DeeSpencer

The push from Fox/herald sun to get us to hire Bucks is so strong you have to wonder if they rate him or just can’t stand him and want him gone.

As long as they aren’t the coaching equivalents of Sharp and Fullarton

With Gob Bluth on the committee as well as our new CEO/essendon super fan I expect a current Essendon assistant will get a good look in.

Glad it looks somewhat like a real process. They can get a lot of insight in to the list and the way it’s viewed across the league as well as different perspectives on coaching from the initial interviews.

Impossible to know without inside information but to me our injury list was good and our lack of fitness was overwhelmingly because our midfield is too old or too young.

You have to do body work to succeed as an AFL key forward, but do it early then release and launch. JVR improved a fair bit in the last month or so of the season in trusting himself

The tall skinny guys seem to draw more free kicks, as do the star players. But I don’t think JVR gets a particularly bad run. He’s just not very good

Heath is underrated as a contested mid but she’s better tackling and winning the ball in space as well as tagging the oppositions best players. She’s as tough as anyone but at some stage her lack of size plays a role. With our current supply of key forwards I’d go with Zanker in there. Mackin once she builds her match fitness back has a strong body and gives good run. But I’d also think about Chappy especially if Gillard rehabs well. Grace Beasley showed signs of a very good inside mid last year but it’s a tough ask back from a knee in just her second year.

I thought she was a flanker, through 2 weeks she’s looking like a solid full back! Covering for injuries really well.

Purcell injury such a downer. We don’t have anyone else who can do what she does. Lily Johnson late in and 11% game time. Didn’t play the first half. Just 35% in the third. That’s interesting.

I understand not disrupting Casey but I had one ask for selection which was please don’t pick Sharp. Then I thought, well he’s fit and he’s made a good impact as sub, how much damage can he do? Turns out it was a lot. His entire recruitment is a perfect reflection on how bad our recruiting has been. Buying 2 lemons from Brisbane in a row is really staggering. Especially when there wasn’t anything special about either of their games at Brisbane.

That was a horrendous 50, Melk’s often prone to them although it’s more of a tunnel vision/lack of awareness thing than straight poor discipline. As it stands we have a heap of list spots so I’m ok with him going on but we’re in trouble if he’s a walk up start still. Should be more for a playing coach type role. We have to pick some young athletic forwards with a future rather than extracting the most out of the current patch work set up.

The base wage for a rookie is 105k in 2026. The base wage for an experienced player in 150k. But aside from 4k match payments any rookie that plays gets a 3k bonus and more bonuses for 6 and 11 games. Players also stay on the rookie list but get paid as experienced players. Culley and AMW would almost certainly be signing for amounts of experienced players not second year 19 year old rookiee. The list exists just so clubs can draft guys for 1 year deals if they’re fringe talents and to spread talent around so clubs can’t keep all 44 on a main list. It should be called a supplemental list but it’s not a big deal that it still exists with a silly name.

Token farewell games as for club legends, not AFL journeymen. St Kilda can honour him for 10 years on their list should they wish. We've actually got something better to offer Billings which is a crack at a proper finals campaign all be it VFL. He certainly never had that at AFL level with the Saints and I doubt he did at VFL level either. I don't think any of the VFL guys who are finishing up at the end of the year would even want to have a farewell game, especially if it was as sub and put their finals prep at risk.

Wade Derksen Keep Lever McGovern Probably some other options between 2 and 3 too.

It's not really fair to compare Melk to Tracc straight up because most of Melk's would be set shots where as a number of Tracc's would be snaps in congestion under a heap of pressure. That said, the set shot head to head wouldn't be all that much prettier. Aside from set shot kicking not being willing and capable to go on to his left for snaps around goal is another factor that hurts Tracc. Most of the best players have a handy left foot snap in traffic that doesn't always look pretty but generally goes in.

There’s 3 kind of leaks: important stuff that shouldn’t leak information disseminated via preferred media channels for positive coverage and/or damage control information that involves other people who don’t owe you any confidentiality The last 2 aren’t worth worrying about. You can’t sack Choco without telling the bloke, who is then free to tell anyone he wants. It’s actually better that he gets a farewell game (plus hopefully some farewell vfl final wins) than going quietly in October.

I think he was an important contributor in terms of getting some premiership winning mindset in to our players, but as far as skill development goes our current side especially are a long way off. Kicking is one issue, although it's very hard to change techniques under pressure at AFL level. But we really struggle with handballing and some players even with just picking the footy up! Which isn't to say it's all on Choco but I'm not surprised with 1M dead cap on the books next year and the need to bring in some quality assistants that Choco is the odd man out. Premierships at Port and Melb and did a lot for Richmond's development, he's got a strong coaching legacy

Jeffo is still very high ceiling but also low floor. There’s still a chance he’s a 50 goal forward at afl level, but also possible he never makes it. His combination of mobility, leap and skills are rare, just a matter of getting it out of him.

3rd or later, possibly a rookie. There’s some talent but he hasn’t really come on much. Best projects as a a key defender, at least initially

Worth a look but he was patchy in his draft year including a couple of ordinary VFL games for Casey (his brother put in much better Casey efforts). And Clarko’s moving him around trying to make something out of him.

There’s no way Harley is going to the Saints and where has that Ryan figure come from? I haven’t seen any reporting on his price, there’s no way it would be 1M per season, be lucky to be half that

23 and under: A grade (future stars): Langford B+ (quality players):Bowie, Turner, Windsor, McVee, Lindsay B (could be difference makers): Kolt, Kentfield C+ (could contribute): JVR, Mentha C (role players or possible contributors) Howes, Jeffo, AMW, Adams, Culley Ungraded: the rest It’s a reasonable list of young players, we’ll know a lot more in 12 months time about where the key forwards are at.

I wouldn’t bet my life on Jeffo making it but I’ll gladly buy shares in him at a cheap price. His development from nothing at VFL to now being an excellent player at that level suggests he can step up again. Especially with how raw he was physically. Hopefully this toe injury doesn’t interrupt his summer.

Bedford has been phased out of their midfield. He hasn’t been effective in any way but hard tagging. XOH is getting more of a run through but isn’t a full time mid. You’d rather use him to cover multiple roles. Leake and Rowston aren’t looking like genuine mids, at least not any time soon, they have a need and can probably straight swap him for Leek Aleer.