Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Can they both please loose.

I think the stress and pressure would have been even more extreme this year for someone in Shaw's position. Week after week of getting belted on the park together with a life constantly on the road with virtually no private personal space in the hub bubbles. I'd be wanting to take some time out and clear my head if I was in his position too. And it's by no means a sign of weakness to step away from a situation that's causing great personal anguish and look after yourself. I'm sure Rhyce's family need him in a happy, well state far more than the North Melbourne football club need his coaching (no slight intended).

Simple solution - just get rid of the bottom 4 teams from this season. Serously, Jeff Kennett is vulture like. F@#% off Jeff.

For all the expense, they will probably end up installing it somewhere obscure and inconsequential, like over the boundary line in front of where Gil and his goons sit.

From memory he kicked a couple of pearlers that day. One hard up on the boundary early in the game when he bent it back through perfectly and that other one where he picked up the bouncing ball headding into oncoming traffic and then slotted it straight through.

I really liked some of Hunt's goals.

Trac let go with a number of big roosts from outside 50 this year and they pretty much always looked like going through right off the boot. I recall one against the Saints, another against Essendon and possibly one on the run against North. Such a weapon and an absolute pleasure to watch.

Yeah, but I know where you're coming from Re coaches with premiership experience being beneficial.

Backup for us (which in the ruck position is different to being fringe), because we have a Gawn, just like he was at North with their Goldy. But GWS would be recruiting him to be best 22, as would a number of the other potential trade destinations he would be looking at, so that's his value, not as a fringe player at all.

If anyone else posts this I'll spew. Surely it would work out something along the lines of us trading Preuss for a pick(s) that someone like North wants to get us a ready made player who forfills a hole in our current list structure. If all those peices don't fall into place, then I'd be inclined to hold onto him.

So where did Alistair Clarkson's premiership experience come from? ... Paul Roos and Luke Beverage for that matter. I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

I did watch the thing and I didn't get exactly the same impression as that. It did seem to me that Max and Watts were pretty good mates and that Maxy doesn't mind having a good time on the turps from time to time during the off season. But I think Max's professionalism in his personal fitness and football over the past 3 or 4 years has been exceptional to a level that I don't get the impression Jack ever came near. I think Max's team mates would respect the example that he sets of professionalism during the season, but also being able to be a fun and relatable guy within sensible limits when it's time to switch off. I've got zero concerns about Gus. He gives me the impression that he's a pretty smart guy and solid citizen with his head screwed on well. I've always thought Jack offered us something on the field worthy of his place in the side. Probably never lived up to the superstar expectations that were put on him, but a decient player none the less. After he was delisted by Port and subsequently retired, I did wounder if he'd could be worth us taking another punt on, particularly on the basis of his elite delivery into the forward line and goal kicking. But I must say watching his performance on the captain's run podcast, that certainly left me with the impression that he is more focused on life outside football his motivation levels to play are not there.

Will be really good to see what wounders the Ooooz can do with Fristch. If he can turn around Fritta's pretty ordanary set shot goal kicking from this year, we would be a 1 or 2 goal per game better side from that alone. I'm interested to see what the core intended role for Yze is at the club, but surely whatever it is his kicking coaching will form a pretty important side role.

Rapt to have Yze on board. But I don't completely buy into the Clarkson/Hawthorn success comparison. Equally premierships as a player: Yze: 0 Goodwin: 2 Sometimes I think it comes down to the luck of being in right place at the right time and just because you are associated with past sucess or not doesn't necessarily equip you any better. That said all reports are that both Yze and Goodwin have quality skill sets in particular areas and hopefully that ultimately brings us sucess with them and our current team.

F@#% yeah!

Agreed that his performances this season were a bit all over the place. He played a few good games and probably several that weren't so good (a bit like the side in general). Also like the side in general, he certainly wasn't Robinson Crusoe in having rings run around him against Port though.

The thing that worries me about trading either McDonald is what happens if May, Lever or Weid get injured? Petty just spent the entirety of this season with groin problems. One of the things that T Mac in particular has going for him is his versatility in that he could play forward, back or pinch hit in the ruck. His endurance use to be elite, with him being one of the few players in the league that could go with Nick Riewoldt. Can he get that back? I'm not totally sure, but to me he's only played one ordanary season (this year) in the whole time we've had him, so give him a break. Certainly don't count me in the Oscar haters either. As pointed out by @Ungarie boy, he may not be the most fashionable player, but he gets the job done. I think it's notable that some of our players (I forget which ones) have called our Oscar for the good leadership that he brings to organising our backline behind the play. At the end of the day, we made a prelim final with a backline that comprised Oscar and Frost for most of the year, so he can get the job done (can't lay all the blame on Oscar for the bag Hawkins kicked on him at the Cattery in 18 with the laces out delivery Hawkins was getting straight out of the centre that night). One thing that does strike me as ironic is that while Tommy is the one with questionable kicking out of defense, but being a dead eye [censored] in front of goal, the complete opposite is true of Oscar from the evidence to date.

I'm wondering if old mate @Lampers mis-read Tmac for Trac?

Yeah, sure, that's why GWS rolled out grandpa Shane again this year.

While it's true he's not in our best 22, that's only because we have a Gawn and it's clear he would be in others best 22. Ready made ruckman are a bit of a rare breed and can also have a pretty influential impact on a sides performance, so that's got to put a reasonable premium on him to start with. Depending on his appetite for living in Sydney, I would think GWS should be his preferred destination and they seem to have an excess of players and draft picks of value at their disposal that should be able to provide us with good compensation.

Really hope that Carlton do have to pay through the nose for him after they basically got Jack Martin for free. I'd equally be ok with this all blowing up in the face of Essendon and Carlton, with something similar happening this year and Sadd walking basically free in the preseason draft to say someone like North or Hawthorn who could scoop him up with their first pick in the preseason draft.

I think you mean Sparrow. ...but I agree.

If we are still dealing with reduced lists in 2025/26 there is something wrong with the state of the game though. Picking how long to contract players at the back ends of their careers is always a bit of a guessing game (Nev Jetta potentialy as case in point), but you would expect most players of Jack's calibre to make it to 30 no problems and a reasonable portion making it to 31-33, so I don't see that last year as a huge issue. At the worst, he should make a good mentor at Casey. Perhaps Jordan Lewis's last season wasn't great, but I don't see it as a big issue in the scheme of things.

Well, this thread has definitely helped tip me over the edge of not visiting this site until there is definitely something actually news worthwhile to read/discuss.

Finals - meh.