TRIGON

Could that mean partners? Would make him twice as settled and he's already used to being double-teamed.

Very very stupid move by Hardwick to dredge up the 2000 Grand Final; illustrating the gutless violence that Essendon served up that day.

Agree with you @buck_nekkid. Having each club run an academy sounds problematic from both cost and quality-consistency perspectives. NGA draft also takes the 'pot-luck' element out of it.

Well if you hang around long enough anything can happen.

Very surprised that Rankine didn't try and kick a torpedo punt with a ring of Suns players if front of the pack to mark a mis-kick; from torp's they normally fall quite short.

Yes, the way this season has had to be structured makes it very hard to gauge how the younger players are developing, and how they're being developed for that matter. Must be frustrating for the likes of Jordon, Baker, Bedford, Chandler etc.

Trades: Jake Lever & Pick 35 (Harrison Petty) & 2018 3rd Rounder (Marty Hore) given up for R1 2017 (Lochie O'Brien, Carlton, eventually) R1 2018 (Liam Stocker-Carlton, eventually) and R4 2018 (Robbie Young). Initially I thought we'd overpaid, looking at what we would have got otherwise it now looks like a good trade. Pick 31 for Jack Watts, not impressed by the 'fire-sale' approach taken (that's not Taylor's fault). Balic for Pick 66 (Tom North, Fremantle). Meh. There was not much further talent in the Draft at that point. Draft: Pick 29, Charlie Spargo. Picked for his competitiveness and footy IQ, which he will need in spades of he's going to carve out a long career. Too soon to say. Pick 31, Bailey Fritsch. Very talented mark, whether that be on the lead or floating across the pack. Needs to become more reliable with his shots. Overall a good selection by Taylor. Pick 37, Harrison Petty. If he can get past his groin injury then I think he has a very promising future. Touted as a forward but I think he's a future CHB, time will tell. Pick 48, Oscar Baker. We needed outside run. He has shown he can provide this, still very raw though. Time will tell. We didn't participate in the rookie draft. Taylor brought in a mixture of experience, competitiveness, height (not so much Charlie) and took a punt on a raw outside runner.

Trades: The Michael Hibberd & pick 68, giving up pick 28 (Josh Begley) has worked well for us. Pick 47, giving up Lynden Dunn & picks 51 was pragmatic. Jordan Lewis & 57 & 68 for picks 48 & 68, sound thinking to bring an experienced premiership player into the fold. Draft Mitch Hannan at pick 47 has been good value for us. Dion Johnstone at pick 64 was a misfire, that being said the only 'diamond in the rough' that stands out afterwards was Mitchell Lewis. Rookies: Filipovic didn't come on. Credit goes to the St. Kilda recruiter for plucking ROoan Marshall from North Ballarat. Tim Smith played senior footy, was unlucky with injuries. Declan Keilty...GOT TO PLAY MULTIPLE GAMES FOR MELBOURNE AND NEVER KNEW DEFEAT @Drunkn167 Overall in 2016 Taylor was not given much of a hand to deal with; very hard to be overly critical or praiseworthy.

Trades: Jake Melksham for pick 25 has been good; albeit his form this year isn't as strong as I'd like. Howe and Toumpas for Kennedy, 29 and 50 didn't work out for us. Fitzpatrick for 94 was just a goodwill trade. Bugg, - as a footballer he made a good instagram model. However Bugg and Pick 7 was a win because it allowed us to grab the 2 top talents that we'd targeted. Draft: Clayton Oliver, and inspired choice. Sam Weideman is now coming of age. King and Hulett turned out to be poor choices Rookies: Josh Wagner, still on the list. Viv Michie...was there a story behind this? Did he offer to go on the rookie list so that we could get another player and so we promised to retain him?. Joel Smith, still on the list. Athletic enough but an enigma, struggling to find what his best position is. Five players who are still on our list, 3 of which are leading players. So, strong and brave work at the pointy end of the draft that year. Disappointing later on, especially as Tom Papley was right under our noses at Casey...the one that got away.

Trades: Jeff Garlett was great value for those picks The Mitch Clark situation was forced upon us but taking Lumumba was real clanger. Was this Taylor's fault or was it Paul Roos (or more to the point Tammy) being taken in by Lumumba's tales of transcendental hopping? Sam Frost, 40 and 53 for pick 23. How can you criticise this when Frosty is STILL doing him damnedest to get us an early 2nd round selection in the next draft? Draft: Pick 2 Christian Petracca (thank you Sainters) Pick 3 Angus Brayshaw Pick 40 Alex Neal Bullen Pick 42 Billy Stretch, neat footballer but the footy gods seemed to be against him. Pick 63 Oscar MacDonald Rookie Draft: AVB Mitch White (played senior football) Overall 5 players still on our list and 3 who gave us good service (Garlett, Stretch and Frost)

Breaking this down year-by-year: 2013 Pick 2 for Dom Tyson and Christian Salem - probably a break-even as our alternative was Billings (solid player) and we've got Salem now and had 2-3 good years out of Tyson (pick 20 was Jack Leslie, pick 72 - GWS passed) Pick 23 for Vince - Gave us great service, added a quality mature player which we really needed at that time. Pick 40 for JKH proved to be disappointing. Pick 54 for Viv Mitchie didn't work out. Pick 57 for Jayden Hunt looked to be an inspired choice when he was playing off HBF. Pick 82 (Rookie elevation) for Mitch Clisby didn't work out. Rookie Draft James Harmes, goes alright albeit currently down on form. Max King failed to come on Neville Jetta; kept him on the roster - thank goodness we did. Overall a pretty good effort give our needs at the time. Four of those players are still on our list.

Hmmm no. Even if it is against the Pies. Adelaide's tactics weren't football - they were just rubbish.

Agreed, really seems to be struggling. Fortunately for us both Jackson and Weideman have good agility below the knees (for big men) which adds to their forward potency.

Only a closed mind can be truly certain! When mentioning Viney forward in other threads I meant it from the perspective of helping to rotate our midfield mix - helping to ensure that we have a depth of options. Not such an issue in 2019's shortened games, however should come to the fore again next year.

Auditioning for a part in the re-boot of Black Books?

Knock-on effect of the Stage 4 Lock-downs?

Tim Kelly for quality, Dan Butler for value. Nonetheless, Langdon has brought us much-needed outside run.

Good observation, previously he has been kicking off one or two steps and across his body; a dodgy technique that led to quite a few scrubber kicks. Now he looks far more purposeful.

6. Oliver 5. Petracca 4. Lever 3. Brayshaw 2. Weideman 1. Langdon

Rather than the forward flank, I'd prefer to see Viney resting in the forward pocket. It would suit him better as he does his best work in confined spaces.

Harmes follows Sidebottom. When Sidebottom goes into the starting 4 in the square, then one of our other mids moves forward or to the bench.

In: Gawn, Viney, Lockhart, Out: T.Mac, Jones (rested), AVB/Melksham (omitting captains seems to work wonders)

I tend to agree with you. HBF doesn't seem to suit his instincts; tonight he was below-average. Could be dropped, however I'd like to see him played as a tag next week on Sidebottom - I think we need to assume the midfield battle will be halved against the Pies so we need to curb Sidebottom's creativity.

It's very hard to pick up on TV (as opposed to being at the game) but I suspect his pace is making it much harder for the opposition backs to organise themselves against us.

Jackson was impressive, Spargo very neat and creative, not so much to write home about re T.Mac.