Gawndy the Great

Seriously poor umpiring.

Also defensive ground ball is clearly our kryptonite

Pretty insipid training run I must say. I get we have no back half but I’d expect some pressure around the ball at least.

It is inevitable that we will lose someone from the current 22 unless they start accepting unders. For Brayshaw, he is already get highly overpaid for his role/position so at best he’ll get 80-90% of his current contract. Realistically, to keep LJ and keep something aside for Oliver next renewal, he’s going to need to goto 60-70% circa 450K pa. Others approaching renewal will need to do the same.

Watched the highlights of Cats and Tigers. Geez the Tigers looked like they took a step back in time. Cats have seriously adjusted their game plan too but not sure it will be enough. Both look the goods for 2022. I get it’s only praccy matches but I think On that performance they are both a top 8 side.

Watching the replay and saw a 2 sec cameo of Salem walking off the ground after the incident. He only took a few steps but look unhindered and and was unassisted.

Picking up where we left off. Geez we are cool and composed in the forward line.

I'm a bit worried about Gus's future in media management. That first episode was painful to sit through albeit for the 5 minutes of humour and silliness injected by Gawny. I get the need to have a laugh and not take the whole show too seriously but surely they spend a bit of time talking about preparation, pre-season or what ever has been happening from a footy perspective - dont need to dedicate the full show, just 5-10 minutes will surely quench the thirst of diehard footy supporters (i.e DL) who want a detailed account of how every player faired in every training drill conducted (joke). Maybe this is a deliberate attempt to not place too much expectation on the team or that its only pre-season etc, but we have all heard that there are a number of players running PB's, looking sharp on the track etc. In all fairness Gus did mention Oliver is nigh impossible to tackle, which is exactly the stuff we are after. My highlight was how happy Gawn was with himself in the justification of (hypothetically) playing the GF over attending his son's birth - quote was something along the lines of it has taken him 13 years of trying, commitment and persistence to win his first GF, whereas it only took 3 mins to make his son.

Win the 2022 GF and he'll stay to be part of history - this is the only scenario where you have a somewhat predictable outcome. Anything else is anyone's guess.

I just realised that only 4 weeks until Round 1. My family unfortunately contracted COVID last week whilst on holiday in NSW and I’m the last one in isolation finishing today. Wasn’t pleasant for us but wasn’t too bad either. The bummer was that our holiday was completely ruined and the weeks we spent being careful and doing the right things were undone in probably a brief moment of letting down our guard. The silver lining for us is that the next 4-6 weeks at least will give us immunity to the Omicron strain and hence peace of mind for a few weeks at the footy for my son and I.

I reckon they will look to exploit this injury big time. Schache, JUH, Naughton and probably a ruck rotating through. Obviously all depends on there form, but the point is that the dogs can definitely go tall, so if Tommo isn’t ready we gonna have to look at J Smith. Still plenty of water to flow under the bridge.

Yep their data analysis is still pretty rudimentary. It needs more sophisticated modelling which does more than just capture a raw stat such as a kick or mark. Things like time in game, pressure rating at that point, who was leading, etc etc all add context and value to the raw stat. The other thing is there are really no penalty stats other than frees against. Which makes the statistical analysis more attack bias. This is why Williams and Saad can be categorised as elite defenders because they rebound well. But if you could factor in stats that measure scores against those individuals and deduct that from their overall value, you will quickly realise what everyone in the industry knows - they are not elite defenders. There also has to be a factor of secondary and tertiary positions so the versatile players like Gawn can be measured appropriately given he probably spend 30-40% of the season not playing in his preferred position. End of the day I don’t think you can place much value in individual stats like they do in American Sports. Team stats on the other hand are essential.

I’m just a social member now following a lot of back injuries in the past 2 years but sounds like a plan when I’m healthy again.

Small world!

It will be interesting to see how the players respond to a possible hub situation for the 3rd year straight. It may just show how determined sides are. Those contending for a flag maybe willing to go the extra mile and hub to ensure that the best 22 are on the park every week. Where as those rebuilding or middle table, may have a different attitude all together and hence be more susceptible to having large chunks of the team missing. It does appear that most athletes are generally back on their feet within a week of contracting the virus. Not so dissimilar to other viruses contracted during the season. Given the lax environment right now, where negative RAT tests gives a healthcare worker the all clear to return to work, I cannot see how the AFL will not give similar guidelines to the players when an outbreak within a team occurs.

I don’t think it’s about competitiveness tbh, he wouldn’t make it this far if it was lacking. It’s probably a combination of factors that are just a bit off. Footy smarts ie body positioning, when to lead and when not to, where to lead and where not to, reading the play, adjusting personal game plan to create opportunity for other forwards . I’ve also said in the past that it was a bit of mongrel and grit too but that’s hard to judge from afar. I personally don’t have much expectation of Weeds - not everyone that should make it does and we just have to accept that. With the many other options we have i think the expectation of having him in the starting 22 will be put to bed (if it hasn’t been already). If he matures and has a break out year then great for us and great for him, but we should look to developing Van Rooyan as our future CHF, FF ahead of Weeds from this point forward.

Did Viney just hit a target inside forward 50 against our AA, premiership defence? Surely this video has been doctored :)

I like LJ I really do. The kid has not put 50 games together and we are already getting our knickers in a knot. He is learning his craft with an all time 5X AA ruckman. He ain’t going anywhere in the next few years. After that and a few more premierships I’ll happily exchange him for 2 top 10 draft picks that Meth coke will offer us ala Tim Kelly style. And we can rebuild once more. We will have Mac Andrew’s and Jeff whites Xbox by then anyway 😂😂to cover our ruck stocks.

Would be better if we could have something like Unforced Clangers vs Forced Clangers. Probably extends to disposal efficiency as well. You just cannot infer anything useful from some of these stats as the 'pressure' element isn't factored in. Having said that, both Trac and Clayton do their best work in close to the contest and are primed for quick release football so i'd hazard a guess that a high percentage of their total clangers is probably 'unforced'. Still, they are known to butcher an 'unpressured' ball every now and then so there definitely is an element of their game that they can improve.

I am torn on this. From a COVID perspective I wish our VIC state leaders took a leaf out of McGowan's book. However from an AFL fixture perspective the decision the WA govt make to shut their borders should not automatically equate to a redraft...'they cannot have their cake and eat it too' comes to mind. I like the idea of relocating WA/Freo to Tassie..There are a million excuses as to why this wont succeed, but just imagine if the Tassie govt could make it work...would go a long way in showing the viability of a 19th team in the comp.

Great analysis CHF. We have great stocks across all lines as you have astutely pointed out, which makes up for a solid foundation. Reality is most teams (that are not in rebuild) will stack up quite similar. The attribute that distinguishes great teams from good teams will still be star talent. No matter how much you try to remove that dependency (football strategy / playing style etc), it will always be there and mostly in the form of a midfielder or two. And the way the draft has been designed, teams will have a window and then come back to the pack, so we have to make use of the current opportunity and win another premiership or three.

I’d say Giddy is the flashy new thing atm. Not surprised.

Scrap this joke of an idea. Take the FS with it too but only after we get Whitey’s kid 😂

Please tell me you are joking?

Time to move on.