DeeSpencer

We finally get rid of all the old broken down or ordinary tall forwards and you go get 2 more? And you expect ANB and Koz to do the work of 5 players being the midfield and running depth as well as pressure forwards? I mean, maybe if we sign David Teague we can attempt to score 150 a week and win by a goal? Not sure where we are finding the money to pay Houston and Cumming without giving anything up either. Nor am I sure who’s playing back pocket out of that group. Hard to convince Cumming to come and play back pocket each week.

He’s just about exclusively playing CHF in a long down the line team and his goal kicking has been awful, but in terms of doing his role he’s done it well since the bye.

He’s physical, aggressive, willing to have a run in the ruck, mostly a good set shot. The perfect solid number 2 to a genuine star but lacks the leap, pace, quick thinking to be the guy.

Petty’s in sneakily decent form since the bye, the bloke is putting in one heck of a shift this year all things considered. JVR had a poor game but isn’t going anywhere, plus we need his ruck minutes. I can’t imagine Max is going to put the cue in the rack but if he does it’s Fullarton in. Disco got a full game again after a run of games as the sub and whilst he’s making more than his fair share of errors he’s competing strongly. I doubt they want to stop the momentum that he’s building. Fritsch….it’s not pretty but the man is just coming off his first ever pass of the ball inside 50. We’ve witnessed a genuine miracle. No point tanking his trade value by putting him in the 2’s now. Plus I liked some of his mobility and ball winning last night even if the execution was poor and defensive stuff was its usual grim efforts. I just don’t see a spot for Jeffo who’s physically still a long way off, is best suited getting on the end of quality ball movement (which we don’t have) and is still making improvements with his consistency at every contest at Casey. Max Gruzewski who’s been better at VFL than Jeffo has played 4 games and had totals of 4, 2, 3 and 3 disposals and 1.5 marks a game. Been subbed off twice. Laid 1 tackle. Kicked 3 goals in 4 games. He did a role on Harris Andrews yesterday which was the first time he’s actually contributed positively to the team performance. The same people desperate to see the kid play will jump right off by half time when he’s barely touched it.

The solution is to target undervalued assets and build the list without compromising it. Free agents, fringe players cheaply available, mature age pick ups, trade back in drafts and accumulate bonus picks. As well as trading our players when the time is right to sell high. And if you do chase a big fish make sure you’ve got them on the hook and pay with peanuts (late first rounders). There’s really 2 factors that make chasing Houston in any way feasible - Port are willing to let him go for a fair price for compassionate or other reasons and we can get the deal done with a package of later picks.

I’ve never seen anyone move slower than the Tugboat on the goal line, geez he got lucky there. Standard ok Tomlinson first up game, more than likely he’ll back it up with a stinker next week.

Billings? Fine game. 3 times in the last quarter when he had scoring changes he completed fumbled and Boak gained more space on him the longer the game went. That said, he gave up about the best he had. So I don’t see any reason to join the pile on. He was a late in playing just about his last ever game. Oliver was bad all night and awful late, most of this site downplays just how bad he’s been.

You reckon leading a top 4 team that just beat the flag favourites by 100 points all night with no fit mids, the backline full of plodders and probably half the side sick was out coached? Goody put on a defensive clinic and we had more than enough chances to win.

Depends if she was hot really?

He’s not down. He’s 20m out the back giving nothing

He plays both ends because he’s not good enough to hold down a spot at either. His goal kicking is great forward but his contest and work rate are poor, he’s a beautiful ball user at half back but refuses to defend. He’s Watts with a better strength and conditioning program but the same lack of killer instinct. Someone’s going to try to get it out of him and maybe as he matures he’ll deliver. It’s not a gamble I’d be wanting to take

Fritsch's most noticeable grand final goals came from leading up at the footy, jumping over opponents or on the back of great pressure from the likes of Kossie and Spargo. It's great there were goal sneaks in 1963 or whenever those guys played but Fritsch has been dining out on the grand final for 3 years now.

