DeeSpencer

Considering that Port were keen to keep him and offered a contract and the article says he'll head to the draft you have to think he's not eligible as a delisted free agent. But you're right in that it's vague

Which is why it wont be him. He's always been a hard worker. He's had lots of games to get up to speed at the level and I doubt he's in for a position change. I really like Bail. Despite a number of shockers he also played some really solid games this year and in a better team he's positives would stand out more and his negatives be covered. But I don't see him taking a leap.

I see no aggression and little pack marking with Wright. More a bloody big kid who moves pretty well who therefore takes some marks. His kicking is very good though. Would love to know how you think he'll kick 100 goals though considering he doesn't trouble the scorers all that regularly in junior footy. But if he can kick 50 that's nothing to laugh about.

There's no way to work out who are the transcendent talents until about 5 years time! But I know I don't want to pass Pavlich to take Aaron Fiora. If we go for who we think is the best available the list will eventually balance out with talent.

That we haven't delisted him by now possibly might indicate we are still interested in him some what. Maybe we are going to wait until the break is over and see what condition he comes back in. Then again he could just as easily be delisted tomorrow so time will tell.

My theory is a few things actually made it more difficult: 1. The rise in professionalism of junior footy. The best kids stand out when it's a battle of kids. When it's a battle of junior athletes with a heap of training and physical preparation (with some having different levels to others) it becomes much harder to identify 2. Development became so crucial from about 2006-2010. Melbourne have obviously stood out poorly in this . 3. The compromised drafts. We could be looking at some really solid top 3 picks in 2010-2012 but the top picks weren't in some of the drafts 4. Variable drafts. Some years will have great standouts, others wont

Good job describing Scully and Trengove almost to a tee. That worked out weel. Scully was so self-driven he drove himself to Western Sydney. Not far off describing Toumpas either. Hodge, Rioli, Hawkins, Christensen. There's been plenty of youngsters come in lately with high skinfolds and turn in to very good footballers. The key is to recognise they are just kids who play footy not athletes, but to believe in them that they will mature. Country kids at boarding school are often the ones with high skin folds but who also just thrive in footy clubs as they are self made types. Really I'd be judging McCartin on whether he'll have the speed, size, strength and ability to get to the ball and take marks. Character is certainly important, but at some stage we just have to get the talent in and back ourselves. There's enough things to worry about with McCartin's footy before you overanalyse him I think.

I was surprised at the time as well. But then again we only had Frawley, McDonald, Dunn and Garland as taller defenders and the footy department probably knew Frawley was looking unlikely as a long term proposition. Dunn was far from a sure thing either. Howe was a forward. Pedersen was nothing more than a VFL player no matter what end he played at. Garland had just had ankle surgery (or was struggling with the injury). I guess they thought a late rookie pick on a competitive type of player to have around for a year was better than having a kid who was never going to play or blocking up the midfield (at AFL or VFL level). Sully from Geelong VFL is the one mentioned as one of the best key defenders in state leagues who might actually have AFL ability as was available in the 3rd round of last years rookie draft (presuming he was nominated and happy to be drafted). I'll look out for mature key defenders in this draft and hope we didn't fail to take one. But overall we at least got something from Georgiou which puts him ahead of most 3rd round rookie picks in weak drafts.

Well all national draft picks come on 2 year deals so hate to break that to you. Not to mention that's for a reason as well because the first year really should be about developing their bodies and adapting to AFL. Sometimes it's better to take the final year of an unde rperforming player hoping that something changes over preseason than extra 4th round draft picks. As for keeping players longer, well sometimes you end up lucking in to a Pedersen or Jetta if that happens. The other thing to remember is that by giving 2 year deals sometime you can save yourself big money in the second year. If you grab a guy for a 1 year deal and he turns in to a very serviceable player then you have to pay him like it from the next year. And finally there is a market out there. We aren't an attractive club even for guys wanting games. So you can't offer 1 year deal and minimum coin to players who have other options. Including state leagues. Better recruiting and development will no doubt solve a lot of these problems. I don't think the turnover has been heavy enough if recent years. I think that going all the way back to Daniher who loved a lot of his players and didn't even turn them over in the team yet alone off the list. Then when Bailey came in they shifted too many older guys and filled the list with younger suspect guys.

