deelusions from afar

Wouldn't mind Fritsch moving to the wing if this happens - I thought when he played there a few seasons back he actually did pretty well. On the otherhand, he's normally a good kick and had enough shots on goal to justify playing as a forward

Love Neita! But he did not have a great kicking action and other than a few brief periods (96-96, 02?) he was not a reliable kick for goal.

Hope you're right... but there's a reasonable chance his body is cooked. Do we know he has plenty of interest out there? He's done very little since 2018.

Isn't he rated pretty highly (likely inside the top 20) - i.e. will go well before what is our current pick? That would mean the only way to get him would be to trade the likes of Viney or Brayshaw - surely we wouldn't do that for a kid

Yeah I find TMac and the forward situation interesting. If he can get some agility and running capacity back he would have trade value but would be worth keeping - his general fitness will be handy if the game lengths go back to normal. If he can't recover his agilty, he's not worth keeping and wouldn't have much trade currency. Looks like next year will be his last chance (with us or anyone else). This year there appears to be a lot of big name key forwards that may be gettable. Maybe some are NQR but often a new club is what they need - Danither, Brown, Cameron etc are all big names that have been in the top group of players at the peak of their powers. Not against us going after one. But at the same time, I feel like most of the key forwards are FF and i think this is weid's best position. What is the Weid's ceiling if we get everything else right? I think our issue is really the CHF connection (arguably about the midfielders more than forwards). So ironically maybe a fit (and agile) TMac (and doubly ironically a Hogan) would be better for our team than one of the aforementioned key forwards if it means we can chase some run and class through the middle instead of landing one of the big (but NQR) fish. But if we don't land a key forward this trade period, we are clearly going all in on Weid, Tmac (our) Brown and Petty which doesn't fill me with confidence after the last 2 years.

From the article "Jack Silvagni deal up in the air as two Demons set to be traded" Edmund also reports the Giants are likely to part ways with at least one of their first three picks from the 2018 Draft, Jy Caldwell, Jackson Hately and Xavier O’Halloran. “These are the first three picks of the 2018 National Draft (for GWS),” Edmund reported. “The Giants are digging in letting Caldwell go to St Kilda and they love O’Halloran too because he’s got a bit of a versatility. “I think Jackson Hately is the one that falls out here, Adelaide prioritised him some time ago. “He hasn’t pulled the trigger on a move yet, but I’d say that’s a fair chance of happening in the near future.” https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/jack-silvagni-deal-up-in-the-air-as-two-demons-set-to-be-traded-c-1359718?fbclid=IwAR0eNlhwOiqaX1csQobnA-7vv8sksegAGdwG8Lz-uy7X2U7x1nhxSadMsBw Surely we'd be in to one of these? Potentially part of a Preuss deal?

That might be true - but at the same time it's an area that is a glaring weakness. We've got a very talented list that is probably 4 players away from a premiership threat (winger, key forward, fast / skillful outside mid, small forward). Smith fills one of these rolls. Potentially by filling the wing position an outside mid is not needed... but would still love to get one is there is one on offer. Still a lot to playout - but a good chance that Tmac, Pruess, ANB and one of Brayshaw / Harmes will not be at the club next year - so a good chance of trading in a player or two that gets us pretty close.

I find the TMac situation interesting. On the one hand, if he really is cooked (due to injuries etc) then surely he next to no value as anyone we trade him with is going to do their own medical assessments and come to that conclusion themselves. On the other hand, if he is not cooked, then given the shorter games this year and the fact that endurance has previously been his weapon, maybe there's more upside going forward. He's not suited to the backline - decision making / kicking makes him a liability but I've been a fan of him forward since he was moved there. But the last two years he has looked more and more like mechano man ben holland in terms of agility. Can he recover? Or is he done?

Pretty sure we'll be busy. We have a good team on paper with some obvious flaws / holes (running winger/hbf with good delivery skills, key forward). We have surplus talent with trade currency in areas that other teams need eg inside mids (viney, brayshaw, harmes), ruck (preuss) and a forward (tmac). While I don't want to see any of these players traded, you have to give quality to get quality and we are currently a few players short. E.g Preuss would be great as insurance but if gawn is injured, we have other options (none of them perfect) but since we are predictable with gawn at the centre bounces, maybe having a ruck s less important than we think. Or to put it another way, if we can find a kpf or skilled outside runner that is in our best 22, then this is better than keeping preuss who is at best our 23rd player.

