DeeSpencer

I probably should've pencilled them in but not bolded. They'll be competing with the likes of Fritsch, KKolo, ANB, Spargo, Hunt, Baker, Stretch and draft picks or delisted free agents/state league pick ups so it's an even field of flanker/runner types. I can't see Lewis improving at 33, so we've had a bad year if he's still in the side but at 31 and finally out of the midfield I'm actually excited to see where they use Jones and what he can do.

Freo might have a new coach which could change his tune on going there and the Eagles could put a first and a future first on the table which is the going rate for a gun player. That might be much better than 19 and 20 or whatever it was this year.

Exactly. You can see why clubs traded their pre agent (guys 1 year removed from free agency) players. The uncertainty benefits no one. Geelong are willing to wait it out because he's young and healthy and whilst they lose leverage he can increase his value with another amazing season. Plus they want to win games! Does Kelly give his absolute all or does he get through to about mid year and start counting down the days until he's back to Perth?

No club would want him. There's a provision this year to replace a retired player with a rookie pick prior to the start of the season. I'd imagine that will be the move for Jeff. I get the feeling we couldn't fit his pay out in this years salary cap so we're waiting for next years. Hey if he does come back from summer break in career best shape maybe things can change but I'd have it as a <1% chance.

FB: Hibberd May Jetta HB: Lever ????? Salem C; Fritsch Brayshaw Kade Kolo HF: Spargo T Mc Petracca FF: ##### Weid Melksham Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Harmes, Vanders, ?HBF, ?forward/mid They'll be a battle for the best CHB option. Then there's lots of competition for the last few spots and some options with guys like Fritsch, Kade Kolo and Vanders capable of multiple roles. Depth: Oscar, Preuss ANB, Hannan, Stretch, Baker, Maynard, Wagner, Jones, Lewis, Hunt, J Smith, T Smith, JKH, ?Garlett Development: ?Keilty, Petty, Bradtke and draft picks Key defenders: May, Frost, Oscar, Petty, ?Keilty 3rd tall: Lever, J Smith Back pockets: Jetta Flankers: Hibberd, Salem, Hunt, Lewis, Wagner Inside mids: Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Harmes, Maynard Outside mids: Kade Kolo, Fritsch, Jones, Stretch, Baker Ruck: Gawn, Preuss, Bradtke Mid/forward: Petracca, Vanders Key forwards: T Mc, Weideman, T Smith 3rd tall: Melksham Flankers: Spargo, ANB, Hannan Crumbers: ??Garlett I think filling the remaining list spots the focus should be on a gun crumbing small forward as number 1 priority but after that just look for more class and run.

He was and is still on the draftee wage scale. Best part of 100k per year plus 5k a game. He made 190k last year and will make over 200k if he plays every game this year. Unless those kids eat caviar they’ll be fine. The Eagles offered him 600k from 2020 on. They can’t change his draftee deal. The question should be whether he had to be drafted at all given he missed out in about 4 drafts. But given he was the Cats and Eagles operate under the rules they’ve been given

Here's why I wouldn't worry so much. 1. We have a guy for Hogan's best spot - a guy who really stole it this year in T Mc. He's the CHF of our side. 2. The full forward role Hogan often played this year can be covered by Weid. Who has shown - maybe not enough but he has done it - a few really nice things: A) An ability to beat up on bad teams on the rare occasions he got great supply at Casey. In his first year he had a couple of 4 goal games, a couple of 3's. In an interrupted second year he had a game where he kicked 6. And last year at Casey in 10 games he had a 7 a 5 and a 4. B) The ability to go in to the ruck C). A growing inclination to tackle and pressure It's too hard to be a reliable full forward these days and consistently take marks and kick goals. The better player to have in that 2nd tall role is one who can kick some goals on their day but contributes in other ways. 3. We have multiple players capable of beating one on one match ups deep - Petracca, Melksham, Hannan. These are often the guys you want inside 50 now. It's the balance of options and roles that not only covers the loss of Hogan but makes us better due to versatility and match ups.

Looks like he’s sunburnt in Bali but yep that was a great interview and a strong endorsement for Goodwin

Did well, I don’t think we were in a strong position in either deal. But our list management team made the right call on sending Hogan (and Tyson) and bringing in May. Keeping Vanders, adding Preuss at a good value, adding KK. More than anything I think we have to cash in on free agency at some stage. We’ve kept momentum and the list improving, that’s important

I don’t agree with that. There’s lots of chances to move up and down the draft order these days. I think with more time we could’ve tried to move the 6 and 23 we got for Hogan in to something like 10 and 15. Then offered the Suns various deals that allowed us to keep a first round pick. If hypothetically we had pick 2 we would’ve surely traded it down before sending it to the Suns. But we didn’t have the leverage in either situation. Freo and Gold Coast both knew Hogan out and May in was an acceptable result for us. Anyway, we seem to have a philosophy that it’s better to not haggle over the last bit of change in a deal. I don’t always believe in it. But the player managers organized the big 7 team deal today. Keeping player managers happy might have a lot more value than people think

Who did he play on? The question has often been Oscar or Frost. My answer is neither. Give me May, Lever and a 3rd tall option depending on match ups that could be Oscar or just as likely could be Hibberd or Joel Smith.

