Dee-licious

Do yourselves a favour. Have a look on YouTube at his work this year. Then look at Footywire and compare to Salem. The boy has serious talent which has been shadowed because of the concussion injuries. Us of all supporters should know what happens to quality players when this happens. Exactly what has happened to Kade. It might cost us a second rounder, but it is a great way to spend a second rounder. Allows us to move Salem further up the ground and use Kade's kicking skills in the back half. 2 x 22 under 22 team of the year 5th in his NAB rising star (behind Taylor and the Bont) 2015 he was the runner up in the GC Best and Fairest We are not talking about a player who has no runs on the board. This is a player who hasn't wanted to be at the GC this year, who is dealing with concussion issues, and just wants to get back to playing his best football. An absolute no brainer to me.

There is an interesting article on AFL.com.au that talks about WCE and Collingwood list builds for the GF. I wanted to see how our 22 on the past weekend matches up. In terms of top end talent, they are actually very similar. All 3 clubs have drafted 5-7 top end and then added a heap of top end through trades. This is going to be something moving forward that I'm interested in where we go. You can add Lever and Hogan to the list of first rounders and Stretch to the second rounders on top of 3 guys in Lewis, Melksham, and Tyson who are top 10 picks in their own right. There is a lot of top end talent in here moving forward, even though we like to talk about our steals with Gawn, McDonalds, Vanders etc. First Round Picks (WCE 7; Coll 5; Melb 6) Petracca (Pick 2) Brayshaw (3) Oliver (4) Salem (9) Weideman (9) Jones (12) Second Round Picks (WCE 3; Coll 2; Melb 3) Viney (26 but first round bid) Spago (29) Neal-Bullen (40) Third Round Picks (WCE 5; Coll 0; Melb 4) Gawn (34) Hannan (46) T. McDonald (53) O. McDonald (53) Fourth Round / rookie (WCE 1; Coll 6; Melb 4) Jetta (51) Harmes (2 in rookie draft) Vandenberg (2 in rookie draft) Smith (Category B) Trade / Free Agency (WCE 6; Coll 9; Melb 5) Tyson (originally pick 3) Lewis (originally pick 7) Melksham (originally pick 10) Frost (53) Hibberd (pick 4 rookie draft)

This has made me feel a lot better than where I was when I was posting. I was lamenting the fact that we are again loosing players from our list. You are right that the 2019 OOC are really best 22 either at the MFC or other top 8 clubs. Baker, Wagner, Maynard are the only ones there that I'd question might not break Geelong's starting 22, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Baker can do. My worry is experienced depth, which is why I dont want to loose guys like Tyson and JKH. They are good players who will offer more next year than pick 45. Building on this, last year we lost Garland and Watts who were in our best 22. The others were Hulett (0 games), Kennedy (bust trade), Lumumba (well Clark didnt do anything either), Spencer (great back up), Trengove (sad but glad he got a go with Port), and White (didn't loose anything here as he came to Casey anyway). This year we have lost Vince to retirement which is odd for us as we haven't had many who have lasted to retirement lately, Balic which was sad for the boy but we never had him in MFC colours and most thought depth anyway. King and Flip were basically out due to their in and out from Casey by mid way through this year and our preference not to play them in the ruck. McKenna was a speculative pick that none of us really put hope in, Bugg was good for us during transition and I hope he gets a gig somewhere else, but no one had him best 22 at the start of the year, and Pederson has again been a great servant during transition but he would just be back up again next year. Now it comes down to players we don't really want to loose. I know things happen during the year, but I dont know where I am de-listing three from next year's OOC.

Thanks @Lucifer's Hero - love your work. To put this all in perspective: 2019 - 7 changes (thus far, not including Kent) 2018 - 8 changes 2017 - 8 changes 2016 - 9 changes 2015 - 11 changes 2014 - 11 changes It seems like a lot of changes considering that we made a prelim (Collingwood had 8 changes this year). We could legitimately be looking at 10 changes to our list which if you told me that at the start of the year (or 8 weeks ago) I would have laughed.

My issue is I don't see a scenario that we'd be happy with as a club that Freo would be willing to pay. 1. It has to be a godfather off because it would have to cross his mind he is giving up a premiership and a coleman to go to Freo. Hogan would know it would cost Freo big in terms of picks - picks of which they wont be able to use on midfielders to deliver him the ball. 2. Freo know that you need more than 1 player down forward. They are aware of their holes and would not want to loose Neale, plus potential top end talent to get one player, even if it is a generational talent. 3. Where do we open the negotiations? They come to us with this year's first, next year's first (which they will hope will not be in the top 10), and we say well you have to pay overs because he is in contract. We need 2 x 1st (2019 & 2020) + a player (Langdon/Apness/Tucker). I'm sure we will ask about Brayshaw and Cera but assume we will be told where to go. 4. Peter Bell has just been installed as GM. This could go either way - he might want to make a splash and instruct the FD to go after Hogan no matter the cost, or he might not want his first move he make to tie the future of the football club to one player. A lot to play out in this space, but cannot see it being done this year.

