DeeSpencer

I think Lever will roam around at CHB, May will anchor the backline at full back and we will pick the 3rd tall defender to lock down depending on opponent. Or even go without a 3rd tall and back Hibberd and Jetta in. Against a side like the Pies that would mean either Frost or Joel Smith to play on De Goey. Against the Eagles that would mean Oscar to take the resting ruckman. From Mahoney's comments yesterday I don't expect Lever to be rushed back in so with or without May there will be plenty of chances for guys to play.

Which Hogan are you watching? I see a guy who goes the short sideways option instead of pulling the trigger inside 50. And the stats say 59.5% kicking efficiency this year which is below Tyson and Brayshaw. May was the Suns 5th more efficient kick. In a better side he'll either be able to play it safe and not waste the ball and/or take the game on more.

Always hard to rate mature age players but I thought Lockhart looked a natural at half back and a quick skilled rebounding flanker is certainly a need. Lewis clearly doesn't have much left. Salem or Lever might move in to that spot but there will be an opening for a guy who can run the ball out. Apart from Hunt we don't have anyone else on the list to take over that role. Stretch and JKH are wing/half forward types. KK I get the feeling reading between the lines will be targeted to play wing at least initially. Fritsch can do it but is more the type to mark and kick rather than really run the lines, as is Wagner. Joel Smith isn't that skilled type either. Dion Johnstone seems more of a lock down defender at least at this stage, if he ever makes it at all. Lockhart played midfield and forward in Casey finals because that's where they were short on talent. His half back games that I saw were much better. I hope they were hiding him from recruiters and rounding his game as well. They said when they recruited Tim Smith and Fritsch that they would've picked them for Melbourne if available. There were times earlier this year when Lewis needed a kick up the backside that I would've picked Lockhart.

Go watch the grand final where 194cm Tom Barrass gives Mason Cox a bath. 10cm can easily be made up jumping with 1 arm to punch compared to 2 arms to mark. And that's even before you get in to positioning, body work and reading the play.

Here's one from left field: I wonder if we pay a good chunk of his wage if the Giants would take him back. If they lose Shiel, Lobb and Setterfield they'll need depth and Dom's best mate Tomlinson is still up there. If a bottom team wanted him by now I think they would've put their hand up to get him. The Giants might yet again have more draft picks than they need and could give us a better one than any other side would offer if we give them a depth player in return for salary. It's certainly a call I'd be making to find out.

I hope not. I don't think Salem is a great endurance runner. Moving him on to the wing could result in more hamstring trouble. He reads the play beautifully at half back, makes excellent decisions, wins contests on the ground, defends more than capably against the right opponents and his kicking should only improve if he's encouraged to back himself and flatten the ball out. As Lewis goes out of the side Salem will only get more important at half back. KK I think they'll try on the wings because he has the height to kick it to 1 on 1, has a long penetrative kick suited to kick inside 50 or over the top, ran a 10.10 3km time trial and the wing will give him more space to get on to his left.

125 votes in 17 games. 7.4 votes a game 1.8 per coach. So more weeks than not the coaches thought Tyson was either not doing his role at all or just meeting the baseline standards.

125 best and fairest votes in only 7 games. Had he played the full 25 games he would've finished 5th. I'm not going to crunch the per game average on every player but it's fair to say Melksham, Viney, Brayshaw, T Mc would've finished ahead of him but one way or another he'd be in the top dozen. Unless the coaches were just feeling sorry for him or thought he had a few unsustainable games I don't see how he's not very highly rated by the coaches.

Interesting. My major takeaways: 1. Hogan out, May in has to be at least 70% I think. And they must feel confident that they'll land May. Sounds like they had him lined up as a major target post 2019 season. 2. Preuss is either not a lock or they are willing to negotiate hard with North to get him for a good price. I wonder who the other options are? 3. They know they need more outside class and pace. Lots of mentions of balancing the list. Think it takes more than just Kade Kolo to achieve that, very keen to see who else is on the target list.

Barlow can only play 1 position on the ground - inside mid. We currently have: Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Harmes, Jones, Tyson, Vanders, Maynard and Petracca who can do that. 9 guys for 4 spots. 2 might be about to leave which would still have us at 7 guys for 4 spots. If we lose Vanders and Tyson without getting a midfielder with some inside ability back then we probably look for a ready made replacement but I'd take Corey Wagner or some other state league player who can play some different roles as well and has some upside. Even just drafting an 18 year old midfielder in the 2nd or 3rd round you can potentially get some games out of them in a depth role as early as year 1 and if not then by year 2 when Jones is either moved on or can't be considered a midfield chance. We should be looking for a dominant VFL midfielder to sign for Casey so they have a respectable captain and week to week presence in the side. Casey needs that, Melbourne don't.

