Gawndy the Great

Next to a post GF win discussion thread, this is my favorite thread to follow. Keep'em coming Nudge and others.

Yze gone.

Isn’t it rather ironic. Playing the same team only weeks ago was the catalyst to put a focus on ARC reviews and being definitive on these calls in finals.

I’m with you. We need to be bold. There is one condition and it’s the game plan. I highly doubt we will see much change in the plan and atm Lever is intrinsic to it. We are stacked up on inside mids though. You couldn’t trade Viney - he is hear and soul. Brayshaw, like it or not is now a liability and will not likely get much on the trade table. Sparrow is a 2nd rounder at best. JJ and Harmes are gone. Which leaves Oliver and Trac. I fell dirty even considering it but either of them will get you 2 top 10 picks or close. If North came knocking would you consider Pick 2 and McKay compensation (Pick 3) for Oliver and Pick 15? The cost to North is essentially one pick as they are being gifted the compensation. Let GCS keep pick 4 and bundle our 2nd and 3rd rounders for a F1 and give that to them for their first round pick they’ll receive from the doggies(10) for pick 4 when they exchange trades. Take 2,3,5 and 10 to the draft and take Reid or Curtain, McKercher, Watson and Caddy (and Brown F/S) Now that would be something. We may not make top 4 or a PF for the next 2-3 years as they mature and we’ll lose May and Max along the way. But we’ll have the list required to keep pace and remain relevant for another decade. Now, back to reality.

The Grundy experiment failed. We can all agree on that now i think. However i want to applaud the FD for attempting to do something different whether you agree with or not. Looking for the competitive edge is not easy, you will fail more often than you will succeed. ' In the cool light of day, i can accept his trade request, we shake hands and move on respectively. Everyone is annoyed it didn't work out but i wouldn't let this one bad failure deter us from trying to innovate. In fact, we need to do more of it.

There didn't appear to be much from memory but I was at the ground and refuse to watch any footage of that game other than what is posted here on DL. But I'm sure all clubs have been told that all goals / points will be reviewed, so you could argue that he was confident that it would be picked up via the ARC.

I dont think Jamara is a key power forward. He is a 2nd or 3rd tall. Great mark, but has shown at times he cannot play in a congested forward area. Doggies move it quicker than us and even then, he is very inconsistent. Petty, J Smith, JVR is a good enough setup. Work on craft, isolate our forwards and move the ball quicker and you will see an immediate improvement.

I haven't seen it on DL per se, but that is what is being thrown around in the public arena.

Suggestions of a top 10 pick for Tom Lynch are ridiculous. He is a 2nd rounder at best given injury and proximity to retirement. I think 2024 will be a lost year finishing somewhere in the 6-10 range as we regroup and relaunch for 2025-2026 after acquiring a raft of young players that will require a season or two to acclimate to AFL footy. We should take our picks to the draft and chase pick 4 hard, while keeping pick 15. We should get a 2nd rounder for Grundy and possibly a 3rd rounder for Harmes. Trade our 2nd and 3rd rounders + F2 to GCS for Pick 4. Word is Doggies are more likely to sneak in front of us ala Geelong style in the 2020(?) draft to pinch Holmes. I feel that a F1 would be way overs and the suggestion is that they need more future picks in 2024 for the next rung of academy players (starting to become a draft pool within a draft pool for select clubs). Perhaps we take future picks for Grundy and Harmes and bias the trade for pick 4 draft with a bunch of 2024 picks. All i know is we need pick4. Take 4,5,15 to the draft. This should be our objective.

I saw this and thought the same. What a jerk. Is it me or are people really coming out of the woodwork to have a crack at us. I’m not sure I have ever seen this type of attack on a club before. I think about the Cats PF struggles, Sydney and GWS capitulation in GF and even the Doggies with that talented list missing out. What am I missing here? Why is there so much disdain for our club?

I can see a deviated wedding ring or middle finger on his right hand on the lower picture. The picture above is 2 frames prior to give you a baseline. I take no pleasure in trying to prove this point, it’s up to you whether you see the proof or not.

It’s a bit bleeding obvious. I’m not too worried given what Geelong managed to achieve with their list of 34+ old players. Well lose Gawn and May first in 2-3 years time, but our core group will be in place for at least another 5 years.

