DeeSpencer

Had it been 2021: 2021 12 - Josh Sinn 2022 3- Cadman/Sheezel/Wardlaw/Humphrey If the eagles got involved 2022: 3- Cadman, Sheezel, Wardlaw, Humphrey OR (post eagles trading down) 9 - Ginbey, 14 - Hewett +/- Reid But I don’t think the eagles ever would’ve got involved directly. They might’ve got involved with their 2022 pick split. I think our plans got screwed by the Horne-Francis trade that utilised that pick split and sent it to North/GWS. I believe were working on combining all the Jacko picks and getting that Eagles pick 3. Jeffo and Windsor vs just Cadman/Humphrey…time will tell

Doubt the eagles had the cap nor desire to pay up post 2021. Doubt Jacko was keen to leave right away. I reckon the grand final in Perth and extra time at home due to covid did us in. Freo probably started on a mega deal offer over summer. Sadly without more future picks being available the most Freo could really offer was 2 firsts and a second. Unfortunately even tho we were lucky to get pick 6 or whatever Windsor was we just fell out of the top range of the draft.

He battled through a pretty bad knee injury late in 2022 and didn’t have his athleticism to really impact forward. No issues with his application

2 massive statistical outliers. There’s reason to believe Gawn can keep going at a good level if given more support. But we had 7 A graders in 2021: Gawn, May, Tracc, Oliver, Viney, Salem, Lever. Aside from Max I’d have 3 in serious decline and 2 (Tracc, Lever) with injury concerns and 1 in Oliver in his own category.

No McKercher’s but maybe half a dozen Ryley Sanders’ level mids. Many of which might take 2-3 years to come good. Some really good tall prospects too

And they finally gave Chandler a run up the ground last night and he looked perfectly competent as a 3rd winger in spot minutes. If we can use all our half forwards: Chandler, Kolt, Fritsch, Pickett, ANB on the wing or on ball we can then put wingers like Langdon and Windsor forward for a change of pace and different look. Or throw Windsor on ball. Langdon at half forward really helped stretch teams vertically rather than just horizontally.

Think you’re harsh on Bowser, I reckon he was set for a big year before a really nasty injury. The kicking will bounce back if we get a midfield that can run and provide options. Moniz is a great package of traits but has no idea what he’s doing and no tank, has to get through a preseason this summer or it won’t end well. Depth utility/wing is probably the best we’ll get from Woey. Howes could be something but he’s just soft and doesn’t demand the ball either. His good form at Casey last year saw he really keen to get the footy but apart from Langdon and few others this team doesn’t believe in running and demanding the pill. Not sure what you’re not seeing with Kolt, super work rate for a young player in the hardest spot on the ground. Does a lot of smart things with things like tap ons. Makes mistakes but generally that’s because he’s trying to be composed and follow instructions. Is he a high end talent, no. But with his frame and enough juice in the legs he’ll do more with the ball as time goes on.

Just saw this, we’re on the same page

Jack should’ve been captain this year, Gawn has battled manfully but he’s paced himself even when not injured and hasn’t always attacked the contest with the intensity of a player in their prime. Can’t have Tracc next year after such a serious injury. Can’t have Lever, don’t trust his body and don’t trust his play under pressure. Honestly if they wanted to reward effort and being a great clubman they could give it to ANB for a year.

Houston’s a better kick because he’s steadier than Farrell and just a much better overall player. I wouldn’t call a high possession winner with an intercept marking/all round game and designated kicker a role player. If that’s a role player then who besides key talls and mids isnt? Port have Sparrow and Chandler level players, most teams do. They’re worth more to us than anyone else. Durable, prime age guys who crack in every week, even if they’re both fringes of a very good side. We should offer them someone of quality in a role they don’t have. Given Georgiades probably has to play key tall they do miss a 3rd tall and I doubt they want to leave JHF there as they did last night. They bought on Watts, they’d be the perfect suckers to bite on Fritsch. A future first and Fritsch for Houston and steak knives would be lovely.

We finally get rid of all the old broken down or ordinary tall forwards and you go get 2 more? And you expect ANB and Koz to do the work of 5 players being the midfield and running depth as well as pressure forwards? I mean, maybe if we sign David Teague we can attempt to score 150 a week and win by a goal? Not sure where we are finding the money to pay Houston and Cumming without giving anything up either. Nor am I sure who’s playing back pocket out of that group. Hard to convince Cumming to come and play back pocket each week.

He’s just about exclusively playing CHF in a long down the line team and his goal kicking has been awful, but in terms of doing his role he’s done it well since the bye.

He’s physical, aggressive, willing to have a run in the ruck, mostly a good set shot. The perfect solid number 2 to a genuine star but lacks the leap, pace, quick thinking to be the guy.

