DeeSpencer

With Rowell and Anderson neither of them will be permanent mids. Have to get Touk Miller and at least one other defensively minded player in the guts. Then the same issue up forward

Thanks to the Collingwood journalist for this quality bit of reporting

My only reluctance is sometimes you get a top 5 pick who is a future captain, no nonsense, culture setter, sure thing 250 gamer. But we thought we had them in the Dean Bailey days and they still didn’t work out. In terms of talent I’d have no issues taking Humphrey straight up over anyone in next years draft even if we end up giving pick 2. And if that cost ends up being selling Tracc for a bunch of late stuff so be it.

I’d be happy to put Tracc and our future first on the table for some later stuff back.

Collingwood don’t have any cash and Carlton are as bad as us. Maybe we haven’t gone all in on Flanders because we have our eyes on the real prize!

The other things he mentioned was how they set up the ground and to take advantage of unpredictable entries. Ie. Get the players in the right positions to receive the ball and suddenly the kicking options and margin for error both increase. Intercept defenders also get caught out by free flowing ball movement. Gryan is the only brilliant kick in the cats mid/ half forward rotation. So they often use him for the tight space short precision kicks. Holmes, Smith, Mannagh, Close couldn’t hit the side of a barn under high pressure, but what they can do is run like crazy and kick low and fast to space with forwards hitting the drop of the ball.

Yep, I didn’t list his deal as an issue, his decline in play and seemingly lack of commitment and leadership when he probably should’ve been captain by 2024 are how he’s hurt us. That pales in comparison to Clarry’s regression and deal and general lack of vision and proactive action with our list management.

Repeat fitness might diminish if they reduce total game time but there’s the speed and skill requirements where Clarry and Tracc are lacking too. The only way to get the ball out the fatside and in to an open 50 is to have mids that outrun their opponents

Geelong committed to Worpel. Saints to Windhager. 3 clubs in on Flanders. Eagles to Dev Rob. A lot of moving parts with midfielders. It seems to me either something changed or they really wanted the coach committed to this decision. Have to think we potentially lost value. Yet at the same time I get why King wouldn’t have wanted this done when he was preparing for the grand final.

Viney doesn’t have the speed and tank to play defensive forward. He’s a mid until the end. Can’t make changes to the style without change the personnel. That’s a square peg in a round hole. The style King wants to play requires elite fitness and ideally skill in the midfield. Oliver and Tracc can’t outrun their shadows or kick.

You know he's my favourite of that bunch. But also doubt GWS move him. Gothard and McMullin both uncontracted after 2026 and down the pecking order even with Darcy Jones doing his knee. Daniels, Bedford and Thomas are the best 22 options.

With 5 on the bench I think you can have a midfielder who only plays about 55-60% game time. I'd have Oliver and Green overlapping for about 30% in which case Oliver takes a more defensive role at stoppages. Then I'd have him as the main clearance player for 25-30%. Sydney with Heeney, Warner and Rowbottom have a lot of inside/ball players. Maybe you'd take him knowing the Chad is 99% gone in 2 years but otherwise I wouldn't change their mix.

With Daniels, Bedford, Jones, McMullin, Wardius, Hannaford, Gothard, Thomas and Delana the Giants have a crazy surplus of small forwards. We have a midfielder who could do with a fresh start and need small forwards. We got to get one of them smalls.

GWS a far better fit. They lack clearance on ballers, they have nothing after Tom Green.

Guerra actually said best 25. King seems genuinely disappointed in Tracc not giving him the benefit of the doubt to stick around. Same as Judd. Oliver might well have been 25th of 25. After meeting with the assistant coaches and fitness staff King might've had his opinion on Oliver lowered. That's not unreasonable.

The long term deal helps us in that scenario! Imagine if Tracc wanted to leave out of contract now and we got peanuts or free agency compo. Long term deals are a risk not for players leaving but for players regressing with injuries or off field issues. We have to make sure our guys are healthy in mind, body and spirit for long term deals and that's where we've gone wrong. I hope the AFL do move to limit deals to say 5 years but I'd still happily sign our best guys up that long.

I didn’t get the coaching job so I think he’s safe!

He doesn’t cut it anywhere else and we’ve got 3 more years to pay him! There’s a limit on how much we can pay guys not to play for us!

Assuming this is Laurie but you could tell me it's Billings, Woey, Kynan Brown, Mitch Hardie it wouldn't even matter, either way it's delusional.

We can scrape together our midfield but any injuries and our wings, half backs and especially half forwards will be diabolical.

If he's truly only 1.3 or more that's what it will take. Put it this way. If Clarry was a free agent. You have to give him a 5 year deal. What's the most you would pay him? For me, it's 500k pa.

There's a non stop trade radio show that needs constant content and player managers who love to fill it. But yeah, Clarry shoud've been told earlier. The only explanation is that King has a lower value on him than our footy department and has re-evaluated the plans. But even then the nonsense about a new role and wanting to coach him make King look like an [censored].

Unless he failed a medical this seems a very strange decision. Reading between the tea leaves it seems like our plan for key backs next year is Adams, Turner, Petty/Lever. Which is fine. But we need depth aside from ancient T Mc and there's every chance Petty leaves post 2026. Unless we've only rated Wade as a forward and not a back. Meanwhile our forwards even with Mihocek are still a bunch of ????.

Not your best few weeks Danny

So either King wasn't honest about Oliver in his plans or they've completely botched it. Either way, this now seems untenable but also how are we meant to even get another team to bite even paying 700k a year? Why not tell Clarry's manager to go drum up interest and we'll entertain anything they come back with. This seems like going the nuclear option after 2 years of failing the nuclear option.