Well in a lot of ways that game wasn't junk time, until it was. And remember at the time Evans was right up there in our most promising mids. We really didn't have much else. He was finally over his injury troubles and was showing something. He had 27 touches on debut as a 19 year old. A Melbourne player this year told me that Evans has natural contested ball winning abilities as good as anyone at the club as well as really good strength for his size in marking the ball. Unfortunately the knock on him is he just doesn't have the commitment required to make it at the top level.

You don't play SANFL for that many years if you aren't passionate about footy, but the financial realities are he's better off working as an engineer and presumably getting 70k minimum and then getting SANFL payments as a premiership full back on top of that and so more than likely taking home 6 figures. If he stayed on 55k as a rookie plus 3k per AFL game then he'll have to play more than 7 games a year to make nearly the same amount and every year you miss out on progressing your career. He gave himself at least a year to make it as if he was upgraded then there's 200k per year for 2 years minimum and you can always go back to engineering later (and without a mortgage!). The press release was more about saying what he had given up. If you have inside knowledge he was happy to walk away then so be it. Personally if the offer was there I'd have given it another year to see what can happen if I were him. If he can get his old job back (engineering and football at Norwood) then at least he wont be a player who crashed out of the system so I hope that's the case for him. Either way risking it to make it an AFL is better than those clowns who give their jobs up to go on big brother!

But the difference between a 3rd rd pick and a rookie is 20k and a 2 yr deal v a 1 yr deal. Only poor clubs would treat guys differently. Hawthorn have created this culture at Box Hill where young players go to Box Hill to feel part of the Hawthorn system. No doubt they don't exactly get anything like the support given to the Hawthorn players but the feel like they do. Apparently even this year the guys at Casey felt like second rate citizens around the club. Especially late in the year. They weren't happy with the MFC coaching provided to them whilst they were at Casey and late in the year they frequently trained separately to those who were lining up for Melbourne. We wont get anywhere as a club until that kind of attitude is fixed. So I see the hiring of the new Casey coach as crucial and I hope he has Roos' ear as well as the guts to reform the system even if that means calling Roos or Allison out.

Yep. If we are going to use the disparaging term list clogger then at least use it for a guy who's been on the list for 5 years and done nothing and wastes a spot. It's pretty hard to clog the list just having a year on the rookie list!

Wouldn't impact the room for PSD or DFA but it's not a bad point. Lever would push Georgiou further down the depth order in medium/tall defenders so better to use his spot on mids/forwards. That said I think they'd make the move regardless. With pick 2 in the rookie draft we can probably get the best tall defender in that pool of players if we wanted. Or even with the 2nd rd rookie pick. Whoever that player may be is likely to have more upside than Georgiou.

From a personal view I thought Georgiou gave up a lot and had a good crack at it and was important in making the team competitive early in the year. From a critical list management view: 187cm key defender with poor skills. Came in and did a job for us whilst Garland was injured and Frawley/Dunn were forward but the reality was he was only ever going to be depth. Why carry depth with limited potential when you are a bottom 4 side? Tall defenders: McDonald, Frost Medium defenders: Dunn, Garland, Howe Swingman: Pedersen There's enough coverage there for 3, maybe 4 spots in the team. If we could get Mitch Brown from Geelong on the rookie list he has more ability than Georgiou, has the probably physical tools and can cover either end of the ground. Plus there's always a chance you can get his head switched on and he can actually make it as a long term player. He's just an example.

Michie's not scared of contact nor does he turn it over at will. Smith played a good season, got a contract and hasn't played well since for 2 if not 3 years.