Port tried that last year, got them absolutely nowhere. It's a work place as well as a cut throat list management business. There's value in having guys who have been around for a while, know the coaches, know the game plan, gel well with team mates and don't need extra resources diverted to them. Carlton and GC are taking 5 of the best mature players out of the system. Delistings from another teams rarely work out, they've been cut for a reason. Jetta and Pedersen are two guys we've got a heap of games out of that I thought should've been let go years before they became important players. It's a low strike rate but so is taking late round rookies or delisted players from other sides.

I thought his first half of the year when Viney was out was really strong and I expect him to poll pretty well in the B+F over that time. Tackles, goals, clearances, low clangers. Once he was relegated to the wing he struggled and particularly in the finals when he wasn't given any time or space. He's certainly fringe heading in to next year but I'm actually keen to see how he goes and where he plays. Time for him to strip a bit of weight and embrace an outside role be it wing, half back or half forward.

His first 10 games or so were great but he hasn't been able to replicate them as he's struggled with injuries. If we miss May then sure yep I'd be keen.

Valid point, but the other 2 depth players the Eagles had were Schofield and Vardy replacing Shepherd Nic Nat, that kind of depth makes sense to keep as they are difficult players to replace. Sheed was a young player with a lot of upside who Simpson dropped to work on a few things - most likely his disposal and two way running, I'm not sure there was ever talk of trading him last year. I see him more like Angus Brayshaw, getting dropped a few times and coming back better. If Gaff was staying at the Eagles now they'd probably be looking to trade out one of their mids to keep him. Probably Masten. It's not that we just give him away but we work out who's coming in and going out and if he has value.

They'd get free agent compensation the next year. He'd also get no cash. I doubt that will happen. Easier for him to go through the motions, get paid whatever it is he's currently getting paid and then find an injury around mid year like Lynch did. Or he might end up playing forward similar to Frawley. I think the Suns are willing to trade. I also think May would be lucky to get a contract big enough to trigger more than a mid first round compensation pick next year unless the AFL are very generous - and they've given the Suns enough this year that they don't need to be. I'm confident Pick 10 will do it.

Was it Maynard's 15 disposals tagging Ablett, 18 disposals on debut playing wing and half forward against the Giants or the copious times he had 25+ touches in the VFL in his first season of footy in years that convinced you he can't find the footy? There's also no way you could describe Tyson's ball use as reasonably well. Maynard has a lot of work to do but he has the one thing Tyson is very unlikely to ever get back - the athleticism to play AFL. The quick burst basketball steps are needed to compete in tight, Dom doesn't have it, so they play him on a wing, but that's even worse because if he's beaten on the outside guys can run passed him. Plus now he's required to hit his targets more by getting the ball in space and his kicking this year was abysmal. Tyson is depth, and if you can get something back for depth and bring in what you need then it's an easy decision

Cox killed Oscar as a forward, that's why we need a full back who can beat him like Barrass did. Not convinced Grundy did anything different than what he always does - cheat in the ruck with terrible technique and copious holding, then follow up excellently at ground level before mostly shanking kicks. Weideman wasn't playing then was he? He looked really good in the ruck to me, I'd put him in against Grundy where he can follow up at ground level, then use Gawn to destroy Cox. The two rucks can work but what the Eagles really did well was drag Gawn and Grundy way away from the ball and then kick away from them. They can do that because their key defenders and key forwards are so strong in the air they don't need aerial support. We go the other way and want to use Max as a target or defender as much as possible. The remaining Eagles did enough to get allow Lycett and Vardy to drag Grundy away, if the Pies mids were on top Grundy would've been in play. It also relies on excellent forward pressure from the other forwards and especially the talls. The Eagles get a lot of pressure from Kennedy and Darling. Weideman looks ok in that regard and can improve as he gets fitter and stronger. T Mc has his limitations but always keeps chasing. Will they be good enough to chase and cover for a ruck up forward? I'm not sure.

Damaging to who? He runs hard to get the ball and he has clean reliable hands over head and in traffic. That's a useful player even if unsuited to the wing. Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw and Harmes are the starting mids, but we can cover them with Petracca, Vanders (if he stays), Nath Jones (short term next year should be young enough to provide some inside midfield cover), Maynard - who's both overrated and underrated on here but can play if given a chance and even ANB or Salem if required. Plus inside mid is the easiest position to pick up a state league or delisted player.

