DeeSpencer

I will try to put this carefully but I swear they’re just trying to troll us with players making late claims to Aboriginality purely to avoid the draft. This is the 3rd such case of a highly rated player attempting to become academy eligible in their draft year. Maybe that’s wildly wrong but it doesn’t seem authentic. I’m not trying to deny anyone their ancestry but when it comes to joining the academy surely it has to be established before you join. The entire point of the academies is to find guys who are disadvantaged and help their footballing journeys, not to find star talents then sneak them in for draft advantages.

Melbourne traded with Essendon so that took pick 6 and 11 out of the equation. St Kilda did a nice favourable trade with Essendon right before the draft started, so that took care of 8 and 10 (9 was a saints bid on Lombard). Richmond didn’t bid at 7, probably a fraction early. Didn’t bid at 12, eventually bid at 13. 3 teams had every live pick between 6 and 13, made it pretty easy to make sure he slid.

The afl made a last minute back flip allowing academy players like Kako to go to clubs in the top 40 picks again. Essendon then trade their first rounder to us for next years first and a huge swag of other later picks. Then Kako fell in the draft because teams agreed not to bid on him. Then they got the further discount in bid matching. That entire benefit means as long as we aren’t top 4 next year they’ll likely have picked up Kako for stuff all cost wise. It’s an incredible help for a side.

Not sure what to do with Kos, we generally play 22 at a time and sub guys out rather than rotate extras. Maybe one of Chandler, Sharp or Sparrow sit for the first half? Of course that’s assuming Tracc, Viney and all other mid/forwards are right to go. If there’s no Casey game this week I agree that taking Henderson to play a quarter is reasonable. Just get him that experience or travelling with an afl team and bonding time with team mates. Less important for Culley who’s been around the side all summer and on an afl list before.

I don’t think so, Baker and Graham will thicken up their midfield mix, forward line is good if Allen is reasonably healthy (yes he’s had issues but there’s hope he over them) and they’ve got enough down back even if they’ll miss Barrass. I think 5-8 wins this year. Whether they keep momentum in to 2026 and can hold on to Allen and Reid is another question, because that would potentially ruin their rebuild.

Exactly. Aside from brief patches of Tippa form and fitness Essendon haven’t had good small forward in a long time. Part of the reason why they’ve been no good. The AFL pretty much gave them a priority pick allowing Kako access at the 11th hour. Jason Taylor’s even commented that it used to be a position he thought he could find at the back of the draft and now rates supremely highly. Hence our interest in Kako.

Windsor - pure speed, backline lets him attack and break lines. Rivers - strong body, built his tank, ready to play midfield Melk - injured. Sub or finals is really Melk's go this year Billings - he's fitter, stronger and set for a permanent wing spot. I'm not sold but there's reasons for optimism Ruck - we don't need a 2nd every week, AJ will be handy when the weather starts to cool down Backline - Petty as a competent ground ball player is a key component to balance out May and Lever. Agree it's a big year for Salem and Bowey Plenty of midfield rotations available this years, especially if the kids and new SPP guys are up for it. Tracc's going to play a lot forward, got to nurse him along. Lindsay's a good prospect but didn't have the perfect summer, could be ready, could take a while, we'll know more this weekend. We have really dangerous medium forwards in Fritsch, Tracc and even Langford. (Unfortunately McAdam isn't on the list too). If we can move the ball at pace and in to space more people will convert to the 2 tall set up!

I suspect this is mostly to make sure he has a proper payout if he's sacked at the end of this year, without angering their fan base by offering him another 1 year deal nor leaving themselves open to losing him or his price skyrocketing if he has a great year. He's in a unique situation where the club are very sure that he's their man and most things suggest he's a good coach, but the finals results aren't yet there to convert that in to long term security with a 2 or 3 year deal. It's a reasonable solution for their situation, but I do wonder if they have a good year this year if you'd just swap him back to a 2-3 year extension. All AFL financially supported clubs are apparently capped to 6 month pay outs and I'd expect other clubs have attempted to follow suit by restricting pay out amounts to something like 6-12 months rather than full values of the deal. So really the years of a contract are now worth less, it's the termination payout that matters.

AFL coaches are well above the high income threshold.

Larkey isn’t really a power forward but he’s a great free kick machine. Wasn’t Petty’s best outing but with May behind him he’ll be back to his preferred spot. It’s unfortunate for Tom and if Petty doesn’t produce we might be forced to make the swap. But we’ve spent all summer getting Petty settled back in. He’s the best contested mark aside from Max in the side and a great mover, he’s what we need at CHB to match with mobile CHF’s like Treacy. Freo completely smashed us in the ruck and the midfield and more than anything ran all over us with superior work rate. We need to reestablish a midfield with a good clearance game and proper 2 way running power. If Treacy is legit and Amiss goes up a level then yes their key forwards are a problem but I’m far more interested in our mids getting a good test this weekend.

