poita

I can't believe people are (a) surprised and (b) complaining about getting two first round picks for Jackson. We have no bargaining power in this deal, and even less so if North commit to using PSD pick 1. Would people prefer Jackson walks to West Coast in the PSD? The Lever deal is absolutely comparable and the Fremantle offer is slightly better than what we gave Adelaide. I'd be taking the two picks today and moving on to other things.

I wouldn't give Lachie Hunter $6 to play football for my team, let alone $600K. Hard pass.

I'd really love to know if we put any work into Wright, because he has been an absolute steal by Essendon.

I thought that the point of trading players was that you improve your list. Letting Hunt walk for pick 52 (a pick we may not use) is a clear step backwards. Getting rid of Harmes for anything other than a top 10 player would be an even bigger step backwards, and even then I would be reluctant given his versatility and cultural importance. If the reason for doing so is to bring in damaged goods such Hunter, then this becomes even more questionable. We have had a good reputation for respecting contracts and looking after players in recent times. Even the faintest hint to a player such as Harmes that he should consider his options whilst under contract is really disappointing. If nothing else, I would hate to be relying on Sparrow or Jordon to step up if we get injuries to one of the big 3 in the midfield.

I can think of at least ten players I'd move on before Hunt, including both Smiths, McVee, and Hibberd in similar roles. Disappointing decision by the club not to look after him.

I'm no fan of Bedford, and wish him well at GWS, but I find it really concerning that we now have three players who have been offered contracts for 2023 and have then asked to be traded. Presumably that is opportunity for Bedford, money and certainty for Hunt and family for Jackson, but at least two of those we should have been able to manage. It's great that we have been able to sign Petracca and Oliver on long term contracts, but overall our list and player management has been so so at best. And now we are starting to see the consequences of this.

I'm particularly interested in the element of culture that says Geelong, Richmond and other contenders have a massive chunk of their salary cap available to pursue high profile free agents every second year, whilst our better players are signed on huge dollars which restricts our ability to improve our list.

Any regular Casey viewers have thoughts on the B&F votes? Hard to argue with the top 4 -5 players, but I thought Brown, Bedford, Tomlinson and Weideman all had better years than Laurie and probably Woewodin as well. Well done to Munro, Dunstan and White who carried the team to a premiership and were deservedly top 3 in the B&F.

Playing 40 of 49 games across the past two years, including missing games through injury in late 2021, suggests Jayden is clearly a best 22 player. Our VFL depth is so poor, we can't afford to be losing best 22 players for nothing, as there are no replacements coming through. I really hope we make him a decent offer and he chooses to stay. I would hate to be relying on a 33 year old Hibberd or a brittle Smith to be playing many games next year, and I'm not sure we can afford to have Bowey in that role long term.

1. Oliver (by a large margin) 2. Petracca 3. Viney 4. Brayshaw 5. May

Yep, we need to get our percentage back above Adelaide, or we're looking at playing finals interstate. It would be really nice to belt Freo again this time around. West and Purcell have sorted out our contested ball issues, but now we struggle to move the ball with any speed. A couple of line breaking mids / HBFs would be ideal. Maybe Goldrick when she gets back to full fitness or Heath if we push her back up the ground. I think this is a major reason why we stop scoring after half time. Slow ball movement allows teams to get numbers back, and our kicking is not good enough to consistently find targets inside forward 50.

I'm not surprised that De Goey is pushing back against any ambiguity in his contract. Collingwood have repeatedly shown in recent years that their contracts aren't worth the paper they are written on. Treloar and Grundy are prime examples of this. You wouldn't want to get two years into a contract, have Collingwood decide they don't want you any more, and then have the contract torn up because you sneeze in a meeting or something equally trivial.

Surely if player and club are both keen to join up, they find a way to make it happen. 5 year contract for $3M? Smooth the $1.6M over a few extra years.

We have way too many NQR small forwards on our list and if one (or two) of them lands us a decent draft pick, we should definitely make the move. You can't have four small forwards but only one midfielder developing at Casey.

All of these clubs and leagues rely heavily on volunteers who receive very little support. It is not much fun begging local businesses or councils for support, or even for basic facilities and resources. Many volunteers haven't come back after Covid for various reasons. The administration of clubs and leagues has suffered as a result, and this has a trickle down effect to the coaches and players. If the players and coaches don't have a good environment to work in, they'll either go elsewhere or leave the game entirely. My son's junior team is a good example of some of the issues. His team had 25 players registered last year. They were graded poorly and ended up losing most games by big margins. They lost 7 of those players in the offseason because it wasn't fun being flogged each week - most will never come back. They had 19 players this year, but played with 14 - 16 most weeks. Combined losses in the first 3 weeks were over 300 points, but the league wouldn't re-grade the team until we begged and pleaded for help. The club simply doesn't have the resources to support all it's teams, and in our case it is the younger kids who are suffering. Ultimately there are a small number of very large clubs in the league that dominate with multiple teams in all age groups and wield all the power. The other clubs are just there to make up the numbers in a lot of respects, but many will go under without support.