whatwhat say what

half back rebounder for mine going forward our own lachie whitfield

quality, thanks @Ghostwriter nicknames that i and my friendly cohort have and will continue to use in much love and affection: mcvee = chris spargo = dj shtiboi melksham = milkshake mcdonald = plugger mentha = jake woewodin = woey 2.0 and whenever milkshake has a shot on goal...

it's where the game is ultimately won or lost - if your midfield has ascendancy then generally speaking you're in a good position to be the team in control of the game we have three players who will go down as three of the greatest mfc players of any era - gawn, petracca, oliver gawn is the greatest ruckman the game has ever seen and shows no signs of not being so petracca is built as the prototype mid-fwd, albeit without the exquisite kicking skills of dustin martin; he's more alike to patrick dangerfield in terms of his ball usage, but i'd argue is more of a 'game changer' than the latter, more akin to the former oliver is the best pure mid i've ever seen at the dees; if he gets back to full fitness and capability, more aflca awards - as far as i'm concerned, the pinnacle modern award - await in his future the way i see it the next tier down is either wily veterans, players at the peak of their powers, or emerging talent i think viney can be like travis boak and play deep into his mid-30s; he's never been quick so there's no fear of him slowing down in his dotage langdon is the perfect modern wingman, running hard both ways all day for 99% game time; aerobic beast the big gap we have is in the mid-tier age players - billings, laurie are classique 'too good for vfl; not good enough for afl' players (which is not meant as a knock per se; it's meant to indicate that they'll be in / out of the senior side and only ever bit-part contributors, not even really role players as per how neal-bullen was for us for five or so years once his fitness base was elite), although personally i think billings will only be better in 2025 for having been part of our system in 2024 rivers i think has the capacity to be petracca-alike - the move into the middle in 2024 showed that he can impact around stoppage and on the scoreboard, which is what you want to see from an emerging player of his era, with 5 years in the system my only concern with pickett moving into the midfield is that it's robbing peter to pay paul; ideally you want him in both locations as the small pressure forward is, arguably, the #1 most important 'role player' in the game in these modern times as they are expected to stop the oppo transitioning out of defence with ease AND impact the scoreboard, and arguably koz is one of the best in the business at doing so i have high hopes for the likes of tholstrup, langford, lindsay as i'm sure we all do - first round picks should be yr best players, and there's an expectation that they're ready to go in 2025 to be a part of the senior side sharp, woey 2.0, pup brown, sestan - let's wait and see if they can grow into afl roles; i look at how long it took anb to establish himself as a key player as a fwd-mid at afl level or for langdon to be an elite wingman from 2021 onwards, and i have hopes that at least one of these trio can be part of a senior side moving forward as they continue to develop we are short on quality ruck stocks, but i don't think that's too surprising given that gawn is a freak; no player - other than reg for a loaner for a year - will want to be a second fiddle to the great man when they think that they are afl-ready; campbell will compete for us if required, but it's a case 'who knows' with the likes of verrall or fullarton, the latter of whom looks to me to be more a forward than a ruck per se

so it wasn't mr sayers who sent the missive to his mistress...

Swap Windsor for Bowey, for mine

It’s our strongest component on the ground If our defence holds together in 2025, we will be there / thereabouts

that's been the case since time immemorial

i doubt any of them are espn feed into oztraya isn't a 4k feed

the vision of sinner having the shakes yesterday was pretty frightening tonight's match-up between djoker and alcaraz is going to be a rippier i think and then tomorrow for demon vs sinner should be a pearler too

he's part of laura kane's team

i would argue it's less the role of 'crumbing' and more the role of 'defensive / offensive running' the nominal small forward - and really they can be any size these days - is so much about getting up and down the ground and being the transition player into f50 from a defensive position into an offensive one

yeah, it's not sounding particularly positive for jamara

thread watchers might be interested to know that it looks like ninefax are going to buy optus sport negotations have been happening since december according to the afr (who should know, being a ninefax paper)

tennis on one screen, ashes on another, demonland on a third this is why oztraya rules

not really i think we're both saying you should always prioritise talent regardless of home locale