seventyfour

The challenge with Salo is that he seems to get injured or sick, misses a few games, then can't get back to his best. Lever is the same way.

It would surely be West Coast that goes after him hardest. Could offer a long deal that is heavily front-ended while their young list develops. We should be able to match it, it's just whether he just wants to go home. Can't stop that. If he does, put him in the trade for Harley Reid 😁

Sounds like JVR is ready to explode. Please no ruck work for him this year. How is Disco travelling? Sounds like he was flying pre-Christmas, but mayne not so much since the sad news about his parents house being lost in the fire and there may have been an injury too? It's easy to worry about our forward line, but if players deliver on the potential they've shown, it could quickly become a handful with a good mix of youth and experience.

I would not trust at all that he isn't sending information back to the Cats

IMO it could be Langford. While they are completely different heights, Langford offers the dual clearance/forward option in the same way Kozzie has been training this preseason.

Kolt strikes me as more the Petracca type, i.e. we won't see him explode until season 4-5 when his body really matures. He'll then beating most other senior players athletically and we've all seen his effort levels on display already.

Still way better than last year though. The early season run in 2024 - something like 5 games in 25 days - was ridiculous. We were never a chance to beat Brisbane at the MCG that night.

Our Round 7 game is against Richmond, so we'd be 5-2 if results went the way of the above. Would be a brilliant start to the year. I'd take 4-3.

I think 2025 will be even more competitive than 2024. West Coast and North will both get better through youth experience and recruitment of senior players. Could imagine then getting 5-6 wins each. Adelaide, Essendon and St Kilda will remain competitive (but not that good). I can't see any other teams sliding significantly, other than Richmond, who could go winless. I think Port will get worse too and Hinkley will resign mid year. Will split the ladder into thirds rather than exact finishing positions: Top six: Sydney, Carlton, Freo, GWS, Brisbane, Collingwood Mid six: Melbourne, Geelong, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn Bottom six: Port, Essendon, St Kilda, North, West Coast, Richmond

Having broken ribs myself, the recovery is mainly about pain tolerance. You can do pretty much everything you would normally, but some things are just a lot more painful. Even things you wouldn't expect, like pull ups. It's an upper body exercise, but having your arms in the air pulls on your ribcage. Hurts. So you can train and play but it'll be uncomfortable. Trac I expect it will be in the yellow bib at training for a bit so it heals fully.

The I think the ones to watch out for are those who make podcasts about it for a living, rather than being out there practicing it behind the scenes of organisations.

Terrific news. We may be on track for a full group - no rehab - when preseason resumes in January? I expect Spargo will start the year in the VFL but he is an important depth player and has proven that he can contribute in finals and big regular season games.

It'll be a massive concern if they aren't. That's 3 weeks away, if they aren't fully training by then, you can properly say that they haven't had a full pre-season. Sets them back massively, especially Lever. Really frustrated with his suspension to start the year. If you look at the best small forwards recently Rioli, Betts, Papley, C. Cameron, Walters - they all really exploded in season 5 or 6. Kozzie is heading into season 6. He's already a gun and statistically better than those players at the same point of his career. All-Australian should be his goal.

I hope Lever is out of rehab soon. We've only seen patches of his best form since the flag.

That confirms it - flag in 2025. Thank you!

Is Petty still training with the backs?

If Oliver and Trac keep this up, we'll have a draft haul like Richmond at the end of next year!

I don't think we have any spots. We retained all six 2024 rookies without drafting any of them to the primary list, so we're still full.

I trust JT but this pick reminds me of Tim Smith. Feels very weird to take him in the AFL draft as we can't even delist him next year if he's not up to it.

Wonder if we're looking to trade a pick from next year into this year. We've got a couple in the 50's next year, Brisbane have a ****load of picks to come from 46 onwards.

Every picture i've ever seen of Langford, he looks depressed. My point is that it has nothing to do with Melbourne drafting him, it's just him.

A lot of talk of replacing Nibbler with someone else on the list, but we might not be looking to do that. Firstly, we don't really have anyone like him on the list, and secondly, to steal a term from Moneyball, we might replace him 'in the aggregate' i.e. multiple players filling his role throughout the game.

First round picks are a gamble. You're trading an established, AFL-ready player for a kid who could be a bust. We traded Luke Jackson for picks that drafted Jefferson (2022) and Windsor (2023). If we had Luke Jackson in 2023 I am convinced we win the flag. Neither of the finals losses would've happened. But we lost him, and had Jefferson instead, who so far has contributed nothing. It may turn out in the end, but for now, we may have one less flag because of Jackson's wish to go home.

Kentfield is one of the youngest players in the AFL (until draft night), positive he is stacking on size so early.

Would be nice to have another pick in the top 20~ that we could use on a slider, or a tall. Someone like Trainor if he slides, or maybe one of the Whitlocks? Would Richmond take 5 for 10 and 20? So we'd have 9, 10, 20. The draft points don't match but if Richmond are really keen to get in on a few of players before the Saints, they would have 5 and 6 to do so. 9 and 10 would likely still leave us with options of Smillie/Reid/Travaglia/Lindsay.