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Hi All, We are currently courting a contracted and uncontracted player both "A Grade" Key Forwards. The uncontracted player is Jack Gunston. We are well and truly in the race despite some contrary media reports suggesting a move to Brisbane or retained by Hawthorn. I have been told we are odds on! (that's better than 50% chance snowflakes not a certainty). The contracted player has also been responsive with quiet discussions since July. I have no idea of the chance of success. If I say who it is this has the real chance of wrecking the good work our recruiters are doing and would undermine the chances of success. Snowflakes, please refrain from abusing me...........I quite enjoy your D-Grade dibble, it's just super boring reading for the rest of DL. If you don't want to hear what I have to say BLOCK ME.

The AFLW attracted controversy last weekend when it ditched plans for a minute's silence to remember the Queen because of Indigenous round. Here's an articulate, intelligent and passionate explanation of why it matters from Daisy Pearce. For all those people who say Indigenous round is just a tokenistic, virtue-signalling concept, here's proof from our skipper that there's real substance behind the sentiment and a willingness to stand up for principles when it matters most. You might disagree with her stance, but there's no denying that she's taken the time to consider her position and has thought about these issues at length. If that's not the purpose of Indigenous round, then what is?

Sure, 71 point win in a PF is impressive, but it ain’t no 83.

A prelim loss for Geelong would make my Friday night guzzle all the more enjoyable.

You mean apart from Lever, May, Langdon, Hibberd, Melksham, Brown and Dunstan? That’s 6 out of our last match 22 and one of the next in line who have to come to us from other clubs. And 4 players (Oliver, Trac, Viney and Brayshaw) have signed ultra long deals in the face of serious bids from elsewhere in the last three years. Bit of a stretch to say nobody wants to play for us.

It’s amazing with supporters as soon as a player maybe traded we always find fault in them. Would be an absolute disaster if we lost Jacko & Kozzie in consecutive years

How we lost to that team last week is beyond me. Geelong got their grand final. Well done to the AFL and ol brother Scott for ensuring it happened. Hope they get smashed next week.

Go the Swans is all I can say!

Anyone who can remotely be considered a key forward would be nice.

This should be us getting flogged…

Kozzie is very close to his uncle, Byron Pickett a Port premiership player who lives in SA. iirc the Pickett family took him in hence why he has Pickett in his double surname and why he lived in SA prior to being drafted. imv he is our #1 priority to recontract and the soon the better. Not many like him and his x factor is almost irreplaceable . He is one of the few players that gets the crowd on their feet making noise whenever he goes near the ball or starts a chase. It isn't this year that I am worried about. It is next year when he comes out of contract.

In that case, you'll simply adore this A-Grade Dibble.

Well done, personally I love the rumours, even if not all happen as rumoured.

They wouldn't need to if they had given injured guys some time out in the second half of the season.

Look at Scott, the arrogant [censored], walking around the boundary [censored] me , I hate these [censored]

I’ve never had this experience before. I’m watching the footy knowing we can’t win it, but that our best would crush both these sides. What a weird feeling.

Lives with Jackson and Bedford. One is gone. The other is maybe gone too. Not ideal if he’s already not loving Melbourne.

I was a bit sceptical about our potential recruiting of Brodie Grundy. My thinking was that we need a key forward more than anything. But the more I think about it, the more I am coming around to it. I heard Josh Jenkins talk about the way some clubs use ruckmen these days. One plays in the back half and the other patrols the forward line. Imagine having big Brodie clunking everything inside defensive 50 while Maysie, Petts and Rick smash their defenders in one on ones. Then you've got Gawny dominating the airways up forward with T-Mac and young Rooey smashing into every pack and clearing bodies for the skip.... And then it comes to centre bounces. The Carlton back up ruckman in Silvagni goes into the middle breathing a sigh of relief that he can see big Max down in the goal square, only to look across the circle to see big Brodie staring across at him. There will be no let off for opposition at stoppages. I would also feel a bit more comfortable with our game plan of kicking it long down the line when the opposition block our run when we have the two-headed Gawn/Grundy monster waiting to swallow the ball whole. I'm starting to get a little excited by the thought of BG coming to the reigning premiers actually.

