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Death riding or no death riding, I will be watching the same number of Fremantle games as Melbourne games. I will be rooting for injuries and one sided umpiring. I wish them the same luck as any team based in Buffalo. https://www.rit.edu/news/buffalo-sports-curse-examines-120-years-bad-luck-new-rit-press-book

Says here $900,000 for 7 years (2029). It’s a lot to pay a bloke who still won’t be the best ruck in his team or the best forward. Still think he would have been a better match for West Coast where he could have succeeded Nic Nat https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/fremantle-dockers/afl-news-2022-luke-jackson-trade-request-to-fremantle-how-melbourne-and-dockers-can-get-deal-done-brodie-grundy-demons-sean-darcy-contract/news-story/7661437b1dba42a305f9882305c2399b

Kinda know where you are comming from here Red. What about "Spooning Freo for Dogga Picks"?

Ok...... Let me go again. Barracking like a lunatic.

So too is Haselby allowed an opinion. In fact, he's paid to have opinions, even if we consider them biased

What so people aren't allowed to make pre season predictions?? No different to many on here who predict these kind of things of the back of pre season training reports.

I reckon Dunstan was pretty stiff at times in getting more AFL games. There were opportunities there where I felt we needed another big bodied experienced midfielder to come in towards the back end of the year and shoulder the burden off Oliver and Petracca who were getting physically targeted aand heavily tagged. The two finals games were perfect opportunities to bring Dunstan for Sparrow imo. Sydney's experienced and bigger bodies were simply too strong for ours. Then against Brisbane Jarrod Berry put the hard clamps on Oliver and took him out of the game while Petracca was running around on a broken leg, Viney was disappointing and Sparrow was completely overwhelmed and MIA. Someone with bigger body and over 100 games of experience would have been handy to chop out in the midfield. I've harped on this before but Sparrow (yes I know coaches rate him highly) was pretty disappointing for me last year. I know he does the defensive stuff well but when we needed someone to stand up to help the likes of Oliver and Petracca, he was no where to be seen. By all reports he's having a strong season so hopefully that'll translate into stronger influences on games. On Dunstan, I have no idea where he's at now. Clearly Goody doesn't see fit for him at all and it's now looking like another Brayden Pruess perplexing decision in bringing him in even if it's depth. Goody's reluctance to reward VFL form or bring in the required depth when actually needed means the likes of Dunstan will be lucky to play 5 games this year.

And expect to drop $150 on food, beer and transport every time you attend live/visit a pub

I think the best we can hope for is Freo to finish 7th - 9th. I think this coming season Crows Bombers Giants Suns Hawks North Port Saints Eagles I think these nine teams will only trouble each other, Port, Crows and the Suns might get the odd scalp but that’s about it.

It means hoping for failure.

WJ is in hospital with knee problems, so best wishes Jack from all of us on your favourite DL thread, for a speedy recovery.

Another weird one thrown up by this highly unusual and basically uncrackable conundrum ... Neil Balme could qualify as the coach of this side, but only while he was still playing for Richmond!

You do have to watch it multiple times. You'd swear everyone else is just stationary as Koz just blasts through traffic. I can't wait to watch him work through the midfield this year. Imagine having to try and tag the bugger.

Luke was the spur of the moment replacement for AVB who was the backup for Viney. If Viney plays Luke doesn't.

Was overlooked despite very good form like a number of other Casey players. Instead the BT kept playing injured & out of form players which eventually caught up with us & we were punished accordingly.

His name is a spoonerism. Real name Duke Lunstan.

he'd waltz into half a dozen teams and be amongst their best inside mids he's very serviceable depth

not me, i walk to the pub and don't waste money on food. so the $150 is all on booze!

Injuries aside the Saints are typically useless and undependable. I'm pinning my hopes on the Lyon effect. He'll want to put one over the dockers so he just might coax a performance of his team.

If there’s one bloke I am absolutely sick of the commentators frothing about its Taberner. He’s played ten seasons. Kicked over 30 goals one season (2021), and apart from 7 goals against the very average Bombers last year he has kicked more than 4 goals in a game once in 116 games as a permanent deep forward

Maybe using the term "Death riding" in the Title should be changed. I am not woke, but it's a pretty heavy and poor word choice imo. I am sure there are plenty of alternative words like " failure" or "wooden spoon" or just "poor year" or whatever. The Eagles have just lost a player's mother in an accident and their are killings everywhere, so maybe I am being overly sensitive, but surely another word could be used.

