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Spoke to red, said he is uncertain if he will play again next season. Also Brendan cane over to our table post match and said a few things about the club - most notably that their won’t be many changes to the squad next season.

Interesting, thanks for the report, Mega. Backing most of the squad in seems like the way to go (and that implies good player retention as well, which is great news), though hopefully whatever changes there are include a good key forward signing. It would be great to see Red go around next season as well. Hopefully with most of the squad staying the same the team will gel better as a unit; some of the mistakes we're seeing seem like they could well come from much of this playing group not having played together before this season.

Your right it could be a gelling issue but it does seem like it is taking longer to get cohesiveness then it should and have been used to in squad rebuilds of the past. Went and watched Frankston yesterday and was impressed by their performance v a Bullants whose moral was probably at a seasons high. One of the regular supporters told me that they only have one ex afl player and one that was on a list (perhaps a Frankston poster can confirm). Compared to our 11 ex AFL players and a few who were on lists but game less some have argued that we should be developing at a different speed than at present, He did mention looking for a couple of forwards. 
 

For next season to go right for us in my novice football brain we need a good pre season, good player retention of the ones we want to keep and good development. Good player retention isn’t guaranteed with the season we’ve had but for me the biggest unknown is development- Brendan has a reputation as a very good developer of players (perhaps Digs with your involvement of North Ballarat you can asses this). it’ll be interesting to see which of the current players will further improve next season as I feel we need some to just get that tad bit more polish. 

Not quite right Mega. Noah Gown, Will Hamill and Tom Murphy all played AFL. Trent Mynott and Bailey Lambert may have played a game or two - not sure.

Fair points, Mega. It's hard to say from the outside what the fundamental problems are this season when we have been capable  of much better performances than we've put up over the past weeks. The number of goals Gold Coast scored in time on of the third quarter confirms a fitness dropoff, which on the one hand is not surprising after only one preseason under McCartney, though on the other hand fitness should be the area in which recently ex-AFL players definitely have an advantage. But even a fitness dropoff in, say, half the team can be costly.

It sounds like McCartney must be expecting good player retention if he's saying there won't be many changes to the squad - hope he's correct about that.

I suppose I am somewhere in the middle as regards the debate over how important it is to get ex-AFL players, with my take being that there is good ex-AFL talent as well as good players who were totally overlooked by the AFL system. Even with Frankston having 3-5 ex-AFL players, as Bearsman confirms, that is fewer than we have, but that doesn't necessarily mean we need to change direction provided we can retain the ex-AFL players we have, or at least the best ones. (ETA: so I'd say the ideal recruiting strategy depends in part on what types of player we can retain most easily.)

NO poking the bear Mega, Just stating the facts.

Your'e scraping the bottom of the barrel with those names. Valenti, Magner, Nahas, Dwyer all played VFL prior the playing AFL. With Lisle & Templeton hardly household names.

Your obsession with ex AFL players never fails to amaze me.

You gotta be kidding me, you said to tell you who you had forgotten when mentioning ex AFL players who improved team quality and you deny that a 3 time frosty Miller medalist and a 2 time Liston medalist are exactly those players ? Your comment is so poor and so far off the mark that it doesn’t warrant a response so I’ll leave it at that.
 

Yes their has been a fair bit of talk on the squad from myself which a lot of time has focused on ex afl players. - Port Melbourne has got the best squad they have assembled since 2018 as stated recently in the media so forgive me if I’m perplexed and inquisitive as to why despite our best efforts it is not working. 

He did mention a couple of names who he said have come from AFL and improved the sides they went to and asked who he had forgotten- when answering Lisle and Valenti (among others) he denied that they were valuable ex AFL recruits.

I agree that Frankston have assembled a great side who is very organised. I like the pressure they apply and quick transition. 

Unsure about Lisle but Valenti was from Sandringham .

Remember the old adage Mega :- " A drowning man will reach for a rattlesnake"!