DeeSpencer

Well it is outrageous predictions. But my serious prediction is that he can be a very good player without kicking well.

As trivial as it sounds his hard running and speed could actually be developed into something. He has all the physical attributes of Kieran Jack. And bad skills can be conquered with time and composure. The issue I have with Nicholson is that he's soft. It's the non negotiable.

Grimes off half back is the most obvious one. I'd really hope for Howe and/or Watts on a wing. If I had to predict improved performance from a midfielder I'd go with McKenzie re-affirming himself as a tackling machine and decent player.

Karnezis a second rounder and the other 3 were first round picks yet Voss continues to play Martin, Sam Michael, Moloney and a whole other bunch of limited guys like Bewick. Even Zorko doesn't get enough midfield time, Voss has plan A - win like the Lions premiership team and has his best 22 and that's about it. They're all not from Brisbane as well so once you [censored] them off they all want to go home. Once they get a new coach I think they'll be a chance to keep some of those guys. But Karnezis I think will go and Polec. Longer will draw decent interest as well, he won't want to be stuck behind Leueny and every club always needs a ruckman.

Well there is certainly some logic in keeping youngish (even Sellar is only 24) players as depth in the hope they develop and also that they make improvement. You can't just have a best 22 and kids, that wont work. But Sellar was brought across and in 2 years he hasn't and Davis didn't look up to it. Of course than main reason we didn't need to keep them for depth is that behind Frawley, Garland and McDonald as starting tall defenders we have the wonderful if undersized Dunn as well as good old Pedersen. Plenty of depth for mine.

Seems to me that Roos isn't unhappy with Mahoney and Jackson gave him the trial in the position that he didn't really need to do. If we were to find a replacement you'd think we'd do it now rather than in a few weeks in the middle of the trade and Free Agency period. What's everyone's thoughts with Josh? Personally I like him. He's smart. Smart enough to realise he wasn't cut out for coaching, especially under Neeld and went and did extra business courses and headed in to a footy business/administration career. Of course he has the link to Schwab and Neeld as well as lack of experience against him. But we have an experienced head coach in Roos. An experienced recruiter (even if he hasn't been the number 1 guy for long) in Jason Taylor and I believe Viney is heading up list management now (he's never had a very defined role). Not to mention our assistant and development coaching is set for a big overhaul with a senior assistant, an experienced assistant in Allison and hopefully George Stone heading up development. Does it not make sense to stick with Mahoney as the admin guy and back Roos' leadership and the rest of the team to revamp the footy department?

Roos is set to fly to Perth to **meet with and interview Scott Burns** whilst also catching up with Hoges for a beer and a steak. Just as likely.

Possibly. I thought there was some way of having 3rd year rookies, but I'm not sure if Magner would even be interested. He could earn more money working and playing state league footy and get a shot at another club. I expect he'll be delisted or promoted. Roos would be a fan of his game style in some ways and would probably be keen to try him if he can't secure some contested ball mids from other clubs.

7 main list spots (down to 6 once you add Hogan) and 1 rookie spot freed up. You'd think there's still more room to move but it's best to wait on the free agency and trade periods before final cuts. I wouldn't be getting ahead of myself if I was Jetta, Nicholson or Magner just yet. Or even if I was one of the contracted but not overly well performed types - Strauss, Bail, Tapscott, Blease. Tynan and Davis appeared hard workers and were enthusiastic players at Casey. But just seemed a long way off in terms of talent and athleticism. I thank them all for their contribution. Besides maybe Gillies, he was a crock.

It's hard to get a PP because of your right doings. You have to stuff up to get one. Bartlett talks about being ruthless, even when asking for assistance I see no problem. The other 17 clubs aren't going to hand us anything when we are fixed, why not try when we are broken. But mainly we have several PP threads. This shouldn't be another. I really like how North get spacing between Petrie, Tarrant and Black. They often get one of one contests despite being 3 bigs in one forward line. That's something we need to work on. Also to say Allison was poached from North is a bit rich. I think he's making a calculated decision that if he stays at North and they don't improve then Scott (who will be hard to sack because his contract has been extended) will be forced to turn over assistants. Where as by coming to Melbourne he now has either a 2 or 3 year deal I'd suggest and good job security as well as plenty of opportunities to develop players. I wonder as well if Allison signing on has any inside info on the senior assistant. Maybe his old team mate Adam Simpson? Or is that too much conspiracy theory.

Disagree. Our midfield need to become line breaking midfielders. Sure McDonald and Terlich often bit off more than they could chew this year but aggressive ball movement from the backline is vital. Making the right option will be much easier when he actually has some right options to kick to!

I presume he was an assistant with Roos when he was at Sydney? He certainly didn't play under Roos. So a very experienced assistant coach, good move.

Yeah and like Hardwick the thought was not that Burns wasn't going to be a good coach but that he wasn't quite ready when he initially applied. The extra time at West Coast then the 2-3 years under Roos should be more than enough experience if he's got the skills and drive.

Oh FFS its September it's not January school holidays. Delete this thread before it gains traction.

Where's Motlop's mark. That was huge. Also Schultz's mark should win. It was in the third row of the crowd FFS.