Wouldn't it be about getting extra draft picks and freeing up some salary cap space? Whoever is the best forward in the game at the moment would have been useless at North this year

If we do keep him then I think it's an indication that the club think he is capable of reaching close to his best. He was coming from a long way back this year, but if his output in future is likely to be similar to this year then there'd be no reason to keep him.

While I really like the idea of getting Saad to the club - especially for a second round pick, I wonder whether that is his real value or just the demonland board value. For example, he's probably in essendon's top 3 performers this year. Would we have thought our third best player last year (Jack Viney) would be worth a second round pick? If one of Viney / Brayshaw / Harmes (inside mids that are behind Oliver and Petracca) want to seek opportunities elsewhere at the end of the season, would we be expecting a second round pick for them. Maybe that's generous for Harmes right now as he is out of the team.... but he was 4th in our BnF last year and one of our best in 2018. If Salem wanted out would we expect to get a pick in the 20s for him? I might be wrong, but I think Saad has more currency than any of these players - or is that just me?

I don't watch a lot of the pies but my sense was that he would get a lot of his goals from using his pace to get clear on the lead and being a reliable set shot. Rather than someone that gets goals from crumbing and pressure acts? Is that fair? If so, I don't think that's what we want - if we can't deliver properly to our current forwards then he's not going to make a big difference. If we could, I'd go after pace and skill in centre square and wings.

Can we clone Langdon's football brain (and maybe endurance) and give it to Jayden? Could be a weapon on the wing

Would hate to see him leave but could live with it if was part of the deal to get papley in - i don't think that's likely though!

Agree but if everyone was fit I feel like they would like to give Hore or Petty a go in this role. Also think the Smith experiment is not over - this year is hard for players to learn structures / improve when they're not in the senior team. Another defender would be great.. but i think that pace and skills in the midfield are a far greater need.

I think Goody is coaching us to play a different style - a bit more keepings off, switch of play and less manic pressure. Maybe this plan B or maybe it's just about conserving our players energy - especially when there are short breaks. When we now have a bunch of good users in the back half (May, Hibberd, Salem and Rivers), it makes sense for them to chip it around until we get an opening.

I thought we were after lever as a big bodied midfielder - i think we were looking to take him with richmond's pick if trengove went to them?

Agree - I think Hannan (and Fritsch) are both worth trying in this role. I also wonder why Hunt hasn't been given a decent go at it. I know his kicking isn't great (but neither is Langdon's). I assume it is more about fitness. But if it's not a fitness issue, I feel like there's no reason why he couldn't do what Langdon's doing. When he started his career he showed not only his pace, but his ability to tackle, to win the ball in the air and to read the play. Even playing as a defensive winger to shut down their most dangerous one, he has the speed to hurt the opposition when we have the ball.

Agree 100% BR. I was very disappointed to hear we drafted Sparrow (not a knock on the kid but we had lots of players that play his role already when he was drafted) but the talk at the time was that he is very quick and able to accelerate away from congestion. Haven't seen this yet but he hasn't played a lot of senior footy so too early to know. Maybe the VFL watchers from last year might know better. Equally Jordan was picked as an outside mid / back flanker with good disposal skills. My understanding was that when he wasn't having much impact playing these roles at VFL last year they put him in the square and realised that's where he belongs.

Isn't Lockhart already playing this role?

I like the idea ... but I have a feeling that having one of Preuss or Gawn forward the whole game will have a detrimental impact on our forward pressure. Obviously TMac does not have great speed or agility but I feel he would do better than either of the ruckman at finding his man / running to the right spot in the zone etc. Potentially also messes with Weid's role because he's currently playing out of the goal square most of the match - can't imagine max or preuss playing CHF

I heard this exchange as well. My take is that Whateley is a big fan of Brayshaw and continues to ask these questions as he wants him at Geelong for when their star midfielders retire. What I found interesting was that Lewis said how much he thought of Jack... but went on to say he needs to find another position to pay (outside the centre square) as that's brayshaw's best position. But it was reported that he said to play Brayshaw on the wing. Anyone have a link to the audio?

Apparently we had a decent win - anyone know how we went? Pies 6.5 (41) Dees 12.8 (80)

Well with the rest of the fixture, I hope my theory of our game plan not stacking up on the wider grounds is proven wrong - The Gabba, Cazaly Stadium and TIO are 3 of the widest grounds going around outside of the MCG.