Out walking my dog at Fawkner Park this morning, turned around to see the whole (almost) team just rock up and start running laps to the sound of Goody’s booming voice. So good to see for a Saturday morning! The buy-in is awesome to see. I’ll report anything I can. Go Dees!!!

Should be in direct competition with Sparrow for that half forward/mid spot if the club decides to implement an integrity of selection policy this season.

Here's a weird thing. I reckon Petracca was in this team before he did his knee playing with a skateboard.

I reckon it's a fatigue build up as well. a lot of the players are still so young and then to suddenly go into a full finals campaign including a grand final, and have to back that up is physically demanding. when coaches talk about players really needing 80-100 games imo what they're referring to is the need for 4-5 solid pre seasons to be able to stand up to the week in, week out nature of footy. in hindsight, as wonderful as it is, we probably did need to rest/rotate the players a little bit more.

You've already flagged that with me a number of times!

I read that Essendon players were on a 5 day break after Wednesday. Read that in the article about their best and fairest Peter Wright hurting his calf. Not sure what was more alarming that he hurt his calf or that he is their best and fairest. Anyway looks like we trained hard Friday and then had another running session today. Whilst Essendon players are on a 5 day break. Sounds about right I suppose for both clubs.

The changes are sensible, but still overly finicky. But they need to change more. For a start, the nominating a Ruckman rule is ridiculous; if they really want to stop a third man up, and I don’t really understand why they want to, then you just penalise a team if two people compete at the same ruck contest. And the one that really drives me crazy is the 30 second rule. You are supposed to play on quite quickly around the field but you are given 30 seconds to prepare a shot for goal. Fair enough I suppose. But when the kick is then an attempt to pass to another player – as was once brilliantly exploited by ANB - the team is given another 30 seconds, and that is ridiculous. It should be limited to 1 thirty second allowance per forward 50 entry.

Chandler looked promising in a 2021 pre season game against Richmond at Casey kicking 3 goals as a genuine small forward including a clever goal on the boundary. I know it was only a practice match but you don't accidently play well against a mostly full strength side featuring Dustin Martin. He just hasn't been afforded the opportunity at AFL level, and the rare chances he's had, he's only played a 20 minute game coming on as a sub over the last couple of years (although he did have that 4 possession "full" game against Carlton in 2021 which wasn't great). Hopefully for his sake, he gets at least 11 games this year for someone that's been on the list for 5 seasons.

The players were fitter than they had ever been according to club stats. Last year was not a fitness issue The problem stems from them working really hard in pre-season to perform at home. They basically didn't have a break over the summer and never switched off. They were super keen and worked extremely hard over the summer. But they totally cooked mentally half way through the year. Hence the allusion to 'work vs footy balance' in Jan / Feb

Read my report if you can — this is the exact highlight for me yesterday as I saw the exact opposite of this and keep hearing goodie has given into Ooze re more corridor and faster movement but also more backwards and switching to create space. Saw NO bombed entries to pockets at ALL and this was highlight of the day for me.. all long entries were to a player running toward goal ie streaming into 50 from centre or wing etc but very few kicks to i50 were to packs at all maybe 1-2 but mainly wings only not i50. Apart from that trial academy kid Cooper Simpson - wow he was sooo good - I didn’t even notice Zane.

Just as much at the footy too for a pie, chips and a coke, oops I mean pepsi now.

I think there is too much wishful thinking about Freo declining this year. Unfortunately, I think they will be around top 4-6, which will spoil our draft hand a bit. I think anything below 6 will be a bonus for our draft chances. And worse, I also think Jacko will have a pretty good year.

Go to home games and go to pub for away games just costs a H&A membership.

kayo is probably cheapest. you only need to pay for footy season...say 6 months. additionally if you want to squeeze it down, get a basic subscription which supports 2 devices concurrently and split costs with a mate/family member. only thing cheaper is probably the pirate sites and fight off the virus attempts.

Fantastic post Biman and great coomet on Freo developing,, and esp the second half Jackson observations. But....My thought on a Freo slide is less thought out and based mainly on the old story of the Aust cricket team. If a new player comes in - who do you drop? If Freo stays in, I can't envision any of Cats, Dees Lions, Pies, Swans, Tiges slipping out.

Interesting hearing him talk about his love for the tactical side of the game and then mentioning the the way Melbourne go about it which he wasn't use to. I'm really starting to look forward to him and Langdon as a weapon. Teams last year put a lot of work into negating EL, I can see oppo coaches being faced with a dilemma if Hunter returns to his best on the other wing.