2025 List Management

[Velour&Ruffles]

and this is the problem we have when players are weighing up another Melbourne club or us - moving interstate and uprooting family comes a distant second to just driving to a different Melbourne suburb to train.

100% true. But at the same time the AFL - which professes to be dedicated to creating a level competition - is about to gut the benefit of the northern academies.

I don't understand why there is an assumption that the draft rules around father-son and (northern, not the pretend NG) academies need to be the same. One is the result of lucky sperm, the other is the result of significant financial investment, early talent identification and a decade or so of training and development. Only a true moron would view them as equivalent. And yet ....

[Thunder Shaker]

100% true. But at the same time the AFL - which professes to be dedicated to creating a level competition - is about to gut the benefit of the northern academies.

I don't understand why there is an assumption that the draft rules around father-son and (northern, not the pretend NG) academies need to be the same. One is the result of lucky sperm, the other is the result of significant financial investment, early talent identification and a decade or so of training and development. Only a true moron would view them as equivalent. And yet ....

If the AFL was really governing for all clubs, it would put free agency under scrutiny. Free agency compromises the draft just as much as the Academies do, yet the compensation picks given to the original club of the free agents come at no cost in draft capital to the destination club. These "free" draft picks are not free. The 16 clubs that are not involved in the deal lose value for all their draft picks after the compensation picks.

A select few clubs can load up on free agents while keeping all their draft picks. It's a huge source of inequity that must be addressed. It won't be, because the clubs that do this are a few strong Victorian clubs, and they are also the original club of several of the senior AFL administrators. All clubs are supposed to be equal due to equalisation policies, but some are more equal than others.

Another area that is need of addressing is the salary cap. Not all player payments are within the salary cap. Sponsorships are not included. This is why Geelong has a very large salary sombrero while other clubs don't get as much benefit.

Changes that are needed here:
* Include all player benefits in the salary cap, including sponsorship deals. No more free cars for the spouses of players, no more free real estate.
* Remove the salary cap minimum. It shouldn't be necessary for clubs to fiddle contracts with back-ending and front-ending to get them up to an arbitrary minimum.
* Allow clubs to trade salary cap space for draft picks, up to a maximum of perhaps 5% of cap space per year. This is more controversial, but it may have benefits. An example of a benefit: a club with a lot of salary cap space can use it to buy draft picks that they can use to recruit good players, thereby putting that cap to use in later seasons.
* Clubs buying salary cap space cannot go over 105% in one year and cannot go over 100% averaged over 5 years.
* Require clubs receiving players from free agency to spend draft capital to create the compensation picks with no discounts.

[imuninformedtwo]

100% true. But at the same time the AFL - which professes to be dedicated to creating a level competition - is about to gut the benefit of the northern academies.

I don't understand why there is an assumption that the draft rules around father-son and (northern, not the pretend NG) academies need to be the same. One is the result of lucky sperm, the other is the result of significant financial investment, early talent identification and a decade or so of training and development. Only a true moron would view them as equivalent. And yet ....

This is my chief beef. According to the AFL:

- We put millions of dollars into kids who wouldn’t otherwise play the game and develop their skills and talents and professionalism over years = apple
- Your dad, who once played for us, once rooted your mum = same apple.

Absurd.

[BFG]

You're all missing "the romance" and tradition of F/S LOL

Be interesting to see if St.Kilda that has made the most noise about uncompromised drafts backs that up by bidding on tied draftees with their picks. Can't wait for Nick Riewaldt's kids in a few years to not be eligible for the Saints

Biggest problems are FA which massively favours big Vic clubs and the farcical NGA qualification rules/open slather

[imuninformedtwo]

The chatter about Curnow continues today. Not sure why. If I’m a coach fighting for survival like Voss, you simply don’t let him go.

And we can forget JUH. He won’t be playing AFL footy next year. Whatever the circumstances, it’s over for now at least. No club will touch him.

[UUaswan]

Need a KPD

Future 2nd for Lever
Ladhams for Lever
Mclean for Lever
Or go buy Silvagni

Freo just made finals with 3x 22 yr old Key Fwds

We have Amartey, Buller, Logan, Mclean, adhams, Green.

Plus we have Paps and Wilbur as Smalls not to mention Heeney

[BRS328]

Logan was a 22yr Old going at nearly 1.5gls a game without being the Key Target, there us your Full Fwd.

KPD should be the priority, Ladhams or Mclean may be surplus if we keep Buller.

