deejammin'

Fox footy’s “experts” had the following for their best 22 following the trade period for us. It’s not bad though I think Brayshaw will play mid, Jordon sub, Bowey to half back. There’s also flexibility with the talls in this setup, TMC can go back, Petty forward, Gawn/Grundy to a more traditional ruck/bench behind the ball setup with just two tall forwards. I hope Jordon, Woey or Howes push Hunter for his wing spot but maybe I am underestimating him/prejudiced against him as he was so annoying for the dogs. We’d also want Chandler to be pushing ANB as while he does the team things and runs hard he just wasn’t damaging enough with the ball last year. MELBOURNE B: Harrison Petty, Steven May, Michael Hibberd HB: Angus Brayshaw, Jake Lever, Christian Salem C: Ed Langdon, Jack Viney, Lachie Hunter HF: Alex Neal-Bullen, Tom McDonald, Kysaiah Pickett F: Jacob Van Rooyen, Max Gawn, Bayley Fritsch FOLL: Brodie Grundy, Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca I/C: James Jordon, Charlie Spargo, Tom Sparrow, Trent Rivers They listed Bowey, Harmes and Chandler as potential ins throughout the year.

People get far too focused on who “won” or “lost” trade period. We were roundly rated a B+ for getting Ben Brown while losing Hannan and Preuss in 2020 but it led to a flag the very next year. Geelong were seen as a loser in the 2021 trade period losing Clarke, Kruger and others and only bringing in Segler and some picks (that led to Stengle), they filled their need with Stengle and won a flag. The fact is that a true challenger is unlikely to set up their flag tilt in the trade period, the bulk of the list needs to be set, we had Trac, Oliver, May, Lever, Gawn, Langdon, Kozzie already set and brought in a key forward who turned out to be all we needed 2020-21. Geelong had their midfield, backline and forwards already set, needed a small forward and some changes to strategy, flag. We went in needing a quality ruckman, tick, a quality wing/outside mid, tick (although I think Hunter will have stiff competition in Jordon, Woey and Howes), KPF, realistically there were none available, especially when we started without any first round picks. Draft best available at 13, a KP or ruck at 37 (if 13 isn’t one), Rookie a developing ruck and/or an established back up ruck and have a look at a lockdown running defender and we’re set. The upside on our list is massive, we came second in the H&A and were ahead in both our finals with Petracca injured and having a shocker in front of goal all year, Max sore down on form, Salem totally out of sorts, Ben Brown barely able to move, TMac out all second half of the season, Langdon down the second half of the year, Lever sore all year, Sparrow a bit off, ANB well off his 2021 form, no Bowey, No JVR, no Jordon, no Chandler, no Disco, Tomlinson struggling. If even half those players get back to their best or break into the team we’re elite. Only Oliver, Viney, May, Petty and Fritsch were consistently at their best in our run home, that’s a huge upside. We’ve added some needs and will add some young talent, who cares if we won trade period, let’s win the whole thing again!

Mick Stinear mentioned in his presser that Loz Pearce and Sinead Goldrick should be right for next week. Gay still a week away. Casey Sheriff also a chance as it was pain management with her wrist. Last week’s AFLW injury update here: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1236418

Perfect win, 5 big outs, slippery humid conditions, travel, no worries. Just keep winning for a home final. With Adelaide playing the cats and Brisbane the pies two good 5 goal plus wins should see us on top! Go you good thing! On to the bombers! (Please, please, please smash them!)

I vaguely remember Hardwick saying that one of the reasons Stack wasn’t getting a game was because they could only have so many ‘unstructured’ players in the team (Bolton, Martin, Rioli etc). I wonder how that would go with our highly structured approach? On paper he seems to fill a hole in our list, talented, hard running quick defender with x-factor. No idea about his personal issues but worth a look? Especially for basically nothing.

I was thinking a similar thing with McEvoy.

Let’s replace him with Joel Selwood. Get our own back!

Sorry if it’s not clear, both the future first and second are tied to where Freo finish.

In: Brodie Grundy, Hunter, Schache, Pick 13, Pick 37, Future First and Second tied to Freo. Out: Jackson, Bedford, Weideman, Hunt, 33 and some picks we wouldn’t use this year and next. All in all it’s pretty bloody good, we got a ruckman (still need one or two for depth but better than none), we got an outside mid/wing, we got key position depth. We lost two players we didn’t want to, but ultimately we’ve made the best of a challenging situation and ended up with two picks we may upgrade that will net us good talent. Tick.

Good luck Sam, you were a loyal clubman and had some great moments 2018 finals will live forever in my memory. Good luck at the bombers, sadly I think you’ll be more than handy for them as they’ll play you in your best role, 3rd forward/ruck. For MFC I don’t understand this. We are now two soft tissue injuries to players over 29 (Gawn + Grundy) from TMac and BBB being our rucks. This year our ruck depth was thin but we had Daw and Weideman, the latter playing 2nd ruck relatively well against Brisbane. Now we have an injured TMac who hasn’t played back up ruck in years, BBB with his degenerative knee and a second year player in JVR who shouldn’t be played in the ruck but had to be in the second half of the season at VFL level due to our lack of depth. We better have a plan to bring in at least one more back up ruck. So much for learning from our mistakes and resting Gawn/Grundy throughout the season to have them cherry ripe for finals. Yikes.

