old55

Having two A grade experienced rucks means we don't have to play both every week. Goodwin will mostly want to do that to build "continuity" but if one gets banged up we can go with the other and Weid and still be very competitive. We do need an experienced state league break glass in emergency option as well, in case both Gawn and Grundy get injured. Can partner Weid in the VFL. I don't think we can necessarily rely on a Weid-TMac combination when we're contending. This year or next is timely for drafting a ruck replacement.

Who do you have in mind?

In addition to Jeff Kennett ... Andrew Newbold was Hawthorn President from 2012-15 and is now on the AFL Commission. Ian Robson was CEO of Hawthorn from 2005-09 and then of course moved to Essendon in the drug saga period. Now CEO of Rowing Australia. Stuart Fox was CEO of Hawthorn from 2009-16. Now CEO of the MCC.

My understanding is that the investigation was launched by Hawthorn after the Jeff Kennett and Shannyn Ah Sam-Rioli issue was published.

Thanks Binman for articulating how I felt about this. It is hard to process - happening at the same time as the apology to stolen generations, it's truly gobsmackingly horrible stuff.

Is there a Demonland thread that @picket fence has not tried to start a Spargo bash-fest? It's everywhere, it's tiresome.

Collingwood want at least 70% of Grundy's salary off their books, so will pay a maximum of 30%. I think it's a risk going with Cameron and Cox/Begg/Frampton/McStay - I think Hickey touched them up in the ruck in the PF and they couldn’t take full advantage against Heeney and whoever when Reid went off. Its happening and in the end, whether we give a late 1st or a 2nd round pick in this deal won't be the key factor. It will be whether 5 years of Grundy helps delivers flags. If it doesn't, then no-one will be saying, it's OK we only gave a 2nd rounder. Forget about worrying about the pick. Think about how this can work for us. Otherwise you're in for plenty of teeth grinding and unhappy thoughts.

More likely he'll be a delisted FA next year. Better for both parties he moves now.

Heppell re-signed at Essendon rejecting a GC offer, I read somewhere here that Jayden may be their HB fall-back option.

Others have complained that the reverse is true, our young players don't play midfield at Casey. I think that's true - White, Munro and Dunstan carry the Casey midfield. And I think that's wise because if Chandler, Bedford or Laurie do come into the MFC side it's not going to be in the midfield, it's going to be in the forward roles they play at Casey. That's what they need to master.

Prepare for disappointment

Please permit me to add some background and detail to my "reasons". The bedrock is that I do not believe Richardson, Goodwin and Gawn are "arrogant" or "disrespectful". Quite the opposite in fact. Goodwin was at pains in his press conferences to stress, even though our winning streak, how tough and ruthless the competition is and he always spoke respectfully of the opposition. In fact my suggestion that our strategy of going with our best, but hampered, players reflects respect for the opposition compared with your view that "our reserves" "would have been able to deliver" against the best - that is disrespectful. Weid, Dunstan, JVR and Chandler winning in place of Gawn, Oliver, Brown and Viney against quality opposition? MFC aren't "exemplars" without "fault". Goodwin repeatedly said we don't need to be perfect (because that's impossible) we need to be at our best. There is no doubt we made errors throughout the season, it's inevitable. To win the flag you need to be very good and for almost everything to go right. We didn't have the latter this year, and the two points I've highlighted above - fixture and injuries are illustrated by the Grand Finalists. Geelong had double up fixtures against WB, St.Kilda, Port, WC and North - the latter two the worst performing teams since MFC 2013. We had double ups against Collingwood, Brisbane, Freo, WB and Port. This difference provided Geelong with selection flexibility. Sydney have had an injury free year like we did last year - I play Fantasy football semi-seriously so monitor weekly injury reports closely. Sydney's list didn't get beyond 3 for almost all the year. Franklin and Reid combined for a total of 39 games, compared with 28 and 20 in the two previous years. These are material differences to our year and in a game of small margins against very good competition are not "exogenous excuses" Finally a bit of luck is helpful. I'm confident we still would have beaten Geelong in last year's PF, but the virus they had made them a soft kill and an easy run in to GF compared with the Dogs tough campaign on the road and that was a factor in the GF blow-out. If Sam Reid does his groin in the 2nd quarter of this year's QF instead of the PF, there's every chance we're playing this weekend. There's only one winner and 17 losers each year - if that's how you want to judge it - I don't as a matter of fact. There are factors at play that are not in our control and we have to make the best decisions possible in the circumstances. We faced significant hurdles that we were not able to overcome. "Arrogance" and "disrespect" were not at the root.

Yes that's exactly what I'm saying, as the injuries to star players mounted our fixture got much tougher. That's not an "excuse" it's a reason. We chose a strategy to try to overcome this problem and it didn't ultimately work out. Yes I am saying that our fit VFL players could not have replaced Gawn, Oliver, Viney and Petracca and got us to top 4 with our extremely challenging fixture. I'm confident we'll thoroughly review the season and make improvements for next year. The fact that we didn't win ensures this. Most of the time from year to year sh*t happens and that's why it's so hard.

You're going have a lot of backpedalling to do when he's an MFC Premiership captain He moved there because the big 3 were beaten up.

I suspect we'll see action in FA and trade. Jackson, Bedford, Hunt, Tomlinson could all be on the move and there could be some surprises too.

Doesn't matter Red - Petty makes it a winner whatever.

Interesting that unlike Cerra last year, Dunkley and his management seem unperturbed that Brisbane will struggle to get this done with their 2 F/S. They'll possibly need to go into deficit to get them done if Collingwood don't way overpay McStay and they don't qualify for an end of 1st round compensation. Future 1st could get Dunkley done I suppose and the F/S draft comes after the trade so then any deficit would apply to their future 2nd. They'd end up with no 2023 draft capital but maybe that's fine with 3 very good players coming in.

Sparrow has positive attributes - his size and power, he's strong overhead, he's a booming kick and reliable long range goal kicker. But he's not a clean ball handler and combined with ANB in attacking chains is an almost guaranteed broken link.

All the things I posted that you list in B are decisions made under duress. It didn't work out but I highly doubt any other approach would have either. Sometimes you have to gamble to succeed. We gambled on Steven May's hamstring in last year's Grand Final. An alternative approach could have been to try to win it from outside top 4. That's not complacency that's just an option when you're faced with difficult circumstances. We would have had to win 4 in a row, it's not likely so I don't endorse that option. It's not "arrogant, entitled and disrepectful". Premierships are hard to win and back to back is rare.

I want Sydney to win. Or more correctly I want Geelong to lose. Imagine if Collingwood won on Saturday - now that would be truly nightmarish.

Says the poster foreshadowing a further 57 years of lack of success ...

So it was. Still wouldn't have got a vote 😀

Cripps should have been suspended. Ah Chee missed football with concussion as a direct result of Cripp's careless action. It's pretty simple and this Brownlow will always be * to me. However, those suggesting that the AFL knew the Brownlow votes at that time and deliberately conspired to enable him to win it are on crack.

Libba!

Ridiculous. Couldn't even get one vote when he totally embarrassed Buddy.