poita

I buy an 11 game reserved seat membership each year. The money I have saved over the past 17 years of no forking out for a higher membership level far outweighs the cost of buying a GF ticket on the black market. Why anybody would pay for a guaranteed GF ticket for a club that hasn't played finals for 11 years is beyond me, but each to their own. I really dislike the idea of the club bleeding loyal supporters dry when it keeps on wasting money on boneheaded decisions such as paying players to pay for other clubs (Watts), or to not even play at all (Garland, Lumumba).

Sorry, but Woewodin was absolutely elite in 2000. Yes, it was a deep midfield, but he was definitely the star performer. Best & fairest winner in a GF team, to say nothing of the Brownlow. Even before the Brownlow was awarded, it was a disgrace that he was not All Australian - the Brownlow only emphasised it. There is far more to impact than mere disposals.

The reports from Casey were promising this year, but the arrival of Lever makes it harder to see where Keilty fits into the picture. Hopefully he can continue to improve and put pressure on the likes of Frost & the McDonalds.

I still don't understand why we have two developing ruckmen on our list. Even if, on the minuscule chance we unearth a star, they will still be behind Gawn in the queue.

Our midfield depth is a real issue, so Maynard is sure to get chances if his Casey form is good enough. At 26 I thought the 2 year contract extension was a little generous, but it does get him out of sequence with all the others whose contracts expire next year.

Trade for pick 66 is fair. A one year contract is also fair. Well done to the club for at least getting one deal right this year.

For Port to be premiership contenders, those three guys don't need to be stars, they just need to play their role. There is enough top end talent on that list already, but they dropped off towards the bottom of their best 22. These additions help significantly in that respect. Watts will be probably the number 5 forward in their setup, compared to number 3 at Melbourne. That is a big difference. Ditto Motlop - best small forward at Geelong, but behind Wingard & Gray at Port. I would expect both to thrive in that environment. Rockliff is a very good player, and one I would have liked us to target given he would have cost us nothing (other than room in the salary cap. Like any team they need to have their best players on the park, but I would expect them to be right in the mix.

How much of Jack's salary are we paying for him to play at Port Adelaide? This whole situation stinks.

Garland on one leg playing out his career at Casey next season would probably still have more value than any of the bottom 10 players on our list. I can only assume we are keen to move on players in the key 26 -29 age bracket so we can continue to bleat about how we are the youngest and least experienced team in the competition, thereby buying the coach more time to get his act together.

He has plenty of good physical characteristics, not sure about the football characteristics just yet. Unfortunately he had so many injuries this year, that it is almost a wasted year of development, despite the (brief) taste of AFL football. I do wonder where he fits into a defence that contains Lever, Frost, McDonald, Hibberd & Jetta.

I don't mind Harmes as a player, but the gap between his best and worst is still far too great. He becomes a regular when we lose a few players to injury / suspension, but our progress as a club will be obvious when he plays only when his form justifies it. He's not really a young, up-and-coming player any more, but hopefully he can find some consistency.

Not a fan from his first year, but Wagner's lack of development this year was bitterly disappointing for a 23 year old in his second year in the system. He has been given plenty of opportunities, but he is still poor defensively and his skills are ordinary with or without pressure. He would need to take a major step forward next year to get a new contract.

Lever might notionally be worth two first round picks, but the opportunity cost of not having a first round pick next year is enormous. We have more than a dozen fringe players out of contract next year (Kent, Garland, Pedersen, Vandenberg, Vince, Kennedy-Harris, Bugg, King, Johnstone, Smith, McKenna, Wagner, Keilty, Filpovic) , none of whom I could confidently say will be at the club in 2019. How on earth do we replace a dozen players next year with no early draft picks? We certainly have no chance of landing another "big fish" without a first round pick to negotiate with. Our list management has been really poor in recent years. Long term deals offered to fringe players, not turning the list over enough. The end result is a list that doesn't have enough depth, and contains too many list cloggers. Mahoney & co have plenty of work to do over the next 12 months to turn this around.

