Rodney (Balls) Grinter

My smokey is for James Harmes to become an elite bullocking type midfielder, regularly impacting games with powerful bursts out of packs and into the forward line. I'll be a bit half pregnant on my next prediction: Wondering if we will have a backline star studded with AA backman by the end of the year? Tom McDonald has that kind of talent and potential in him if he can stay uninjured and maintain his form throughout the whole year, with the other potential candidates being Jetta, Hunt, Hibberd and maybe even Oscar. If we start stringing the wins together, it's amazing how players in successful sides get all the accolades. Regardless, if he is good enough to take the step all the way to AA nomination, I have high hopes for Oscar next season as my recollection was that it was at about this age that Tom really started to fill out and had the physical strength and confidence/experience to start really imposing himself on opposition players and became a reliable, solid defender.

I also seem to recall one Vs West Coast 2015, where it was his courage charging back against the play when he copped another serious head knock. I understand fully that footy is a contact sport and accidental high contacts are somewhat inevitable, however some players also contribute to their own demise by pushing the boundaries too far - think Jonathan Brown in his last few seasons.

I fully expect Trengrove to be a different player next season. We all hear about how much difference a full preseason can make (i.e. Max Gawn). Trengrove had less than not having a preseason in the respect that he had to totally rebuild the strength back in a twig of what may pass for a leg. It was somewhat miraculous that he could even run, let alone be half competitive at VFL level. Without really knowing the guy, I get the impression that Trenners is an absolute professional in his dedication to training and should give himself every chance. If he can have the sort of Max Gawn impact after a full preseason, I'll be happy with that.

Agreed 100%. Improvement will mainly come through additional physical maturity anf experience. I think one other area that could make Gus a better player in this sense is to learn when to go, when not to and how better to protect his body (particularly his head). I know it's a fine line in footy, between aggression/courage/putting your body on the line and protecting it, but I do think there is such a thing as crazy brave. It's more than just bad luck that he has been concussed so many times. If players like Gus don't learn how to keep themselves from getting serious head knocks, sadly they won't have much of a career.

Could be argued that a) it's yet to fully play out and b) set in motion long ago; but the realitively seamless transition to Goody is a big part of that getting on with things with a minimum of fuss. Full cread to PJ and Roos.

Us to make St Kilda and Norf our beeartches with crushing 50+ point victories.

Yes, through that bigger scam of free agency, which didn't cost them anything, which shits me much more than them getting Jaeger for some combination of fairly high picks.

I'm not sure I care if Hawthorn traded all their future picks to the GC anyway. From what I understand, the rule was put in place more or less for the protection of the club trading it. So long as Hawthorn don't receive great players out of these trades, then I'm more than happy for them to exclude them selves from picking up future talent in the draft. I heard that with their current trading of picks included, they wouldn't have had a pick in the top 20 in six years.

How many millions does a guy like Roos need? He's a pretty smart guy, my bet is he's got enough money squirreled away, so that he can go and live very comfortably between Hawaii and Australia, without taking on major commitments with an AFL club. I could possibly see him going in as a consultant and doing an audit on culture, football deptment structure and the like, but taking on a major leadership position wouldn't seem to fit with the messages Roos was sending out on his plans for the future. I could also see him earning some pretty good pocket money doing commentary for Fox Footy, public talking and the like.

I do recall it bring a great comeback win, that's for sure. Probably great bit of decision making from Daniel Cross to pass to Salem and how about those calm nerves under pressure from a kid playing one of his first games. Essendon were practically our bunny side for a few years there - how some things change!

Probably the same ones that escape to the ski slopes in winter rather than go to the footy as well.

Haven't ever taken much notice of Hibbard until now, but from all I hear on this forum, is that he is a hard as nails backman. He thus has my blessing for number 14.

