Bring-Back-Powell

Went down to Casey Fields for an hour this morning. A beautiful sunny and non windy morning (a rarity for Casey) for the lads to train in. Was a bit of a treat to watch some footy given the 17 games spent watching in the lounge room last year. I took my viewing position behind the fence in the pleb section and saw everyone's favorite mercurial small forward of the mid 1990's -early 2000's watching his son and the boys intently. I picked a great day for it as it was essentially an intra club game, for the 60 minutes I was there. They had the blue team with numbers on versus the white team with no numbers, and given the blue team won 9.5 to 3.1 you could probably imagine the blue boys had the much stronger line up! (More game simulation may have continued after I left at 11???) The standard looked OK but given I haven't been to a training session since a week before the infamous 2013 season started, I have nothing to compare. Notes for the blue team: Petracca - looked a million bucks rotating through midfield and forward and kind of looks a class above everyone else - not sure if that's a positive or a negative? His chizzling kicks and overhead marking is a thing of beauty. Hunt - played as a half back flanker circa 2016/2017. Looked ok. T Mac - Played wing in the first half of the session. Then as the third key/floating fwd in the second half. Looks fit, no issues. B Brown - Kicked 2 difficult set shots that essentially nobody at the club can drill. Very excited to have him at the club. Will probably kick a lot of goals via free kicks. Harmes - Played exclusively in the centre square and did not play well. Seems a distance away from 2018 and isn't excelling at any position at the moment (ie -since 2019) Tomlinson - Looks settled down back as a key defender, continuing on from his late season recovery after the wing failure. May was in rehab but I think Tomlinson will be there regardless come round 1. Jordon - Not sure if he'll make it but he was heavily involved today through the middle of the ground and featured in many transitions towards the forward 50. Moves well and I reckon he'll play games this year. Lockhart - Starting back pocket while Jetta was in the white side. Fritsch - Becoming one of my favs. 2 or 3 goals and adds some class to our forward line. Kicked a nice set shot today. Gawn - Nailed a nice set shot today. Spargo - I'll have to wash my mouth out with soap but Charles looked good at half forward, involved in a fair bit of play. The new draftees played for the white side. REHAB Boys: May, Brayshaw, Vanders, Pickett and Smith. I suspect May, Pickett and Smith are injured as this pre-season is too short for players to miss back to back sessions for no good reason. Jackson ran laps. Didn't see Hibberd or Melksham. Not sure if Viney was absent or playing for the white side. Hopefully there were other posters at Casey today who can add to the above, and provide a more ""footy technical" training report.

Geez that's concerning if true. I'd have hoped he's in rehab with a slight niggle, not because he can't keep up with the others. He's a well paid professional athlete FCS! And the COVID breach with his mate Charles was less than professional. His lack of fitness might explain some of his poor shots on goal last year. He really did miss some sitters that other small forwards eat up for breakfast. With respect to the Rioli comparison, I can see where he's coming from. Kozzie can def do some things that 99% of the league can't with his awareness and cleverness. But he obviously needs to start nailing the shots on goal that Cyril would kick in his sleep.

Jeff debuted as a 17 year old in round 1 1995 against Geelong where he kicked a goal on debut. He didn't do much in his debut season with 4 goals in 7 games. Presumably wasn't ready for the big time. However, in 1996 he went off like a rocket and kicked 37 goals as an 18/19 year old including a combined 9 over the last 2 games. He never looked back. Sadly I totally lost interest in him when he was traded to Freo for the 2002 season. The highlight of his career was kicking 8 goal in prelim final in 2000 - a small forward crumber kicking 8 goals in a prelim is absurd. It would take a special talent to have the career the wizard had, but fingers crossed he gets on the list and we have another small forward to partner up with Kozzie.

Thank you sir. There are certainly some names there held in high esteem and Demon royalty. Bishop, Grgic...the names rattle off the tongue!

I've had that feeling since 2019 that he might want a fresh start. Another say-so season and he'll be traded for sure IMO.

Hopefully he can do the famous number 48 and Kyle Dunkley (and whoever wore it before) justice....

Didn't Melksham play the majority of the last 2 games in the midfield in a run with role? Could be a midfield regular this year?

Too true. However the whole side has barely trained as a unit yet, so poor skills on a 'wintry' Melbourne day in January can be expected, especially at the wind affected Casey. If we can't hit a target on the Wednesday before the Freo game, then it's panic stations.

Could go either way with Hannan. He might kick 35 goals for the Dogs this year and we'll regret not offering him higher coin. Or he'll continue to be injured and/or float between AFL and VFL.

Good. Should be our second choice key defender this year behind May, with Lever taking less responsibility and more freedom to take his trademark intercept marks. For instance, May takes Tom Lynch while T Mac takes Riewoldt. Excellent training report by the way.

