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I reckon the last page of this thread has the pantomime just right! If anyone gets to boo Jackson it's us, but we'll defend him against Kane Cornes because he is an MFC premiership player and just a kid.

I wouldn't give up 3 first round picks for any player who is only an injury away from being a bust. This is supposed to be a strong draft. Spread the investment lads.

did more with 11 touches vs the tiggas than others with double that amount his running is incredible and he would be very difficult to replace

ANB is a culture driver, Premiership player and would love to see him play out his career at the Dee’s. The sooner the better I say.!!!

Just a quick good luck to Toby Bedford, will debut for the Giants this week.

Good news. Nibbler is a very underrated player who would be in the best 22 of pretty much any team. I reckon he's worth a 3 year deal where even if he plays the latter half in the VFL he will drive culture and standards with the young kids coming through.

Get it done swiftly. Leader, important to the culture and the example of working your backside off.

Yes we actually do. Viney isn't getting any younger, and beyond Clarry and Trac we don't have another A+ grade midfielder waiting in the wings. We've invested heavily in talls in recent years, both in terms of drafting and trading. We absolutely need to start refreshing the midfield now.

MELBOURNE is in discussions for an extension for 2021 flag winner Alex Neal-Bullen. Neal-Bullen qualifies as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career this year, having re-signed for two years in 2021. He is one of four free agents at the Dees, alongside James Jordon, Jake Melksham and Luke Dunstan. But talks are underway for a new deal to extend Neal-Bullen's stay at Melbourne, where he remains a key member and popular player in its squad having played every game this season

I think Kozzie has been struggling post suspension because he has doubt in his mind about how hard he can bump/tackle. His game has always been built on putting on pressure, hitting bodies and tackling hard and since being suspended for an incident where he didn’t even hurt anyone I think he is overthinking the pressure side of his game and it’s making him less instinctive. Hopefully he gets back to his best this week.

I'm gonna cop it for saying this but imo Grundy is actually a better centre tap ruckman than Gawn. Only have to go back to half way through the 3rd quarter when Grundy was thrown in there and completely changed the momentum of the game just by simply palming to our midfield advantage. Gawn can be hit and miss and i thought that when he was rucking at times Richmond seem to generate more clearences because he hits it to the defensive side. The biggest turning point of the game was leaving Grundy to ruck and Gawn up forward. Gawn has such a huge presence up forward and some of his contested marking was Carey like. He makes defenders worry and it could be something that may help JVR development up forward so that he isn't getting the best defender at the start of the match. I want to this more of this where Grundy takes more responsibilities as the main ruck and Gawn playing up forward. If it means less pressure and hits on his body then he'll be cherry ripe come September.

Let’s wind the clock back two years and ask yourself whether you would rather have:- • Nick Daicos (taken at pick 4) OR • Mac Andrew (5), Neil Erasmus (10) and Angus Sheldrick (18) Your answer please.

❤️💙 GUSSY’S 150th GAME ❤️💙 🥳 🥳 This Saturday 🥳 🥳

I hope he stays with us for all the reasons already mentioned. Also because the cheer squad wouldn’t be the same without Shazza, his mum. She’s a legend. Nonstop energy. It’s funny, she screams out “Nibba” or “Nibs” but when he messes up she changes to “Alex” as in, “Oh Alex, what was THAT?!"

Nibbler isnt going anywhere he loves club and despite what some people may say is an incredibly important player for us both on and off the field.

Off topic a little but I have been pleasantly surprised by how he is almost first on the scene to back his teammates up in any scuffle that occurs. Don’t consider him ex Collingwood anymore, he is simply one of us.

Based on the number of once in a generation players we have heard about recently, I’m guessing that a football generation is about 1 year long.

my preference is to leverage two great players out of three picks, not one

The last two times we've played them: We struggled to put them away until midway through the third quarter last year, at Marvel We were something like 20 points down to them in the third quarter in 2021, in Hobart We rarely play our best football against North Melbourne, for whatever reason. We also rarely play our best football against Clarkson-coached sides. They have a few stars (LDU, Simpkin, Sheezel, Larkey), the hot/cold Zurhaar, and then Cunnington, Goldstein and Ziebell. But it falls away after that. Off a 5-day break, I'll be happy with any sort of win to be honest, but reality is we are streets in front of North on form, talent and development, and should really have no issues with them. I'll be disappointed, but not surprised, if this is an arm-wrestle.

IMO Schache has shown a good string of games in the 2s, and has been rewarded. BB and TMAC had stinkers so they stay at Casey. We have enough options to have each tall compete for their spot in the 22.

Schache to debut.

Adelaide would be crazy not to pursue him hard. He'd fit in really well at every club purely from a culture and team first perspective. Would slot into any leadership role that is thin in this area and its a part where I still think the Crows lack. So glad to hear him being close to signing a new deal. My guess will be a 4 year deal that'll take him to the age of 31 years of age and life member of the footy club.

