Master Chief

Lever turned back the clock today. I thought that he was excellent and almost back to some of his best footy. Lets hope this form continues.

Rivers in for CJ (injured)

Kozzy Gawn Lever Steele Sparrow Fritsch

Obligatory welcome back, boys. You have been missed. Looking ahead to next week, I reckon we may need to find Gawny a bit of support in the ruck to deal with the combination of Jackson’s athleticism and Darcy’s sheer size and strength. Does the Moose come into calculations for a debut? And on a somewhat related note, is our backline strong enough to handle Fremantle’s tall timber in Treacy, Amiss and Voss? Does TMac come back into the frame, with either he or Petty spending some time as the backup ruck to give Max a chop-out without leaving us undersized down back?

Fingers and toes crossed for Luker. Looked nasty. Terrible luck for the kid who looked a certainty for Rd 1.

I'm a little concerned about our preparation in terms of practice hitouts going into the season. We've played two very poor opposition teams and our match sims/intraclubs have been compromised with injured players missing and VFL standard fill ins. Our round 1 opponent have 2 games in between now and Round 1.

6 Windsor 5 Van Rooyen 4 Rivers 3 Gawn 2 Steele 1 Salem

Part of that operation would also have to be a big on field improvement and climb up the ladder in a relatively short amount of time. Familiarity only takes you so far.

Do not get me wrong. I too am on the wishful thinking train. I bloody hope this intel is solid and we are wining and dining Bailey Humphrey to get him to nominate us as nominating us (or even stating that he wants to come back home) is the only way a trade for him is forced.

Exactly this. If Tom Morris had a whiff of the Demons meeting with Bailey Humphrey and the supposed intel that has been posted here it would be splashed all over Trade Radio. Not a Tom fan but he is usually all over this kind of thing and at the moment I am not seeing that playing out.

I spoke about this last week but I am going to keep saying it. Max Gawn absolutely deserves his 8th All Australian jacket. He’s been one of our few constants this season, consistently delivering elite performances and dominating opponents across the ground. He racked up 23 disposals (14 contested), 5 marks (3 contested), 42 hitouts, 8 score involvements, and even slotted another beautiful snap goal. I just hope the selectors don’t fall into the trap of recency bias and let a short burst of form from Grundy outweigh Max’s sustained brilliance across the year.

After another stellar performance surely Max Gawn is now a lock for his 8th All Australian jacket?

Really love the Podcast guys. Thank you for continuing to front up each week. It really does help me make sense of where the team is at and what we need to do to improve. Do you genuinely believe that Jefferson is up to AFL standard and will make it. I know the key position players take a little longer to develop but I just can't see any upside to his game. Admittedly I have not watched him play at Casey but from the little I have seen of him in the seniors he lacks upper body strength and 2nd efforts. He was barely in a job when chasing opponents. I think we may have made the wrong call in drafting him.

The umpiring in this match was nothing short of horrendous. I was genuinely gobsmacked to see the free kick count even on the final stat sheet. However it is always the free kicks that you don't get that kill you. That blatant non-call on the trip to Kozzy in the goal square was inexcusable. Wasn’t tripping once considered a reportable offence? Melbourne should be demanding a “please explain” from AFL House. Once again… FREE KICK HAWTHORN

Jack Viney answered all his critics for the past few weeks. He was back to his bullocking best and proved he can still be valuable as a midfielder. I guess we just want to see consistency from our stars. We know they have the ability.