Dee Boys

The sort of damaging athletic utility the Hawks have 6 or 7 of and quickly becoming the modern prototype.

That's promising to hear.

Read the article mate. It's all in there.

If you’re small and slow you’ve got to have some unbelievable strengths to make it as an AFL footballer. Not sure I’ve seen much evidence of these whenever I’ve watched Bailey at AFL or VFL level or at training. Would love to be proved wrong and a fresh start and clean slate under King might help.

I’m sorry but this is garbage. Absolute garbage. Twomey’s at multiple underage games every weekend and is one of the hardest working journalists in the industry. He’s got great contacts but also does the work himself, and would know ten times as much about the draft pool every year than any of the self proclaimed experts on here.

Right, well you’ve shifted the goalposts then. The entire time I’ve been discussing the perceived “culture” of the club, which is largely the off field behaviours and standards of the playing group. Which is Max and the other leaders’ domain, not the board or CEO.

But what the players get up to on days and nights off away from the club is not “the day to day running of the club!” It’s wild to me that you or anyone could think that a board should be able to control the lives of 40 odd young men that they have no day to day dealings with. You say “change has now happened”, do you think Paul Guerra and Brad Green replacing Roffey and Pert has made a single iota of difference to the players social habits?

You can dispute it all you want but it’s not rubbish, it’s a fact. What on earth do you want the board to do about the off field habits of the playing group? Chaperone them on their nights out? Address the playing group and tell them to pull their heads in? You reckon they’re going to listen to a couple of middle aged men and women in suits telling them to lay off the legal and illegal substances? They’d be laughed out of the room. Or you want the board to sack Max as captain? Geez that’d go down well. There’d be absolute uproar. It’s the height of naivety to suggest what players do on their nights out is a board issue. It’s just completely unrealistic. If you’re a young player at a footy club, who do you reckon you’re looking at for inspiration and leadership? Your captain or a board member?

I love Max as much as the next man. Criticising him feels like shooting Bambi. But there’s absolutely zero doubt that the most important person for the “culture” of the football club is the captain. People are so quick to blame Roffey, Pert and Goodwin for the downfall of the club the last few years. But the President has very little to do with the players. Ditto the CEO. The coach isn’t (often) with players in their social time. When people criticise the “culture” of the club, it’s not the culture of the front and back office team they’re talking about, it’s the culture of the playing group. Max is a terrific trainer and a great clubman but off the field he’s also a lad. I won’t go into any further details other than saying he likes a good time. And not just when he’s with his fellow elder statesmen. The culture of the club, and it has been under the duration of Max’s watch, is that they train hard but also that they “play hard” and that’s indoctrinated into the young players when they join. He’s taken us to the promised land but I wonder how we’d have fared under a Selwood or Jack Steele solid citizen type skipper. We’ll never know. But people blaming the board and the administration team are naive. The buck stops with Max.

His decision making under pressure is poor/panicked and he had the worst missed tackle percentage this season of any footballer in the competition to have played a senior game. He’ll do a job in the midfield but he’s nowhere near the level of those aforementioned.

I think he’s much better at half back.

Look at other mids his age - Rowell, Anderson, Young, Serong, Green, Day etc. There's no way Rivers is anywhere near their tier. He's got too many deficiencies but will be a nice B grader.

Lindsay sounds like a clone of his namesake?

Heart says no, head says no.

True, but the supporters didn't. The patience and love he received from us went above and beyond and should be acknowledged, but I won't hold my breath.

He's a twig mate. We've also got a huge amount of tall depth now. No chance we see him in his first two years.

Have heard a couple of people saying this about Salem and I wonder whether they're watching different games to me. Had a really solid season and deservedly finished 5th in the BnF.

It was pretty perfunctory but at least he did one. Wouldn't surprise me if Clarry didn't. Which would be a huge slap in the face after all the love and support he received over the years from the club and supporters.

Agree. We've got huge KPD depth now. If our first choice lineup is Petty/Turner/Lever then we've got May/TMac/Adams in the 2's. Reckon he'll start as a forward with pinch its in the ruck seeing as Heath/Campbell will take the majority of the ruck minutes. He's a long term project and I'd be amazed if we saw him in the seniors before 2029.

You get the sense we'd only be interested in taking two guys in this draft plus White and Sinnema. So maybe we'd be getting their future 1st back (which wouldnt be too different to those mid 20's picks this year that they need for the academy picks)?

Just goes to show that the Oliver trade is entirely linked to off field stuff. Because on-field, he's a much, much, much better option than Jack Steele.

They finish top 4 next year, as they should with their list, and it's a pick in the 20's. Even in a shallow draft you're taking 11 or 12 over one in the 20's every day of the week.

Because Gold Coast's first rounder next year will be around pick 15-20.

Damian Barrett’s said he expects the Petracca trade to go through today, for picks 7&8 with a pick in the 20’s going back.

7 & 8 are no good to them come draft night as they'd just get swallowed up by their academy players.