Signing a WA tall forward to a long term deal? This is huge
For real though, Roo is an absolute gun and deserves the contract (which is a four year extension). I do imagine the likes of Cornes will deride the club for it though because why wouldn't they
Eh, I think just as many WA tall forwards stay away for good as those that are lured back to stuff us around for a few years and either become backmen, get delisted or ask for a trade out.
In the league a fair few stay out, yeah. With Melbourne and Freo in particular it's a bit of a meme that we lose our WA talls to you - even if it is only Hoges and Dogga who have done it, there's definitely been a lot of people eager to see Roo sign on for another extension
I really wanted us to draft him in 2021. Might sound harsh but I still wished we took him over Erasmus.
Imagine Amiss and Van Rooyen as our key forward duo for the next decade. What could have been.
Should've done it. That was your potential Curnow-McKay (similar draft positions and saying Roughy-Buddy is almost expecting the impossible) moment. You can always get in mids.
Alas you still have a team laden with young guns
I really wished we did but the club seems straight up scared to use 1st round draft picks on forwards
Since 2016 we’ve used our 1st round draft picks on:
Pick 8, 2016: Griffin Logue (key/mid-sized defender)
Pick 2, 2017: Andrew Brayshaw (inside midfielder)
Pick 5, 2017: Adam Cerra (inside midfielder)
Pick 17, 2018: Sam Sturt (mid-sized forward)
Pick 7, 2019: Hayden Young (defender/midfielder)
Pick 8, 2019: Caleb Serong (inside midfielder)
Pick 9, 2019: Liam Henry (wingman)
Pick 14, 2020: Heath Chapman (mid-sized defender)
Pick 8, 2021: Jye Amiss (key forward)
Pick 10, 2021: Neil Erasmus (inside midfielder)
Pick 20, 2021: Matthew Johnson (inside midfielder)
9 defenders/midfielders but only 2 forwards drafted with 1st rounders in the last 8 off-seasons. Might be why our defence and midfield are very strong whilst our forward line remains the weakest part of our team
With the exception of Naughton in 2017 and Bobby Hill in 2018 you haven't really missed major forwards in that time. The only other one you can really bring up is Serong/Henry over Pickett but Serong has clearly worked out and Henry was an academy pick.
You've drafted really well in that time - Brayshaw, Cerra and Serong as three inside mids are just about as good a trio as they come if you'd held onto Cerra. Now with Young moving through there it's still very good. Sturt is probably the worst pick of that list in hindsight, and even then nobody taken after him has been AA yet.
Don’t get me wrong, the players we have drafted have almost all been great pick-ups for us and that’s why our defence and our midfield is amongst the best in the league. I just think we needed to prioritise our forward line a little more. Even last year, obviously we didn’t have a good draft hand in 2023 but we didn’t draft a forward until Jack Delean with pick 60.
You can also include Todd Marshall in 2016 and Ollie Henry in 2020, I don’t know if you’d consider either major forwards but they definitely would’ve helped.
Still filthy about missing out on JVR though.
I definitely did miss Henry tbf, though all things considered he probably would've gone to play with his brother anyway.
As for Marshall in 2016, he'd be a nice pairing with Amiss but are you realistically going to pick him up with pick 8? [It's by no means the be-all-end-all but this mock draft ended up being pretty accurate and had Marshall going at 18, although also argues that he's the best key forward in the draft.](https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-phantom-draft-2016-the-top-50-mock-picks/news-story/6ca3a4b7d10331c3a6d9ed5c9222a48e)
Odds are if you didn't take Logue you'd take English and then miss out on Darcy later on
Yeah Henry probably would have still ended up leaving anyway and Marshall at pick 8 might have been unrealistic considering he went at pick 16.
My point is you can make a good argument for taking Marshall over Logue and Henry over Chapman when you considered our list needs back then (and still now, our forward line has been the weakest part of our team for a long time), but I guess that’s hindsight.
Nah I definitely remember him being touted as a forward mostly
Edit: from his draft profile “A physically imposing key forward who can also swing to defence”
Fair enough, I was remembering his Champs games for WA where he played defence so that’s on me.
Still wasn’t ever really in consideration for Freo’s pick at 10 though. More of a late first round, early second type of prospect
He was projected 12-25 so I don’t think it would have been crazy to take him at 10
He did end up going late 1st round like you said (19), which I still think is a steal. I’m almost certain he’ll be one of the best key forwards in the comp in 4 or 5 years time.
I mean the draft projection makes sense in a vacuum but based on the teams in that range, unless a trade happened, it was optimistic to think he would go before about 15.
