Gawndy the Great

I wouldn’t think it’s West Coast as it finished the trade value for pick 1.

This is what brings so much uncertainty. With our current crop of good 2nd rounders, the points value is juicy. i reckon we have enough to get it done, but we cannot stop something silly like another club going in 1000 points over pick value just to get #6.

I think this is very much the best deal going at the moment, which will be difficult for others to match unless they pay significantly overs. GWS is probably our closest rival to snare 6, but they are not giving up 8 & 10 unless they are going after a specific player Curtin going to #4 is probably going to really test WC's resolve. They probably don't swap without having at least 2 top 10 picks and late 1st rounder / early 2nd rounder (current or next year). They will push hard for Sydney's Pick 5 for Barass so that they can secure both Reid and Curtain, but Sydney would be derelict in their duties to go for Barrass (who is 27-28) with Pick 5. I think they just Himmelberg as a FA an use Pick 5 to bring in some youth. I think we are right in the drivers seat this year and JT will need to make a decision around 4,6 for 1 (Reid) vs taking a Mckercher/Sanders, Duursma / Watson. I'll kick up a stink if Roos get some form of compensation this year as it will be the 2nd time in recent history where we have had a top 5 pick and lost out due to a priority pick. Nevertheless we will have 1 or 2 of Reid, Curtain, McKercher, Sanders, Duursma and/or Watson and that is exciting!

Question on Oliver remains as to whether he is progressing. The communication out of the club seems to be the same for the last few weeks in that he is stuck at 90% or thereabouts. @ all the physio's, is this progression normal for an injury such as his. We all know he'll give it all on his return, but you do need a few weeks-months to sharpen skills, match fitness etc etc. I'd want at least 3-4 games into Oliver before going into finals.

It’s a pure points play. Our offer will give them +500 pts on value. We could throw in more and get a Flanders/ Hollands in return helping them with salary cap too. Buts end of the day its what we are prepared to offer and I think we can put a pretty darn good one in.

Heard Robbo going off his head on players (referrimg to Dusty) throwing the elbow back should essentially be exiled. Well, Tom Hawkins circa 2021 says hello.

I think you are in for a rude shock Macca. Game will be unrecognizable in 15-20 years time.

It is and ive been guilty of thinking this way for a while as well. But the last 6-8 weeks has shown me that KPF are not the be all and end all. We need kicking skills in our side desperately. This year using (potentially) two top 10 picks to bring in 2 elite midfielders will provide us an enormous uplift in our ball movement department. If we go by the likes of Norf in securing a player similar to Sheezel, i can see them certainly adding some run off half back for year 1. This then allows us to move Bowey or Salem into HF and Rivers into the middle or a few other options. You can then look at having Oliver, Rivers, Viney, Sparrow, Brayshaw as a midfield group, Trac as a 70/30 forward and our team looks immeasurably different with talent spread more evenly across the ground.

Surprised that Beaumaris Secondary School's deck isnt considered. The MCC have some sort of arrangement with the school and government to have facilities out there. Was there a few months back doing a school tour for my son - i recall it had been really wet and soggy for a number of days and the surface was pristine. Reminded me of the G during GF day.

I think we need to maximise the benefit of our run home to really freshen up the team. We have Norf and Hawthorn where we have to consider resting the likes of Gawn, Trac, May and a few of our other top end. Oliver should play straight through and Hibbo may do with another game rest (perhaps Sydney). But we need to bank our wins and be satisfied with a #4 finish. There are no easy games against Pies, Port, Brisbane. I do have a sneaky feeling that Port / Pies will start to drop a few games as they being to tire and rest players. Whether it is enough to coincide with our run home, who knows. Here is my only positive/optimistic post for the next 2 months Remember our losses: Port - 4 pts Freo - 7 pts GWS - 2 pts With the Port, GWS games literally lost in the dying minutes of the game, had we had a bit of fortune (i.e. Oliver not doing a hammy), we would have been 2nd right now. Against the Cats, it was a 10 minute lapse in the 3rd quarter, Lions was an injury shock to our skipper in the first 5 minutes. **End positivity**

I tend to agree. I could live with them all going home to Tassie towards the twilight of their career as they would have seen the Suns and GWS experiment will not be a fun experience to be had when they are in the peak of their career. Either one of the Tassie kids will do us just fine. Hopefully we can move up into the Top 10 to get another zippy HB with great kicking skills or snare a KPD.

Yep Gosch’s for the ladies World Cup. This better give us some more credit for our new training facilities.

I feel for the young man. its a brutal industry and the KPF is the toughest positions to play. Its also a tough process for recruitment teams. However, I do wonder whether there were any concerns regarding his footy IQ and competitive nature. I don't know Sam and can only go by what we see on the field, but it does seem that he is lacking in these areas despite having all the required skills, technique and athleticism, which is what compelled the team to pick him in the first place. It is what it is and unfortunately he wont be the first or last player that 'nearly' turned the competition on its head.

You sure it is that simple? I don’t think you can just lose a top 5 pick. Plus players will likely know what awaits newly formed clubs in terms of performance and ladder positions. Unfortunately I don’t think he’ll be there at pick 4. Hawthorn / Norf will likely grab him before we do.

So for 7 mins we played bold, fast ball movement risky football. And what happened? We won. Similar to the game in the Gabba from earlier in the year but this time we beat them. What happened in between the first and 4th quarters needs further analysis, but to me it was all too familiar losing forward 50 and being mauled from defensive transition fast , precise ball movement. How does this happen? We’ll slow ball movement allows the oppo to setup their ball movers in the d50, win a contest and bang, they slingshot into the forward line and score before we have time to set our zone up. The better teams have been playing this way for nearly 2 years and we are late to the party. Perhaps we don’t have the cattle to pull it off , but all I know is we ain’t winning anything playing the heavily stoppage based game. It’ is cooked, done, finished. The forward half territory as many have talked about has also been off for quite some time. Again I don’t know if we have the players that are willing to put in the gruelling efforts required for this to work. Not suggesting an overhaul, because we are still very competitive and have only lost by small margins, but definitely a tweak is required and the 7 minutes of footy I saw in the 4th quarter and the first 15 mins of the game I was left in awe.

Plus they have KP. It is by far the biggest home ground advantage in the comp.

The ruck position itself is overrated. We get value from Gawn in his ground coverage. His game yesterday is more the exception- but it doesn’t happen every game.

Port look second rate. Could it be they got their loading wrong ? They were lucky to win last week against the Bombers as well..

Yep thats the one.

Freo have put the cue in the rack. I think they'll struggle to win a game for the rest of the season from here. As the Beatles once said, "Hello Pick 4, my old friend"

He has great athleticism, which we are in dire need of back there as May and Lever having a turn circle of semi trailer.

My take - not that it matters much - we started on fire but could not maintain it as Lions took control. Quarters 2 and particular 3 were pathetic. I mean shocking ala 2020 style - lost and seemingly not interested. 4th quarter was the Melbourne we all love. We took the game on and were able to score. Goody needs to give the boys more freedom and allow them to play like this. It’s harder to defend and we will concede some score but the forwards were bought into the game.

6 Gawn 5 Trac 4 Brayshaw 3 Viney 2 McVee 1 Milkshake

Well did not expect them at all. Melksham just what a game. 2018 all over again!!

That one bs free to Daniher