DeeSpencer

We’ve got 3rds for McAdam. 46 is strong.

Reckon this is massively oversold. Grundy to Fullarton: clears 300-400k+ JJ to McAdam: wash Hibberd: planned retirement Harmes to:? Probably clears 300-400k Dunstan: owed plenty of injury payments Pickett, JVR, Woey, Chandler, McVee would all take nice bumps. That’s 5 x 200k right there. I hope we come out nicely ahead but far from a war chest. The war chest will come when we get the old key forwards off the books.

In a great surprise to no one, Petty’s strong lure home is Adelaide offering him enough cash to own most of South Australia. The AFL is such a joke. Most leagues around the world would ban tampering and not allow clubs to just get in the ear of contracted players.

Curtin (6), 11 and a future first is probably the most we could offer and about the most the Eagles could get. North could beat it with Curtin (3), 15, handout future first as well but it’s not better unless they throw 21 in as well and even then the Eagles might prefer 11 to 15,21. Assuming North wouldn’t put pick 2 and 3 or their own future first on the table. Should we do it, not sure. But it’s probably on the table.

Sydney holding us to ransom on Grundy reminds me we were way way too generous to the Pies last year. They could afford to keep him and we buckled and gave them a nice pick. Would be a lot easier to cop a late 30’s pick for Grundy if that was all we gave up to begin with.

I wanted McStay, thought the price was great. Thought Grundy for McStay when they had 2 competent rucks was great. I’ve got 100 posts last year bemoaning us getting Grundy rather than being all in on McStay. All I’m saying is McStay with Mihocek got them to a flag. Frampton with Mihocek won them a flag. No Tom McDonalds or Ben Browns. Hopefully Fullarton is our Frampton although I’m doubtful. We could still do with one more strong athletic body. They traded Treloar from their overstocked midfield. They traded a stunted and ordinary Stephenson (and Phillips). Moves more akin to letting go Harmes and JJ than trading a key forward. Freshened their midfield and small forward mix. Find me a McStay and I’ll trade Petty. Otherwise the Pies kept Moore (through significant injury issues), Howe, Mihocek, Cox. The only quality tall they moved on was a massively overpaid ruck for which they already had a replacement in Darcy Cameron.

Did you really just compare 26 year old Frawley for pick 3 when we’re on the bottom of the ladder with 23 year old Petty for pick 10ish (if available) in our window? That’s nonsensical. JT has a great record. He’s not perfect. Weideman, Laurie, probably Jefferson. I have no issue with going backwards to go forwards. I have an issue with going backwards when you’re really close to winning it all to go forwards in a few years time when the elite core we’ve got now is either done or pushing 30. You’re pushing for change for changes sake. There’s no logic in that. If you think Petty for pick 10 is an amazing deal that won’t be there in 12-24 months and Nate Caddy or whoever JT gets is the answer then I’ll hear it. But given talls are hit or miss and generally take 3-4 years to impact if you’re lucky that’s a huge risk. As I said, I’d be much more willing to listen to a midfielder out to freshen the midfield mix given our oversupply of one type and likelihood of finding reinforcements.

They had McStay make a huge difference in 2 finals that were tougher scoring match ups. And Billy Frampton doing his best Billy Frampton (somewhat ok job on Harris for 3/4s). If you can guarantee JVR, Petty and maybe Joel Smith are healthy come crunch time we are in with a chance. But geez it would be nice to have someone with a pulse to turn to so we don’t have to pick between Schache, T Mc and BBB. That said, the draft will inject some fresh legs but I’d love to see one addition of pace and/or skill just as much as a tall forward. In fact, given we’ve added Fullarton and McAdam I’d say pace and skill takes priority one.

Trading out our midfield over supply with Oliver is a rejig. Or Salem. Or Gus. (Or Grundy, JJ and Harmes for that matter) I don’t see how removing a 23 year old swing-man really rejigs things when we are crying out for prime age talls and no chance of adding a good one this year and no guarantee of adding a good one in future years. Plus we’re already looking at 2 first round picks and a chance to add a 3rd as is. In 2 years time when there’s no (or practically no) May and Gawn we’ll have Lever and JVR and what? An extra pick 10 and 20 when we already had 6 and 14? Rejig is not justification for this. The only justification is a belief this is Petty’s maximum value and absolute belief we’ve got a prime aged key tall on the hook next year. And even that’s flimsy because you’re looking at increasing the talent of a team led by mystery tall X, Rivers, Sparrow, Pickett, JVR and pick 7. Rather than trying to win now with Petracca, Oliver, Gawn, Viney, May etc.

Picks 10 and 20 would make it a conversation but we'd have to have huge wraps on guys like Curtin, O'Sullivan and Caddy to really do it. AND we'd have to have a short term answer. Chol, Koschitzke, most of the even half realistic ones are spoken for. It's up to player managers to make their desires known and work across the industry to find options if they want to move a guy 2 years out.

