The Jackson FIX

Seemed to leave Jordan Gysberts pretty quickly... and Jack Grimes... and Cale Morton... amongst others.

This rumour is whipping Carlton nuffies into a frenzy. A popular theory - as relayed to me by my own Carlton nuffy mate - is they’ll flip pick 7 into 2x late first round picks (with WB), swapping one for Saad and one for Oliver. I suggested that appeared a bit unfair and they should ask for Petracca as steak knives.

If there is any truth to this, let’s hope it is our ‘Dusty tours GWS’ moment.

Just maybe, in a gesture of reparation for the infamous ‘Howe robbery’ they take a direct trade for OMac? Just maybe?

Don’t agree with those who claim he has fallen/is falling off a perch. His consistency has been amazing. Their 2nd or 3rd best defender on form in the back half of the year. I wouldn’t get him because it risks upsetting a building dynamic in our back line but form isn’t the reason I wouldn’t recruit him for a year.

Best year injury-wise for as long as I can remember. Very few soft-tissue injuries too, which is quite the feat given the compact fixture. Hard to argue the correlation with his arrival and there’d be a strong argument for the causation

I just read that as last day of the hub and they are saying bye to a kid they saw every day for months.

What hasn’t helped is some of our more experienced guys have dropped off a perch quicker than we’d have liked (Nev, Jones) and the ‘prime’ of some of our maturing players didn’t last as long as you would have hoped (TMac, Melk, Hibberd)

The other thing to consider is the quality of our batch just above that age bracket. ‘22’ is just an arbitrary number really... I think the list is in a pretty healthy spot, they just need to fill in the gaps within the next couple of years and that is more likely to be with more experienced players as they’d be expecting to be challenging for a flag in May & Gawn’s time.

I think we had 3 of 18 rising star nominations to be fair... or maybe it was 2... cant recall if Rivers got the nod but he was thereabouts if he didn’t get it officially

I have an uneasy feeling that Goody thinks that Hooker IN / TMac OUT will solve our forward line issues. Personally I think a goal-kicking small is a bigger need and I think Pickett’s future is further up the ground. The more we focus on finding the mythical ‘quality mature tall’ the less we’re doing to get a Papley or Liam Ryan type in the door (nb I’m not suggesting I know how we get that type in the door just suggesting that solving for that is where our energy should be).

We have a reputation for being ‘gettable’ when we’re in the lead and these two blokes aren’t switched on at 3/4 time. I don’t care what they were doing, I care more about the fact they are anything-but focused on the task ahead of them for the next 20mins. Interesting off-season for Max - he needs to figure out how to remain popular but implement an environment where absolute focus on all areas of success is guaranteed. I would say ‘interesting offseason for Goody’ but I don’t think he has any hope of meaningfully changing much in that place anymore.

The human in me says keep him, far riskier future for Harley if we were to drop him now. The Football club administrator in me says cut ties with him. If we were a club with a strong culture that didn’t need much maintenance you could probably carry him but the reality is we’ve got a culture/environment that needs PLENTY of work so dedicating time towards getting a troubled 28yo right just isn’t a sensible decision. The risk for MFC is far greater than the upside now with Harley.

Sadly I think his form can no longer be called a ‘slump‘ and he has clearly entered the twilight. Like Nev. At least Nev still puts his body on the line... TMac barely giving a yelp.

How long has he got left on his contract?

No thanks: Soft as butter; teams have figured him out; is either dumb or dangerously disobedient off the field (probably both). There’s a reason he can barely get a game in a side that is desperate for forwards.

Here’s an interesting concept: move Goodwin, Mahoney and Richo on and tell Clarko he can have the salary of all 3 once they’re paid out and off the books. Throw him the keys and tell him nothing/nobody will get in his way. Big risk but clearly we need to take a risk.

Don’t rule out a direct swap: Clarko for Goodwin - there’s a whisper that the Hawks medical team are confident they can get Goody right

Well clearly we all agree we crapped the bed and put ourselves in this situation but the point was it has been West Coast on more than one occasion that seal our fate

This is all true, sadly.

Not the first time Wet Toast have f%#**^ our finals chances. What a pea-hearted team outside Perf. I wish them nothing but failure and misery.

Funny you posted this. Was thinking about it the other night too. I play tennis and am a basket case in the wind. The problem is part mental, part strategy. I get beaten by worse players in the wind because if/when they start to get on top of me I just revert to my strengths which don’t really suit windy conditions. And then I question myself more. The Dees are my windy tennis game and I am sad to say that being smart and resilient is the only way to get out of it (something the Dees and I lack!).

Generally not one to moan too much about this sort of stuff but we’ve certainly got the rough end of the stick fixture-wise after landing an easier draw pre-Covid. We’ve now hubbed in Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Sydney & Adelaide with a trip to Perth and Alice springs on top of that. Richmond, conversely, have only hubbed in one place (QLD) with visits to Adelaide and Darwin only. Pretty easy ride for someone who won the flag last year! edit: on top of that we were forced to take our bye when we were fresh!

Interestingly, in the Coll Melb 2s review HB was the only listed player who wasn’t mentioned. Nor has he been talked about much since being dropped. They are either carefully managing his PR, trying to quieten the supporter outrage about his non-selection until he gets into a spot they’re happy with. Or he is playing shabby, lazy football like his last game in the jumper

Less convinced we need fast players to contain Saints. Their ball movement has been exceptional, not their leg speed. Good structure can contain that.