Roost it far

Hunter needs to be replaced by a raking kick with pace and neat skills.....Windsor? but can he get there this year? Do you try Bowey, Billings or even Spargo on the wing? Does Rivers go there? Wasn't Howes next in line? This is not to criticise Hunter but we need an upgrade, especially as Langdon has dropped off/been found out/is very beatable. What was once a massive strength of ours feels like we've been comfortably overtaken by others.

Fullarton, whilst disappointing for him to get injured doesn't change much. He's on par with Schache atm but likely/hopefully with more upside. If Gawn goes down in the next few months we have to either play Verrall or Schache. You can't play TMac as a ruckman and Brown is out. I'm guessing the club would go with Schache as Verrall likely needs another year or 2. Why wouldn't we push Brown to the long term injured list and pick up a big body from somewhere? We need more insurance than Schache.

Just eat more fibre and drink plenty of fresh water. Call me in 3 weeks if you’re still suffering from the inability to see what’s right in front of all of us.

It’s been pretty well covered in the media, by the club, by Ben and his partner as well. His knees are cooked, that you can be very very confident of.

Spot on. We really need the best from our wingers.

If we’re to improve our attack we simply have to get the ball into the hands of the best kickers forward of centre …problem is we don’t have many elite kickers hence our game plan will remain much the same. The difference being (if we stay fit and Oliver comes back) we can play Petty, Fritsch, JVR, ANB, potentially Adam’s and Petracca in the forward half. If Gawn can go back to floating a kick behind the ball and guys like Bowey, Rivers, Spargo and perhaps Salem can be the kickers into the forward half we all of a sudden look much better. Sounds easy.

I thought the reports were better on Wednesday but a solid effort none the less.

Maybe the club has decided that it's a bad day for waving chinese made flags emblazoned with the British union jack? 😜

Did he goal or have you joined the horse jokes?

You are likely correct. It however remains frustrating watching 2 talls clog our list for the last 2 seasons and now we're going to watch it again.

His knees are cooked. If he's featuring it's because we are cooked.

I can’t believe anyone here actually thought he would play a role this year. Cooked is a massive understatement. Brown, TMac and to a slightly lesser extent Schache are what are commonly referred to as list cloggers. 21 was a long time ago for mine so please don’t roll out the “They helped us a win a flag and deserve…..” Rubbish it’s a business and we’re not playing it hard enough atm. Jeez, I really got fired up!!

I’m not sure the crash and bash is Schache’s strength. I’m no way am I saying he’s soft but rucking is a brutal game.

Like the $40+ billion they dolled out during covid to business that didn’t actually end up meeting the original requirements?? Nothing to see here……. let’s get the money back from welfare recipients instead.

Why do they even bother. That’s got to be some of the laziest football journalism so far and that’s saying a lot considering the conga line of suckholes hanging off the afl teat these days.

Yes to Thursday

Has anyone emailed the club about our lack of training reports?

I’m not back tracking in anyway. I believe we’re every chance to struggle this season for the reasons I posted. I don’t care about other teams except for the fact I think several will improve and possibly overtake us. Pointing out our problems isn’t being negative it’s just pointing out potential and existing issues that I see. There’s enough “we’re unbeatable” voices around here to cover for that surely?

I’m not worried about other teams only ours. Last year we showed we can replace Oliver who’s in our top few players. My concern is more around Gawn’s age, injury profile and how much we rely on him, we don’t go near top 4 without Gawn, same goes for May. It’s not hard to argue he’s the best FB playing today and he drives so much of our attack. He’s also 32, has had a couple of calf strains, so yes their ability to play a 26 week season concerns me. I’m not sure you can say in your starting sentence that the injury to certain player argument is a furphy and then argue all teams would struggle without their best player/s and that the biggest issue we have is player availability. I agree and I’m simply highlighting 2 we rely very heavily on with no immediate backups.

If we get 10 games out of each of TMac and Brown our season is dead

Our game relies incredibly heavily on a 32 year old ruckman and a 32 year old FB, with no backup even close to their level, that's not ideal. If either go down for an extended period it's over before it begins. We have a coach who's very likely going to roll the same gameplan into the year ahead, that's not as bad as some think but if we don't improve at the margins we're in strife. Those hoping for a Ben Brown or T Mac revival are, in my opinion, delusional, both are cooked and unlikely to play unless injuries have hit hard. Fullarton is a "Break Glass in emergency" and the glass is toughened. McAdam and Billings are only going to be of use if they stay fit and find form, both have serious "if's" about them. Woewodin, Howes and Turner are possible improvers but unlikely to be more than bit players. I like Tom Sparrow and he's a solid player but he's no substitute for a fit, happy and ready to go Clayton Oliver. We've lost Joel Smith and in doing so have one less top 28 player on our list.....yeh not good. There's all this and then there's the swirling soup of gossip and innuendo floating around the team and club. If we are to win the flag this year we'll need everything to go right and hope the likes of Collingwood, Carlton, GWS, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and whoever else gets on a roll don't improve more than us........I'd say fr-ap is being very realistic about our chances.

None of Jordan, Harmes or Dunstan were used much, if at all last year. We’ve got plenty of midfield depth to cover for Oliver and Brayshaw. Although if Brayshaw is able to play HB he’s certainly able to play as a mid. I understand your worries for the year ahead though, I share them. We could easily finish 10th

Out of that list bar Oliver only Salem, Sparrow and McAdam are needed at full fitness for round zero. I'm pretty sure none are carrying injuries and it's likely load management so I think you can calm the farm a little. Thanks for the report though and it appears Howes and Turner are pushing hard for round zero which is great news.

The goal against Brisbane summed up his year perfectly

What's people's take on Jed Adams? Have we a player on our hands?