11 hours ago, Turner said:

blurbs in here on both, academy all get a run at afl level during preseaosn, usually assigned geographically

Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central

26 in 2026: A look ahead to next year’s top prospects

The budding draft crop of 2026 is offers plenty of promise, with two club-tied talents leading a diverse pack of prospects.

So the two to be training with us are not tied to us......

1 hour ago, Greg Schneider said:

Clayton’s not been traded for wins grandpa, he’s been traded because it was the best thing culturally, and to open up spots for young guys in the midfield. People were calling for Sam Mitchell’s head when he traded O’Meara and Tom Mitchell at Hawthorn, looks like a genius now as it opened up spots for young guys and now they’re in flag contention, that took a couple of years, we’ll go down before we come up again, don’t have to be a genius to figure out the approach King is taking

Walk out the front and tell that to the front wall, the response and ability to comprehend the sanity behind what you have correctly outlined will be similar

3 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

It's true. Statistically, we were the second fastest ball movement team on rebound for most of the season according to Champion Data. That measures how quickly we played on from a mark or free kick, and how quickly we moved the ball from the defensive 50 into the middle third of the ground.

Fast doesn't mean effective or good though. The players would often get the ball and immediately bomb it long with little effect. In the games we won, we were hand balling more to create more effective chains of possessions.

Speed isn't necessarily a good thing. IMO the best teams control the tempo of the footy and rarely let the other teams get effective possession. If you can't control the ball, you can't control the game and the game's result is therefore beyond your control and will require luck or your opponent blowing their chances (see us 2022-2023 when we were dominant).

Based on seeing that training footage and what we've heard from King about wanting to move the ball fast and be high scoring, I'd expect a few patches of really exciting play this season mixed amongst mostly getting burnt on turnover by disciplined teams. I'm expecting a bottom four-six finish again. A pass mark is finishing 8th-12th.

Agree with much of the above, except for the notion that our players would often bomb it long. We def turned it over a lot but we were not a bomb it long team.

There are plenty of stats that can be misleading - one such oft cited example is disposal efficiency (eg inside mids dispose of the ball under more pressure than say a half back flanker who get the opportunity to chip kick the ball around the back half under little pressure).

But some stats are less misleading, one being metres gained from kicks.

If in 2025 we were a team that often resorted to long bombs, you'd expect to see that reflected in the data - we'd be near the top of the table for metres gained from kick.

But we're not - in fact we were 12th in the AFL for metres gained per kick (26.2 metres gained per kick).

By way of contrast teams there are number of teams above us on that table that many would imagine don't bomb it long (eg Freo is second for most metres gained per kick, the Pies 5th, the Hawks 6th and the Crows 7th).

The premiers were 17th for metres gained per kick (25 metres - only 1.2 less metres gained per kick than us).

Interestingly, i think I'm right in saying that last season the average metres gained per kicks increased across the board from 2024 as teams started kicking longer to get over the top of zones, look to win the contest head of the ball and mitigate the impact of turnovers (ie better to turn it over in your forward half than miss a short kick at HB) - so perhaps we needed to bomb it long more often!

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by binman

4 hours ago, picket fence said:

King has definately started on the wrong foot with me for trading Clarry, and before anyone tells me to shut up and or get over it, the proof of redemption or at least part of it will be in WINS! You give me wins and I'll shut the furg up, and if Clarry has an outstanding season, then I'll start again.

Clarrie is no longer our player and the reason he is elsewhere is because of his own doing

Look at the reasons ... only one club was really interested and they got him for half price along with not having to give up any worthwhile picks to attain him

He was damaged goods and he needed a new start. And we needed a new start without him

And in my view, his offloading was a MC and FD move ratified by the Board (that happens by default)

Certainly, King would have had a say but it should be remembered that we were trying to offload Clarrie long before King was even thought of as the Head Coach

But I bear no ill will against the bloke at all. In fact, I hope he can get it together again. It's pointless holding grudges

Along with Petracca, he'll forever be remembered as an integral factor in the 2021 premiership

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Macca