fr_ap

Agreed, kid sleeps with the lights on

As the other poster pointed out, Goody, Lamb, Gawn and many others made all the same comments about Jackson. Everyone does, until the truth comes out. We've all been through this enough times before (Jessie, Jacko) to know that whilst it may be a misconstrued, embellished version of the truth, it will not be 100% fabricated. It never is.

Fair enough - and yes last sentence was a joke / self deprecating hypocrisy given comments about Knightmare forming judgements from afar...

Out of curiosity, who are the depth/youth at Casey gunning for his spot? Ive been vocal about how we didn't rotate the squad and blood new players, but young midfield depth is not really something we have. You could make an argument for Laurie, but he's not nearly as versatile or strong as Harmes on the ground or in the air...Bedford was one but is now gone. Who's the one to take his spot? Jordon could but not very dynamic and that creates a need for another winger - Howes hasn't shown much...

Agree 100% couldn't have put it any better. I know which one I'd be chasing if I had that cash and draft picks and it wouldn't be Jackson. Taranto and Hopper are seriously good and make the Tigers a real weapon again. They lacked grunt inside but have smarts in spades across the ground....deadly combo once you add the grunt

I know you think you're being clever here but you're hurting your own point. Knightmare has a very ordinary record for someone who dedicates the time he does. Silly duffer is a very good description (I'm aware you're being sarcastic). I've covered this before but he heavily qualifies most of what he says and is generally overly verbose (to cover himself - throw enough darts you might hit a target)...His 'strengths summary' of a player is a big box paragraph of adjectives he's ether pulled from a Thesauraus or sentences positioned as words... "Kicking, handballing, body control in the air when pushed from the side, protecting drop zone when he is stationed on the ground". He's very dedicated but for an aspiring recruiter genuinely seems to have very little feel for the game or what game-day behaviours form the best senior players. He also has zero insight into the mental / personality aspects of drafting which are just as (if not more) important than player A's skills at the 2:05 minute mark of Video X. Having said all that, Tsatas looks poor. Pass.

Why on earth do people keep referring to Henry as a key forward?!? Doing my head in He's a lively 187cm fwd/swingman with spring and goalsense - no more a key forward than Fritsch and really a prime build/skillset for a good modern mid

Excellent! (Well not for him) Crisis averted back to Monday

Kossie hanging on insta with Trent Burgoyne 😑

This kid is the one I want us to draft

That was before the flag - we're talking now about what to add to sustain our run at the top. Agree, we can only deal with what's available - my point was we probably need to do something to the forward half directly - trade, draft or FA - and it's wrong to say Richmond had no trades to win in 2019 because Lynch was a FA.

You do realise Richmond solved their biggest deficiency with almost the best KPF in the game by adding Tom Lynch after missing their first back to back? And that he was crucial in getting them over the line in the PF that year, and in several finals series since? That's the position we are in now and at the moment it doesn't look like we will be resolving our (same) weakness in the same way I don't mind Grundy, but we're kidding ourselves if we think the same forward line is going to take us all the way next year. JVR better be bloody special to come in and be a KPF in a prem team in year 1. While I'm at it - Richmond added Short, Baker and Pickett to their GF team in 2019. They used 2018 and 2019 to introduce new players to the team who went on to become crucial cogs. Short of Bedford coming in and out and rotating veterans like Melk and Hunt, we don't look close to doing the same and picked the premiership 22 even when their form or fitness did not justify it Also, Richmond were clearly the best team in 2018 but blew up a PF. We were not in 2022 and went out in straight sets. I think the situations are quite different and for you to make an example of what they did is less relevant than you think

Entire saga is quite disturbing and deeply concerning. Unfortunately (as in, I wish my mind did not jump to a judgement), my immediate reaction is that there probably a reasonable degree of truth in the accusations. Without getting into any incriminating specifics, having had some dealings with the AFL I was often left very unimpressed and at times puzzled by their decision making, governance (or lack thereof), strongarm tactics and incompetence. So when these types of stories come out, I am more inclined to believe them. That said, I also think it is likely that the accusers and accusees have different interpretations of what occurred. I'd like to think whatever guidance the coaches and development managers provided to these players was at least intended to be in their best interest and either became a bit of an overreach, poorly communicated or misconstrued for its intent. Many of us would have often had to give some tough guidance to young mates when a girlfriend, location or other factor was clearly working against them and not in their best interest. I hope that is where this came from - notwithstanding it is inappropriate for an employer to be giving this guidance (or direction) directly rather than through an accredited, independent third party without a vested interest in the performance outcome. Clearly there are reasonable limits to this though which appear to have been walked past if these allegations are true.

