fr_ap

No I'm not. Bowey has many fooled but if you pay attention - and watch games from previous years - has a lot of goals kicked on him from defensive lapses/1v1 losses. He is a long way from an elite defender. A long way. I'm well aware it's not a popular opinion. Let me put it to you this way... Who do you think is a better defender - Mcvee or Bowey? Now who do you think is a better rebounder - Mcvee or Bowey? I think most would agree the answer to both is Mcvee. Bowey is currently not a great small defender - and also not a great rebounder. He could be - but he's not there yet and been around for quite a while now (longer than Mcvee). He seems to escape any sort of criticism because he's got a nice looking kick and gives a lot of effort. AMW cops it for defensive unaccountability but Bowey does not. AMW also brings better ball carrying ability, tricks and better tackling than Bowey atm. Sharp is messy. Don't let 4 in a practise game fool you. You'll see. As I said, I'm ok with it as he looks to bring a lot of other attributes to the table. As for Chandler - yes he's 2nd best in that spot. If you don't agree that there is a big gap between him and Koz - both offensively and defensively - not sure what you're watching.

I agree that small/running defenders are an issue - both defensively and offensively. Bowey is and has always been a very poor 1v1 defender and tackler. I've always wanted to see him up the ground but didn't love the look of that yesterday either tbh. Just doesn't have any tricks and for an elite user, overkicks frequently. A real shame about AMW. Howes is an enigma. Does some ok things but I hate his kicking and think he often makes the wrong decision coming out of defence, which is where a lot of play is supposed to be setup. If you could combine his height and reach with Salem's decision making we'd have a player.....Ah well. The other glaring issue I thought was in the air. It's always obvious when Gawn doesn't play and May missing didn't help...but gee we just lacked any sort of dominance in the air either forward or back. Lever/Tom Mc/Petty offered very little. JVR looked ok but didn't offer any marking option on the wing, and Jefferson isn't strong enough. Turner is a good mark but he's a hybrid size and isn't going to win contested marks on the wing in a pack of 4 unless he takes a hanger. I liked what Langford brought - seems to get footy and Understand time and space. He's exciting. Not sure why anyone is surprised by lack of pace...we knew it going in. His issue at the top level will be defensive - will get run off and the lack of pace will show most without the ball. Lindsay looked ok but I'm yet to be convinced he could hold down the wing in the 1s. These types of pre season games often throw up heaps of space as each team is usually missing some best 22 players and it only takes a few weak links in the chain to mess with the structures. Billings was ok but can't kick under any sort of pressure. Chandler quiet but has proven what he can offer in my view. He starts round 1. Sharp was handy and better than I thought. Didn't think he had that level of goalsense. A messy player if ever I've seen one but 100% effort, endurance and speed is valuable if he can play within his limits. I know we were experimenting and missing senior players but felt our transition defence was still mostly very poor. Most turnovers we engineer in the middle were Koz coming up the ground to interfere and apply pressure. We have no one else who has his speed energy or physicality and it's a big hole when he's not there. I thought we looked a team in the range of 6th to 10th. Add in the stars - which are the difference to any team - and who knows. But I'm relatively unconvinced by our 2nd/3rd stringers overall or whether our 2nd tier premiership players - Sparrow, Bowey, Laurie, Howes - have the levels required to make us a really good team again.

Ok. Not sure why you're staunchly committed to defending a player that we haven't even signed yet. He has attributes - he wouldn't be in the realm if he didn't. I'm certainly not against giving him a shot. But a balanced view informed by more than what you have seen - opinions of eagles fans who watched him for 2 or 3 years - is that he is slow. Its not something that remains to be proven. There have been slow champions and he may yet be one. But he is slow.

Bit of a whinge, but if he does end up going it's pretty heartbreaking for our supporter base more than anything. A difference maker, unpredictable, incredibly skilful with the discipline and application to match. About to hit his absolute prime age and maturity, getting physically stronger and on track as one of the best small forwards of all time. Like Jackson at 3, no one else had the balls to pick him at 12 and if they replayed that draft today I can guarantee no one would have touched him before 15. We took the risk. We've subsequently potentially over invested (relative to players with lesser needs) in his wellbeing, connections back home and overall happiness. He's been a champion for us and it's his life, you can't begrudge him for making a decision for family - but it will be gut wrenching to see him turn it on for another team. He's our special player - someone the opposition genuinely fears and cannot contain. Would just suck so much to lose him right in his prime

The universal knock on him seems to be his lack of speed. Talk to eagles fans - they'll tell you he's as slow as treacle in space. Nevertheless I'm open to it - 193cm midfielders don't go on trees and I think we need the depth, and he's of the right age/mindset after getting delisted.

Culley reminds me of Tyson - left footer, some nice attributes, moves well but is a bit slow?

