Garbo

Didn’t see either of the Pickett boys in the video, were they out there today

Well we don’t know what the terms of the new contract were, it’s quite possible it was all done to smooth out the numbers by adding more years, and certainly with trac and Oliver now gone he is also now more vital then ever even if he isn’t playing every week

Not saying I agree with them but I can see there pov, we won 7 games last year and have lost 3 best 22 players including one of our very best, Gawn and Viney are both a year older again and although we did bring in some good roll players we have mainly focused on the draft. Looking at it that way you would expect us to perform worse than last year. An alternative view is we have been drafting multiple high picks almost every year since the flag and if we made the right calls things could turn and quickly, add in a new coach who is going to give us a more modern game style to contend with the teams of 2026

Really like him in a more fwd role with stints in the mid. Really hope he gets a chance to play in a role that suits his skill and not as some have speculated as a 2nd ruck.

Lots of injured but only 1 longer term, whether this is bad or not will be decided by if these niggles keep happening or if they clear up over the next month

Think fair to say Viney and Steele won’t be in together, Rivers would take one of those spots I’d think or maybe they throw some of the kids in.

Wakefield come on down, hopefully he’s ready to go after missing last season himself

Hopefully not a sign of things to come, this is one season we can’t afford to lose players if we want to be somewhat competitive

Says 6 months, which basically takes us May/June

These average age profiles are to superficial, what’s probably more important is the age of your best 22 and even more importantly your best 4 or 5, even those can be skewed by a couple of older players. Going over my own best 22 for next year 11 of the players were under 25, 8 30 and over and 3 25-29 which is when players are in there prime and that’s probably the more concerning thing about our our list and why expecting a bounce back next year is unrealistic. If you did similar analysis of other best 22 for each team I'm willing to bet we have more than most in that under 25 age bracket.

Re being only a midfielder, think it was put to Olivier that if that continued to be the case then he likely spend time in the vfl, maybe that was just the pitch to get him to go or maybe that also applies to Steele to

Funny the media have the narrative that we need to trade him all year but when we do he is the pick up of all time

Last year was the proof the game had gone past him, you can excuse 2024 given he didn’t train all preseason at the club got banged up and was still getting his life back on track. But last year he had a full preseason, didn’t get any major injuries and still looked a mile off his best, another year or five isn’t going to get him back to his All Australian / b and f years. At best it’s going to be more of the same as 2025. 25 touches but no damage and gets exposed by the opposition team without the ball.

Damage is already done, keeping it going longer will only make it worse. Sure a few clubs got a massive benefit like Suns and Lions, likely why the AFL has only stepped in now that lions went back to back and suns look like they will have a period of dominance to but before everyone else gets the same benefit and nullifies it.

Supposedly afl looked at demographics and tried to even it all out between the vic clubs, taking into account population and number of immigrants and indigenous people that would be eligible. Knowing the AFL they screwed the pooch and we got the short end, us and the hawks were the only 2 sides to lose zones and get nothing back while cats and saints appear big winners both gaining zones while losing nothing. Everyone else got shuffled round. Not sure why the afl even persists with these club run academies at all, it just seems to distort the entire draft for minimal benefits. We went through this prior to having the draft and the whole competition become a pay to win and luck of what zone you had.