DeeSpencer

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.

His strategy at Melbourne was to get every second player a foot injury then he fell upwards in to a promotion from fitness guy to footy admin because St Kilda had no other Ross acolytes on hand at the time. Would be a seriously unimpressive move.

Tracc is a move for picks and/or players IMO. He still has value now so why not cash it in if he doesn’t meet our timeline. Clarry is a move about not having 7 figures on the books in 28, 29 and 30 for a player unlikely to be playing quality footy that’s worth anywhere near that wage. In those years Pickett, Rivers, Bowey, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Kolt will all be in their prime (or close to it) and we’ll need the dollars to supplement them.

So far up to 0, I guess you’re counting the extra picks and maybe Flanders? I’m sure that’s the plan and exactly why Judd leaving hurts but geez, would be nice to be linked to at least one quality runner coming in.

The Morris stuff seems to be straight from the Oliver camp. Dannyz might be just following up to the panicked reporting. But either way after 2 years of this exact drama why are we following up with a 3rd? What could possibly be so important to tell Clarry that’s worth the drama? We’ve seen the last 2 years when he gets put up for trade he responds terribly and then the club look like absolute morons. I can’t imagine there’s any kind of specific role for Oliver other than maybe more of a defensive focus, and either way he has to get fitter and use the ball less horrifically. Nothing that can’t be hashed out in 3 weeks when it’s not trade radio silly season.

So who is leaking it to the media and causing the panic? Something is very wrong if they can’t have a simple meeting without a meltdown

Kelly no Kayo! I’m not sure Brown was offered more than 3 anywhere else and I’d have just paid more cash than more years. Maybe it got to a point where the 4th year to spread the money out was the smartest option. Especially coming out of Covid. Either way, he’s the one I’ll wear a bunch of dead years on him for how crucial he was in September. Much like Tom Boyd at the dogs.

That’s a charitable recollection that skips over the Viv Michie’s, the Lumumba, the Ben Newton’s, the Ben Kennedy’s, the Chris Dawes, the Tom Bugg’s, the Aiden Riley’s. Goodwin brought Hibbo and Melk. We were especially lucky with circumstances to get a star in Hibbo. Then combined with all our picks and cap space we were in the most desirable situation Melbourne has been in for 50 years to actually get stars. So we target Lever, then May, then Langdon (but also Tomlinson). We’ve been undesirable for a few years due to much bigger factors that go from the board, the CEO, the head of footy, the coach. That’s why you can’t launch a big play for a big name. And the only way to combat that would be a St Kilda style massive overpay with cap space we don’t have. I’m happy to blame the list management team for poor choices in filling out the back end of the list because that’s what they can control.

Long term deals were used to keep everyone’s salary down. It actually helped us keep our 21 core together through until the end of 24 or even now. You got to be proactive in moving guys before they drop off. Luke Jackson made that decision for us. Brayshaw is one I’d have let go, instead we got the worst possible result with a stack of dead cap. Not being proactive and not having a culture of continued improvement I think we’re big reasons we lost JJ and Bedford. Sam Butler stays at Hawthorn despite playing most of the year in the VFL because he trusts he can get more of a spot, our fringe guys bailed. Our long term deal issues: 4th year for Ben Brown. Super long term deal for Clarry - although he never had a verified mistake or missed a game until the deal was signed. But then more recently Viney, May etc asking for more cash last year. Still, it’s Oliver and Tracc regressing that has done the most damage combined with the game shifting away from a contested inside game. Unfortunately Geelong control the rules and when Chris Scott and Shocking wanted a more outside game they made the rules reflect that!

