All reasonable and fair points @Its Time Again

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I see his 2nd year trajectory similar to how Finn Callaghan was for instance.

Another solid year of just building and developing.with the big spike coming around the 3rd or 4th year.

Perhaps. But he might be our second best mid in 2026 and Kozzie will be hard to ‘run with’ and disrupt in a football sense. Whereas Langford is a kid that would be susceptible to oppo homework.

More and more I am thinking similarly to you for 2026.

Late start for key senior players, best players are young, seeming role players being exposed to more responsibility, question marks on number of players…

My red and blue heart is always going to be biased and have us performing better than anyone thought. My head, when looking at this season is a little bit confused. It may be age causing that.

It may be more of a case that there are just so many unknowns stacked into our mix this season. It makes it hard, in my opinion to make any assessment.

New coach with a new structure to his coaching team, a different game structure and a big turnover in the playing list all contribute to a sense of uncertainty for me.

With regard to the coaching I like what I am hearing about the training sessions and the attitude of the players. they seem to be responding to the new coaching team. I am sure the players are looking at the situation as a 'clean sheet' re-start. I have also heard reports from a couple of people that King is very clear in his discussions with players at training as well as in private. I believe he is the same way with his coaching team.

The playing list is what it is. We lost a couple of club champions and gained a couple of senior players. wins and losses, only time will tell which are which. I tend to think we made the right decisions to move on our ex/declining champions and look to make spaces in the team for younger developing players. In the defence I think we have a good mix of senior quality players and young developing players. If that is the case and we can organise that area of the ground to support our new game plan then I think it will hold up pretty well.

The attacking area of the ground will be better than it has been since '21. it would have to show some improvement as it has been so bad for so long. The new game plan will improve the forward performance as long as the midfield delivers with intent and intelligence and the forwards are on the move rather than standing and wrestling. JVR, Fristch and Mihocek will be locks if fit but it will be interesting to see how the rest of the forward 0 is structured. There will be a number of players rotating between a stint in the forwards and other positions in the midfield or on a wing.

Games are won and lost in the midfield...... so goes a tried and true cliche. I agree and it is the zone of the ground that we really know least about. We have a number of players that can perform on the wings. The real deal is what happens in the middle at the fall of the ball. Steele will be a big asset in there as will Pickett the Elder. the rest will get in there but so much of the performance in there relies on understanding how and where your teammates are going to be. it takes time to build those relationships and understanding. I expect us to run a bit hot and cold in the middle during this season and even within games.

So the heart says we will surprise and end up 8-10 while the head says we will improve on 14th last season and be around 10-12th.

P.S. in my heart of hearts we win the flag this year.