TeamPlayedFine39

Even in 2021 he struggled to get his knee/body right. We got lucky that he was cherry ripe in time for finals and then played a vital role in our flag run. Started ‘22 in brilliant touch, then missed a slab of games and struggled on return. In the final against Brisbane, he could barely move. His talent is still there, but his body won’t let him do the things he wants to do. Fingers crossed we can get a few games out of him, but I’d be bowled over if it’s more than 10-12.

That’s very quick for an ACL! Is LARS still a thing? Was all the rage a few years ago, but never really hear about it now…

This one really hits hard. On par with the Ox’s knees and trading Woewodin.

Very impressive and well deserved for our men’s and women’s teams. It’s great that we have a facility like this in Casey but, once again, I’m disappointed by the club’s fundraising efforts. Seems like we hit-up a small group of wealthy benefactors but very rarely ‘rattle the tins’ for facilities such as this one or any future high performance base (ie Caulfield). Its great that we have generous members but I think we could do much better in broadening our fundraising base.

Imagine if we lost a real game…

Being in full training 3.5 weeks out from our first match surely puts Oliver in the mix for Sydney…

It's such a strange system the AFL has in place now; it's hard to know whether or not to be excited by this. Good luck to him, but the Academy system is very, very broken.

I look at the height and weight of opposition players through the year to get an idea of their size. Kane Corne’s example of a Jake Lever vs Charlie Curnow as a match up was a good one. Surely will also make things more difficult for the football department when preparing the team and players for match ups, especially early in the season or against new players/debutants.

Wow - definitely not the build I was expecting from an Yze Jr. Great to see kids from the 90s/00s players coming through! Good luck to him!

Take the last player you’d ever expect to play all games and become one of our most reliable players with and without ball in hand. No one saw McVee coming and now he’s tracking to be the best Judd to ever play the game!

Somewhat unrelated but was at the park with my kids the other day and there was a young hawthorn player training by himself. It’s incredible what these players can put themselves through without their coaches and teammates to push/guide them.

Very happy with this announcement but, to me, this is more about the upcoming election rather than real, substantive development. Leaving the MCG precinct is the right decision and Caulfield is an excellent opportunity. I believe it will happen but I’ve watched too much Utopia to get too excited just yet.

I was about six years old and my mother was in a class with Jim Stynes at the old Burwood Teachers’ College. She said he’d come in every Monday morning, covered head to toe in scratches and bruises. He wrote me an autograph and from then on in, I was hooked!

Definitely had them online during Covid. Cant recall an in person one last year…

I think it was to make the Reid offer as appealing as possible and it just didn’t pan out. Whether our Tholstrup would have been available at our original pick… I guess we’ll never know.

Thought he was very stiff to be delisted in the first place. No problems with him coming back into the fold.

For the life of me I can't imagine who's finishing below West Coast next year; they'll be getting worse before they get any better. So, yes, I'd trade this year's Pick 6 for next year's Pick 1.

I love the monogram but think this is looking a little bit cluttered. Ironically, I like the simplicity of the monogram, especially compared to the previous logos, but five logos on the front of the guernsey is a bit much IMHO.

And yet, I’ve never seen anything from the club to raise money for a home base. This makes me fear we are further away from a shovel hitting the dirt than we think.

Spot on with this comparison. I think I’m in the minority of people who doesn’t mind listening to Kane Cornes. But you have to do it through the lens of him being a ‘conversation starter’. He is paid to dial things up and get a reaction. Petty is open to a return to Adelaide. That’s fine, so would I for 900k. He is contracted to Melbourne and we have so far had no right of reply in regards to a contract renewal. Let this play out.

Did he play in defence a bit last year? I thought he was classed as a KPF/KPB coming into this year?

If that graphic is accurate and, let's face it, there's every chance it's not, then West Cost are keeping Pick 1 and there's not a whole lot of point wasting emotional energy on it. Nth's offer is way overs and our is decent. They'll either need to backtrack or hang onto it. A lot of West Coast fans think they're a shot for picks 2 and 3. To that I'd say: 'Your not' or, if they do get 2 and 3 in exchange for 1, then that should be the end of any draft assistance for Nth Melbourne for ever and ever.

Possibly why we wanted to move our second pick slightly higher..?

One my favourites of this current team - love his attitude to the game and the club. Whilst I understand the ‘temptation’ to get him into the midfield, I think we may have a multiple all Australian HBFer so I’m all for leaving him there and let him keep improving in that role. Rivers, Judd and Bowey means we’re all but set for backline smalls for the next 10 years.

I’d say we freed up some money in the salary cap which is a huge bonus for us - especially now that we have a preview of what clubs will be throwing at Harry Petty.