DeeSpencer

Honesty I don’t mind that we weren’t in on it until recently. Rucks are a valid use of the Cat B list, as is NGA players and the best use is probably guys like Wil Parker and James O’Donnell who were footballers growing up and then went to other sports. Tuohy, Hanley and at a stretch McKenna have been the only Irish difference makers since Tadgh Kennelly. 3 or 4 since 2000, whilst the go home and bust factor have both been high. That said, Irish immigration is through the roof which is mitigating the go home factor, the Irish are dominating the AFLW and the game has shifted from a focus on the ball constantly being in tight to more run and space. That shift demands more athletes who excel in that kind of running and are confident playing out in space. Geelong will have the advantage of an established program but I hope we can nab one of these guys if they impress.

Have you seen where he’s going? He’s leaving because he can’t get a game behind Jordon Sweet, there’s not a club in Melbourne he would start at.

I’d imagine they’d want Port’s future first back and are probably planning to give over a pick from 3-8 for a pick from 9-15 back, it’s not a bad idea at all. I suspect he’ll choose Carlton but good on North having a decent crack.

If we don’t have the list spots because we’ve junked up the list with the following cloggers: Hunter, Billings, Fullarton as well as the young lack of talent time brigade (I won’t name them), Then we simply have to pay one of them to retire. Not saying it has to be Parfitt but we can’t enter the season with no on ball depth.

I agree, although I do think Parfitt has good footy in him if fully fit and motivated. Sometimes it takes getting cut to find that motivation again. I also think we can’t go in to a season not having replaced Gus, JJ, Harmes and with doubts over Oliver and Tracc. We do have to add at least 1 ready made mid. If it’s not a clear best 22 guy like Peatling the options get murkier. But also I say it in every thread, let’s stop trying to fix depth problems with blind purchases in September. Get 3 guys to train with us over summer. Add the best option to the main list in March, get the second best option on the Casey list with the carrot of the midseason draft.

Hamilton was ok but messy in his early career games but he missed almost all of 2023 with a navicular stress fracture and most of this year with an ankle injury. You just can’t pick up a guy with that history who never really showed he was up to afl footy. He’ll stay at the Giants VFL team.

Fullarton looked good in preseason. He was abysmal in the ruck all year, he now has a chance to play as a permanent forward which is a simpler role. There’s nothing from the club about Derksen’s role yet but I suspect his value will be as a swing man rather than purely forward. If Fullarton can demonstrate he has the tank and hard leading style, plus be more than a total zero in aerial contests he can claim the CHF role. I’m not feeling sorry for him that he has to compete with a guy who’s never cracked an afl game.

The choice right now is pay Campbell 200k for 1-2 years and hope Verrall or others can take over. Or give up a pick and pay Soldo 500k for multiple years for similar results. I think I’d rather bank the useful pick and extra 300k and use that to target players in more important roles than back up ruck. Obviously it would be nice if we had some trade momentum to adding a best 22 player to justify the cheap ruck option.

Would join Robbie Campbell as inspiring ruck recruits. The only ways this makes sense is if they believe Verrall will be ready in 2026, they have a better target in 2026 or there’s just no one in the state leagues of any quality. Either way, I’d again ask what the rush is if no one else wants him. Get the biggest and best 25 year old down for preseason training and if they aren’t up for it then sign Campbell.

Worth noting Ed’s a scout for Oakleigh so he’s going to overrate the Oakleigh guys. Jagga over Ashcroft, nah.

Lions, Niners, Chiefs

Scott took over a literal dynasty tho and all he did was stop them over handballing and coach better than Bomber who had significant issues by that stage. Enough issues to sack a guy who had won 2 of the last 4 flags! That’s very different than Goodwin taking over a list with Gawn, Viney and draft picks. I blame Goodwin for not being more proactive with the list the last few years but I don’t blame him not getting more out of most of the players. We had a look at a lot of the list this year and they just aren’t very good. We just don’t turn the list over or take enough mature agers or alternative talent kind of picks. I agree with this. And trying to recreate 2021 when we played the same team all year in 2022 was a major mistake. 2023 I think we managed some decent injuries, still finished top 4 and actually had everything tracking well for finals until Petty and especially Melksham went down on the eve of finals. Suddenly the forward line was cactus. Throw in the Gus injury early in a game and what could’ve been a big time finals win goes down the drain. We shouldn’t have seasons that go down the drain like this year did but it’s list related not coaching. You can’t win with no midfield.

Have you met Paul Roos? He was working for North from Hawaii.

