BaliDemon

GWS by a point after a controversial disallowed Collingwood goal deep in the last quarter, the camera then panning to Eddie McGuire’s stunned mullet, triple chinned beetroot face in the crowd. Our straight sets exit would almost be worth it just to see that.

Very impressive highlights video. Kid’s got very good composure, acceleration out of contest, vision and clean skills. Can totally see why he’s a top ten pick. With Duursma and McKercher likely gone before pick 5, you’d have to take Sanders over Watson, surely? Looks too good to pass up.

Wow. Congratulations to Ooze. Immensely tough assignment given where their list is at, impending retirements of stars and the coming rise of five or six other clubs who’ve already done their re-builds. If he succeeds he’ll have to do it the hard way, from base camp. Will the Tiger Army have enough patience with an outsider? Only time will tell.

Hate questioning Bambi because we all love Choco Williams but if our three prime mover on-ballers are among the worst field kicks in the comp and we’re kicking 19 goals 39 behinds or whatever ridiculously inaccurate scoring conversion rate we had over the two finals, shouldn’t his role at least be looked at? Kicking skills are in Choco’s remit are they not?

And the KFC.

We don’t need a number 1 ruck, we’ve already got one (didn’t we just learn that?). We need a competent back up ruckman.

We need better. Not ‘potential to be a solid player’. We’ve already got that with JVR and maybe Jefferson.

Not sure about that. 50/50 between him and McQualter for Tigers job. Could go either way.

‘Selling the farm’ for McStay? Pies paid nothing but cash for him as a free agent. Every side does have strengths and weaknesses. Ours are clearly in our front half. If we don’t address them this off season, after two years of finals failure, we deserve everything that’s coming to us in 2024. You are placing waaaay too much faith in a 20yo/28 gamer Van Rooyen. Still 2-3 years of development away from establishing himself at AFL level, particularly against the best fullbacks. He was nowhere to be seen against Collingwood in the QF.

Replace Stafford with someone like Blake Caracella and we’re good to go I reckon. We need a footy mind that truly understands forward craft.

We might have to consider the possibility that both aren’t good enough.

Or a side that needs low possession, low goal small forwards.

Got no issue with this. Seven seasons in Spargs is still going at 10 touches and 0.5 goals a game. Not good enough for a small forward. He can use it but doesn’t find it often enough. Fresh start elsewhere might do him good.

Dom Tyson helped hold the midfield fort for a few seasons while we were battling and Salem’s had a pretty damn good 11 season career. Premiership player and permanent fixture of our very good back six. Yes his past two seasons haven’t been quite as stellar but I’m okay with that deal. Kelly is a very good player but he was touted as destined to be a ‘top ten player in the comp’ at one stage and ‘future Brownlow medallist’. He has never reached those heights. Just the one All Australian blazer and finished 5th in the Brownlow once, back in 2017. That’s good but not in the game’s elite.

Why? The guy is as smart if not smarter than anyone in the room when it comes to football analysis.

No from me to Mabior Chol. Half decent forward but definitely not a good enough ruckman. He’s a bit of a ‘tweener’. I’d also be wary of anyone Hardwick has tried to offload from TWO clubs.

So much unfounded speculation and nonsense in this thread. Grundy wasn’t selected in our finals sides because his partnership with Gawn DID NOT WORK and because Grundy had little to NO FORWARD CRAFT. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it than that. You can pot the non-activation of Schache in the second half or the non-selection of Hibberd as the sub all you like, no problem. But please don’t revise history and pretend Grundy and Gawn was anything more than a spectacular failure during the regular season. Goodwin didn’t banish Grundy to Casey for no reason. The FD rolled the dice 🎲 on ‘Gawndy’ in 2023 and it didn’t work. Okay, it happens. We lost out on that gamble for one season and can now move the player on to Sydney who will likely take on his full contract and we’ll get a half decent draft pick back from them. Time to move on. Also, don’t feel too sorry for Brodie, the bloke is making close to a million shekels a year to tap and kick an inflated ball of pigskin around a mowed field of grass. He’ll be fine. He’ll survive.

EngorgedO, if that is your ‘simple’ explanation I shudder to think what your complex analysis might be 😆

He’s an integral member of the stingiest defence in the AFL. I think he’s going okay.

1. Mihocek/McStay have 300 games of AFL experience between them. Mature, hardened key position players. They also haven’t won the flag yet Collingwood so too early to go touting their virtues. 2. Port aren’t anything to emulate . They keep failing miserably in finals for a number of reasons including their inadequate forward line options. 3. Brisbane absolutely look the goods with their two experienced key forwards and will probably win the flag, in part, because of them! No-one’s suggesting we’re going to get Curnow or Cameron but there are some options out there we’ll have to look at to support this wildly inexperienced trio (Petty/JVR/Jefferson) we’ve currently got.

The media pundits are correct. - Petty has played a handful of games as a permanent key forward. - Van Rooyen is 20yo with just 20 games (28 goals) under his belt. Promising but still 💯 a work in progress. - Jefferson a complete unknown, even at Casey level! That’s not even in the postcode of being adequate heading into 2024. Not for a side contending for top four and a premiership. No way.

Not to mention the expectation some are placing on JVR’s shoulders at 20yo. The kid has played 20 games and kicked 28 goals. That’s promising but naturally he’s going to run hot and cold at that age. He’s still filling into his frame ffs. He’s not Wayne Carey. It’s a no brainer that we bring in a key forward. It’s just a matter of who we can shake loose. If we fail to do so and push all our chips into a Petty/JVR combo I strongly suspect we will be back here at the same time next year lamenting another season of what might’ve been. Given the painful lesson we’ve learned this year that would be unforgivable.

The chart says May comes out of contract now (2023) when he’s actually contracted until 2025. Joel Smith is one we should be looking to tie up soon beyond his 2024 contract expiry. Has shown considerable improvement this season and will certainly be targeted by rival clubs if available.

Hope you’ve got your mask on again now that big brother has told you more strains are on the way 😷

Gawn and May are the lynchpins of our premiership chances for mine. They are very special players. With our impending draft/trade haul and those two still playing at or near their best, we are in the hunt. I think we’ve got 2 seasons left to win another one, maximum 3 before the wheel inevitably turns.