Slartibartfast

What is your objective Dazzle? Is there a player you are particularly targeting or is it just "let's get an earlier pick and hope there is someone there we like"? I don't understand the desire to get earlier picks. Post the finals I read post after post lamenting that we didn't give many of the players at Casey a go in the seniors. These players didn't play in the final game against Brisbane - Bowey, JJ, JVR, TMac, Laurie, Howes, Turner and Chandler. All would have expectations of making a genuine claim for regular senior footy next year. This doesn't include JSmith, Tomlinson and Dunstan nor Hunter (Grundy for Jackson is like for like) or Schache. We have good senior depth and some good young players coming through who need a career path and we need to find out who can and who can't play. My view is we don't need anymore "fair average quality" talent (a pick in the 20's) and if we are going to be successful in the long term we need elite talent to come up under Oliver, Petracca etc. I take the opposite view to those wanting to trade up the board. If there is someone we really like at 13 then use it but if not, then we should trade it out for a future 1st. That would leave us with 3 firsts next year (and our future first) and two seconds. That is an astoundingly good position to be in and would allow you to 1) trade up for earlier picks in a very good draft, 2) attract and be able to satisfy a club for an elite talent , 3) just take 5 picks in the top 35 of a very good draft. We don't need to trade up for the sake of trading up. If there is a specific target then fine, if not we should play the long game.

I don't understand Dazzle, why do you feel sorry for blokes if you understand they have not been disadvantaged?

Dazzle doesn’t seem to get this. Most do.

Perhaps that’s the case Dazzle but it doesn’t cost anyone in the system a spot on a list and offers a chance for clubs to give an opportunity to those outside the system. I don’t see a problem.

He’s a category B rookie Dazzle. Someone who goes through the system cant be a category B so he’s not taking anyones spot. So your concerns are pretty baseless I reckon.

I used to be Baghdad Bob and before that Deefan. I changed my name to Baghdad Bob when we were shocking, mainly under Neeld. Many misinterpreted why I chose the name Baghdad Bob aka Muḥammad Saʿīd Al-Ṣaḥḥāf (comical ali, not chemical ali). He was the information minister for Iraq during the invasion by the US led coalition and despite the terrible situation of Iraq at the time Baghdad was waveringly positive. I felt that we also needed to remain positive and hence the name. I kept it for a long time but when we won the GF last year the need for BB was past. Slartibartfast, as has been pointed out, is probably my favourite character from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and he's famous for saying "I'd much rather be happy than right, any day". It seems a good philosophy to me.

Spot on I reckon Jaded. He was OOC and would be on base plus incentives. Sam would have been on more, perhaps not much, but more.

Not sure Tim's the most reliable this year.....................

Given our draft hand for next year we'll never use a future 4th so the cost is nothing and he replaces a player that got us pick 37. Most don't rate either. Good trading I say.

Here is my alternative strategy for pick 13: we are not going to get into the elite end of the draft this year (top 5 or so) and the next batch is "throw a blanket over" material. 2023 draft is looking very strong we have lots of young talent at Casey that needs an opportunity (Turner, Bowey, JJ, Howes, JVR, Chandler all missed R23). We need to give them an opportunity and show them a career path or we will lose them as we have Bedford. we need to position ourselves so we can access some really elite talent, not just good talent. To this end I'd look at trading 13 for a future 1st which teams that are rebuilding might find attractive. We might get something in return like a pick in the 30's. Draft in Grundy, promote Chandler and draft a couple in the 30's or 40's. That leaves us with 3 first rounders next year plus your future 1st for 2024. We also have 2 seconds in 2024. We would then be in a fantastic position in a very good draft to trade up higher to get some really elite talent or trade in a very good player. I think we have enough good core talent both in the team and at Casey to take this approach. I don't think we need to add good but not elite talent this year. If we are to contend well into the future we need access to either the really pointy end of the draft or enough collateral to satisfy a really elite talent trade. Fans would scream but I think it's a great idea. So, there you go, pull it apart.

Most on here think we are being done over by giving then anything but a 4th rounder. With both sides unhappy it probably means it's a fair deal.

