Wunders

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-06/future-trading-given-goahead-but-with-restrictions Not sure if this has been since updated but it says: Clubs can trade one year in the future only. - Clubs must make at least two first-round selections in each four-year period. If they don't, they will face restrictions from trading any further first-round draft picks. - If a club trades a future first-round selection, it may not trade any other future selection from that same draft. But if a club keeps its future first-round selection, it can trade any of its future selections from other rounds. So by this article i would think trading a third round pick won't affect their ability to trade their first round pick too. Plus we know hawthorn got omera even though they had already traded too may first round picks. So if the AFL will bend the rules for the Hawks then this is still a viable option.

And May has been painted as a bit of a negative influence for thier young team, so although hes worth pick 5, they wouldn't want him to be there for just one more year (due to that negative influence on him). I think MFC is fair so will do it for pick 5 and maybe KK gets included in it as the sweetener.

So pick 5 and 11 for hogan (if neale gets traded and hogan wants to go). Would we be happy with that? we paid 3 and 12, so similar to what we paid. I think gold coast would want pick 5, but i reckon dees keep 5 and say 11 and our next pick and get a 3rd round back

Don't forget that Hogan is a restricted free agent next year (surely hes in top 25% of earners at club). So if freo and the media think we will get him for nothing next year they are wrong.

Or think Kelly next year as a restricted free agent, if GWS match us having the dockers and our own first round pick available next year pretty much makes it a done deal to us

id guess at May and Kolodjashnij for Hogan is being floated. I'd still want more, but thats just me. KPF are harder to find than other players. Although on the opposite if freo wait one year and hogan leaves for restricted free agency we'd get crap all (so hoping we play hard ball.

Watched the wash-up on the AFL website and M Lloyd said: O Mac isn't a number 1 defender If may comes he thinks May, Lever and Frost is a better combo than May, O-Mac and Lever (which i like the idea of more). To me Frost is just so exciting/a point of difference with his speed (sure he can drop a simple mark or two, but this second half of the season hes been hitting targets by hand and foot, whilst still dropping some easy marks lol).. O-mac is solid, good at out-bodying smaller opponents 1v1 and when we control the midfield looks like a general down back. Just need Hogan to let us know what his thoughts are.

I actually felt Smith was having a break out game when he was injured. I saw great kicks, pressure, dash and thought he was finally looking above average in the position (and bang shoulder). My point is that last week dom Tyson was ranked worst on the AFL app statistically for any person in our team playing as a winger/not a midfielder (week before 4th worst). I saw him being played out of position and i thought that it was a weakness in the team (not a strength that he could go through the midfield and make us bat deeper). My thought is that we have a number of elite midfielders who i want in the middle when they are on the ground. If we play dom in the middle then these better midfielders have to be played in another position FOR SOME PART OF THE MATCH (and we go from being super elite, to above average in that area). A little like having hogan, petracca, salem, ANB in the middle earlier in the year - that's great that they can play there, but in my view by playing them their and our first choice midfielders in other positions we lost a big advantage. Yes there will need to be rotations but i haven't seen dom as being involved in those starting midfield rotations from memory (did anyone see him in a center bounce?). As a result, I see a strength having Smith come in and swapping Fritsch to the wing (team balances out a lot better). I see Smith > Fritsch as a defender (bigger, stronger and faster - can't kick the ball as well though). I see Fritsch > Tyson as a winger (every statistic required for that role & better disposal going inside 50). But i also understand we might want stability and if we make no changes i can understand (& won't be unhappy as smith has been out injured / may have lost some touch, which we can't afford). I've always felt that when viney came back at the start of the year we were 1 contested ball midfielder too heavy (and tyson was dropped, but then viney got injured again and our team had a much better make up with tyson in for viney). Either way i hope we play well & win

who else has experience? Hibberd and Melksham had 1 game each at Essendon, Nathan Jones had maybe 2 in his first season and the rest are the 22 from last week. Is that right?

I don't mind the talk, i don't think he will be going anywhere and if someone wanted him, then it would be two top 10 draft picks (or like brayshaws brother and Freo's first round draft pick as an example). One thing that was discussed on the radio i think was that melbourne was playing 5 forwards a lot of the time when hogan was in and his pressure wasn't the best. When weid came in we started trying to play more traditional 6-6-6, hence 1v1's all over the place. So our game style has changed and this has also contributed to the Weid's success (may not be everything). Hogan being a more physical player would no doubt love this sort of game plan (1v1). In fact i think jeff Garlett would too. Both, to me, were hurt by the Lever inclusion and our desire to play him as a lose defender. Given that we have the best ruck and midfield combo in my mind, we should be playing 1v1 all over the ground for the rest of the finals to take advantage of our midfield dominance (and lack of perceived outside classy run - like smith for hawthorn this week).

It's funny that our strength is our ruck/midfield dominance/ability to clear the ball forward, yet we love to play a lose behind play somewhat limiting our dominance by allowing the opposition to outnumber us in our forward line. If i was a coach i would be evening the numbers up in our forward line most of the time, to give our dominance the best chance to be successful (i.e., quick tap to a midfielder at a center bounce and long kick long to an even numbered forward line).

