Bang Bang Bang

One of my most hated players in the league by a mile. Maybe only Weightman and Selwood (retired) ahead of him. Let’s get him anyway.

What’s with all the negativity? Mitch Brown’s stats look very unremarkable on paper but he did his job for us for three seasons. Weid had his moments at times too. We need someone to replace them for those same moments throughout a long season. Schache is about that quality of player. Honestly I’d rather just keep Weid but if he’s out, Schache makes perfect sense. Cam Pederson circa 2018 would be perfect right about now.

Seem to recall a story of Mark Neeld giving him [censored] in his predraft interview in 2012 and Brodie gave it right back to him. Was just a rumour I think but I’m choosing to believe it and say Brodie is a great guy for that alone.

I don't mind the trade from North's perspective. For starters JHF never wanted to be there. Second, his on field form in 2022 was rather underwhelming. He had some good games and was overall pretty solid, but his form nowhere near matched the hype he came with. Daicos and Sam Darcy look like far better prospects from the first round. Rachele too IMO. Thirdly, the guy clearly has an attitude problem. It's pretty rare for those sorts to go on and become the very best players in the game. All in all I think he should have LOST value from 12 months ago but they end up with 2, 3 and an additional first round pick. Of course downgrading 1 isn't ideal but picks 2/3 often turn out better anyway and without the scrutiny.

Honestly, pick 13, a future first tied to Freo (somewhere around 7-14 most likely), and North's future second (19 very likely) is pretty good currency even if we have to send something back. I feel like draft picks are overvalued at this time of year but that's as good as we're going to get. It sucks a bit but that's the market. I loved Dogga and do think he'll be a superstar, but there are a lot more "generational" players out there than there are generations themselves! There are two 'generational' players this period changing clubs alone.

With Mitch Brown retired, Weid on the way out, JVR unproven, Ben Brown about to turn 30 and horribly out of form, Dogga leaving (OK he sucked as a forward but still).... and TMac's foot being no sure thing.... we really need to find a key forward insurance policy in the next few days. Surely we're not putting all our eggs in the Gawn basket.

Freo are douchebags. This is eerily similar to what happened with Hogan in 2018. We wanted two early first rounders, Freo wouldn't budge. We ended up accepting "unders" of pick 6 (May) and 23 (Sparrow). May alone helped get us a flag and Sparrow looks like he'll be a 150 gamer. Freo got two dud years out of Hogan then offloaded him to GWS for a fourth rounder - and now he's rediscovering his best form again with the Giants. Hope the karma bus hits them again. Would be great if they tanked it next year and that future first became a top 5 pick.

The Biz was an absolute gun for us in the later Daniher years, and the Wiz was just so-so at Freo and wanted to leave anyway. That trade was perfectly fine in my eyes. Some that stick out off the top of my head are North trading a first rounder for Jonathan Hay. He played 8 games for them. The Hawks got Max Bailey with the pick so didn’t make full use of the pick. Still worth a mention. Hawks trading a first rounder for Jonathan O’Rourke who ended up being as bad as Toumpas. Carlton trading Shaun Grigg for Andrew Collins. Straight swap. Grigg played 150+ games for the Tigers and Collins was delisted pretty quickly. Speaking of straight swaps. Mitch Farmer for Jay Schulz. Oops. Schulz was awesome at Port and Farmer was a bust. Port Adelaide trading pick 14 for Nathan Lonie. That pick became Grant Birchall. Lonie played 40 forgettable games at Port and retired at 25. Weller for pick 2 is an obvious one. Can see why the Suns did it though and it’s a shame for them that pick 2 Brayshaw became a bonafide superstar. They don’t always. Not sure if this should count but Melbourne trading Jack Watts to Port for pick 31 (Bailey Fritsch). I put that down to good drafting more than good trading. Speaking of which, Lever and a second rounder (Petty) for two firsts which became Lochie O’Brien and Liam Stocker anyone? Not going to include trades from last century as clubs generally had NFI what they were doing in those days. I’m sure I’ve missed many.

