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Hi everyone! In the long wait to finals I've been doing a few sketches while rewatching some games. Nothing too fancy given this is just in between work. I'll drop them here from time to time. Will take suggestions for players too!

Take out his run ups and it's about 3km per game... ;)

Earlier on this season I posted on this thread information that came to me from a usually reliable contact that the deal was all but settled and that Luke would sign within two weeks an extension of two years. That, of course, did not happen. Since then I have not bothered to post on this thread the whispers that I have heard. So many of them were conflicting and sounded more like wishes than a reflection of the true situation. My reading of all that I have heard is that, while there is a very, very good offer on the table from Freo for Luke, it is not a done deal. The main problem is Freo will have trouble meeting our requested asking price and that Luke is reluctant to consider a WC offer. This may end up in the Dees getting a deal across the line for a 2 year deal while Freo get their ducks in line for a reasonable deal. This is purely my conjecture. I do not think anyone outside the MFC have any real idea of what is going on as lips are sealed on this and there are no real leaks. Good to see and good that it is not really a distraction with the new Finals season coming up.

What a great asset Gus is to our team and our club: Mid, wingman, defender! You name it he excels in the role: backline-beast-to-midfield-maestro Gus is a true team man. He gained a total of 11 coaches votes in 3 of the last four games since returning to the midfield. He has worked in the shadow of Petracca and Oliver but it is good to see he is getting the recognition he deserves.

Normal and common. Only removed if they cause problems. Some metalwork works its way out of the bone, which usually presents as surface discomfort, i.e. rubs on stuff, like shoes, or starts to blanch the skin, in which case they whip it out. On the type of metal - screw, plate, wire, the recovery from removal is firstly just the incision wound, then loading caution depending on which bone it is and how big a hole it leaves, which then naturally fills in. As an example, I had a couple of small-gauge wires (externally visible ends) holding some wrist bones in place. When they were pulled out I could do what I like.

Here's one I've prepared earlier of JJ at training!

Jacko is currently contracted to MFC He has said nothing other than he will look at his position at the end of season to negotiate That is all we know!!!! Why that needs 185 pages of speculation rumour and BS is beyond me Lets enjoy our second premiership opportunity and worry about Jacko at the end Please????

If Geelong win this week they will have another fortnight without a game to the PF. Given their last month or so has been little more than training runs and the extensive resting of players during that time, I have my doubts they will be 'match hardened' for a PF. Also, will they have the physical 'resilience' to play through niggles...? With the odd exception, we have chosen the opposite approach to player management/fitness over the last few months of challenging games: play them through niggles and aging. I'm not sure Geelong can go the distance, not because of ageing per se but because they haven't played enough hard at it footy.

I have little idea about trading, but surely a proven quality young player is worth a lot more than a couple of early picks given what a lottery drafting is.

Don't be silly, old. He was clearly referring to Darren Bradshaw, who is Daniel's younger brother. He's only 41 now.

Daniel Bradshaw is 43yo now. I know we need a key forward but leave that age recruiting to Geelong.

AFL rebooting ‘Thank God you’re here’

At least one competetion takes these sorts of act seriously. AFL please take note.

Time for a refresher of last year. Summary of the GF called "Momentum". Let's aim for some of that this year.

Would love to see Freo knock them off for the 3rd time in a final in Victoria

I was speaking to the membership department a little earlier and I nearly fell off my chair when they told me what the club is expecting on Friday. I had to ask twice just in case I heard wrong, as of this morning according to ticket sales I was told they are expecting 84,000. I think we all hope it gets to that.

We shouldn’t and won’t, if Grundy says it’s Dees or I stay. Grundy staying, plus likely De Goey too, probably stuffs up their whole trading scenarios. They are even into Billy Frampton, so it suggests they have factored on Grundy gone.

Agree Chook. Whenever LJ plays a15 disposal 20 hit out 8 tackles 6 score involvements anda goal with 5 marks he has an impact far greater than some smaller midfielders as he directly assists our mids with these possessions in a better position for scores and goals. He also negates opposition players with his competitive game and general run on ball skills. He is an elite midfielder with a great on ball game who rarely fumbles and is generally in the clear when he releases the ball. It his quality and clean skills that set him apart from many mids running around today.

Geelong are under serious pressure to win the flag. Last flag in 2011. Missed finals once since since then Playing the last half of the season with easy games at Taxpayer Park will come back to haunt them Out in straight sets.

