rpfc

Yes, I think great tall forwards are a luxury in todays game. Although 6-6-6 is changing that to some degree; they are dependent roles. Dependent on quick ball movement, kicks to ever decreasing space, and dependent on having teammates worth playing on otherwise you be double teamed and rendered ineffectual. The hybrid model is an interesting name for it; it’s just one less tall replaced for a medium player who can hit up and hit people up while also not being a problem when we are defending the ground. Melksham is a limited player in his last season most likely but has made a difference because he knows where to be and is a smart operator when given a negating role. I think we have to freshen up that forward line a little next year and give it back a point of difference. It’s trying to be all things I feel - talls for slow play, a small distributor, a small speedy pressure player, a defensive run with midfield adjunct to help Petracca, etc. This is all eye of the beholder but I would de-emphasise talls for slow play, have Brown deeper, layer on help for Kozzie in the pressure department, and partner Fritsch with another lead up player to catch the eye of our mids. So this assumes we move it quickly and less to pockets and will put us more at risk of turnover and slingshot but we have a stable of Rolls Royce’s in the midfield - let’s see some revs. And I am assuming the bench is a flat 5 for the resting ruck to spend some time on the bench. So moving Melksham, ANB, and some of the resting rucks time to accomodate the above. I would put ANB on the wing.

I don’t disagree. I just haven’t encountered, until last season, a team and a high performance person advertise playing and training through injury/niggle/whatever as a point of difference like they did and do. I can only watch on from afar and lump it, I just know they are really straddling that line when you see Lever with his boot off at half time or Petty struggling to jog before another trip down into the rooms for a jab.

So Jake Spencer is back for Casey today… 33 in October… … Still quite tall…

Yeah, but you want to go to see them at the G yeah? Enjoy the experience?

BT said they are playing for a home final against us. That’s unlikely. They would need Coll to beat Sydney this Sunday and Carl to best Coll in the last round. It’s the only way. We win both and unless Coll and StK capitulate against Sydney we will have a home QF.

Don’t know if it will be you carrying the torches…

You occasionally remind me of Range Rover, who was a particularly heinous and nauseating poser on here years ago.

@binman; Salem kicked the ball 35m in the 2nd minute of round one with a strapped knee and was out of the game for 15 minutes, then put back on, then subbed out for 11 games. I am not worried about his ‘welfare,’ I am worried about my welfare! You don’t eff around with your star players and I felt that that decision to play a clearly hampered player went over the line from resilience to ‘whatever-word-defines-a-star-being-out-for-three-months.’ That’s the wager they are making with this ‘resilience training/playing’ and I think it is fine with bodies that are fresher than we were after a long season playing a strenuous and demanding style. Just seen a number of our better players playing clearly hampered this year…

I just like alliteration…

What are we doing on here then? And you of all people are comfortable with making assumptions of the program. We have been straddling the line playing players with niggles who shouldn’t be playing. I am comfortable saying that playing injured players is fraught and, at times, reckless.

Again, there is no veteran discount. We would pay him $650k in your scenario until 2027. That currently is just under 5% of the cap of $13.5m. A gamble we don’t need to take.

Difference is we are coming off a season that lasted an extra month and players played through more in finals because that’s what you do. When I went and saw Rivers and Salem hobbling in Round 1 I knew it was nonsense. There is resilience and there is reckless.

Yes, I believe it builds ‘resilience’ according to some nonsense that got regurgitated on here.

All I’m asking is who is in the team!

There are no changes.

I can see that, but what are the changes?

Yeah, I was never too fond of this desire to play JVR. It’s the hardest spot on the ground to play and we are really struggling to spot up leading players or even players in space. Don’t think he would be setup to succeed.

Hey guys, umm could you be more aware of the free bloke in our forward line? Look a bit more laterally? Ta.

They want to clear $700k from their cap. We GET the 2nd rounder, not give it up… This is a classic NBA salary dump. They pay, we don’t.

I hope this is just due diligence. I just don’t see how tiring up that much cap for 5 years is worth it on a 2nd ruckman. And I know what the intention is with Gawn to be predominant forward, but what do they say about plans when it meets the enemy? You have to trust this FD but, yeah, I would kick those tyres and then say no thanks unless the Pies want to bend over.

What does Luke say about Planets? Also, should you be pulling from the Book of Luke? Bit on the nose?

At the moment, Grundy's contract is an albatross around Collingwood's neck. I am not so generous a man to relieve that suffering without a few certainties; he can recover from his injury, we don't take on more than half his wage, we give very little in draft capital, and it doesn't impact our ability to get a Georgiades/Naughton/ready to go tall forward.

The sky went blue eventually. Hope it stays that way for a while yet.

This place was called ‘Strawberry Fields’ by the carnival barker TGR two decades ago so I don’t know about that…

Yeah, it was ‘is the sky blue?’ Type thing IIRC.