demoncat

I don’t see Windsor as being solely a wingman long term I think he has the capacity to be a CBA midfielder, even if he wins more ball on the outside than inside Look at guys like Gulden for the Swans - yes Windsor doesn’t have his kicking skills but there’s not reason he couldn’t have a similar output from a disposal and metres gained perspective I’m not downplaying the importance of gun CHF and CHBs - I mean we won a premiership in part because of our gun defenders - but at the end of the day you need gun midfielders too And I reckon it’s a bit early to be comparing Caddy to Curnow - he has nowhere near the physicality and contested marking that Curnow showed at a similar age You kick one goal over your head and suddenly you’re the next Coleman medallist 🤣

I reckon Windsor showed more all of last year (and in his better games against Hawks and Sydney this year) than either Caddy or O’Sullivan have in the same timeframe No disrespect to either of those players as I think both will be stars in their own right, but Windsor has already shown capacity to have 25+ disposal games with high metres gained and even a goal here and there Plus I’d argue he fit our list needs more than either of those players I think he’s just struggling off a limited preseason from his foot injury as well as growing pains in his new half back role (which I’m not convinced is best for him) - he’ll be fine long term

So we bring in a guy with significant government and industry contacts/experience to be our CEO, but don’t want him leveraging that until we say so? I have to say I don’t understand why he couldn’t have preliminary discussions with these stakeholders, especially seeing as securing a home base is so far overdue It also seems like the club’s expectations around securing funding/total cost of the project are way off initial expectations It just reeks of more amateur hour decisions from this club

The outcome of the club’s off season review was that we have a list capable of playing finals and that all their efforts would be towards realising this outcome Well this will now be back to back years not playing finals, so by our own assessment we’ve failed to realise the potential of our list I don’t blame the club for thinking this way - it’s clear our best footy matches it with the best in the comp But we continually seem to make the same mistakes week after week and I just don’t know how that changes without significant change to either our coaching or playing list I don’t want to be the new St Kilda - stuck in no man’s land year after year - so the club needs to use this opportunity to reevaluate where this list is at and make changes accordingly I’m not going to name names, but will point out that at the end of 2020, Collingwood traded Treloar and Stephens Then at the end of 2022 they traded Grundy They were torched for it at the time - two of those players were A grade fan favourites - but look what it enabled them to do in subsequent years If the club genuinely believes that we can get back to finals with the improvement of this current list, well, good luck to them, but if not someone needs to start making the kind of tough decisions we’ve been avoiding for years now And after the past few weeks, I know which way I’d be leaning…

Butters is just about my favourite non Dees player in the comp Yes he’s a [censored] talker but no one puts their body on the line like he does And he hits targets - imagine that!

This is probably a question better reserved for the end of season podcast, but what we are going to do about our midfield balance going forward? Viney, Trac and Clarry are not the players who are going to win a game in the middle of the ground for you in 2025 Every contending club has speedy and skilful midfielders who can extract AND hit targets - we have crash and bash midfielders who almost look like they’re from another era I acknowledge that the club has gone some way to addressing this by bringing in good ball users and revamping the game plan, but as long as those three continue to be our leading possession getters it’s going to continue to lose us games

Season over if we can’t pull this one back Reckon the club are going to have to have some really serious discussions about Viney, Trac and Clarry this offseason We can’t keep carrying so many mids who bang it on the boot and can’t hit targets

A good signing I feel Blake still has a bit more development to go before he starts hitting his straps but you can see the talent there I’m not convinced playing back is his best position but hopefully he can become that hybrid third tall/flanker type that can intercept but still take the game on with a bit of run and dash

I do hope we’re into Sam Flanders if he’s looking to get back to Victoria He’s exactly the type of midfielder we need in our engine room - fast, skilled and able to rack them up at will A nice age at 23 too - we need more in that 23-25 age bracket If we’re to avoid having an unbalanced list

That would be the logical thing to do… So of course Freo won’t do it 🤣 In all seriousness Dogga thrives in the #1 ruck role and I can’t believe it’s taken Freo this long to realise it

For what it’s worth Tom Morris is now reporting that there is a watch on Sam Flanders in the second half of this year:

Unfortunately I can’t see Freo entertaining any trade unless Jackson is effectively forcing himself out (and as much as I’d love for him to come to us I hope his personal situation isn’t so dire that this is necessary) Still, I love to see Freo getting a dose of their own medicine. They deserve it after all the off the book recruiting they’ve done of WA born players in recent years!