Petty’s in sneakily decent form since the bye, the bloke is putting in one heck of a shift this year all things considered. JVR had a poor game but isn’t going anywhere, plus we need his ruck minutes. I can’t imagine Max is going to put the cue in the rack but if he does it’s Fullarton in. Disco got a full game again after a run of games as the sub and whilst he’s making more than his fair share of errors he’s competing strongly. I doubt they want to stop the momentum that he’s building. Fritsch….it’s not pretty but the man is just coming off his first ever pass of the ball inside 50. We’ve witnessed a genuine miracle. No point tanking his trade value by putting him in the 2’s now. Plus I liked some of his mobility and ball winning last night even if the execution was poor and defensive stuff was its usual grim efforts. I just don’t see a spot for Jeffo who’s physically still a long way off, is best suited getting on the end of quality ball movement (which we don’t have) and is still making improvements with his consistency at every contest at Casey. Max Gruzewski who’s been better at VFL than Jeffo has played 4 games and had totals of 4, 2, 3 and 3 disposals and 1.5 marks a game. Been subbed off twice. Laid 1 tackle. Kicked 3 goals in 4 games. He did a role on Harris Andrews yesterday which was the first time he’s actually contributed positively to the team performance. The same people desperate to see the kid play will jump right off by half time when he’s barely touched it.

The solution is to target undervalued assets and build the list without compromising it. Free agents, fringe players cheaply available, mature age pick ups, trade back in drafts and accumulate bonus picks. As well as trading our players when the time is right to sell high. And if you do chase a big fish make sure you’ve got them on the hook and pay with peanuts (late first rounders). There’s really 2 factors that make chasing Houston in any way feasible - Port are willing to let him go for a fair price for compassionate or other reasons and we can get the deal done with a package of later picks.

I’ve never seen anyone move slower than the Tugboat on the goal line, geez he got lucky there. Standard ok Tomlinson first up game, more than likely he’ll back it up with a stinker next week.

Billings? Fine game. 3 times in the last quarter when he had scoring changes he completed fumbled and Boak gained more space on him the longer the game went. That said, he gave up about the best he had. So I don’t see any reason to join the pile on. He was a late in playing just about his last ever game. Oliver was bad all night and awful late, most of this site downplays just how bad he’s been.

You reckon leading a top 4 team that just beat the flag favourites by 100 points all night with no fit mids, the backline full of plodders and probably half the side sick was out coached? Goody put on a defensive clinic and we had more than enough chances to win.

Depends if she was hot really?

He’s not down. He’s 20m out the back giving nothing

He plays both ends because he’s not good enough to hold down a spot at either. His goal kicking is great forward but his contest and work rate are poor, he’s a beautiful ball user at half back but refuses to defend. He’s Watts with a better strength and conditioning program but the same lack of killer instinct. Someone’s going to try to get it out of him and maybe as he matures he’ll deliver. It’s not a gamble I’d be wanting to take

Fritsch's most noticeable grand final goals came from leading up at the footy, jumping over opponents or on the back of great pressure from the likes of Kossie and Spargo. It's great there were goal sneaks in 1963 or whenever those guys played but Fritsch has been dining out on the grand final for 3 years now.

Agree that people overrate early picks, especially once they fall out of the top high end range of a particular draft. And the strange thing about this draft is it might be even between 5-15. So whilst 7 is a great pick it might not be much better than 15. But I also think you need an elite midfield to contend for flags as well as talls with an advantage somewhere on the ground. May, Max and to a lesser level Lever were our advantage in talls. It's fair to say May and Max aren't at that level anymore, even if Gawn is All Australian he's finished the last 3 years hobbling along with injuries. And Lever worries me too, he was in great form before injury this year but has regressed badly since and whether he will have the agility and fitness to go with smalls so he can dominate as an interceptor off them is hard to know. There's optimism with Petty, JVR, Jeffo, Disco that we have a solid platform of talls but its not exactly a strength anywhere. Midfield - well that's even more up in the air. Oliver - who knows. Viney - looks pretty spent as a dominant inside force. Tracc - I have my doubts on his midfield longevity especially at his pre injury size. Sparrow - barely AFL standard as a mid. Pickett - not a mid. Kolt and Windsor - promising but probably going to have some second year blues and ups and downs on their way to 70 games like most kids before becoming consistent. Does Rivers play mid? Does Houston come in and play mid? Nothing is going to compare to the Tracc-Oliver-Viney 2021 combo but it's getting hard to see just how we produce a midfield big 3 plus quality role players even if those big 3 are still on the list. The Hawks went all in on Roughy, Buddy/Gunston, Mitchell, Hodge, Lewis, Rioli, Isaac Smith, Birchall because that's a group you could just ride with. Especially when they added Gibson, Lake and Frawley so they had backline tall dominance as well as forwards and mids. The price has to be right for Houston and we need some associated moves to find other missing pieces to pull off this retool on the run.

There's already a buck in letting 9th and 10th play 2 extra finals games. The logistics of selling off a final when you don't know who's playing seems way too impractical, so much so that it would be hard to get a great price anyway. Imagine if it was Collingwood - Essendon and you're giving up 100k at the G to have 50k scramble to Adelaide, many of whom would just drive given it's last minute. And what if the other game was GWS - Gold Coast in Perth and you'd have a grand total of 3 men and a dog travelling over for it.

It’s totally screwing 7 and 8 who had a nearly impossible task to begin with just become twice as hard. It’s rewarding bad teams that don’t deserve it at 9 and 10. And now the worst possible thing they’ll considering screwing the fans by playing them at neutral venues. That’s horrendous. (I don’t think it’s actually going to happen but they’ll float neutral venues to ram through the rest)