Bring-Back-Powell

Yeah I recall you wrote that we were playing North at Casey on 14th Feb. That date seemed a bit early for the first practice match,

Apparently we're off to Arden Street for a praccy match on potentially Saturday 22 February. https://www.afl.com.au/news/1262861/full-schedule-broadcast-details-tickets-on-sale-for-afl-practice-games-and-match-simulations-ahead-of-2025-season The last time we played North at Arden Street in a practice match, we had a bit of a minor pandemic a couple of weeks later....

Well that's a damn shame. We're not exactly blessed in the small forward department in the early rounds.

I know it was just a praccy match out at Casey but he snagged a couple of beautys in his first appearance to suggest that goal kicking isn’t foreign to Brown.

Fair call. But he was up against it as soon as Moore went off with concussion, in the current climate. Bad things happen when ever we play Collingwood. Retirements, Injuries, suspensions, bad losses etc…bummed we play them twice again this year.

You’d think the plan is that he’ll be here until at least the end of 2026 and then possibly be traded at that point, at peak value, before he becomes a free agent where we’d only get a singular draft pick via compo.

I don’t 100% disagree. Although I’ve seen him be a handy cog in Adelaide’s forward line in previous years. A lot of people blaming Darcy Moore and the supposedly anti Melbourne tribunal for the latest unlucky decision against Kozzie. At the end of the day, since the start of 2023 he will have missed 7 games through suspension including the latest two season openers. When do you stop blaming others and start holding the player accountable for costing his club?

A Freo supporter on Bigfooty alleges Kozzie had a meeting with Longmuir and he couldn’t have reached for the exit door quick enough. Hopedully there is a semblance of truth to that.

We were absolutely spoilt with training reports before Christmas, both in quality and quantity.

Rather than significant draft capital I really wish we'd demand Josh Treacy (or to a lesser extent Jye Amiss) who looks ready to take the league by storm as potent goal kicking key forward. Freo's season went down the toilet after Treacy went down. Freo need to give up something big in order to receive something big. The price has to be expensive for a contracted player.

Hopefully they have another training session at Casey on the Australia Day Monday holiday. Last year it was a small step below a full scale intra-club game.

Harsh but more than fair.

Watching that young man rip up a finals vs. the Dogs - wow! Can see why we were heavily interested in him and he would have solved some of our forward line woes going forward.

If that's the case Freo are going to have to get really creative and involve a third or fourth club as they appear to be on the rise and will likely hold mid teen + first round draft picks for the next couple of years. Or they could hand over Josh Treacy to solve our forward line woes, but they won't.

An absolute disaster IMO, and will cost us a win in the first 3 rounds such is his importance to the team. Whenever we need a goal to stem the flow, Kozzie can be relied upon to kick a goal from nowhere. Think the miracle win against Brisbane in 2023 when Melksham kicked the winner. But It was Kozzie that kicked the first of the last 4 goals to get us back in the game. Not a direct replacement but there's certainly a vacancy for McAdam to make up the projected 2 goals a game we miss out from Kozzie.

In three consecutive losses against Collingwood: 1) We've lost a club great due to a crude hit 2) We lost out best player for the second half of that season, effectively ending our season at the time 3) Lost our gun small forward live wire for the first 3 games of the next season, potentially threatening our W/L record to start the 2025 season. What's next?

Also talk that Freo are heavily into Ian Hill from Collingwood. Norm Smith medallist that's getting paid a pittance with Collingwood ($400,000 per year)

Ask them for Josh Treacy or Jye Amiss to our address our forward line. If they can’t come to the party then he can honour his contract here. If he’s so home sick, as was reported in 2023, I have no idea why he’d sign a 4 year extension that year. Sounds as though he’d like to move to WA rather than needing to go.

In terms of trade value, and assuming Kozzie doesn't have an amazing All Australian year, you couldn't expect more that what they paid for Shai Bolton. Essentially 10 and 18 to Richmond with a few things going back to Freo (11 also went to Richmond but they gave 14 back to Freo) Bolton has an All Australian under his belt. I also noticed we play Collingwood in round 24. If he's out the door (and we're out of business) then I hope he's not on his best behaviour that night.

Is McAdam in full training? Thanks in advance.

Disco’s been in rehab for a while now.

Rounds 1, 2 and 3 could provide a bit of an answer on what life will look like post Kozzie. One tough game and two winnables on paper. He's missed 8 games in his career and we're 4-4 in those results, but 1-3 in the last 4 games he's missed through suspension. Weirdly out of the 8 games he's missed, Brisbane and Sydney have been the beneficiaries of 5 of those.

Then West Coast in round 8 which I'm sure the boys will be itching to atone from last year's disaster over there. 4-3 is good on paper, but we have a really tough 3 weeks from rounds 9-11 with Hawthorn, Brisbane (away) then Sydney. May have to win a statement game against Fremantle or Geelong in Geelong (ideally get to 6-2) to bank some early wins before that challenging 3 weeks. There's also a horror four weeks where we have Port, bye, GC and Adelaide all away.

Mostly agree with that aside from the Freo game. If we beat Fremantle, we’re making finals IMO.

Jack Lukosius should be a logical replacement for Marshall as that third key forward option. Good bit of recruiting in hindsight by Port.