Gawndy the Great

How many years was he injured for? He still has huge upside as well. And to think we took Weid ahead of him.

Geelong look dog hungry this year. But will be interesting to see how they perform under pressure. Blues so far can’t touch the ball.

We need a top 5 pick for LJ and and given his potential another late first round or early 2nd. The points worth is not an appropriate conparison as we would most likely use the first pick to chase the best KPF available and they go early. The 2nd pick would probably look at a ruck or KPD. As much as I’d hate to lose Brayshaw, and I don’t think he’d leave, he is in fact excess to our needs. We can cover for him at HB and on the defensive wing and in the midfield. He would also demand a 1st round pick (mid to late). Having 2-3 1st round picks would be phenomenally good for us and allow us to restock our lists with quality players and be relevant and playing finals for the next decade.

A lot can change in 2 years. I would think the club would be confident to extend even further at that point.

Im ok with that. I’d give ‘em everything we get for LJ and Weid.

Need to target Max King when out of contract. His talent being wasted there.

Just pathetic umpiring

Just as the sun rises from the east , Doggies get the benefit of umpiring.

yep i think you are right. i did recall that little trend was broken.... i can tell the witch doctor that they are no longer required.

is that unbeaten run of assistant coaches stepping in (due to COVID) still a thing?

Had an interesting chat with a former AFL great / media figure last night and he doesn't buy into the training load theory much. His view was that it was more hunger and it wasn't easy to go back-to-back without that. Thinks the cats have it, but he's not sure they will last in the finals. Still thinks if we can find our best, that we are lock.

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.