Cant understand the opposition to Ben Brown . He was in great form before getting injured early in the 3rd R. 9 goals ffs. I dont care if he had a poor game last week in the VFL. Could of leaned against the goal post picking his nose for all i care. Hes an AFL player not VFL. If fit hes straight back in and he'll take the oppositions best defender away from JVR.

Reckon Grundy can go another gear or two. When Max has played Grundy's game time has been 68% and 69%. Without Max it has been 71% to 88%. The lower game time could be to help him get to peak fitness after so long out of the game. Or it could be to keep him fresh in games to use as a weapon to get or keep momentum going our way as he did in the 3rd qtr vs Tigers. A similar strategy to what we are doing with mid fielders: preserving them for the second half of games. My observation is that what I call 'first half preservation' of Grundy and mid fielders, is why we are playing phenomenal final quarters. Even in the two games we have lost we have had exceptional final quarters. This will be a real asset for the season and one opps will find difficult to counter if they don't have the fitness for such a strategy to work for them.

Good team with the inclusion of Schache as a forward to support JVR. I expected that there would be more changes to the team given the 5 day break and then the travel the following round. The selectors may have taken into account the situation of North with regard to the travel/schedule that they have had to endure recently. If Chandler does not come up Then I would bring Laurie into the team and make Harmes the sub. We have our 7 defenders in Bowey, Lever, May, Hibberd, Rivers, McVee and Brayshaw with Brayshaw able to rotate into the middle as well as the wing if required. Schache can cover a tall loss down back if needed. On the wings we have Langdon and Hunter with Jordon, ANB and Brayshaw all able to run the wings on rotation. The middle we have well covered with Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Sparrow the main drivers with Jordon, ANB, Brayshaw, Rivers and, at times, Pickett all able to effectively move through there. I expect Grundy to take at least 50% of the ruck work and would not be surprised if it was closer to 60% with Max moving in front of the ball or behind it as required. The forward setup is pretty transparent with Schache, Van, Rooyen and Fristch as the talls and Chandler and Pickett working at the drop of the ball with rotations from ANB, and mids such as Viney, Petracca and Oliver. Could also see Sparrow and Jordon in there at times as well. Looking forward to see how Schache goes as I believe that he may surprise a few. If we settle quickly in the match and work the basics well and let the imagination and game come to us I think we will win well against a young North side. I also believe that with our stronger bodies and better fitness, we will pull away from them in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Go Dees!

Death, taxes and Demonlanders outraged that players aren't named in actual starting positions.

Hangover Round. I’m in.

As everyone knows, Brodie wanted to stay at Collingwood and was heartbroken when shown the door. A little birdie told me that our boys have made him feel more than welcome, he’s really happy and it’s as though he’s been one of us for years. I only hope the Eagles are doing the same for Jayden.

If you're talking pure palming ability then I think you may be onto something. What Gawn does so well to me is vary his taps and his awareness of where his mids are has to be among the best. Taps forward, to the side, over the shoulder, I don't think I've ever seen anyone with the versatility and creativity of Max's hit outs. Having said that though, he's not the best pure palmer of the ball going round. Grundy was excellent in the 3rd and he was putting just enough weight on those taps to give our mids a chance. That kind of tap is like a Chess move where you think a few moves ahead.

I agree DD, I much prefer Grundy in centre bounces and think we look more dynamic when he is in there. Gawn's biggest strength is his marking, both contested and the ability to out-run his opponent and get uncontested marks as well. I fee like once he comes to terms with this he may actually go to a new level and become the best ruck/forward in the game. If Gawn can get more marks in the 20-30m range he will kick a lot more goals. On Monday night all his shots (other than the goal line one) were taken from about 50 metres and I'd say he's at best a 50/50 chance from there but probably more a 40/60. If he can get more marks at the closer range I can easily see him kicking bags of 3, 4 or even more. The other benefit we have is he can drop behind the ball late in quarters if we want to 'kill' the game and not let a side score in red time. I think by the end of the season the Grundy/Gawn combo will be a well oiled machine and lead us to flag 14.

Hard agree. Jackson's absolute strength is his follow up work. It's the point of difference with almost every other ruckman in the league. His tap work is average, but his post clearance possession work and ball use could (should?) see him become a similar type of follower to Tim English. Cannot see him getting the opportunity to become this with Darcy as the main ruck. It's worth noting that at the same age, Grundy was established as Collingwood's no.1 ruck and on his way to averaging 18 touches and 26 hitouts a game. Can be forgotten how quickly Grundy became a high quality AFL ruckman.

Beware of the “easy” games. I’m not confident at all that this will be a smashing.

But Schache is fit and in some form - BBB seems to be neither.

DIESEL

Who’s says Goody doesn’t change things up? Fritta at CHB and McVee in the forward pocket will prove a master stroke.

Ben Brown stiff. Great pre season started off the season well, injured now can't get in. Guess the footy department want to see if schace can grab his chance.

And invite in the US betting mafia and all the layers of corruption that would no doubt come with it. No thanks.

