old55

That's not correct IMO. We have a very talented list and most of it is under 25. We had a shocking year in 2019 but that was the aberration. A fit list with an extra year and a good preseason, add a bit of Langdon and Tomlinson, one of KK or VDB and we will be right back in the thick of the action.

Frawley get canned here and he has been overall ordinary at Hawthorn. But he was instrumental in their 2015 flag when the moved him back after playing him forward in the first week. He kept Walker/Jenkins, Pavlich and Kennedy quiet in successive weeks.

Ty Vickery says hi Rono

Clarko is a great coach and his record is terrific but he hasn't reached "genius" yet. He won 4 flags in a single list cycle which is fantastic but IMO he needs to back it up with flags in another cycle to be a genius. Recently he has been topping up with mature players to achieve that and has yo-yoed in and out of finals, losing in straight sets twice. He has bet the Hawthorn farm on mature talent - he needs a flag in this cycle.

I'm not an ANB fan but part of the explanation is likely to be that Frost is asking for more per year than we're paying NB for the entire contract.

For your opinion to be credible you need to back it up with reasoning. Tell how James Harmes hasn't improved since he joined the club?

31st in the AFL for average marks per game. He'll continually present and provide an option for escape from defensive 50.

Became hard to tackle and hard to bring down in a tackle this year. That will really boost his confidence going forward. I want to see him regain his one grab marking. He's a confidence player and a decent kick, his set shot shockers should disappear.

I believe you've confused me with someone else. I've never compared either Stretch or ANB with Lewis and I haven't mentioned Lewis in this thread. I can leave ANB out of my suggestion and simply make it "why wasn't Billy tried as a defensive forward because this is likely to suit his attributes and be his best position."

Baffling when they already have Stanley who is a better player. They need a real ruckman, I guess that's why they went hard after Goldstein. They could actually do worse than Preuss.

Frost had a very good Frost year. Can he improve even further? He's the only player outside Max, Clarry and possibly Salem, Fritsch and Harmes who actually increased their trade value this year and trading any of them is in a different league from considering a Frost trade. Posters focussing on what we might get in return and those saying "sell high" are on the right track.

The decisions with ball in hand in the ANB role are much simpler than the decisions on the wing. Kick goal, kick to leading teammate, kick to top of the square. Billy's exacting personality hurt him up the field because he is afraid of making bad decisions. He never got the chance to play ANB's simpler role so comparisons are not valid.

Unsure why Billy was never tried in the ANB role. Has similar aerobic attributes and discipline and is a better tackler and kick.

Nine posts from you on this. Dig in!

I love Brodie Grundy as player and man (he came across very impressively in the recent ABC doco on the 2018 Collingwood season). I'm on record rating him a superior player and more valuable than Max, which is saying something. But he won't look back on his PF performance fondly. Despite dominating Mumford all game he failed to get connection with his talented midfield. I think Max would have mixed up his tap zones much more. Brodie just seemed to drop it in close every time and it wasn't working. His last 2 minutes were particularly poor. He had an uncharacteristic ground ball fumble and lost the ruck contests 3-4 to Mummy in a concentrated stoppage battle. https://www.afl.com.au/video/featured-programs/last-two-minutes

How do you know this?

Contested possessions this finals series: WC 138 d Ess 116 Coll 136 d Geel 157 GWS 167 d Dogs 125 Rich 144 d Bris 157 Geel 151 d WC 128 GWS 131 d Bris 155 Rich 125 d Geel 145 GWS 164 d Coll 148 Average across all finals so far = 143 Average contested possessions for the year: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_team_rankings?advv=Y Range Port 155.6 - WC 135.8 Contrary to popular belief, including mine, it doesn't look like contested possessions go up in finals or that the team that wins the contest wins the final.

And the people at the club and who support the club are real Australian Rules people.

I could equally argue that the Gold Coast path is the norm - there's a million ways to fail and very few to succeed. The truth is somewhere in the middle and Gold Coast have done poorly while GWS have excelled. People bleat about the draft concessions that the start-ups had and how they've disadvantaged other clubs. The bottom 4 teams in 2010 - the year GC had their draft concessions were Brisbane, Essendon, Richmond, West Coast (16th) The bottom 5 teams in 2011 - the year GWS had their draft concessions were Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Port, Gold Coast (17th) All these teams have subsequently played finals and 2 of them have won flags. The are great football people at GWS who have given blood for the cause like Alan McConnell the last coach of Fitzroy. He has been at GWS since day dot, try telling him he doesn't deserve some success.

GWS in the GF and Gold Coast on the bottom - yeah it's foolproof. I admire what they've created at GWS and I am firmly on them this week. It's the battle of the two best club songs.

Will he play though? He came in this week and 3 will have to go out if Greene, Whitfield and Coniglio play.

Caro in The Age wrote that Essendon talked to Richo about mentoring Rutten in 2020.

Whitfield is a beautiful player but I'm unsure how he likes it when it's finals hot. He was superb vs the Dogs but the Giants toasted them. He was invisible against the Lions when it was super hot. It will be fascinating to see how he goes vs the Pies.

Luke Dahlhaus went to Geelong on a reported 4 year x $500k contract and the Dogs received 2nd round compensation for him. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/exclusive-premiership-bulldog-luke-dahlhaus-set-to-join-geelong-on-a-longterm-deal/news-story/5228f9820e74213fb9206fd4073f2fa8 https://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/news/2018-10-05/bulldogs-received-second-round-compensation In your quoted article it does say: "According to a Herald Sun report, the 26-year-old [Patton] is likely to sign a cut-price two-year deal in the ballpark of $360,000 per season if he is acquired by the Hawks during the AFL Trade Period." https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/gws-giants-star-jonathan-patton-set-to-join-hawthorn/e7669d45-75c2-424c-a903-d873683467b1 There's no way that will net a 2nd round compo pick, might net a 3rd round, maybe even nothing.

Setting aside Kelly, Whitfield and Cameron, Zach Williams is probably the player I think best suits our needs. He's RFA in 2020 when the Giants have all sorts of other list issues. I'd do 3 for 12 and Williams.