Its Time Again

Wonder if Gawny requested Matthews be his ruck opponent. Good confidence booster which as we all know Maxy desperately needs in the ruck, .

Hope that million dollars isn't in coins or we won't be seeing any of them any time soon. They'll be, as they say, swimming with the fish.

This is amazing. Thank you so much. Reinforces my view that the departure of Petracca and Oliver are highly overrated by 4th Estate experts outside the club. Some surprising results there within our team and sobering results compared to the wider comp. Surprised to see that Rivers kicks i50 have been so poor and Melk's are such a standout. Will be very interested to hear from track watchers if they pick up on any work which is obviously been done to improve this.

Hi Andrew, thanks for all your work all season. The departures of Petracca and Oliver have pretty much universally in the press been seen to be having a significant negative impact on how the team goes going forward. Personally I'm not so sure. If we'd had just 6 better kicks i50 that resulted in goals we would have been 6 wins better and 6 better kicks in another three games and we would have been 9 wins better which would have put us in equal 6th. To get an idea of how much we are going to miss them I thought it would be great to know who were the top 5 or top 10 players who delivered the ball i50 for us this year and how many of their i50's were retained. I remember seeing a stat at one stage that Trac had delivered the ball 40 times and only 3 of those entries were retained. It would also be interesting to see the same stats for say the top 10 in this stat in the league. And anything else around these stats that you think are relevant. Many thanks in anticipation.

JT mentioned in describing Taylor before the draft that he's not the centre forward player they are also searching for, that midfielder that can go forward, but he turns defence into offence. So obviously best available at the pick not needs based.

I'm hoping that the work Goody put in on the transition game isn't wasted and they will pick it up quicker than if that work had never been done. Of course there will be differences but fingers crossed. And I'm also hoping that the new players bring greater skills which will help decrease the turnovers already. I'm not even thinking when we'll be contenders again. I'm just hoping for some significant improvements in style of play so at least I can stomach watching them again.

Must say this is my one worry for next season. A fast transition gameplan depends on kicks hitting their targets if they don't the turnovers will kill you. Goody started the transition gameplan over the past two preseasons but the turnovers killed us until he gave up on it mid season 2024 and suffered through it this season where it started to show signs of getting better. Hopefully with a couple of the chief culprits out of the team and a few new skilled players in we will be pleasantly surprised next season but if they don't fix missing targets I fear it will be another grim year.

Reminds me of Robert "Bones" McGhie the Richmond '73&'74 Premiership player. Had tats when tats weren't popular. Tough as nails, agile and very skilled. Famous for having a smoke on the ground during the breaks. Like Crackers Keenan and many others in that era. He looks the goods.

@old dee I wouldn't get too worked up about him going through to the rookie list. I would say after we used pick 30 every club knew if they tried to pick him we'd use up a late pick for him so there was no point after that pick. Irrespective of that plenty of great players have come from the rookie list including Judd McVee who we just got pick 24 for. Here's some Geelong Premiership players from 2022 who came from the rookie list. Blicavs, Atkins, Close, Zac Guthrie, Henry Stengle, Tom Stewart would have if not injured, Jack Henry, Tyson Stengle, Max Rooke in 2011. I'd take another Blicavs and I can see that potential in him except he's probably a better footballer than Blicavs when he started.

Really don't think you have to justify your great relationship with the players on here Ghosty. We are just glad you spread the love and pass it on here.

That's the most exciting quote I've read all pre season. As you say One Can Dream. I'll join that dream of yours if you don't mind.

I know highlights are tricky to form a opinion on but based on his I'm really surprised he didn't go top 30. I guess we see what we want to see but I thought his kicking was excellent. He does what I was taught a hundred years ago which is to stab pass short passes that stay low. Most of his kicks in the highlights hit targets. Whereas my one concern about Taylor's highlights is that he has one of those nasty kicks where the ball pops up high like Langdon. He appears to have that special burst of speed breaking out of packs that's gold. I guess we've seen plenty of players over the journey with highlight packages like this who don't have the necessary mongrel to get in and get the ball and stay involved for a full game. Tholstrup has started like this, he's just missing the will to charge in and get the ball. Hopefully it's coming in 2026. Perhaps that's the knock. We'll know soon enough. But on those highlights he looks like a top 10 pick not a rookie.

The draft rule is any player nominated as an FS and not taken in the draft can be automatically drafted as a rookie by the nominating team prior to the commencement of the rookie draft.

@Ghostwriter or anyone else. Does anyone know why CJ is on a modified program. I assume he's injured or his pre preseason wasn't good enough to start with the players. Any idea anyone. Thanks in advance

Got to say I find this really significant. Over the years I have read that many new coaches have a common fault of wanting to control everything from the beginning and they end up coming unstuck in many different ways because of it. I think this shows a great level of maturity and self confidence to let his assistants take control straight off on his first training day. It's a great sign. Apparently Scott gave his assistants a lot of trust and corresponding independence. I have heard that it was known in the coaching fraternity that Goody never did. I think it's fair to say we mostly don't have a clue how things work within the inner sanctum of the coaches and the club more widely. It's a complex dynamic nowadays and very important to find someone with the self confidence to manage it in the best way.