Cox fwd structure is the biggest issue for this team
Our KPD vulnerability is the 2nd

Letting Hamling go hopefully insinuates we have someone coming in as KPD

In fairness to Cox’s forward structure the only regular forward he has had for the majority of the year is Hayward who gets the opposition number one defender every week. Logan, Papley and Armartey have simply not been available. Agree that the current forward structure is an issue, but it really is about player availability

[MattW]

The chatter about Curnow continues today. Not sure why. If I’m a coach fighting for survival like Voss, you simply don’t let him go.

And we can forget JUH. He won’t be playing AFL footy next year. Whatever the circumstances, it’s over for now at least. No club will touch him.

Yes, Jon Ralph did a bit on Curnow on On the Couch, ahead of Carlton's exit interviews starting tomorrow. Reckoned Curnow is 'open to exploring a trade, potentially to Sydney'. He had Carlton's talking points: only for Heeney, Gulden or Warner. Lolz. Jon Brown rightly gave that short shrift. He noted that if a player asks to leave, it usually gets done. Buckley a reckoned first and a player would do it.

I agree that the only way it gets done is if Curnow asks to leave. That'd be a big call and it seems unlikely. In the event it did, noting our record with first round picks, I'd be happy trade this year's first and next year's first.

[Thunder Shaker]

The chatter about Curnow continues today. Not sure why.

The off-season silly season has started. Any wild speculation is discussed at length because that's all that the football media have to justify their existence.

[UUaswan]

In fairness to Cox’s forward structure the only regular forward he has had for the majority of the year is Hayward who gets the opposition number one defender every week. Logan, Papley and Armartey have simply not been available. Agree that the current forward structure is an issue, but it really is about player availability

But he had Ladhams and McLean available most of the year and chose not to select both on most occasions. Couldn't tell me that McLean is a Ruckman

[Roadrunner]

But he had Ladhams and McLean available most of the year and chose not to select both on most occasions. Couldn't tell me that McLean is a Ruckman

McLean needs to play as a forward and he is good value as such, without being a match winner. Please forget playing him in the ruck- we have Ladhams for that. Of course, team selection was difficult but it may be easier next year if we do away with the sub. We simply have to play a second ruck as Brodie can’t do it alone for a whole game- you could argue that McLean take the forward ruckwork only like Hawkins did for the Cats but that still leaves us 1 tall short, and let’s face it, we get out marked so often by most teams. I think it should be a given that we play with 2 rucks every game and not tinker with it, whether it’s Ladhams or someone else. Until Green is ready, it’s Ladhams for now, period.

If Joel and Logan can stay fit for most of the year ( maybe a big IF) then with Buller now playing well we have 4 tall forwards including McLean. I think we need 1 more to cover injuries and for the option of moving 1 to defense if needed. So we defo need to trade for a tall as a draft pick usually takes at least a year or two to develop.

[UUaswan]

McLean needs to play as a forward and he is good value as such, without being a match winner. Please forget playing him in the ruck- we have Ladhams for that. Of course, team selection was difficult but it may be easier next year if we do away with the sub. We simply have to play a second ruck as Brodie can’t do it alone for a whole game- you could argue that McLean take the forward ruckwork only like Hawkins did for the Cats but that still leaves us 1 tall short, and let’s face it, we get out marked so often by most teams. I think it should be a given that we play with 2 rucks every game and not tinker with it, whether it’s Ladhams or someone else. Until Green is ready, it’s Ladhams for now, period.

If Joel and Logan can stay fit for most of the year ( maybe a big IF) then with Buller now playing well we have 4 tall forwards including McLean. I think we need 1 more to cover injuries and for the option of moving 1 to defense if needed. So we defo need to trade for a tall as a draft pick usually takes at least a year or two to develop.

My point being if we played Ladhams this year we wouldnt have been so "short" fwd with Mclean and Buller later in the year

[Thunder Shaker]

The Charlie Curnow story refuses to go away. AFL Daily: Dogs' days in 'footy hell', why Swans should think big. Discussion on the possibility of the Swans recruting Curnow starts at 11:54 and goes about 4 minutes.

[rb4x]

Would rather we try to prise Shannon Neale out from under the salary sombrero. He would have to be underpaid with Jezza and Bailey plus all the other top stars on their list. Great mark and a dead eye kick.

[The Big Cat]

Would rather we try to prise Shannon Neale out from under the salary sombrero. He would have to be underpaid with Jezza and Bailey plus all the other top stars on their list. Great mark and a dead eye kick.

I don't think anyone is underpaid at the Cats. He'll have 'bought' a house block somewhere that's worth millions and he's paid $1.80.