Agree that people overrate early picks, especially once they fall out of the top high end range of a particular draft. And the strange thing about this draft is it might be even between 5-15. So whilst 7 is a great pick it might not be much better than 15. But I also think you need an elite midfield to contend for flags as well as talls with an advantage somewhere on the ground. May, Max and to a lesser level Lever were our advantage in talls. It's fair to say May and Max aren't at that level anymore, even if Gawn is All Australian he's finished the last 3 years hobbling along with injuries. And Lever worries me too, he was in great form before injury this year but has regressed badly since and whether he will have the agility and fitness to go with smalls so he can dominate as an interceptor off them is hard to know. There's optimism with Petty, JVR, Jeffo, Disco that we have a solid platform of talls but its not exactly a strength anywhere. Midfield - well that's even more up in the air. Oliver - who knows. Viney - looks pretty spent as a dominant inside force. Tracc - I have my doubts on his midfield longevity especially at his pre injury size. Sparrow - barely AFL standard as a mid. Pickett - not a mid. Kolt and Windsor - promising but probably going to have some second year blues and ups and downs on their way to 70 games like most kids before becoming consistent. Does Rivers play mid? Does Houston come in and play mid? Nothing is going to compare to the Tracc-Oliver-Viney 2021 combo but it's getting hard to see just how we produce a midfield big 3 plus quality role players even if those big 3 are still on the list. The Hawks went all in on Roughy, Buddy/Gunston, Mitchell, Hodge, Lewis, Rioli, Isaac Smith, Birchall because that's a group you could just ride with. Especially when they added Gibson, Lake and Frawley so they had backline tall dominance as well as forwards and mids. The price has to be right for Houston and we need some associated moves to find other missing pieces to pull off this retool on the run.

There's already a buck in letting 9th and 10th play 2 extra finals games. The logistics of selling off a final when you don't know who's playing seems way too impractical, so much so that it would be hard to get a great price anyway. Imagine if it was Collingwood - Essendon and you're giving up 100k at the G to have 50k scramble to Adelaide, many of whom would just drive given it's last minute. And what if the other game was GWS - Gold Coast in Perth and you'd have a grand total of 3 men and a dog travelling over for it.

It’s totally screwing 7 and 8 who had a nearly impossible task to begin with just become twice as hard. It’s rewarding bad teams that don’t deserve it at 9 and 10. And now the worst possible thing they’ll considering screwing the fans by playing them at neutral venues. That’s horrendous. (I don’t think it’s actually going to happen but they’ll float neutral venues to ram through the rest)

Mason Cox played 26% TOG in the forward line in the grand final. If Peter Wright was a capable and willing ruck and was happy to play just 26% time forward I’d be fine with him. He isn’t, he’s a reluctant ruck who plays best as a full forward. We need someone who compliments JVR and hopefully Jeffo.

Agree. Let Judd learn to walk before we expect him to run, he's got to master half back before this idea that he's suddenly a gun mid anywhere near the level of 2 of the best players to come through the under age system in years. Dyl Williams did a fantastic job for Port last year then lost his spot this year, he'd be one I'd watch as a potential back pocket. Plus look to the state leagues and bring a bunch of guys in over summer to see if they can earn a spot.

Grand final: Cox 67% Cameron 59% (Mihocek 92%, Frampton 82%) Prelim Cox 71% Cameron 70% (McStay injured 66%, Mihocek 94%) Qualifying final (when they had their best side available for the full game time) Cox 67% Cameron 52% subbed (McStay, Mihocek both 88%) Aside from 1% against the Giants (which was probably when McStay was down injured) they never played 4 talls on the ground at the same time. And when they did play a ruck in the forward line it was generally Cox filling in for Frampton in the grand final, covering McStay's injury in the prelim or briefly for McStay/Mihocek to have a breather. We tried sitting Gawn/Grundy on the bench for longer periods or forward line and neither of them liked it. And I doubt that will ever change for Max, especially if the rotation is with Peter Wright who will have no desire to ruck for large parts of the game. JVR should get there with time but I don't see him on the McStay level of athleticism just yet and definitely nowhere close to Mihocek who is just a freakish work horse who goes hard for 90% game time at CHF (or did for years until injury this year). Unless you're Nick Riewoldt that's a job for a 24/25+ year old not a kid who will still only be 22 next year. If they really do think JVR is ready to play CHF then maybe a Peter Wright level lump at FF/Ruck would work, but there's still a matter of the other tall forward needing some agility and ground game (much like the way Jamarra fits in between Naughton and Darcy) and I'm not convinced that will be Jeffo or anyone else on the list any time soon. I'd go hard for a genuine answer like Waterman and leave JVR as the back up ruck for the next couple of years or just keep experimenting with mobile ruck/forwards and try to find a Chol rather than a Fullarton. Wright would be a distant 3rd choice if there's nothing else available and the price is very right.

