old55

It's interesting that Jason Castagna, a similar player playing a similar role, retired this year at 26 with 134 games and 3 flags, citing the pressure of maintaining high standards. AFL is very tough to play and it can't be easy for less skilled players to be consistent.

Puts ANB on track for 200 games at MFC.

Ever since Beveridge went to the club.

Part time umpiring is a problem but I can understand why the umpiring community is unenthusiastic about going full time. How much are they going to get paid? Likely not as much as the lowest regular list players. That means - umpire full time for 5 to 15 years on even $150-200k/year, then what for the next 30 to 40 years? Non umpires will have established a career while they're umpiring and they also won't have the benefit of post-playing job opportunities that players have through club supporters.

But Fremantle and Richmond who made it last year won't this year and the Dogs are going to find it hard too. Two in two out - the average over the years.

"How to play the flute: blow in one end and move your fingers up and down on the outside." - Monty Python.

I imagine the rule was written this way to stop the kicking team using a man to shepherd the man on the mark and prevent him from engaging with the kicker when he plays on. Clarkson's Hawthorn sides were rampant with this. And it probably got generalised to include any player from either team. The stand rule has significantly reduced the need for the shepherd though.

North are off a 6 day break and a trip to GC. It's not all roses for them either.

No doubt we were unoperationalised detrimentally defensively 😉

Bruzzy the main instigator. May this forever remain his greatest highlight

Correct and the corresponding North 3rd round compensation pick around #42.

White?

Tipping or hoping?

Ross and Dow are the only Richmond players with senior experience and Bauer, Banks and Green the only other listed players vs 9 and 8 in those categories for Casey.

No-one can replace Oliver and Petracca, add in Viney and that's out "A-team" We have Brayshaw, Sparrow, Harmes, Jordon and Dunstan as ready-to-go in the next echelon. This year we've introduced regular best 22 players Rivers and Pickett to the midfield mix and we've got Laurie and Woewodin developing at Casey. I agree that the depth seriously lacks the A-team's class, but it's a decently long list of "good players". Unless there's a solid block of multiple injuries in the Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Rivers, Pickett set then Jordon is going to continue to get limited opportunity and will be gone at the end of the year, and he's competing with Harmes. If we lose him and Harmes, we would probably want to extend Dunstan and that would still give us 7 players in the depth chart outside the A-team. I think our draft hand, with a little help from Freo, is going to put us in a strong position to acquire some real A-grade midfield class and that's where I'd like to see us go after taking JVR with our 2021 first pick and the Jefferson, Adams and Verrall last year. As someone said elsewhere we don't need more "good players", we need A-graders. Look Harmes is a better player than Dunstan and Dunstan is OOC this year and Harmes is next year - maybe that's the exit path of least resistance.

I'm very happy that Freo is struggling this year and therefore enhancing our draft position. And I'm very happy that Brodie Grundy has come to the club and right now, in our flag window, he offers consistently more than Luke Jackson. The reality is that Jackson is a younger, better version of Grundy and is destined to become a very, very good player.

Seriously? We have 13 games at the MCG this season!

If I'm not mistaken WC, Freo, Adelaide, Port, Brisbane, GC, Sydney and GWS each play a minimum of 10 "interstate games" every season.

Me too ...

but Tom Scully ...

James will be 28 with 150+ games at the start of next season, his last in contract with us. He might snare a 3 or 4 year contract elsewhere at the end of this year whereas he will probably be looking at year on year with us from 2025 onwards. We'd probably trade him cheaply to ease his path, free some cap and provide more opportunities for younger players.

If we win the flag end of 3rd round is 55 (after plus or minus Academy and F/S picks), end of 2nd round best case is 37. As @ChaserJ says we could use the pick to pay for a bid on Kynan Brown or bundle it to GC for their Academy selections. This discussion probably belongs in another thread ...

Thanks @Lucifers Hero. The critical signings over the next 3 years are Pickett, Lever and Petty. Langdon and Bowey next echelon. Jefferson, D.Turner, McVee and JVR are likely to be important also IMO. I like what little we've seen of Verrall and KFW - I think they could become players. The rest I need to be open minded about. It's unlikely that we'd end up losing all the players in a category e.g. all of Sparrow, JJ and Woey, all of Chandler, ANB, Spargo and Laurie. But it's pretty certain we'll lose some of them

JJ is UFA so he can go where he likes. Competition for him has a silver lining because if he does decide to go it will improve his contract and our compensation.