titan_uranus

Are we genuine about it being a “community” series at regional stadiums when Carlton just played Geelong at IKON Park? Either do all the games in regional areas, or if there aren’t appropriate grounds, don’t bother.

Isn’t the bolded bit one of the main problems with the Walsh contract?

It wouldn’t be a Demonland thread without a classic @Bring-Back-Powell single stat/match reference to make a point. That game was 2.5 years ago. Clubs of course don’t make decisions based on one game. They also don’t make decisions based on form from 2.5 years ago. If they did, we’d still have Trac and Oliver on our list. Alternatively, perhaps someone should offer Joel Amartey the next biggest contract in the AFL, given in Round 14 2024 he kicked 9 goals in a game.

You seriously underestimate the additional distance that has to be travelled to get to Casey as compared to those other places. With no traffic, right now at 10pm, it is a 40 minute drive from Hawthorn or Glen Iris to Casey. That’s an additional 15-17 minutes more than it would take to get to Dingley. Again, that’s with no traffic. Dingley’s one suburb over from Moorabbin. It’s not central, sure, but it’s not in the same ballpark as Casey. Casey’s roughly double the distance from the city as Dingley is. At the end of the day if Casey is all we’ve got, then so be it, and yes there will simply have to be adjustments for our staff and players, but it’ll be the least attractive option of the 9 Melbourne-based clubs.

Fantastic piece.

Some of the “problems” seem blown out of proportion in the article. So is this some sort of MRC leak to scupper the plan? Are we cooked?

It’s been addressed already but that’s 3, maybe 4, good players missing. Bowey too. But anyway these are not hugely important comparisons for a practice match on 20 February in 30 degree heat. The result is not very instructive The way we tried (and succeeded) to move the ball, the roles of Steele, Heath, Kentfield, Latrelle and Howes, and the hopeful confidence of a win, is what we can take from today. I’m so keen to see what we do with JVR, Jeffo, Kentfield and Heath (plus Gawn and Mihocek).

2018 aside, when was the last time we said this?

Positive vibes in a game day thread. Tell me it’s pre-season without telling me it’s pre-season… But I love to see it.

@DubDee got in first. By your logic we’re a force to be reckoned with.

Yep - or of course the other possibility is Viney is declared out for the season and placed on the inactive list (or, worse, someone else goes down with a season-ender). If it happens after 2 March, unless the AFL grants an exemption like they did to us last year, we’d have to wait until the MSD to fill the spot.

Jesus @bing181 is it actually impossible for you to see someone say something optimistic about the upcoming season and just leave it alone?

Let’s not beat around the bush here. Koz’s words were: “He’s a lot more relaxed, and I feel like…we can be ourselves around him. The vibe is a lot different, it just feels a lot happier, a lot fun…yeah it just feels real good”. That’s unintentionally hugely insightful into what the club was like last year. It’s a key reason why I’m leaning on the optimistic side in terms of what we can achieve this year - the intangible aspect of moving from that environment to this one.

This killed us last year when it looked to me like GWS ran all over us in the fourth quarter, having blown the cobwebs out the week prior.

I don't get much mail, but my understanding is that Viney is out for the year. Won't be much to recognise at centre bounces in 2026!

Off the top of my head, Hawthorn last year were 8th but made the prelim, and GWS in 2023 finished 7th but made the prelim.

Well, we did beat the premier last year, plus another finalist (Fremantle). We ended with 7 wins and a percentage of 93.3%; Hawthorn in 2023 had 7 wins and a percentage of 80%. That aside, I think you're probably over-rating Hawthorn in 2023/24 a little, if not a lot. The top two results from a Google search for 2024 season previews had the ABC forecasting Hawthorn would finish bottom 3 with 7-8 wins, and Fox citing King, Montagna and Hudson who all thought they'd finish bottom 4 in 2024.

Your second post explains the first. Hawthorn may have spent 5 years down the bottom before 2024, but they didn't experience any sort of gradual improvement. They went from tripe in 2023 (and for the first 5 weeks of 2024) into a top 4 and prelim final contender. If you had applied your "the real world tends to behave in more or less predictable ways" to Hawthorn at this time in 2024, you would have said "it's hard to see them doing much better than they have over the last couple of seasons". And, again, as you'll no doubt make it sound like I need to say this - I am not saying that this is the likely outcome for us in 2026. I'm merely saying it's possible.

Why do you say it like this (the bolded bit)? Like we didn’t choose to have the injuries. Saying “we haven’t given ourselves the best chance of success” makes it sound like we’ve had players out late drinking or something stupid like that. When from all reports, the group have been flogging themselves at training. If anything, we’ve given ourselves the best chance of success despite the injuries. And FWIW, I suspect Gold Coast having 1 guy in rehab will be an outlier. We may be at the other end of the spectrum but if your yardstick for success is a pre-season with 1 in rehab, you’re going to be let down 99% of the time.

They look ugly. It’s our reality though. It’s been covered on here already. We’re not an attractive proposition for sponsorship right now. So we take what we can get.

As these posts all say, there are a number of reasons why we’re a disaster when it comes to sponsorship. We’ve been boring to watch. We’ve been involved in games with low goal counts. We’ve struggled to attract crowds and therefore play in what appears to be an empty MCG. This year we are away in the two major marquee games we get. Our membership count is shrinking when 17 other clubs are growing. Our social media presence has been woeful. We had our name attached (fairly or not) to a bunch of “scandals”. And now our most marketable player (maybe 2nd to Gawn) walked out on us. We can’t control most of this. And the easiest fix probably is to get back to being not just competitive on the field, but fun to watch. But, at the grave risk of re-starting a debate many on here detest (and fair enough too), if you can afford a membership but have refused to buy one as a form of protest, you aren’t helping. And if you could attend games but chose not to as a form if protest, you aren’t helping. Buy a membership. Get to games when you can. Make us appear bigger and more worthy of someone’s financial investment. Yes, still demand the club carry out its end of the bargain, but this is something we can do a little bit to help with.

How does this compare to other clubs? I know there have been a bunch of injuries reported this week. Not sure how our list stacks up, but it looks terrible to me.

Maths might be slightly out here @Redleg . 30,000 members would have to pay an additional $1,000 to get $30 million. $100 a pop would only generate $3m.

Hawthorn was 8-19 in their 27 games leading into 2024, in which they started 0-5, before making finals. Brisbane won 17 games in four complete seasons (2015-18) before making top 4 in 2019 (and not missing finals since). Sydney was 13-26 in their 39 games leading into 2021, in which they made finals. It can turn quickly.

We won 7 games in 2025 with Trac and Oliver. We lose Trac. We “cover” Oliver to an extent with Steele. We gain in some other areas (Mihocek and CJ, another (full) pre-season for Langford and Lindsay). We also get to see what the rest of the list does when freed from whatever the previous administration had hanging over them. With all that said, I don’t see us making finals but I’d be more surprised at us winning 6 games or fewer as I would at us winning 10+ games.