The mood is gloomy resignation. Not dissimilar to the Ess mood a few weeks ago. From Bigfooty. * me, can we just forfeit? This could genuinely be 100+. Play all the kids, anyone over 28 except Ziebell can be dropped. Looks like we'll be running out there with about 5 players but at least they should all be AFL quality. lol does it really matter? We’re gonna get done by 100+ no matter whos in BBB will come back from injury and kick 9 At least if we bring in some youth and inexperience they bring some fight We’re about to get smashed by well over ten goals, no point debuting anyone.. As a north supporter I feel like pain is our middle nameFritz will have an absolute field day. Lever and May to combine for 20 intercept marks Whatever the record is, they’ll beat it. That’s just the first quarter right? feel like it’s as good a time to get the dees…Off a short break, tough close game against tigers should have them sore Sounds logical... Dees by 60. Frisky had a quiet game tonight - red alert in our back 6 It’s going to be a blood bath Really? I don't think we will win by that much but I will take your word for it. We were neck and neck with them until time-on in Q3 and lost by 48 points last year. Despite everything, I refuse to believe we’re worse than we were back then. If Dees don't turn up we lose by 60+, if they do turn up 100+ My Favourites: McKay to full forward. If he is going to be a statue be a statue in our goal square so it frees up Larkey This Tarryn Thomas fella looks a player. Seems a class bloke too. Reward his effort with a stint in the ones I think He can't play right now. He needs to finish his homework. Footnote: each sub indented comment is a response to the point immediately above it. Always wary of a Clarkson coached team and Cunnington always plays well against us. Dees by 3-6 goals.. just to keep our % ticking over nicely.

I won't be booing him either. But i'm sure as heck not going to be applauding him. I'm happy to applaud Sauce Baker (and did so when we played the dogs), Bedford and Weed. But not Jackson. We used a lot of trade capital on Jackson, invested time and resources into him and made him a decent offer to stay by all accounts. And he bailed on us. It would be different if, like Hogan and the Wiz (who was, and remains, right up there in all my time fav player rankings), he requested a trade on compassionate grounds - but he didn't. I'm not knocking him for making the decision to go to Freo, after all it's a cutthroat industry as evidenced by the fact clubs cut players (and coaches for that matter) that don't want to leave all the time (eg Hunty). And as a professional athlete he has a relatively small window to maximize his earnings. If he can wrangle it and play for the team he barracked for as a kid, in the city where he wants to live, on huge coin then all power to him. But that's where my generosity of spirt ends.

I am not sure why we've written off Ben Brown. Before his back injury he was having a good start to the season. I think we need to try him and JVR out in the same forwardline.

By pure coincidence I just happened to read Peter Fitzsimons’ book Gallipoli just before Anzac Day. To be honest, I knew very little about the Anzacs prior, now I have a far deeper appreciation, (in other words I know a little more). I guess a lot of people’s take on what Anzac Day means to them would vary, each to their own. When I was at the G for the game this time round my focus was very much remembering and paying respects to all soldiers (on both sides of the fence). This includes the fallen and those that survived but carried physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives. War is a very cruel business. I understand that there is a commercial aspect to how the AFL handles Anzac Day (eg Anzac ‘Eve’ game). To me however, it gives me an opportunity to reflect and at the same time I am proud of the ‘humble respect’ that the crowd exhibited to our fallen soldiers in all wars and …..enjoy a great game of football. There is no conflict for me.

Can't see this being an issue. I am sure it'll get done quickly and painlessly.

I imagine this would have been one of the nicer forums to visit though 🙂 Definition of trap game. We've learned recently how switched on we need to be for these kinds of games, let's see it from the get-go!

In a billion dollar sport, to have 5 games out of 9 umpired poorly or worse (and this week was not exceptional) is an indictment on the sport and the rules. Adding another umpire wasn’t/isn’t the answer, it feels like every contest needs to have a free kick paid at the moment (and they still miss some!). The goal line review technology is a joke. I wonder what the AFL actually do Monday to Friday to improve the sport.

But you’re missing the point bub. The question is about the worth of the player not which club was ever going to get him. Daicos was the real standout #1 player in that draft and an equivalent to the Harley Reid of 2023.

We were not in the position we are now

Your faith in the AFL and consultancy firms in general seems quite naive. Of course they outsource the decision making process so it can be seen to be transparent but they also set the frames of reference and have ongoing communications around preferred selection criteria etc so the consulting firm knows the answer the ones that pay the bills wants. Dillon may prove to be the ideal candidate for the AFL based on their criteria but it doesn't mean he is the best available candidate for the game as a whole. It comes down to what is more important, growing the bottom line or the integrity of the competition and governor of the sport. I'm sure I know what their answer would be but it differs to mine. And it's not about another white male. I would have preferred Brendon Gale for example as I think he has the integrity and has lived outside the walls of the AFL Commission/Executive long enough to bring a broader perspective.

tassy is never going to accept anything other than a genuine tassy based team np sharing, no relocating a 20th team solves the bye issue but trying to start two new teams at the same time would be so disruptive requiring 90 new players and massive concessions affecting existing teams. expect them to go 1 team at a time