poita

May was outstanding from 2020 - 2023, and I'm very glad he played in 100 games and a premiership for the club. He is definitely not the future and we need to get games into our next 8-10 year defenders, so this is the right call.

Oh well, they had a good run. Unfortunately any hopes of a 22 team VFL comp, with fewer byes, would disappear as well.

Defence looks too tall and slow with all of Gillard, Colvin and S.Taylor. I think one of those three has to miss out, and one of the smalls stays.

These are the list decisions that we should be making after the trade period, and probably after the draft, not before. Leave a couple of list spots open, and dangle them as a carrot to get the likes of Henderson training their backsides off and stepping up their game in the pre season. Maybe we find a hidden gem somewhere.

I get this argument to a point, but there is absolutely no way that Hawthorn should be outperforming North Melbourne by this much in 2025 given where the two sides were 5-6 years ago. One of those teams has done everything right since then, and the other has been a disaster in every respect. Same for Essendon and West Coast. I know Hawthorn are nominally a big club, but they were not attracting quality players circa 2020, nor were they loading up on draft picks. Their success has been built on finding hidden diamonds such as Newcombe, and then supplementing with players such as Ginnivan and D'Ambrosio that nobody else wanted. Mitchell has been extraordinary for that club, particularly given how little impact Clarkson has had at North. West Coast and Richmond have both won premierships in the past decade, and are now taking their medicine. Richmond's strategy has been fine and they'll come good at some point. West Coast deserve to be garbage for a long time given how they have mismanaged their list. Melbourne are probably somewhere between those two, perhaps closer to West Coast, but it's only four years since our premiership. I do agree that it is a real issue that Brisbane and Geelong can keep adding quality free agents within a seemingly unlimited salary cap, whilst the lower Victorian teams struggle to attract even mid-tier players without paying overs.

Only as a direct swap for someone in the Sparrow / Langdon / Chandler category of fringe players, and even then I'm not convinced.

10 preliminary finals in the past 11 years - that's just extraordinary in an environment where almost every Storm player is recruited from outside Victoria.

Was that the same game that Harry Sharp kicked four goals and looked like a superstar? Because we all know how that one turned out.

I really like Mihocek as a player, but I don't love him in the same forward line as Melksham. It has to be one or the other.

J.J. LISTON TROPHY (Smithy’s VFL Best and Fairest) Jacob Dawson (Southport Sharks) – 28 votes Riley Bonner (Casey Demons) – 23 votes Dom Brew (Werribee) – 21 votes Deven Robertson (Brisbane Lions) – 20 votes Henry Hustwaite (Box Hill Hawks) – 18 votes Brodie McLaughlin (Williamstown) – 17 votes Jack Bytel (Coburg) – 15 votes Ted Clohesy (Geelong Cats) – 15 votes Harvey Hooper (Port Melbourne) – 14 votes George Stevens (Geelong Cats) – 14 votes

I keep reading all these predictions that Moniz-Wakefield is a star in the making. I haven't seen anything to date that would suggest that he has the ability to be a regular AFL player, or even a decent depth option. What have people seen in his 6 AFL games over 4 years that indicates he has a bright future?

The players say they want it, but let's see how many of the big names are still on board by the time 14 February comes around. I'm guessing the clubs will have the final say on whether star players are available or not.

26 pages on Wade Derksen. Rarely have so many words been written regarding someone of such little consequence.

The salary cap for 2025 was $17.8M. If you believe the figures in the Herald Sun rich list, we have spent roughly $7.3M of this on 8 players, plus 25% of Brayshaw's wage is still counted in the cap. Oliver - $1.2M - $1.3M Petracca - $1.2M - $1.3M Gawn - $900K - $1.0M Pickett - $800K - $900K Viney - $750K - $850K May - $700K - $800K Lever - $700K - $800K Petty - $650K - $750K That would leave around $10M across the remaining 37 players on the list, including Fritsch, Langdon, Salem and Van Rooyen who would all be on decent money. Maybe we could afford to bring in one more decent player, but I suspect we're getting pretty close to the cap.