DistrACTION Jackson

How about we just have an 18 team finals and hand out participation awards. Seriously there is no reason to do this other than to have more games for the sake of it. Maybe the AFL should focus on a fairer fixture rather than spending time talking about wildcard rounds. Absolute peanuts.

Whether it works or not is yet to be seen, but the media are acting like we think Grundy will suddenly become Tom Hawkins and win a coleman. The club obviously just want him to slightly improve his forward craft, so he can do an adequate job down there and then take relief ruck for the remainder of the season. There is absolutely no reason he can't learn the basic running patterns etc. and then create a contest, which is essentially what JVR is doing right now as a forward in his infancy. Grundy is an intelligent person, so one would think he can pick up the basic requirements pretty easily.

I was actually impressed by his kicking inside 50. Laced out three passes, two resulting with shots on goal and the other Caddy dropped an absolute sitter with no pressure and literally hit him on the chest. He will take a couple of seasons to get an AFL body, but can see him replacing Hunter quite easily in a wing role.

I really don't get the big deal about a side choosing to send a player back to VFL to work on some things, plus also get a bit of a rest after coming off a 12 month injury.

Tbf to the Pies they lost by 6 points to the premier and 1 point in the prelim, so we can't question their ability to perform on the biggest stage. Sometimes results don't go your way, which was interesting because they won every close game in the regular season from memory. I just think they showed they can continue to perform into the finals, though past history isn't a guarantee of future performance as all investment ads tell us.... Port on the other hand have a history of choking in finals, the best example being one of the most insipid performances in recent memory against the Dogs in 2021. But again, thinking history will just repeat is too simplistic a view.

It's going to be very interesting to see how this season plays out. Can Collingwood and Port continue their form throughout the end of the season and finals? I think Collingwood definitely can given last year, but I've got a feeling Port will crash and burn, which would be nice if it happens to see Kane Cornes have a whinge. Will Brisbane be able to go one better than the last few years, or will it be same old for them? I think the jury is still out and without a home final it could be curtains. Will our intense training bloke throughout the byes pay dividends? Who knows how big a difference this will make come the finals, but there is something liberating about being the underdogs and just going out there and playing footy.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Petracca play a bit more mid time with JVR back, given the Lions midfield is a key strength. Gawn will probably ruck 70% of the game also.

Imagine the 2030 Demons Side FF - White FB - White Ruck - White

We should definitely see if any of the Suns players want to come home as a result of everything going on up there.

I'd say Hardwick is a shoe in. AFL will pay him an absolute mountain of cash to go up there.

Very true. I think in an ideal world GC have pick 5 or 6 and know they have to trade it for extra points. We will absolutely get involved in this.

Seems that he thinks he is ready and is frustrated and Selwyn doesn't think he is 100% right yet. He's a competitive bloke, so maybe he needs to be protected from himself.

Absolutely zero chance. Whole family are rusted on Demons.

If they have pick 4 or 5 it would be getting tight as to whether they trade it as the bids may come after this pick, but I would say we would have to include pick 33 as well. Pick 4 is worth 2034 points and 15, 26 & 33 are worth 2404 points.

Damning vision...

Woewodin has to come in for Harmes. Agree with JVR in and Smith to stay in as well in the Fritsch role.

Lol we need more than that

So if we look at the current ladder positions we have picks 8, 15, 26 & 33 as our top 4 picks. Gold Coast currently have pick 7 and need points, points and more points. Picks 15 & 26 are worth 1841 points and pick 7 is worth 1644. Without a doubt we know this and it is highly likely we will have 2 top 10 picks in this draft, assuming Freo and GC both miss the 8. So then the question is who would we likely take at picks 7 and 8.... which will be pushed out by the GC academy guys.

I think Nick Watson is a must get for us. We need to add more class to our forward line. I hope we can get two top 10 picks and go hard at the draft again this year.

The thing that is confusing me is our game style/method in first 6-8 weeks is very different to what we are doing now. We were focusing more on transition from half back, whereas we have lately been focused on a high press and locking it in forward. This then leads to 30 players all running around in our forward 50 and just constant hack kicks. Both Geelong and GWS beat us the exact same way, wait until we tire and then get us on counter attack. Our best ball users are all in the backline, so we have no issue getting it to the halfway point, but that's when things fall apart. Viney, Sparrow, Trac, Langdon and Hunter are all butchers of the pill. It's a simple as that. Until we sacrifice one of these guys with a silkier ball user, who may only get 15-20 touches but his high impact we won't be troubling anyone.

I guess the best way to look at it is goals per i50, which was 6.85% to 15.22%. So I agree with what you're saying and I actually think the issue is more our game style than connection. Too much emphasis on forward half pressure.

100% agree. Jefferson is nowhere near AFL level yet. Just because he kicked 4 goals in a 96 point win means absolutely nothing. I watched that game and most of those were joe the gooses.

In a positive note I do need to give a shout out to McVee and Bowey. Along with Salem they are the smartest players in our side and the most skilled. We need the ball in these three guys hands as much as possible and potentially need one to play a bit further up the ground to give us some better looks going inside 50.

That was great. Laughed so hard

Having scans today I think so guess we will know soon.