Gawndy the Great

I wouldn't want to lose him, but he is not our main priority at the moment. I think he is coverable with our depth without much of a hiccup. Are we going to get WCE Pick 5? unlikely. But maybe worth a 2nd rounder.

If I was in his position, that is what id say even if I knew I was leaving too. The alternative is a long uncomfortable discussion, that nobody would want to have with a fan.

Yes it is. Not sure how it relates to a potential motivation for someone to leave one club and join another though - but without seeing the scenario, its hard to comment.

+1 on the PM/DM plz. Surely we should be able to post rumour and/or innuendo on here as long as it confirmed as such? I don’t get the big issue.

I really had issue picking out the diff in Hunter & Langdon so they both appeared to rack up a lot of touches. I wonder if shaving their heads was a deliberate play to confuse the opposition because I couldn’t work out it at the ground. Rivers a surprise packet and would have thought Kozzie got more of the ball. Harmes has got to be worried about that performance.

That is BS. Happy I was never much of a gambler.

When did that happen?

I always thought this previously as well ie keep something tucked away for finals or a big game. Reality is I don’t think it happens - teams need repetition so that they respond to situations instinctively during a game as you just don’t have time to assess multiple options, weigh up the pros and cons of game plan A vs plan B. Bar a positional or personnel change I think what we see in pre season is just a less intensive version of the season proper game plan and what we saw yesterday was still a the old stoppage based, boundary favoured game plan. I’ll be happily be proven wrong but I just don’t know whether this style of plan can win it in 2023. Granted It’s still hard to counter for most teams and we should still finish top 4 (barring something unimaginable) but teams matching / bettering our fitness will still run over the top of us with a corridor based , ball-in-motion style.

It’s actually how teams would beat us last year as well. Flood back line, create a turnover and run & handball through our defensive zone, whilst making sure our ‘goal keeper has a man in them’. I get that it’ll happen once or twice in a game, but it was being performed well by a bottom 4 team. Teams like Pies and Cats will eat us for breakfast if we don’t have a plan to quash it.

Ran into the boys as we were leaving the venue. They just completed a 30 minute running session on the square oval next to the main car park. Took a couple of snaps of my son with a few of his favourite players. He was star struck ! As was I 😂

I saw his foot as he hobbled past me. He didnt look in too much discomfort. But the swelling was around his ankle bone - about the size of a squash ball.

At the race. Levers right ankle size of tennis ball. Didn’t look pretty l.

Can’t see anything at ground level. Can’t wait for nosebleed seats at the G with a balmy 2 degree southerly in my face. Look to have a few turnovers this quarter and no signs of the quick play on through the corridor that we were hoping for.

That’s good to know. I’m about 20 mins away. I was always going to avoid Linton st. Any tips?

If its a contract value thing and he wants to stay- then we'd be hearing, "We are close, just trying to work out a few things" OR something along those lines of "I'm confident we'll sort something out soon" Anything else tends to indicate that he is undecided on future club or has already got a verbal commitment with another. Think about how May, Trac, Gawn, Oliver got done in the last couple of years. If we go into the season proper without his signature we are starting at less than 50/50 odds of securing his services. If we get to Round 10, I'd say its less than 10%. None of the 4 clubs in WA/SA are really primed to offer us any worthwhile compensation in the form of picks - West Coast and Adelaide will both finish better than bottom 5. Port's 1st pick is connected to Collingwood's 2nd rounder, which puts it in the 30s and Freo's first pick is firmly placed at #20. Kozzy demands a top 5 pick + change based on the 40+ goals he has kicked and his age. He much more proven than LJ was and most clubs know this. Player swaps and future picks will not cut it - we dont really need any upgrades anywhere on the field as we are already stacked for talent and the clubs above wont really offer up their a-grade talent unless they really want to come home to Victoria. Who would we take from these 4 clubs anyway? Port: Butters - maybe but they'd be crazy to let him go?; Georgiades - not required anymore. WC: nobody Adelaide: nobody Freo: H.Young or Serong + Pick 20 + 2024 F1 (out of getting jibbed on LJ)

i presume this is about improving core stability and strength.

Injuries are both underplayed and overplayed. On one hand every team has injuries unspoken or otherwise but on the other many industry say that a healthy list is one of the most important components of having a decent chance to win the flag. What we don’t know is how many of these players play A regular season game? Trac is probably the only that clearly misses. Funny thing is that in 2020 May plays the GF with 4-5 week hammy.

Ill be there!

Its a good question. In my view there are two reasons: 1. Most are innately addictive and so relying on a persons ability to 'control' their usage is often a very difficult proposition. Once the addiction starts its often a downward spiral - increasing costs (meaning taxes) on society to manage rehab and health system; not to mention the 'costs' to family and friends. 2. There is also an increased risk to the safety of citizens: directly - through drug induced violence; and indirectly - through diminished capacity to act rationally whilst in a drug induced state. Alcohol and sugar are both an interesting use case. Both are examples of drugs that have profound social, health and financial impacts on society and yet are legal, but we are probably straying a bit too far off course to continue that debate.

Love the preamble... it so hard to get stuck into you when you are being respectful and diffusive :) not that i had any intent to btw. I don't see decriminalizing as a binary solution (i.e. legal vs illegal) - where there is a therapeutic benefit (i.e. marijuana for chronic pain, LSD or MDMA for PTSD treatment) it should absolutely made available. However i draw the line on recreational use. As for evidence, i think the lack of cities/states globally implementing decriminalization of hard drugs is proof enough. Yes there are still a handful, but there are not enough to get a statistically significant sample to support a conclusion either way, so we just have to rely on good old common sense.

I should have said 6-7 light towers :) but i think most got the point. i reckon it might be 3 quarters of afl side and 3 quarters of vfl side. probably without time-on now. I remember Burgess saying training in the heat was good a stressor on the team - obviously need to be careful we dont red-line and get heat stroke.

You remove the full weight of the law, then the drugs become much more accessible and cheaper with no legal implications for usage. There is no doubt in my mind that this will ultimately increase drug usage cross the entire population. Whether that translates to serious crime - i cannot say - but increased usage is just about a guarantee.

Was there today for my sons pre season training (u11s). The ground is very lush! Has 6-7 lights but it won’t be very bright. Doubt the game will go ahead as planned with that forecast.

Last year was a combination of factors. Clearly losing TMac and having BBB play on one leg really weakened us structurally forward. LJ and Weed were just not up to filling in the forward line. This coupled with a gameplan that became outdated and the lack of rotating players on gameday contributed to fatigue. We are better positioned this year with the game plan as many on here have witnessed and from what i have heard on the radio. Cant do much about injuries, but fatigue management throughout the year is a must - even if it costs us 1-2 games. However, with good planning (and some fixture luck) you know which opposition teams are bottom 4-6 and the games for which we could look to to rest players.

It’s a retail chain selling PPE apparel and equipment to cater for tradies.