Yeah, I do recall the him wanting to make his own name/jumper No. thing. I was kinda playing along with the jumper number = how many flags they will win with the MFC thing. Obviously in that context 12 is better than 7, but at this point the game gets a little silly. To be honest, I'd be happy for us just to win one flag in my lifetime ...and then reassess from there.

I like Harmes in 43. Guy Rigoni was a fair player in that number a few years back.

Nah, why not his old man's No.?

I wouldn't promote him up that high until he regularly produces at high standard at senior level, so as not to put pressure on him and/or make him earn it a bit.

It confuses simple minds like mine for the first half dozen games when our more established players change numbers. Didn't occur to me until just now, but I do find it odd that Spencer currently has 33. I normally associate that number with highly skilled/running players, not lumbering ruckman.

On the flip side, I was encouraged that, other than Essendon and Carlscum, we did put away most of the teams that we should have this year i.e. GC, Brisbane, Richmond, The Filth and Freo. In past seasons we would have been very vulnerable (Thanks for the pickup Monoccular!!) in these games, so it's not like the teams isn't making progress in the area of beating teams below us that we should. Highlight for me was the first GC game at Carrara when the GC fought hard for half a game and could have stayed in it and ground out a win. Alas Jack Viney's magnificent two goal burst early in the third qtr to run away with a crushing victory in a way we hadn't done for a number of years. Capped off by Patracca getting amongst the spoils with a few sausage rolls. Being there at the ground that night was awesome; lost my voice screaming my lungs out in joy!

I wonder if he could be a fit for the GC. I think he fit's their need for a bit of experience and Brisbane's weakness is their lack of key position types, not runners. I could see Newton potentially plugging a small forward gap for the GC along side Two Meter Peter and Tom Lynch.

I agree. All teams need depth and a number of role players who are not necessary stars, but can hold down a spot. I don't think there is a team in the AFL that has a mix comprised of only stars and development players with nothing in between. The salary cap and desire for playing opportunities see to that. I think we've probably made the right choice by cutting the guys that fit into the category of injured/ not performing, there best wasn't even to the standard of the guys above and wasn't developing - classic list clogger's for want of a better word.

So were you bored by this years trade period Track?

Don't buy that lack of leg speed was the reason for our loss to either team particularly Essendon. Just a look at a few of the teams that convincingly beat Essendon last year should be enough to tell us that: Collingwood - once; Richmond - Twice; Yet we beat both the above teams convincingly. If leg speed was the key to beating Essendon, then logically that must make the above teams as quick and thus we should have struggled against them too - but we didn't and it doesn't stack up. I think looking at the respective lead ups to the Carlton loss is more insightful for the reasons we lost these games. Carlton were comming off 9 - yes 9 consecutive losses, including Brisbane the week prior to us. We had just come off a record 3 consecutive wins. Both the Essendon and Carlton probably took confidence out of beating us in 2015, which gave them enough belief to think they were in with a shot against us and also would have built them selves up for the game big time - in Essendons case, it was the big week long fight back build up, pre game march and Sheedy speech. In the case of Carlton, the 9 conservative and in particular the Brisbane loss would have provided plenty of motivation. In short I do buy the Paul Roos claims that due to the age/inexperience of our side, we lacked physical and mental stamina and maturity to string together consistent form. We are venerable to any team if we don't turn up to play mentally.

To beat Carlton, we need to play much better to combat Crisps he is a bruit of a player who by my recollection smashed us in Rd 22.

...and any chance of us ever beating St Kilda ever again?

Don't disagree, but I think Daniel Cross was similar in playing contribution, leadership and durability over most of his career, but yet the club decided he wasn't up to continuing this year. Hard to predict if and when aging players will fall off a cliff physically and or to some degree mentally. I'm guessing the club would probably have preferred to have signed Lewis up for 2 years with the option of an extension, but obviously 3 years was the price we had to pay to get the deal done. Without knowing exactly how much salary cap space Lewis is taking up, I'm certainly in favour of decision the club has made in terms of risk Vs reward.