FlashInThePan

Lots of insightful commentary here, reminds me of the tactics and all that jazz thread. I will add, I don’t think we are just increasingly varying the midfield rotations to ensure our big 4 have fresher legs in the 4th quarter, although I do agree that is part of it. I think we are also addressing what happened last year when we just ran out of legs toward the end of the season.

 Giving our main midfielders a bit of reduced time in the middle of things makes us both less predictable and and hopefully reduces their fatigue levels across a long season.

 Last night I felt we were beaten on the spread by Anderson, often leveraging their knowledge that we go -1 around the clearance. He played it particularly well and deserves credit for some really well executed plays. He was doing what Clarry and Trac often do and trusting his team mate to win the ball so getting on his bike early and spreading for the receive. We could have put some time into him and I thought that was what goodie was going to use harmes for when he subbed him on but he obviously has other plans.

Okay, I’ll be the one to say it…

relax, we got this

3 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Ive never really cared what the makeup of the team.is..   just needs to be the best to do the job..  Bowey has slipped.  That's entirely different from any appreciation or otherwise of Salem.   If C.S. never plays another senior game im not about to lose sleep....  All that is required is someone to do the job.....properly.   Burning players fails that metric.

Possibly among the most important disposals is that off the hbl rebounding.

That kick or handpass either sets up the attack.. or gifts the opposition as our defenders will be caught out of whack if the ball suddenly comes flying back...or the oppo gets to break the line.

Every time youre coming out of that hbl its effectively a douple point play..   

I just think Bowey has slipped a cog.

Salem is irrelevant in that appraisal. 

I can't agree about Bowey. His disposal is unarguably elite for his position. not based on opinion, based on statistical evidence. For some reason many posters seem to think their own eye and faulty recollection are a more accurate measure, it's hard to argue when facts don't come into it and people just think they are right regardless.

The loopy kicks you are talking about, from my viewing (warning, opinion to follow...) seem to happen when the back half is full of players and there is no option of punching a flat pass, you have to go either over or under. If you look at any pressured back half play from pretty much any player, you will see some instances where they pass the ball to someone else and put them under pressure. It is just the nature of trying to exit a congested area.

10 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Might be me... the new occulars... or.. 🤷🤷🤔..   but ive noticed his kicking . Even I initially thought it just the odd occurrence  but started to take particular notice ...

Granted the earlier games this year.....   Its only his kicking per se..  the getting and going..  does well...   but id like a $ for every time he's burnt the the deliveree .

I prefer Christian in this role. 

I’m not sure what you are noticing. You do realise that despite being under the hammer quite a bit, trying to clear from a congested backline, he is going at 82.4% DE? I love Salo but even at his absolute best he has never had a season with a DE with above 80%

It's actually not a bad list, should just be renamed to 'Top 5 players that caught my attention this week'

What if we ignore the draft entirely and package up our 2 first round picks in a trade for Ben King?

33 minutes ago, roy11 said:

When you buy it from Melbourne they send you a code to use in the KAYO subscription setting area, so its not just for new customers.

Only thing I learnt is If you're paying through apple (as opposed to direct CC) you need to cancel your subscription and then enter the code. 

Actually I had an existing subscription and I applied the code that came from the club and it worked fine. As a side note, I had a single screen subscription so to make it work I had to upgrade that to the standard subscription and then I could apply the code. I couldn't get the code to work while I had the cheaper subscription.

5 minutes ago, old55 said:

Keen for you to explain how Kossie, Chandler and Spargo all played together this year when JJ was sub.

I’d have to go back and look at the team sheet. From memory, wasn’t Fritsch injured at that point?

2 hours ago, old dee said:

Jury is out on that one. I just want them to finish down  the ladder, they won’t finish last or second last if we could get pick four through six I would be delighted. Getting the picks we get for Jackson and getting The Bun will have been a great result. Our selection / negotiating team have done a great job again.

