DeeSpencer

Max can play forward. I'd be playing Preuss about 10 games a year against the taller sides and non finalists and having him ruck 50% of the game whilst Gawn plays forward. Then come the business end you go smaller and ruck Max 80% game time.

If we can turn Hogan in to: - May - Preuss - Ed Langdon Then we've filled 3 needs (full back, back up ruck, wing) with 1 player leaving. I'd do that for sure. It would be brutal but it's a brutal competition

New England, Green Bay, Dallas

No but he'd help us get it back. The Eagles were pumping it inside 50 at times because not only do our key defenders get beaten, they just don't take marks, nor do they regularly sink the fist through the ball and clear the contest. So even if you win it back you're under pressure and not in control of the ball. Oscar wasn't entirely terrible today but missed a bunch of marks and had plenty of chances to really thump the ball through. Frost had a bad Frost game. Lever will help the marking and rebound but is best used as a third option, especially coming off a knee. Maybe Frost and Oscar can improve again, and they showed against the Cats and Hawks they can do the job with midfield support, but it's hard to win a flag without 1 gun key defender.

I watched the last few minutes of the 2nd quarter and the 2nd half. Seemed to rotate between the midfield - where he was involved in play - and full forward - where the ball largely avoided him but he'd go in chasing runs. Had a nice clearance in the 2nd quarter. In the 2nd half he had a lovely crumb about 40m out but missed the goal. Went on some big blistering chases to get from a long way to the contest. Nailed a big tackle which gave away a free but was worth it. Was involved with a few link up handballs. Skirted the packs a bit and I thought there were chances for him to jump in a get the ball. I'd say he looks like a draft prospect because he can get the ball in a pack and he loves to chase and tackle, but I'd also be concerned he's pretty limited in his involvement otherwise.

Jones deserves a year to see how he can play in a new role and a lightened work load - he carried the midfield in the first 6 weeks of the year. Lewis is playing the only position on the ground we can almost attempt to hide him and he's missing simple handballs under perceived pressure afraid of contact and giving away undisciplined free kicks. We gave him an extra year he wasn't going to get at the Hawks. Worked well for both parties. There's no need for 1 more.

Played some decent games towards the end of the year but cracks started to open in the final term against the Hawks and they busted wide open against the Eagles. Coaching or media role surely beckons.

AFL Draft 2018: Pick 1 and top 10 prospects, Jack Lukosius, Tarryn Thomas, Toby Bedford Settle down Toby. Late round pick should do it. Loving those tackle and clearance numbers.

At their best is Rodgers because he can scramble, he can avoid rushers and throw bombs, he can do anything. That said, if I had to start from scratch with both players aged 30 and I had a good defense and special teams and enough money to buy some quality offensive players but not break bank I'd go with Brady. Here's why: Obviously any QB is reliant on their scheme and coaching, but I think it's easier to create the system Brady plays in and it's safer for the QB. This is nitpicking and most will disagree with me but I think Rodgers isn't as easy to coach as people think. I'm not saying he has a good coach, I don't think he does, but he shredded the Bears just staying in the pocket and putting his receivers to work when he had to. He should do that more often but I think he likes to scramble around and make the big plays. The knee injury could be a blessing in disguise for Rodgers because he should play more like Brady. Develop insane chemistry with a small group of receivers and receiving backs and just take what's there mechanically marching down the field. The obvious thing to say there is McCarthy isn't Josh McDaniel's so it's not that easy but I think Rodgers has played at too high a level for too long for any half decent coach to not create a system based on his timing and accuracy if he wanted it.

Carolina (falcons are missing their best 2 players on D) Houston (Tenn qb situation is less than ideal) Chargers

I doubt we make it that far but if we do the sight of Jordan Lewis attempting to chase Richmond forwards will make plenty on here very keen on Hunt. Didn’t look fit at the start of the year. Got injured, came back and was far from terrible and then got injured again. Hopefully plays well in the VFL finals and carries some confidence in to preseason. Get him fully fit and he’s very much a required player

AFC East: New England AFC North: Baltimore AFC South: Houston AFC West: Chargers WC: Jacksonville WC: Denver NFC East: Philly NFC North: GB NFC: South: New Orleans NFC West: San Francisco WC: La Rams WC: Minnesota Saints over Texans in the SB.

Rams SeaHawks Steelers If it's not too late

He's 23. I think we say to him come to us for 2-3 years when we really need a solid back up as we develop 18 year olds. You'll play at Casey but even if Max is healthy we'll at least give you a couple of games when we rest Max and maybe a couple of games together if we have key forward injuries. Plus you'll get taught by Max and Greg Stafford. By the end of the 2-3 years you'll know everything Max does. And we'll let you go to whatever club you want if you're playing like an AFL level starting ruck and have offers on the table. I don't think there's a big money contract on the table for him from any club. He's not quite good enough to get the Nankervis/Jolly/Mumford back up ruck to starting deal straight up from a team. NFL fans will be familiar with Jimmy Garoppolo who spent 3.5 years behind Tom Brady as his back up and played in all of about 2 games. He was traded to the 49ers, looked like a star and got the biggest contract extension of all time from them after 7 starts. Things are different over there but Jimmy G learnt from great coaches as the back up to the goat. Not saying Gawn is Tom Brady but he'd still be pretty handy to train against every day.