Just thought I'd point out that North don't have a second round pick this year. I've posted the table of draft picks current as of today from Draft Guru below. It will be interesting to see what North offer for Logue & Tucker. Club Picks Total Value Pick History Adelaide 5, 23, 77 2693 compare Brisbane 13, 31, 44, 67, 85 2249 compare Carlton 10, 28, 62, 64, 82 2296 compare Collingwood 15, 42, 47, 48, 87 2125 compare Essendon 4, 22, 40, 58, 76 3478 compare Fremantle 14, 86 1161 compare GWS 3, 21, 39, 57, 59, 75 3898 compare Geelong 18, 36, 46, 49, 54, 60, 72, 90 2490 compare Gold Coast 7, 25, 32, 33, 43, 51, 68, 69, 79 4292 compare Hawthorn 6, 24, 50, 61, 78 2944 compare Melbourne 35, 41, 53, 63, 71, 89 1308 compare North Melbourne 1, 55, 66, 73 3296 compare Port Adelaide 8, 52, 56, 80 1991 compare Richmond 12, 19, 30, 84 2845 compare St Kilda 9, 27, 45, 81 2519 compare Sydney 16, 17, 34, 70, 88 2673 compare West Coast 2, 20, 26, 38, 74 4623 compare Western Bulldogs 11, 29, 37, 65, 83 2555 compare

I'm sure this was exactly what went wrong. I think the coaches took Burgo's philosophy a little bit too literal and we really should not have replicated last year's program when so many players were cooked by injury this year. I was worried too because I knew how fine the line between overtraining and sufficient recovery is. If loading is done incorrectly athletes can develop "overtraining syndrome" which leads to chronic fatigue. It occurs when prolonged excessive training is combined with other stressors (injuries) and insufficient recovery time. Unfortunately once you develop it, it take several months for your body to return to normal fitness capacity. Just speculation so there's no way of knowing if we developed "OS" as opposed to simply not being fit enough but it begs the question as to why only the bottom two teams performed worse in second halves than us.

I spent a week working in Yuendumu. Coincidentally, the same week Jurrah made his debut for the Dees. Hard to put into (concise) words the experience of being in the community. Needless to say, to make it to the AFL from Yuendumu takes a rare talent indeed. Really sad to hear this news.

I’d be more disappointed in losing Kozzie than Jackson.

Simple. Supporters don’t make enough noise at games.

Good on Dais. This stance will always get blow back from some, and they're entitled to their opinion. But the fact the AFLW prioritised Indigenous round, and the position of the Indigenous people involved, doesn't concern me at all. The Queen has received due respect from an enormous majority of the population and society as a whole. This one act, to prioritise an Indigenous position during Indigenous round, doesn't diminish that for mine. And before people say 'it's white people speaking for Indigenous people', don't forget this started because the person doing the welcome to country was not comfortable doing it with the minute's silence. And if First Nation's people say this is a legitimate issue for them, then it's not up to us to tell them it's not.

Nothing that holds much Weightman.

So there's Naughton to see here?

So, putting it all together we need a soft cap on a hard nut? Never mind, I'll see myself out...

Im disappointed in Daisy, I thought she would understand the significance of the Queens passing for which AFLW failed to do this. We stand and listen to Welcome to Country when we are meant to be one country. We are not responsible for the past and cant undo history, all we can do is continue to try and undo these.

Orignally I was against going after Grundy however when your game is built around stoppage & contest & you have the best on ball brigade in the comp only furthering strengthening is with another All Australian ruckmen can only be a good thing... We'd lose absolutely nothing when Gawn has a rest & can balance the load more between Gawn & Grundy... I actually think this should be a ploy to get Gawn back to playing that kick behind the play to help shore up our defence rather than forward. Not to mention we don't have another ruckmen on our list, if Gawn goes down next year who rucks ? Weid ? If we get 2 first rounders for Jackson move the later one on for Grundy & keep one I don't think it's the worst result. We will be paying him peanuts & in reality is the best option for a 2nd ruckman out there. We are in window, we need to ensure we have all bass covered & if we lost Gawn through injury you can shut that window. People laughed when we used pick 3 on Jackson saying why would we need another ruckmen... I'm backing the club in on this one to have a solid play that sees both capable of playing in the same side. 3 years ago Grundy was rivalling Gawn for the #1 ruck in the comp, we could have both.

Massive advocate of getting Gunston in for a couple of years while we're in the window.

We’d be crazy not to be asking the question to Gunston. We were interested in him 12 months ago but baulked at Hawthorn’s asking price of a first rounder (fair enough too). Now he’s a free agent but still playing good footy, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be all over him. Fritsch and Gunston would combine for 5 goals a week quite easily when fit. They both kick lots of goals even when they’re not playing particularly well (if that makes sense). Yes to Gunston.

You can't polish a Hird

I hate all 4 clubs. I guess if it’s Cats v Swans GF then at its two of the best three clubs in the GF. The lions have Zorko ([censored]) and Berry (gouger) so probably thinking the Cats. Pies supporters are just feral. Swans less so. An empty feeling right now. Last Friday night hurt. Tonight’s match might be hard to watch.

