Colm

This is where the problem is and why I'm now thinking Petty will probably stay up forward for a while yet to learn the position a bit better. I think he’s improving as a forward and needs a run of games there to develop into the position. BBB and Tmac are both struggling with injuries and form this year and there will times when we can’t get either of them on the pitch. We can’t leave it to JVR and Max.

Petty forward or back is a tough call this week for me. I think he’s improving up front and will get better with more games. I see he had the third highest distance covered just 500m less than Langdon who of course was first, so he must be doing a lot of defensive stuff off the ball. On the other hand I think we badly miss him in defence, Lever and May don’t seem as confident without him. If May is carrying an injury and is rested then Petty will go back. Id like to see Laurie and Disco get a start this week.

We are not currently playing our best footy. Hopefully we can still get results against weaker teams and play ourselves into form. We need a few from Casey to put their hand up with a good performance this week. Collingwood are currently the best team in the comp and if we are not firing on all clyinders we can be beaten by a lot of teams. In a way I think not being top dog in terms of all the talk and hype will suit us. Should help us get our hunger back A few things Goody said in his presser and on 360 last night reminded me more of early 2021 season more than last year. Still being a work in progress and taking valuable learnings from each game. We are also running out the last quarters well something we did very well in our premiership year but went missing last year.

No way. Me too, and my kid sister isn’t long in Australia and has only watched a handful of games.

JVR rising star nomination coming up.

Anzac eve game is a huge game, I really enjoy the ceremony and build up to it. Being such a big game I have no doubt the players will bring the level of intensity and effort required and I’m very confident in the win. Having our captain back will he’ll too.

Bailey Humphrey on as the sub and having a big last quarter. Some nice skills and has kicked two goals. Starting to see why JT was so keen on him.

Interesting with Duursma and Simpson. We must rate both highly. Duursma is being tipped to be a top 5 pick so may not be with our reach unless we trade up. If the Suns finish with a higher pick that Freo then they will be better placed to trade up and grab a player before their academy player gets called. Would it be breaking any rules or ethically wrong if we told Duursma that we would pick him with our pick if he’s still on the board?- trying to ignite a bit of stay at home factor in him. Hawks will probably finish with pick one and take Reid. North will probably be the only other Vic team with a pick ahead of Freo,s(ours).

Another great podcast lads. Having one to listen to each week is awesome. Just gave my first podcast review. Keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

Good thread and you although I’m loving the Freo death riding thread the importance of high picks to form a successful team has been something I’ve looked at over the past few days off the back of Pickett fences and another poster raising it in another thread. Over the past 20 years the Brownlow has been won by a top 10 pick a total of 8 times and won by players that were pick from pick 20 or further back in the draft a total of 11 times. There was a couple of years where there was more than one winner but it still highlights that absolute elite players and be picked up a bit further back in the draft. Also a look at the Number one draft pick for the past 20 years is interesting. Too early to judge the last few years perhaps but for the most part the number one pick has produced good solid players not superstars.For example the three number one picks before Scully were Bryce Gibbs, Matthew Kreuzer and Jack Watts. The following 3 were David Swallow, Jonathan Patton and Lachie Whitfield. I have also looked at the top 10 picks for each draft over the last 20 years and without going into too much detail I found it very surprising how many of these picks I have never heard of. Which brings me to my last and most important point how successful Jason Taylor and our list management team have been at getting their picks right over the last lot of years Apart from the Weid we have nailed all our top picks and done very well with most of our second round picks too. Giving his success rate and our list managements aggressive approach to moving up and down the draft boards I will be death riding Freo with with a passion all season

The Suns game really does turn into an 8 pointer this weekend. Hopefully they play like they played against the Cats and not the muck they showed on the weekend against the Saints.

Dunno if that would be considered forward craft by Jefferson but it was definitely crafty. He was the third person to touch the ball.

Was just about to post the same thing Azz. Having said that I have put Kossie to have 20plus disposals and kick two goals into my same game multi.

Hope you feel better soon Jaded.

I love this thread. If they lose to the Crows tmw the wheels will well and truely be off. Fingers crossed for a top ten pick. Another team I’m keeping an eye on is the Suns. They have an academy player that currently rated in the top 5 and will prob try to trade up or back in the draft. I think in an ideal scenario they would miss finals but finish ahead of Freo. That would make us a more appealing option for any team willing to trade a top 5 pick and we would be in a good position to trade with Suns should they decide to trade out their first rounder. We could end up with 2 top 10 picks👏

Don’t think it matters where he sits on the goal kicking. If he’s not 100% he shouldn’t play. He will be managed this year to make to give him the best chance to be on fully fit come finals.

I thought the complete opposite. Think Goody let it slip that Tmac is back. He’s said Tmac got himself back into selection. Then had a smirk and corrected himself. Also mentioned that we need to give Grundy a chop out with ruck duties.

I often have a look at the game day thread. Sometimes post but more often just have a read. When I’m losing the plot shouting at the tv it’s just nice to see I’m not the only one. I don’t think anybody needs to apologise for what they say in the heat of the moment. It’s a good place to vent.

A lot to like about the game. Few points that pleased me most and I think point to the improvements we have made in the off season. 1.- We have recruited well, Grundy had a great game and I thought Hunter had he’s best game for us too and will only get better. 2.- Casey players standing up. Mcvee, JVR and Chandler all had great games and must play again next week. 3.- We have our fitness levels back. Even at the start of last season when we won our first 10 games we didn’t seem to run out the last quarter well, we certainly did tonight. 4.- Goody and the coaching staff have stepped up made the changes we needed to make. Our ball use going i50 has become so much better this year as seen by the amount we scored tonight and the amount of goal scores we had. Another change from last season from the coaching panel is our flexibility, throwing Petty forward, we are nowhere near as predictable with our kick ins and Our goal kicking looks to have improved as well. Thanks Chocco

Stephen May looking good for the golden fist this week.

18 disposals and 88% efficiency. Great game. Great decision making. Always seems to have time.

If we are struggling to fit Kossie wage into our cap then we may have to turnover a few players at the end of the season. We already have 4 picks in the first 2 rounds of a super draft. Bringing in young high end talent and letting some other fringe players go might make sense this year.

“No action Jackson” 😂 ok it got a laugh out of me. Honeymoon period didn’t even make it to week three. I have no ill will towards Luke but I’m happy for this season to be a disaster for him and the Freo club. If he continues to struggle then those around him that have been advising him would want to take a long hard look at themselves. Kossie take note- leaving the Melbourne to go play in a two team town is a bad move.

Delighted Freo got beat but having poor umpire decisions decide games is [censored] poor. I’ve come to the opinion that the AFL are happy with a poor standard of umpiring and a joke of MRO as it creates headlines and interest during the week. Wouldn’t be too hard to improve the standard of umpiring by making them full time and well paid or make the rules easier to adjudicate.