Agree - I look at north and go - yep that’s what we are missing. Jack Martin should be top of that list if he wants to move to Vic. We won’t match Polec money, Hall isn’t good enough, Gaff would be a dream.

I have been thinking about this a heap in the past 24 hours. Especially on the wing which is clearly an area we lack. I have been trying to find someone from another club we could get to get the ball on the outside and deliver inside 50. Then it dawned on me, we have him, he played there at the start of the year and was brilliant until Lever went down. Christian Salem. Beautiful kick, good break away speed, tackles like a champ. I feel if we can find a half back flank player to replace him (maybe Fritch, maybe Hunt) and can move him to play in the forward half of the ground we are instantly a better team. I think this trade period isnt going to be that exciting for us as we are going to rely on natural improvement, rather than quick fixes.

Geelong struggled with 2 mobile key talls. Hawthorn are scrambling now to come up with a second key defender. Imagine if they had to find a third. Game styles evolve based on your best 18 players. We happen to have 7 talls in ours who are all mobile and endurance beasts. Might be tough in the wet but on a dry day in September, talls get taller in the 4th.

Some odd shots on goal for him, but gee he was good. For such a young forward, he was clunking them!

Wouldn’t want to see Hamish on Monday..... contact drills this week will hurt him.

You’d expect there would be a little bit of “if you find a good contract somewhere else, we’ll help you” with a few of them but I cannot imagine they’ll want another 8 changes that we had last year. 14 out of contract and a little bit of projection - id assume: Offered new: Oscar, AVB, Vince, Balic, Kent, T Smith, Sign if there is no interest: Johnson, Bugg, JKH, Pedo i have no idea: King, Flip, McKenna, Keilty. Its tough as you have til have 3 draftees. McKenna could go to a rookie list with no issues. I can’t see any of our rookies being upgraded (Maynard, Flip, Kielty, Smith) bar Tim Smith. Honestly it will be tough to work out who goes because we’ve all seen Bugg at his best and he clearly is an AFL player; we assume that one of Flip or King goes; JKH I thought would look for other opportunities but if he stays in our side for a few more weeks will be hard not to offer a contract; Kent clearly can be best 22; Johnson is developing as a small defender but maybe he goes?; I’m thinking maybe Dec might be on the way out sadly and maybe Pedo as well. Feel it does leave us short though in the backline.

Thanks for all of your work on this @Lucifer's Hero - with Gus till 22 and Jetta to 21 we are really just waiting on OMac's signature at the moment. The rest you wouldn't imagine will be on more than a 2 year deal and there is no one on that list I'd be concerned if they hadn't put pen to paper before trade season. 2019 is really interesting with Salem, ANB, Stretch and Weiderman OOC, but the big story will of course be Hogan. I cannot imagine that they'd want that dragging out next year and I assume they'd look to sign him over the off-season up until his free agency begins (2021).

From Swamp: Games polling @AFLCoaches votes in 2018 1x: 105 players 2x: 69 players 3x: 41 players 4x: 29 players 5x: 19 players 6x: 18 players 7x: 18 players 8x: 8 players 9x: 4 players 10x: 7 players 11x: Patrick Dangerfield, Dustin Martin 12x: 13x: ANDREW GAFF

Out of context. Boomer was doing a review of the Freo list and was selling hope that Hogan would come to Perth. In his analysis of the Melbourne list earlier this year he talked about Hogan being a big part of the future of the Melbourne football club. Not a story which is why it is thin and boomer hasn’t followed up the comments.

As much as we gave to Lever but over 5. Media have said opening price will need to be $4 million over 5.

Correct. I don’t know where they were on our board but know that we were pleasantly suprised they fell that low. And both I feel have now shown they were worth more than their pick. Langdon starting to do the same.

@Satyriconhome I get what you are saying in that we tend to overrate opposition players and possibly we are thinking that Gaff will solve all our issues and be our messiah. However he is a proven performer, he’s had many great seasons, the best is still ahead of him, he is a Brownlow fancy, and Sydney put a hard tag on him and he still had 24, 6 clearances and 6 inside 50s. I love billy and ANB but they aren’t getting a hard tag. If he does get tagged out of games at the dees, then think about the space Brayshaw and Salem will get. He might not be the messiah, we might overrate him, but he will make our side better and that’s enough for me.

Interesting and can confirm we were up to our eyeballs in this kid. Taylor called him on the night to apologise he wasn’t going to be a Dee because Oscar dropped to us. We had ANB and Oscar much higher on our draft board than where we drafted them and Ed was pretty sure he was going to be a Dee with pick 53. Don’t know if he’s keen to come back but apparently he ‘understood’ our decision. Hope that insight helps.

Let’s face it. If he was on the open market in a draft year with his pedagree and physicality he’d be drafted. To get a free hit is awesome. The other thing is that we get him like we got Hogan. Basically a year of being in an elite system while he is in year 12 and then will be able to play as of next year. I’d expect he won’t play VFL at all this year. Just looked at at his basketball highlights. The kid can jump and the write ups were all about his agility. Yep he’s not like any big man we’ve seen in the Afl. NicNat like in his agility. If he can kick we might be on to something here.