I’m pretty sure the original pick swap which got us Kosi Pickett was a clear loss on points value. That’s why you ignore them.

I’m on the record as predicting the Gawn/Grundy combo won’t work (mainly because of Max being an ineffective forward), but if we can get Grundy for 600k and essentially pick 27 then I’m willing to take the risk. That’s a bargain. Also remember that pick 27 will blow out to about 32 once all the academy, next Gen and FS get bids.

My take from the Tim Lamb interview is that we’re going to get Grundy to fill the void left by Jackson, and otherwise we’ll be backing in the same squad for premiership glory next year. He basically ruled Corbett out and we haven’t been linked with anyone else. I know there’s always the discussion around us “not leaking” and having hidden targets but I can’t remember any of our trades not being known by the media in the past several years apart from Pat McKenna which came from nowhere. I find it a little frustrating (surely Gunston for free would have helped us) but these guys did an incredible job assembling a premiership list so will have to back their judgment.

What a prima donna. Worse than Scully IMO. At least Scully was a professional and saw out his contract.

Hate the Cats with a passion but they were clearly the best team in it and deserve their success. We go out in straight sets to Sydney and Brisbane, and then Geelong come out and win games against those same two opponents at the same ground by + 156. We were miles off it this year and Geelong would have embarrassed us.

We’d be crazy not to be asking the question to Gunston. We were interested in him 12 months ago but baulked at Hawthorn’s asking price of a first rounder (fair enough too). Now he’s a free agent but still playing good footy, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be all over him. Fritsch and Gunston would combine for 5 goals a week quite easily when fit. They both kick lots of goals even when they’re not playing particularly well (if that makes sense). Yes to Gunston.

I noticed he was at the Casey game today with several of his teammates. You'd think if he was planning on announcing he's out in the coming days that he might not be in attendance. Or I could just be reading too much into it. He had a poor year after a bright start (he was excellent in the early rounds and the two Brisbane H&A games). I still hope he stays even if it's extremely unlikely. I just don't see how a Gawn/Grundy combo can work going forward.

It counted for nothing in the end, but Kosi's winning goal against Carlton will stay in the memory for a long time. Scenes at the MCG were wild.

Disappointing but not surprising in the slightest. We were simply not good enough in 2022. We were never going to win the requisite 3 games in a row at the MCG. In some ways it might be better to be hit between the eyes with a straight sets exit so Goody and co can actually change the game plan and personnel in time for next season. The game plan worked in 2021 but got found out this year and I have serious doubts if it actually works on the MCG against good sides. Zorko and some of his teammates (hi Lincoln McCarthy) are absolute germs but I’ll still be cheering them on against the Cats next week.

The Gawn/Preuss forward ruck combo we dreamt up in late 2018 ended up being a disaster, despite both of them being perfectly fine as individual players. Then we got the Gawn/Jackson combo together which has managed to work really well. Can’t help but think the Gawn/Grundy falls into the former category TBH.

I hate Geelong more than Collingwood. Seeing them win a thriller with Gary Rohan playing well makes me sick. Will all be worth it if we knock them out in a fortnight though.

Not the end of the world but I really do feel like we have an MCG problem. We just don’t play well there.

Best game I’ve seen since Carlton v Collingwood two games ago. 2022 has been amazing.

Do we even want to play Sydney at the G? We are basically unbeatable interstate on TV in royal blue.

Kosi is a gift from God.

Few senior players braving the conditions in the stands including Dogga. For a guy seemingly on the way out he does still seem very invested.

Was interesting to see Steven May run all the way over to the interchange bench and have an animated chat with Goody after Curnow’s goal. He ran back to defense afterwards and was waving his arms and communicating some kind of message to Petty and Lever. It’s not noticeable what the message was but thought it was good forethought from May at the time.