Gawndy the Great

Is that your opinion or are you in the know? It’s helpful to start off any opinion based sentence with “I think” it helps the nufties like me to tell the difference between fact and speculation.

I know you don’t want to leak anything that you shouldn’t and I’m ok with that but why wouldn’t the club just come out and say what’s what? I don’t understand why it’s so secret unless they need to conceal it so it’s not exploited during season proper.

Team named. Pretty decent squad. Nobody missing bar Viney at the moment. Even Lever is in giving his ankle issue.

Beware of the Dogs. they had a shocker last year for god knows what reason but they are stacked full of talent - maybe underdone a little in the backline but stars in the forward half.

Geelong getting smashed but are +12 in f50s - no Cameron or Hawkins though. Get those matchups right and you go a long way to beating the reigning premiers Hawkins sooner or later is going to fall off the perch. This year may just maybe that year.

Viney is one of my favs and exudes terrific onfield leadership by the way he plays the game. However we have a number of others in the team that rotate through his position (Brayshaw, Sparrow, Harmes , ANB even). It’s not a like for like but we are not losing out like many of make it out to be. We have an 8-9 deep midfield for this very reason. We have his injury covered … if it was finals then it’s a different outlook but for now, just stay calm.

Will miss his defensive presence in the middle for sure but it’s one area where We are covered.

Why wouldn’t you just keep Bedford? He was on our list , he was half decent and he was good mates with Kozzy. I call BS on the Henry link.

Luke is not going to impact as much as people are expecting. He might have a few good games but he’s not a proven forward that will replace the loss of Lobb in his first year at the club - best case is he becomes a 20-30 goal kicker and that that doubling his output from this year. Taberner will usually be missing for 6-8 games through injury and Fyfe will probably get pulled back to the midfield to cover holes left by Mundy and an undersized midfield group. Prediction : Melbourne get Pick 9 from Freos F1😂

Im with you. I was very excited to see something from JVR - but was left a little disappointed. Didn't have high expectations either - just a few clean grabs and a snag would have done it (in seniors game). I just saw one assist and a few follow up tackles. He's just a 2nd year at that, so ill cut him some slack, but dont get what all the hype has been about him during pre-season. Laurie is bordering on a failure. He needs something special this year to turn his career around or face being delisted/traded.

Let me know when you have an answer to that.. because my guess is that you would have cracked the nut that will save this thread from spiraling out to 100 pages by end of the year.

Since then his two housemates have left. You cannot underestimate the impact that this may have had on him. Its hard to get a read on friendship circles within the club (as they are all not best mates), but we can only hope that Kozzy is being smothered by those that stay behind. He needs a GF and housemates that bleed red and blue.

Yes he played, but did he really play? He is in a similar boat to BBB. Also, If he was the type to protect young midfielders then why would HFC offload him? They are in dire need of some mature bodies in their midfield.

I'd love to land a top 10 pick from Freo this year. It would be so satisfying. Top 5 would be even better.

OMeara is 29 with dodgy knees. Id be surprised if he can play more than 70-80 percent of games during H&A.

Kayne doesn’t let this go. Going with it for the past 2 nights in SEN.

It’s a fair assessment. He is a known quantity unlike 50% of first rounders. He has upside an potentially can hit another gear that might demand a first rounder. I reckon we can afford to sit on this one a while longer.

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.