Question - anyone know why Brayshaw is doing the AFL podcast every week? I love that he is doing it - but why Gus? Seems like he is crafting a nice little media career. Would be good in 15 years the for us to have Gawn, Brayshaw and others commentating.

@Jaded as you said - he needs to play inside mid. When he does we are a better team and he’s a better player. Viney Oliver Brayshaw at the coal face is pretty scary.

Love Hunt coming over and hugging him!

@bandicoot great point in here. The dogs were an anomaly at an average age of 24 years 5 months, average games 82, but they had 13 players 100 games or more and only 2 players under 50 games at the time. That got me thinking though what is their Round 1 teams then vs our Round 1 now. WB - 24y 7m, 81.5 games, 3 under 50, 8 50-100; 7 100-149; 4 150+ Rich - 25y 1m, 94.2 games, 4 under 50; 6 50-100; 5 100-149; 7 150+ Melb - 25y 5m 84.1games, 11 under 50; 4 50-100; 3 100-149; 4 150+ The big thing to take away from this is that we still have a lot in the under 50 games. Now many of our boys are pushing up from the below 50 to 50-100 bracket before finals - Salem (now there), Harmes, Hunt, Trac, OMac, Oliver, ANB, Gus and Stretch. So assuming a like for like replacement for Viney, TMac, Lewis, Hannan/Fritch (so lets say for argument Stretch, Weiderman, Wagner, Kent) <doesnt really matter its a theoretical exercise> 5 150+: Lewis, Vince, Jones, Garlett, Melksham 5 100-150: TMac, Jetta, Hibbard, Tyson, Viney (Gawn on the cusp) 11 50-100: Gawn, Lever, Hogan, Salem, Harmes, Hunt, Trac, OMac, Oliver, ANB, Brayshaw 1 Under 50: Hannan/Fritch (Hannan could be at 40 games at this stage). At this stage, we will have a team with an average games played of over 100 and a lot of experience in here. There is a lot to look forward to and these are some really good players in here (remember ANB and Harmes have started badly but they were really good last year). It is a great list to work with, they just need some time.

I think this as well. Jones obviously stays and whilst he has limitations he is still a good player and would be in any teams best 22. Lewis and Vince are good no doubt and are in our best 22, but at what expense? We’ve taken them out of the centre bounce, they aren’t playing forward - we’ve now got them behind the ball playing the same role we want Hibbard, Hunt, Lever and maybe Wagner to play. There was even a time last year where Jets was being criticised for not giving enough drive. I love what both of them have done for the club and OMac’s development I attribute a lot to Lewis - but is 2 too many?

Sorry to be the barer of bad (maybe long term good) news here but the more I kept thinking about our performances this year, this kept coming into my head - are we still incredibly young and we are expecting a top 4 side from a bottom 4 experience? Rd 5 - 80.5 Games, 24yr 6m, 16 players under 100 games v 104.2, 25y 11m, 13 players Rd 4 - 91.5, 25y 1m, 15 players v 107, 26y 1m, 10 players Rd 3 - 93.1, 25y 2m, 15 players v 94, 25y 4m, 14 players Rd 2 - 92.4, 25y 5m, 15 players v 77.1, 24y 1m, 15 players Rd 1 - 84.1, 25y 5m, 15 players v 92.6, 25y 3m, 13 players We were younger and more inexperienced that every side bar Brisbane we have played this year. This round, Carlton and WB played 17 players under 100 games to our 16. Round 4 WB and Carl (17) v 15. If you look at the experience each week we are putting out, we are more similar to Collingwood, St Kilda, Brisbane, than we are to GWS, Rich, Haw. But these are some of the names who are our under 100 game players who are also under 25: Hogan, Salem, Tyson, Hunt, Trac, Brayshaw, OMac, Lever, ANB, Frost, Oliver, Weiderman, Harmes, Stretch, Hannan and of course Viney when he comes back. These are players who many of them will play 10 years for the red and the blue and that average games will go to 100 by the end of the year and if (when) we make finals, we should have a team much closer to competing than the one that has dished out the last 2 efforts. 15 games is a long time in football. What pleases me about all of this is that for most of the top 8 teams, players are going to come in and out and the average games doesnt move much between Rd 1 and Rd 22 as they bring in debutant etc. Last year Round 1 - 74.6 games, 23y 10 months, 11 players under 50, 3 50-100 v Round 23 - 97.9, 25y 1m, 2 players under 50, 10 50-100. 19 players who played in Round 1 played in Round 23. 16 from round 1 2017 played on Tuesday and Viney, McDonald, Lewis, and Hannan are all a good chance to come back in (who played in that game). Watts is gone and Joel Smith is still developing. We have a stable team who have shown they can match it with the best, we just need to give them the time to develop that we gave our last guard. I know its been a long time coming, but for this group it hasnt. It's only been 4 years. They are allowed to still grow this year.