Bring-Back-Powell

Very odd that only St Kilda players got votes in that round 23 game V Sydney despite being down by 3-5 goals for much of the night, and of course subsequently losing to Sydney With regards to Queens birthday, it was widely acknowledged that either Oliver (who won the medal) or Cox (who was marking the ball like he was Wayne Carey) was BOG. Instead Mihocek got the 3 votes and he would've been long odds despite kicking 4 goals. Imagine a full forward kicking 4 goals in the 1980's/1990's and then getting the 3 votes.

That would be one day more of a break than the 10 day break we receive between QBDAY - bye - round 15 V Bris this year. Hope you're correct in that we're on a Saturday or Sunday. I probably won't bother going if we're Thu night as there would only be 2 games over the Thu and Fri night and it would therefore defeat the purpose of attending a footy festival.

Awesome GIF from an awesome movie. Joe Pesci's character was pure evil.

You’re probably right. Given we finished 5th I’d say we’ll play two of Geelong, Sydney, Collingwood, Brisbane and Freo twice. The AFL will be keen (if possible) for Grundy and Jackson to face their old sides twice for box office attraction, so we could avoid Geelong twice on that basis.

No chance Hawthorn will be going there despite their projected bottom 4 finish. Geelong V Hawthorn is locked in for Easter Monday at the MCG. Therefore that leaves Collingwood and/or Richmond as the other teams that Geelong will host at the G. So yeah, the only chance we avoid Kardinia Park is if we play them once, as the home team.

Sounds like a horrible weekend.

I don't think it matters if it's a home or away game for us. We'll still have our 11 home games (10 at the G/ 1 in NT) and all clubs will get an equal distribution in the magic round regardless of home or away team.

The magic round is effectively replacing a week of practice matches that would've been shown only on KAYO with C grade commentators. I'm sure most football fans will come around to the idea.

Sure is. One comparison between Trac and Oliver is that Trac has polled brownlow votes in only 2 of a possible 30 games (when he's polled votes) when the Dees have lost while Oliver has polled in 12 of a possible 54 games (when he's polled votes) when the Dees have lost - over their respective careers thus far. This suggests to me that Trac is more of a barometer than Oliver in terms of us winning games, where as Oliver can play absolute top shelf footy in losses - eg - Adelaide 2021, Collingwood x2 in 2022.

Unbelievable that we’d play an injured Gawn and Lever against a team that had 10-11 of their best 22 out. It was a free 4 points on offer that day and they should not have made the trip. Kind of puts the theory to bed that you need a hardened run into the finals. The pre finals bye surprisingly didn’t freshen us up.

The skill set he brings to the club is absolutely irreplaceable and provides a point of difference from other small forwards. Whatever the club did to try and convince LJ to stay, the club needs to do 200% more with Kozzie. A critical re-signing.

During the finals I think we missed his intercept marking and the way he was able to take goal square saving marks on the last line. Gus played some insane games as a defender this year: 34 possessions - 20 marks- 3 votes V's Essendon 31 possessions - 13 marks 1 vote Vs St Kilda (when they were good) 29 possessions - 11 marks in a loss to Collingwood on QBDAY. Conversely in finals, he only averaged 19 touches as a full time midfielder (I think) which suggests we could've been better served by Gus playing in a different position. Overall, an excellent home and away season but a disappointing finals series. Be very interesting to see where he plays in round 1 next year.

I'm noticing a few posters are starting to exclude Ben Brown from our projected 2023 forward line.

Bulldogs are understood to be interested.

The only slight knock on Fritsch was his slight inaccuracy and unreliable set shots for goal at the end of 2020 into the early rounds of 2021. However, over the last 2 seasons he's kicked 114-46 which is elite. Easily our best forward and probably between the 5th and 8th best player on the list It was an excellent move at the time to get him to re-sign for 5 years fresh off a 6 goal GF.

Been a joy to watch over the last two seasons after scratching the surface in 2020. Absolutely no upside whatsoever if he wants out next year. At least with Jackson we had a ready made replacement.

Not shocked in the slightest with those comments. He did rate Josh Wagner and Christian Petracca as both C+ players circa 2018.

Was really annoyed at the end of 2002 that we let a genuinely good player in Stephen Powell go to St Kilda due to a contract dispute. IIRC he was picked up in the pre season draft so we didn’t even get any compo for him. Powell then became a very good player for St Kilda including playing in all their finals from 04-06. He only played 2 seasons for us (2000 and 2002) but he was key cog in our midfield as a goal kicking mid. Also kicked 10 goals in the 2000 finals series.

He would definitely want to get some games next year given he was a highish draft pick and it’s year 3 in the system. Looking forward to seeing what’s he’s capable of offering the side next year.

In the last 6 weeks of 2021 he averaged 27 possessions including a tone setting first quarter in the GF. In the 2022 finals he averaged 11 possessions including just 2 possession in 3 quarters of footy against Sydney after Longmire tagged him. Clearly a massively important player to our side and fortunes, which Longmire identified in the finals.

Yeah I'm hoping he gets some games next year. Every time I see him play in the VFL or even AFL practice matches he impresses. Our forward line could do with some alternative options such as Chandler, JVR and Schache if players such as Brown, Spargo and Melksham aren't performing.

I liked his start to the year where he kicked 6 goals in the first 4 games including important ones against Bulldogs and Essendon. Mids that kick a goal a game are worth their weight in gold. The rest of the season didn't leave much of an impression on me and I can't even recall what position he mostly played. He'd be disappointed with being dropped from the senior 22 in round 20 leading into the Pies game. He was apparently listed as our best player in the Brisbane final. Cannot recall him playing well in that game.

Me too. Hard to believe he kicked 26.6 in 2017.

Just posing a question to the forum's members on an important policy announcement by president Roffey.

100% agree that injury really took it's toll on Lever. How many games did he go off injured only to hobble out the remainder of the game? Tearing his plantar fascia on the eve of the season didn't exactly set him up for success either. A key barometer to our defence. I can't recall too many good wins when he's had a poor game, and vice versa - rare that he's had a terrific game in a loss compared to say a May who has played really well in losses (Sydney final on Buddy) The highlight of his season was that central kick against Carlton with 30 seconds left which was too hot for Motlop to handle and then led to the Kozzie winning goal. Showed genuine football smarts in a severely pressurised situation.