Point 1 is definitely a stretch. But any talk of the handover being a complete failure must recognise they've won a flag since it happened and also take into account that at some stage Malthouse would have to go as well. The Malthouse to Buckley is still going much better than Sheedy (Via Knights) to Hird! Yep I agree Lynch was worth a try. It hasn't worked. They now go one of 3 ways to fix the problem: 1. Hope Grundy and Witts can play together 2. Develop Keffe as the back up ruck (my preference) 3. Trade for a suitable player - Jesse White? I'd say though with whoever replaces Lynch likely to be close to 200cm and not that mobile in addition to Cloke then you'd want your 3rd tall forward to be more maneuverable than Dawes. That's why Dawes, even if he plays very well for us (unless he gets to AA quality) will be a reasonable trade for Collingwood. I'm not a pies defender, I just think everyone is a bit quick to whack Bucks when as Melbourne fans we should see how hard it is to make a top 4, yet alone win a flag. Also I will say that it's not a bad idea for Eddie to follow some of his own advice and organise a succession plan for the Presidency.

Terlich. As well as Sam Rowe, Nick Duigan, Paul Puopolo and Jarryd Cachia. That's a decent strike rate of late pick up mature age players who actually end up making an impact at their AFL club. There's a common thread of hardness and work rate. Of course that's common in most mature age pick up because you have to be very impressive to get a go but still. Local guys from SA who start at the club as juniors and get drafted to Port or Adelaide then stay at their SANFL club and includes Tom Jonas from Port and Mitch Grigg from Adelaide and I'm a big fan of both.

There's a few important issues here: 1. The handover from MM to Buckley was arranged prior to the 2010 premiership. You can argue it drove Malthouse and the players to win the flag. 2. Doesn't matter that Jolly didn't get along with Bucks, he's finished. Grundy is past him and Witts is developing as well. 3. Buttifant is just one of a number of quality fitness directors in the league, who say he'll be a real loss. 4. Pies under Malthouse spend first round picks on Jolly, Tarrant and Krak and a decent pick on Ball. That might be why they are dropping down a bit. 5. Dawes was traded for a top of second round pick. Lynch was free. So it wasn't a direct trade. 6. The brat pack issues are overrated I think. The only contentious one is Shaw and his struggles are due to the team struggles I believe. If he really is not complying he should be traded. All in all I think Collingwood's 2010 premiership hit a snag pretty early in that they weren't as strong on for depth on the list as people thought. They had a lot of veterans leave post 2010 and not a bunch to replace them with. Immediately they needed a second ruck/forward and couldn't find one, Dawes was never the man for that job. They shipped off Wellingham and that's not looking like a bad deal so far. Ball hasn't been as good since and did another knee. O'Brien, Didak, Ben Johnson haven't been as good since. Daisy missed the whole of this year, Toovey as well, Beams the first 2/3rds. I think next year they get Toovey back. Send Reid back to CHB. Along with Brown, Shaw, Maxwell, Marley Williams, Seedsman they can still get a seriously good backline. The forward line will have talent. It's just a question of whether a second ruck can be found and Grundy can hold up at such a young age, that's the first question mark. The second one I agree will be how good the midfield will be in terms of work rate and talent. They'll still have a top class top 4: Swan, Pendles, Beams, Sidebottom, it's whether Daisy stays and others like Ball, Blair, Josh Thomas, Maccaffer, Kennedy, Dwyer and Kyle Martin are up to it. That's a pretty good list to work from in my opinion. Collingwood's post 2010 drop off might be similar to Hawthorn post 2008. Where the premiership teams were build more on the guys who had career best years or left (for Hawthorn see Croad, Crawford, Bateman, Ellis, Young, Mark Williams, Dew, Ladson and co) than people realised and that a mini rebuild to replace them is needed.

Roos has long been a fan of the shared captaincy and I expect that to continue. Look for Jones to join Grimes and probably 1 more of Dawes or Garland. I'd be very happy with Dawes, Grimes and Jones as a combination. Grimes back on the half back flank where he should be will see him return to top form and I have no questions about his leadership on and off the field. Trengove could even be retained as captain but I think it's best for him to just be a leadership group member and work on his own game. They'd be a lot of clubs who would envy a leadership group of Trengove, Grimes, Jones, Frawley, Garland, Clark and Dawes, possibly Viney as well. The problem is we don't have a standout captain. So let's not try and force one.

Don't know much about the 2 rookies, but Didak, Krak and Russell are done at AFL level and Jolly doesn't make any sense for us already having Jamar. Which is the entire reason he left in the first place.

It's a shame because it would've rounded off a bad saga for us and he would've been qualified, but the way I see it won't the senior assistant be midfield coach anyway?

Grimes was a midfielder at junior level. What I see of Swallow is that he's got a bigger body than Grimes but he also seems stiff in the hips and a more natural winner of the ball in space compared to someone like a Jack Viney as an in and under mid. But maybe I'm wrong. He'd certainly be good enough to start for us in the midfield but I wonder if he'll ever be a jet midfielder.

Anyone else think he's a better half back flanker than midfielder anyway. Another Grimes type?

If we become a proper team and his body holds up he hasn't even turned 28 year. No reason why he doesn't have 5 years left in him or more especially with expansion thinning the available field.

Adams and Miles for Frawley. Or do you mean Adams, Miles and Swallow for Frawley. First one is laughable. Second one isn't all that great either.