Ted Lasso

having some of our more speculative picks come into the side and play well at AFL level has been a huge part of our resurgence, outside our top end talent when Hunt, Harmes, Vanders, Wagner Jetta ( as a rookie ) who were all rookies or later picks come in and lock down best 22 spots it just ramps up the pressure for spots to a whole new level! credit to the recruiting staff and the development programs at the club, i'm not sure there are any clubs who've been as consistently good with recruiting as we have, nearly every pick has been good.

you wouldn't be impressed if you were an Alex Rance for example and had just signed a long term contract with that club who was no doubt selling you the idea of having a Hawthorn-like era to get you over the line.

I'm sure it's not the only reason, but if he was set on coming to Melbourne, which is what was being talked about for a while it would become a consideration that the quality of the medical staff would have a bearing on his ability to get and stay fit.

Jaeger O'meara is a really interesting one, lots of talk that he is pretty keen on moving to Melbourne and one of the big reasons i am hearing is he and others don't have a lot of confidence in the Suns medical department and feels a Melbourne team would be a better option in terms of getting past his injury and having a rewarding career. pretty significant risk/reward factor here, he is in my opinion in the top few most talented young midfielders in the comp, and if he were to get fit and stay fit he would significantly improve our side, and his injury means we potentially might be able to land him without selling the farm. I personally don't feel we are in the position to take a risk like this just yet, and Dion Prestia is a much safer target, but it will be really interesting to see what happens with him, i think he'll end up at one of the big Melbourne clubs, Collingwood or Richmond maybe.

you have to understand the context, skinny lad competing very well against senior bodies really stood out to me and i thought he was extremely impressive, i wasn't sure where he would sit come draft day before that game but he showed some great signs of what he's going to be able to do when he develops an AFL body. The biggest thing i noticed on the day was he had an ability to be totally out positioned in a marking contest by a much more seasoned body and still managed to either mark the ball or bring it to ground, which is exactly what you want a key forward to be able to do. Another concern i had about him before that game was how mobile he was, i wasn't sure if he'd move around well enough to be a good AFL key forward, but he certainly moved well while he was out there, and we're seeing that a bit now at Casey, an injury free run is really helping him and he's consistently competing with bigger more seasoned bodies and not just going okay, but going quite well.

He still to me doesn't look like he has the running capacity to play as a genuine outside midfielder, but i really hope he does, he has the class and skills that we're desperately lacking.

I watched the game, he was dominant.

I personally think he's a far more natural forward, he's got a real creative flare to his play and there is no doubt the coaching staff were hoping he'd produce that out of defense, but i don't feel he has. I think Angus Brayshaw would be a better bet rotating from Wing to half back, as good as he is as an inside mid.

I watched him play against the Northern Blues last year before he was drafted and he had 11 contested marks in the first half coming off an injury interupted year, i said to the mate i was with, this kid is going to be a freak! was ecstatic when we drafted him.

Do you think he's a HBF Rjay? or would you play him further up the field?

I tend to agree, the only reason the club would look at him is he's Nathans Brother and you can't recruit on that basis.

I see a lot of Patty Cripps in Oliver, just how clean he is in close and how he always seems to get a handball out, but i think he'll end up being a Chris Judd- type player, he has that break away pace. Weitering is really interesting, he's a gun and all class but i can't see him being a genuine key back in the way Alex Rance is, more the third tall who sets up a lot of the play, he's going to be a 250 game future captain of the club though. I personally think we got the better player of the two, and my massive call is, Weiderman will be a better player than both in my very honest opinion, he is a great talent.

I reckon Hawks will win this game.

I still think Salem is being played out of position, i reckon he's a mid/forward, and not a very good defender, but our lack of quality kicks has kind of landed him on the half back line.

Doesn't mean we would have drafted those two, we might have picked Aish at 2 and another spud at 20

I think the other point to make is that the timing of the trade is a big factor here, we needed a more immediate injection of top end talent and we got 2 top 10 midfielders, and i think though Salem is under performing i think he's shown enough to say he has the ability to be a quality AFL player. I still think both sides would be pretty content with the outcome and there wouldn't be any huge regrets, as Barrett is suggesting.

Tyson is as important to us as what Kelly is to the Giants in terms of Role, Tyson allows Viney and Jones to do what they do in a lot of ways and is clearly a class player, Kelly i think will end up being a better player, but not by much. this is just an overreaction to Salem not being picked, he's still got a heap of class and ability and extremely highly rated and imo we win this trade by some distance. Barrett is greatly overrating Kelly on his current output ( as good as it is ) and greatly underestimating Salem & Tyson again. Make no mistake Tysons improved form is a big factor in our improvement.

99% sure it's next season, but the clubs already chatting to his manager about extending so wouldn't think there is anything to worry about with Dom.

The domino's are falling, i'm sure some of the bigger ones aren't to far away.

and to Pedo's credit he gets down back and helps out and he tends to impact the score board as well, imo he's a handy role player.

Outside the box thinking, but TMAC? the lions don't have a gun key forward and he's got the running and marking power to be really dangerous around the ground.

I would suggest neither is in the class of say Hurley for example a player who looks like being an AA regular

for me a dream off season would see us re-sign Hogan and TMAC, as well as bring in Prestia and one of Jenkins/Hurley If Hogan leaves we'll probably add a couple of good first rounders and a player as well but i am pretty confident Hogan will stick around

I think the club will be desperate to recruit a big name player this year, something we haven't been able to do for a long while.

While i agree Garland was poor and Dunn was good at Casey, i think the coaching staff might be trying to make a statement with Dunny, clearly he's doing or done something they don't like. Personally i'd much rather see O'mac in the side getting experience, can cop mistakes from a young player but when a senior player makes basic skill errors under no pressure you can't excuse it.