poita

Tholstrup reminds me of Luke Tapscott. I wouldn't be surprised if he is a guy who has developed earlier than his peers and until now hasn't had to put the work in to make the grade. Now he is coming up against guys who are bigger, stronger and more experienced and he doesn't yet have the skill set, the work rate or the mental toughness to cope. It's pretty clear he isn't good enough to be an AFL standard midfielder. He doesn't find enough of the ball, he isn't fit enough and his decision making hasn't been up to scratch to date. So where does he fit? He currently provides very little as a half forward. Simply he doesn't get to the right positions often enough. Even from a low base in 2024, he is down on disposals, marks, goals and tackles in 2025. With Salem on the way out and McVee uncontracted, I'd be giving him a run in defence for the rest of the season. Let his opponent take him to the football and see if he can win or halve some contests. Give him a few weeks at Casey to learn the role, then the rest of the season in the senior side if his form warrants it. As an aside, it was a puzzling decision to trade up to take him at pick 13 and even more bizarre to contract him until 2028. The club has shown a lot of faith in him and he needs a big pre season to start delivering on his end of the bargain.

The only reason they would be stuck here is because neither is prepared to give up the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Clarry in particular could easily leave at year end if he was prepared to renegotiate his contract. But he won't be traded if we're still paying him $500K a year.

I was hoping for Neal-Bullen 12 months ago, now the cupboard is totally bare. There is not one player in the 23-28 group that warrants consideration. If Gawn plays until he is 45 maybe we can draft someone in the next few years with some leadership ability and get them ready to take over.

Bye bye Lever, don't come back. Windsor is down on form and confidence, mostly because he has been played out of position all year. Hopefully a run at Casey does him some good. Goodwin needs to make his mind up re Van Rooyen - either play him in the AFL or play him in the VFL for a month. This back and forth business is ridiculous, and does nobody any good. As for the inclusions, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. How do Sharp and Tholstrup possibly deserve a recall before Brown or Culley get a chance?

I see its going to be another one of those years when we don't make nearly enough changes to the list. I assume Kentfield gets another year on the back of his nine disposals over the past two Casey games - if that doesn't scream future AFL player, I don't know what does.

All of those named are already in the senior side and several are already among our best performers. Who is on the list who is going to break into our senior side in the next year or two and add something significant that we don't currently have? I don't have great hopes for anyone currently at Casey making the grade. I don't rate particularly Carlton's young talent either, but they do have Jagga Smith to bring in from round 1 next year.

There is no way I'd entertain a trade for Petracca, and it is hard to see how any trade for Oliver would improve the list. I'd be floating Lever as trade bait and see if any clubs are seduced by the prospect of resurrecting a former All Australian defender. Fingers crossed they haven't seen him play in the past three years, but apparently he has some (hitherto well hidden) leadership qualities as well. If we can get Lever's contract off the books, we would be well placed to make a play for McKay, who would clearly be an upgrade on any of our current forwards.

Except for the fact that the full deal was: Melbourne give: 2025 first round pick (currently #4, but more likely to be 7-8 with academy selections); 2024 pick 28, pick 40, pick 46, pick 54, pick 65. Essendon give: 2025 third round pick (on-traded in Sharp deal); 2024 pick 9 (Xavier Lindsay). I have no issue with giving up 2025 round 1 plus a sweetener for Lindsay, but some of those picks could have had some value to us either as selections in 2024 or to get back in to the 2025 draft. The reality is that Essendon already had incentive to trade away their 2024 round 1 pick, so were hardly reluctant trade partners.

If correct, that would be some effort given that he has missed three games. As I've said previously, May and Lever (5 losses from 6 games) should not be playing in the same side under any circumstances.

Blame the AFL for that one. People are desperate to watch a decent curtain raiser before AFL games, then they play them so early they finish more than hour before the seniors play.

That would be highly reactive and far too late. By the time we plumb those depths we will have locked in another decade of utter mediocrity. We've lost around 15,000 (> 20%) members already since 2023 and have dropped from 8th to (likely) 15th on the membership ladder since 2022. I'd guess that the loss in membership dollars is even greater than 20%, no matter how many price increases they inflict on us, with people dropping to lower membership categories. We'll be lucky to get 50K members next year if Goodwin continues.

I think Windsor will be fine, but he needs to be played in the role that allows him to make the most of his abilities at this time (ie the wing). He also will benefit from doing a full pre season next year if he is completely over his foot issues. Would Caddy do any better in our system than our current players? I'm sure Goodwin would coach all the flair out of him within the first few months and he'd end up competing for marks in packs instead of leading.

The Herald Sun has devoted a significant amount of text in recent days to the current NGA rules and some of the ludicrous rules that are in place. Ah-Mu has not been mentioned, but there are numerous examples of players being eligible due to being born to two Australian parents who were living outside Australia at the time, or having an overseas-born parent who has lived in Australia for the past 30 years. There appears to be a growing mood amongst the Victorian clubs for local NGAs to be scrapped and for the AFL to assume responsibility for attracting and developing indigenous and multicultural talent. Clearly the northern clubs will want to maintain their current systems, but anything has to be better than the current mess.