poita

Criminally underused by Goodwin & co. He should have played games when Oliver was missing, particularly ahead of Jordon. I love that he always maintained his standards at Casey, and didn't drop his bundle when it was clear that senior games weren't coming. Hopefully his recovery from injury goes well and he is back playing footy again soon.

Looks a long way from senior selection, which is fine as a long term key position prospect, but there are some serious Weideman vibes about Jefferson. Let's hope he develops the intensity and competitiveness that Weideman was never able to show, because otherwise he will struggle to deliver upon his potential.

Always looked to be an odd selection as a supplemental draft selection given that he didn't add anything that we didn't already have plenty of. Injuries obviously limited his chances even further, but was always long odds to get a second year on the list.

As a kid from my local area, I'm very keen to see Blake make it as an AFL footballer. That said, uncertainty about his best position, some injury and development concerns, and perhaps a lack of urgency in his play mean that he still has a fair way to go to be pushing for senior selection in the early rounds.

Four ACLs between our first four draft picks is a real concern, particularly given that one of those has barely started working through her second ACL. Losing four best 21 players, and replacing them with a group that hasn't played a lot of football in recent years doesn't bode well for our depth next season. Nevertheless, hopefully we have added some serious talent to the list who will help take the team back into premiership contention in coming years.

Hard not to think that we have been royally shafted on this. Bulldogs get three first round picks out of the deal and we slide up the order slightly.

Given that Lily Johnson was pick 80 in the draft just over 12 months ago, I can't see that she would have any trade value. We definitely should be expecting something decent for losing two players, one of whom is clearly in our best team.

The AFL website is reporting that we still trying to finalise deals to trade out Charlotte Wilson and trade in Lily Johnson, as well as the Maddie Gay deal. Hopefully we hold firm on all of these., particularly Gay. https://www.afl.com.au/aflw/news/1071859/where-trade-periods-biggest-deals-sit-ahead-of-deadline-day

Story in the Herald Sun this morning suggesting that Melbourne and Essendon are a long way apart on determining a value for Maddie Gay. My best guess is that we will swap first round picks (their 13 for our 19) with possibly a later pick coming to us as a sweetener.

Other than hit outs, I'm really not sure what Grundy brought to the table this year. 5.9 kicks, 2.7 marks and 0.6 goals a game is not a great contribution from a player aspiring to be a number one ruck, let alone a 29 year old being paid $900K a year. I'm sure Grundy is a nice bloke and did his bit behind the scenes, but most people could see 12 months ago that this wasn't going to work. We're now a further 12 months down the track and no closer to having Gawn's replacement in place to learn off the great man before he heads off into the sunset. That said, and only Goodwin and Grundy really know what went on, to not have played him in the semi final was criminally dumb. Schache is nobody's idea of an AFL footballer, including his own coach by the looks of it.

Hibberd has been a wonderful servant of the club since crossing prior to the 2017 season - can't ask much more than a premiership and an All Australian from him. I don't blame him for playing on after 2021 given the late start to his career, but his body has increasingly let him down and the club probably should have given a nudge at the end of 2022. Good luck to Hibbo for the next stage of his life.

I was certainly disappointed to see Harmes go. Clearly he had some off field issues this year that affected his on field performance, and the coach lost confidence in him pretty quickly. I think his best football is still good enough to play quality football at AFL level, and I am concerned about our midfield depth, but I don't blame him for wanting a change of scenery.

Massive call on a personal / family level to move to WA, rather than taking up one of the available jobs in Victoria. Maybe she wasn't offered it, but I would have had Hawthorn as a far more attractive proposition for a first time coach than West Coast. Good luck to Daisy - she'll need it.

I would have swapped the three year deal for Mithen with the one year deal for Lampard, but that's just me. We need to be very careful to balance the now (Pearce) with the future (Campbell) and ensure that Campbell is getting the opportunities that she needs to stick around long term.

Whilst a small forward is a definite need for this team, we should be looking for size in the midfield with a top 5 pick.

She must be on a salary that no longer befits her standing on the team - why else would you have to give back a draft pick for a 26 year old 2 x All Australian, 2 x premiership player?

Jordon is no longer at the club because he has no elite qualities, and could only win 11 possessions in consecutive games as a full time midfielder in rounds 19 and 20. His semi final effort was absolutely putrid. Good luck to him, but we can do much better. Sparrow is a tease at present. He has many of the tools needed to become a really good player, other than speed, but is also prone to going missing for long periods. I suspect he would benefit from serious competition for his spot, and potentially the occasional game at Casey. At the moment he seems happy to coast along and be an average player.

Hopefully we see Jake play further up the ground in 2024, because I don't think the lock down defender role is suiting him at all.

With Maddi Gay linked to a move elsewhere, that makes 8 players already gone or likely out the door. Plus more to possibly come. In isolation you can make a case for each of those players moving on but, without an idea of where replacements are coming from, it is a concern to be turning over more than a quarter of the list in a very short period of time. I have a lot of faith in our AFLW list managers, but the combination of our late season collapse and the subsequent mass exodus gives off a bit of a stench. The club would do well to get on the front foot and release some good news stories this week. Long term contract extensions for the (AFLW) captain and vice captain would be a good start.

Another PR triumph for the club - you'd think doing the right things by the supporter base would be an exceptionally high priority after the past three months, but apparently not.

I'm okay with turning over a large number of players this year, but only if we replace them with something better. Losing a mature midfielder in West for presumably a mid-range draft prospect who requires years of physical development to play midfield at this level is hardly improving the list. I'd rather lose Mithen from that group. I don't rate Sherriff, and Birch's football has fallen off a cliff in the past 12 months, so both are expendable. Birch should actually get us something decent in return as a 2x premiership player and All Australian. We definitely need to make a play for Parker as the best midfielder currently on the market. Otherwise we need to be hunting draft picks in the top 5-6.

I think we're 50/50 to play finals in 2024, and considerably less than that in 2025. Our depth in key areas is almost non-existent and we are very heavily reliant on Gawn and May to play full seasons, which is unlikely given their ages. The age profile of our list says that our fall, when it inevitably comes, will be pretty brutal. I doubt the coach and the list manager will survive.

There's a reason Marty Hore was delisted two years ago (several of them actually), and nothing that he has done since in that joke of a VFL competition, will convince me that he fills any of the gaping holes in our list. It's a really poor list management decision, unless we are trying to lift Casey back into finals contention.

Hopefully we are very active in this space this year.

Why the obsession with small and medium sized forwards? Why are we not prioritising key defenders, rucks and midfielders given the profile of our list, and likely retirements in the next 2-3 years?