Sheezel will go top 3. Every club after him.

Got to wonder what people are watching when they say he reminds them of Noah Balta, Jacob Weitering and Jack Riewoldt. Balta is all athlete, Weitering is very dour but a smooth mover and Jack is as mercurial as a big forward can be. JVR is nothing like any of them. He's hustle, bustle, reach and grab, push off and mark. 2nd and 3rd efforts on the deck. He's all heart. A bit of Hogan with more athleticism, a bit of mihocek with a bit more height and reach.

They're hard to win and B2B is rare because it's very easy to slip 5/10%. On field, culturally, both, you name it. That's it. I've only tried to articulate the slippage I see. You could argue we slipped on field instead, and that's fine. But that's not what you're doing - you're making excuses, trivialising and diminishing our failures by suggesting they were due to temporary problems, not our fault, and somehow defensible. It is 100% arrogant and disrespectful to our opposition, and your response is too. You highly doubt doing anything other than what we did could have been successful? (Because we are the exemplars and couldn't possibly be at fault? Do you honestly claim to have foreseen how every other scenario could have played out?) We've gambled successfully before so therefore we had the right to gamble again? (Never mind that May had extremely little influence on the GF - we won inspite of his injury/the gamble, not because of it. It does not afford us the right to play through injury again during a season proper with competitors breathing down our neck) You don't "endorse" the option of winning outside the 4? Finishing outside the 4 is an "alternative approach"? (As if our finishing position was entirely within our control? We picked and chose when to go and where to finish? Presuming if we benched our injured stars, our reserves would have been unable to deliver?) I literally cannot spell this out any more clearly for you. To be frank, if anyone from the club really believes that our season came down to a choice of either playing fit, 2nd choice players or missing top 4 (which is exactly the choice you're implying we made) then we're in deep deep trouble. You'll deflect, externalise and blame injuries, luck and exogenous factors. It's what arrogant people do. Humble people and humble clubs accept and acknowledge their shortcomings so they can address them and improve. It's one of the things that got us so far in 2021.

And maybe you'd be happier at Tullamarine. Keep buying what the club are selling. A) Not once did I say we have a culture problem. I said there are signs it slipped. B) Your response is exactly the slippage I'm talking about. You are literally proving my point. According to you, we lost the flag because: We were banged up Our reserves wouldn't have been any better than injured stars We 'gambled on winning a final' "We'll win more but not consecutively" So in summary - we assumed we could get most of the way on one leg, lost integrity at selection and banked on being entitled to an extra week off. Having lost, we then have the excuse that 'the way we play is taxing', and that we never should have expected to go back to back in the first place. If that isn't a description of an arrogant, entitled and disrespectful approach to an extremely competitive season, I don't know what is. "We could have accepted we'd have to win it outside the top 4"....Really? And you're arguing against my observations of complacency and disrespect for our opposition? Oh & by the way, Casey isn't Melbourne. They didn't win the flag last year. In fact, they've come close for years without succeeding, and the entire club has been enormously driven to deliver for quite a while. Almost all of the 'signs' I listed had roots in us winning the flag - none of these were present at the Casey level.

Is that how it works? Or would he have just reached a required threshold # of games? Seems very confusing

Why is Bowey ineligible? Surely played 10+ VFL games this year

Mentioned again in Damian Barrett's sliding doors today. Seems to be a fair bit of smoke about this one. Disastrous if it happens - tracking better statistically than just about any small forward since Stephen Milne. And every bit as exciting as Eddie, Cyril or Jeffy.

