titan_uranus

Who does Adams replace? TMac/May, or Lever? I'm a bit worried about Howes being in the same camp as Laurie - too good for VFL, but not quite good enough for AFL. But unlike others, every time he goes back to Casey he seems to step up and play well.

I know he's not the future but is there any more Billings can do to get a recall? Best part about watching Casey for the rest of the year is watching Kentfield to see if he can keep this upward trajectory going.

They have, indeed, won just one fewer game than us to this point of the season. In a year where some thought they might not win a game and some thought we might play finals. FWIW though, that game was horrendous. They were terrible but won because Essendon were, somehow, worse.

Theirs were 2 years apart. 3 of 4 at their home ground. And the year in between they lost a prelim at home. How much different are they, really? Again, if we had that record the same detractors would be making the same arguments.

Not the only one. Brisbane too - they went out straight sets in 2019 and 2021. And I maintain that “final 4” or “final 6” are both “competing for the flag”. And that if we had made prelims and lost them, you would be running the exact same argument now - “two failed prelims”.

Rightly or wrongly, I always view the 2011 flag as the culmination of the Bomber Thompson era of 2007-11. The Danger/Cameron/Stewart era doesn’t go back to 2011 but even from 2016 when Danger joined them, the same general point remains - one flag from 10 seasons (if they don’t win it this year).

That’s not what I’m debating. We were “a chance for a flag” in 22-23 but these days those seasons get cast away as failures by those who succumb to the “we should have won multiple flags” rhetoric. And at any rate, for all the reinventing and competing they’ve done, my previous post remains true. If Geelong doesn’t win it this year, that’ll be 1 flag in 14 seasons of them being “competitive” under Scott. I’m not criticising them, I’m merely making the point that flags are hard to win.

Hey @Clintosaurus Gold Coast got about 5 free kicks in the last 5 minutes. I assume this is because the Collingwood conspiracy took a break tonight?

Noah Anderson is so [censored] good. Watch this game and tell me again how good our midfield is. An absolute mile off what Gold Coast have.

We were competing for them. We made the final 6 instead of the final 4. It’s worse, but not that much worse. If we’d lost consecutive prelims in 22-23, this board would be saying the exact same thing about Goody: “won a flag then couldn’t even win a single prelim”. @seventyfour is right. Winning flags is hard. It’s frankly insane how many people on here roll out the whole “we should have won multiple flags” line. At the end of this year, at least three of the following will be true: Collingwood will have won 1 flag from 4 seasons under McRae, despite having a stack of talent and a dream fixture Brisbane will have won 1 flag from 7 seasons of finals, despite their incredibly talented list Geelong will have won 1 flag in the last 14 years under Chris Scott, despite being in the Danger/Cameron/Stewart era the Dogs will have won 0 flags in 9 years despite having a list and midfield depth to die for

Playing his role he shouldn’t be mid-table for metres gained. I actually think he’s one of our bigger problems. IMO he’s just coasting through games, not influencing anywhere near the level we need from a half back who should be able to kick.

Chris Fagan is far closer to the “great to have a beer with” style than the “scientist in the basement”. And indeed, I’d suggest that a common link between the best current/recent coaches (McRae, Fagan, Longmire, Hardwick, Scott) is their ability to balance their connection with players with their professional approach to tactics/selection, without ever becoming a “scientist in the basement” who prioritises robotic/cold interactions.

I’m fairly confident this isn’t right.

Doesn’t help us that they’ll have a 9 day break compared to our 6 (this sort of fixturing is surely avoidable and has to stop). But yes, next week has a Carlton win written all over it.

Which one is it? You want us to pick players for the future, or you want us to pick TMac?

As has already been commented, those 23 disposals only gave us 266 metres gained. 11th most for us. He should be higher than that given the position he plays. IMO he’s getting cheap and easy kicks and dishing off cheap and easy kicks. We need our half backs to drive us forward, and I don’t think he’s doing that.

I’d expect Windsor for Sharp, and maybe Campbell for Jefferson. Would still love to see us pull the trigger on dropping Salem. Might happen if we lose this one.

To be clear, what I called out as “silly” was your post in which you said you’d entertain trade calls for anyone on our list other than Gawn and Pickett. Which clearly you yourself agree is silly given in this post you accept that our first and second year players, and maybe Viney, are not to be traded. When I said 3-4 players, I didn’t mean the rest were “untouchable”. I meant 3-4 players with potential value, who might be capable of being traded out to make our list better. IMO that list is Fritsch, Salem, Sparrow and, sadly, Oliver. Petty’s borderline. An example of someone I can’t accept putting on that list is McVee, who’s getting attention in his own thread. He’s precisely the sort of player we need on our list. Trading him for a draft pick doesn’t make us better. And others have disagreed with my “destabilising” comment around being open to calls on everyone. I stand by that. We will never become a “destination club”, or even an attractive one, if we’re prepared to listen to offers on our entire list. How would Trent Rivers, or Kade Chandler, or Jake Bowey feel upon finding out the club was prepared to consider trading them, instead of backing them in as our future and telling rivals to get stuffed)? Our list needs change, but after we delist and move on from the majority of the (scarily large) group of players who don’t appear to be part of the future (Fullarton, Billings, Laurie, Brown, Woewodin, Henderson, Culley, Hore and IMO Spargo), a handful of names up for trade is all we need to achieve significant list turnover in one off-season.

Silly statement. Aside from the fact that we have a number if players we need to build our side around (Turner, Lindsay and Langford) come to mind, a culture of entertaining trades for everyone is a great way to destabilise the club. We have some players to make trading decisions on, for sure, but that list should only have 3-4 names on it.

Of all the potential options on our list to trade out to try to get something back, we’d be insane to release a young player who’s a good kick, can lock down on small forwards, has some pace, and who prior to his injury this summer was dominant for two years. He is the sort of player we need to be bringing into the club, not letting go.

Sure. So has Salem, whilst Sharp’s played more games than I think his form has deserved. Doesn’t mean your earlier post and comments on Lever were fair.

He was dropped in the same week as JVR and Windsor. Fritsch was dropped earlier this year. There are others I’d like to see dropped but he’s not even close to being the “only player made an example of”.

This. What an absolute disgrace of a “story” from Tom Morris.

Presumably a standard Jon Ralph word vomit article?