Lord Nev

Mate, I just watched the replay again yesterday. He did not 'come close to destroying our premiership' with this 7 disposals and 0 scoreboard impact.

Let me save you the trouble, it's an opinion piece not actually news. Nothing to do with him signing, all about how (the authors think) WC and Freo might offer him huge contracts. Skip it.

What? He did nothing in the Grand Final mate.

Same Mitch Hannan who left a club in the preseason before they won a flag?

In related news...

Yeah, I never said that mate. Try reading things properly.

Please quote exactly where I said that. Please quote exactly where I said that. So that's all due to Gus, and not our All-Australian filled backline? You're the only one talking stats.

Nowhere did I quote stats or attempt to use stats to make my argument. Do you actually read posts before responding? You're making a habit of completely misrepresenting posts you reply to.

You can call it harsh if you wish, but I rate his talent and footy smarts highly and I think he got better as the year went on, which isn't a 'harsh' call IMO given he was playing a completely foreign role for him. Had a sensational final series, but i think early in the year he was a bit patchy as he found his feet.

His defensive mindset, awareness and positioning on the wing got better as the year went on. Early on it seemed he wanted to play his game but in a different position, but from about mid year it seemed to really start clicking for him in how he should be playing his role and how important the defensive aspect was including things like spoils, intercepts and 1 percenters.

While I agree the role was pretty much the same, I disagree he was doing it well early in the season. Trying to find the round by round votes, but not having much luck.

Not sure if anyone has the round by round votes handy, but I think it's important to remember how much Gus grew into the role as the year went on. We all remember the late parts of the season and finals, but early in the year he wasn't very convincing in the wing role, so I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of his votes were in the 2nd half of the year once he figured it out a bit more.

Loving these few quotes from Christian in an interview with the HS today. Amazing to think of how much he has grown the last few years. “Someone sent me a tweet that someone had posted: ‘Petracca already back in the gym.’ “That’s our job, that’s what I get paid to do." “I don’t get paid to sit on my [censored], I get paid to train and get better for next year.” And this little bit was pretty wholesome too. Can't help but feel there's a lot of Max in this vibe but the whole club have really taken it on: “When we were out of lockdown and started to go out a bit, you’d see Melbourne fans, the smiles on their faces, and you realised what you’ve actually done in terms of breaking this curse, ending a 57-year drought,” Petracca says. “The person we bought our house off was a massive Melbourne supporter. The mum was an elderly lady, she gave me a massive hug, which was really, really cool. I couldn’t stop smiling.” https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/footy22-magazine-get-your-2022-afl-season-guide/news-story/dcacc42db654ef8a434dc71dd19f1db4

I'm not comparing Gus to Smith as such, more just thinking about how the 'defensive winger' role came about for us. It ended up being an important part of our success, both for the defensive attributes (particularly for a team known for giving up scores from turnovers out of defence) and possibly for the 'cultural impact' where a big name like Brayshaw is seen sacrificing stats for the sake of the overall team performance.

Which bit is wrong exactly? The stats? That they have different roles? That Gus was important? That Langdon will likely be offered a higher contract? Interested in how any of those things makes me 'biased'.

Quote exactly where I said that. Far out mate. Seriously.

"Had Langdon covered"? 0.5 more tackles 0.4 more clearances (with obviously more midfield time) 0.2 more goal assists Not exactly leaving him in the dust there. Langdon was ahead for inside 50s and score involvements by 0.1, so obviously 0.2 is when you 'have someone covered' hey? Metres gained +144 to Langdon Disposal efficiency +5.5% to Langdon Marks +1.2 to Langdon Gus was important last year, and shows amazing character to play the role he did so well, but I reckon you're underselling Langdon here a little and how different their roles are. Want Gus to stay, but have little doubt which one will command a higher price at contract time.

No one has suggested otherwise. Please go back and read the posts.

Exactly, and that's my point about the role itself.

Yet we chased Smith.

My guess would be Harmes' disposal and awareness would be detrimental on the wing. Definitely has Gus covered for pace, but I think Gus reads the play better and that's why he made the defensive wing role work despite not being a fantastic runner. Just intriguing if 'defensive winger' was even a role we had picked out given we chased Smith.

Genuine question: Did Brayshaw get played as a defensive winger because we needed one, or because we needed somewhere to put Gus that wasn't in the middle and we'd tried every other option on the wing? No doubt he played the defensive wing role really well for the most part in '21, but if we had a 2nd genuine gun winger would he have even been put there?

Jordon played the role for him a little in '21 didn't he? Might not have the tank yet, but attributes wise he's probably not a massively different option to Gus. There's also the possibility they look at one of the half back as you mentioned. Could see one of Rivers, Bowey or Hunt getting a chance.

But that 'incident' actually happened in 2020 or earlier (quite possibly 2017 or 2018), so wouldn't have thought the timing is relevant.