11 minutes ago, hells bells said:

Playing two rucks next year...

First use for the whole game, not for just 80%, i think its [censored] genius.

Edited September 24, 20186 yr by Win4theAges

4 hours ago, brendan said:

 

looks like he is heading our way 

The Big Prussian! We've come full circle.

Edited September 24, 20186 yr by johndemonic

Bring on The Doctor. We were lucky Maxy played out the season this year

Surely he ain't coming to play VFL again so i think we are going two rucks. More time for Maxy to go forward or down back. Weid, ANB or Tyson drop out for me to make room for Preuss. Don't forget Hogan and Lever will be back in aswell.

In Preuss, Hogan, Lever, Fritsch

Out Smith, Tyson, Weed, Lewis

2 hours ago, Bring Back Barassi said:

In Preuss, Hogan, Lever, Fritsch

Out Smith, Tyson, Weed, Lewis

i like it..but i think lewis serves an important function with stability downback. not his biggest fan, but he has really good games and goes missing in others. think the club will still put him in best 22 anyway. love the weed. hopefully if he gets more consistenty (like late in the year) he will cause selectors problems... might be a battle between him and preuss. still not completely sold on preuss. seen him do amazing stuff, but could just be a big oaf runnin around not doing much. anyway, depthhhhh. and good for the pies and eagles games. liking smith and tyson out though.

Isn't it all obvious?   We're going to trade big Max.  Should get some decent draft picks for him.  Maybe a package deal with Hogan?

2 minutes ago, demonstone said:

Isn't it all obvious?   We're going to trade big Max.  Should get some decent draft picks for him.  Maybe a package deal with Hogan?

might as well chuck in oliver and viney

i want those magic beans, dagnabbit

21 minutes ago, demonstone said:

Isn't it all obvious?   We're going to trade big Max.  Should get some decent draft picks for him.  Maybe a package deal with Hogan?

Yeah he didn't even win the Brownlow so I'd ship him off quick smart.

23 hours ago, Clint Bizkit said:

We should have done this two years ago.

We can't expect Gawn to ruck every game like he did this season.

It is as plain as the nose on your face - Gawny needs support and is otherwise unfairly overworked to haul us out of one in-game catastrophe after another - and this is a testament to his endeavour and high character as a team man and champion.

Would be a very good move to get Preuss. Get it done Dees!

15 hours ago, Dee tention said:

Gawn and Preuss will be the best ruck combination in AFL. Ridiculously good! 

 

Not 'ridiculous', absolutely 'frightening' if used in a tandem swap/role rotation up fwd, down back and in the ruck.

5 hours ago, Rocky said:

i like it..but i think lewis serves an important function with stability downback. not his biggest fan, but he has really good games and goes missing in others. think the club will still put him in best 22 anyway. love the weed. hopefully if he gets more consistenty (like late in the year) he will cause selectors problems... might be a battle between him and preuss. still not completely sold on preuss. seen him do amazing stuff, but could just be a big oaf runnin around not doing much. anyway, depthhhhh. and good for the pies and eagles games. liking smith and tyson out though.

Just hang onto Joel Smith for some more development - he has some class potential that only game time can expose.

Why are people saying ditch Weed? No thanks. He'ssshh a keeper.

22 hours ago, hemingway said:

agreed.

gawny's body is not going to hold up without better support.

he will run himself into the ground. 

It would not be merely playing two rucks. Gawn and Preuss could be a formidable and very difficult-to-overcome tandem utility set. Both have ruck skills (derrr), both have forward skills, both have defensive skills and both have intercept value at the top of the notch. Both have definitive skills as utilities and mobile man-mountains.  Preuss also offers protection skills for smaller teammates to dig in for the ball as part of the chaos game plan. Add May to the backline to work with Hibberd, Frosty, Nev and Lever with two onfield, available, giant intercepts and no-one is going to come close! 

Weed out? 

that’s funny

It's the game evolving, the rules changing and the player make-up being recruited to suit. Without doubt, the clubs FD has looked ahead and started to think how they can exploit the proposed changes coming next year - let alone giving Maxy a chop out or having a backup ruck God forbid he goes down injured.

Like the team sheet of the '87 Prelim side recently put up on another thread, that list was made up of a bunch of midgets going by today's standards. The tallest mids were low 180 cms, the key talls were  185 -190 cms and our rucks in Stynes and Strawbs were ~200cm.

