DeeSpencer

6 of the first 14 are monster TV games. 0 - the first game of the year! 4 - gather round kick off 5 - Thurs v Bris 7 - ANZAC eve 9 - Thurs v Carl 13 - Kings BDAY Plus the Cats, Saints and maybe Port game on free to air. Im not sure there will be a team more watched on tv than us in the first 15 weeks. That has to be of huge value to our sponsors. To only get Dogs, Cats and Saints in the first half of the year is light on for attendances, but the years where we have away games for our blockbusters will probably look like that more often than not. Maybe we revenue share the Pies game when we have 2? And/or have some kind of split with Richmond. It certainly would make more sense to split the 2 blockbusters to one home, one away.

Potential tiebreakers: 1. Go home factor, if in doubt take the local 2. Height Starting to think it might be Curtin because I’m just not sure many recruiters have the guts to pick a jockey in the top 5.

Read what Cal has written. If you nominate them as a national draft father son they automatically get drafted to your main list as your last pick if they aren’t bid on. Nominate them as a rookie father son and you can’t match a national draft bid but they automatically go on your rookie list. That’s the choice that we’ve made. So whether it’s coulda/woulda/shoulda that’s now what’s done. It’s a silly system, you should be able to match late bids in the national draft without automatically committing them to your main list. But as it currently stands you can’t. If you don’t commit to the main list you don’t get the chance to match bids.

Has nothing to do with points deficit. We have pick 42 to use which would cover the points for any bid outside the top 25. This is from Cal a couple of weeks ago. Pretty much we’ve decided he’s a rookie and not worth a main list spot. Clubs can nominate in that period whether they plan to take a father-son in the national draft – meaning if the player doesn't receive a bid they will automatically be added to a list with the club's final pick in the draft – or if they want to list them as a father-son rookie. A father-son rookie leaves the door open for other clubs to pick them as a national selection but allows the holding club to automatically list the player as a rookie if they get through the national draft without being chosen.

I’m theory we have 4 main list spots, but in practice we have 2 certain main list spots and 2 spots that are best used as rookie spots, because rookie spots come with a chunk of salary outside the cap. So if we draft a 3rd or 4th national draft player we don’t get the cap relief of using a rookie spot. In the case of Brown who isn’t in the top 50 on any projections we are clearly happy to roll the dice with him getting to the rookie list. I’d imagine it’s fairly likely he does. When it comes to using pick 42 I’d imagine it would have to be a top 20 player on JT’s board falling through to make that investment. It’s far more likely we trade that for a future 3rd.

Because we've chosen not to as we clearly only rate him as a rookie.

Correct. If a team bids on him during the ND we can't match. Once the ND is over he goes straight on our rookie list.

Confirmation from Cal that's it's the rookie list only for Kynan Brown.

Who says he’s not skilled? Did you watch the video? We don’t need to abandon our love of big aggressive bodies if we can make sure they can run and kick. If all those players are gone before pick 11 then who do we take?

He’s clearly playing a team role at WAFL seniors but is he that dynamic a goal kicker? 7 goals in 10 games? WAFL Colts averages: 9 games | 16.3 disposals | 11.0 kicks | 5.3 handballs | 4.4 marks | 2.7 tackles | 3.9 inside 50s | 2.4 goals (22 total) Tholstrup started the season like a house on fire up forward, booting 14 goals in the first month with four consecutive bags of multiple majors. His season-high of five came against East Perth in Round 4, and he also clunked a high of eight marks in that game. Looks like he was more of a goal kicker at Colts level before moving on ball. Zurhaar to me is a goal kicker who can rotate on ball, but one of his weaknesses is he doesn’t find the ball or chase/pressure as a high half forward. From what I’ve seen of Tholstrup he seems willing and able to play up the ground. Pat Lipinski would be another comp. A guy who’s willing and able to do the running and play a connecting role across half forward is the type of player coaches love.

The Pies fixture last year had a run of prime time exposure early followed by the biggest gift of day games through the back end of winter. Allowed them to do big training blocks and rest players. Obviously we won’t get that same gift but with the creation of another prime time game in round 0 I hope we aren‘t shafted out of another day game. The Swans were one team we played twice in the day last year.

Pros: - Big body and agile - Hits the contest, enjoys the niggle - Clean overhead marking - not the most natural kicking action but can penetrate and seems to have poise to choose his targets inside 50 especially after marking across half forward. - versatile mid/forward and possibly wing? (6:17 2km) - Country kid with personality! Cons: - Not a huge ball winner - Might lack breakaway pace or explosive leap that can be handy for a forward - Preferred position? It’s hard work being an afl half forward. Are we spending a first round pick on Nibbler2? And is he up for it? Shades of: Daniel Lloyd, Cam Rayner, Tom Sparrow, Cam Zurhaar

Ahhh, no no they are not. I mean, for away games they are nice, especially if we win and don’t ruin the weekend! But for home games it would be nice if we can have some family friendly time slots. Sunday 1:10 please! Feels like since the flag we’ve barely played in the day time. My niece and nephew went to two games last year. I’m sure parents had similar issues. And all the night footy isn’t great for players routines either.

I wonder if this pick is influenced by the first pick. If Curtin and we see him as KPS, 11 is unlikely to be O’Shllivan or Murphy If Sanders, 11 in unlikely to be a genuine on baller like C Edwards If Watson or Caddy then less likely to take another forward in Tholstrup

Not sure about that, one of the reasons I said Paddy Dow in that example was due to the teams drafting between those picks.

I wouldn’t be sure of that. Rookie minimum pay is still pretty good but Marty’s had plenty of time grinding it in the VFL and was reportedly due to head back to the farm. I think we’d have to make a case to why he’d be in line to play. With Petty forward and potentially Riv or Salem in the midfield mix that certainly opens up opportunities. Our backline depth is Turner, Howes and then nothing. The selling point for Hore would be he’s either best 22 or really close.

From the moment I first saw a clip of him I said that’s a first round pick based on the huge upside. And the type of player we like so was always going to get linked to us . But it certainly would be a risk given his form only came late in the year with limited midfield exposure in a stacked team. Id say his strengths are mostly that he’s a great size and athlete, with some ability to find and use the ball creatively in traffic. Has to tidy up his handballing and his kicking certainly isn’t fluent. You’re risking 50% chance he’s Paddy Dow for a 10% chance he’s Paddy Dangerfield.

Today was the culmination of the poor form and bad habits many of our players have built all year. I know I’m a broken record on a few of them but they simply weren’t improving parts of their game and it came back to haunt us. Mick’s shuffled the magnets all year and we’ve had injuries but it’s alarming that he hasn’t found an accountable ball winning midfield and forward structure that works. After the awful start we got right back in the contest and had the better of the 2nd and start of 3rd but the execution was deplorable and that indicates too much doubt and not the first fortitude to fight.

But a huge disadvantage to anyone who doesn’t live in the outer south east. Big Melbourne finals deserve a proper ground, so I’m fine with it. We’ve moved home games to IKON and had no issues winning their last year. But it certainly highlights our lack of proper home ground in the demon heartland.

You make your own luck in footy but geez we haven’t had a good bounce all day

Did she just take her kick without her boot on?

No crumbers, top heavy with weak pressure, poor entries and bad execution when they’ve had chances.

If you’re Birch there do you reach for the hamstring, get a limp going as you head to the pine?

Oh Zanker, what a display of where they are at

Oh yeah, she’s doing great