Swooper1987

Barry Prendergast. He drafted guys who were rated at the time. The development was horrendous. And a few had injuries like Blease who badly broke his leg before he started and Strauss who took a little while and just as he was beginning to look like the standard he busted his leg too. And then there were a few big misses. A very forgettable time.

Only two teams beat both Grand Finalists this year - Hawthorn and us. We were incredibly close. We aren't losing anything other than depth and we should be a better side with the natural improvement of our younger players. I think top 4 again.

Go Royboys! I attended Fitzroy's last finals series as a 16 year old back in 1986. Fond memories of that finals run and Gary Pert was an excellent player for the "real" Lions (and a pretty average one for Collingwood). I always had a soft spot for the Fitzroy Lions. Whilst they are a completely different organisation now, they are playing Collingwood - a club which masquerades as representing the underdog with it's now long passed working class roots. Just another corporate entity which actually tried to cannibalise the Lions by offering to merge with them by putting a Lion on their shorts. A disgraceful organisation who have been involved in some way in nearly every race related controversy since the 1980's in the VFL and now AFL. The highlight of my season would be to see them record their 29th runners up placing.

Our list profile is strong. We have good young key position players - Petty will be 24 at the start of next season, JVR doesn't turn 21 until mid April, Jefferson will turn 20 in March. Other than Viney, all of our top midfielders will be 28 or younger at the start of next season and still in the absolute sweet spot. May played out the season well and I remember Brian Lake moved to Hawthorn at the age that May is now and was a key player in three flags! Gawn will continue as the dominant ruck for at least a couple more years. He doesn't turn 32 until the very end of this year and will be our oldest player (assuming Melksham doesn't come back). Young players who should continue to improve include McVee, JVR, Sparrow, Bowey, Rivers, Pickett. If the players are hungry enough, there is more than enough talent to have us competing again next year and the years beyond.

I notice Williamson (number 22) was dropped to emergency after his efforts last week. That will be helpful for Brisbane because he only seems to see it Carlton's way. On last night, massive kudos to the Giants. They are a hell of a team. An unrivalled travel schedule in a competition so tight. 6 day break leading into a prelim and coming from 3 wins and 7 losses says a lot about their talent and their character. Collingwood - well they are most definitely beatable. They won't have the advantage of the 19th man with the ridiculously lopsided crowd in the GF. Go the Lions. Fagan is an ex Demon who helped get us into the 2000 GF. Hopefully it's his time.

Been an assistant to Longmire for a couple of years. was considered a chance for the Collingwood job before McRae. More likely for the CEO job at West Coast to replace Trevor Nisbett.

5 - Scwarz and Petracca

Max has been one knee injury from disaster his whole career. His last big knee was over 10 years ago. Since then he pulled the hammy off the bone in 2017 and had a couple of PCL's which he has recovered from in world record time. The guy has been incredibly durable for the position he plays. He's the fittest big man in the league and at 32 probably still has two really good years left and then a transitioning out year or two. Grundy has been a pretty average player since 2019, when he was really challenging Max as the best in the game. Hasn't achieved anything of note from 2020 onwards. He sustained a reasonably significant knee injury in 2022 and then came back to suffer a foot injury. We recruited him hoping that he might get back to what he was 5 years ago. He's not going to be back to where he was. He can't defend, can't really take a contested mark, can't play forward. He can run and he is good below his knees for a big guy. That's about it. I'd take my chances with Max holding up for a bit longer.

I guess it might be now but back when we recruited Brown it took the 4 year deal to get it over the line. We won the flag so in my eyes will always be worth it. He's a good guy too, who is doing some great things with the AFLW program. Unlikely he'll play any senior footy again but I'm sure will lob onto the long term injury list at some point and enable us to pick up another player.

Excellent appointment by the Tigers. Wish him nothing but the best. A great servant of the Demons.

