Bang Bang Bang

I think we need to hedge our bets a little. It’s possible 2021 is all we’re gonna get, or it’s possible we might still be in the flag race. It’s hard to say at 6-4 in May. So I would be in favor of cutting clear deadwood like Billings who won’t get a kick in September anyway, for someone like Laurie or Sestan. Woey Jr was one I thought might not be up to it but he’s starting to flourish with opportunity. Ben Brown is another who needs to go, but the cupboard is a little bare. Absolutely not to Jeffo coming in lol, I have faith in him but it’s too soon. Tomlinson one and done for Lever. Otherwise I think Goody has to roll with the same guys and hope we can peak later in the year or pinch one in an open year.

The wrist slashing is predictable. Was a poor performance by us but a team with McGovern, Kelly, Ryan, Waterman and Darling all playing out of their skins is going to trouble a lot of teams. Then you’ve got Judd 2.0 in Harley Reid. Eagles were too good for us today. Still 6-4 and in the pack. I don’t think it’s our year but it’s as wide open as ever. Clear out the deadwood like Billings and Ben Brown for younger players and regenerate the list while still pushing for finals. Woey Jr showed plenty today.

Great to witness the potential downfall of Geelong. I didn't mind them in that 2007-2011 window but then they just never went away. Got an arrogant coach, cheating captain who ducked for his entire career, and, well, I don't know what it is about Dangerfield either, but I can't stand him! Was hoping they wouldn't get that flag in 2022, but they did (well deserved too)... now they can hopefully bugger off... finally! They will probably go on a 15 game winning streak now.

When May touched Curnow’s goal and they brought out the Nokia 3310 camera for the score review I knew it wasn’t going to be our night.

Salty Chris Scott is one of the main reasons I enjoy beating the Cats. He thinks his players were off but also thinks his players were the best on the ground. Make up your mind Chris! He takes losses worse than some Demonlanders and it's glorious to watch. (I know, I know, we don't know for sure how he voted. But I think it's a pretty safe bet).

Happy to get the 4 points but if we play like that against Geelong they’ll beat us by 5+ goals!

Easily the best defender I've seen play for us (started in 1994). He's a freak. Looked like he was slowing down a bit in 2023 but was then player of the finals for us and is dominating this year with cracked ribs and damage to his vertebrae for most of it. Hope he plays well into his 30s even if we have to rest him often (a la Hibberd last season). Despite some occasional off-field hiccups, he's also one of my favourites to listen to in the media. Just tells it the way it is with no cliches. Well done Steven!

I don't think Gawn was declining last year, it was moreso the silly decision to get Brodie Grundy that limited his ability to influence games. After we abolished the combo mid-season he still nearly did enough for AA guernsey #6. He's a freak. Both of them still being elite at age 32 is a big win though, I agree.

The first half was simply incredible. It was almost like we'd been teleported back into the Neeld era for an hour. WTF was that? It was far from his best game but Windsor intercepting that kick with a couple of seconds left, not messing it up by playing on, and then nailing the 50/50 set shot was not something I've grown accustomed to supporting this team over the journey. Superb effort. The win sucked, absolutely no sugar coating that, but I remember in 2021 when we kept winning ugly everyone on here was banging on about "if we play like that against the good teams yadda yadda yadda". Enjoy the wins, bank the points and hopefully don't [censored] it up in September this time.

Looks like he's on the way out at season's end. Personally I think he's a very good player, but a little overrated. He's now in his 7th year and still hasn't had the breakout season everyone expects of him. He is nowhere near AA standard yet. Looks great at times in games and sometimes over a stretch of games, but his hamstrings are made of paper and he isn't great defensively. To answer your question, yes I would, but for a single first rounder, not two. Money is another factor. He strikes me as a type St. Kilda would pay overs for.

Based on my memories and some of the early comments in this thread, Lukosius has gotten nowhere near living up to the early hype that was placed on him. Very similar to Jack Watts as others have alluded to. Was JW really that bad though? Played nearly 200 games and there were plenty of good ones among them. My gut feeling is that Goody wouldn't rate him but if he came with a 2nd round pick going back the other way, I'd be all for it. Not every single player out there has to be insane like Jack Viney, as long as they bring other skills to the table. IMO Lukosius is the best field kick in the league.

Burgess was the single most influential figure to our flag IMO (I know this is highly debatale). However it would appear Selwyn has done a very good job with how seamless the transition has been. We were a bit flat in the back half of 2022 but otherwise we are still pretty healthy, avoid soft tissues injuries as good as any club can, and we are still last quarter beasts most weeks.

Not one for a 'Name a Game' VHS but great to win ugly off a 5 day break and three extra players for the Crows. Blake Howes being a gun defender was not on my 2024 bingo card but I'm all for it. Would have taken 3-3 before opening round and most certainly after it, to be 4-2 or 5-1 at the bye is a HUGE result for this team. Our best is yet to come.