Watching the games - the way Goody interacted with players and Roos would only step in when needed and watching the trainings - of which Goodwin took all of them. Watching the game plan change massively - in fact, the final round of 2015 was Goody’s first game in charge. 8000 of us at Docklands vs GWS and the magnets completely changed. A zone defence. Up tempo ball movement. Forward pressure. None of that happened in 2015 until the very final round and then got going in 16. May and Lever weren’t just regular injuries. Almost the entire midfield having surgeries isn’t just injuries. Read this and see Misson was warning everyone before the season even started and then it only got worse as the year went on. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2019-melbourne-board-preseason-reportedly-warned-about-injury-toll-and-possible-sluggish-start/news-story/ac5c04b3f5fc1f0bbab2e3fd40b471bf I’d have Scott over Goodwin too but Scott won his first flag with his own players after a decade in charge and they immediately missed finals. But what did they do in the mean time? Add Olli Henry and Tanner Bruhn with meh picks, that makes life easier than trying to draft and develop the likes of JVR and Jefferson. Add guys like Dempsey, Humphries and Mannagh. The difference between the Cats list management and ours is way more than the difference in coaching.

Big O is a big out, but I wonder if the Lions other outs have almost helped them. Lester is always the back up but seems to get the job done. He might be better than Doedee and Gardiner. Coleman is an incredible footballer but his absence has forced Zorko to go back, where he is brilliant but also seems to concentrate on the game more. When he was mid/forward he’d spend the down time at stoppages giving away free kicks with poor discipline. Linc is one of my favourite opposition players but Ah Chee and Lohmann have thrived in his absence and they have fresher younger legs than he does. The crucial thing with the Lions injuries aside from Oscar is they happened with enough time to regroup and get a consistent team together. Plus they clearly have a fantastic list.

Load of junk. For one, Goodwin coached all of 2016 which was Tracc and Clarry’s first season. There is no Tracc and Clarry before Goodwin. They are just draft picks. Like McLean and Sylvia or Morton and Trengove. By 2018 Jones was a role player, Lewis and Vince couldn’t play in the same side as they were both looking for cheapies across half back. We had no key defenders, our young midfield weren’t seasoned and we didn’t have the depth of wings and forward flankers. We dominated a couple of finals then got blown out by the eventual premiers in a game no one was winning. 2019 our injury list was comically bad and no one did a preseason, there was over a dozen off season surgeries. The trade off of young team going deep the year before. Lever was injured. May didn’t turn up. Just a complete throw away year. We should’ve done better in 2020, but we were bedding down the defensive system and played 3 young kids who starred in September the next year.

Pack the backline and defend like mad was excellent game style??? It was the best thing for us in 14 and 15 but otherwise did very little in terms of trying to play like a successful side.

I know, but when you leave Qld to go to the school that played in the first ever game of footy you don't need your academy any more. Frankly it's double dipping. And makes it hard to say he's a product of the development work Brisbane did.

I reckon plan A was to have Windsor sneak through and grab Curtin/Caddy first. Plan B was Windsor at 7, hope 2 others (Wilson, ?) went and then have one of the talls in Caddy/Curtin/O’Sullivan get through. Not that I’m unhappy with Kolt or that he wouldn’t have been part of the plan to go up and secure someone higher up. But he wasn’t the optimal result. It’s obviously better when you have situation like Rivers in 2019 fall to your pick and you get the win of the player without spending more draft capital.

It’s often first in best dressed with moving up in the draft but I’d rather actually wait until the draft and see just who is available at the picks before we trade up this year. It’s a deep draft so someone should fall to 30, meanwhile I reckon we got caught out in 20/21 and even last year trading up and not getting our most preferred targets.

Was he injured or unwell? 8 touches for a guy who averages 25 is highly unusual

Here’s a minor overhaul- you can’t be in the Brisbane Academy if you go to Melbourne Grammar and play at Sandy Dragons. Takes one second to fix that problem.

Does he though? He’s born in January and has spent the entire year as a full time footballer. He’ll obviously get stronger but I doubt power will ever be a big part of his game, he’s got a wiry frame. Reid might have more of a bulky frame to add power once he gets in to a full time environment.

We were 3 goals up because we had the wind for 2 of the 3 quarters. Freo scored 1 goal in the first and third. We scored 1 goal in the second. The game was going to tighten up in the last and make scoring in to the wind incredibly hard. 1 goal 4 in the 3rd quarter was where we lost it.

The Hore holding the ball came about because she tried to do it all herself. Same as her shot at goal in the 3rd quarter with 2 spare alone in the square. Good player, but needs to work with her team mates to go up another level. That’s harder when half of them are unknowns.