TeamPlayedFine39

My ‘big call’ a few years back was that he would be the best of our ‘19 Draft haul. A few bumps along the way but he has shown he has the potential to a be an a-grade midfielder on this year’s form. Seems to love the club and the fans love him too!

Best full Year McDonald has played since 2018 - he'd definitely play on for me. With that said, he'd also be a great fit for a developing team like Nth for experience, leadership and training standards. I would be very disappointed if we uprooted an 18 year old from his life in WA, relocated him to Melbourne for his chance in the AFL, then sent him home without even offering a preseason. Kentfield should be given a chance. Ben Brown, Lachie Hunter, Josh Schache, Ollie Sestan and Joel Smith, with ANB being traded IMHO.

I think it’s abundantly clear that the decision was made some time ago that Jefferson would be playing out the year on the VFL. I suspect this decision was made giving equal consideration to his physical and psychological readiness. He’s undersized and, until recently, seemingly down on confidence. He’s spent time building confidence, now he needs to build himself physically before he’s a chance in ‘25. There’s a lot of JVR in this preparation.

How much are we losing by??? Sounds like a smashing!

Kings birthday, even before the Petracca diagnosis and prognosis. There was no spark or flare in the team; we had looked flat for a long time and it became clear that the will and the hunger wasn't there. Try as they might, it's a difficult thing to generate. Long term concerns were there for me midway through last year. Similar to what I've said, in 2021, the players were clearly enjoying themselves on the field and seemed to take delight in each others efforts and rewards. For a long time they've looked bored and flat out there, exacerbated by teams being able to get huge run-ons against us since mid-22. There's a touch Neil Craig's 'Crow-bots' about them. Craig was a very good coach and the players liked and respected him, but the message just stopped inspiring after a while. List and staff needs a refresh.

Losing Nibbler changes a lot; his leadership, footy smarts and onfield contribution is a huge loss which start to tip my opinion from top up to rebuild.

Hawthorn playing great football. Still think that their list is average but they are playing as a team, with full buy-in from the players. Great coaching and leadership.

We’re not seriously doing this again are we..?

He's going better than Jefferson was at the same stage - and now he's Demonland's new darling. Needs to be give more than a couple of months to prove himself.

Hard to disagree on the whole with the OP. System trumps talent in modern football and whilst we have had a very good list, it’s only found any success when paired with a very good (defensive) gameplan. Funnily enough, in a knee jerk reaction to terrible goal kicking in ‘22, we have moved away from our proven system and the whole house has fallen down. Premierships are hard to win - just ask Blight’s Cats (89-95), Thomas’ Saints (04-06) and Lyon’s Saints (09-11). Essendon’s great team of the late 90s to early 00s only won one, modern cats have never gone back to back and Collinwood’s ‘10 dynasty only lasted a year! The ‘great’ John Longmire only has one flag with Sydney 12 years ago and the premierships that the afl ‘handed’ the expansion teams never panned out, despite their list and draft concessions. Premierships are hard.

Sydney’s best is the best I’ve seen this year. I’m thinking this is a little slump like we had two-thirds of the way through ‘21 rather than the complete unravelling we had at the same time in ‘22.

“Dad, will you watch the Boomers with me tonight?” ”Sorry son, dad needs to go to the footy by himself or he’ll get guilt-tripped on his internet fan forum.”

From whipping boy to club cult hero! Loved the passion, determination and effort that he brought to us, especially 2017.

They, along with a few others, should have gone hard at Tomlinson a year or two ago. He’d walk into the doggies back six.

Agreed. I still think Disco and Petty would make an excellent defensive duo, with Lever as the third. Can’t really settle them there with May and now TMac playing as they are.

This is the last 10 players taken at Pick 35: Harrison Wigg, Marcus Adams, Josh Prudden, Oscar Clavarino, Bailey William (WC), Flynn Perez, Connor Downie, Paul Curtis, Olli Hotton, Cooper Simpson. Most aren't on an AFL list and I'd only be tempted to have a look at Bailey Williams, though he's a long way off being a star.

We have a log jam of 'just ok' small forwards and you want to get rid of the best of them? Love chandler - tough, hard runner and is team first player. 24 years of age and coming into his prime.

Good player and leader. Just what we need down there. Welcome back Melk!

Would love to hear from seasoned VFL watchers how Jefferson’s last 5 weeks compares to the performances Fritsch was putting on in 2017 to be drafted?

Well done AMW! Very happy to see so many players getting an opportunity this year! We’ve got a glut of players on our list who have served a solid VFL apprenticeship and it’s great to see they’re finally getting their chance. We need a mini-rebuild / refresh of the team and it’s exciting to see who will be part of it going forward.

Thanks for this. I agree with the original poster; we hear so little about Adam’s that I often have to check the injury list. Does he at least stop his opponent? Always a place in the squad for a lock down key defender.

Re-signed him late lat year to the end of 2024.

Last night was an improvement and you could teammates going out of their way to encourage him - clearly a confidence player in very poor form. Makes that great pack mark in the 4th being denied by the umps even more frustrating - could have given him a huge boost! I maintain that if his future is with us, it’s in defence. What makes it difficult is that two of our most consistent performers this year in May and TMac are keeping him out.

Make the finals and win in the first week. That gets the finals monkey off the back and then we reset, refresh and have one more crack next year with Max and May.

I would be shocked to see him back this year. Following Dustin Martin's kidney injury a couple of years ago, it was shocking to see how much weight, fitness and conditioning he lost after such a long hospitalisation and recovery. For a player as big and powerful as Petracca to get back to anything resembling match fitness would be remarkable and may even be asking a bit much from him.