poita

I'm not really sure how we're better off if we use the Oliver pick for Steele and pay a decent chunk of both their wages (presumably we're still up for $1M plus between the two). Aren't we just shuffling the deck chairs again? I think I'd prefer to see what the new coach could do with Oliver, or keep a list spot open until February for a train on player, rather than bringing in Steele for a couple of years.

Back to struggling to field a team - that is less than ideal given our draw over the next few weeks. We desperately need at least three of the top four on that list to play this week.

Yay, another fringe player. Dear God, I hope not. Lumumba was the worst recruit I've ever seen walk through the front door of this place (and I've seen plenty of shockers).

Congratulations Demonland posters! 125 pages written about a player who hasn't asked for a trade and who hasn't expressed any interest in coming to Melbourne. I'm sure you can get this baby up to 300 if he actually does one or both of those things.

Turns 28 next year and has only averaged more than 16 touches a game in 4 of his 9 seasons. Really none of his stats are that impressive. Maybe his kicking is good, but does he get enough of the ball? Yes, he would be best 23, but you wouldn't want to give up much to get him.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if pick 103 is the missing element that turns Lamb's head. The king of tough talking strikes again.

A very good first round pick is the price for Simpkin? That would make Petracca worth 15 first round picks.

Lamb is a clown. Why did any future pick need to be involved in a free agency deal, let alone one that could fall in the mid 40s? He'd be perfect working for the state or federal government, splashing around taxpayer money without a care in the world.

Fremantle have set the market for unproven ruckmen with the Liam Reidy trade. Max Heath's value should be similar. Not sure why this would be a difficult conversation, nor why we haven't commenced negotiations yet. Surely we want to get this one locked away, because Petracca and Oliver are likely to take a lot of time and effort to finalise.

So the bottom side loses their captain to the two-time reigning premier, and the AFL don't think they might have a problem with the salary cap, free agency, equalisation, or any other aspect of the trade period?

Let's look at recent B&F results across the league: Brodie Grundy 2nd Luke Jackson 3rd James Jordon 3rd Alex-Neal Bullen 5th They might not all be huge names, but all played in sides that finished well above Melbourne and all were crucial to their teams' performances. You can add Bedford who finished top 10 in 2024 as well (with Hogan winning). For how many of these players did we receive even close to fair value?

Imagine being the 14th best side in the competition and paying $500K plus for a 4 x B&F winner to play for a top 4 side. You can't make up the incompetence of this club.

Frankly the deals signed by both Petracca and Oliver and agreed to by the club were absolutely disgraceful, both in length and dollar value. At the very least there should have been a performance element attached. Hawthorn, Richmond, Geelong and Brisbane remained in contention for years by ensuring that key players were well paid, but not excessively paid, to ensure that they could keep their premiership lists together and add additional talent. Lamb caved to the ridiculous demands of these players and their managers and has left us with a horrible mess to clean up. I don't think the Pickett and Viney deals are any better to be honest. He is the last person on the planet that I would trust to fix the situation that we currently find ourselves in.

It must be about this time that we come up with one of one of our special (read: ludicrous) good news stories to cheer everyone up, as per Viney's unnecessary contract extension last year. Ten year contracts for Laurie & McAdam perhaps?

Tim Lamb, the master negotiator, will probably settle for pick 13 or whatever GC's actual first round pick is.

If the club have decided that they need to move on without Oliver and Petracca, I don't like it but I accept it on the condition that we also punt those responsible for the absurd contracts which have left us with this mess. Number one in the gun is Tim Lamb - he is borderline incompetent in every aspect of his job.

I'm exactly the same although, as I've said previously, I am concerned with the amount of time and effort we have spent on this bloke when other, better options seem to have been ignored.

My take on this whole debacle: We need to stop drafting Western Australians. The go-home factor for anyone half decent is huge with the WA clubs always in their ear, and we are forced to overpay to keep any that stay. This is a very poor result for King and the new regime in terms of selling a bright future to the player group. A second or third round draft pick is useless - we need to make this a player swap. Failing that, force him to the PSD. If Judd doesn't want to be here, he can GAGF. We plucked him from obscurity, and he walks out at the first opportunity? Pathetic.

Bottom four finish guaranteed if that is the best we can come up with. No room for Lindsay?

I'm glad Goody has finally woken up to what most people had been seeing for at least 12 months, and arguably three years, prior to his sacking. I wish him all the best, but there is no doubt that he, and many at the club, were asleep at the wheel for much of his post-premiership tenure.

2025 was almost a free hit for him to learn what is required to be an AFL player. In 2026 he needs to get much fitter and stronger so that he can impact games more consistently. He should relish playing in a Casey side with a lot of tall forwards and on VFL grounds with variable weather, both of which should provide plenty of crumbing opportunities.

He can count himself a little unlucky to have been delisted given his late season injuries, but ultimately he has been on the list three years and hasn't progressed sufficiently. We need to get better at turning over the list and not just hoping that something clicks for players in their fourth or fifth years.

Undoubtedly his best football is very good. However he still goes missing far too often for a guy in his seventh season. Overall he had a decent year, but he should not be coming 6th in the B&F with a season average of 14 disposals and 0.8 goals a game. He pretty much epitomises why we have finished 14th in consecutive years with one of the oldest and most experienced lists in the competition. We have too many senior players putting in good but not great performances each week and getting away with it because there is no competition for positions in the team. That's not Chandler's fault, but we're not moving up the ladder with guys like him, Salem and Langdon finishing top 10 in the B&F.

Another who would be wondering why players of similar ability such as Sharp get gifted regular opportunities, whilst he misses out. I agree that he will never be a star at AFL level, but I would have liked to see him get a sustained run as a lock down small defender this year. That would have also released Bowey to play a more attacking role further up the ground.

Interesting choice given that Casey's success seemed to be predominantly due to the performances of the older players. We really didn't see much development from the likes of Laurie, Howes, Woewodin, Adams and Jefferson at Casey this year, to say nothing of Brown, Sestan and Verrall being delisted.