DeeSpencer

Williams can certainly be a KPF, just like Darling can, but at the 190-193cm height you have to play more on the lead or by great body work. Tall defenders have you covered with reach. However if you can run and know how to get first hands on the ball then you can be a target and that's the basics in any key forward. Be the guy who brings the ball to the ground is job number 1 and its not as easy as it sounds. Williams did look a touch VFL class from what I've seen - lacks either extremely good body work, speed or a leap, of which you need 1 if not 2 to make it at AFL. But midseason he was in an ICU half dead and last year he was playing suburban footy so you'd think there would be significant upside to him.Fitzpatrick obviously has the speed, but I'm yet to see him take pack marks or even break packs. To me he looks like a quick tall bloke who if you could develop skills could be a handy back up ruck and then be dangerous up forward due to mismatches but in no way am I convinced he is a tall forward. To me he's just a poor mans Stef Martin. Sheahan has been going nicely as a defender in the VFL after being an Under 18 forward, but I think his skill set in terms of fitness, reading the play and skills are better down back. I know he's had a great season down back but I'm still really pushing for Tom McDonald to play CHF. He can find the footy, he can run all day and he can mark. Plus his kicking under pressure is not good but his kicking when balanced isn't back. I'd have to see him have shots at training but I expect he wouldn't be a horrible set shot. For mine I think Rivers, Watts, Garland, Sellar, Davis and Sheahan represent a good core of key defenders with different attributes to complement Frawley. So why not give McDonald a go up forward. The guy I'd be super keen on is Cam Pedersen from North. He' 25, ready to go body and can play back up ruck or CHB as well because his strength is not a particular athletic ability but his football ability. He's a guy who can read the play and go get the ball. To me he could fill in at CHF and do a very good job. He doesn't move like lightening but he has good size so you couldn't get away with a third tall defender on him, you'd actually have to respect him. He's a similar type to Sellar but I think he's got better hands and would just do enough to do the job each week with the occasional good week and offer more than Rivers at CHF. It would also let Rivers and Sellar go back to fighting for spots in the backline and would put the pressure on Martin and the other young forwards to lift their game. Goldstein, Petrie, Hansen and Tarrant aren't going anywhere so you'd expect he'd be keen to move after only 2 games this year. Lynch at nearly 30 is too old to worry about and I'd let Collingwood and Carlton fight for him and whilst I wouldn't say no to Gumbleton I expect with the investment they've made he'd be worth much more for Essendon to keep now than sell. I'd have concerns given up a high second round pick for him. My plan: Get Pedersen for a 3rd round pick to be the stop gap tall forward and back up ruck. Throw Tom McDonald forward for half a season to see if he's as good as I think he could be. Take a promising key forward in the draft. I expect Pedersen would do a job but if he doesn't then its not a huge waste, if McDonald doesn't cut it then he can go to the backline for the second half of the year and by that time the kid we took in the draft might be ready for a taste of AFL, otherwise we know Rivers can at least contribute something up forward especially if McDonald/Watts and Sellar can take CHB. All up if we have Mitch Clark firing then at least we are only 1 target short. Don't forget Howe can roam through the forward line and demands respect.

Why don't we rotate the BandF winner through the captaincy every year. That was Moloney would have been captain this year, that would have worked out well wouldn't it, hmmmm.Grimes and Trengove were the best leaders last year, I don't see how (especially given the weight off captaincy on a 20 year old) a mixed season from Trengove changes things. His faults from this year where his disposal (which they are working on when really they should have left it alone because he was a lovely kick when he came to the club) and his speed, which I think has been hampered by his excellent endurance and playing a lot of footy early in his career. None of those have any barring on his leadership. I'd gladly promote Jones to sole VC but I wouldn't mess with the captains.

I don't particularly care too much for casey, melbourne has to come first, but some communication as to who is out and why sounds fair enough to me. Good luck to Tynan and Sheahan (the 2 of the 6 I haven't given up on).

I think Rivers playing forward was directly to fit a need. He was handy down back before that. Surely we can't rely on Tom McDonald, Sellar, Watts, Dunn and Joel Macdonald as our tall defending options away from Frawley. I expect Rivers to get a 2 year deal and return to CHB or back pocket playing alongside Frawley and McDonald, possibly Watts and playing good footy. Of course if Clark goes down in absence of a mature CHF or drastic improvement from Watts I expect Rivers to go forward again.

