pocket. He'd make a nice successor to Jetta but I don't think that role will be a huge priority. Reports said Brisbane were interested, I'd imagine he'd make a very hand small defender for them.

Imagine the lesson plan: 1. The overhead blind throw handball to avoid a tackler 2. Falling over in contested situations 3. Punching someone and other free kicks when frustrated and losing 4. Sagging behind play to receive cheap disposals on the way out 5. Media relations and PR to avoid media scrutiny 6. Hair replacement options 7. Maintenance of rugs 8. Contract law and refusing to retire

When we get some key forwards back in the side we'll have to get Fritsch up the ground at times. The combination of 2 tall forwards, Melksham, Petracca and Fritsch is too many attacking players without enough defensive pressure and tackling. It's not a bad thing, we might finally have some versatility and options for the coaches to work with.

The issue being Amon's going to take a decent contract especially if another Melbourne side along with Port have a contract for him. My guess is the Hawks might be keen if they aren't getting Coniglio and Hill is off to the Saints. And Port are going to want a good pick to. The idea that he's available for peanuts is wrong.

I wouldn't make pick 21 our first offer and only if needed would it be our final offer. We've got an out of contract player signed on for us, there's no need to play nice on this one.

Honestly I don't care that Gil had his opinion, he's just not a good communicator. If he had said something like 'it's not my place to say where players should or shouldn't play but of course I like to see senior players staying loyal at fledgling clubs' he would've been fine. Coniglio will get a big fat multicultural ambassador bonus is my guess. Because Australians with Italian backgrounds are clearly a minority.

Maybe they woke up in 2016? 2016: Hannan and Dion Johnstone 2017: Spargo - half forward, Fritsch - forward/wing, Baker -wing 2018: Trades for KK. Sparrow - not slow, Jordon and a couple of small forwards Bedford, Chandler. Even Nietschke is meant to be an outside mid. Plus C Wagner and Lockhart Inside mids and key forwards were the priority when the rebuild started. Late round selections were used on guys like Hunt, JKH and Stretch, trading for Bugg, trading for Garlett etc. Then we've had to spend big on getting tall defenders in. As bad as our wings aren't it doesn't mean our non May defenders are any good! If Vanders and KK played 22 games to the max of their ability or if we had the luxury of using Fritsch on the wing alongside one of them full time we'd probably not have an outside midfield issue. I look at Brisbane with Robinson and McCluggage, the Cats using Selwood on one wing and Duncan or Jordan Clark on the other, the Tigers having Caddy on a wing the last couple of weeks with a quick runner on the other and I really think the Vanders/KK partnership made a lot of sense. Unfortunately both aren't going well and Baker hasn't got the fitness, Stretch hasn't come on - maybe because he was dropped too much at a crucial time in his career or maybe due to injuries. There might've been a philosophical choice to go for strong bid bodies over skill and run and there's been some poor drafting but we've also just had a lot of rebuilding to do and bad luck when it came to fixing a particular position.

Dew's coaching them very well. They are just super young and super injured, neither of which is his fault. But yes, as long as they stop leaking players like crazy they'll bounce back. The thing is they have way more talent than when Melbourne or Carlton were bad. In 2 years a team that has: Bowes, Ainsworth, Fiorini, Brodie, Ballard, Miller, Weller, Powell, Wright, Ben King, Rankine, Lukosius and pick 1 will be incredibly well placed. That's 13 players taken in the top 25 or so draft picks. When Roos took over we had Hogan, Viney, Nath Jones and not a lot more.

My biggest concerns with Amon and Langdon are that they are both small and both have had career best years and will be at top of their price range. Amon would've been a hidden gem last year. We might have to rotate Fritsch on to the wings to cover them against certain sides or hope for a return from KK, Vanders or someone like Jordon comes on as a forward/wing option. Or Melksham gets back to his wing game. But in terms of fixing our problems with run then Langdon is a must and Amon is a nice piece too who also brings good skills.

