Essendon Bombers vs Carlton Blues highlights: Dons by four goals

Aransan - If Tippett goes into the ruck who goes forward - Sinclair who is 200cm. And Franklins best opponent might by 193 cm but they are still giving up 3 cm when push comes to shove and if Wetierng take Tippett he is giving up 5cm. But you are avoiding the real point - many teams have 200cm forwards, a lot have of them, a lot of these 200cm forwards are quite young not dinosaurs - playing a backline where you tallest player is 195cm is risky.

Franklin is a very difficult forward for any opposition to counter and it is not especially due to his height, his best opponent would probably be 193cm with mobility/agility and high endurance -- Franklin is not renowned for his high marking. Tippett spends a significant time in the ruck and he is fairly mobile as far as ruckmen go. The leading goal kicker this year was Josh Kennedy of West Coast, he is not a dinosaur at 196cm with mobility and endurance. Adelaide have Josh Jenkins and Taylor Walker in the forward line but Jenkins is a forward/ruck.

I included Franklin because he is taller than what would become the blues tallest defender and in combination with the 203cm Tippett would expose them for height. And lets say you are correct on the Suns forward line and they play just Wright and Lynch, Weitering would give up 8cm to Wright and Marchbank or Plowman would give up 6cm to Lynch - that is massive on both counts. AS my list above shows most teams these days have at least 1 and often 2 forwards around the 200cm mark (hardly the dinosaur you make out), trying to play with your tallest defender at 195cm would be difficult to say the least.

Macca, why do you include Franklin? He is highly mobile and has great endurance. Gold Coast have the following forwards -- Sam Day at 197cm and 102kg, Tom Lynch at 199cm and 98kg, Peter Wright at 203cm and 100kg. In my opinion there is not enough mobility or endurance among them to enable them to play in the same team. They can be exposed in the modern game by running off them. I did say it was possible to have one immobile forward in a side but the power forward is not as important as they once were due to recent changes in the way the game is played.

Aransan - " a number of these 200cm forwards are dinosaurs in the modern game" that is just not true, Tom Lynch is 199cm, Peter Wright is 203cm, Kurt Tippett is 203cm Franklin is 196cm, Ben Brown is 200cm, Ben McKay is 199cm, Hawkins is 198cm and Rhys Stanley is 200cm (plus Vardy is 199cm, Blicavs is 198cm and Zac Smith 206cm), Josh Jenkins is 199cm, Rory Lobb is 206cm, Jon Patton is 198cm. I could go on, I doubt there has ever been a time in the game where there has been more forwards running around at about the 200cm mark. if the blues played a backline of Weitering, Marchbank and Plowman it wold have 2 193cm players and a 195cm player - who takes Tippett?, Who Takes Wright? Who takes Lobb?

Macca, a number of these 200cm forwards are dinosaurs in the modern game -- they only have limited value unless they are very mobile and have high endurance. This change has just occurred in the last year or so. There is still a place for one immobile forward in a team but you only need one big back to counter them, they have gone from $700k players to $300k players. I would be happy with a 193cm back who can play on a 196cm forward, I don't know if Marchbank is capable of that but he is a good age to recruit as he would only need a year or so of development -- the big guys do need time to develop and most clubs are too impatient to give them the time they need.

Caleb Marchbank has just announced he wants to be traded out of GWS - it will be interesting to see if he nominates the blues and what we have to give up to get him. As I have said before he would be nice to have but he is not exactly priority number 1 for me given he is just 193cm and we need to find someone big enough to play on the 200cm forwards that are becoming common place.

Just saw a list of key defenders goal conceded - Weitering was second lowest and Plowman was Eighth - I think this shows Rowes worth this year - allowing these 2 to play on the second and third forward who they can beat rather than getting towelled up by someone like Hawkins who is just too big.

I don't really bother with the distinction anymore Col the number of Rookies and Senior list players slides around depending on how the club wants to structure it, you are always going to get at least to injuries long enough to upgrade a player and teams now have a couple of nominated rookies that can play seniors even without an injury. Also I seem to remember an article last year pointing out that the blues could demote Jones on to the rookie list without breaking his contract so I wouldn't be surprised if that happened this year.

Wood was on the rookie list as is Sheehan. Off the senior list we are so far down 4 players.

Thanks Col - not surprising. But we are up to 5 already without really breaking a sweat. The other player who might go is Sheehan - at 25 and not having been able to get out on the park much on the last couple of years I think he might have missed his chance which is a chance given he looked to have plenty of talent.

Wood has retired and Foster and Dick have been delisted.

Steve - Exactly what Col said - if we were to delist all the players mentioned we would be replacing them with 18 year old kids we got at pick 90 plus - better off keeping players who are on the fringe and build some depth than have someone who is no chance of playing seniors. Letting 9 players go after moving on 15 last year is a big enough step for me.

Understand Steve, but you just can't delist a whole heap of players as you need to replace them so you need draft picks. I think each club gets allocated 6 picks in the National Draft so unless we can get draft picks from other teams for all the players you want gone how are we going to replace them? See where Levi's management wanted 3 years @ $500k. I believe they signed him for one year at $280 - 300k.

Col, Macca, Of all the names you guys have mentioned in the previous couple of posts, there isn't one I would be keen to keep. Not one. Our 2104 trade and draft period was nothing short of a disaster for us, a completely wasted period that has set the club back considerably. I think we are stuck with Jones and Thomas for another season, the likes of Rowe, White, Everitt may have some value somewhere, but other than that, the names you guys have mentioned in the last couple of posts are just not good enough. Of the 2014 names, Boekhurst is the only one Id continue with.

Col - Reasonably happy with that list although I would give Foster 1 more year and keep Jaksch and Graham for another year. Smith has been a big disappointment for me this year - he looked really fit in the pre-season but every report I saw of him in the VFL basically said he didn't work hard enough. It would be great to get rid of Jones but the contract makes it hard and I have been hoping that maybe Thomas might retire after playing his 200th on the weekend given his performances are so far below what he would be expecting of himself (only getting above 20 possessions 5 times this year). Obviously Wood will go as well so that would be 9 gone for me.

Macca, Steve, looking at our list I can see the following changes. Walker and Jamison have retired and I think Tutt and Dick will be delisted. I think that Smith and Foster will be delisted and possibly picked up as rookies. That makes 6 off the Senior list. The following should be put up for trade to see if they have any value. Everitt, White, Whiley, Graham, and Jaksch. I would be surprised if we were offered anything better than a third round pick for any of them. I would have also included Jones and Thomas in that group but know there would be no interest for either of them - thanks MM.

I agree which is why I think we need to try and be a bit creative and find a way to use the academies to our advantage.

TBH Macca, I'm much more interested in what trade currency we have that we can look to move on. Apart from the obvious two or three, that we disagreed about already, there really isn't a lot on our list that has much currency, that can land us any more than second or third rounders here and there. That's whats more interesting for me at this point, who we plan to delist and trade away.

No arguments here.