Lucifers Hero

Gone under the radar is that Bayley Fritsch made the squad, interestingly as a Defender. Well done to Oliver and Fritsch. Fritsch could become a star if allowed to play to his strengths...in the forward line!!! But this has left me wondering about the rest of our young draftees since Oliver in 2015. Is it we haven't recruited well (partly because we haven't had top 25 picks ) or is it that we aren't good at player development? The old recruitment vs development conundrum! That is 3 years without a Rising Star nomination, or a young draftee 'breaking out'. It troubles me that while we have good mid 20 yo talent we are creating a future problem not having a core group coming up behind them. All good if we are regularly contesting for a premiership but we seem a long way from that. It almost sets us up for having to continually 'buy-in' talent in the future. Hopefully, we rectify that in this draft and use our early draft picks.

Looks like Giants want our pick 2/3 to stop the next pick # holder bidding on Green. giants-are-eyeing-off-demons-no2-draft-pick It means GWS is less likely to take their 1st round picks to the draft and Live Trade them so it gives us a bit of leverage in getting value for #2/3.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-08-26/fritsch-nominated-for-mark-of-the-year- Scroll down on that web page and there is a box that says 'Vote Now'. Great mark. One of the few highlights for the year.

An article by Mitch Robinson criticising the AA selectors by putting midfielders on the wings and not selecting any true 'wingmen'.not-selecting-genuine-wingmen The real value of the article for me is It gives an amazing insight into the role of a wingmen and his importance in the 'modern' game. Interestingly, he says: "...put any full-time on-baller on the wing, you cut their stats in half". Reinventing Robinson as a wingman is a masterstroke by Fagan.

I like how Pendlebury stirred Chris Scott (who embarrassingly won't stop whinging about playing finals at the MCG): “Yeah I was rapt I didn’t have to head down the highway to Geelong...It’s nice that we finished fourth and got a home final.”

No need for angst that Max is on the bench as there is lots of politics in selections: Hurn ignored as captain two years running for headline catching glamour boys. Ablett named in 44 to put some icing on his career. Genuine stars like Coniglio and Whitfield ignored in the 44. Hawkins in 44 but Ben Brown not in. And, the 'Grundy was on the bench last year, its Max's turn this year' thinking. Its a micky-mouse team anyway. Delighted Max is in the 22. Much deserved. The only real highlight for the year was Max. btw - loved that no Ess player was even selected in the AA squad of 44!

Not directly related to this thread: I hope Goodwin is having a big say in who the new coaches are. It seems he made 'captain calls' on the current coaching panel. I just hope we don't go too far the other way. Sign off on appointments is required by higher ups but he needs to be 100% sure he can work with them and he can deliver a united and cohesive coaching panel.

They have the best kicking skills in the AFL. A big 'Yes' from me. If he is to be Strategy Coach, I hope he can do the goal kicking coach thing on the side. He also had a beautiful kick going i50. In fact, he could teach the likes of Oliver, Harmes, Viney, Hunt, Brayshaw a thing or two about kicking. Yze was blessed with natural balance which can't really be learnt. But I'm a firm believer that poise and composure can be learnt. From that comes better decision making. None of them will kick like Yze but imagine if even half of those guys improved their i50 kicking skills by even 50%.

Love it! Gave me a great laugh - always a good first thing in the morning.

LOL!! Just shows what a mess auto correct and not checking typing can make. Should read: 'dyed-in-the-wool' Good pick-up Edit: just saw your last post - spot on!

He received a lukewarm response from players when announcing his retirement. Didn't seem to be a lot of love in the video in either direction.

Maybe so, but imv we need a forward line made up of AFL experienced forwards. By all means add a few that were fwds earlier in their career or converted from other roles but our whole fwds have barely played 150 games between them in that role. That Jones is our highest goal kicker speaks volumes of our need for real forwards.

He is a die-in-the-woods North supporter. Keen observer of the game and has the knack of being quite neutral and objective in his articles. Not to mention insightful.

With the exception of inexperienced Weideman and Fritsch, our whole fwd line is converted mids and backmen. Can we have some real forwards please, who have experience in the role at AFL, understand 'forward craft' and can help their less experienced forward teammates. And while we are at it, an experienced forward coach wouldn't go astray!