Okay, I’d be prepared to get our original pick 3 back for LJ along with last years late first round pick and this years early 2nd round pick as payment for his development…you’re welcome PB

8 minutes ago, binman said:

Spargo will not be at Casey next week

This is a general comment - - and im not having a go at you - but i contiued to be amazed that so many posters don't seem to get how important spargo, and Nibbler for that matter, is to our team and our system, as evidenced by the regular suggestion he is going to be, or should be, dropped.

Which is flat out bizzare, because as is the case with Nibbler such calls never get answered.

I mean, surely the fact there is NO evidence his place as a regular best 22 is under threat would give people pause before suggesting Spargo is in the gun.

Spargs played EVERY game in 2022 and in 2021, a premiership year.

Played every game this year too until injured. 

There is zero chance he is not selected in the ones next week if fit. 

And by the by, he plays diffenbt roleto Chandler so it's not one or the other. 

 

I am definitely no detractor of Spargo, I think he brings a lot to the team. But who in that forward line are you dropping to replace with Spargo and make the team better?

This is going to be a hard time for some people. We are in process of evolving, from very good to great. There are going to be really quite good players who get pushed out and this needs to happen if we are to get to that next level.

Spargo is a very good player, no question, he is smart and clean with the ball. Admittedly, with a smaller body of work, Chandler is next level, he is all that and he also has a higher impact on the scoreboard and the game in general. Unfortunately for Spargo, he’s not competing with JJ for a spot. His exposed form as wing rotation rule him out of that. He’s competing with Chandler and Kozzie.

 Like many of you, I love all our players that played a part in getting us that flag but the harsh reality of elite sport is that you are either improving or you are getting overtaken.

Even at his worst he is a structural lynchpin. His gut running to fill holes in our zone and make position is second only to Langdon. When he is in this mode his finish can be a bit lacking though, missing simple goals and his decision making is too slow allowing opposition to flood our forward line before entry. In this mode I have been known to get quite vocal about giving him some time in the 2s.

 When he is in form, like he was in ‘21 and seems to be this year, he has all the structural importance but moves the ball accurately and decisively and nails goals. He is definitely one of our barometer players. I love watching him play when he is like this.

 He came to the club with little fanfare and has quietly built himself into our team as a key player. Good on him, happy to see his hard work rewarded.

Based on the number of once in a generation players we have heard about recently, I’m guessing that a football generation is about 1 year long.

7 hours ago, Brownie said:

It seems to me that Viney is slowly transforming his game to go forward more and to play a bit more outside as well.

I really see this as the best way to extend Viney’s career. His combative style is what makes him awesome but it must take a toll on his body. He is actually a really reliable set shot as well as bringing incredible heat to any contest, having him rotate into a forward pocket or flank could really work.

I think it is realistic to be looking at a top 10 pick and a low 20's pick for Freo's 1st and 2nd round picks. Packaging that up with our 1st round (hopefully 18th) I think Tim and Jason could do something pretty special. We don't need quantity given where our list is at right now. We would certainly preference a single high quality player over taking all of those picks to the draft. 

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

Oliver has flu like symptoms so he isn’t training with the rest of the team. 

I’ve heard that leather poisoning has very similar symptoms

23 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

They got their cap space is a terrible way which led to backloading and over extending Treloar but the decision to move him and his dodgy hammies on has hardly hurt them.

Same with swallowing some dead cap money to get rid of Grundy and get a proper mature key forward in McStay with the space. That’s a great out come from being in a bad situation.

We’ve signed up a stack of players long term now and there’s every chance at least one of them will be a good candidate for opening up some cap space one day. We’ve even tried it with Tomlinson and Tommy Mc in recent years. 

Seriously, your desire to post negative comments leads you to post some really stupid stuff sometimes. We have the leagues best ruckman coming toward the backend of a long term deal that has been great for him and the club. Possibly the 2 best midfielders in the league tied to us for another 6 years. Gus, the only other long term deal, is probably one of the most under rated utilities in the game and a damn handy inside midfielder when we need it.