I had some hopes pre Xmas of a bounce back this year. It's now starting to feel otherwise. A long injury list including some very important players, others again in the news for the same / wrong reasons, and the same doubts on some important young players and potentially important older players (McAdam) Oliver getting near his best makes us better if that happens, but not enough to offset interrupted pre seasons to the likes of Trac, Mcvee, Gawn, Chandler, Lever, not to mention Kozzie's mind being elsewhere and the loss of ANB. It's great if Langford, Laurie and Turner are taking steps - but if these are the bright spots of our year we'll be in trouble. Ditto on the likes of Sharp.

Agree - what's he done? Was really hoping he could build some continuity, shows a lot

This won't help him and in fact will make it worse - we kick it on his head, he waits under the pack and knees come for his ribs from all around. The injury is relatively common - I've done it myself - but his mental state around this is the big watch out. You'd have to think he'll be hesitant and nervous under high balls and generally around contact for quite a while. Can't reset by going to Austria every time. If he had another year under his belt since the big one that would be ok - but it's happened in a pretty short time which will leave him thinking this is going to be regular thing. Not good. Our chances this year just took a hit.

Posting opinions is what this site is for. It's what you've done in this post. No one asked you to weigh in. So perhaps take your own advice. I've nothing to 'let go' here. I've not doubled down. GW and I exchanged DMs - we evidently don't see eye to eye....but that's ok. As I said it was never my intention to upset her and I respect her contribution. I'm not going to revisit my initial wording, and would suggest you and the others piling on try not to look for something that isn't there.

To be clear I do like the content and said as much. GW and I are talking privately - never my intention to upset anyone.

Nothing I said was insulting and I am not a 'hater'. I value the contributions GW makes and the forum is richer for her involvement given her commitment to sharing the information she does have. Beyond that, I have also said previously that people like her are very important to the club. That does not mean I need to believe every word or that I can't call what I think is nonsense out when I read it. I won't apologise for this. Seems I've hit a sensitive spot and I'm not across what some other poster has said...But whatever Goody said about Shane, I would probably have interpreted it differently to how she has. Whatever. It doesn't matter. She seems to think this is a noticeboard, or a bulletin, or an email newsletter where the dialogue is one way. It's a forum. People said Chris Judd was coming here years ago and got smashed for it. Who cares. It's the internet. I've been smashed plenty of times for my views - including by those now on their high horse in this thread - who preach diversity of thought but clearly don't appreciate it. I'm not driving anyone away - plenty like me come here to see both sides of the coin. Melodramatic bunch aren't we

I'm sorry but unless you're talking about Casey, there is absolutely no way goody would be publicly talking about McAdam being picked in round 1. I assume he said "he'll be right to go round 1" (meaning available for selection, which would indeed be a good achievement) and it's being embellished. Positivity is great but when it crosses the line into fantasy it diminishes all the other observations....

Why would Windsor be heading back? Goal kicking wings with height, pace and defensive workrate are very rare. It's his 2nd year...let the kid grow into something before we break him please

No issue with that assessment or expectation...think a lot around here have a perception he'll be able to play inside.

Didn't say he can't find the footy. For what it's worth, Trainor's clumsiness contributed to that a great deal. To be clear I'm not saying he's Isaac Weetra - but if you have expectations of him being a good-great inside mid at AFL I think you're going to be disappointed. I see what I see - time will tell.

No voodoo! Just calling it how I see it. First thing I look for in any draftee is how they approach contact. Very few can overcome it as a deficiency (Fritsch comes to mind and even then - he's fearless in the air)

You're all shouting this post down but I was saying most of this well before we picked him too. Particularly agree with the worry about him standing up to the heat in contest - i see very worrying signs there too. He does not innately seek or initiate contact when he should and when applied to him, he receives it awkwardly rather than driving through it. It's a bad trait for a mid. He may make an ok half back but I have significant doubts overall. Like that poster, I'll be very happy to be proven wrong and I hope he's an all time great. Confident plenty on here would agree with the assessment if he was drafted by anyone else and assessed impartially. I mean everyone here seems to think Bowey wins contests, so I'm sure you'll be pleased with what XL does in that area too...

Yep - that was the moment it changed for him

Can we just bring Dom Brew across as well? Seems we've done everything but...quality human deserves a go surely

This isn't really up for debate - watch some games over the last two years and focus on him specifically. We ship goals to his opponents, and him losing defensive contests is often to blame. He has attributes - with the ball - ok in the air - but I don't think he'll ever be a natural defender. His first year he was playing in an exceptional system and team that was humming...he had Gus covering for him defensively off the wing a lot as well. If Nevjet was a small defender you could trust to stop good small forwards, Bowey is not even beginning to enter that conversation

Bowey is very ordinary 1v1 and can't be trusted to win 1v1 contests in d50. Not enough people talk about this.

Oh dear.

Put me firmly in the camp that says Lindsay will struggle at AFL level. His kicking is only good in space, and despite being touted in/out he's anything but - his contest work is poor and he's unnatural in contested situations. Wouldn't touch with pick 20 let alone 9. Might make an ok half back but never a mid.

Fair enough. For what it's worth, longer clips of Langford show he's hardly a good kick either