I'm neither a fan or a critic of Bartlett but I loved his best and fairest speech (via video) Was rightfully snaky about missing finals and reminded the players numerous times about how unacceptable it was missing finals YET AGAIN! Was good to hear. I think the party's over for a few if we miss finals again this year (including Bartlett himself)

I was flabbergasted to find out that ANB once kicked 27 goals in a season. Also came home with a wet sail in 2020 with 4 goals in the last 4 games.....three more than Weideman during that period.

Don't like your chances. The first one has an attitude problem, the second has sadly been laid to rest and the third one is too skinny for league footy.

Not sure how Brayshaw and Harmes can step up next year (after poorish seasons) when Petracca, Viney and Oliver own the centre square. Brayshaw is an absolute inside midfielder by trade and is simply not that good as a winger or flanker with only limited inside minutes. I could be wrong but I assume that Brayshaw played far more minutes in the guts in 2018 when he finished 3rd in the brownlow. Harmes clearly has played his best AFL footy as a run with player in the midfield, as evidenced by back to back BOG's (according to the coaches votes) in 2018 in round 23 and the week 1 final V's Geelong. He hasn't really provided any point of difference as a half back flanker. Petracca clearly can be thrown forward more often, but Viney is untried as a forward and Oliver never really provides scoreboard pressure when he's resting forward.

I remember that game when he kicked 6. Against North on a Friday night in 2000. Looked like the dominant full forward we were craving for who would perfectly compliment Neitz and Schwarz. Ofcourse like so many other potential forward stars that could’ve been at the MFC, it didn’t work out.

And I agree that he won’t be sacked off 3-3 but I reckon he’ll have a bit of work to do if we’re only breaking even after rd 6.

In theory yes but it’s a long season, some of last years poor to average sides might be much improved next year and we habitually stuff up 1 or 2 games when we’re hot favourites. A strong start is imperative if we’re any chance of finals given our proven lack of consistency. 3-3 and it sounds like another middle of the road and inconsistent Goodwin season IMO.

Quite a punishing first 6 weeks for Goody and he’ll need to be 4-2 at worst if he’s any change of making finals and hence keeping his job. We need to be consistently ahead of the ledger all season as we have a penchant under Goodwin for dropping games to bad teams in the second half of seasons for absolutey no good reason and it coming back to cost us top 4 and top 8 spots in 2017, 2018 and 2020) (2017 - North and Collingwood. 2018 - St Kilda. 2019 - St Kilda and Sydney 2020- Sydney) We also generally have a poor to mediocre first 5 to 6 rounds under Goodwin forcing us to go on 3-4 winning streaks mid season such as 2017 and 2020. The first 6 rounds are very punishing as follows: Fremantle - Will make us fight to the last minute under Longmuir. If the side goes to sleep for a quarter, we will lose this game. St Kilda - Were a pretty serious side in 2020 and will only go up a notch at Marvel. GWS - Have a great record in Canberra. Even better than Giants Stadium. Geelong - Always hard to beat but we’ve come very close in the last two home and away game we’ve played them at the G. A season defining game for Goodwin IMO and has yet to beat Geelong in the regular season. Hawthorn - We have no business losing this game and Goodwin has a great recent record over the Hawks. Richmond - Goodwin also hasn’t beaten Richmond and hasn’t really gotten close aside from a terrific game of footy on Anzac Eve 2017. He needs to beat one of Richmond or Geelong in the first 6 rounds to show that we’re on the upward trend under Goodwin and to take our first major scalp since late 2018. We then have 4 teams that are likely to highly likely to miss finals. A 4-2 or 5-1 start could really set up our season assuming we don’t have any accidents. A big first up 6 weeks.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/third-afl-coach-splits-with-wife-as-devastating-impact-of-2020-season-grows/news-story/e1a9388701124dfa8ef6fb92ab6ae07e News.com.au reporting a third coach has split with this wife but has refused to name the coach. Not suggesting it’s Goodwin, but....

Port and Adelaide certainly bubbled in SE Queensland between rounds 3 and 7.

Absolutely. I would have no sympathy for Brisbane if they had to hub in VIC this year. They played just 3 games outside of QLD in 2020 and played a bunch of away games in the comfort of Metricon. And interestingly they lost 2 of their 3 interstate trips. They had one of the biggest fixture advantages in recent history and only have themselves to blame for not making the grand final when they had the inside running.

And I’d love to know who was responsible for playing a 7 foot 8 ruckman at full forward in wild tropical conditions for a return of 3 possessions, 1 mark and 0.0. We all saw it as an own goal when the teams were announced to play Freo in a season defining game. Why couldn’t the coaching staff?

All the best mate.

Working from home was pretty damn good though. And some of the wins we had certainly livened up the VIC lockdown (Hawks, Saints, GWS, Pies)