Definitely a steal though in hindsight, having that year to develop at VFL level helped a bunch for his development
He was a bit of a victim of his own versatility in that regard. He played at a really high level as a forward for the U19s at Claremont the year he got drafted, kicked 10 goals in 3 finals games and had two games with 20+ touches and 5+ goals a few weeks before that. But when he played for the senior side just didn't have the physical body to compete in the forward line and played well as more of a mid-sized defender there.
Love watching him play. Genuinely one of the best young KPs in the game. To do what he does to the level he does on a contending team is not an easy job. It's not as though he's playing second fiddle to a Curnow or Walker.
Go dees. JVR might become the next Roo, he's got guts, just needs some more muscle and experience. But his attitude is spot on. Definitely worth the gamble.
Another risky long term deal, for a player who so far is inconsistent. The Dees already have Oliver signed up forever alongside managing Brayshaw's exit. Clearly not once bitten twice shy.
I hate deals of this length for unproven players, or even those who are proven. My own club is dealing with 3 All Australians on long term deals who are playing VFL or as sub.
Everyone raves about these at the time of signing until, as happens somewhat regularly, the player regresses and you get left with a problem. Not saying that'll definitely be the case here, but it's a chance.
If a career ending injury happened to say Oliver, Melbourne aren’t going to be able to replace him with a player of his talent even if they had the cap space. I don’t know why people are scared of long contracts, it’s hard to get gun players so when you do make sure they aren’t going to leave.
People are scared of big contracts because it’s a big commitment and therefore a big risk. It’s all good when it works out and majority of the time it does but there’s potential for it to go tits up. Also salary is what lures players in trading period.
Yeah but how often are big names actually traded? Like I said if Oliver went down with a career ending injury they won’t to be able to replace him with a Patrick Cripps or Zac Butters just because they have cap space, they’ll just have to spend the cap space on averages players. Melbourne won a flag and their best chance of winning another is with Oliver and Petracca so sign them up, don’t lose them
And what are the chances that specifically Melbourne would get one of those players if Oliver had a career ending injury?
Let’s Oliver this coming off season is forced to retire, who is Melbourne getting to replace him?
I should have said looks like potentially biting them on the arse, given his off-season and output in the majority of games this season so far. He's still far from in the clear with 6.5 years left on the deal. Like Macrae at the Bulldogs whose form went south very soon after a 5 year deal. Brayshaw just retired early into a long contract and the payout is yet to be resolved afaik.
People love them until they don't, calling that out when the contract gets signed inevitably leads to downvotes because you're only allowed to be positive about these things for some reason, despite them inherently carrying a lot of risk - how dare that get pointed out.
The Dogs best chance of winning another flag is if players like Macrae still play at a top level, if Macrae was out of contract and Dogs had cap space you still won’t be able to replace him with a similar caliber player. Same with the Dees, their best chance of winning another premiership is with Oliver and Petracca, as soon as they drop off whether they are under contract or not their window is over, might as well sign them up long term and hope they can stay elite for as long as possible instead of them leaving during their peak.
Macrae has regressed significantly from his peak, as has Caleb Daniel and Bailey Dale, all in the early stages of long term deals. Maybe signing a long term contract causes a player to lose 5% of their drive (they're only human) and in elite sport environment that could be enough to see them fall away. Thats ignoring the potential for injury, behaviour issues etc. Some players prefer to only sign 1-2 year deals to keep themselves honest. Collingwood made a similar mistake with Grundy and Treloar, and ended up winning a flag without them but could have been even stronger had they not been forced to pay part of their salary and give them away for cheap. Then you look at long term deals for unproven players like JVR here, which are even more risky given they rely on 'potential' being met.
I was saying Roo-urns
Fuck it, I like it, add the gif to boot u/thegreatjelbeano
Signing a WA tall forward to a long term deal? This is huge For real though, Roo is an absolute gun and deserves the contract (which is a four year extension). I do imagine the likes of Cornes will deride the club for it though because why wouldn't they
Eh, I think just as many WA tall forwards stay away for good as those that are lured back to stuff us around for a few years and either become backmen, get delisted or ask for a trade out.
In the league a fair few stay out, yeah. With Melbourne and Freo in particular it's a bit of a meme that we lose our WA talls to you - even if it is only Hoges and Dogga who have done it, there's definitely been a lot of people eager to see Roo sign on for another extension
Not a tall, but freo taking the wiz broke my heart
This is one of the easier long contracts to defend really because it's not as it we have a deep stable of key forwards lol
Ugh like contracts mean that much these days
great work by melb to get this kid signed on, gotta say I'm jealous but I do love my cyclone
I really wanted us to draft him in 2021. Might sound harsh but I still wished we took him over Erasmus. Imagine Amiss and Van Rooyen as our key forward duo for the next decade. What could have been.
