Bring-Back-Powell

People are talking like this bloke is a complete potato. He did manage 3 goal 20+ possession games in consecutive weeks/wins over Brisbane and North back in April. And he also managed a 4 goal 25 possession 9 mark game at Adelaide oval on a Friday night later in the year. He kicked 21 goals in 16 games which is serviceable. How many goals did T Mac manage in his miserable 16 games this year?

I think that ship's sailed with a potential transaction coming up in the next few months.

Makes compete sense to me. Our key forward depth chart is scarily non-existent. We can't even lean on Tim Smith anymore. We had to play O Mac at CHF in round 21, and he even went down (along with Petty) with injury leaving us with absolutely no-body to play key forward against Sydney in round 22. Our list management got found out right there.

If that's the case, we're not winning more than 5 games next year. We don't have any other established key forwards which is concerning.

Back for the Anzac eve game?

And yet the team who finished second last doesn't get access to any of them.

My side is specific for round 1, not necessarily our official best 22. 1) Petty might not necessarily be in our best 22 but he may be needed to counter West Coast’s tall forward line, seeing as though we’ve lost Frost. 2) Agreed, Harmes is more of a mid, but on paper Viney, Brayshaw and Oliver get first dibs as inside mids. Plus Harmes looked quite good in defence in rd 23. 3) Hunt, Hannan and Lockhart in my side highlight our dire need for a small forward. We may end up sacrificing best available by drafting a small fwd at pick 8. This also leads to me think Garlett’s departure was more of a retirement than a delisting, as I feel we still need his services. Furthermore, I think we miss the goal kicking nous of Watts, Kent and Garlett but they ain’t coming back. 4) I strongly believe VDB and J Smith would greatly improve this 22, by adding a bit of X-factor to our fwd line. Hope they’re available round 1. 5) I agree, it’s not a great 22. Some years it’s hard to do a 22 because if feels as though we’ve had good depth. Next year’s 22 feels the opposite - hard to do a 22 as there’s players with question marks - Petty, Lockhart, Hannan, Weed, Hunt, Tomlinson and even Salem (who I don’t rate as much as others. Great at the 25 mtr stab passes, but what else?

B) Jetta May Lever HB) Hibberd Petty Harmes C) Langdon Brayshaw Tomlinson HF) Petracca Weideman Melksham F) Fritsch T Mac Hunt Foll) Gawn Oliver Viney Int) N Jones, Hannan, Lockhart, Salem I would have Smith and VDB in the side but who knows with their injuries??

Exactly. ‘Something out of nothing goals’ He showed this in his debut vs St Kilda where he snapped a goal from nowhere. That’s why I’m willing to persist with him. But I also acknowledge there’s a fair chance he doesn’t make it past this year, and probably wouldn’t be in everyone’s best 22.

Hopefully he has a strong JLT and earns a round 1 gig. Was influential (3 goals) at Optus in our win there in 2018. Is a natural goal kicker and our forward line is screaming out for that type with the losses of Watts, Garlett and Kent over the last 3 years, all who knew where the goals were.

Did I not eat humble pie above and admit I was wrong?

No they weren’t in my opinion. Salem was very good until about round 15. Then whether it was injury or form, he struggled in the last 6 or so weeks. Petracca had the best year of his career, after a slow start. Was it fantastic? No. Was it a good year? Yes. Gawn and Oliver were the only players to have fantastic years.

Fair call, absolutely. I just thought the below post by LH rang true to me with regards to the usual suspects leading the way in the right behaviours on the training track and on game day. Then yes, I got a little carried away with criticism of a couple of players that clearly upset other posters. However, I’m not backing away from the fact that the likes of Salem and Petrcca haven’t lived up to expectations yet in their careers, but I suppose that’s not the point here.

Speaking of Viney, was watching a few of our highlights from 2016 and he was banging through classy goals from 50, and looked fantastic. Something he hasn’t done recently. Also pulled off a 39 touch 3 Brownlow vote performance in that breakthrough win over Hawthorn. If he can get back to that kind of form, imagine what that could do to our midfield. Hopefully his prolonged injury issues means the best isn’t behind him?

I wasn’t privy to this information as I don’t live on social media. Well done to both lads. Let’s see if it translates on-field

Fair call. Let’s hope they both have a great year.

Pick 9, 2013 Pick 2, 2014 Both need to take another step up next year.

Yes. You can tell the players on our list that want to get the best out of themselves as footballers and for their club.

Yes I’ve got no doubt they can have a jog on their holidays. You make an excellent point. The point I was making was that the senior players who made it to training this week (eg- Gawn and Harmes) are players that are getting the absolute best of themselves, creating excellent examples to their teammates and are carving out fulfilled careers thus far. Meanwhile a couple of those top 10 draft picks that haven’t seen fit to make an early appearance for whatever reason (and I concede they have no obligation to) haven’t gone anywhere near reaching the levels they could as footballers and are nowhere near in the best 50 players in the league.

Speaking of intent: Gawn, the best player at the club and easily in the best 18 players in the league by a country mile makes it to day one of training for the juniors, 2 weeks before he’s required. Meanwhile we have others talented players on paper (one who had a pathetic end to the season) that could be stars, are still on holidays overseas.

I don't like the idea, but there's always a bolter.

I think Carlton are a sneaky chance to make the 8 next year and win a final.

I had to take a week off work after celebrating that monumental achievement.

Agree to some extent, in that we poorly managed/planned our 2019 season and paid for it dearly. However, hopefully the three finals we played will be an invaluable experience and investment for the coming years, unlike the Bulldogs this year who's finals campaign lasted 5 minutes. We've showed we can handle MCG finals heat in front of 90,000! Furthermore, the way some of our ' 2018-2019 rehab' players such as Viney, Petracca, Harmes, T Mac and Jetta all played in August and September 2018 probably couldn't justify an early finish to their seasons for surgery,

I follow the Mariners closely as I used to live in Seattle. Let’s just say they are a complete disaster of an organisation . Have rebuilt about 6 times in the last 10 years, including going through one as we speak. One could probably write a book on how not to run a sporting franchise, and base it on the Mariners.