poita

A soon-to-be 28 year old, undersized key forward who couldn't hit the side of a barn from 10 metres away for most of this season. Amazingly he will be our only key forward depth if Hogan departs - we are in for a world of trouble if Tom McDonald is injured or if Weideman reverts to his early season form.

I am amazed that Johnstone hasn't been officially delisted yet. I have seen nothing that suggests he can become a decent VFL footballer, let alone an AFL footballer. I've said it previously, if he was not on our list, there is zero chance that we would recruit him now based on what we have seen over the past two years. So why bother keeping him around, even if his replacement is pick 245 in the rookie draft?

What a massive disappointment Garlett was this year. He clearly didn't want to be playing football at any point of the season. I hope he can sort out whatever personal problems he has been dealing with this year, and come back strongly next year. If he doesn't want to be an AFL footballer any more, I hope he can step away now rather than going through the motions for another 12 months.

I've been concerned about our midfield depth for some time, and losing Tyson would only exacerbate this. Barlow does not offer something new to our list, but he could be handy backup if we do suffer a couple of injuries to key players. We could do a lot worse with a rookie pick on low dollars.

I couldn't justify having both Dion Johnstone & Lockhart on the list. If we delist Johnstone, then Lockhart becomes a viable option with a late draft or rookie selection.

Neville was a little down on his 2017 form, particularly early in the season, but he is such a good player than he was still an excellent contributor across the year. I love that he is getting recognition, even though it is not sought, for his off field work as well. It is fantastic to have him locked away for the next few years, as he must have been sounded out by the WA clubs in particular.

I'd love to see the highlights package that (a) got McKenna drafted in the second round and (b) earned him four years on AFL lists, because he looked miles off the pace in his nine games this year. If he still dreams of an AFL career he could do worse than hang around at Casey for another year.

Wagner was okay in patches in the opening month, then his form seemed to drop right away when he returned to Casey. He would need a major form revival to earn himself a new contract at the end of next season, as he looks to be a long way out of the selectors' minds at present.

Joel has some decent characteristics, but I am still not convinced as to his ability to be a key defender at AFL level. Perhaps he will be redeployed further up the ground next season, particularly when Lever returns.

I don't mind Keilty as a player, but surely he would be a long, long way down the depth chart if you believe the hype about May coming to the club. I struggle to see how our list management has led us to perhaps ending up with 7 key defenders and just 3 key forwards on our list.

I've said it before - it is really hard to see clubs drafting anything other than the absolute best young ruck prospects now that the VFL reserves are gone. The opportunities for players such as Filipovic to develop are just not there. Maybe he can find a VAFA / VFL team who is prepared to develop him for a few years and he can try his luck again later.

I would definitely keep Tyson. Let's not forget that Kennedy-Harris was in the side until Viney returned, and he is a long way from being an AFL footballer. Perhaps Tyson is not automatic best 22, but every team has injuries during the course of a season and you need some cover. I would hate to lose Tyson and have to resort to playing a bloke like Maynard in a big game. At least you know that Tyson will find the footy and use it reasonably well.

I'm happy for him to go if he repays the club for the medical bills we have copped for the past two years and the 18 months of wages he did no work for. I have no issues with players moving clubs for family reasons or for job security (including Tom Scully) as long as we are fairly compensated, but Vandenberg owes us big time for the faith we showed in him at the end of last year.

JKH should have been delisted at the end of 2017, but we stupidly gave him a new contract mid-season. Here we are two years later and he is still hanging around. I can't see where he has improved since his debut in 2014, but clearly others see something that I don't.

Are the taxi drivers competing this year?

Surely there is a difference between "banned from" a function and "not required to speak at" a function. Which is it? Or is this just one of those times where dum dums on the internet collectively get their panties in a bunch over nothing?

Good decision to cut ties with King, Filipovic & McKenna. I can't see any benefit to retaining Johnstone, even if his replacement is pick 100 in the rookie draft. Find the best available state league player and give him a chance on the list. Kennedy-Harris & T.Smith survive only because we have badly mismanaged our list over the past two years. Garlett, Maynard & Wagner are lucky they have contracts for next year, particularly the first two. I would have kept Pedersen around until after trade week, and Vince would be better value next year than the bottom ten players on our list.

I've been a massive fan of the way Pedo conducted himself on and off the field over the past 3-4 years, even when he wasn't getting the AFL games that his form warranted. I wish him all the best for the next stage of his life. That said, our ruck and key forward stocks are at critically low levels with the departure of Pederson, King & Filipovic. If Hogan was to leave as well the club would have a massive task to restock with limited draft picks available.

I always thought Bugg's best football was when he was being a pain in the backside tagging opposition midfielders. Once he was moved forward he seemed to lose his edge. If he could have spend his down time learning to kick properly, the Mills incident would have been forgotten. There is no place in the forward line of an AFL side for players who can't kick simple goals on a regular basis.

The gap between Kent's best and worst football is immense and he spends 90% of his time on the injury list. St Kilda are welcome to him at any price, especially if a three year contract is what it would take to keep him.

There is no way that 3 game memberships should have priority access to finals tickets. I understand why these memberships exist, but entry to 3 regular season games should be the extent of the benefits.

At the risk of derailing the thread, Smith kicked 12 goals 26 behinds for the VFL year and 5 goals 20 behinds since the start of July. He will be 28 before the start of next season. He is the absolute definition of a list clogger.

After a strong start, a Casey loss looked inevitable from about half way through the second quarter. How you expect to win a game with no ruckman and one marking forward (because the other is getting flogged in the ruck) is beyond me. The umpiring was abysmal, but Casey had far too many passengers. Fritsch is far too good for that level, and Petty showed some good signs, but the cupboard is otherwise completely bare in terms of players who could make the senior side better in 2019. I was really disappointed with Hunt's lack of impact, particularly in the second half, and Kennedy-Harris disappeared completely after quarter time. Relying on players such as Bugg and Wagner who have atrocious foot skills to deliver the ball inside 50 is a recipe for disaster. I hope the FD is prepared to do some major pruning of our list this year - retaining guys like McKenna, King, Filipovic, Bugg and Garlett would be a horrible decision.

Two days on, Saturday's performance is still hard to contemplate. I didn't think we'd win, but I thought we'd have a real crack. Sadly there was just zero effort or intensity from most of the team. There were signs against Hawthorn that we were getting tired, but that is no excuse for the lack of pressure and tackling that we saw. I feel so sorry for the supporters who spent thousands of dollars travelling to watch that tripe. The main thing I took from the game, which is something that I have suspected for most of the year, is that the gap between the top three sides and the rest is enormous. The gap between fourth and twelfth (perhaps even to sixteenth) is very small, but bridging the gap to third is going to take a heap of work (and luck). Teams such as Essendon, Geelong and North have been very aggressive already this off season, and we will get left behind if we don't add some serious quality to the list. Overall the season has been a success and a significant step forward, but we can't just assume that our next movement is up. Hopefully the players use this loss as motivation and come back bigger and better. It is imperative that we finish top four next season if we are to have any chance of winning a premiership.

I thought last week was the week to bring Smith in, and was surprised to see a change this week. That said, Fritsch was poor in defence last week and Smith (for all his flaws) is probably a better option overall. I would have dropped Hannan and pushed Fritsch forward, but perhaps Goodwin thinks Fritsch is tired and/or down on confidence. Hannan owes us a couple of goals this week, because he has been ordinary in both finals. I'm glad Tyson stays in as we need as much midfield depth as possible, and other than last week his form has been pretty good.