Earl Hood

I think the Frost trade to the Hawks, under the tutelage of the world’s greatest coach will be facinating to watch next season. In my opinion Frost’s learning curve is still on the up, as he is a great athlete not a natural footballer, so needs time which we had run out of. With us I thought under immense pressure he learnt to play within his limitations with short kicks to position when he was running forward and free but yes turned it over when facing the wrong way. And he at times punched the ball back into the corridor but a lot of this goes back to our coaching I think. The Hawks defence is much more composed than ours and as I rank the 2020 Hawks as very likely to finish top 6, I suspect Frosty may shine. It will be interesting to see how they cover his deficiencies and play to his strengths.

As Nietzsche said to me as he ran past at rehab training earlier this year, what does not kill us, makes us stronger! So am expecting a big year from him next season.

GC I haven’t seen him play much but he is often described as a 200cm flanker not a KPF so I assumed he doesn’t kick all of his 2 goals a game from taking pack marks or manhandling KPB one on one, but just as often when the ball has hit the deck in the forward line. Also being 200cm would give us a ruck support option as well.

Averages 2 goals a game. Can he kick set shots for goals from inside 40m consistently? If so go get him in my opinion.

Re Bennell the talk is that they have got to the bottom of his soft tissue problems and they have been rectified and he is now more mature and asking for a chance. We know he has exceptional skills that we don’t possess and that is why some here have suggested he train with us over the preseason to test both his physical and mental resilience before we would take him on. Seems a low risk possible high reward approach to me.

Love his attitude but what are his weapons? Not tall, not fast, nor great closing speed so not a great defensive tackler. Can’t kick more than 40m so what have we got? Admittedly the above commentary would describe Diesel Williams of course, too small, too slow but he had that undefinable quality of being where the ball is or is going to. That skill you cannot teach or acquire, you have it or not. No sign that Spargo has that skill that I have seen.

Always looked pretty sharp at training but his Casey stats were very sparse, even for a small forward. Has skills but doesn’t get the ball. Not sure where he goes from here. Another year may tell us something.

Very touching but my priority is that he can play footy big time!

We just make it plain we will be nominating for Green so let’s do a deal with pick 3 vs your Pick 6 and a player of our choice and some swapping of back end picks or next years to make it work. But who would we want and realistically get from GWS in this scenario? Would they move on a key forward or pacey outside mid?

From watching numerous training sessions this season, especially the full ground game simulation sessions I did notice and commented here during the season that come game day we did not play how we trained. Our ball movement in a game is one dimensional and predictable. I put it down to lack of confidence and/or poor leadership on the ground.

Yes please but won’t happen.

Very profound!

Yes Steve what value should MFC put on resilience, the ability to get on the park for a club that year on year carries 10 plus on the injured/rehab list for as long as I can remember.

Probably not!

Not happy! Whatever we get won’t be worth what we are giving up unless there is a player swap that hasn’t been talked about so far.

I think Tracc has most of the physical tools required to be a Dusty prototype. He has great hands, works well in heavy traffic, I think he has potentially elite field kicking ability but his set shot goal kicking needs work as we all know. The big deficiency at the moment is above the shoulders, he doesn’t have the aggression, the confidence, the sheer arrogance or the footy IQ of Dusty but who does? Tracc is a work in progress, he can work on his skills but I am not sure he has that aggression and self belief that separates the very good from the greats like Dusty. Watching Dusty on Saturday at times I thought I was looking at Eric Cantona at his arrogant best!

But you don’t need an early pick, think Ryan, Pickett, Kelly, Stack.....all overlooked in drafts

Every one of Pickett’s disposals has oozed poise and class, extraordinary.

Steve why didn’t you tell us about Pickett?

Agree but there is a potential problem that we had to deal with year big time, injuries and depth. The chances of May and Lever all 22 is low. Petty may need to play forward again and Tomlinson, if he lands here, may be a swing man, half back, wing, forward, relieving ruck! Frost is at least resilient depth, he is usually available unlike May or Lever.

You are seeing it differently to me I am afraid. This year I saw Frosty’s use of the neat 20m hand drop onto his boot to a close target as an absolute plus. He has his limitations, this year he realises it and learns to lower the eyes and pick out a target 20m away, rather than boot the ball long hoping to hit a target. Not sure he butchured a heap of those, maybe he did. He still had the odd blind kick out of defence under pressure but so who doesn’t? He is not Rance but he has a lot of offensive attributes we could exploit if we had a good defensive coach.

Rusty interesting to note on your weighted scores we had only 4 improvers this season and the club seems happy to send 2 of them on their way, in Frost and Stretch! And now the gossip is Frost might want out so our trade negotiation position plummets.

If the Suns get the priority pick 2 what can you say in the AFL managements defence and the AFL Commission of Drones apathetic acceptance? . What do these commissioners get paid to rubber stamp Gills latest thought bubble? The Suns have underperformed for the last 7 of the 9 years of their existence. In the last 7 years their big problem is they can’t keep their best players so their best players leave giving them multiple first round draft picks year after year to add to their normal first or second pick for finishing last or second last. So the AFL solution is now more first round draft picks? Give me a break. For the last 10 years the AFL has run the line that a priority pick is not the answer for Carlton and MFC who have had similar multiple bad years! The real answer for the Suns is more about extra salary cap to pay more to retain players, AFL management intervention a la what happened with us with Jackson and Roos inserted into a dysfunctional administration set up and coaching department.

Up to round 3 still haven’t hit the scoreboard!

73 hit outs, 25 possessions and got most points on the AFL.Com site, so statistically best on ground. But yes I thought he could set up a Pies win in the last 10 minutes by palming it out wide but he tended to grab it himself or drop it short when he was totally in control. Mummy battled hard but in that last 5 minutes Grundy should have manufactured something, given his dominance.