Bring-Back-Powell

I had no idea Kozzie was only a few possessions away from being in the 20 possession 2 goal club. Hasn’t been achieved since 2011.

He also struggled on the oppo's premier forward last year. Ben King kicked a combined 7 on him across two games, Mitch Georgiadis destroyed him at the Adelaide Oval and I doubt he lasted a quarter on Jack Gunston. Even a grossly out of form Curnow had 2 goals on May before the spectators at the G had even taken their seats. May very rarely had bags kicked on him prior to 2025 which probably indicates that he's a few metres from his career finish line.

I wouldn't have Howes in the side. Panics and coughs up goals in defence when the pressure is on.

I 100% agree with this. He's a better forward than a backman. People should take a look at his 4 goal performance against Freo last year which included a set shot goal from outside 50. I worked out that if you factor in all the games he played as a full time forward and disregard the two games he got subbed out with concussion, he would have kicked a pro-rated 35ish goals in 2025 based on a full season. Not great but better than what JVR managed last year and he was the best contested mark of all our forward options prior to Mihocek coming into the side. I also agree that we missed the boat in not trading him to Adelaide because the price on offer exceeded what he's subsequently produced as both a forward and defender.

I reluctantly re-watched the first 5 games of last year to see where it all went wrong and two things I picked up that were relevant to your post. 1) Jeffo showed some sneaky great signs in the GWS round 1 game. A goal in the first 20 seconds of the game, a beautiful gather near the boundary that set up a goal to Henderson, and a classic full forward lead and subsequent goal (from a crisp Windsor pass) that appeared to seal the game at the time. 2) Petty ain't a defender either if the first 5 games were an indication. Our defence overall was a complete circus during that period but he was hopeless one-on-one, and far too slow for a modern day key defender. There's a probably a reason he was swung forward for the balance of the year.

I take back my optimism about May for the year ahead. I’m tipping a “retirement” in the early rounds. His body can no longer stand up to the rigours of AFL football will be the explanation.

You really would like to think so. They’re going to get a massive amount of exposure on Anzac eve and Kings B’day.

I'm a little surprised we keep dealing (or will in future) with GWS. They did super well out of us with Bedford who's turned into a fine player (worth more than the pick 44 they gave us), refused to release a player to us who proceeded to play a grand total of 0 senior games the following year and paid way below market prices for Clarry. Yes I get any club would have fleeced us for Oliver, but still....

I recall Max mentioning that he'll be playing State of Origin and then give Practice Match #1 a miss.

Did anyone lazily read the bit about Simon Goodwin and thought it read "Lever still doesn't agree with the Simon Goodwin decision" (sacking) A fit and firing Lever will make our defence far better this year. An outstanding reader of the play at his best. And if May can start moving like a professional athlete on the field again (as opposed to the version we saw at times last year) then I can see the "old firm" leading our backline again for round 1. They only played 5 games together last year - one of them being the impressive Sydney win.

For those going, don't expect to see Kozzie or Max in action.

Dockers are brilliantly set up forward with the show pony, Josh Treacy and Amiss. Imagine if we had that forward line. The mob down the road might be in a better position to have a crack at JVR. Last year JVR looked imposing up forward in the practice match v North with 4 snags. Then he got injured in the first minute of the Freo practice match which may have stifled his confidence as he was Casey by round 6. He ended up kicking 1 goal a game which was a worse rate than everyone's whipping boy Petty when he was played as a permanent forward from round 6. Hoping for a much improved year from JVR.

I don't disagree with any of that. SEN interviewed a Fox Sports journo (Ben Cotton) last night and he mentioned that Gold Coast have essentially one person in the rehab group and that's Charlie Ballard who's recovering from an ACL. Meanwhile we've had half a suburb frequent the rehab group this summer. We certainly haven't given ourselves the best chance of success if a collectively good pre season is the key indicator to a good season ahead. 2019 anyone!

I don’t think Pickering had Bowey listed as a B grader and he certainly didn’t have Steele as a B grader. Bowey was a high end B grader at times last year and was even talked about as an AA Smokey. Sadly we don’t have him for a bunch of the year. On the flip side Pickering had washed up Richmond has beens such as Lynch as Prestia as B graders (therefore having more A’s and B’s than Melbourne) so he’s possibly got no idea.

Yeah Liam Pickering on SEN last night was also extremely down on the Dees for 2026. He rattled off an exercise where he would list every club’s A and B graders and tally the total up. I think he had Brisbane up top with 14 or 15 A and B graders. Then right at the bottom he had Melbourne, North and West Coast at a stinking low 6 A and B Graders combined. Even Richmond had more. I can’t remember exactly who the 6 were but Gawn and Kozzie were A graders and Viney, Melksham were B. Mihocek may have been another? Maybe these media blokes are correct. Maybe we’ll be bottom two with 3 or 4 wins.

Anyone know what the issue with Melksham is? Seems to have been in rehab the entire pre season.

He may have been in the main group in early December off memory but good to see him in the main group now (in terms of round 1 selection)

I’m interested to see whether we can beat North this year in the membership tally. Unfortunately Dogs and St Kilda have left us for dead.

I think he meant 1990 too. I was being a bit disingenuous.

That was a heart breaking loss. Steven Clark had to kick a goal from 50+ metres out after the siren to draw the game with 5,000 Essendon supporters on the mark. Darren Bennett kicked 1 goal that day.

Can't be any worse than giving the MFC a bye in opening round and then giving them their second bye after Brisbane, Sydney, Carlton, Collingwood, Hawthorn and GWS have all had both their byes despite playing in opening round.

St Kilda supporters were furious they traded him. I'm cautiously optimistic about him but he didn't have a particularly good 2025.

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.