He finished third last year with 31 votes, a tally that would win the medal most years. That tells me that the umpires do indeed notice him and rate his output.

Shouldn't have taken injured players into the Lions game then.

It’s really hard to care. I wish nothing but pain and misery to all 4 sides remaining

Thanks LN - my comment was meant as a joke and to be light hearted given the commentary around LJ In hindsight and knowing the circumstances it was not appropriate

Absolute nonsense. These guys have given their all and came up short, and no doubt will now suffer the insults from salty supporters both online and whenever they go out in public. No young athlete deserves to be abused simply because they are well payed.

That also is not true. Max's % of time rucking did not change throughout the year. He consistently spent around 55-60% the ruck, with Jackson spending 35-40%. In fact, for the Brisbane final he played even more ruck, with 66% of his time being spent in the ruck. Coupled with the fact that he played 90% total game time, it means that he only played 25-30% of games somewhere else other than ruck. Source: AFL Ruck Contests - DFS Australia

Daisy is so well spoken, what a legend. Succinctly and eloquently put while not stepping on the toes of the Queen's legacy - so glad she's a Demon

I think he went to live with uncle Byron when he was in school (not sure the exact age), this was in South Aust. Both Cornes and Rucci are notorious for making up things that suit the SA clubs, and then sooking about the Vic media bias.

I will watch the Daniher comedy show tonite but I would like to see the bears win. I hate Geelong.

Who knows with Bell. Young called him out last year for breaking the 'cone of silence' regarding Lobb's interest in going to GWS. It does seem Freo have gone back on an 'agreement' last year. If one believes Bell they couldn't let both Logue and Lobb to so are keeping Lobb who is under contract. Interestingly, Young manages both Lobb and Logue. Unless, Freo get lots of trade currency in via North I don't see how they can do the Jackson deal without trading Lobb to Bulldogs. The Jackosn trade may drag on till the end of the trade period, for another month, if it gets tied up with the Lobb deal. Sigh.. Bell's list management tactics seem very sus!

I wish the dees could have a perpetual premiership window like the Cats seem to have...that would be nice!!

I agree with @Lucifers Heroand @Redlegthat bringing Grundy in would have a big impact in keep Max primed for the big games. In addition to reducing his work load in each game it will also allow us to completely rest him in some games. Had we had a fit Grundy on our list this year I suspect Max would of missed another 4/5 games to recover from injuries. However if Grundy had of been playing and reduced the workload on Max all season then perhaps he wouldn’t have picked up so many injuries. I have been thinking about this a lot since we got beat by Brisbane and Im hoping that this will be a major shift in our coaching and fitness mentality this year. Moving away from the Burgess play on through pain mentality and adopt the same sort of attitude as Geelong have had this year by resting players to keep them fresh and injury free. We could adopt the adopt the same plan with our key forwards as BBB and Tmac could both benefit from being rested and managed over the course of the season. Another who I think always plays better fresh is Jack Viney who I think would benefit from missing a couple of games through the season. For us to be able to rest players we need to plan to be more flexible and willing to move the magnets around a bit. We would need to reward players playing well at Casey and also be more willing to move players around a bit move. Gus may go back to the wing or defence but he has shown enough that he can play in the middle while we rest somebody else. Likewise Petty could play one or two games up front to rest BBB and give us a different look. Try Bowey further forward. We have options but we would need to be putting time in pre season into this. Having players able to play multiple roles would also enable us to make changes during games. Sorry went way off topic. Just hoping that us going for Grundy indicates we are changing our attitude and preparation with regards to keeping players fresher and just being a bit more flexible in our approach.

I'm ready to not watch football.

I hope the woman he attacked with a machete is ok It was great to see him at the Port game in Alice this year but seriously. Time he got his life sorted out and stopped behaving like a thug

I would imagine we would be examining him with our medical team pretty closely, before any deal is done. Of course there are no guarantees. He could do his knee in a scratch match. I am thinking that the FD see this as Grundy being the main ruck during the season, doing lets say 60-70% and Max maybe the rest, with only a small amount of time forward, maybe just to unsettle defences. This would allow Max to remain fitter and fresher for finals and hopefully to play on longer. If a key forward went down in a game, Max might play a bit more there. I could also see him not playing some interstate games as well. I see this as a way to prolong Max's career and have him as a fresh weapon in finals, as opposed to the banged up Max we had this year, with multiple injuries that he played through. It is obvious to me that the Max of this year's finals, was a shadow of last year's. This could all be down to us managing one of our key assets.