mo64

Anti-tampering is too hard to police. Every club is guilty of it, so I don't see an issue.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Small forwards like Kozzie impact results more than a ruckman like Jackson. It would be a disaster to lose a small forward who has kicked 40 goals in both of his full seasons. We have 2 X Factor players in our forward line in Kozzie and Fritsch. If anything, we need a couple more who can take advantage of our midfield dominance. Are you expecting Spargo to take up the slack?

Tom Harley?

Disagree with your take DS. There are multiple factors that make a decision to get Grundy baffling. Most of these factors have been well articulated. B&F placings don't necessarily reflect the quality of performance. A player may finish high in the B&F purely because they played a majority of the games, and other key players missed chunks of the season. Finishing top 10 in a team that finished 17th is hardly a reflection of an outstanding season. Anyone who saw him play could see that his performance had fallen from his AA years.

That's more relevant than his previous great run with injury. We're picking up someone in their late 20's on a 5 year deal, who's just had back to back long term injuries. To say he's injury prone may not be correct, but his long term durability is questionable.

Name some pack marking forwards in the AFL? Better still, name a club that relies on pack marking forwards. The 2 beasts of the comp in Lynch and Hawkins rely on one-on-one strength to beat their opponents. Our game-style worked in 2021, but better teams combatted it in 2022. It's up to the coaching dept to come up with a game-style that suits our list.

I didn't see much evidence of us counter attacking from the back half. I haven't got the stats in front of me, but I recall seeing that our scores from defensive rebounds was pretty low.

From a list management perspective, the right call was to delist Melksham. What Melksham showed in the back half of the season was adequate, but he's hardly a lock to be best 22 next year. If you look at the make up of our taller forwards potentially next year, we have a lot of players with question marks. There's a lot that could be playing at Casey. BBB - Knee is shot. T. Mac - Had his injury concerns and is not getting younger. Weid - Seems like the coaches have put a line through him as an AFL forward. Joel Smith - Now playing up forward for Casey. Shown very little. Grundy - Shown nothing as a forward. Gawn - Shown little as a forward. JVR - Hasn't played a game, but we have high hopes. Fritsch - The beacon in our forward line. Melksham is a medium sized forward, which we badly need. But he's also old and slow, and doesn't change the dynamics of our forward line. Very few of our medium/tall forwards apply defensive pressure at ground level. I'd rather have chased a proven goalkicker in Gunston as an UFA, and not re-signed Melksham.

How about Lloyd Braun.

So you want to rob us of 15% of Gawn's game time in the ruck, even though he's the best ruckman in the comp? Grundy is not equal to Gawn. Grundy is a past AA ruckman, not current. And the argument that Grundy will prolong Max's career is pie in the sky.

Geelong pulled out. It's just us. And if Grundy was capable as a forward, do you really think that a club that is lacking key forwards would be so desperate to get rid of him?

One of the biggest areas of concern was our forward pressure. So the thought of having a forward line comprising of either Gawn or Grundy with the following is utterly head scratching: T. Mac, Brown, Fritsch T. Mac, JVR, Fritsch

Not surprised with Hibbo. He's one of the few who can actually defend small/medium forwards. Melksham was 50/50 call. Did well to get back into the team and play some decent footy. Both would probably be on club friendly 1 year deals.

I must be the only person on here that isn't that fussed with Jackson leaving, especially now that both WA clubs are in play for his services. The down side is we look like blowing salary cap and draft capital on Grundy. If you ask any neutral supporter, they fail to see the hype on Jackson. He's in his 3rd year, and I doubt that he finishes top 12 in the BnF. He struggles to take a contested mark, and hasn't shown any forward craft. His strength is his ability at ground level for a tall, but that's why you have midfielders. And he could develop into an exceptional tap ruckman. But a ruckman who can't take contested marks around the ground like Max, aren't worth big dollars. As for his decision for returning home, I fully understand it from what I was told. I'm sure some of the Perth media know the reasons, but due to their personal nature, I doubt that they'll come out.

Absolutely. But given the amount of games he's played, I'm thinking a pick in the 35-45 range.

Are you serious? Now you are trying to change the whole narrative. Very few dispute that we and other clubs undertake loading of some sort. The whole conjecture was whether our 3 losses midseason were the result of loading. It's was binman's belief that it was a major factor, and we would steamroll teams come the end of the year due to our superior fitness base. You and the other hardcore "loadists" like binman and von, believed that our fitness levels would incrementally improve until we reached our optimal level on GF day. Just a shame that we never made it.

Kane Cornes' tripe is just the entree before Trade Radio starts. Adam Cooney and Brendan Goddard will provide a full degustation menu of offal.

1. Coaching dept mindset (arrogance to believe that we could defend a lead) 2. Coaching dept game plan 3. Players mindset (once it happened 2-3 times, doubts crept into players mind) 4. Coaching dept team selection (poor structure, not dropping out of form players, not resting banged up players) 5. Fitness (key players banged up, which has nothing to do with general fitness). 999. Loading

Agree. And you can never accuse us of being "flat" or "not switched on", because our 1st quarters were generally our best.

Craig McCrae took over the club that was considered a "cultural cesspit". And right off the bat, his star player DeGoey reinforces that opinion. Fast forward, and a team most expected to finish bottom 4 are now in a Prelim. If you think that "culture" is so important, then it clearly hasn't been a challenge for McCrae. Or maybe his players are just playing a better brand of football and have self belief.

I think the term "culture" is the most overblown term in AFL. Every year the premiership team will refer back to some isolated incident that changed the culture of the club. If you have talent, prepare well, are well coached and perform on the day, success usually comes your way. For once I agree with Saty. It's twaddle.

What games were you watching? In the finals we conceded more goals in the 2nd halves when we were passive. And we never used tempo control in 2021. It was all about getting it forward quickly and locking it in, or long down the line and get a stoppage. Nothing changed from 2021 to 2022.

Totally disagree. For starters, Goody continually embraced our imperfections at the start of the season because we were winning. Once we came up against better teams, our wastefulness came back to haunt us. We continued the game plan of kicking into the forward pocket even when we were in total control. The scoreboard never reflected our dominance. The only time I can remember us trying to quickly transition the ball out of our backline was in the dying stages of the Carlton game, when Hunt basically changed the game. You are correct that Brown became ineffective as the lone key forward, so why not trial JVR? Our defensive structures fell apart in the 2nd half of games because our defensive pressure dropped off. And most of that was due to our lack of forward pressure. What were Neal Bullen and Spargo doing in the team if they can't apply defensive pressure?

For starters, the Pies aren't going to pay half of Grundy's contract for 5 years ($500k pa). Secondly, giving up a 1st rd pick on a player who struggled in 2021 and basically missed all of 2022 through injury is insanity. He is not a current AA player, so his deeds in the past are irrelevant. The Pies need a majority of Grundy's contract off their books in order to get the players they have targeted. The fact that they see Grundy as being surplus to their needs is telling. He's a salary dump, and we are reportedly his only suitor. A token pick is all we should be giving up.

Simon, you are stating the bleeding obvious. You talk about our inefficiency going forward, and yet the coaching dept failed to change the game plan or personnel required to address things. That's on you and the rest of the coaching dept. And I'd like to know how pursuing Grundy addresses our "vulnerabilities". Lack of sustained forward pressure was an obvious vulnerability, so how does the plan of having Gawn or Grundy resting forward address that?