DeeSpencer

The crucial frame is the one where Kossie attempts to contest for the footy is right before Moore throws his legs out and slides. You have to allow players to use their body to contest the ball. Otherwise the game is gone. It’s not a bump, it’s a contest. Our lawyer needs to find 100s of contests when players used their body to win the ball and then freeze frame on Kossie doing the same before Moore slides. That’s the case. Sliding is banned, it’s a free kick if you make contact with another player. There’s no reason to protect a player going to ground over the guy keeping his feet purely because the guy used his body to attempt to win the ball.

If we are really honest - zero. Windsor is a beauty but he’s a winger without an overhead marking game, not a natural inside contested ball winner and his kicking/decision making is iffy. He’s going to be good, but A grade good? Judd’s a beauty too but he’s stagnated as a half back as he learns positioning, he doesn’t bust his backside to rack disposals up and his value is winning the ball back in space. He slips and slides around contact, rather than playing through it like mids do. Our most talented young player (sub 22) is probably Jeffo. Whether we can build him in to an AFL player yet alone fully maximise his talent is obviously unknown. We’ll know more in March.

It was wet, the pies forward line brained us for pace even without Lever and we couldn’t move the ball through the midfield most of the night yet alone find tall forwards on the lead. The obsession with Jefferson is unhealthy.

You don’t reckon they haven’t been telling him for years to work harder and lay a tackle? A new forwards coach is a tiny reason for hope but largely if he hasn’t done it by now why would he at Melbourne? He’s playing like a guy who wants to be traded, so we might as well do what he wants.

I don’t really agree. The Hawthorn team that are on fire right now have a few really nice kicks at half back and D’Ambrosio on the wing. The Pies have Nick Daicos and Pendles. Then they both have some forwards who can finish. You don’t need a deep line up of really great kicks. Where we’ve gone badly wrong is the deterioration of players who can two way run, tackle, chase, win contests in space and link up with hands. When you do that the kicking becomes so much easier. We saw that in 2021. Its certainly a bit of a miracle that we won a flag without a single midfielder who’s a consistently above average kick, and we have to value skills but in terms of short term fixes we need the players and the game plan that covers a full ground.

So how deep do we cut?? Tomlinson surely goes. The case for Hore is difficult - he’s clearly not an afl level athlete even if he’s a very respectable footballer. Do we just pay out Billings? Every week he plays he shows he has no real interest in being an AFL player. Do we just pay out Laurie’s 2 year deal? Sestan? It was a fun idea. But the VFL stats are ordinary and the athleticism just isn’t there.

He can get fitter and stronger, he can get more composed with the ball, the team can move the ball faster to find him in space. But will it matter if he’s still short and insanely slow? It’s just a physical package that doesn’t make sense. If he adds bulk to play as a mid and win more contested ball he’ll just get slower? If he trims right up to cover the ground he’ll be still be slow with the bonus of also being light.

I’d have moved him on last year before the rest of the league caught on but he still has a very rare skillset as a goal kicker. A team like Freo that are right in their window, have agile talls and lacking scoring might go for him.

Spot on. Welcome aboard. It’s time to sell him off whilst he still has some value

Bill had a really good preseason. Fitter, stronger and was bobbing up really smartly as a midfielder in match sim. Unfortunately he just too slow to do anything defensively at afl level. And what’s the point of attacking skills/smarts if your team mates never play quickly and get the ball to you in space? It was a mistake to extend him purely on training efforts rather than wait to see if he could do it at afl level.

McVee copped a lesson but it was the exact lesson he needed. In patches of the 2nd and 3rd we actually hit them the other way. Asking Nibbler to hard tag Daicos would’ve been just cruel and we don’t have anyone else on the list who could do it.

He has a nice package of skills but his work rate and discipline to defend was a mile off afl footy. He’s never got close to doing a full preseason, which can be seen as a positive but also means he really has to do it now or it might be never.

He's 716th most goals in the history of the game. It's a nonsense argument that he can't be a good forwards coach. It's highly unlikely whoever we get to replace him would've kicked more goals and there's not going to be anyone who has played as a tall forward, a medium forward, a small goal kicker and a high half forward flanker. Playing experience is largely irrelevant.

McVee stiff for McKercher who I last saw running around in the 2’s. Otherwise, meh.

No but it’s Rachele so he’ll find a way to make it all about himself.

Our message to Waterman should be simple, ask the Eagles to bump his current 1 year contract up by a boatload and we’ll have a monster free agency deal on the table to get you for 2026. Trading for him this year doesn’t suit us. Not sure it suits the eagles either. They’d be better off having him available as a free agent and getting compo.

Carlton are far from perfect. They are just a safer bet than us right now. Hawthorn - picks tied to Barrass, the Dogs - no need for back flankers, the Pies - ageing but high quality, no first rounder are the Melb teams I’d want to join right now. Port won’t get what they want, but the might get close to it and if they’re far enough down the track to replacing him they might have to do the deal. If Port are serious about keeping him they might have to abandon their free agency plans very quickly.

I suspect Nibbler in one final act of leadership was happy to play in the B team to give both Laurie and Woey a chance to push their case. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t play. In fact he might even tag Daicos again and beat him just because he can. Ideally we play both Laurie and Woey, keep Melk as sub and don’t play Billings but that seems unlikely.

Not unhappy that they’re mixing things up but I always thought Stafford copped a lot of flack when his line had the least amount of talent. Our forward line also defended their backsides off whilst our backs gave no attacking drive. So all the best Staff.

At the end of the day Houston for a future first and then some is a great deal if our list is remotely in contention. Houston for 2 firsts and things coming back the other way can still work too, especially if we can engineer a pick in the mid teens to stay in the draft. But with Nibbler gone and Oliver and Tracc up in the air we aren’t in contention. Houston’s camp have seen this and backed away. I can’t blame them. The big question is are Port so committed to Perryman/Cumming maybe even Lukosius (not 100% sold he’s picking the Crows over Port) and even Joe Richards that they’ll have to trade Houston?? You risk becoming the laughing stock of the industry (and maybe even legal action) if you make offers to free agents and don’t follow through on them. Carlton are petty clever and good at squeezing a deal these days. I can see them being opportunistic. We don’t have Cripps, Walsh, Curnow, Weitering in their prime and Carlton’s depth. It’s going to take a special sell to show him why we can bounce back, but hey, you got to present your best I guess!

Port asked for 3 and gave it a crack, that was about the only strategy they had. They might still appeal, but it’s probably pointless. Theres little nuance for intent with just how split second his decision to bump was. Rightly or wrongly the afl are dead against any bumping. I mean, Parker got a monstrous ban for a simple shepherd because a vfl player had no awareness. They aren’t mucking around at all with bumps. (and for the Maynard reply people they literally rewrote the rules to make that a suspension, they couldn’t do any more than they did last year to get him banned)

As long as we get out of most of the contract you’re massively over valuing Oliver’s current worth. Put it another way, if he was at another club what would you offer to get him to Melbourne?

We’ve already got Melk doing that and a forward coach, and JVR’s had 2 years as Brown’s understudy. Not winding BBB up at the end of last year or at worst mid season was honestly a soft decision.

North dumped a heap of veterans at the same time, that’s different to Jack getting 4 years. North also allowed Boomer to run one way for about 5 years. The only thing worse than having no leaders is having leaders who aren’t fair dinkum.

Big Ben Brown wasted a list spot for about 1 good game this year. That’s the downside. And it’s not just him. Tomlinson overpaid for 5. Melksham, Hibberd, T Mc all signed up well in to their declines. Even if some of the had renaissances.