bing181

Which is exactly what you're doing. Lamb does NOT choose which players we take via pre-season and trade. There's a list management committee which does that, and the recruiting manager - for all recruits, including trades etc is Jason Taylor. Lamb's job is exactly what it says on the tin, primarily contracts, salaries, salary cap. He's the one who has player agents on speed dial. He manages the list, he doesn't choose the list. If you want to [censored] about bringing in Grundy, then look elsewhere. If you want to [censored] about Grundy's contract, Tim's your man.

Interesting little revelation on On The Couch tonight from Buckley that when he was interviewing for the Melbourne coach position, the candidates were told that there would be personnel changes. He noted that everything that Melbourne said would happen has happened. May, Oliver, Petracca were on their way before King arrived, even if they didn't know it at that stage.

Yet in spite of all that we’re still under the salary cap, we’ve still managed to attract decent players to the club and pay them, we’ve still managed to re-sign players that easily could have gone elsewhere (Kozzie Pickett, come on down), and we’ve still managed to keep required players (except cough Judd cough McVee). Your argument is one FOR Lamb, not against him, because in spite of having his hands tied by those payouts, he’s still building and maintaining the list.

By the start of next pre-season, Simon Goodwin will be an AFL head coach.

They're a year older and wiser plus they've brought in some very good and experienced players. Meanwhile, out of our side from last year we'll be without 6 first-choicers: Bowey, Viney, McVee, Petracca, Oliver and May. If we're any points up at 3/4 time we'll be doing well.

If Culley is fit I’d be including him. Was very good across the preseason.

That would be Kentfield of the Luker variety. Thumbs and phones.

Giving away a 50 because of running through the protected zone sums up where he's currently at for me - just not particularly aware of what's going on around him. Frustrating to watch for mine, there's a lot to work with but it doesn't seem to be coming together for the moment. It feels like he's having to think/overthink what to do all the time, which then slows him down and exposes him to being tackled or forced into a rushed disposal. His goal from outside the 50 was well done though, credit where it's due.

Was beaten 1 on 1 more than a few times, and doesn’t seem to have much awareness. Think Sam Frost.

Derkson more of a defender I believe. But if Kentfueld is indeed out, KPF stocks looking very thin.

Managed? You mean like in last weeks practice match against North where Gawn was ... rested.

Shame that this couldn't have been sorted earlier, we might have been able to land Derkson. Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing ...

There was never a concrete offer from Geelong of any sort, much less one that covered his full wage. (If you think there was, go right ahead and provide details ...) You really live in fairyland.

Shame we couldn’t find a way to fit him in. Kudos to Taylor for recognizing his potential. Will play Round 1.

Got a few ahead of him in the queue though ...

Too early to say. In any case, the club has an obligation to leave no stone unturned in trying to maximise their return and make an AFL player out of him. Blake Howes had decent raps on him as a draftee, but it's only now in his 5th season that he seems to be about to cement a place. Some players take time.

If this is the only thing we improve this year it will go a long way to getting us a higher ladder finish.

Also Jordan Lewis.

"And for the first time in a while, Melbourne doesn’t look like a side trying not to lose ..." Oh so true, and has been true since the moment the final siren sounded in the 2021 GF. Winning the flag and the weight of expectations that came with it became a millstone around our necks. Right through the club.

This. Worth noting also that 2 of the newer players have been brought in as much anything because of their leadership. Both Steele and Mihocek not only bring leadership in spades, they show what leadership is. Much as we love Gawn and Viney, they're both lead-by-example leaders, not so much troop-marshalers. Bit of a paradox here as well in that our collapse against St Kilda was the beginning of the end (or the end of the end) for Goodwin and probably the couple of usual suspects as well. Yet here we are with St Kilda's captain from that day, someone who was at the frontline of making sure his team did what needed to be done. Funny old world, though IMHO the wheels really came off when we lost Gus.

Yes: leadership.

No. It was a thread covering predictions for the year, where there were lots of "it's not about wins and losses" posts where people were being up-beat about accepting losses. I was making the point that it's easy to speak of accepting losses in the off-season, but let's see how sanguine people are if those losses mount, e.g. if we were 0 6. I have no idea how we'll do this year, there are too many unknowns. But there will be losses.

I never predicted 0 and 6.

And slightly off-topic, but not great for anyone that after all this time North still look poor. Sure, players out, yadda yadda, but it's much the same for every team. Sacking Clarkson would be a shock to the system, but there are already murmurings. But who would touch them in 2027 if that happened? Too early perhaps for Goodwin, too hard for Bucks. Coax an old-boy like Adam Simpson out of retirement?

Probably one for another thread, but something that really stood out to me today wasn’t just the younger/newer players coming into view — it was what they bring and how well we’ve managed to set ourselves up for the future. It’s not as if we’ve got just one future star mid or a single key player to build a team around. It genuinely feels like we’ve got every position covered with emerging talent ready to take us forward for the next 10 years. People talk about rebuilds - it looks like we had one without even noticing.