Why is using cheap trades/list spot for a back up and successor to Max a bad idea? Every club has young developing rucks. There’s no indication we’ve paid the world in contract or in trade currently for Heath, he’s just a swap for Verall. Nor did we pay big time for Preuss, Verrall, Fullarton or anyone else they’ve bought in. Grundy was a move for something different to replace LJ knowing we couldn’t get a key forward and might’ve worked if Max and Brodie parked their egos. Brisbane just won with 2 rucks. This is an over the top gripe. What like Langford, Lindsay, Windsor and Kolt? Jason Taylor and his team have clearly adapted their recruiting to fit the modern game and are getting those mids. Unfortunately we don’t have an Ashcroft/Fletcher father son pipeline to get them for cents in the dollar. Unfortunately when you try to pick up those types on the cheap you get Harry Sharp more often than not. We took on too many has beens and our scouting has been poor. I’d be happy for changes in our footy department, but no point getting upset with the media spin or suggesting they don’t know what we need. Everyone knows what we need, trying to get it with limited picks and the opposite of a destination club is really tricky!

The AFL don’t have any rules around ‘tampering’ ie. stopping contracted players meeting with rival teams. We can try to shut down any trade talk and can hold him to his deal. But we can’t stop him meeting with anyone he wants to meet with.

That’s the issue. To get the real game changing talents more often than not you need to be bottom 4. Building around nice picks in the 8-12 range of the draft often won’t really help you. And to get those top 5 picks you have to stink. Even more so now that so many of the elite talents are taken out of draft order by father son and academies. North haven’t developed players well or even chosen the right guys at times but not having access to the true top line talent (apart from JHF) has really set them back. You can rebuild without the very top picks. Hawks have done it with Will Day (mid first) and Newcombe (mid season and Covid related) as their best 2 players. But it takes the ability to attract and retain guys like Amon, Impey, Gunston (going and coming back), Sicily or you’ll be stuck in no man’s land.

They work miracles to stay up without an official academy, no significant father sons (for the first time in yonks after getting huge advantages there) and no early picks. But the one year they got across the line it was soon after an influx in elite talent in Cameron, Stengle and Isaac Smith. Most years they just restock here and there. But if they a star and some quality they leap right up. Bailey Smith was another who boosted them along.

Over what? Getting a gun full back for free? Can’t be a moral objection with Maynard and DeGoey on the list.

Shai Bolton? Not sure there was ever a time for us to make a move for him. We were heavily linked to Meek when we lost Jackson got Grundy. Meek might’ve even been first choice. A mega deal for Treacy after first few years would’ve been super gusty but turned out great. He signed a 3 year deal in 2023 indicating interest from someone, you’d hope one of those teams would’ve been us. Upped it to a 4 year extension in 2024 when he broke out tying him until 2030. But hey, let’s go one better and hire David Walls as our head of footy. Freo do a great job improving their list year on year.

He’s 33 by the time he next plays, doesn’t kick a lot of goals and I’m worried we’ll give out what will effectively be a 3rd year deal. It’s not exactly a no brainer. Hopefully we can get both because we need to turn over our key backs too.

The vision

On ball and feed him the footy. I don't think he breaks the lines quick enough to be a gun half back, hence why Dimma replaced him from that role with Rioli and Noble. We'll see if he's got enough burst to start in the centre bounces for 20+ a game or if he starts forward and swaps with Pickett post clearance but try to get him the ball in transition as he'd immediately be one of our best users.

7 defenders. 3 talls, 1 lockdown small, 3 attacking smalls. Starcevich with Zorko, Fletcher, Wilmott for Brisbane for example. I'd be signing a back pocket and having Salem and Bowey both play some wing in preseason and Judd and Bowey also play midfield. Geelong model uses a lot of flexibility with wing/half back and different players in the midfield especially post clearance.

JVR's not a world beater but he is a decent young player. A good coach would be every chance to unlock Jeffo, there's no shortage of talent there. And Luker is more talented than both of them. We're super reliant on our best half dozen or so running players and there's a huge drop off to the guys on our fringes and beyond. That's a bigger issue going forward than our talls even if they aren't world beaters.

Teams play 3 attacking back flankers these days, but otherwise the answer is pretty simple, Salem's.