We won some of them - we also lost to Freo by 7, Carlton by 4, GWS by 2, Port by 4 and then the two finals by a combined 9. We beat Collingwood by 4, Gold Coast by 5, Adelaide by 4 (getting run down) and Brisbane by 1 (running over the top). So that's 6 losses and 4 wins in games decided by 7 points or less. If that doesn't indicate some level of above the shoulders fragility I don't know what does. Especially given that we had we had more shots in both finals, against Carlton in round 22 (16-14), against Freo (22-19), and against the Giants (20-12). Goal kicking is partly where you take them from and partly composure and execution and that last part is in the mind more than the body.

Van Rooyen plays in a way that is going to draw the attention of the MRO and tbh I don't mind that. The incident in the QF was silly but his attack on the man and ball has been hard and mostly fair in his first season. Our perceived softness is mental rather physical. And that perception will only change when we start winning the close ones regularly.

I guess it'll show what they are made of. Sheedy did something similar after the 1983 GF and the Bombers won the next two. That was after three years of finals failure. It was also 40 years ago. Times change but I think there is still a place for a good rocket. At the end of the day though, if the players aren't already feeling bad enough about a missed opportunity, and their individual and collective parts in that failure, then they aren't the right players anyway. I expect most will respond in the right way. Appreciate your insight WCW. Thanks for sharing.

It's a shame Jordan Lewis is so entrenched in the media. He'd be an excellent coach.

Interesting stat provided by the On the Couch team. We have three of the seven worst kicks in the comp and 4 of the worst 60. Qualification is 200 kicks. Gawn is number 1, Viney number 3 and Oliver number 7. Petracca rounds it out at number 60. I think it was largely borne out on Friday. Gawn and Viney simply must handball more. The other two desperately need to improve their foot skills and decision making.

Good news. His presence makes Lever better.

We have two-thirds of the game completely mastered. Contest and Defence have been proven to be the basis of nearly all great sides. We need better connection between our mids and forwards. Oliver and Viney do many things well but they both lack finesse by foot. Tracc must be 70-30 forward. His disposal efficiency by foot is not great either. I don't have a lot of faith that Petty can play a full season but he is without doubt our great hope. JVR will be a very good player. he has a natural aggression about him that means he's always going to be on the edge, but he hits packs hard, rarely gets outmarked and is a lovely shot on goal. We need to look after him. If he can become a 6 mark a game player he'll kick three goals most weeks. That'll make a difference.

I think Rohan Connolly is an outstanding footy journo. He provides a sense of real balance in his latest piece for ESPN. https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/38395193/afl-finals-rohan-connolly-where-next-melbourne-demons-port-adelaide-power-straight-sets

Tomlinson proved his worth once again. He's no May or Lever but he plays such an important role and that will only be magnified if Petty becomes the forward we hope he will be. Of all of the players spoken about moving on he is the one we need to keep.

Very sorry to hear about your circumstances and horrified and disgusted by what you went through. I work with young people everyday and have for many years and sadly your story is not unique. Good on you for having the courage to share your story and by doing so helping others.

Go the orange. Love the way they play. Jesse was always a personal favourite and pleased to see Bedford playing so well now he's getting regular opportunity. Hope they can go all the way.

A true legend. Perhaps the greatest figure in the games history.

Or if Pickett doesn't lose his mind in the first quarter, or Tracc doesn't keep kicking it to Weitering etc etc

A lost opportunity not a wasted season. Our best was as good as whoever wins this years flag. If you look at who's left we've beaten Carlton, Brisbane and Collingwood and lost by less than a goal to GWS and Port. Unfortunately we couldn't beat Collingwood and Carlton when it really counted. Despite our flaws, and we have a couple of big ones, we are practically the equal of anyone left. Goodwin is aware of our list limitations hence his gameplan. We lack midfield polish (often a price you pay for a reliance on contest) and our issues forward are there for everyone to see. That will take time to remedy - recruiting and skills coaching and perhaps an adjustment to the game plan. Teams below us are coming - sides like Adelaide. We will have some significant list changes which should readjust our age and experience profile. I'd not be surprised to see us move back a little next year to relaunch. I'd also not be surprised to see an on-field leadership change. Not advocating one but I believe Max has flagged he's not got long left as skipper. Time for renewal all round.

Another outstanding game from the best full back in the league. Led our defence superbly. Certainly not the fault of the defenders that we are now in the off-season.