NFL practice squad. 5k per week for the 16 week season so hardly much more money. No security. Can be cut at any time. But do have the option of being signed to any other team at any time (after which they can be cut again the next day). Now that the minimum salary is 55k I don't feel so bad for them but it's pretty restrictive. I presume Harmes gets some VFL match payments on top of that for the games he played? Maybe 1,000 per game extra? You could make all rookies free agents at the end of 3 years. If they aren't upgraded by then and have had 3 years of limited rewards maybe the deserve a shot to pick their club if they aren't happy at their current club. That said I presume they can be traded or not sign on for the 2nd and 3rd years and enter the drafts if they so wish.

Geelong have cleaned out a lot of senior list players. Christensen, Varcoe, Stringer, Schroder, Hamling, Brown, Burbury whilst only bringing in Stanley and Clark so they are obviously going to have a number of picks in this draft. It's just they swapped 21 for 60 along with Stanley so I think Wells just prefers multiple late picks to find very good players instead of just the pressure of an early pick. That's somewhat inline with our downgrade for Frost.

We get 40 list spots. 44 if you include rookies. The average return of late round draft picks or rookies is diddly squat. We extended the contracts of Bail, Riley and Terlich all before the trade period. The way I see if between now and this time next year if things are at least heading in the right direction then the cost-benefit of keeping him will probably still be worth it. Remember he's a great leader and guy to have around. Presumably we were interested in trading him and 23 for pick 12 maybe as part of a bigger deal. Even still that's a significant pick upgrade and shows he still has value. If we were willing to [censored] him to the Tigers for a 4th round pick and then want to keep him for 2 more years then it's a different scenario. For now I guess lets worry about this year first.

By the way I found it strange Tapscott hasn't got the chop yet. And he did seem to have more chance than Strauss and Blease last year as well as more injury niggles. He'd be the ultimate Jetta rebirth if he went back to the rookie list. Unlikely, but never say never I guess.

Petracca is a better mark and more damaging forward and he's probably just got a bit more x factor. A little more burst and power in his game. Brayshaw trained with us, Roos obviously has a link to the Sandy dragons, he looks the clear 2nd rated midfielder in the draft. So it all seems convenient and he's a hard working disciplined player so of course Roos will like him. I'm not buying in to it too much that we are liking him for some special reason besides he's a very good young footballer.

By the way, if Harmes has signed on today does that mean the futures of Georgiou and King are still up in the air? I'm not against keeping either of them, but at the same time I wonder if they did enough and if we will miss anything by moving them on. For example Mitch Brown from Geelong could take Georgiou's rookie spot and play either back or forward as a depth player. I had respect for what Georgiou did at the start of the year by playing hard and physical footy and giving it a shot. But he looked very much a state league player.

Well we now have the list spaces for these two anyway.

You know that whole best available method of drafting thing? Where you take the talent more so than when they are ready to play. They were both 18, one had played only school footy and had more athletic traits, the other a TAC midfielder, but it's not like either were really in line for senior selection last year. I do like Harmes. But Hunt has rare speed. I think every now and then you risk burning a late draft pick on a quick guy because it's very hard to manufacture speed.

Watts, McKenzie, Michie, Riley, Spencer, Fitzpatrick To a lesser extent Toumpas and Barry but these are younger guys expected to improve. Matt Jones, Bail and Terlich are probably playing at their level. If they can find that small margin in their games they can go from fringe to regulars but it wouldn't really be a transformation. Fitzpatrick is an interesting one. He does a lot wrong. And was awful at the start of the year. But he was concussed early in the first game, probably wasn't right the next week, then played in the wet the third week and all 3 games where in shocking sides. He came back for 2 late games and managed to find the scoreboard against West Coast and North. He can't have any more excuses with the body. And he needs a coach who will believe in him and stick with him through what might be some ugly moments. But he's 23 now and could improve quickly. With Dawes suspended in round 1 he has a chance to play the first game of the year.