Not sure Kent moving affects Tyson. Vanders does and so does the ability to land KK and potentially 1 more ready to play outside mid. If we Vanders goes and we find 2 replacements then Tyson goes. If Vanders stay and we add KK then Tyson goes as well. He might have value now. After next season barring improvements or change in position I can't see him having any trade value. So if we can cash in on his value now we should. Anything top 40 in the draft or of similar value would be enough to me.

That's probably true, but watching the GF has me thinking you don't need to be a great team to win it. You just have to get in the right spot - ideally top 4, with the right game plan and enough talent and have it go your way. The Eagles have some guns - a great line up of talls, a bit of polish on the flanks and some quality mids. But they also had Masten on a wing, young Cole down back, LeCras who's way past it forward, Venables who they limited to 55% game time and all the guys I mentioned are locks in their 22 and better than the emergencies. Pies are a bit the same with Greenwood, Mayne, Aish etc. One way to spin that is get the stars in and find the depth when you need it, but I also think the opposite applies where you need players who might be lacking in multiple areas but can just do enough to stay in the game. Vanders speed, size and hardness makes him the right kind of bottom of the 22 player the way teams are going these days. It's very hard to assemble a list of 25 better than him.

Tampa, Seattle, KC

I'd say the way he came back in to the side after only a minimum number of VFL games tells me he's highly valued. KK and Fritsch might be the starting wingmen next year, in which case Vanders could be out of the 22. But if Tyson goes as well then there's very little depth there so he'd be next picked on a wing, next picked at half forward and just as likely next picked on ball. Hard to see him dropping outside the top 26 or so unless we do some really strong mature age recruiting. I couldn't see how his form this year plus a full preseason doesn't equate to being a guy you expect to play more weeks than not if healthy. 1 year deals are really for guys who are 30+, fringe players or dealing with ongoing serious injuries. The MFC will know Vanders injury prognosis better than we do that's for sure but from all I've read after a long period of attempted conservative treatment he had surgery and has come back well. If he wants big money then it would be fair to say have 1 year of big money and we'll reassess, but if his financial demands are reasonable maybe with a lot incentives then I don't think his injury issues are enough to prevent a 2 year deal. If he was to leave purely because we don't offer a 2nd year I'd expect that to the be the reason. I doubt list spots in 2020 will be a huge issue, they aren't right now and I don't think having too many similar players or too many older players will be an issue then either. I couldn't see him not being given another year for 2020 if he played 2019 in his current form even if better depth meant he gets dropped a few times. To me that all means it's the risk of injury that is the main factor.

Dominates VFL in 2017, gets a new 1 year deal, doesn't do much at AFL level, coasts through preseason from the sessions I saw, did little at Casey for half a year, then all of a sudden finds some form, gets back in the team and plays like a guy with some flaws but still something to offer. Was one of the most energetic trainers when he arrived at the club. If he trains to his absolute max over summer I think he'd find the space and tempo he's missing at AFL level. Still young enough that he can make that leap from boy to man.

Looking at the state leagues top goal kickers. Shane McAdam - my mail is Carlton pick and trade him back to the Crows Tyson Strengle - out of contract Tiger rumoured to go to the Crows Anyone in the West know anything about Cody Ninyette or Michael Bennell?

A healthy Jack Viney has excellent burst speed, not sure how anyone could watch our finals and say otherwise. He is short but in no ways small. Dion Johnstone has some pace and is being groomed as a small defender to lock down on the small forwards, his main attribute is excellent tackling with a nice kick. No idea if he's good enough, not even convinced he has a new contract yet but he can be developed as the next Jetta in some regards. He'll be sent to play on 175cm opponents. Spargo has enough speed and footy smarts to succeed as a small forward flanker. Most of football is running to the right spots, clean hands and smarts. JKH is depth. We have very few sub 6 foot players. I'm not convinced that 180-185 (5'11 to 6'1) guys are at a huge disadvantage to 185-190cm players. Good teams use the ball well, pressure and help to defend, a few cm's here or there doesn't impact if the team has the right balance. I agree Vanders has more than the average fringe or 15th best player on a list, but I wouldn't limit what we need to only bigger bodies. We need a mix of players. I'd take the shortest player in the league coming in for Vanders if he's a gun. Zak Jones at 183cm shouldn't be overlooked due to size. We should worry if we need him due to his skills and overall talent, but he can be a great half back flanker at 183cm. Rory Laird is 177cm and a gun.