This will make three years in a row that we've traded out of the first round. Those are the actions of a team that is premiership contention, not one that can't even finish top 8. We have a below average midfield, with terrible depth across the board. Pick 35 in a weak draft is basically worthless, I'm not sure why we bothered asking for it. So why the hell have we given up two first round picks, both of which could be in the top 10, for a defender? I'm sure he'll be a good player for the club, but we need to stop the ball getting down there, not worry about what happens when it gets there. Every year it seems as though we talk tough and end up capitulating as time ticks away. Other teams must [censored] themselves laughing when they see us coming. I'm bitterly disappointed that we've given up any chance of landing a top quality midfielder either this year or next.

Poor decision to give him a third year on the list, as he was never going to make it. Too slow for his height, not tall enough for the role he was asked to play. His skills under pressure were very poor, as evidenced by his performance in the Sydney game.

Barely played at any level for GWS for 2 years, missed another full year for us. He'd want to be something special when he finally gets on the field for all the chances he has been given. Given how little junior football he supposedly played, you would imagine he is coming from a long way back.

It took me a while to warm to Neville, but he had another very solid year. I know the difference was minute, but I'm surprised he didn't finish higher in the B&F given his consistency. Perhaps his lack of attacking play hurts his standing. Jetta would have to be in the conversation with Jones & Viney as the best performed player of the Goodwin / Roos era. Full credit to him for turning his career around over the past four or five years.

I'd be interested to know Smith's durability over the past few years at Casey, because he was barely on the park at any level this year. A soon-to-be 27 year old undersized key forward who rarely plays doesn't seem to have much value to me.

Yet another small forward with no tricks. Doesn't get enough of the ball, doesn't kick enough goals, presumably makes a few tackles because he spends all day chasing. I think this was a poor draft selection and I would say he is 99% certain to be delisted at the end of next year (so why give him a second year?).

His 2000 season was simply outstanding. His 32 goals were massive, but all of our midfielders kicked goals that year. A pity we can't get that sort of contribution from the current group.

Its astonishing that you can get 9 years on a senior list and never once be your club's number one ruckman. I thought Jake was okay depth for a while there, but he really fell away over the last year or two. His inability to put pressure on a flailing Gawn late this season really hurt us. I would be gobsmacked if he was at another club next season, and he really only has himself to blame if old dee's post above is accurate.

Fringe player at best. Would much prefer to see him being a pain in the midfield, rather than playing faux-tough guy in the forward line and spraying shots at goal. He can claim that his hit on Mills was out of character, but it was a weak and pathetic act which significantly hurt the team. He has a lot of work to do to regain respect from inside and outside the club. Maybe this will end up being the making of him.

When you see quality AFL standard ruckmen changing clubs for a third round pick or less, you wonder we keep persisting with highly speculative young ruckmen. Sure we've had one elite season from Gawn, but also seven that were largely underwhelming. I'm happy to have one of King or Filopovic on the rookie list, but we don't need both and certainly I can't justify a spot on the senior list. Far better to look for the next Nankervis / Jacobs / Martin (whoops, we already had him).

When you are 175cm tall you need to have something special - speed, pressure, goal sense, skills, ball winning ability, etc. Kennedy was just average across the board and hence I'm assuming his delisting was a pretty easy decision for the club to make.

Congratulations to Clayton Oliver. Clearly our best player across the season and was always going to win by a big margin. As for the rest, the less said the better. Even Viney as a surprising second place getter only picked up 346 votes out of a possible 720. That would give him an average rating of 4.8 / 10 across the 18 games he played. Not at all surprising, but the real concern for me is Gawn. 138 votes out of a possible 520 for an average rating of 2.6. That puts him 14th if he plays every game. Hopefully he takes it personally and has a massive pre season. We desperately need him to be at his best.