Or vice versa

Yes but WC do, so maybe it’s LJ that will have to be a little disappointed, to get back home, but not necessarily to the club of his choice. We don’t have to do any deal and I don’t think clearing our most exciting young player for unders is really on our radar. I would be confident we know who and what we want we want at this stage and unless Luke and WC are prepared to shaft us in the PSD, we should not buckle. This bloke has been described as a generational player and he is now a premiership player as well and he could be a 12-13 year player for the Dockers. We can’t allow him to go for unders.

Don’t worry about it mo. There will be a sliding scale. If we are parting with a first rounder for Grundy that will mean we are paying him 2/5ths of bugger all and the Pies are stumping a fair % of his ludicrous salary. On the other hand if we are throwing them a late 4th rounder for the inner city, tree hugging hipster, then our salary cap is going to be taking far more of a hit. No doubt it will fall somewhere between those two scenarios

Don’t want an ounce of what Josh Bruce has to offer, which isn’t much more than a huge chin, dirty mo and greasy man-bun

I was impressed by the way Casey ran all over Sydney in the second half. The first half was played at a blistering speed in quite warm conditions considering the weather we have had. There were a lot of really hot contests in that first half. It was quite obvious that Casey were fitter and stronger, and you would assume that most of the Casey players train under the AFL team work loads. Maybe gives a bit of weight to the loading philosophy? And I want to make mention of Adam Tomlinson, he is clearly a general out there. His verbal instructions to team mates was relentless.

Remember this the club that demanded and got pick 2 for Lachie Weller and pick 5 plus another pick for Cerra. What does that make LJ worth, as a 20 year old ruckman, rising star and premiership player?

No way TMac plays before at least another Casey game IMO. If I were him I’d be mentally preparing for a tilt at a Casey flag and treat anything else as a bonus.

Unfortunately Luke is under his mothers full control. Mentally he is still a kid. Luke loves the club and his mates, but his mother who is a massive Freo supporter is demanding his return home. Our only hopes is the penny drops with Luke over the finals, or that Freo cant come up with a trade, West Coast becomes an option and Luke's mum tells Luke to wait another 2 years as the though of him playing for West Coast is intolerable.

Exactly, and the sooner they introduce this to the Mens game the better. Stops all that Umpire interpretation rubbish.

There are a lot of strategically placed rules in the AFL, like the rule that makes the Dees play at Cats ground 29 times in last 30 years while Blues, Bombers, Pies and Tigers never see the place. Another rule is the one that allows Cats to play bottom 2 sides twice and hardly play any top sides twice.

Big dirtbag behavior

Both of you - wrong. He is obviously talking about former Pittsburgh Quarterback Terry Bradshaw. But he is turning 74 this year and I just don’t think we want to commit to a short term option at Quarterback especially considering he really plays a different system and also our sport doesn’t have that role within the rules…

Haha there's no stopping artistic licence!

The way that Zorko has tried to deflect from his gutter mouth by saying he was provoked was disgusting. The AFL should have acted on him and Brisbane should remove the Captaincy.

Yes, if Brodie wants to get to the Dees and we value him appropriately- he simply has to name us and stipulate that he doesn’t care what the terms of the deal are - he is either staying on his current wage or he is going with the $500-$600k MFC is offering and the max ND35 they are providing the Magpies. Now this sentiment goes out the window when we talk about LJ to Freo but there it is - this is the year to get your Dodoro on.

Indeed! Too good not to be celebrated!

I reckon a lot will be surprised how many turn up. Melbourne fans seem to view finals as a different ballgame to turn up for some reason 😂

Currently $21 for top 20 brownlow. Worth a look I reckon

We are the defending premiers. We've got a great team with still plenty of young potential. We'll be active in trading and/or drafting with good picks if Jackson leaves. But what we don't need is other club's detritus like Bruce and the once-good but now retired Ryder.

How do we cope with Sydney’s flooding ???Experts at clogging up our forward line

Yep. How often is Ben up on the wing, always on the move. his knee is crucial for another month.

People underestimate how much running BBB does. His knee is clearly giving him problems but he used to run 10-12 kms a game Here is a piece from the AFLs website during 2020 (when at Nth Melb) Top-five most distance covered in a game in 2020 Will Walker, 13.7km v Geelong, round 10 Ben Brown, 13.3km v Essendon, round 6 Trent Dumont, 13.2km v Essendon, round 6 Ben Brown, 13.1km v GWS Giants, round 2 Ben Brown, 13.1km v Hawthorn, round 4

Grundy is contracted so he gets to choose where he goes. GWS (say) might make the best offer but Grundy can just say “Melbourne or I stay”. If Collingwood want to move him on it’s Grundy’s choice if and where he goes.