Bring-Back-Powell

Out of those 19 locks for round 1, I have queries about the two Xaviers for round 1 - Lindsay and Taylor. Only going by training reports but I haven't heard any positive reports for Lindsay (comparable to others) and he's been in rehab a fair bit. Meanwhile Taylor sounds like he might need some development at Casey before being considered for AFL selection. Out of the 13 players fighting for the last 4 spots, does anyone have intel on Melksham or Mihocek's chances for round 1? What are their plans in February in terms of ramping things up?As I intimated earlier, I can see Petty starting the year up forward if Jeffo doesn't have a good practice match series and Kentfiled isn't ready (assuming Melk/Checkers are unavailable)

I’d have Petty as a forward in round 1 particularly if Mihocek misses the early rounds. One of the man reasons he was swung forward in round 5, and permanently remained there, was because he was quite frankly poor as a key defender, particularly his infamous performance V Geelong. Therefore I’m not sure why he’s going back. He’s the best contested mark that our forward line has to offer and will kick 35 goals if he plays an entire season as a forward. Disco, T Mac, Lever, May and Adams provide plenty of options down back to cover Petty.

Along with the previous training reports, your post reinforces that Windsor, Kozzie, Culley and Salem would be in the top 5 pre season performers at the club in terms of match sim and availability. And if you had to choose a player to have an outstanding pre season, Windsor would be high on that list, touch wood. Hopefully JVR has a big February on the track after a solid hit out yesterday. After a 4 goal performance against North in the first practice of last year, he got injured in the opening minute of the Freo praccy game which ruined any momentum going into round 1. He never got going last year.

I said the same thing down at Geelong one day in 2013 when Chris Dawes kicked half our total score of 30 points and we got wiped off the floor by Geelong in pouring rain on a 10 degree day “it will be all worth it one day when we get to the see the boys win a flag at the G.” Still might one day but we’re now miles away IMO. We finished top 2 in 2022 and should’ve made a grand final with essentially the same side as 2021 although we paid the price by only trading in Dunstan from St Kilda. Premiership teams should be adding more established guns to their list to keep ahead of the pack. As for the question, Goodwin was definitely a factor in the premiership win /the 40 minutes and richly deserved all the credit in the world. He absolutely coached his tail off that year as he turned his team around from a poor to middling side (2019 and 2020 respectively) to the tremendous product we all saw while negotiating the challenges of COVID. He sold a vision at the end of 2020 and the players clearly brought in. And that all culminated in the 40 minutes in question as the team knew when to turn it on at the exact time required. A pity that he went backwards as a coach at a pretty fast rate and the club made the courageous but painfully obvious call in August last year.

Josh Jenkins, who has always been on seat 1A on the anti Melbourne bus and predicted our downfall before anyone else, has somehow given us a chance to make the wild card weekend. Interesting as I would’ve thought he’d be backing us to win the spoon.

I’d be happy with 12th this year. Definitely the upper end of what we’re capable of this year.

I don't disagree with any of that but didn't Max miss 6 weeks of pre season last year and then went onto have one of his best seasons ever? I'd be surprised if this injury impacts his performance at all. Melksham also had a bunch of time on the sidelines and proceeded to play some of his best ever games last year. Meanwhile blokes like McVee and Kolt had interrupted pre seasons last year and went onto have poor seasons. The best teams no doubt have the best pre seasons but some players can seemingly get away with a poor pre season.

WIth King's apparent round 1 "clean slate" it wouldn't shock me if Sparrow's not in it. A nice-ish handy player that's become a part of the furniture and has only managed 20+ touches in 8 of his last 50 games. He tantalised us all with a 23ish possession 3 goal game in a 2024 pre season game V Carlton but couldn't parlay that A grade level into home and away form. I like that he can take a strong grab (his point of difference as a player of his size) as that high forward outlet but I want more.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing but was it necessary to drop him after the Collingwood qualifying final loss? Mistake after mistake. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity. Playing Josh Schache as an unused sub. You'd have to wonder if having the Pig down back that night may have saved one of the four goals we conceded in the last qtr to win the game??

Interesting that Trac hasn’t been selected yet for the VICs.

The game is currently listed as Casey Fields.

Dees V North match simulation (sort of announced) on Friday February 20 with a time TBC. 7 quarters. Awesome timeslot if you're retired, unemployed or pretend to work from home.

I think 90% of people on this forum share this view. Unfortunately our other star is eligible to play on a technicality (while Will Ashcroft is ineligible to play on a technicality)

It’s an atrocious injury list at this time of year considering they’ve just had a 3 week break and we haven’t had any serious practice matches yet. Hopefully things settle down and we’ll only have Bowey missing for round 1.

That one totally went over my head. I thought you were referring to Melksham or CJ as being a smart Alec to you at training today.

Who misses just a fortnight with a strained calf?

Does anyone have information on Viney's timetable? Is he in doubt for the early rounds or are they slowly building him up for round 1?

Who was the reply from? Sounds like a bit of poor form. Better not risk him for State of Origin...

I'll have the popcorn ready...

The club reported he'll be on the sidelines through to early June (approx). Anything more than that and I reckon they'll pull the pin on his season and he can be cherry ripe for the next pre season.

I don't know why but the training ground situation doesn't bother me all that much. Carlton, North and Essendon have the so called "Taj Mahal" of training head quarters and all three clubs have been complete horse manure since they set up digs. Neither club has attracted many (f any) marquee players as a result of their world class establishments. Unless you call Cerra, Zac Williams and Luke Parker super stars of the sport. We on the other hand won a flag with so called second world facilities. Just give me a win on a Saturday and I'm happy.

Knowing our luck he'll have a 15/15 season instead of the 4/0 season of last year. As in 15 goals / 15 Brownlow votes for GWS this year.

Hopefully Lindsay is ok. Wasn’t there concern with his foot in one of the last training sessions last year?

This is where I sit as well. 8 or 9 wins would be nice while stopping the repeated nonsense of losing games despite more scoring shots. Hopefully King brings some offensive efficiency to the club. Given we’re 8-21 (27%) from our last 29 games, I can’t entertain the idea of a top 10 finals birth this year like some others have. At the very best, we have a 2020 like season (with a slightly worse W/L) where we potentially start the season slowly after a terrible end to 2019, but build nicely in the second half and carry that momentum into the following year.

If Oliver didn’t play a game in 2025, how many less wins would have we had last year? If the answer is 0 to 1 less win, then perhaps that’s one of the reasons we traded him.