Don't worry about Wilkes, I say we got and get the Q stick! Big Lynch! the glove man!

I presume we are talking main list only, rookie list doesn't much bother me. Green, Moloney, Jurrah, Bate Morton if possible Any 4 of: Bartram, Bennell, Cook, Davis, Fitzpatrick, Macdonald, Petterd, Spencer, I see little future in any of them. 8 would do me.

I'm not convinced on Goddard, I'd rather look elsewhere. I think we should follow Richmond's approach and get players who will contribute like Houli, Grigg and Maric rather than chase a guy who's probably played his best footy and I'm not convinced is a leader.

As always a lot of blokes getting by on reputation - Nick Riewoldt, Lenny Hayes, Rioli, Harry Taylor, Corey Enright - I'm not convinced by any of those guys. Jones was the only you could even dream about from Melbourne but I'm not overly fussed with him missing out, he isn't quiet in the 22 anyway. FB: Reilly Richards Dempster HB: Birchall McPharlin Deledio C: Jack Mitchell Dangerfield HF: Beams Pavlich Thompson FF: Franklin Hawkins Petrie Foll: Jacobs, Cotchin, Ablett Int: Cox Watson Pendlebury Kennedy

He'll go to Essendon and proceed to tear every single soft tissue in his body, unless he continues just front running in which case he might be their only healthy player. Guys this seasoned 28 year old experienced midfielder got absolutely creamed by Toby Greene and Harley Bennell amognst others this year, and why? Because he just doesn't work hard enough on the field.

His number 1 attribute is marking, surely we want to max out on that quality instead of whatever else he does. High half forward for mine, who has the scope to come up the ground and be used as a target out of defence, who can be a target through half forward and who can also play like a midfield.

I disagree. Whilst I don't think he will ever be a damaging user of the football I see no reason why he can't work off an opponent to win his own ball. I'm super concerned about our lack of top end midfielders and our lack of development of more promising types in that regard but I'm not worried about McKenzie who can clearly perform a role.

He's shown the ability to win contested ball and rack up reasonable numbers of his own whilst shutting down an opponent before. Remember he missed a fair chunk of preseason and is still doing a reasonable job. I expect him to improve next year especially as everyone becomes more familiar with the Neeld plan.

What's everyone's thoughts on a straight trade with Shane Valenti? Sounds fair to me.

I know he's had a mountain of injuries but I wouldn't say no either. He plays like an old school hit up hard working CHF who can take a contested mark but really his best work is as a target who presents up and then marks well. But not just money wise I think Essendon would still value him, they've invested too much now to let him go when he's starting to look a bit less like a man made of chalk.

So what you are saying is that it would be a smart idea to sack a senior coach we've just appointed 1 year in and replace him with a guy who has been handy but not spectacular because Carlton made a dumb move by sacking him. Sounds like that would be an equally dumb idea.

I'm not talking up a conspiracy, more a self fulfilling prophecy. When you aren't tough or intimidating it stands out when you are. Look at Nathan Jones, no doubt he's a good player now, but we all think he's a top midfielder, when really its hard to tell how good he is its just blatantly obvious he's up a level on the rest of our spuds. Similarly Moloney has gone from our go to mid to a VFL player. A lot is perception and focus. If we up the focus on being uncompromising the football community will expect it more and it wont stand out so much when we are.

Ok maybe its just me but it seems whenever a Melbourne player does anything unsociable on a field its always a free kick and often a report. To me Rohan Bail getting a reprimand for tackling Doughty into the fence in a perfect example. Doughty was on the boundary line in play when the tackle started and Bail's momentum has driven him down and into the fence. No doubt it was heavy handed but if you stand with no momentum on the boundary line you should expect to be taken across the line and sat on your backside. If you end up in the fence then good luck to you. Early this season Jackson from Richmond converted a Grimes tackle into putting his full force through Grimes' head and knocking him out. It wasn't a reprimand at all. I'd really like to see Neeld adopt a brutal physical approach next year and if it means players get suspended or give away undisciplined free kicks for the first half of the year then I'm fine with that. For too long we've been playing with a little league approach in the big league and I think its time our players all run out there at 110% intensity. Then we can always scale it back. But I'm sick of complaining about half hearted spoiling and tackling efforts. We seem to get punished every time someone in the red and blue does something forceful and I think a lot of it is because its been years since the football community has seen uncompromising acts from someone is those colours. At the very least if we give it out a bit more a few of our players might learn how to take a bit of pressure.

