The Taciturn Demon

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.

We couldn't be missing Purcell and Beasley any more.

Yeah, having said what I said, we might be one of the few clubs who would consider it. Mainly because I wonder if 7 and 8 are no-man's-land picks in this draft - high enough to make everyone think you should be getting a very good player, but not high enough to gurantee that very good player from a shallow pool. Does 16 give a recruiter more freedom to have a swing at a bit of a smokey, rather than feel obligated to pick a sure thing (who becomes a C grade, 125-game plodder)? Maybe it's moot when it comes to Jason Taylor, whose selection of Pickett, Jackson, Windsor and Tholstrup suggest he couldn't give a stuff about what others think. It's also moot if Taylor is confident he can get two beauties at 7 and 8. If it's not, I don't mind the idea of banking picks for next year before Tassie really messes up the top of the draft. And it is fun to think about Adelaide going full 2023 Fremantle next year.

Interesting (if true, which is always an important caveat with the Herald Sun). Not sure they have a lot to work with to trade up. Their finals series was awful, but they didn't fluke the minor premiership, so I'm not sure if clubs will be rubbing their hands together for future picks.

This is exactly the term that came to mind when I watched highlights: project player. A player you'd be happy to work on for three or four years after using a late pick on them or taking them as a Rookie. Extraordinary that he's being talked of as a clear first rounder and the best KPP behind Dean. I reckon recruiting teams will be earning their money this year.

ChaserJ is wonderful. Was a must-read on Twitter before The Collapse.

People like Richard Goyder?

This was one of his great strengths. He should always be commended for this. But by the end he was deep inside a delusion.

Goodness. This rings painfully true to me.

Made it blatantly clear that we were not, as Goodwin said, "so close".

Could they get any more adorable?

I feel phantom drafts go from "what do clubs need?" in October to "which recruiters like which players?" in November.

I also don't think we should just assume the Suns will finish top four. They might. But progress, as we got told a lot before 2021, is rarely "linear".

Run those names by me. Obviously we've got the guy who talks about Chandler's meridian well above everyone else. Who's on the next tier down?

Ah yeah. That's why I'm so bad at understanding the game. I hold on to my six-year-old curiosity - "Dad, why are the butchers waving flags now?" - rather than who's playing where and why.

You're right. The season has gone quicker, and the injury list shrunk faster, than I realised. I reckon Denby Taylor is a bit unlucky to be out of the team at the moment.

In the women's game they've trialled making holding the ball interpretation much stricter, by giving less prior opportunity leeway. I thought it was a good idea. It just hasn't worked. The umpires are not the best of the best and they really struggle to be consistent. I have much less problem with changing the rules than most. The game changes so quickly that a governing body would be completely negligent if it said "We're not changing any rules for X years". The problem I do have is changing the rules in a way that makes umpiring harder.

You've never seen a goal umpire step forward and give the full back and full forward a little hurry up?

Depends if he's already had prior opportunity. I understand the thinking behind this, although I'm almost certain some umpires were already treating a shrug and a fend of equally previously. There's a huge difference between a typical Charlie Spargo or Nick Watson shrug, which is all about free kick seeking, and a shrug that lets you slip under a tackle and continue with the football. I hope they go really hard on the former next year.

I like that you add this. I think it's healthy. Just want to say I find your insights extremely helpful and interesting.

Very interesting to see how Viney responds. I suspect one of the many reasons King was eager to get rid of (or at least didn't stand in the way of the departure of) Petracca and Oliver was the problem of old dogs being unable to learn new tricks. Arguably, Viney was the player most unable to adjust to the shift in Goodwin's game style when it became clear slamming it on the boot no longer worked.

I agree with this. Something shifted in my mind after that game. Losing to Collingwood was nothing to be ashamed of. Losing to Carlton was unforgivable. For me, that shift was mostly about how I viewed Goodwin and his team. A sign of things to come for sure.

If the need for someone, anyone, was so urgent, why didn't Schache come on?