3 hours ago, Garbo said:

Oliver has never been quick and this is only getting exposed more and trac and Oliver have never been good kicks which is more important than ever for your main ball winners

Oliver's pace for an inside mid was always above average.

But when you're overweight it slows you down bit.

Edited April 16Apr 16 by Gator

On 15/04/2025 at 11:55, Little Goffy said:

Metres gained has dropped from 420 to 290

& that’s the stat for me - doesn’t use his legs anymore. When was the last time you say Clarry burst through a stoppage, sell some candy, have a run & bounce & deliver the pill?

Can’t remember a time post hammy issues.

Of the two - Trade Claz / Keep Trac

9 minutes ago, RedLegs23 said:

When was the last time you say Clarry burst through a stoppage, sell some candy, have a run & bounce & deliver the pill?

Yep. That seems to have completely gone. He used to change games with this sort of stuff.

I think Kozzie will go & Trac & Oliver stay. Get 2 first rounders for Kozzie or a straight swap for Treacy, or Amiss & a second rounder back to us

I still have faith in Clarry, don’t know why, love the bloke even with all his baggage

30 minutes ago, Gator said:

Oliver's pace for an inside mid was always above average.

But when you're overweight it slows you down bit.

31 minutes ago, Gator said:

Oliver's pace for an inside mid was always above average.

But when you're overweight it slows you down bit.

So Clarry is still overweight you say Gator. Rubbish he is just not running like most of our players. From 450 to 290 meters gain in 25/30 possessions is only because of choice not fitness.

Time for some outside runners to be used specifically and only like that role. Clarry was ignored in a replay on the weekend in a similar role play to his bang bang bang goal so it’s our own selfish and negative play under Dimon that has crept in. Time for another coach to start putting up a rocket under their lazy and fractured potentially group.

It’s not fitness I don’t believe but the will yo run and create.

4 minutes ago, Billy said:

I think Kozzie will go & Trac & Oliver stay. Get 2 first rounders for Kozzie or a straight swap for Treacy, or Amiss & a second rounder back to us

I still have faith in Clarry, don’t know why, love the bloke even with all his baggage

There’s no way Freo are giving up Treacy or Amiss, it’s just not happening. They don’t have the capital for Koz so we should hold him for at least another year.

3 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

There’s no way Freo are giving up Treacy or Amiss, it’s just not happening. They don’t have the capital for Koz so we should hold him for at least another year.

Yeah l know😂

2 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

The peak years for an AFL player are much younger than you think. The top ranked players in the AFL this year are:

Rowell 24

Brayshaw 26

Holmes 23

Sam Darcy 22

Miller 29

Serong 24

McCluggage 27

Richards 26

Jackson 24

Anderson 24

T De Koning 26

Interesting stat. Most of the current top ranked players are about the same age as Trac and Clarry would have been when we won the flag. I guess the demands of the modern game catches up on players quicker these days.

On the plus side we don’t have to wait as long to have the likes of Kolt, Windsor, XL, Langford and JVR hitting their peak.

1 hour ago, Billy said:

I think Kozzie will go & Trac & Oliver stay. Get 2 first rounders for Kozzie or a straight swap for Treacy, or Amiss & a second rounder back to us

I still have faith in Clarry, don’t know why, love the bloke even with all his baggage

I agree that Kozzie will not be with us next year. I have no idea what we will get for him though.

3 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

The peak years for an AFL player are much younger than you think. The top ranked players in the AFL this year are:

Rowell 24

Brayshaw 26

Holmes 23

Sam Darcy 22

Miller 29

Serong 24

McCluggage 27

Richards 26

Jackson 24

Anderson 24

T De Koning 26

It is an interesting pattern because at the other end of the age ranges there seem to be more players lasting longer at a high standard.

Obviously there has been a generational change in favour of retaining players - in the last ten years, despite two new teams being added (and thus 80 additional players on lists) the number of new draftees being taken each year has dropped substantially.

Do the numbers of drafting 60-70 players, at barely three per team, even just replacing a best 25 would take eight seasons of drafting with every pick proving themselves at AFL level. So either the clubs are outright expecting to pick up a couple of 200-game players each draft, or eventually something has to crack when age catches up with the lists.

Ooh, AFL Tables to the rescue to confirm a point; https://afltables.com/afl/stats/ages.html

Total AFL average age cracked 25yrs for the first time since the second world war in 2019, and has not dropped below 25 since. Climbing all the way to 25.6 now.

The last time averages ages moved so much was in the 1970s. Since the 80s it had been more or less stable around 24.5.

Looks to me like the AFL list management consensus is now looking at kids as either 'young gun to make a big investment in' or 'meat and potatoes who we shouldn't be burning our coaching soft cap to support'.

And there, perhaps, I've stumbled onto what is really going on. Mature players don't need so much coaching and development effort, and with the soft cap you have to pick and choose your priorities.

Arrgh, another reminder of how much we've lost with Brayshaw and Nibbler, the culture setting player-coaches.

1 hour ago, Billy said:

I still have faith in Clarry, don’t know why, love the bloke even with all his baggage

To be honest I'm losing a bit faith in clarry.

And whilst I had huge respect for him last year in terms of his effort levels, that respect is waning too I'm sad to say.

Love the bloke also, but some of his defensive efforts this year, particularly against the bombers, have been very poor.

I have little doubt he is one of the players goody was thinking off when he critisised our efforts 'without the ball'.

He looked in much better shape in the preseason than last season, but he is still miles off elite fitness. As gator notes hard to run fast being overweight, which he clearly is (for an elite athlete).

I was very supportive of how the club managed clarry last season, particularly in regard to the mental health and well being aspect.

But clarry owes us big time - he's had his mulligan and now needs to repay the club by playing at a higher level than he is.

