Red and Blue realist

I'm hoping they set Grundy up against Tomlinson and Turner (if fit) in a fair session over the weekend. They don't need to teach him leading patterns, but body positioning. Our rucks should really be leading up forward, but making sure they are crashing packs and not getting out marked, which I think Grundy gets too often as he hasn't played a heap forward and it's a different kick than what you get around the ground. If it works, they could potentially give Gawn a week off as well to do the same (say against Nth), then have 3 weeks to get the 2 of them back in the team together. Gawn is a better lead to the kick than Grundy but that doesn't mean they can't both be effective forward targets, which means more time on ground for both giving the rest time to the explosive mids.

The Suns are going to find it very hard to get enough points to cover their projected academy kids this year. If as above they go at 2, 8 & 10 then that's 4,370 points they have to come up with, but they've currently only got picks 7, 28, 31, 45, 56, 63, 68 & 70 - a total of 3,678. Nearly 700 points short. Good thing we've got the 2 firsts and 2 seconds, I reckon we can try and get pick 7 plus more (either a player/picks) for some of our picks. Say picks 15, 27 & 34 for pick 7, Sam Flanders and their picks in the 60's (for Kynan Brown matching).

Hopefully they might be able to give Gawn, Trac and May a few weeks to do similar at the back end of the season. Having those 4 (incl. Clarry) cherry ripe for finals would make a massive difference to our flag chances. If we lost 2 or 3 more games in season but were better positioned for finals than last year then all the blow ups on here would be worth it!!! in fact I'd be trying to get those guys a week or 2 off before the Hawks game in round 23, have them all back in rounds 23 & 24, then the bye before finals and hopefully we're fit and firing.

I'd go, Oliver for JJ. BBB for Chandler and go bigger in the front half, including Petty down forward. JVR, BBB and Petty forward, with Max dropping down back when he's on the filed with Grundy. Smith for Tomlinson. Smith to start as the sub, with a view if there are no injuries to bring Max or Grundy off during the 3rd or Petty/JVR earlier if we need greater run. Tempted to bring Bowey in for Hibberd, but I that would work better next week as Hibberd would be the Greene match up, and until the end of the year I don't think Hibberd should play 2 games in a row.

100% the game would be at Marvel, not the MCG. We'd probably also lose access to the Alice Spring academy zone.

I'd be very tempted to have Langdon come out for Oliver. The narrow ground means we could use Brayshaw as the other winger and Hunter isn't getting dropped! It's a great problem to have when there's not a real obvious out.

These are the new names, the existing one's remain - so Riak and Coren are still on the list. I'm pretty sure the guys that were on the list last year also can be put back on if we want - they might have got Finn Emile-Brennan to play at Casey just to have another look at him.

When Silvagni has kicked goals against us it's been when he's been a full time forward, I think last year was the first he rucked and he got one easy goal, but Max dominated him. Hopefully they'll drag him deep as much as possible when he's rucking. In fact I'd really love both Max and Grundy to play as close to 90% game time each as possible, I know Max normally does but Grundy's only been around the 70%, really stretch their ruck pairing.

Yeah, of their contracted players he's the one talked about, but I don't think he'd be wise coming to us, it'd be Dunstan 2. However, if they've got 3 rated academy kids coming through they might want to offload some more. Flanders is out of contract at the end of the year, while we've obviously got the Mac Andrew connection. And for all those potting Mac Andrew for getting caught drink driving and late for training, clearly forget Clarry having similar issues! Mac's looked good in patches for a young skinny key defender and certainly has a lot of talent, if the AFL didn't change the bidding rules there's no doubt at all he'd be on our list.

I think it will show the intent from the outset will be to drag TDK as their only ruck or Slivagni into our forward line, making Weithering cover the taller player while hopefully creating a mismatch with JVR or even Smith. Hopefully never getting out marked. In our wins Gawn and Grundy have kicked a combined 12 goals, while they only have 2 in the losses.

I think we should be trying to deal with the Suns anyway, and potentially Mac could come into play (otherwise I was thinking Sam Flanders could be an option). I'd offer up (as it currently stands) the Dees picks 15, 29 & 34 (a total of 2,307 points) for GC picks 7 and 56 (a total of 1,838 points) and Mac. They've got 3 higher end academy kids coming through so will have to open up draft spots, while they will be losing all draft picks they have. So we'd move up the order, then going to the draft with picks 7 & 10, while also getting Mac and having the points for K.Brown. I'd see Riak as a Cat B rookie as I doubt at the moment he gets taken in the normal draft. Mac might love coming back to play with Riak.

I'd like to see Tomo back with both May and Lever in the team, that hasn't happened this year. I thought his game against the Dogs was very good, and he wasn't horrible against the Lions or Dons, but height beat us both times but we were one of May or Lever down in both those games. We need 3 talls at the back, and while I think all our smaller backs have played well individually this year, as a team we play better with the 3/4 mix, rather than 2/5. Not sure who misses out, but unless we play Rivers as a full time mid, then I'd be tempted to rest Hibberd off a 6 day break or McVee.