I can make it appear faster than that!

Part 2 was released at the same time as Part 1 (or close enough to), it's just over on Sal's Against All Odds Podcast and not on BS'.

Very happy with that Mack trade. Getting back a 2nd round pick makes it not much more than giving up a 1st round pick. Done. Bears D just went from solid but unspectacular to very exciting and capable of really shutting down other teams. Week 1 in GB might be too early for that but should be able to cause some trouble as the season goes on. The NFC is loaded.

Gawn coached Flip in juniors and liked him which is a natural reaction to coaching any kid with a bit of talent. But I think that's different to actually having come up against a guy at AFL level and seen his talent. Preuss has a lot of talent, but I'm not sure why he'd leave being stuck behind Goldy to be stuck behind Gawn. We could play both but not if Weeds is playing like he is now. We certainly aren't in a position to promise games.

His ability to pick it up off the deck and handball accurately on either side might be his best skill. It's top draw. Combined with a nice leap it's made him an effective ruck option. Playing him in the ruck at Casey has really improved him. I can really see him being used in the ruck a lot next year with Max playing forward. Leap for the ball is good and can clunk them, should only get better there. Goal kicking looked good at Casey, bad at AFL level, so that means confidence. Technique is solid. Watching the post game interview his arms look well defined but you can see there's really not all that much of them and he doesn't really fill out the jumper. Got to get him training with Tommy Mc over preseason because if he had Tom's strength and anything like his endurance he'd be a force!

Rioli and Ryan are good players close to goal and Cripps is a very decent defensive forward, but they do need some upgrades through half forward - replacing LeCras - depending on how confident they are with the likes of Waterman and Venables. More than anything I would've thought they need Gaff's outside run to compliment Shuey, Redden and Yeo. Sheed and Masten as the outside ball winners is no better than us using Jones and Tyson in those roles. I've always thought Kent's best footy is played as an attacking link player, not close to goal, so maybe the Eagles have belief he can do that for them. Either way, he'd only be a very small trade, he has little value as is. It's hard to see a player we'd give up who has enough trade value to really entice the Eagles in to keeping the compensation and not matching the deal. Our best chance there is that the Eagles are fearful that we'd call their bluff if they matched the deal and to be honest I think that's not unreasonable. Their salary cap probably can't afford a huge Gaff contract and they know we have limited draft capital to trade.

Held his marks and nailed his goal early, then started dropping them and missing chances. If it's just fatigue he can get better and better. That said, they did move McGovern forward for a fair bit so he was on a flanker. Easier to get the ball but even more chasing required. Would like to see Sam build for next week especially when he's not playing in the Perth heat. The more he can ruck the more we can rest Max effectively.

Fingers crossed but he's done enough at Casey and is worth another go. His only game this season as 1 of 2 tall forwards was against Richmond where he did a lot of really nice things. He has to ruck well to give Max a decent chop out and he has to dig his knees in to McGovern's back as often as possible. Tom McDonald now gets relieved of the rucking duties and the title of the main man up forward (if he wasn't already). Tom has to kick the goals. Sam just has to compete.

If we had: - A realistic chance to get Tom Lynch as a free agent - Enough confidence that Sammy Weideman will make at least a solid back up ruck and contest/drop the ball down forward option - If we can get and rate Brennan Cox from Freo as part of a larger package Then yep I'll drive Jesse to the airport myself. In his defence he might be injured and playing week in week out through the trademark Melbourne Medical Mismanagement but he looks fine sprinting after the ball when he's going to get an easy goal. He's been such a flat track bully this year. Disgusting football. And for weeks many on here have wondered why he isn't rested or dropped. Today's performance was coming.

In my mind (and yours might be different) that is because I think he's fully deserving of a long stint on the sideline but not nearly as deserving of some of the media hounding and vitriol he has received. It should mostly die down now but it won't. It's why I think a fairer punishment would've been until the end of the season, not a number of weeks, which would allow him to start fresh next year. I'm not sure that helps him or Andy Brayshaw given I bet the incident is replayed repeatedly before his 'comeback'. Unfortunately the tribunal revolves around outcomes and the number of weeks. There's this focus that somehow 5, 8 or 12 weeks means something in particular and that it had to be 'x amount' of weeks. To me that isn't justice at all really. When you commit a crime the justice isn't only the sentence but the acknowledgement from the judge of the factors involved and a path to rehabilitation. It might just be the reporting but it would've been nice to see more focus from the Tribunal in a case like this that they'll punish Gaff with x amount of weeks, but also he has had a clean record for 174 games, it was a split second incident and he's welcome back in the game at the end of his suspension.

TBH I think a fairer penalty would've been to rule him out for the season, whether that be 5 or 7 weeks, missing finals with your team a live chance is very harsh. Tribunals should have the power to enforce a time sanction not just a week sanction. Oh well, 8 it is. Just think he'll now have to sit between 1-3 weeks next year when he would've served enough time this year. There's no need to overtly punish the individual. Gaff knows what he's done. There's no need to deter the rest of the comp. It's happened once in nearly 200 games this season.