Edited April 16Apr 16 by binman

I'm trading Clarry, Fritta and Kozzy unfortunately. I'm keeping Trac.

14 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I'm trading Clarry, Fritta and Kozzy unfortunately. I'm keeping Trac.

At this point our dear @Ghostwriter is tearing her hair out, has the voodoo dolls out for you and trying not to 🤮

Clarry owes us big time. After what we have had to put up with, with him, it's just so disrespectful to the MFC that he has turned up this year still nowhere near fit enough, and without the stamina or the willingness to bother to do the hard yards on the field. He is a complete shell of the player he was. He may as well not be getting the ball in hand anymore because he is in the bottom 5 players in the AFL for having first hands on the ball but not doing anything with it ie. not resulting in a clearance to us - according to Horne (?). Also in that bottom 5 in the whole AFL are Viney and Gawn. That is a disgraceful stat for our so called "elite" midfield group. I have great doubts that Clarry will come good - certainly not this year. I'm for trading him even though the return will be minimal. I think he is not healthy for our Club.

2 hours ago, Billy said:

I think Kozzie will go & Trac & Oliver stay. Get 2 first rounders for Kozzie or a straight swap for Treacy, or Amiss & a second rounder back to us

I still have faith in Clarry, don’t know why, love the bloke even with all his baggage

Why on earth would Treacy come to us? Unless he is getting massively underpaid.

21 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I'm trading Clarry, Fritta and Kozzy unfortunately. I'm keeping Trac.

Someone else mentioned this on another thread but it feels like Trac is going to be the captain next year and he knows it.

3 minutes ago, Disco InTurno said:

Someone else mentioned this on another thread but it feels like Trac is going to be the captain next year and he knows it.

I'm not in favour of making someone captain that tried to force a trade. sends the wrong message imv. and I'm not sure he captains material anyways. Would prefer he focuses on being elite and let someone carry the captains mantel.

Lever is my preference

Just now, Disco InTurno said:

Someone else mentioned this on another thread but it feels like Trac is going to be the captain next year and he knows it.

That is an interesting point.

Not sure showing leadership is auditioning for the captaincy. Would Max give it up?

My take is Trac realises someone has to stand up now to salvage what we can from this train crash season but knows our leaders aren't able to atm, be it injury, form, family issues etc.

Trac has shown a bit of maturity recently so I look forward to what extra mile he goes to help the team.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

Just now, Disco InTurno said:

Someone else mentioned this on another thread but it feels like Trac is going to be the captain next year and he knows it.

I think Tracc has a long way to go before he is worthy of being captain: -

• he needs to gain some humility

• he needs to show that he cares for his teammates both on and off the field

• he needs to lead by example both on and off the field

• he needs to be far more selfless in his on-field play

• he needs to improve his basic football skills - kicking and handballing

• he has to make it abundantly clear that he is fully committed to the MFC for the length of his contract.

• he has to have regained the respect of everyone at the Club

Only once he has done all that, he will be ready to lead our great Club, not before

19 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

At this point our dear @Ghostwriter is tearing her hair out, has the voodoo dolls out for you and trying not to 🤮

Sorry Ghosty.

10 minutes ago, BDA said:

Lever is my preference

Mine too.

Sadly, I can't see any obvious succession planning to Gawn/Viney. Lets not forget Viney has many years left on his contract. Lever is forever injured and who knows what happens with Trac.

tbh I'm disappointed the likes of Rivers, Chandler, Langdon haven't been developed enough that at least one of them joined the leadership group.

I'm not sure that Rick has the same presence or relatability as Max and he's also quite injury prone as well. At the end of the day it's the squad that makes the decision anyway isn't it? I'd be surprised if it was BP5 that takes over when Max steps down but if we start to see him ramp up his club media presence throughout the year it might hint towards that being the intention.

21 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Clarry owes us big time. After what we have had to put up with, with him, it's just so disrespectful to the MFC that he has turned up this year still nowhere near fit enough, and without the stamina or the willingness to bother to do the hard yards on the field. He is a complete shell of the player he was. He may as well not be getting the ball in hand anymore because he is in the bottom 5 players in the AFL for having first hands on the ball but not doing anything with it ie. not resulting in a clearance to us - according to Horne (?). Also in that bottom 5 in the whole AFL are Viney and Gawn. That is a disgraceful stat for our so called "elite" midfield group. I have great doubts that Clarry will come good - certainly not this year. I'm for trading him even though the return will be minimal. I think he is not healthy for our Club.

At the risk of contradicting myself, clarry has clearly worked his backside off in terms of his fitness.

The reality elite fitness is iterative and any elite athlete who missed 6 months of training, as was the case for clarry in 2023 into 2024, will take 18 months minimum t8 get back to their optimal condition- assuming I'd course they do thr work.

All the track reports, amd my own observations at training, highlighted how hard clarry worked in the preseason. But he's still got a ways to go and alot of sort in front of him

6 minutes ago, binman said:

At the risk of contradicting myself, clarry has clearly worked his backside off in terms of his fitness.

The reality elite fitness is iterative and any elite athlete who missed 6 months of training, as was the case for clarry in 2023 into 2024, will take 18 months minimum t8 get back to their optimal condition- assuming I'd course they do thr work.

All the track reports, amd my own observations at training, highlighted how hard clarry worked in the preseason. But he's still got a ways to go and alot of sort in front of him

He's probably training as hard as ever, because it's what he knows when he's at the club and with his teammates.

But it may be what he's doing away from the club. What he's eating, when he's eating, how much he's eating, whether he's doing all the one percent things to be in peak physical conditioning. It's impossible to believe he's giving himself the best chance to perform at an elite level. Well, it is for me.