Gawndy the Great

They butchered the forward line. CHarlie Cameron should have got SF and J Cameron on the bench for Lynch.

Barely noticed Sam Taylor this year.

Omg AA umpires. FFS this is getting out of hand.

Exactly what I said. I just don’t think other teams really like us. A million bucks Neale gets MVP.

PLEASE!!

Has had some great form of late. Hopefully it can continue. We all forget his still young and really will be coming to age over the next year or two. Consistency is what challenges the best of young players , so I think we will start to see it improve. In the years to come, I think you can also look to play him similar to Bolton once he builds an engine and puts on a bit more size - I think Kozzy has had a better staRt to his career. Rolling him through the midfield with his great foot skills and raw speed and agility will make him a nightmare matchup.

No Maynard? I think he’s had a very very good year.

The bye weekend will essentially reset all teams from the perspective of game to game turnaround times etc. so we should get a first peak at the overall / top-line fitness for all teams playing finals footy.

The backline will be interesting There isnt much competition for the true FB, CHB. Its between May, Weitering & Stewart probably ends up taking one of the pockets and i think Maynard gets the other pocket. I think Gus will be close to securing one of the HB roles, given his defensive form and recent time in the midfield, which ticks both boxes. Trac and Oliver are 100% locks. Gawn will be likely (pairing up with Witts for the ruck combo). Having 5 players in the team will be a tough ask, given Geelong are unlikely to have that many.

Its the whole 'resistant to change' or 'if aint broke dont fix it' mentality. Ultimately i think we are heading for shorter games (15 min quarters) in order for a higher number of H&A rounds.

His main issue is consistency. There were a few games prior to his outstanding game against Port, where he was hardly involved. But he is still very young and i think if he continues to improve and have an impact on games he will have few AA jackets by the end of his career.

Two HF will be midfielders (Trac one of em). You'll then have Hawkins, Curnow, Mackay, Cameron and Lynch all fighting for CHF & FF. One of the forward pockets will be a small forward which will be one of Stengle, Bolton, Papley and Cameron (probably C. Cameron) . The 6th forward position could be anything. Fritta has to be ahead on the small forwards, but my feel is that they'll give it to Jeremy Cameron as the 3rd tall and go Curnow, Lynch for 1 & 2 and Hawkins on the bench.

6 Dees named. Angus Brayshaw Never previously All-Australian. Bayley Fritsch Never previously All-Australian. Max Gawn 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 All-Australian. Steven May 2021 All-Australian. Clayton Oliver 2018 and 2021 All-Australian. Christian Petracca 2020 and 2021 All-Australian.

You'd hope not, but they have a serviceable list, so with a good system and coaching they could challenge for top 8 next year. I suspect that they would try to lure Ross Lyon or Leon Cameron as Bucks has emphatically said he would not coach them. Has worked with Sheeds in the past. I suspect Sheeds will get one a more permanent coaching presence, similar to Choco's role for us. Dont know what it means for the rest of the coaching staff though.

anyone got an idea for prices?

Looks like Yze staying. Adam Kingsley gets the job with GWS.

Not against the alternative pooling, but the reformed finals structure will immediately get you offside with a lot of the footy public. They love the finals fixturing.

We shouldn't rely on luck. I have said before, the fix is rather straight forward. I dont take credit for it as im sure others in the industry have proposed something similar. 1. Every team plays each other once. location is based on a rotating YoY basis i.e. home one year, away the next. 2. Rds 18-23 are floating in both time but also team and location. At the end of Rd 17, the next 5 rounds are divided into top 6, middle 6 and bottom 6. 3. middle 6 can only playoff for spots 7 and 8 to avoid them leapfrogging teams in the bottom of the top 6 based on an easier draw. 4. the location is flipped based on where the game was played in Rd 1-17. 5. Points accrued in Rd 1-17 are kept intact to ensure any advantage obtained in Rd 1-17 is kept. The only issue with this are the dead rubbers for teams in 13-18 spots on the ladder. There is nothing to play for, so the commercial appeal of these will be low. Im sure the AFL could do something to provide some incentive here. It cant be draft concessions as that will go against equalization but im sure the DL collective could find some creative solutions here. The other parameter is the number of 5 day, 6 day breaks, 7 day breaks. It should be as equal as possible across the season or averaged over multiple seasons if it is not possible over one.

This would be unreal!

With the information presented like this it really does put things into perspective. Would love Champion data to do some kind of weighted ladder taking into consideration the fixture degree of difficulty. Not sure how you would go about it, but i think it will show a very different top 4. Richmond probably miss top 8 and Carlton/Saints probably get in.

Choco being linked heavily to the Bumbers. I have mixed feelings at that appointment because i really like Choco as he has had IMO a bigger impact that Yze on the group. Now we are potentially going to lose both of them, which could be a disaster as you then have to back-fill. But at the same time, you dont stand in the way of senior coaching appointments. Who do you get in to fill the void?

This had occurred to me as well. We clearly did not 'close-out' the game to the satisfaction of supporters. They would have known that percentage is important and to secure 2nd spot, a 70+ margin would have all but done that. But we gave up 2 really soft goals (1 contentious umpiring decision) and played more conservatively, which admittedly is our game style. Is it self-preservation and avoidance of any injuries or did we legitimately run out of gas (again). Our 1st half was potent and the damage was done, but watching Geelong & Richmond, they didn't take the foot off the gas (acknowledge the opposition in both cases was poor) - they were clinical until the end. With the likes of Collingwood in finals, i would have liked to see our commitment to attack and score all the way to the end and never let the opposition back in the game. Beggers cant be choosers though and im ecstatic that we are #2 and will have a good crack at the flag again. Lets hope our form is genuine (Pies, Blues and Lions) were all great performances so im thinking it is right where it needs to be.

Do the AFLPA weald the power to sanction another player? i wasn't aware that they (potentially) had this authority.

There has to be some balance to the reporting of this. The mental wellbeing of players and sledging is a very controversial topic. I think the reporting has to be presented in a more abstract way rather that the specifics of the Petty incident. We cannot sweep it under the carpet because there is behavior outside of what Zorko has said, which is still not acceptable and this specific incident is shining a spotlight on it.

Kids b&f on The Friday night. Spewing.