Through human evolution and athletic capabilities, we have effectively had anywhere between a 5 - 10 cm change in players height and associated weight increase across the last 30 years in our code. Added to this, the grounds no longer get boggy, the decks are faster and the players skills and professionalism is improving all time (in most cases). Wet weather and slippery balls is going to be a constant but the speed the players can move is no longer hindered by muddy decks and our big men are getting better at ground ball gets than ever before. Now with longer goal squares for kick-outs, 6, 6, 6 starting lines at centre bounces looking likely, it would be plausible to think that having extra tall timber down the lines is going to be a reasonable strategy to deploy as opposed to worrying about the short chip kicks around congestion. The AFL want that gone and the clubs will adhere to it.

We will be tall next year. Maybe one of the tallest teams in the league with the addition of Pruess and potentially May into our defensive half.

Whatever the club has cooking, primarily I think it's not for Pruess to come and provide cover for Max but rather to provide a key pillar in an evolved game plan and secondarily aimed to combat certain rule changes.

Gawny played 25 games at 85% gametime with little to no time resting fwd.  He simply cannot continue t do this and expect to play for another 5+ years.

Welcome Braydon, think I'll call him Pruesssy

The only way this makes sense, if true, is that we're going to play two ruckmen next year.

Whilst I like the idea, and neither McDonald nor Weideman are solid options if that's the road we want to go down, the balance of the side is going to be interesting.

Can we have Gawn, Preuss, Hogan, TMac and Weideman all in the same 22 (along with Frost/OMac (or any two other key defenders) and Lever)? 

On 9/24/2018 at 10:00 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

We had the golden opportunity to take Oscar McInerney with our 1st pick in the rookie draft, only to then overlook for for none other then Lachie Filipovic ?‍♂️

Had a great debut year this year with 16 games and kicked 14 goals as a ruckman/forward giving Stef Martin a chop out.

I'm assuming you were a big advocate for McInerney at the time?

8 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Just hang onto Joel Smith for some more development - he has some class potential that only game time can expose.

i was referring to tyson and smith out of the best 22 btw..

We were very fortunate that Max was fit to play in every game this year because we had no back up rucks of quality to replace him had it proved necessary. One could have mounted a case for the use of undersized back ups but I don’t think that would necessarily work at the pointy end of the season in a big game.

With Preuss as back up to Max and Austin Bradtke as the understudy, our ruck stocks are looking a lot better going forward into 2019.

11 minutes ago, Rocky said:

i was referring to tyson and smith out of the best 22 btw..

ok

4 hours ago, McQueen said:

It's the game evolving, the rules changing and the player make-up being recruited to suit. Without doubt, the clubs FD has looked ahead and started to think how they can exploit the proposed changes coming next year - let alone giving Maxy a chop out or having a backup ruck God forbid he goes down injured.

Like the team sheet of the '87 Prelim side recently put up on another thread, that list was made up of a bunch of midgets going by today's standards. The tallest mids were low 180 cms, the key talls were  185 -190 cms and our rucks in Stynes and Strawbs were ~200cm.

Through human evolution and athletic capabilities, we have effectively had anywhere between a 5 - 10 cm change in players height and associated weight increase across the last 30 years in our code. Added to this, the grounds no longer get boggy, the decks are faster and the players skills and professionalism is improving all time (in most cases). Wet weather and slippery balls is going to be a constant but the speed the players can move is no longer hindered by muddy decks and our big men are getting better at ground ball gets than ever before. Now with longer goal squares for kick-outs, 6, 6, 6 starting lines at centre bounces looking likely, it would be plausible to think that having extra tall timber down the lines is going to be a reasonable strategy to deploy as opposed to worrying about the short chip kicks around congestion. The AFL want that gone and the clubs will adhere to it.

We will be tall next year. Maybe one of the tallest teams in the league with the addition of Pruess and potentially May into our defensive half.

Whatever the club has cooking, primarily I think it's not for Pruess to come and provide cover for Max but rather to provide a key pillar in an evolved game plan and secondarily aimed to combat certain rule changes.

Nicely posited, McQ.

20 hours ago, Win4theAges said:

First use for the whole game, not for just 80%, i think its [censored] genius.

And its a smart 10 year decision. Maxys 26 ish. Preuss is 23. This will add 3 years on maxys playing life and give our gun midfield team top service for that period too.

I think having Proust on board will be great pick up for the club. A very useful back up for Maxy and quite a decent contributor to French literature ( an area in which the club is sadly falling behind other teams)

Bring it on !!