I was comparing him to Spargo because I think they are similar and don’t think we can carry too many of that type of player. Both Spargo and Hunter are short players with good kicking and footy smarts, they are hard working runners that don’t look overly quick but cover a lot of ground, neither have x-factor or contested marking ability (with the exception of Spargos MOTY candidate). Spargo appears better at tackling and pressure than Hunter. The comparison was not favourable, certainly not calling him the messiah, in fact I was saying we should NOT take Hunter because he’s similar to Spargo. If anything that’s negative.

Yeah sorry, I remembered that shortly after posting but the edit option was gone. Doh!

I don’t see the point in a future pick. We’re in the window now and while Sam’s form hasn’t been great we’re light on for rucks and his best footy appears to be as a 2nd ruck/forward. He’s also at his lowest ebb in value, I’d rather back him in for one more year but if we decide to take 37 that’s ok, but definitely not a future pick.

So happy with this 27 for Grundy is a steal, can’t wait to see what he and Gawny do. Brodie seems a genuinely nice guy, classy exit message, excited to have him in the red and blue!!

The two are not mutually exclusive, ruckmen are key part of the midfield! Great midfields, with great ruckmen win premierships. Nankervis was integral to Richmonds premierships, Natanui West Coast’s, Gawn and Jackson ours, Stanley and Blitsavs Geelongs, Big boy MacEvoy and Segler at Hawthorn, Ottens at Geelong, Dean Cox West Coast, the list goes on and on. I think Jackson was ahead of Nank this year but you can argue he’s behind him. My point stands, Jackson is in the top few ruckmen in the league and not easily replaceable, I’m hopeful Grundy will get back to 2018-19 form, as we all are, but Jackson is a top flight ruck. JHF is all potential, he’s not in the top 20 mids in the comp right now, he may become a star, but he also may become an average mid, like many before him. That was my point and you may not agree, but it’s not insane nor full of non-sequiters, I think a lot of educated football people would agree. Time will tell, let’s tag this and wait five years, let’s see if JHF is in the top 10 mids in that time frame.

Ok, name how many AFL ruckmen you would pick before Jackson then name how many AFL mids you would have before JHF. For me, there’s at most five rucks I’d pick before Jackson (Gawn, Witts, Darcy, Hickey, Stanley) there’s a HUGE number of mids I’d pick before JHF (Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Dangerfield, Neale, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Treloar, Boak, Wines, Parker, Warner, Crisp, Miller, Rowell, Anderson, Cripps, Walsh, Cerra, Hewitt, Kennedy, Brayshaw, Serong, Laird, Keays, Taranto, Hopper, Martin, Cunnington, the list goes on.) JHF May become a top mid, he may not, Jackson is a top ruck right now. His games against Brisbane mid season and Gold Coast early were better than anything JHF did all year. Not to mention how he went in the 2021 GF. He’s streets ahead in a position that’s harder to fill.

Compare the pair: JHF 1st year average mid = Pick 3 and a future first Luke Jackson top flight ruck, premiership player, rising star= Pick 13 Future first, future second I know pick 1 was involved and 2+ 40+43 doesn’t make up all of that but FMD.

Shafted. Bedford should’ve netted us a pick to upgrade our first rounder. Instead he goes, with Jackson, to appease Freo getting our gun we don’t want to leave, great.

Bugger. Not happy Jan. (FWIW I would be fine with trading Sam if we were getting something worthwhile and he wanted it, but as it stands it looks like it’s to help Freo do a deal they should’ve been able to do without getting anything back. I hope we have a plan for at least one more ruckman to come into the list).

I’m hoping this isn’t true. Sam has struggled but a future third is nothing, if it’s to trade for Jackson as reported that makes me even more unhappy, we shouldn’t have to do anything for Freo to get Jackson, particularly not trade more key position depth, Freo is already getting unders, they can GAGF. I think Sam showed a bit as second tall/ruck particularly towards the end of the season, we are very light on for tall depth. Tommo and Ben Brown are injury prone and not mobile enough for backup ruck. If this is true we’re one injury away from no back up ruck now. If we do have plans for another backup ruck/forward we’ve left it to the end of trade period. Outs: L Jackson, S Weideman, M Brown, M Daw In: Grundy Thats not a balanced approach.

This is 100% right. Smoothing = cheating the salary cap. The only way a dump should be allowed is if the clubs split the pay to make up the full contract or the destination club takes on the full contract as is.

Perfect from our girls, wonderful performance, great win. Umpiring woefully biased. I’d be putting a please explain in on the constant calling of Goldrick’s handballs as throws, there may have been one or two but they haven’t called it on anyone else when they’ve been clearer and worse, clear bias.

I really hope we aren’t interested in Hunter, to me he is Spargo without the tackling pressure. A big no. I’d rather give Woey a chance in the seniors on the wing than Hunter. Also with ducking for high free kicks being stopped his possessions will halve. Strong no from me.

I’m happy with this. There just isn’t the talent we need available this year. If a speedy skilful outside mid or a star key forward was available we would go for it. I’d clear Oskar Baker’s spot and draft a developing ruck, but otherwise, Grundy, 2 top picks and the Chandler upgrade and go to work on improving from within.

Yep, that’ll do.