Stu

One thing to consider is the dimensions of Traeger Park make it difficult to flood/congest. It is 9 metres longer and 3 metres wider than Marvel. If Ross wants to try to congest the contest, he risks us getting on the outside and leaving lots of space for our forwards to work in. 7 out of the 10 games played there have had at least one team that scored over 90 points.

Daniel Hoyne mentioned that Disco Turner's performance for the last 6 rounds has him in the Top 50 players in the competition 💪

That's a reasonable assessment. I particularly like your insight about imposter syndrome. While AJ will never be silky skilled, if he ever has a game where he takes a few marks and kicks a few goals, that confidence will likely result in his skills improving. Just feeling like you belong (in any situation) helps you to be calm and make better decisions. Right now, it looks like he's trying to do everything too quickly (in what he sees as an attempt) to keep up with the speed of the game.

Rounds 1-5 Average Score For: 61 Average Score Against: 101 Rounds 6-11 Average Score For: 97 Average Score Against: 82 A whopping 55 point turnaround in average scores!

It's easy to look at AJ and Petty's games from a stats perspective and think they contributed very little. However, Petty was able to bring the ball to ground a lot and stop McCartin from intercepting. On several occasions AJ literally bulldozed several Swans players to clear a path, got a hand in to disrupt a handball chain, or knocked the ball to the advantage of others. I think he directly assisted in 2-3 goals that wouldn't have registered a disposal. Do you each feel one goal between them is sustainable, if they routinely bring that type of forward pressure and create that number of opportunities for our small and medium players?

We brought in Jai Culley and Jack Henderson as replacements for McAdams and AMW, so Goodwin was correct in saying we don't have any list spots available.

Our record against the Swans since 2021 is WLLWWL or 3-3. The win in Round 3 2023 (JVR's debut) was excellent. Sydney had come off two huge wins and looked angry and ready to atone for the 2022 GF. I loved May's huge tackle on Warner on the MCC wing in the third!

This years trade period will be the first time we can trade picks two years in the future. While we don't have this years first pick, we can trade 2026 and 2027 picks to move up the draft order this year, or use those future picks to trade for players. MFC have been a trailblazer in future pick trading, considered the best in the AFL at it. I imagine that will continue with another years worth of picks to work with.

His turn of speed when he scooped up the loose ball inside 50 and powered away from the Eagles defenders was very impressive.

Thankfully, that can be improved with high impact gym work and specific training as @binman touched on earlier in this thread. A sprinters top speed (e.g., Usain Bolt) is all down to them striking it rich in the genetic lottery. While their acceleration is also largely influenced by genetics it can be improved with specific training to help increase explosiveness and improve mechanics during acceleration.

A goal on transition....

Are Geelong players only allowed to look 4-5 different ways? Seriously feel like they either look like SDK, Gryan Miers, Tom Adkins, or Jed Bews

AJ bulldozes it through 💪

Got to love how hard we work for a goal, and the Cats get cheap ones out the back of the F50 content.

And Billings kicks it 😀

Great forward pressure, and certainly trying to lower the eyes. Some concrete hands ruined excellent F50 entries, but the intent and commitment to the style has been encouraging.

🤣Yeah I hit submit about 3 seconds too early

Sestan's kicking is excellent

"The problem with Arsenal is they always try to walk it in..."

My read on this game is that we will be too strong for North and play 4 solid quarters. I think our ability to shift up our game plan will frustrate them. They have moments when they look to be gaining moment but we will stifle them and then score when the momentum swings back. Dees by 42.

One quality of Spargo’s that we’ve missed is his ability to hit kicks off the inside and outside of his boot. It allows him to disguise which forward he’s kicking it to, not allowing the opposition defenders from peeling off their man to where the ball is going.

It shows that he is thinking through what to do next. It shows he is a quick decision making and observer of the game. Very valuable. Players who don't have that skill are light grunts in the army - you can teach them some version of skill and smarts through pure repetition, but their ceiling is very limited. XL is clearly not a grunt.

Footage was taken:

Hore offers good versatility and allows match-day flexibility to get the right match ups for May and Lever to be more free to intercept. Against North, we could have Petty on Larkey, TMac on Darling, and Hore on Zurhaar, leaving Lever to play the intercept role.