Brilliant news And to all those worried about the length and cost of the deal - I get it, but it’s just the nature of the market these days Plus the CBA will be rising so these types of $1 million + deals will become more and more common, even for players who aren’t half as good as Kozzy And if nothing else, it gives us control over any potential trade for the rest of his career (not that he’s going anywhere mind you!)

I have to say I’m sick to death of these losses where we have more shots against our opposition but come up short because our players lack any sort of composure - both in front of goal and when making decisions with ball in hand The difference today with how Pendlebury, Sidebottom and Howe managed that last five minutes compared to our senior players is damning It’s cost us home and away wins, finals wins and dare I say a Premiership somewhere between 2022-24 I don’t know what the answer is but it has been a massive failure of the current FD to get our players in the right headspace to finish all of the good work they do

I couldn’t have said it better myself @Bring-Back-Powell On the one hand you have to give Goody credit for devising a gameplan that consistently has us in positions to win games against the best clubs And I don’t doubt the effort and intent of our players, as well as their love of the coach But I have to say I’m sick to death of these losses where we have more shots against our opposition but come up short because our players lack any sort of composure - both in front of goal and when making decisions with ball in hand The difference today with how Pendlebury, Sidebottom and Howe managed that last five minutes compared to our senior players is damning It’s cost us both home and away wins, finals wins and dare I say a Premiership somewhere between 2022-24 Ultimately the buck stops with Goody and as much as he’s done for this club, he has failed massively to get our players in the right headspace to finish all of the good work they do

The more forward half talent we can bring in the better Get it done Dees

I’d love JVR and Jeffo to make it as our one-two punch long term as I think they compliment each other really well as different ‘types’ Unfortunately JVR has regressed badly this year and Jeffo, while improving, is still at least a year or two away from having the body for AFL football, and that’s before we really know whether he’ll make it at the level or not I don’t want to write either of them off but I still believe we badly need an interim forward in that 25-30 age / 195cm - 200cm height range to give us a focal point and take the pressure off those two Why we’re not heavily into Oscar Allan is beyond me - he’s not a star but he’s proven and fills a need we’ve had for years

McDonald needs to be in this team whether that’s as a forward or a defender - there are plenty of players in those positions not performing to the level so it shouldn’t be hard to make room for him Windsor needs to be played back on the wing - I liked the idea of him behind the ball and am not opposed to him staying there for his long term development if the club sees him as a half back, but I think he ultimately projects as an outside midfielder so the wing is where he should play for now Lindsay can either move to half back or Langford can move inside/forward to make room for him, or if the club are bold enough they can bring in Sestan to give him a run at the level Sharp shouldn’t play unless he’s sub, and Laurie should only play if he’s replacing a midfielder for a full game - otherwise both go out next week Oh yeah and kick straight next time - go Dees

While I’m a big believer in expected score as an indicator of performance, what it can’t account for is the scoreboard pressure that gets applied when a team kicks straight Confidence rises, the opposition panics and games can look very different very quickly Imagine if in the third qtr of the grand final we kicked 3 behinds in the last minute of play instead of 3 goals? It could have been a very different game in the fourth

It’s time the club stopped playing games in Alice Springs I love the community work the club does up there but we’re giving up a competitive advantage not playing at the MCG, with three of our worst losses in the past three years being played at the venue

Wherever we finish this year the number one priority in the off season has to be finding quality forwards - big and small Reckon on balance we have the worst group of forwards in the comp

Also while I love the community work the club does up there, playing in Alice Springs each year is a serious competitive disadvantage

When are the coaches going to admit we have a serious problem with accuracy? We are going to kiss any chance of finals goodbye because we can’t kick straight against a bog ordinary Saints side

I’m surprised at just how many are either underrating McKay or presuming that we don’t need a forward of his type because we’ve had a good 5-6 week patch Yes good ball movement and clean kicks inside 50 are the most important factors when it comes to scoring, but there will be games (particularly finals) where you won’t have the luxury of efficient entries or shots at goal, and will need your forwards to stand up and take a contested mark or a clutch set shot And for that you need A grade talent in your fwd half, and if that talent is 2m tall all the better. At the moment we only have Kozzy who fits the bill (although Melksham has been very good too). That’s no disrespect to our other fwds, but it’s clearly an area where we have less ‘talent’ than other teams Anyway, it’s probably all academic because I don’t see it happening, but I’d jump on him in a heartbeat

We should 100% be interested if it is a salary dump situation I don’t know what we could offer to make a deal work but we’ve been crying out for a McKay style player for years 2m players who can take marks, kick goals and chop out in the ruck are invaluable, and I dare say if he was on our list in 2023 we would have won the flag Plus with his kicking for goal, he’ll fit right in 🤣