I think moving that 2nd pick ahead of any Toby Bedford bid. We'd hate to have kept pick 36 and had to use it to match Bedford. Now we can draft with 23, 28, then match a bid for Bedford that comes in the 30's or 40's, then take a late flyer on someone. Similar draft to last year, 3 picks in the 2nd round and then a later flyer. Not sure how we fill the remaining 3 spots on the list but I'm not too worried about it either.

Don't love the trade. KK was pretty much free so it's pick 6 for May. Would've preferred to swap pick 23 up to a higher pick in that deal as well. Anyway. Love the player though. Big. Angry. Physical. Skilled. Proper key defender.

Hogan: 8 goals in 6 games against top 8 opponents Weid: 8 goals in 5 games against top 8 opponents from round 22 onwards We'll need to find a back up. I think Preuss or Tim Smith can do it short term. Add another scrap heap or VFL option but draft for long term.

Hibbo and Lever should go up a level. Oscar down a level to Casey

Read the Naill article. It's about 8 teams involved and no team wants to be the first to accept a deal when there's so many moving parts. The only currency teams have are draft picks (including restricted future picks), players and occasionally paying a percentage of contracts for other teams. A huge business deal would rarely feature so many independent and competing companies and they'd be able to offer different forms of compensation as well as bonuses, penalties etc. At the moment it looks like Brisbane won't move until they're happy with the Beams deal. Freo won't move until they've got the Neale deal sorted, after which they deal with Port so that they can work out deals with GWS and Melbourne. Port are involved with Gold Coast, Hawthorn and Freo and then Melbourne can deal with GC. The bones of the deals might be lined up but then Port might feel they are being slightly undervalued so might ask Freo for a little more, who then might get that little more from Gold coast who then might pass it on to us. Suddenly a team asks for pick 25 instead of pick 20 and then all of a sudden that pick 20 which was going to be used in the next 3 deals doesn't exist any more and it's back to the drawing board.

Where's the evidence of that? One comment from Craig Cameron with no real backing from anyone to do with May. Meanwhile the Jake Niall article lays out the deal that will have him as a Demon.

May's age means he has to get paid a heap of money to be in the top 5% of players and therefore draw first round compensation. That would mean he has to get through the year without injury and in decent enough form to draw the big offers. I rate him very highly, but I want him now and not after another year of battling around in a crap team. The longer you do that the less likely it is you get back to your best. Also pick 5 in this draft is worth far more than only a potential chance of a pick 2. The idea of knocking back pick 5 is all silly talk because May's true value is more like a couple of mid to late firsts with pick swaps, similar to Lever, rather than handing over a prestigious pick like pick 5. Gold Coast are just spreading some doubt to keep the price high.

He’s 23, it’s not completely crazy to sign him until he’s 31. And that was reported as the managers first offer. A 5 or 6 year deal at 1M is about what I’d expect Hogan to sign with Freo for. We gave Lever 4 years 800 and that’s before he’s in his prime. Plus key forwards get more. With the cap rising 20% in the next 4 years the 1M seems correct. Really I think this is Freo looking for deflection. Blaming the manager is an easy way out

Not sure about that. I think the Saints did a deal with Essendon and Sydney before we did our deal with GWS. They got pick 14 from Sydney for the price of a couple of picks in the 20's that netted the Swans a lot of points. Moving from pick 10 to pick 7 might've been a late move based on seeing other clubs do it. Still glad we did it and credit to the club for being in the right position and nimble but I'm not sure we invented it. Hawthorn, West Coast and Collingwood all did pick for pick trades towards the end of the trade period with GWS or Sydney to achieve the same thing. The bolder move was trading the future first and getting up to pick 3.

Tampa Bay Rams Colts

Preuss is the next man picked if Max goes down. So in many ways he's = 23rd. Tyson is 8th in line for the 4/5 inside mid spots in his preferred position clearly behind Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw and Harmes and most likely behind Vanders, Jones and Petracca. Even Maynard isn't far off. He's probably closer than that for a wing spot but it's time to develop long term answers there. With the way things were going in a years time Preuss is still next man picked if Gawn goes down. Tyson is drifting further behind.

Was contracted for 2019. I imagine we might've paid a bit of his salary, only because I think North would've paid him huge money in 2019 followed by peanuts in 2020/2021. No real issue with us paying a bit of money if it gets the deal done.

Good player. Although the KingDinga has a point about the ACL, we should've mentioned that when trading for him. It was after all the reason we didn't just pick him at number 3 in the draft. Freo are spreading all sorts of stuff about Hogan right now. It wouldn't have killed us to at least bring up Lever's history. Lever's best 3 games came against Jacob Townsend, Pat Kerr and Darcy Fogarty. Hopefully we get him healthy and he can start playing CHB against some real footballers and doing the same thing he was doing against no names. If he develops well he'll help a gun full back by stopping the ball every getting down there, but if we have a gun full back he'll help Lever by covering up deep in defence. Who's more valuable? Maybe Lever because he's younger and could be a long term leader. Who's better? Well we need both of them and we desperately need a big time stopper in May.

Agree with most of that. From any time he's been interviewed he's clearly not stupid. In fact I'm guessing one of his problems is he's a bit too smart for his own good. Seems a player for which footy is a job more than a huge passion. I just wish we rested him when his form was slipping in the latter half of the year. Might've prevented an injury or got on top of one early. If anything it would've been a mental reset. Apart from beating up a few bad sides he was all out of sorts and that can mess with relationships at the club and confidence. Who knows? Pure hypotheticals but maybe Freo offered him a truckload of cash mid year and he's spent the last 11 weeks worried he's about to leave.