Lord Nev

Was that when I said he's purely a depth player and will never 'break out' or when I said Goody will possibly trade him? Obviously not paying much attention buddy.

Didn't see that comment, but can tell you that we're very much a 'coaching committee' rather than a 'head coach is the boss' type setup. Yze has MUCH more responsibility than your average assistant coach, I would even describe him as more of a 'head coach' than Goody if we were judging the club by 80s/90s standards of such things. He's going to be a sensational head coach IMO. Just to clarify though, this isn't meant to sound like a dig at Goody, he's fantastic at what he does and his ability to focus on his strengths while giving up control of aspects to others was the make or break for us in winning a flag. We lose a lot in losing Yze, but the way the coaching dept has been set up now it's more about someone successfully filling a role.

Smith seems to be becoming some kind of combo of Hawkins, Farmer and Jesaulenko with every post...

And the other 21 played a finals like game hours before...

Don't reckon he'll be in much different condition to the AFL players who played a finals like game that finished 13 hours earlier tbh.

Done deal. (Edit - Just adding, not officially confirmed, just rumour with a good source)

Just mentioned this as part of my reply before seeing this comment. Couldn't agree more, and the differences between the 3 coaches was absolutely stark. Hardwick a fantastic teacher, Dew great with relationships and Cameron just a barking dog.

I developed a poor opinion of him after watching 'Making Their Mark', it was then backed up from some things I heard from someone who had feedback directly from the coach's box.

Yeah that's a fair call, could have a different temperament in a different role I guess.

Wouldn't suit our culture at all. We have a pretty measured, calm, balanced coaching group (even Choco is pretty chill these days), and Cameron is all yelling and negative energy. Big no from me.

Blake Caracella might be looking for a job around the same time we (likely) lose Yze.... Just saying.

GWS were 'blown away' by Yze according to Jon Ralph, and apparently they never really went hard for Clarko. Yze is very very ready to be a senior coach and IMO will do great things at GWS. He's been huge for Melbourne.

Not much of a difference though. When we win games we've won clearances by 2.6 When we've lost we've lost clearances by 4. Yeah it's a tough one hey? TBH I think we're better with Harmes in and Gus on the wing, BUT Gus is 10x the player Harmes is. It's just a 'what's best for the team' thing IMO, rather than who plays great in a particular position. The numbers can be weird sometimes hey? I love stats, but must admit that sometimes they don't match what we notice as fans and they often lack the full context that explains them enough. I would guess that includes Gus' time as a loose backman?

Yeah he has absolutely been handy in clearances, I'm not having a crack at him as a player at all, but as with a lot of our high stats the numbers can often be misleading compared to the quality - our inside 50s are similar in that way. Personally, I don't think we have to dominate clearances to win, it's more about the quality of those clearances and what we do with them. To be clear, not just talking about Gus, I think all our centre mids have work to do on not just bypassing half forward when we're going inside 50. That feeds into why I think we'd be better with Gus on the wing. Sure our clearance numbers are up but that's also coincided with a dip in our inside 50 efficiency, so I'd be keen to see some numbers around all that. What seems obvious atm, is that our 'defensive wing' is a weakness. I love JJ, but he doesn't read the play anywhere near as well as Gus does, Gus is absolutely elite at that. Not sure what other options we could try there, but we won a flag with Gus playing an important role on the wing so it seems the obvious choice IMO.

Maybe we could have just one thread for all these random predictions so we can keep track....?

You're an absolute champion Kev, thanks for all your work - already excited to read this. Would love to know what part of the ground Bowey trains in today if we do any match sim or group training.

Gunston looks still gettable... Given TMac and Brown have one good leg between them, I'd have a crack.

Averaging nearly 8 turnovers a game since going into the midfield. For comparison, Viney and Oliver lead us for average turnovers this year, both average just over 5 a game.

And 12 turnovers...

12 turnovers on Friday. Averaging nearly 8 a game since going into the midfield. You expect more in the midfield sure, but for comparison our worst for season averages are Oliver with 5.5, Viney 5.3 and then Gus with 4.9.

Garry Lyon saying on SEN this morning he's expecting coaching announcements this week, maybe even one today. He'd know both Clarko and Yze so could be either, but wonder if it could be Yze so that it's announced before finals to try and minimize the impact on our team? (He'll be staying on for finals even if appointed apparently)

No fine apparently.....?

Start using his strength more and we get better as a team. To me, that means coaching instructions not dropping the player.

Didn't mean to imply you did, apologies if that's how it came across, wasn't intended. Agree, it may not be a personnel issue hey? Not sure how we flick the switch for this stuff or even if we can at this stage. I do remember in mid-late 2020 (I think it was about then) that Viney managed to dramatically turn around his inside 50 use almost instantly and the team followed, maybe that's the kind of thing it takes?