Gawndy the Great

That’s good to know. I’m about 20 mins away. I was always going to avoid Linton st. Any tips?

If its a contract value thing and he wants to stay- then we'd be hearing, "We are close, just trying to work out a few things" OR something along those lines of "I'm confident we'll sort something out soon" Anything else tends to indicate that he is undecided on future club or has already got a verbal commitment with another. Think about how May, Trac, Gawn, Oliver got done in the last couple of years. If we go into the season proper without his signature we are starting at less than 50/50 odds of securing his services. If we get to Round 10, I'd say its less than 10%. None of the 4 clubs in WA/SA are really primed to offer us any worthwhile compensation in the form of picks - West Coast and Adelaide will both finish better than bottom 5. Port's 1st pick is connected to Collingwood's 2nd rounder, which puts it in the 30s and Freo's first pick is firmly placed at #20. Kozzy demands a top 5 pick + change based on the 40+ goals he has kicked and his age. He much more proven than LJ was and most clubs know this. Player swaps and future picks will not cut it - we dont really need any upgrades anywhere on the field as we are already stacked for talent and the clubs above wont really offer up their a-grade talent unless they really want to come home to Victoria. Who would we take from these 4 clubs anyway? Port: Butters - maybe but they'd be crazy to let him go?; Georgiades - not required anymore. WC: nobody Adelaide: nobody Freo: H.Young or Serong + Pick 20 + 2024 F1 (out of getting jibbed on LJ)

i presume this is about improving core stability and strength.

Injuries are both underplayed and overplayed. On one hand every team has injuries unspoken or otherwise but on the other many industry say that a healthy list is one of the most important components of having a decent chance to win the flag. What we don’t know is how many of these players play A regular season game? Trac is probably the only that clearly misses. Funny thing is that in 2020 May plays the GF with 4-5 week hammy.

Ill be there!

Its a good question. In my view there are two reasons: 1. Most are innately addictive and so relying on a persons ability to 'control' their usage is often a very difficult proposition. Once the addiction starts its often a downward spiral - increasing costs (meaning taxes) on society to manage rehab and health system; not to mention the 'costs' to family and friends. 2. There is also an increased risk to the safety of citizens: directly - through drug induced violence; and indirectly - through diminished capacity to act rationally whilst in a drug induced state. Alcohol and sugar are both an interesting use case. Both are examples of drugs that have profound social, health and financial impacts on society and yet are legal, but we are probably straying a bit too far off course to continue that debate.

Love the preamble... it so hard to get stuck into you when you are being respectful and diffusive :) not that i had any intent to btw. I don't see decriminalizing as a binary solution (i.e. legal vs illegal) - where there is a therapeutic benefit (i.e. marijuana for chronic pain, LSD or MDMA for PTSD treatment) it should absolutely made available. However i draw the line on recreational use. As for evidence, i think the lack of cities/states globally implementing decriminalization of hard drugs is proof enough. Yes there are still a handful, but there are not enough to get a statistically significant sample to support a conclusion either way, so we just have to rely on good old common sense.

I should have said 6-7 light towers :) but i think most got the point. i reckon it might be 3 quarters of afl side and 3 quarters of vfl side. probably without time-on now. I remember Burgess saying training in the heat was good a stressor on the team - obviously need to be careful we dont red-line and get heat stroke.

You remove the full weight of the law, then the drugs become much more accessible and cheaper with no legal implications for usage. There is no doubt in my mind that this will ultimately increase drug usage cross the entire population. Whether that translates to serious crime - i cannot say - but increased usage is just about a guarantee.

Was there today for my sons pre season training (u11s). The ground is very lush! Has 6-7 lights but it won’t be very bright. Doubt the game will go ahead as planned with that forecast.

Last year was a combination of factors. Clearly losing TMac and having BBB play on one leg really weakened us structurally forward. LJ and Weed were just not up to filling in the forward line. This coupled with a gameplan that became outdated and the lack of rotating players on gameday contributed to fatigue. We are better positioned this year with the game plan as many on here have witnessed and from what i have heard on the radio. Cant do much about injuries, but fatigue management throughout the year is a must - even if it costs us 1-2 games. However, with good planning (and some fixture luck) you know which opposition teams are bottom 4-6 and the games for which we could look to to rest players.

It’s a retail chain selling PPE apparel and equipment to cater for tradies.

What would a timeline even achieve? The only scenario which we'd be able to do something is if we it appear that we would finish outside of top 8. At this point you would stop playing him with the intent to develop others. We all know the likelihood of that is quite small.

Good signs from the picture available: 1. Clarry no strapping and yellow vests suggesting good to go 2. Trac training despite the Ch7 news report suggesting his leg may need amputation (slight exaggeration) 3. Gawny in full flight.

Not a chance for AFL. He was barely 22 in our side in 2021 and has been out of the system since and is 30. Don’t hold grudges but facts say it is near impossible.

Reeks of desperation. Build a multi-storey building admin with gym facilities at AAMI car Park E/F or do something at Melbourne Park.

I like players like Taj. Will leave no stone unturned and will get the absolute best out of himself. I have no doubt he’ll improve even more this year and expect him to play a couple of games in the 1s.

He is worth more than LJ and after paying overs for LJ, I just can’t see Freo doing the same thing for Kozzy - particularly when they have other youngsters who’ll be demanding some of that pie. Power have nothing to trade with as a future first ain’t going to do it. Would he go to WC or Adelaide? Hopefully just posturing and he’ll sign before season starts.

I remember watching Shai Bolton explode onto the scene a few years ago. It’s a similar progression between these two - starting small forward, good game then quiet game. Bolton has really only come on in the last year or two since he has moved into the midfield a bit more. Kozzy still has upside and I think will ultimately go beyond Bolton IMV. Once he is able to get even more consistent, I can see him sneaking into top 20-30 players in the league

He is Dom Tyson V2.

Prediction: Preseason intensity will be the 2023 version of the loading thread.

Need all three involved in our rebound 50 game. Not only hitting targets but making quick decisions and cutting up teams with quick delivery i50 and isolating our forwards If we use the boundary like we did this year it will be a long year. We will inevitably turn it over but we need to take more risks.

The success of Gawndy will depend upon to a large extent on two factors: 1. How much we can use our ruck contests to advantage. We can win tap-outs but will these translate to centre clearances. History says not so much. 2. How effective we can use the secondary ruck. To me this is the big one. Whether it is setting up behind play or having an extra presence down forward. Whether its an defensive increase in intercepts or goals kicked. Anything > +1 goal differential will be success. Then there is the flip side of how teams plan around Gawndy and what they will try to do to take advantage of an extra big fella on the filed / in rotation.

It’s not rocket science right. Keep ‘em guessing. The moment we see the oppo setup for one side we kick to the other.

Adelaide already got Rankine, so doubt they’d load up on another high value small forward.