KK - broken. As is Vanders. Sparrow - inside mid/half forward/half back - a see ball, get ball type Jordon - maybe, too early to tell, he's so young and raw next years only year 1 for him really, can't expect anything next year Dunkley - not a winger, average pace, average fitness, average skills Hunt - absolutely not a winger, looking more like forward or nothing Brayshaw - not a winger! That leaves us with that actual wing options: Baker - worth another 1 year deal but he has to get fit or he can't play wing Stretch - just refuses to take on difficult kicks or to tuck the ball and run with it, could be kept but would only be depth JKH - actually has shown flashes now 2 years in a row late in the season that he could be an ok depth wingman, but he's small, he's afraid of contact, he's injury prone and he's shaky with the ball, there's a lot of negatives C Wagner - not really a natural outside runner or user, depth in a variety of roles but probably best across half forward What's your current plan for the wing if it's not new players??? If it's not experienced players then it's going to be either the draft, going with kids or injured players or going with guys on the bottom of the list in Baker, Stretch and JKH.

Retired: Lewis Delisted: Garlett Sign on: Frost, Baker, J Smith, ANB (barring a trade) Train on: J Wagner, JKH, Stretch, Jones Main list spots: 2-6 Retired rookie: Maynard Delisted: Keilty Retained/Added: Chandler, Lockhart, Dunkley (Bradtke, ?Walker) Train on: T Smith, C Wagner Rookie list spots: 0-4 I don't see the rush to delist anyone else. None of Wagner x 2, Jones, Stretch, JKH or T Smith are so bad they should go immediately, likewise none have a strong case to go around again next year. If the trade period breaks our way and we end up with 4 good picks and 4 good players without giving up too much then we see who and what we've bought in and maybe they all go. If Tim Smith retires or his body is shot that's fair enough, if we can't attract a good key forward prospect and he's back healthy then I'd keep him. If we find the wing upgrades that we need then we say bye to JKH and Stretch or Corey Wagner. Find a good half back then it's Josh Wagner. I'd imagine this process would go until the rookie draft really, that's how the smart clubs are managing the bottom part of their list.

Honestly leaking this is just a way to soften us up for losing pick 2. I'd trade pick 3 for a couple of quality first rounders but they better be good. The Kelly for Salem-Tyson trade was a balls up because we didn't get near enough value. If it was Billings for Salem at 2-9 that's fine but we had to give 20 for Tyson as well and only got a late pick back. When we traded out pick 2 we should've got a fortune for it. The same applies now for pick 3. If a team isn't willing to give us 2 top 10 picks then forget about it.

There's one former MFC Jack at Port we should look to get back. I'd love to have Jack Trengove back and playing for Casey. There's a quality person who would add value to the club.

The transition the Dogs made from McCartney to Bevo is what we need and what Alan Richardson has to work with Goodwin on.

Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes and Petracca can absolutely play in the same side. Every one of them bar Brayshaw has good burst speed. Every one of them apart from Viney has outside run as part of their game. Harmes is the only one who has top end fitness. The other 4 need the Burgess magic. Harmes can play in multiple spots. Petracca can play forward and mid. Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw are all good enough to play minutes in other roles. I’m in the camp of trading Brayshaw if we can get value but there’s no reason it can’t work a whole lot better than it did this year.

Some teams have all the Luck. Going from Manning to Luck was one of the greatest moments of fortune in NFL history and the Colts just ruined him with an awful GM and no protection. The poor guy's has been belted for years and has had enough. Although you wonder what the heck is going on with his ankle - high ankle sprain, calf strain and something else all at once??? I hope he gets right and makes a come back but I'd bet against it. I think he's burnt out - remember he would've been a prodigy from high school to college to the NFL. 15 years or so of being the man. Of not messing up. It's a lot of pressure. So his ankle gets better and then he just comes marching back in? I don't think he'll want to do that to the Colts. By the way - Jacoby Brissett might be good enough to keep the team together, he's a very good player, but keep an eye out for Swag Kelly. That's a guy with NFL level talent if his head is right.

I'm happy to delist him at 10:01 or 11:01 if it makes you happy. Ideally package him up and trade him to some other battling team. Honestly I'll keep him if he's willing to play VFL and get paid minimum chips and that would be a decision made through loyalty, but it will also take loyalty from Jones to put his hand up and be honest about where he's at. And some strength of character from Goodwin to back in younger players with a healthier list next year. Unfortunately Jordan Lewis' career at Melbourne has shown Goodwin is incredibly soft on declining older players. So I don't trust him to manage Jones. Jones lost us the game yesterday and I'm angry at him but the whole club should be because it's complete trash for a captain to just throw away a game with an awful error but that's where we are at as a footy club.