Thanks for providing these extra details. I'm certainly not against him and think he looks alot better than Jefferson who is supposedly the next best KPF in the pool

I've only watched a couple of mins of footage but there are question marks for me. Wasn't sold on his ability below the knees, marking or kicking to be honest (particularly within play rather than set shot). That said, he certainly seemed to find space off the ball which is extremely important. Almost the opposite of how Weideman looked at U18s - he had the technical attributes but never seemed to get any ball in space (mostly as he didn't need to as he outreached everyone when the ball was plonked on his head) KPFs are so hard to judge in U18s. They get very little of the ball, their opponents usually aren't very good and the games are often one-sided - a good midfield can make them look much better than they are. It's almost preferable drafting someone who's shown ability at both ends - ala JVR, Naughton to a degree, Hogan etc. You just see them exposed to more situations - coming at a pack from behind, the side, as well as leading, plus more ground ball / rounded stuff

Thanks for the reply and all great points. Agree it is no guarantee on its own, just as putting the best talent together is no guarantee on its own. You need the sum of all parts. Lots of our parts are and have been proven to be in good order, hence my suspicion that culture is where we've fallen back a bit. Very hard to measure and/or pin down to a definition/formula though and even harder to then turn that into real behavioural change/standards - which is why it's so illusive. Innumerable small, seemingly inconsequential things that the leaders and others need to do consistently over a long time. It's a grind. Don't forget Roos assessed that this was the key element he had to change in his time at the helm. He knew how important it is and I think he got us a long way. I think Goody and Gawn took us further and had the club humming last year, probably more off field than on. Very very hard to find and maintain...nothing like a shock exit to drive standards though, so Im hopeful the club can recapture it

You seemingly get a lot of joy out of being deliberately obtuse but I'll bite... I clearly outlined you need a lot of things - culture being one of them. The beauty of us having a largely unchanged team, coaches box and off field situation from 21 to 22 is that you can remove a lot of variables or question marks as to why we couldn't do it again. You can't say that for other teams. Carlton fans don't know if their current group, or Voss, have the capacity to deliver a flag - ever. West coast know that their core and Simpson can, but had some extreme injury and COVID circumstances to blame. So on and so forth. Unless you want to make the case that Tom McDonald was the difference between winning a flag or not, our team, coaches and off field was largely the same. The team that gets most of these things the most right - the culture as well - that swell of belief and team unity you saw with your own eyes last year - will be the team that wins the flag. It's incredibly hard to capture and is the reason why flags are so hard to win. A thousand coaches have gone formulaic and smashed the best players together and asked them to deliver. It doesn't work. You need the players, you need the coaches, you need the system, you need some luck...but most of all you need something to stitch it all together. That's what I'm referring to as culture. It's people, relationships and environments, individually and in aggregate. These things drive effort and behaviours that ultimately make the difference on field. Every single person who has ever worked in a serious team knows how important it is. Lots don't want to acknowledge it as it can be wishy washy, vague and intangible. It's much more fun to say that BBB is slow or that another KPF fixes the puzzle. But that's simple, surface level stuff and ultimately misses the point about what drives success. So yes - 17 other clubs - or 16 as one will salute this year - either don't have all of the 5 elements sewn up - or if they do, they might be lacking the cultural element on top. And yes - we captured something in 2021 that we didn't have in 2020 or in 2022. Honestly - you lived it....is it really so hard to believe? Do you really think we won the 21 flag solely because the football skills of our squad and a gameplan coincidentally combined and peaked at the same time? That we won the flag because in a given week we had more inside 50s or that trac kicked it to spot X instead of Y, or that our players were just more skilful than the opposition? The same squad and coach finished 9th the year before. It's pretty clear that what we found in 21 was not a magic footy formula of goals, behind and inside 50s, but a collective discipline, desire, selflessness, humility, drive and set of values/behaviours (collectively, culture). The players and coaches have spoken about it ever since, and every flag team is the same. Talk to a Bulldogs fan about 2016 - they didn't even need all 5 of the other elements - such was the strength of the culture they found. Go ahead and pick holes in this by all means. It's just my opinion and not a perfect theory. At least one of us has gone to the effort to put something forward and explain it.

Im fairly ambivalent about Jackson leaving...but Kozzie....would break me. Wanted us to draft him when he was nowhere near the first round discussion and love watching him - a player other teams always seemed to have before we finally landed one. Would be utterly heartbreaking Looks like scuttlebutt but unfortunately this is exactly how Jackson started last year. Very very flat