Diamond_Jim

I suspect the Eagles will offer overs. His non signing at Port is reportedly down to $$ and not being guaranteed a best 22 spot pre-injury. Tread with care is my conclusion Time to claim the so called premiership discount that the power clubs had in the past

Freo strongly represented for an underperforming team (4 players included

Just saw the McCartin footage. On the basis of earlier suspensions looks like a clear cut lack of care. Adelaide player in exposed position and McCartin drops his shoulder

We don't have one at VFL level unfortunately unless you regard TW, Laurie or AMW as midfielders

Just curious why would another club give us a player for Grundy if the trade essentially matched what we paid for him

Here's a good article listing the 202 players by club who are out of contract at season's end. I see it lists Schache who I thought had another year Melbourne (8): Luke Dunstan (unrestricted free agent), Michael Hibberd, James Jordon (unrestricted free agent), Jake Melksham (unrestricted free agent), Andy Moniz-Wakefield, Josh Schache, Deakyn Smith, Kye Turner. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/deal-or-no-deal-naming-the-202-afl-players-who-don-t-have-a-contract-for-2024-20230818-p5dxn7.html

The winners of the QF's get home PF's

VFL shopping or improving your last 6 of 22/23 doesn't happen much unless the transferee is stuck behind a senior star and can't get into the first 22/23. Why is this so? Could it be that the talent pool is so thin that there's not much at VFL level. I really don't know. For example we have a surplus of smaller flanker type players but are any a certain lock at other teams?

We only paid pick 27 so anything around 25-32 is fair. You could argue that his value decreased in 2023 but not by much. I wonder if we could throw in say $200k (once off not per year) and get pick 22 out of Sydney

Remind me please... Did we give a second or third round pick for Grundy? It's beginning to feel like returning something you bought online because when it arrives it's not quite what you expected. Have no difficulty with the original deal but I do wonder if we really thought through how it would work in practice. My vision of May kicking out with Gawn and Grundy offering options on both sides of the ground and quickly passing off to Hunter or Langdon was way off the mark.

Good points.... Will be interesting how they approach their rebuild. Most clubs try to avoid bottoming out and with the Tasmanian entry it's even more complicated. Geelong face the same problem but at least they haven't traded their primary draft picks yet. There's even an argument for hiring a cheaper coach and increasing your number of skills assistants for say three years

Most do and neither of those named are first year players. I'd like to see some figures on Richmond and the other (or near 3peats) but the turnover is (my guess) 6 players in 3 years. Renew or Whither is the general rule You also need to distinguish between depth and renewal. Not sure that they are the same

Kossie was given a licence to fly early in his career. Time to ground him methinks

It's the scheduling which kills us this weekend. Probably more the fault of the AFL in giving us Sunday in Sydney

The fringe players will most likely be travelling emergencies so once again the VFL stuffs it up

Our money... Suns are broke but don't worry AFL will prop them up with our money. When does the subsidy ever end?

Thanks Kev Another VFL site said noon Saturday but obviously your info is correct. That timing stinks on so many levels https://www.flashscore.com/aussie-rules/australia/vfl/fixtures/

What is depth ? We've had a successful VFL team for several years so as a group the players do well. Individually it's harder to say as the gameplan (boundary with lots of throw ins and packs) does not lend itself to line busting displays. Weideman's failure to progress and injuries to aging stars in TMac and BBB badly exposed us for forward depth. Schache seems to be a bust. Midfield is not full of up and comers. Flankers we have a few but none are standouts. Down back is probably a little stronger. Ruck wise (Grundy aside) there's no one as yet. Perhaps I'm being harsh as we no longer see the revolving ins and outs of the bottom 5 players we used to see. Then there is the question of whether depth is useful. Tomlinson and Jordon (both great depth) want out. Preuss (great depth) wanted out and we hear the same of Harmes. Where will Dunstan go at season's end

The Casey game is played at noon on Saturday at Casey. Who plays there and who go as travelling emergencies to Sydney BTW If we win we play Williamstown the following week PS: Appears that they may have changed to game time to Sunday at 2:45pm (VFL.. the comp that keeps giving Nothing )

Rivers has always had a solid base of form and he has improved marginally each year until in 2023 he is a definite top ten in our 22. I'm looking forward to that marginal improvement over the next two years and we'll see a real top 5 player

I think you have it. He needs space where his speed and elusiveness wins out. More one on one ground balls to his advantage would be a start. He is a Charlie Cameron style player with better lateral movement We had 60 forward entries yesterday. How many were high bombs or picked off

Rest and probability Macca. One more game = one more chance of loss. Going forward the 5-8 teams could taste success simply because the AFL have managed somehow to level the competition. On the latter point I'm not sure I'm a fan of levelling to the degree we now see it. Makes for a long season with finals being an add on determined by luck and injury (vide our forward line). Somewhat irrelevant though as it keeps the TV and the AFL happy.

Gawn Perhaps beaten in the ruck or did not dominate but around the ground he took several important marks (7 marks)

Just go through the VFL and pick one. No different to us trading Preuss. Like Dunstall... they are smash glass in case of emergency. Our own Bell at Casey is an example of a 4 week fill in type ruck. Unless the guy can mark around the ground or up forward rucks are a meh proposition in the main

Looking forward is there a Casey match in the post Rd 24 bye week...(assuming we win the wildcard round next week)