Funny i noticed the new strapping on Gawn's calf at the game and watching hte replays again, his decreased ruck output (suns ruckman had more hitouts; which i found really odd) and that Gawn wasn't really rucking any contests inside our 50 (McDonald/Hogan did most). I presumed that this all meant that the coaches had decided to give him a lighter game load as we were playing the suns and i was thinking how smart we were (and how selfless Gawn was with the possibility of a brownlow etc.). But with this news i see that this was not the case. Hopefully it is more of a corkie than a minor strain and can be overcome. :)

On a cheeky side-note, Gaff would fit in at Melbourne after the punch if we go back to last year and Hogan and Lewis' little taps (perfect fit? :P). I still want him, even if he gets 12 weeks. I think it has to be over 6 weeks though as other posters alluded to.

Agree and worried as i don't know which melbourne will turn up (or if we will dominate i50 with crap kicks and then they go swosh and easy goal to franklin etc etc. On other posters adn Spargo, one thing he does do is gut run. and it's that gut running and 10 possessions that opens up chains. I can't see melksham (because of injury) or VDB (have not seen him do it before + plus think he's more explosive) being capable of that. So if we do drop spargo i wonder if our ability to run the ball is hampered on the wide MCG.

Completely agree, If we want to have a lever type lose in defense in front of franklin i'd much prefer pedo than wagner. Plus we know Pedo gut runs and if we turn it over we'd have the effort from him. On the downside hes not explosively fast, but if he positions well he can cut off any thrusts.

Lovely to see him back playing. If Melksham comes back it almost feels to me from outside that goody wants vanders in and someone else goes (Spargo most likely). I remember loving vanders speed and ferocity when he first came in, but i also remember that he was a poor field kick. So that is something that the coach will have to weigh up (another player who can't kick in a team not renowned for kicking skills).

I can't believe Gold Coast's outs.. i think thats a bigger story than our ins. Plus Lynch saying he's leaving might knock the stuffing out of them before it's even bounced.

Put Vince on dangerfield - as a hard tag. Remember that adelaide game where he tagged danger and absolutely rode him hard all day and danger had 12 possessions. I'd do that. Middle of Oliver, Brayshaw and Vince when danger is there :). Brayshaw & Vince Duel sided, Oliver a freak = a very hard to match up midfield :)

As a side note, from the WB game i felt the team balance was the best it has been all year. 2 KPD (frost and McDonald), 2 KPF (Hogan and McDonald) and one less contested ball player (Viney) and 1 extra runner (Hannan). I would like to stay with this for the rest of the year, if hannan or any other outside like player is to be dropped then bring in another runner. aka play the best players in our team in the best position, don't toss and turn the team around every 2 minutes to be flexible. Gawn, Oliver, Brayshaw and ____ at the majority of center bounces please :).

I actually wonder if bont out really helps that much? Bont is slow and we are slow. If they bring in a fast player i will worry a bit. Sure we will get our hands on the ball first and turn it over.. what happens then. Hopefully we are clean this weekend with our skills!

I actually thought Frost played well and i know he can be a bit meh at times, but i actually like the look of our backline a lot more now that hes in (i.e. since Lever went down i haven't liked it). I'd happily play him the rest of the year.

Agree with everything said. One thing i wish would happen is that if we bomb it long, we have set-up in a way that if we do turn it over (say a defender marks the ball) they can't clear the ball to a lose player on his own. The amount of long bombs we kicked to then have them go uncontested one end to the other [censored] ed me off to no end. Stop that first easy kick (get it out of bounds or ball up, or get a turnover). Instead we bomb it long and then there are no melbourne players anywhere and only stkilda players (1st quarter i was literally shouting at the TV in front of my mates watching melbourne guys just stand in the middle of the ground while st kilda guys ran forward/to wings - when i think oliver kicked long to 3 lose st kilda guys by themselves yet they went end to end (with us having 3 more players than them in front of them when they kicked the first kick)). I lost faith in our finals credentials when lever went down and every week has crushed me more and more to the point that i don't believe we will make finals - which is heartbreaking (only way we will is if other teams fall down around us, rather than us paving the way). Vent over for now, but extremely frustrated like many.

Apparently we have a candidate this year we get first crack at. Toby Bedford, a small forward. This is what was said after his game recently (https://www.afldraftcentral.com.au/tag/toby-bedford/? #3 Toby Bedford (Dandenong Stingrays) Starting the game inside 50 as a small forward, Bedford showed some fancy footwork on occasions but struggled to get into the game in the first half. Although late in the third quarter he was moved up the ground to the stoppages and created a real spark. He won a couple of hard balls in traffic and released each to advantage, before his defensive efforts were rewarded with a holding the ball free kick. He broke from a centre bounce in the final term and almost set up a goal with a long kick inside 50. AFL link to where it links him to us: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-06-27/u18-the-fatherson-candidates-linked-to-your-club

I agree too, his fantasy scores the two weeks prior were ~100 both weeks, and then with the ankle/neck last week he was down at ~30 and dropped... Against Adelaide his aggression at the ball was Viney like. Hopefully Pedo can provide a similar role for us (if not Smith back in).

One thing a few are not discussing is that Collingwood may decide to 'tag' Hibbo (if i was an oppo coach i would to try and stop his run; i.e. Carlton game with Jed Lamb i think trying to get into Hibbo for the first quarter and a bit). So say Collingwood do this, then he probably couldn't play Lever's role (plus i love Hibbo and Jetta as 1v1 kings, but with attacking flair once they win it). Similarly, I'd be putting ANB on that Collingwood wing/backman (Tom Phillips; like hibbo) to stop his damaging run and meters gained. Interesting to think about anyway. I'd bring in someone fast and hard, who can repeat gut run at a high intensity to cover any potential fast breaks.