Gawndy the Great

There is no way they will agree to the trade capital that we would request.

I think there maybe a small exodus from Norf and GWS.

If Petty has COVID, we should expect more cases between now and game day. You can only laugh at the timing.

I suppose it would depend on whether they would choose to settle in Melbourne if he retired anyway. He earnt enough, shouldn’t be about $$$ anymore. To live your childhood dream - not many footy players would get the chance and to do that whilst in the premiership window!

If it was $500k to the Dees wouldn’t even batter an eye but if the ask is 7-8 hungy , then it’s a no for someone who is 36. I wonder if we pickup the phone and say why don’t you come to your home club and help em win a flag. That has to knock 50-100k off the asking price doesn’t it?

I was waiting for someone to post this. If I’m an AFL player I tackle him at the knees. If he pops a knee, then tough luck. You can mount an argument that we were trying to counteract the drop.

Weid will be successful at a club who has more aggressive ball movement and he can lead into space and mark. The MFC game plan does not suit him as he just can’t take a contested mark often enough.

Do we try J Smith in the forward line?

Not against that at the right price. It would be hard to get him to relocate for just 1 year, which is fair game.

You have very high standards Mel. You are counting his attack on Lever as a chance? Please - any player that leaves a team 'in the window' has that coming. Just like LJ is about to leave us (supposedly). I'm sure you are not too happy about the prospect of him leaving, as would those within the playing group. Fact of the matter is, we don't have great depth in the forward line. BBB is looking closer to his end that we first anticipated - max 1 or 2 seasons left; TMac is touch and go as to whether he will be able to completely recover from his injury and Weid is not the prodigal son we all hoped he would be. We are in the window now and probably only for another 3-4 years and trying to develop someone from the draft will take longer (King's are still developing). We need ready made, contested marking type KPF and we need them immediately. Unfortunately for us, there are not many and those < 30 yo will come at a very hefty price (if they are even willing). My view is we make a play for Tex on a 1 year contract with heavily performance incentivized contract and then look to persuade one of the existing KPF in the comp for 2024. There are a few coming out of contract then.

I thought about this and figured as others have said. Its a no. He is playing well below his best. Hunger is not there - or its something else. Isnt he South Australian? flight risk IMO.

Jacko is only valuable as a 4th defender in the middle when he plays as a ruck. On a pure midfield basis, he is not in the top 5 in our club, so I wouldn't even bother. Harmes and Brayshaw and possibly even Sparrow and JJ would probably understand the position better.

Yeah i got that. But the sentiment i referred to was the 'everything will be allright - our boys will come good', im 50/50 on this. Most footy supporters with a 2-4 record in the past 6 weeks (1-4 against top 8 teams) would be writing their team off. In the 6 weeks, we have done nothing to show that we can shake off opposition teams tactics to undermine us at stoppage and to stop our defensive half transition and general ball movement (The Lions are off in form, and were not cherry ripe when they played us 2 weeks ago). This is not 'form' but gameplan and matchday tactics and simply not having any answers to opposition coaching. Also doesn't help when our pressure is off, but first and foremost we have to fix our ball movement.

This seems to be the sentiment here on DL bar a few doom and gloomers. Whilst I'm not adopting a completely pessimistic view, there is a stark contrast with how we are playing now vs last year with or without loading as a factor. Our pressure is way off, our defensive game plan is being beaten by elite sides as a result of our lack of pressure and our forward connection issues have crept back in. A tell-tale sign of when are going to get beaten is when we are slow to transition out of our defence. This seems to be our vulnerability and teams squeeze us onto the wings and outnumber us aerially at contest and rebound easily and gain forward territory. One can hope (foolishly) that we have a plan b or c tucked away for finals, but i fear not. We have some reasonably good kickers in Salem and May, but we just appear to stand still and are opt to kick it short to the boundary then long onto the wing, hoping for a stoppage.

This is a great, great call. 0 % chance of Goodwin doing this though. It is such an obvious move, but i bet it'll be Harmes or Dunstan to cover if Oliver goes out.

The next 2 games are very important and I fear we may drop one or both of them. Port hanging on to finals hope and Dogs will want some redemption for last years GF. Both will come out firing and are not walk overs by any stretch.

He made a mistake and does deserve a second chance. If you could get Larkey or King or any other established KPF, then we wouldn’t be looking at Taylor.

There are so many ways to transition why can’t we have 4-5 options that we practise and use to keep the defence guessing? set plays for example. Love big Maxy but you can see he’s starting to lose his impact here and BBB and LJ are not very good at it.

At what point do we want to start our run? Both Pies and and Cats look to have started there’s a little early. Freo have looked a little shakeup it but like us last year, just win ugly. Need to beat Port and Doggies for staters and then go 3-1 or better against Carlton , Freo, Filth and then the Lions. MFCSS is telling me (and I’m doing my best not to listen) that we will go 3-3 or worse. 5-1 will secure top 2 IMHO

I think he plays as the third tall. Have BBB and Gawn /LJ as 1 and 2 and use JVR as the roaming forward in place of Bedford. The smaller forward line exp has failed. Relying on Weid as depth was also a colossal overestimation. Cannot allow that to continue.

This was the case with Cerra last year. Freo can eat [censored] if they can’t deal. We are not giving away a pick 3 (who is once in a generation supposedly) for two end of first round picks. It’s one of Serong or Brayshaw + 2021 first rounder for Jackson.

Did we ever learn why he turned down Basketball in favour of AFL? Perhaps living away from home really is a factor?

I can’t stand Selwood but anyone who thinks this is deliberate is clearly delusional. It was a footy act. Stupid and careless yes, and the free was paid. If we play them again, then we will remember.

That’s only for head knocks I believe.

You see i had this belief too once. But, if you don't use it in H&A matches, how are are you expect to make it fit for purpose in the finals, where it has to be instinctive. We play a defensive game with ball in hand. Its designed that way to minimize scores from turnover. But it requires slow ball movement and basically zero risk taking. Its easy to defend against if we are moving it from the backline. At the end of the day I dont think you can play one brand in H&A and another in Finals. The only things that you can change are small things like tags and match-ups.