From what I've seen of Cook - what he does at VFL is pretty good but he doesn't do enough of it. He has 10 possession, 5 mark, 1-2 goal games where he needs to have 20 possession, 10marks, 4 goal games. I think he's worth another year to see what he can do this preseason as he's barely got started on developing his body, but I really want to see him next March having put on some weight and got a lot more physical.

Most of the year he's been serviceable and late in the year he's been just reasonable which I expect is due to injury. Today was probably a culmination of that. It's not an excuse but it was certainly a bad performance. I have faith he'll bounce back. Certainly I'd like to see Rivers down back again soon to give the backline some more leadership and a calming influence. I've been saying it all season but could we just give Tom McDonald a go at CHF and put Rivers down back for a game late in the season now. What is the worst that can happen!

But we don't have the talent on our list that other clubs do and paying over the odds for players just to spend 100% of TPP isn't necessarily the answer is it? I'm happy to front load the hell out of contracts but we shouldn't over pay the players on our list or free agents/trades unless we think they will be value for money. I hope at the moment we are only paying 80% in real terms to our players and front loading 20% so that we've got room to fit in some signings.Considering we haven't lost a player due to salary cap concerns for a decade now I'd say recruitment and development would be just as important. I agree that football should come first though because of all the community/marketing etc stuff we do none of it is as effective in building the club as winning some finals would be.

I understand how it can work for looking at existing AFL players for trades or even for evaluating your own players - throw together a whole bunch of stats in the computer and eventually you can drill it down to ones that correlate with winning and then isolate those players. It's certainly a much harder exercise than in baseball where the numbers are easier to calculate but eventually you could get there. Fox footy has its own money ball criteria with disposal efficiency, contested ball and possessions or whatever it is. However I struggle to see how it really will help with under 18's because its such a difficult age to work out who will progress to AFL level. For example, if you drill it down that contested ball winning and disposal efficiency are the 2 most important stats how do you then apply that to a group of players who play in different competitions and have different athletic ability. Take the top SA under 18 who's been playing SANFL and a few games in the Under 18 carnival compared to a guy playing TAC and then plays most of his minutes against NT or Queensland in the under 18 carnival because he's injured against WA and SA. If i was a recruiter I'd come back to the 4 following points over and over again - ball winning, disposal, basic athletic ability and character. Whenever we recruit guys I look for them to be proven in winning the ball at the highest level they've played, I don't see any point recruiting the guy who barely got a kick in the TAC cup. I think look at whether they can use the ball by foot and whether they are making good choices. I then see if we've got a guy who will eventually have the fitness/speed/strength/height to compete at AFL level and I hope the club has picked someone who will do the work required.

I'd rookie Jurrah but I'd want to be certain that someone else wont grab him in the mean time. At the end of the day we've invested a lot in him and if there is any chance he'll make it we may as well keep him as his talent is undoubted. I'd offer Gysberts 2 years if he rocks up in October having put on 5kg and improved his running. If he hasn't I wouldn't be interested in more than 1.

Out: Green - Retired Spencer - dont be fooled by some hardworking efforts he's not going to make it, Rookie list for depth if you want Bate - too slow Bennell - not hard enough Petterd - too slow, too inconsistent, unable to make it in the midfield Bartram - injured, no point keeping Macdonald - I like him but he isn't up to it, keep for experience if Moloney wont accept a one year deal or if by some miracle we can trade Morton One year deals: Dunn, Moloney, Gysberts, Cook, Davis, Jetta, Jurrah Rookie promotion - Nicholson Retain rookies - Magner, Evans, Sheahan, Williams Rookie delistings - Couch, Lawrence Veterans list - ? Jamar ? Davey Draft picks - 3,4, mid 1st round, 2nd round, 3rd round, 4th round, 5th round Rookie draft picks - 1st round, 2nd round

I would be so dirty if we won this week, went above the bulldogs only for them the nominate Viney and force us to use pick 4 on him.. Luckily I think Adelaide got the message against Brisbane and will be pretty ferocious this week. Considering we can barely beat GWS I'm not overly concerned. But the bulldogs loss this year is up with the worst of our performances so far.

How did those kids look in the 3rd term though? It's much harder to look good when you are getting smashed each week but I agree some of their kids are sensational. I'm a huge wrap for Mitch Duncan, he has a tonne of composure and I think is very underrated. He'd be our second best midfielder behind Jones.