It costs a premium to move a pick forward a year. If the Eagles value Curtin as high as their future pick and want to advance a year they need to pay a lot for it. Doesn’t take much to improve from last to 5th last if things fall a certain way. Odds are bottom 4, but it’s not a lock. The years where we moved picks forward or up very high (Oliver, Pickett) we added a second rounder to go up.

Read the next line about the Eagles future pick? Would be a risk, but that would be our pathway to a special pick

6 for eagles future first and 22? Trade our future first and significant change for pick 11. Go the draft with 11, 14, 22. Hope we can get a truly special player in the top 5 with the Eagles pick next year? Don’t love the idea, but there are some really high quality mids in next years draft.

Cal’s been with McKercher and Duursma to North for a while. And the Hawks linked to Duursma or Watson chasing forward half talent. Which then leaves Sanders to the Dogs. The ‘could’ means he’s probably not as sold on our intentions yet, but I reckon Cal is starting to piece together the top 5 barring trades.

Not delisted yet but anyone for Ned Long? Still uncontracted at the Hawks. Not pacy but a huge body for a young mid and decent VFL form. Good endurance, good agility. Reckon we could do worse for cheap midfield depth to cover Harmes, JJ and Dunstan.

Jackson was out of contract after 3 years. JHF was gone after 1 because North mismanaged everything about him then gave him away whilst contracted. Clarko didn’t even bother trying to help him stay. We got priority picks under the old system and turned them in to a pile of nothing. Shout out to Trenners and Strauss, hope they are well. They weren’t of any use by 2014. Under the new rules priority picks have been very hard to come by. We got none. Brisbane got one token one. St Kilda - the unlucky and awful mess in the early 10’s got none. Carlton got nothing more than a couple of state leaguers. Gold Coast got a stupid amount, I was fine with them getting some to make up for their shocking list build, but the AFL gave them a truckload due to the AFL’s own and Suns ongoing incompetence. North at best deserved one last year as Brisbane did at the height of their issues. Somehow 1 morphed in to 4 despite North being far better placed now than 12 months ago.

Not at all the purpose of my post. If you could comprehend I was saying that North’s crazy assistance package has harmed our ability to trade up. (As did their incompetence in having to trade JHF last year). We have the picks and the desire to go up. Teams are willing to move back. Yet by all reports North will offer their freebies.

You come in with question marks on your competitiveness and put up a 0 touch game you’re now a dud pick until proven otherwise. I hope he can turn it around but the very early call is not good. If you keep taking picks in the teens to build your list you run the risk of a string of misses. That’s how North ended up with such a gap in their list to begin with. The Durdin and Garners of the world.

Almost every club has had financial assistance. Ours was far less than some. North don’t need 3 x first round picks for financial survival. They don’t need them to sell memberships. That’s what picks 2 and 3 as well as Larkey, Sheezel and Wardlaw will do. There’s no need for them. The only reason they’re getting them is because Clarko had a meltdown.

They’ve made horrific list management decisions and coaching hires the last few years and now are in a position to get themselves out with a quality young list. They could take pick 2, pick 3 and trade their natural future picks for more picks and have an incredible draft hand. They could also trade some picks for some mature players - which by all reports they are with Fisher and Stephens. Why then are they are getting 3 extra first round picks? That is the reason everyone is upset. The only difference between Melb 2014 and North 2023 is they have far more talent than we did at that stage. We had Hogan, Viney, Salem, Tyson and not much else. They have Larkey, Thomas, LDU, Simpkin, Sheezel, Wardlaw and more. Yet we were told to dig out on our own and we did. North have been given not one, not two but 3 extra end of first round picks. The AFL did nothing for them when they needed it when they started to struggle post Scott. Yet now they’re actually ready to improve quickly they get all these bonus picks? It’s disgusting. And it’s hurting our ability to move up in the draft and bring in top end talent. Which as a small club without a recruiting advantage opens us up to fall flat on our face too. It only takes a few more Bailey Laurie, Jefferson style flops and we are right back rebuilding ourselves.

Choco cant work miracles. And making an AFL player out of this bloke would take a miracle.

With GC having: 18: Luko, King (Rankine) 19: Rowell, Anderson, Flanders 20: (Hollands?), *Davies, Jeffrey* 21: Andrew 22: Humphrey 23: Walter, Read, Rogers 24: Likely at least 3 more Its going to be fun watching North and GC grand finals in 5 years time.

I believe Frawley’s wage was borderline or even below tier 1, the afl helped us out. But he took 10-20% less to join the Hawks super team. Had he taken other offers he’d have cleared it easily. McKay is joining a perennially bad team and not making what anyone could call a premium wage these days. Plus North have been helped x 4 first rounders. It’s either incompetence or deliberate. With the afl it’s hard to know which

There’s a thousand ways to change it but the first step is just removing top 10 picks and the compo being after a clubs pick and make it mid round and end of round. If we got pick 11 for Frawley we would’ve taken Lever and been fine. Review the entire system to change it drastically but announce right now it’s never going to be top 10 again. And fire the idiots who can’t work out how to index wages to the new CBA.

Apparently confirmed afl working on old CBA numbers https://x.com/capitalcitycody/status/1711526544873812456?s=46