Howes will be the 7th defender, I get why he’s unpopular but he has a lot of scope. Every team wants guys with key tall height with flanker movement. Woey was ordinary down back last year, he’s been training wing all summer and is right in the competition with Lindsay and Billings. 2 of those guys play round 1 on the wings. The other is a genuine chance of sub. Langdon is playing midfield. We’ll see it against Freo. Sharp - as we saw against North is playing forward. Both of those guys probably cover some wing rotations but that’s about it. Wing ball was fun. Long live 2021. But we’re putting our talent in the corridor now.

Want a bet? None of those traits matter if we’ve got 3 better tall defenders to pick

I think we should develop him as a specialist tagger and then he can have a list of players who have been Culled.

If Sam Mitchell’s not first on the list of most ruthless coaches it’s only because he’s equal first with his old boss

An option, but hard to have a backline of Bowey, Salem, Windsor and another small. AMW has more aerial game. Really it’s someone who can cover Judd and Hore

Best half back outside the afl system? Jez McLennan in the sanfl? Anyone in the wafl?

Kolt’s pretty big and should be playing forward with mid rotations at afl and mid resting forward at vfl. But given he’s not fit it doesn’t matter much! Culley’s more attractive if he can play forward or wing but I think Henderson getting the nod suggests the coaches probably only see him as a mid.

Rivers back, he comes in on ball? Viney or Oliver miss time he comes in on ball? He’s a depth mid but he’d be rivalling Laurie for our first choice depth mid. That said, unless he’s lighting things up I’d be looking at a half back. Or even another small forward, can never have enough!

Their rules can be bent, stretched, and waived at any time. Adelaide just got permission to replace Strachan who easily could be back before the end of the year (not to undermine the difficultly of a navicular in to a heel stress fracture). And they got to hold the announcement from Friday to Monday for the vibes. But their favourite certainly is reviewing rules over a painstaking period of time until they get a good result and then either overreacting or creating further grey areas.

8th in the best and fairest in a team that won 11 games. LEARN BALL

He’s at Casey, hence why he’s been training with us all summer when we didn’t have a list spot until McAdam went down. The problem with stashing someone until mid year is it’s a draft so if Culley is as good as some seem to think he might need to tank his stock somehow. I also think we’ll look closely at defenders both now (if we get a pick which seems unlikely) and at mid year.

Chandler was 8th in the best and fairest last year. The rest of our small forwards are injured or suspended. Can people please learn about modern footy and the value of defensive pressure and positioning of small forwards.

Daniel is significantly shorter again than Bowey and lost speed. So whilst his prime was elite he was only ever half a yard from becoming a liability, he can’t win a one on one in the air against anyone. Where as I trust Bowser on most half forwards under 185cm unless they’re gun small foward types. Zorko is of a similar height, lesser one on one defender and just played a great part in a flag. He’s a brilliant kick of course, but he’s also had 300 games and 15 years to work on that kicking. I do agree Bowser’s kicking has never reached the heights I was hoping for. But he’s also played the last 3 years in our take no risks, have no flow or run game plan. Let’s see if adding some more guys who want the ball in transition encouragers our kickers to start kicking it to them! Maybe Bowser’s ceiling is a B+ zoning half back defender and B+ attacker and that’s ok. It does mean you need someone else to bring the elite kicking and someone else the run as well as the lock down backs but there’s 7 spots down back.

Sharp’s field kicking and decision making are both young Nibbla at best! He’s going to burn some chances and upset the same people currently arguing with you. Will be interesting to see if his finishing in front of goal remains stronger (if he can keep generating chances). The combination of the goals not moving and snaps being easier for guys with shaky kicking techniques are both in his favour.

Judd’s clearly the better back pocket but he was caught in no man’s land a million times as a flanker last year, especially early in the year. Bowey’s defensive strength is he reads the play very well for a young player and can come up and spoil but also drop back to fill gaps. Excellent for his height and overall solid in the air and knows how to use his body. Attacking wise neither get enough of the footy to be great. Judd currently gets the edge due to his ability to escape congestion and his very efficient ball use. But I do whilst not elite Bowser’s kicking has a different gear with distance and penetration. Last year was just about a write off for Bowser after a nasty injury. I’m very confident we’ll see a much improved player this year. The only thing holding him back is Windsor and Salem might be the go to rebounders.