The Ginnivan stuff is being overplayed. Umpires aren't paying the Selwood arm-raise to anyone these days. Kosi gets nothing for it too. Ginnivan just gets all the attention because he's a high profile ducker. I'm glad umpires aren't falling for it but it's a bit annoying that they waited until the year AFTER Selwood retired to actually wake up to it. Selwood got away with it for 15 years and has even admitted he made a career out of it. The one that still really pisses me off is the Rozee one from last week. The free kick manipulators have already moved on to this and umpires are falling for it. Beats me how Rivers copped a fine.

Conor Rozee is a [censored] disgrace and ANB is a [censored] boss. One of my favourite H&A wins in the Goody era. Superb.

Jack has well and truly lived up to the early hype placed on him. Unlucky not to have an AA blazer and has all the other accolades. Hopefully he can get to 300!

Seems like a strange one to do so early in the season. Hopefully we see more of him as I remember a couple of games late last year where he really showed promise.

1. Geelong: It's starting to wane a bit now that Ducking Sookwood has retired and Dangerfield is slowing up, but the sheer smugness that comes out of that club, led by their coach C.Scott and the aforementioned leaders, is too much for me to handle. Them being good every year and never going away adds to it too. Can't stand them. 2. Port Adelaide: They are just so cringe and they have had a never ending cycle of hateable players, from the Tredrea and Cornes brothers era through to today. Achieved nothing of note but have that arrogance and smugness about them. 3. Essendon: They've been irrelevant for so long but the early 2000s and peptides saga hasn't been forgotten. 4. Richmond/Collingwood/Carlton: All sort of the same to me. Insufferable fans and not teams I want to see do well, but their actual teams don't bother me.

He actually only missed one game from that incident, and he would have had to miss it anyway due to concussion protocols. Also famously played the GF with a 12-week hamstring tear, if he misses just one with his latest injury then the guy is just made differently. Good result for us though!

Finally able to get to a computer, but what a great win that was. We tend to overreact either way to the result of one game, but for mine the difference between starting a season 0-2 vs 1-1 is enormous. Huge. The Swans game was a mulligan but it put the pressure on us. If we came out and lost to the Dogs.... 2019 alarm bells would be ringing in my head. So, I was [censored] bricks when the Dogs got the jump on us early, and then again when JUH was starting to light up in the last quarter. I'm glad we made light work of them in the end. Looks like May and Gawn are still as good as they were three years ago, Trac is still at his peak and Clarry's performance was one for the ages. The influence Kosi has on the outcome of matches can't be underestimated. Those five hold the key to us being in the hunt deep in September IMO. I actually like Tomlinson but that's the best looking defensive set up I've seen from us in quite a while. Hore and TMac were terrific, random as [censored] that they're both back there after years in the wildeness, but I like it. Howes is competent and McVee looks even better this year than last. Negatives: As touched on here already Sparrow continues to do just enough to scrape by but nothing more than that. I thought Lever was quite poor at times giving away needless free kicks. Salem is not actually a parituclarly good kick IMO and is not flourishing in his new role. He was OK though.

Perfect hit out. Looks like our old warriors still have it, some younger role players are ready to step up, and our teenagers (namely Windsor) have serious talent. Not convinced by Schache's role, even in the short term, but even he kicked 2 and did his bit. Clarry looks like he's going to be cherry ripe just in time for Round 0 too.

Gawn has turned 32 over summer but looks like maybe he's getting better if anything? Truly a freak of nature. Hope he can do a Tomahawk over the next few years. WIndsor looks like a good draft pick and will play in Sydney. I'd expect Hunter to regain his place eventually but hopefully CW can make it hard for him because he offers a point of difference. Terrific goal! The butchering of set shots is interesting. Fritsch, JVR and Kosi to a lesser extent are all pretty good kicks for goal so what's happening there? It's February so the pressure excuse can't be used. Maybe it's purely luck-driven. Scary thought for September.

February is a bit early for Goody melts IMO but I do appreciate the passion of some on here. Only caught the last passage and it was all Richmond TBH, but Windsor was busy. I don't think Hunter and even Langdon will be walk up starts this year. Shame Fox pulled the plug early. Clarry already playing footy in red and blue is a huge WIN relative to a month or two ago. EDIT: It's back and I got it going just in time to see Clarry snag a left-footed goal from the boundary. Glorious.

I feel like Clarry is at that age and experience level whereby a full pre season isn't quite as important for success as it is for someone like Jefferson or one who's had lots of injury troubles like Salem. I'm confident Clarry will be back getting 35 touches a game by March. Thanks for the reports all! I thought the double straight sets exits might dampen the spirits around here a bit but here we all are again, thirsty for more!

The death ride was great, although it ran out of steam later on. 4 premiership points either way in our favour in Round 24 and we probably could have snared Duursma. Shame the AFL devalued all our deathriding in the blink of an eye with the rubbish McKay compo. Hopefully Windsor turns out OK.