On 16/03/2026 at 18:22, bing181 said:

Without any inside knowledge so could be well wide of the mark, I don't believe that the decision to play Kolt on NWM came from any one person or any one process. It could have started with a question to the fitness staff, and King mentioned Kolt's fitness profile as making him ideal for the job (fast enough, but can run all day). I would imagine that even the development team got involved. etc. etc.

You sure you have no inside knowledge? Cos this is exactly the case. Kolt talked about this today at Gosch’s. He said the coaches (plural) showed their faith in him and began discussing the proposition three weeks ago, and that Cub (our Head of Development) and Selwyn were involved right from the outset. It was definitely a group initiative. And the way both Cub and Selwyn greeted Kolt this morning kinda confirmed it. #KoltGotTheLove 🙂

Something I'm going to be interested to see with King is whether he goes down the path of picking his idea of the best 23 or whether he will go for more horses for courses style, to match up against other teams. Something I felt we didn't do enough of last season (and previous years) was picking players who could play specific roles vs other teams. I genuine feel like that could be a scenario this week with Freo's tall list. Heath has had a solid pre-season, would be good to see him get some games early.

Sparrow would be the only one I'd probably take out at this point.

1 hour ago, Pates said:

Something I'm going to be interested to see with King is whether he goes down the path of picking his idea of the best 23 or whether he will go for more horses for courses style

Meanwhile in another galaxy, far far away ...

On 16/03/2026 at 13:08, poita said:

McDonald & Heath for Lever & Sparrow. Lever turned the ball over on multiple occasions and had about ten contested marks taken on - mostly by midgets. Straight swap for McDonald.

Heath required to combat Jackson & Darcy, and Sparrow contributed nothing (again).

Lever started out very shaky on Ryan. But Ryan, Owens and Wilson were the only Saints forwards to take contested marks, one each, total three. IIRC only Ryan outmarked vs Lever.

As @bing181 noted, Lever led intercepts and 1%s by 2.

Yeah his kicking is dodgy, same as it ever was, even when AA and our new style exacerbates this.

He has his physical limitations but it's hard to tell from the outside the importance of his defensive organising skills.

I'll be amazed if he's not playing vs Freo.

On 16/03/2026 at 19:24, old dee said:

I agree on tmac but I don't think it will happen. I think he has been told he is an emergency for injuries only.

I thought Tom was happy to retire a couple of years ago, so I don’t think he would have played this year if he was told that.

I think he would have expected the side to be picked on form.

If he didn’t deserve a game then so be it.

8 minutes ago, Redleg said:

I thought Tom was happy to retire a couple of years ago, so I don’t think he would have played this year if he was told that.

I think he would have expected the side to be picked on form.

If he didn’t deserve a game then so be

8 minutes ago, Redleg said:

he's on 249 games?

2 hours ago, old55 said:

He has his physical limitations but it's hard to tell from the outside the importance of his defensive organising skills.

His organization is required in the post May era.
Disco/Petty will need to grow into this role

13 hours ago, Demonland said:

Media's reaction ot Longmuire's comments have been ridiculous. Everything he said was correct and no one engaged with his actual point in good faith.

Quite a few on the Freo boards are calling for Darcy to be dropped and Cox to be brought in.

That would give them Cox and Jackson to take on Max.

Surely it would make sense to bring in the Moose to give Max a chop out?

Max will be cooked by round 6 if he keeps trying the hurculean efforts each week