Out of interest how has Corey Wagner looked? I’d be very interested to see how much opportunity he gets this year. 

23 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I am loving what I see of J Smith as a forward, was only at training briefly but during the full oval play simulation I noted his full tilt lead out of the square to take a mark on his chest/shoulder as his body seemed to be tilted forward at 45 degrees to take possession. The opposing backman had no hope of spoiling the incoming ball. I still think he could be great value on a wing but looking at KK, Fritsch and Stretch, maybe we have those roles covered? 

What’s his goal kicking like? 

37 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

What’s his goal kicking like? 

Well he slotted the one after he took that mark. I think he is a reasonably accurate shot on goal. 

7 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I beq to differ

I also beg to differ. I'm not one of them, but there will be some surely!!

2 hours ago, pineapple dee said:

I also beg to differ. I'm not one of them, but there will be some surely!!

I ain’t too proud to beg.

3 hours ago, Demons11 said:

Out of interest how has Corey Wagner looked? I’d be very interested to see how much opportunity he gets this year. 

I read one report Wagner was high up in one running group this week.  I assume that was Cory.   He'll be interesting to watch this year, to see how he copes.

On 1/21/2019 at 12:12 PM, It's Time said:

Just had a long chat to Crossy. 

Said place is unrecognisable from when he arrived. 

The definitive news from him on Lever’s return is around round 9 to 10.  

In relation to that debate about Trac’s condition and weight. I just mentioned he has a solid build. He responded that’s his build. Said he just ran his PB in the 2km time trial. His skin folds are excellent. 

He said they are being very careful with Viney. They don’t want to rush him back and have him back in rehab. The ankle surgery is just taking the normal amount of time to recover and they are also managing the foot etc. 

Hes expecting most rehabers to be back in main group by end of next weeks camp. 

He said coming back from a shortened pre season if anything is a bit of a bonus. He said it’s a really long pre season when you come back October or early November. You can feel cooked by the beginning of the season. They all have their off season programs and come back ready to go. 

Tom Sparrow is the stand out of the young players for him. Said he reminds him of Viney when he first came in. 

Training done. Thats it for me. Got to head off. Will try to answer any questions later. 

Must say I'm impressed and have alot of respect for the players and staff like Crossy to talk to and so fully engage with our supporters in the way it appears evident above and elsewhere throughout this thread.  In this day and age of intense media scrutiny, the constant public focus on AFL footballers, and their every move, being constantly bombarded with what may seem as repeditive, anoying/trivial or intrusive questions after a while, guys like Crossy could be forgiven for withdrawing away from fans, treating them as a bit of a nuisance, and responding by providing only very terse and cursory responses, which appears to be the opposite to what I'm interpreting from the above.  Full credit to these guys for staying grounded and so respectfully interacting with us mere mortals.

Its Time, I'd be interested to understand if you have some connection to the club beyond a standard supporter or basically just walked in off the street and got this kind of response?  Either way I think it's pretty impressive.

Edited January 23, 20196 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

11 hours ago, zeldacat said:

Missed the training session and read through all the notes - looking good. Anyone attend training notice Jayden Hunt? Seems to be very quiet and not amongst it with the boys socially either? Get the impression he's not feeling the love? Injuries?

He was in the main group drills, trained with the backs. No sign of him being on the outer with the lads or having any injury.  He’s not a loud character so he doesn’t stand out. Just seems to be focussed on doing things right in the drills for now. 

On 1/22/2019 at 7:15 PM, Earl Hood said:

I am loving what I see of J Smith as a forward, was only at training briefly but during the full oval play simulation I noted his full tilt lead out of the square to take a mark on his chest/shoulder as his body seemed to be tilted forward at 45 degrees to take possession. The opposing backman had no hope of spoiling the incoming ball. I still think he could be great value on a wing but looking at KK, Fritsch and Stretch, maybe we have those roles covered? 

Hopefully the 6-6-6 thing opens up forward lines a bit more and enables this kind of lead and mark, one on one style play a bit more often than in recient years.  Joel among others on or list like T Mac, Weid, Trac and Melksham should enable us to take good advantage of such situations.

...on another note, perhaps the reintroduction of the 666 back into the game is a sign from the underworld that the era of Demonic dominance is upon the World of Australian Rules footy once more!!

14 hours ago, tiers said:

Apart from Garry Lyon, Melbourne received no champions from its country zone over a period of two decades that corresponded with the darkest period in our history.

By the time that zoning was abolished, it had distorted the competition as it had highly favoured certain clubs with prolific country zones eg. dorks (Berwick, Mornington Peninsula before they became metropolitan areas) , lolly blues (Bendigo) who had exclusive rights to a long line of champions that allowed them to dominate over the same two decades, recruit the best from interstate (Kernahan, Bradley, Dorotich in one year) and win multiple premierships.

Consider how many dork players have played over 300 games and how many were gifted to them by zoning. Even Michael Tuck had to wait his turn.

The effect of zoning still lives on through the large memberships and profiles that clubs were able to establish and maintain even when the lists were not so good. It was a massive failure that has never been recognised.

I've often wondered about this. Is there solid evidence that shows that some zones were better or is it just that some clubs made better use of the zones they were given? The clubs you mentioned certainly did well, but weren't they well run clubs in the first place who had better administrators and coaches? It's easy for the clubs who weren't as successful to claim that their zones weren't as good, but I wonder whether that's just an excuse for ongoing mismanagement. To ask the question in a different way, do we believe Melbourne would have had as much success with the Bendigo zone as did Carlton? Conversely, would Carlton have struggled if they had had our zone?

It's like the chicken and egg question. Which comes first? The height of zoning influence was in the 70 and 80s and started to fade by the mid 90s when draft and salary cap took over.

Regular exclusive access to top quality footballers in large numbers (eg Matthews, Scott, Crimmins, Langford, Mew, Brereton, Ayres, Knights, Wallace, Kennedy Jr, Tuck, Dipper, Moore) who develop together will make any club good and will force good management to respond. And with their success they could go out and recruit Buckenara, Judge, Platten and Dunstall from interstate. We have had one 300 gamer whereas the dorks had multiple just in this group.

Carlton also did well (Keogh, Ashman, Southby) but they could not match the dorks talent pool and so went on a buying spree interstate. Kernahan, Bradley, Dorotich, Motley, Bosustow, Fitzpatrick amongst others.

The doggies squandered their good fortune (losing Quinlan, Round, Templeton and Wilson) and no other team in a 12 team competition got close. There were other well run teams but they had no chance. No matter how good the management, if the supply of players is poor then it will make little difference.

Please excuse any errors as this list has been hastily complied from memory. If I have missed anyone, please add.

 

 

Edited January 23, 20196 yr by tiers
Additional names

17 hours ago, hemingway said:

That must be you furious, clearly an old Seymour boy. 

For me, merely a coincidence. 

Guilty as charged. Grew up there. Makes me a "Seymoron" as my sister in law called me without realising the joke.

1 minute ago, furious d said:

Guilty as charged. Grew up there. Makes me a "Seymoron" as my sister in law called me without realising the joke.

Could be worse, you could be a 'Semen'

1 minute ago, Moonshadow said:

Could be worse, you could be a 'Semen'

With Puckapunyal next door we're more army than navy