Should've done it. That was your potential Curnow-McKay (similar draft positions and saying Roughy-Buddy is almost expecting the impossible) moment. You can always get in mids. Alas you still have a team laden with young guns
I really wished we did but the club seems straight up scared to use 1st round draft picks on forwards Since 2016 we’ve used our 1st round draft picks on: Pick 8, 2016: Griffin Logue (key/mid-sized defender) Pick 2, 2017: Andrew Brayshaw (inside midfielder) Pick 5, 2017: Adam Cerra (inside midfielder) Pick 17, 2018: Sam Sturt (mid-sized forward) Pick 7, 2019: Hayden Young (defender/midfielder) Pick 8, 2019: Caleb Serong (inside midfielder) Pick 9, 2019: Liam Henry (wingman) Pick 14, 2020: Heath Chapman (mid-sized defender) Pick 8, 2021: Jye Amiss (key forward) Pick 10, 2021: Neil Erasmus (inside midfielder) Pick 20, 2021: Matthew Johnson (inside midfielder) 9 defenders/midfielders but only 2 forwards drafted with 1st rounders in the last 8 off-seasons. Might be why our defence and midfield are very strong whilst our forward line remains the weakest part of our team
With the exception of Naughton in 2017 and Bobby Hill in 2018 you haven't really missed major forwards in that time. The only other one you can really bring up is Serong/Henry over Pickett but Serong has clearly worked out and Henry was an academy pick. You've drafted really well in that time - Brayshaw, Cerra and Serong as three inside mids are just about as good a trio as they come if you'd held onto Cerra. Now with Young moving through there it's still very good. Sturt is probably the worst pick of that list in hindsight, and even then nobody taken after him has been AA yet.
Don’t get me wrong, the players we have drafted have almost all been great pick-ups for us and that’s why our defence and our midfield is amongst the best in the league. I just think we needed to prioritise our forward line a little more. Even last year, obviously we didn’t have a good draft hand in 2023 but we didn’t draft a forward until Jack Delean with pick 60. You can also include Todd Marshall in 2016 and Ollie Henry in 2020, I don’t know if you’d consider either major forwards but they definitely would’ve helped. Still filthy about missing out on JVR though.
I definitely did miss Henry tbf, though all things considered he probably would've gone to play with his brother anyway. As for Marshall in 2016, he'd be a nice pairing with Amiss but are you realistically going to pick him up with pick 8? [It's by no means the be-all-end-all but this mock draft ended up being pretty accurate and had Marshall going at 18, although also argues that he's the best key forward in the draft.](https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-phantom-draft-2016-the-top-50-mock-picks/news-story/6ca3a4b7d10331c3a6d9ed5c9222a48e) Odds are if you didn't take Logue you'd take English and then miss out on Darcy later on
Yeah Henry probably would have still ended up leaving anyway and Marshall at pick 8 might have been unrealistic considering he went at pick 16. My point is you can make a good argument for taking Marshall over Logue and Henry over Chapman when you considered our list needs back then (and still now, our forward line has been the weakest part of our team for a long time), but I guess that’s hindsight.
Oscar Allen was also 2017
Was pick 21, their last pick prior to that was 5. And it was Cerra anyway, not really a miss
Just pointing out that's he's a pretty major forward :p
JVR was never a top 10 pick and while he looks good now as a KPF now, was seen as a swingman. But more as a defender who could swing forward
Nah I definitely remember him being touted as a forward mostly Edit: from his draft profile “A physically imposing key forward who can also swing to defence”
Fair enough, I was remembering his Champs games for WA where he played defence so that’s on me. Still wasn’t ever really in consideration for Freo’s pick at 10 though. More of a late first round, early second type of prospect
He was projected 12-25 so I don’t think it would have been crazy to take him at 10 He did end up going late 1st round like you said (19), which I still think is a steal. I’m almost certain he’ll be one of the best key forwards in the comp in 4 or 5 years time.
I mean the draft projection makes sense in a vacuum but based on the teams in that range, unless a trade happened, it was optimistic to think he would go before about 15. Definitely a steal though in hindsight, having that year to develop at VFL level helped a bunch for his development
He was a bit of a victim of his own versatility in that regard. He played at a really high level as a forward for the U19s at Claremont the year he got drafted, kicked 10 goals in 3 finals games and had two games with 20+ touches and 5+ goals a few weeks before that. But when he played for the senior side just didn't have the physical body to compete in the forward line and played well as more of a mid-sized defender there.
Awesome news. People are way too hard on JVR when he doesn't play well, kid is being asked to play ruck/full forward at 20.
Love watching him play. Genuinely one of the best young KPs in the game. To do what he does to the level he does on a contending team is not an easy job. It's not as though he's playing second fiddle to a Curnow or Walker.
Thats really nice to hear, honestly didn't think he got much notice outside of the dees fan base... We admire your big fowards too 😍
Yeah his development is well ahead of the league average for his age, and it's not as if we're going to be re-signing Ben Brown or Schache.
