Pates

I was thinking about whether we could enter the conversation with Hill given the Saints have traded their first pick down. Would be more down to whether we can/want to try to get Hill through our door.

Lost me at rating Harmes as a C (and lower than Josh Wagner!?). I'd have him around the B or B- mark, I understand he wasn't as productive this year but he's definitely better than Jonesy and KK. I will say this, our list is very difficult to rate. As we were so productive in 2018 and yet so off the boil in 2019. There are players that produced A grade quality in '18 and were closer to B- grade quality in '19. We also got a benefit last year of it clicking for a few average players all at the right time leading into and during the finals. Brayshaw, Harmes, Christian Salem, Christian Petracca, Mitch Hannan, Bayley Fritsch, Kade Kolodjashnij, and Sam Weideman are all younger players that are regular 22 who all have upside and great potential to have big improvements in 2020. Tom McDonald, Michael Hibberd, Jake Melksham, and Aaron Vandenberg are all players that have shown quality when fit. Hopefully clean runs will allow them to return to form. Tom of course had a horrifically bad first half on 2019 which injury can't allow for, but we have seen him at his best and a clean start to 2020, and hopefully a more defined forward structure with a connecting gameplan between midfield and forward line will allow him to regain his confidence. Lever, May, and Jetta are all critical members of our defence who were only allowed minimal game time together, fitness to all three could completely change the complexion of our very leaky defence. I'm not sure if he has a star category but surely Max falls in there while Oliver at this point sits in the A grade category but could easily move up next year. Simply put from my analysis (yes through rose coloured glasses), our team has a lot of upside that unfortunately relies on a few if, buts, and maybes. The ingredients for a competitive team are there, the question is whether Goody & co are able to make something of it (with fitness permitting for a few of them). My biggest concern centres around lack of pace, and lack of forward pressure.

It would be interesting to see how he goes because if he is rated enough for around pick 3 and our recruiters feeling comfortable about using that pick for him potentially I'd be totally fine with us nominating him to prevent GWS from getting a basic free hit at him.

I'd really like us to be holding out for our future 2nd rounder, play some hardball with them....oh wait we don't do that!

100% this year we have to nail using this pick 3 whether it's utilising for bargaining ability or picking up an absolute gun in the draft. I wasn't against splitting our pick with the Tyson/Salem combo as it served a purpose at the time, Tyson came into the team and made an immediate impact, Salem's form has been patchy but there are enough positive attributes he has to contribute to the team. We needed something at that time that a raw rookie wasn't going to give us. This time is different though, and we can't waste the opportunity that this awful year has provided us.

I agree, it's a game of poker and Mahoney appears to have the worst poker face of all. Should be talking him up, saying things like he still has a future at Melbourne. I feel like we're going to end up with pick 50 or maybe an exchange of picks. 30 is for me too high for him, 50 (should be) unders for him. If they get access to a pick in the mid/late 30s or early 40s I think that would be about right.

I'm in the same camp, he showed a bit in his first year but for me seems to be limited in his bag of tricks. For a small player he's not quick or has a great ability to jump high, disposal is ok but nothing special. I wouldn't be able to tell you his best position.

It's an interesting issue, devastating of course to hear Shaun be so raw about how concussion has affected his life. The interesting part to it is that a lot of these players would've been the first to tell a coach or doctor that they were fine to continue. I heard that players used to cheat the concussion tests by performing them poorly at the start of the year so they could pass during matches they'd sustained head knocks. I think it's right for them to seek damages from the AFL to help aid in their treatment and issues they face, lord knows that the AFL has enough $$$.

For a cheap price I'd be on board with us getting Jenkins. We didn't have any prolific goal kickers this year and while his form has been off the last 18 months who knows what a change of location could do for him.

I'm not going to troll through the thread here, I'll only make a simple small comment. He's an upgrade on the players we've already got and we didn't have to give up a pick from him only $alary $pace.

Fitness is his biggest enemy right now, he has shown what he can do when he gets out on the park.

I'm finding the idea of people entertaining us trading out Gus just laughable. Last year was his first year of getting a clean run at it and look what he produced. This year the club had an awful year, and from some reports Gus was playing with back issues, so with those two factors why would we consider moving him on when he's one of few on our list that has actually shown to possess quality in him?

What I find the most puzzling of this whole thing is that we apparently haven't offered him a contract. If he was leaving because the Hawks offered more money/longer contract than I wouldn't be as concerned but the fact that we are letting him walk out the door without putting anything on the table (especially after signing up OMac) just seems to be mystifying to me. The one positive out of this is that there will be no chance of a Frost/OMac combination with honestly gave me nightmares.

I still believe in Weids becoming our key forward forward target to kick the required goals, while Tom hopefully next year TMac is able to recapture the form that made him so dangerous in 2018. For me it's the small/pressure forward that is more critical to us next year, as well as having a forward structure and game plan that is more intelligent that kicking it directly to the opposition's floating defender.

He could well be added to the pile of players that had massive talent and massive upside but we failed to turn into a superstar. Development of our young brigade remains to be a serious issue for the club. Looking at our younger players that have “shown something”, so far not many have taken the next step to becoming out and out stars. Oliver would be the one name I would say is a star, but even he probably lowered his colours a little this year, But Weids is an example I would point to of someone who genuinely has shown some great ability but seems to disappoint. I’m not saying he won’t make it but after his breakout finals series I think a lot of us had hope he would show more this year.

Hard to take anything this guy says seriously, very reactionary in his opinions rather than looking at trends and analysing teams.

Can we please take Sam Flanders just so we can have a variation of this in the Demon Army....

He’s shown it in parts, never an entire game. He has that burst and upper body power that makes me think he has it in him to be someone that takes a game apart in a way a star player can. His two biggest drawbacks appear to be his kicking for goal and the fact that he can drift in and out, he has asked for more midfield time next year, it will be interesting to see how he’s used.

I’d like to see us do some later pick shuffles that see us get say an earlier 3rd rounder for our 4th rounder

I won’t shed any tears at his departure, has failed to become anything more than an average player. Can’t imagine we’ll get much for him, good luck to him at GC.

I’d love us to have the guts to go after someone like Bennell, the risk is on his injury status and whether he has really changed in attitude.

Well it’s obviously a bad trade if we don’t need to trade for him! Also he’s a young tall forward prospect, would be of great value to many teams.

I’ve come around to this, he can develop nicely while taking pressure off TMac and Weids. My only concern would be that Weids would get stuck behind him and not continue to develop, I still believe in Sam but jeez we need him to get a wriggle on.

If that’s what they’re offered I’d just say he goes into the draft and we pick him up again. For once using a bit of bargaining power melbourne! For me our defence works with him being in there with May and Lever fit. May takes big body #1, Frost takes big body #2, Lever floats as the interceptor, Nev small defender, Hibberd flanker #1, Salem flanker #2. Sell it to him Melbourne, make him feel wanted!

Trac had a good season, but for his talent and ability, I’m sorry if this sounds harsh but we need better than good. We need him to be outstanding if 2020 is to get us back in the premiership conversation. We need him, Oliver, and Brayshaw to be a triple threat of stars that have opposition coaches thinking “how do we stop them”. They each have that in them.