I’ve watched it. I see a slight flick of the wedding ring finger. It’s minor but it’s there. Easier to see if you manually scrub back and forth. I’m sure many club personnel have seen this and would be looking at it much more forensically than i, so if they are not making noise, then I’m happy with that.

I think the theme developing is mental fragility. It makes sense on a lot angles. How many games did we lose this year under 10 points? Too many for mine. And whilst all of those didn’t scream chokes, the lack of a killer instinct is evident. For years we couldn’t really put teams away. We’d cop 4+ goal runs, start games slowly. 2021 was the only exception? or did the lack of crowds play into our hands?- won’t be long till this narrative is permeating in footy circles. The club needs to do a lot of investment in addressing the mental shortcomings of this group in addition to the list rejuvenation. I don’t even know if it’s something we can recuperate in 1 season or even through the same list. Being mentally fit and full of confidence is just as important as being physically fit. It is like the golfing world - there are many many talented golfers playing off +6,+7 that could make it on the PGA or other professional tour but melt like butter when the stakes get big. The edge that some athletes have can be largely attributed to self belief and confidence to execute in the big moments. The straight sets exits in consecutive years will be a massive burden now for this team and even the club to carry.

If there was any doubt it would be in the headlines and Melbourne FC would have made sure of that. Especially because it was overturned.

I hate to say it but the ARC call saved the game for Carlton. It was touched and it was adjudicated properly. The uproar if it was later found to be touched and not called would have been merited and shown greater incompetence by the AFL. Don't waste your energy on this. Plenty of other things to be discontent with that we can address in the off season.

We are not soft physically. Mentally is on the other hand, a potentially different story.

it’s good. I hope they all get baked and that it burns during pre season. It should galvanise the team. I do have empathy for the players but the majority of the blame sits solidly in the footy department IMO. They have had years to fix the connection issue.

I hate excuses. Own it, learn and reload. Yea we have had a bad run of injuries, Brayshaw got a bad hit that was adjudicated most disgustingly. Appalling umpiring in R22, SF. Deal with it behind curtains. Use it to motivate the team in 2024. Build a theme around it. FMD there is enough out there to really polarise our club to come out next year seething and hyper focused. You would expect all this adversity to unify the troops. We have gone the other way, the soft underbelly some folks were throwing around just got a bit more real.

I think too much is being read into this. The combo showed many times it just did not work. Neither of those two were capable forwards. I think we knew he was going to go and that we had seen enough and didn’t want to risk an injury to Grundy. We need the pick(s).

It will never be an even spread when you have inequity in the draft system. Dynasties are hard enough. The Hawks, with their talent and arguably having one of the best footballers of all time. Richmond were a touch lucky with their ability to snare Tom Lynch after flag 1 and then 2020 with reduced quarters and their favorable fixture. All we needed was to pick Curnow instead of Weideman and we'd be looking at our 3rd flag in a couple of weeks.

100%. Said it last year that we have to evolve. Frankly didn't see any improvement in a ball use. I also notice that our inside-to-outside chains are non-existent. We never try to clear the contest to the outside, just win-it and hack it forward.

Its our game plan - Forward half territory. Its why a forward line like Collingwood, which on paper is "No Frills", can prosper. When you play with 3/4 of oppositions defense in the forward 50, what is the expectation? We take a contested mark? We have one of the shortest lists going around.

So what do we do with the excess of inside bulls? Oliver - extractor. No change Viney - Defensive mid. Similar to Libba, Dunkley. No Change Trac - Forward Mid. Similar to a dusty. Play him like that and reduce midfield minutes. All three of these guys are prone to rush their delivery or make the wrong choices by foot and have poor kicking efficiency. Need to bring balance to this area. Sparrow - Start off the bench. Needs to show more otherwise can end up being overlooked in the next few years. JJ, Harmes - move them on. Rivers - needs to play that 3rd midfielder role. Can kick and is a good decision maker and has speed and strength. Langdon - Reduce minutes and look to offload end of contract. Look to play Brayshaw, Rivers, Woey or Bowey more in that role more in 2024. Hunter the same but less so as he is a good kick but is not a great / quick decision maker. New recruit options: Reid, McKercher (other) One of these would be a steal. I think you’d start either of them at half back in 2024. Kynan probably spends 2024 in the 2s.

I think it’s going to be Hardwick style exit in about 2 years time. Just as we close the premiership window of the current list, we’ll make a change.