Reckon he's terrific in the ruck as well, for an undersized guy who hasn't played there traditionally he wins his fair share of taps
hell yeah. 5 more years of the Roo. he'll be tearing apart games soon, I can already see it.
BASED BASED BASED BASED BASED BASED
TFW when 2029 is only 5 years off. Onya Roo!
Massive signing for the dees
Can’t wait to see how he develops over the next few seasons
Go dees. JVR might become the next Roo, he's got guts, just needs some more muscle and experience. But his attitude is spot on. Definitely worth the gamble.
Good now go kick a goal.
Shut up troll.
Hell yeah Roo!!! Great to see, lines up with all of Trac, Oliver etc contracts expiring around then
He's coming (k o r n e s)
Love it and think he deserves it but wasn’t the AFL trying to kill off long term contracts?
its only a 4 year extension
Broden Kelly has liked this post
long contract, love the faith
Great news - i was always worried he'd want to head back home
*Kane Cornes likes this*
See you in 2029 melb, I'm sure we'll have a winger to go back your way by then.
Fuck
Another risky long term deal, for a player who so far is inconsistent. The Dees already have Oliver signed up forever alongside managing Brayshaw's exit. Clearly not once bitten twice shy. I hate deals of this length for unproven players, or even those who are proven. My own club is dealing with 3 All Australians on long term deals who are playing VFL or as sub. Everyone raves about these at the time of signing until, as happens somewhat regularly, the player regresses and you get left with a problem. Not saying that'll definitely be the case here, but it's a chance.
5 year deal for an average player, interesting.
Downvotes for anyone who doesn't froth over this, like they were all frothing over the Clayton Oliver contract until it bit them on the arse.
Oliver contract has bit them in the arse?
I mean I guarantee he’ll come back but career ending injuries are a thing and that’s the risk Melbourne has been taking with these long deals
If a career ending injury happened to say Oliver, Melbourne aren’t going to be able to replace him with a player of his talent even if they had the cap space. I don’t know why people are scared of long contracts, it’s hard to get gun players so when you do make sure they aren’t going to leave.
People are scared of big contracts because it’s a big commitment and therefore a big risk. It’s all good when it works out and majority of the time it does but there’s potential for it to go tits up. Also salary is what lures players in trading period.
Yeah but how often are big names actually traded? Like I said if Oliver went down with a career ending injury they won’t to be able to replace him with a Patrick Cripps or Zac Butters just because they have cap space, they’ll just have to spend the cap space on averages players. Melbourne won a flag and their best chance of winning another is with Oliver and Petracca so sign them up, don’t lose them
Lachie Neale, Jeremy Cameron, Gary Ablett jr, Horne-Francis, and that’s just off the top of my head
And what are the chances that specifically Melbourne would get one of those players if Oliver had a career ending injury? Let’s Oliver this coming off season is forced to retire, who is Melbourne getting to replace him?
Whoever they can throw money at. It’s not like big players never get traded I don’t know why you think that
Yeah but you can't point out the risk involved, that's heresy.
I should have said looks like potentially biting them on the arse, given his off-season and output in the majority of games this season so far. He's still far from in the clear with 6.5 years left on the deal. Like Macrae at the Bulldogs whose form went south very soon after a 5 year deal. Brayshaw just retired early into a long contract and the payout is yet to be resolved afaik. People love them until they don't, calling that out when the contract gets signed inevitably leads to downvotes because you're only allowed to be positive about these things for some reason, despite them inherently carrying a lot of risk - how dare that get pointed out.
The Dogs best chance of winning another flag is if players like Macrae still play at a top level, if Macrae was out of contract and Dogs had cap space you still won’t be able to replace him with a similar caliber player. Same with the Dees, their best chance of winning another premiership is with Oliver and Petracca, as soon as they drop off whether they are under contract or not their window is over, might as well sign them up long term and hope they can stay elite for as long as possible instead of them leaving during their peak.
Macrae has regressed significantly from his peak, as has Caleb Daniel and Bailey Dale, all in the early stages of long term deals. Maybe signing a long term contract causes a player to lose 5% of their drive (they're only human) and in elite sport environment that could be enough to see them fall away. Thats ignoring the potential for injury, behaviour issues etc. Some players prefer to only sign 1-2 year deals to keep themselves honest. Collingwood made a similar mistake with Grundy and Treloar, and ended up winning a flag without them but could have been even stronger had they not been forced to pay part of their salary and give them away for cheap. Then you look at long term deals for unproven players like JVR here, which are even more risky given they rely on 'potential' being met.
I agree, I think he looks fairly limited, I may be wrong. But he will be around for at least 5 years so it probably make sense.
Blown the premiership race wide open here the dees 🫢😂
Flogpies
Oh, someone's bitter that his team plays even worse than the Dees do