Talk that pitonet has broken his hand and is in doubt for Friday. We just have to beat up on them

Got to stop both Aliir in the backline coming across and intercepting, which is why they might have picked TMac over say Melksham, with his height he demands more respect so should be trying to force Aliir away from the contest as much as possible by continually moving (Tom's old strength). Isolate the resting ruck and JVR against Jonas and McKenzie and there should be plenty of scoring opportunities. Also got to stop their mids scoring, with their outs, their forwards are inexperienced or mid-sized (outside of Finlayson who May could easily take) so I think we'll have them pretty well covered, but Butters, Rozee and even Boak can be very dangerous going forward so we need to beat them defensively at the source.

In the NAB system the bottom 3 (they call them seeds) all have the same % chance of getting the No1 pick. So I like the idea, but maybe it could look somethin like this instead: Team that finish 16th-18th get a 17% chance; 15th 14%; 14th 10%; 13th 8%; 12th 7%; 11th 5% 10th 3% 9th 2% So there's little to no incentive to finish last, while even bottom 4 has no guarantee of getting pick 1. They then give better odds on the top 10 picks for those teams that finish lower on the ladder, so in this example pick 2 is more like to go to a team in 15th - 18th than 9th, but it remains a lottery for all the top 10 picks.

I'd be shocked if we weren't fully involved with the Gold Coast's 1st pick this year. They'll need plenty of points for their academy kids, and we've got the 2nd rounders to offer up - along with the 2 1st rounders. I know we've got little after that and we'll need something for Kynan Brown but he's projected to go in the late 2nd/3rd round at this stage (from what I can see). So we could have 2 top 10 draft picks based on current ladder positions!

I wonder if Schache offers more flexibility given he's got a lot more recent form down back, if we need cover down there. Maybe even with TMac as the sub??

Thanks Kev!

Was Harmes training? Just interested to see that he's not even on the emergency list this week?

Our early season fixture certainly won't be helping our membership growth - 5 out of the first 10 games are interstate (I know everyone gets the gather round). However, that is the same as the Lions, Freo, GC and Eagles, while the Crows, Power and Giants have only played interstate 4 times only the Swans have played interstate more than us! But compare that to all the other Victorian teams who've all played 3 each, we've been dealt an interesting early draw!

I wonder what the financial impact will be on North with no more Tassie funding? While they've been long out of pokies, and have a better deal at Marvel now the AFL owns this, they would be the most vulnerable in my eyes with a major income provider now dropping out. So will the leagues wait to see what happens there, in particular if they continue with poor results over the next 2 - 3 years before Tassie joins. Maybe it'll be back to 18, rather than a 20th coming in?

With the Tassie team coming in and suggestions that there could be 3 years of compromised drafts, we'd be thinking long and hard before trading a package of 3 first round picks for 1 player. Realistically in 2027, the first compromised year we'd be fine, the core of our team would still be around and only 30/31/32 - (Trac, Brayshaw, Salem, Oliver, Lever, Langdon, Fritta, ANB, etc. with Kossie, JVR, Spargo, Bowey and Jefferson etc hopefully hitting their prime). Including the guys older than them there'd be a list turnover of at least 21 before/during those compromised drafts. Most of whom sit well within our best 30 at present. So the years after that are when the struggle could really hit - like any successful club that's not Geelong! So we'd want to be making allowances earlier so we're not going backwards when the new team comes in. I know we'll have Brown, Yze and White as potential father sons during that time, and Taylor is great at getting the 2nd round picks right, along with being excellent at trading, so hopefully it's a non-issue, but giving up 3 firsts could have a longer term impact.

A little more mongrel, or even arrogance, and I think he could be our version of Tom Papley - who most opposition supporters hate but Swans fans love. Papely makes most teams nervous but then can bring his teammates to life running around like a excited toddler after he kicks a goal. If Chin can bring that into his game he'd also help the likes of Kossie because there's automatic extra attention paid elsewhere.

This is a big tick for the game plan. We've been great at getting inside 50s over the last few years, but there seems to be a a greater focus on finding a player who's going to decent shot on goal, not just bombing in. I went to the footy on Sunday with a Sydney supporting mate, and he lamented a number of times that their entries were always scrappy and never looking for a free player, the opposite of what we were doing. He said that's why it looked like we'd never miss, we take the best option in the forward line, so few lose gathers and snaps, mostly mark and goals. It helps when guys like Fritsch and Chandler are great set shots from an angle as well, plus ANB looks a lot more comfortable this season.

I thought Rivers was one of our best yesterday, and the best game he's played. Given how tight spots are it's good to have another half back (including Brayshaw in this) who can run through the midfield. With Kossie and ANB (maybe Sparrow as well) who can do it as well from the forward half, it's nice to see we can change how our midfield looks during games.