Frosty has been nominated as the club's 'Most Courageous' player by his team mates. It is part of the MV player awards. MVP Nominees He is quite fearless, how he throws himself around. Quite an honour. Nothing better than respect from teammates.

A bit harsh as 2019 is not entirely the player's fault. If those expensive trade-ins had been available 2019 would not have been as bad. And, if we had made better list decisions and developed players better we may not need someone like Langdon. Just saying lots of reasons for 2019. My comment about the salary cap was more about tying up ~20% on three players (if Langdon's $ are per jr's post) on longish contract years and the medium term impact when it comes to renew existing player contracts. Sure this year Lewis and Jones free up some coin but looking into 2020+ OOC players the available pie doesn't looks so big.

Hope it really isn't $700k, is it? He would be in our top 3-4 paid players. Is he that good? Also, we are apparently paying Lever and May around $800k each. So the 3 would be about $2.3m of our sal cap. ie nearly 20%. I wonder how our young talents feel if they see players traded in at the top end of our salary profile and then think how much of the pie is left for them?

Weak Crows A scathing attack by Blight on the Crows and their external review on two counts: "...to have an external review on what a lot of people are getting paid internally to actually make those decisions...” “How are they (external reviewers) going to judge the coaching fraternity...and how are they going to judge what they do with the players...when the players aren’t there they’re on holidays?” To wrap up: “Stupid, mediocrity at its best. It is a lack of leadership. I’m telling you now, it is one of the worst decisions..." If I put my Corp Consulting hat on this smacks of a review where the outcomes are predetermined and the powers to be want an 'independent' report to justify those outcomes. Its an easier sell to the affected people and other stakeholders than if someone internally stood up and took responsibility. I agree with Blight. It is a sign of weakness when management won't own the tough decisions. Very glad our club has avoided the condemnation by not going for an external internal review.

According to the media, Saints and Crows want to split their respective #3 and #5 picks and they also have GWS's #11 and #13 in their sights. (All # are pre GCS pp). Saints need to get the Brad Hill trade done and Crows need to rejuvenate their list. They may be a bit more desperate than us to split to get their deals done during the Trade period. So there may be a bidding war with GWS to get their bounty during the Trade period. GWS could easily take #11 and #13 to Draft night and sell them to the highest bidder during 'Live Trade'. Or they can Trade them between the close of Trade period and end of Draft night. Some creativity required. I can see any club holding a top 5 pick dealing it to anyone with picks 10-16 and their 2020 first pick. The permutations (and risks) are endless... This will be an interesting side show to player trades...let the cat-and-mouse games begin?.

I think Tracc will stay but not because pies have no cap room - they lose Wells this year who was reportedly on $600k p.a. They also lose lesser players like Dunne. So will have the cap space to target players and they repeatedly get players without paying a premium. Tracc comes out of contract next year so if he is unhappy and puts off contract talks then it might be a different story.

Roos and Whately have strongly condemned Adelaide's external review respectivley saying it was 'alarming' and 'risky' and a 'flawed methodologhy'. Recent history is on their side with them quoting the most successful reviews are by insiders. eg Cook at Geelong, Murphy at Collingwood, Gale at Richmond. Crows External Review. Agree with them and I think Pert (with external/AFL input/feedback) and Mahoney are the right combo for us.

That third pillar is our downfall all over the ground which undoes our good work on the other two. We need to take a leaf out of Ratten's book that if you can't kick you don't play! Firstly, we need to teach our players how to be poised and composed before disposal. Firmly believe these can be taught. If they can't learn then they don't play.

But they do influence the financial strength of the club via memberships, game attendance, buying sponsor's products and buying merchandising. And # of members is a major determinant of FTA time slots which is important to sponsors to get TV exposure. Sure, our voice isn't loud but I do feel the club cares what supporters think as they have the 'power of the purse' so to speak and can walk away (and have shown they will) at any time.

Not sure which is worse us not asking about Papley or being told 'no thanks'.

In a way I'm glad Oliver has missed out. May take the chip off his shoulder and learn his effort needs to have an impact be it metres gained, goals, work rate, defensive work etc. He doesn't need to excel in all those of course but needs to really improve in some. He has work to before he is in the same class as those selected.