The Taciturn Demon

One of the greatest pretenders I've seen in 40 odd years of watching footy. Impossible to like.

What a privilege to have been around to watch Kate Hore. Stunningly good footballer.

Goodness. Didn't expect that. Absolutely dominated. Love it to be three or four instead of two. Blatant free to Banno near the end there.

The noises the Brisbane players made after the anthem were reminiscent of cliched roving cannibal bands in post-apocalyptic fiction.

Think I've found the broadcast mic that you always hear crowd noise from at Casey. Might sit closer and whinge into it all day to make amends.

It's a bloody fair point. I really like Windsor, but I doubt he'll become an outright star. I like Turner as well, and am very hopeful, but he's in the same category as Windsor for me. Is there talk WC are considering trading Pick 2?

Anyone in that range you really like the look of? Who above that do you particularly like?

Ebert dropped has shocked me. Reminds me of Jordon being dropped a few years ago after what I thought was a run of really good form.

In those Championship videos he's so often got a big gap on his opponent. It's impressive. Then he gets you in the air when you close up his space. AND he hits targets by foot! Exciting. A lot of the video highlights of the touted top ten don't really do it for me. Nairn's looked good, although I'm sure you have to take into account SA's overall dominance, and many other factors my dimwit football mind doesn't even consider.

I reckon if you're going to reach, reach for the 188cm bloke whose hands look beautiful, who opens himself up in all marking contests without any fear and who kicks beautifully. If only he was Victorian.

Quite possibly. I like players with good sideways movement - I think it's extremely difficult to teach. You kind of either have it or you don't. And you might be right: the high-level skill itself will allow the FD to work with him and turn him into a more damaging player. I could be totally wrong on Grjl (I'm as far from an Under 18 expert as you can be), but where others see attacking briliance, I see lots of movement and not a lot of crispness.

Be more tackful. It's not the worst malapropism going round.

I strongly agree. Seems to have great evasive skills but I don't see him using them to get into space and use the extra time to do something really creative.

And her toughness. I'm worried Brisbane will maul us.

This is exactly my worry.

Very tough call. I truly have enjoyed her football. Last week really worried me. More than once she looked like she had concrete legs. You can get away with that if you're the designated distributor or getting to the right spot and taking intercept marks. Lampard isn't. Straight swap for Goldrick, if Sinead's available.

Anyone know how ticketing works with a mobile membership. It's completely opaque on the Ticketmaster website.

Because Dovaston is clearly a better prospect or because there was some talk we liked him a week or so ago - and it seems odd to suddenly shift?

I think this is a very fair point. It would be fascinating to go back and look at publicly available information before, say, that shocking 2016 draft. Was there a general sense it was awful? Was there positivity? Did 'experts' get it completely wrong: were they hinting it might have been a ripper? What I have noticed, though, is that although it's very early days, what people were saying about the 2024 (bountiful; one for the ages) and 2023 (strongish with a big cliff in the teens) drafts looks to have been pretty spot on.

This is haunting me. It's funny, I now watch Petracca and Oliver depart the men's team and shrug - maybe a sigh at worst. The idea of Zanker leaving, however, fills me with the same anxiety I had as a teenager when whispers about Jeff Farmer leaving began.

Love your work, layzie, but I've come to a different conclusion. As someone with no connection to the Under 18 comp and a generally below average understanding of the nuances of what makes a good footballer, I want to understand the the draft better. And, over the years (particularly the Jason Taylor period) one thing I've come to realise is that the quality of the draft is a hugely important variable. The difference between the 2016 and the 2019 draft is massive. The top 20 in one are now mostly B and C graders. The top 20 in the other is almost entirely champions, A-graders and some excellent B+ers. And then there are drafts that seem to have really good players all the way through. The 2013 draft had an up-and-down top 10 (including Bont and Josh Kelly) and then excellent footballers all the way into the mid 50s: Zach Merrett at 26. Alex Pearce at 37. Jake Kolodjashnij at 41. Barrass at 43. Aliir Aliir at 44. Ben Brown at 47. Byrne-Jones at 52. Sicily at 56. All of this is true. But it's also true that if you have a good hand in a bad draft - if the draft in front of you is just comparatively poor - you're at a disadvantage. It's not impossible to find gems - and the skills of your recruiting team are vital - but even the best struggle to find players at the point a draft falls off a cliff. In 2021 we might just have sneaked in before the huge drop. In 2022 I'm not sure we did.

I've loved her career, but not sure they can play Lampard.

Hanks Zanker Heath Harris Wotherspoon Mahony

Feel like we're still leaving it to too few. Great effort to finish second after last year, but I'd love to be playing more polished footy as we go into finals.

Mahony's handballing is top level. Exceptional.