I think Hunt's weakness is his lack of lateral movement. Smith has it and offers much greater upside as a result and probably has more tricks. Having said that if you can't get on the park you're no good to anybody. I'd also like to address the Smith v Camerson issue. Yes, Cameron kicked 5 goals. For one Smith was on the bench. Another was when Rivers handballed to Cameron when he was trying to get the ball to Smith and Cameron ran into an open goal. Smith was involved in the other 3. Guess what? Cameron has kicked 3 goals on the best of opponents in one on one's and is a great player who was in great form. Cameron kicked 3 on Hibbo in the final. I'd prefer to have Smith to Hunt on the list. We know Hunt's ceiling and we don't really need it. Smith, if he succeeds, could be a really good player who offers a great deal of versatility. Smith is higher risk for higher reward. For where our list is we can afford that position.

Your evaluation of Hunt is way off the mark which is evidenced by the fact WCE have offered him a three year deal and apparently 3 other clubs asked about him. If he was as poor as you suggest he'd attract no interest, but in fact the opposite is true. Jayden is a competent AFL footballer but is worth more to others than us. Why you have to denigrate someone who has played over 100 games for us and given his all is beyond me and says more about you than perhaps you want us to see.

His brain is and that’s worth more than pace and a rare commodity. I think Jayden has left NOT because of money and contract length but because Goody and the footy department have said he wont play much senior footy next year. WCE on the other hand have offered him a regular AFL spot. It’s probably combined with more money and a longer contract but Jayden will want to play senior footy. In summary it’s all three things but the primary reason is he wants to play AFL footy.

It's called a belt and braces approach. If something had happened in the meantime and he changed his mind, or some other event occurred they clearly needed to have some backup. Yes, it's fun to crapp on Essendon but there is a lot of other better material to use.

Red Essendon said from day one that they wanted an experienced coach. Brad Scott, who I don't really like, coached NM pretty successfully for a good period of time and got good results whilst severely hamstrung by lack of TPP funds. He's been in the industry all his life. He's headed footy for the AFL and he's competing against blokes that have never coached at senior level in the AFL. They've done their due diligence over a long period and decided, given that other senior coaches have declined to coach and Hird is just too controversial, that Scott is their man if they can get him to agree. He says yes so why wait? It's a no brainer and whilst it's nice to crapp on Essendon they've done exactly the right thing. Do you think NM made Clarko go through an interview process and prove himself? Na, Essendon did the right thing and I think the other applicants would have known that if Scott said yes they would miss.

Unlike most I'm in favour of Hunt leaving. If he's "best 22" then it's only just best 22. We have Bowey, Rivers, Hibbo and Salem who are all capable best 22 players to cover him and I have more faith in Smith than most. Smith clearly has injury issues but I think at least he has significant upside which is far in excess of Hunt's. With the WCE offer we'd have to pay a reasonable amount for a player who is not vital to our team and probably for a significantly longer period than we want to. Not only that but Hunt has clear faults in his game which are not offset by his pace. If we are to improve, we must look to improve our bottom 6 whilst also adding top end talent. Moving Hunt on just replenishes the list, provides opportunities and a career path to plays from Casey and helps our TPP situation. Having said all that, I'll be disappointed to see him go and wish him the best in the west.

If you believe the Port GM.

Maybe you should have listened to your physio.

In my view the key factor that is being missed, or ignored, in much of this discussion is the most important question - what is Grundy worth to us? Many thought we paid too much for May and Lever. Nobody thought that in October last year. We are not privy to the "deal", if in fact there is one yet. We don't know the structure of Grundy's salary, we don't know the extent or impact of his injury on his likely future performance and we don't know what his role will be in the team and how we plan to use him and Gawny next year. We don't know how banged up Gawny is. What we do know is we've made excellent decisions in the past (Langdon, May, Lever, Melksham, Hibberd, Watts, Hogan) and there is little reason to doubt what we do this year. Whatever we give up for Grundy will not be based on how it will help Collingwood, it will be based on how it will help us. Many, understandably, think we have Collingwood over a barrell and want to screw them to the wall. But I don't think we do business like that, I think we'll look at what we need and we'll pay a price to get it that we are happy with. We are not going to be too worried about whether we give up (say) pick 20 or 30 for Grundy because the reality is we know we need him we won't lose that deal for 10 spots in the draft.

Yep that makes sense. Let's get Adam's $500,000 off the books for one year and pay Grundy and extra $300,000 for 5 years so we only have to give Collingwood a 3rd rounder.

Douglas

The only difference is we are a better club now and never put Dogga in front of the media. But I’ll leave it there. Most will understand.

Did you say the same about Tom Scully?