I think their plan is to move Houston's salary in to Perryman as a free agent. Get 80% of the player on the same $$ and bank some really nice draft picks. Especially because their half back depth is huge - behind Houston they have Farrell, Bergman, Logan Evans, Burton, Jones, Burgoyne, Sinn, Dyl Williams Meanwhile they need high draft picks to replace Boak, Wines and find genuine quality talls at both ends of the ground. It's a tactic I think more teams should try to pull off when they can land a quality free agent.

Poor Kossie and Nibbler trying to chase 6 blokes. Wright is slow. JVR is....not quick. Any forward or forward/ruck that we bring in should have some athleticism especially if the plan is for some combination of Melk/Jeffo/Petty/Disco as the 3rd tall option. I also don't understand the concern with JVR as back up ruck and/or the belief that he's ready to explode. He shows some flashes and he'll be a good player for a long time but I still expect him to just improve steadily and the runs in the ruck get him involved in the game.

JVR on the record about something that didn’t exist? JVR kicked 36 goals from 18 vfl games in his first year and they deliberately held him back from a late season AFL debut so he had a big summer to get physically ready. Jeffo in year 2 is now right on pace for where JVR was in year one. There’s some risk and reward to playing him when he’s still not physically ready but it shouldn’t matter much either way.

They have the cash. But I just don’t see a lot of value in having 2 of the games best 10 key forwards, a gun ruck and almost no talent in the midfield or backline (under 30) not named Harley Reid. If I was an eagles I’d sell off Waterman if the price was right. They just have so many needs and the draft is such a mess, if you can grab a second top 10 pick in a strong draft as a rebuilding side it helps so much.

Flags are nice but there’s at least a dozen eagles from that time with far bigger profiles. And that’s not close to Todd’s legacy nor the impact Jack has had as a high draft pick coming in at rock bottom and playing a key role (alongside his dad) in turning it around. I don’t think it’s in the same ballpark.

I’m not from Perth but does the Waterman name have nearly the same connection as Viney to mfc? His brother has already been delisted and played at Essendon. The eagles are in year 3 of being terrible with maybe 3 more to come, where as ‘19 was a disaster but we were always going to bounce back to some level. The biggest factors might be that the eagles low balled him last year so he isn’t that keen to do them a favour. And from the Eagles side they need picks to get this rebuild moving and Barrass alone won’t get too many early ones in. With Oscar Allen plus a couple of decent forward/ruck role players in Jack Williams and Bailey Williams maybe you sell high on Waterman and use the cash on Tim English for free.

FF: Pickett JVR Tracc HF: Chandler ????? ANB C; Langdon ????? Windsor HB: McVee ???? Lever FB: ???? May ??? Foll: Gawn Rivers ???? Int: Viney Tholstrup Bowey ???? Probables: Oliver, Fritsch, Salem, Petty Possibles: Jefferson, Disco, Sparrow, Spargo, Woewodin, Melk? T Mc? Need to sort the talls out and recruit ready to go tall depth, 1 at each end. Need a back pocket to free McVee up the field. Need a high quality on baller so Viney and Petrraca can both play forward more. Get most of that sorted and the team will be back in contention if they put in a huge amount of work and stay healthy in summer.