Watts Jurrah Dunn?

I think there was a replay of it on GEM last night at 11pm.

I'd get a kick against GWS and Coburg. Time for Sylvia to produce against the Pies and Eagles, and stamp himself on the contest in the first quarter when we so often seem to concede 6-8 goals and the match is over.

Paul Duffield seems to be on the outer at Fremantle. Nic Suban is a Victorian boy. I must admit to not seeing too much of Suban and don't know whether he's as good a kick as I'm thinking, but I think they'd both be worth looking at as the Half Back playmaker we sorely miss.

Jordie's effort can't be questioned and he is very hard at it but his kicking and pace are so far below AFL standard it's ridiculous. He missed targets today by 15m. You can only carry so many one-paced, poor kicks on a list. We seem to have more than our fair share in Grimes, Trengove, Magner, McKenzie, Moloney, Bate, Bail. They're everywhere!

Moloney, Davey and Joel MacDonald all must go. My delists would be: Bartram Bate Bennell Morton Spencer Jetta Petterd Davey Green MacDonald Moloney Sylvia and Stef Martin on the trade-table Jordie McKenzie is on extremely thin ice as well. His kicking is below VAFA standard and he can't run out of sight. Seems to never do a pre-season so I'm willing to give him another chance off a full pre-season, but needs to develop quickly because at this stage he is just an ok tagger and exceptional turnover merchant. We could get one of our other turnover merchants like Grimes or Bail to easily play this roll. Anyone who argues these players are any good and should be kept...have a look at where we have been on the ladder for 5 years.

Mongrel was the thing we missed most today. Just a pack of nice guys.

Absolutely disgraceful today the way we just copped it from Brisbane. Watts gets smashed into all day and just cops it, grinning. Bate gets bumped into on the boundary by Hanley and just cops it. Nicholson gets run down by Ricoh and has his head rubbed into the ground - just cops it. The only unsociable player on our list is Tapscott. Show some pride MFC. Pathetic.

Spencer is a joke. He's absolutely useless as soon as the ruck contest is over. How he has clogged our rookie/primary list for 4 years now is beyond me. Heaven help we should use the Rookie list to take a young gun from Ireland who can run and kick, like half the Brisbane list. I too question why we needed to play two ruckman against Hudson and Merrett. Staggering.

I've torn my hair out for years at our kick ins. Just made no sense having marking options like Frawley and Garland take the kick ins, or having players kick it into the pocket to Bartram or Grimes. The opposition goes nowhere near these players for a reason. I love the ball in Watts' hands as he is one of few players on our list capable of a well weighted 40-50m pass, as well as a low hard 30 meter bullet. Nicholson and McDonald take the game on and play on when they get it, and before you know it we're at centre wing. I know we love Bartram's guts and determination but I think Nicholson will go past him very soon.

Brad Sewell quick? You're kidding? Sewell is very similar to a lot of our midfield - one paced and an ordinary kick. If we had to go after one of these it would have to be Dal Santo for some outside class.

The question is how much more than Geelong would we need to offer to lure him? He's a Geelong boy and according to Damien Barrett they will be offering $500k+ a year. He'd be living with family and friends, playing in a successful side. We might need to pay him $750k to lure him up the highway...is he worth that sort of money? Is he even a Top 50 player?

I think our realistic targets, based on our needs, would be: Ricky Dyson - a better kick than anyone in our back 6. Has improved a lot from what I saw against the Eagles. I don't expect to him to be a regular at Essendon once they get everyone back from injury. Josh Hunt - probably too old but could play a role for 2 years as the 'quarterback' with A+ kicking. Then again, might only stifle Strauss' development. Clinton Young - I would be throwing everything at this bloke. Outside class we so desparately need. Like the Sewell comments, I couldn't really see Hawthorn being able to match a 3 year, $400k a year type deal. Might even be one like Sydney with Mumford where you have to take a risk and offer a longer contract (such as 4 years) to really entice him. Shannon Byrnes - Certainly no star but might provide just as much as Aaron Davey, and would come at half the price.

We need to go hard after one of their younger players and pay a little over the odds. With all the stars at hawthorn blokes like Young and Whitecross are on peanuts. We must have so much coin given our deplorable list. Offer young or whitecross $1.2m over 4 years. At least they'll know how hard to train, and can kick and spread and make good decisions. As for what to give, I think Stef Martin would have some value to them as a ruck/key defender. If they'd prefer jamar give them jamar. We desperately need some class through the midfield.

Must must MUST use the two Scully picks on the classiest midfielders available in the draft. We need 2 Dyson Heppell's with exceptional skills & great decision who can play midfield or off a back flank. We don't need more inside grunt, we have enough of that and Viney is the same. I just can't believe we are going into the most important draft in our history, with such a great draft pool and Todd Viney is calling the shots. Says to me maybe they are planning on trading the picks for a Dangerfield, Boak, Goddard etc.

Great thread. I know Jamar can take a mark but other than those 5 goals against Carlton that day he's never really shown he can play forward. With Clark always forward it seems like it might be ruck or bench for Jamar, as we could just be too tall and slow with 2 ruckman forward. Stef Martin is a 6ft 6" gorilla that plays like an outside wingman. No physical presence, and close to useless in the air. Regularly jumps into packs with 1 arm up like a basketballer and really prefers to leap high and try and take it on his chest. He's also about 25 now so I'm not sure how long we can hold onto him for those one or two Buddy-like teases he provides us with each season. I can never see him taking a game by the scruff and kicking 5. It all depends on whether Gawn's body can hold up, but I would have Stef Martin on the trade-table at the end of this season. Last year Richmond were that desperate you would have got their first round pick for him. You have to give something good to get something good and we have a surplus of ruck/forwards, 3rd tall forwards and slow inside midfielders. Unless you want to trade Petterd, or someone is silly enough to give us something decent for Moloney, then I think Stef is the bait.

The dumbest thing for mine is the kick ins. I just can't understand why you would have your 6 ft 4" strong, aggressive full back taking the kick ins almost every time. With Frawley kicking it in, and Rivers standing at the 50 with his hands on his hips like the insipid senior player he is, it leaves Jamar as the only option. Have anyone else kick it in so that Frawley can stand on the opposite side to Jamar and provide a second option.

I don't buy it either. Essendon went from all out attack with Knights in 2010 to a much more defensive game style in 2011 under Hird. They made a brilliant start to the season and won lots of early games before tiring half way through the season. Why does it look like taking us 2-3 years to learn while they got it in one summer?