 And these are the players you think we should be turning over to improve our list??? Wow, thank god you’re not managing our list!

1 hour ago, JimmyGadson said:

I think the point that I was trying to make is that we're seeing a spike atm due to our success which is no different to any other club going through a phase of success. 

You keep saying this Jimmy, as though you think that the rest of us think that magic pixie dust is providing the additional memberships. Of course our new found success is driving the increase in membership. It seems to me that this is entirely self evident.

On 4/10/2023 at 11:18 AM, Kozzie4PM said:

Did Selwyn say it had a substantial impact?

In the podcast he mentioned that they typically use the bye round to do an additional running load block which helps set up fitness levels for the back half of the year. He mentioned that last year they didn’t have that ability but he didn’t say how heavily it impacted the program.

2 hours ago, A F said:

I love our recruiting, but our absolute elite players aside from Max were top 5 picks in their draft year (Clarry and Trac) or in trade form (Lever and May).

Take Clarry and Trac out of our midfield and we're not a top 8 team.

This is usually how it works and why eventually the fork in the road comes. Do you keep topping up with FAs or do you bottom out and go back for the elite top end talent?

Luckily we don’t need to bottom out, we just need Freo to bottom out for us. I am death riding them with all my heart, I may even buy myself a feathered cap.😁

On 3/30/2023 at 8:31 AM, Billy said:

I still think Jj is a better option than Hunter on a wing but I’m in the minority 

I really like JJ but as a winger, Hunter is in a totally different league. His gut running, positioning and field kicking are all A grade. JJ is potentially more versatile but as a winger, he is a journeyman.

 For mine, we must keep Kozzie and Rivers. I’d like to keep JJ but if he or even hee and Hames were the price of keeping the other two I’d be okay with it.

Has any team ever won the premiership and received the #1 draft pick in the same year?

 Asking for a friend

On 4/6/2023 at 6:06 AM, titan_uranus said:

No it's not.

We've been given two home games against West Coast since Round 2, 2014. There was no requirement in our NT contract that West Coast had to be the side we played in Darwin or Alice Springs, so the AFL had that choice. 

It's utterly ridiculous that we are going to hit 10 years without playing West Coast in Melbourne. 

Also remember that we have drawn West Coast away in every season since 2012, other than 2015 (i.e. in 2019 we had a return game against West Coast in Perth). 

Just to be clear, there is no draw and there is no ‘fairness’. The fixture is entirely engineered to obtain maximum ratings and attendance, constrained only minimally by the ladder position of a team.

We have not historically drawn big crowds, so unfortunately we have no leverage to get games where we want them. If we keep being successful and grow our following we will start to get a better fixture. Until then we will play the cats at GMHBA and west coast at Optus where the stadiums will likely fill. It may seem unfair, but like I say, it is not about fairness, it is about the afl making money.

10 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

Our growth has been solid, but so has pretty much every other club's who have been a contender over a 4-5 year period.

The only way we'll break through that next barrier is by winning multiple flags over this period.

I'd love someone to compare our growth to that of all other contending teams over the last decade. I can't imagine our growth would be the highest.

Over time the AFL attracts more supporters given the population growth and therefor so do all clubs. And there's naturally a bump for a team when they're in a premiership window.

Don't mean to be a debbie downer but I don't think our numbers are as amazing as some suggest. Just the norm for a club who has won a flag and is still in contention.

I think most of us are just happy to be part of a club that is regularly in contention and growing at a healthy rate. I don’t think we are doing better than other clubs with a similar recent history, it is just that we have been irrelevant for so long this feels great and we want to pat ourselves on the back a bit. Surely after what we’ve been through in the last 10-15 years we’ve earned it.

Just watched the replay, am I being overly sensitive or was BT and to a lesser extent, Cameron Ling, actively barracking for the swans? I felt like they were pumping up everything the swans did, and talking us down at every opportunity.