whatwhat say what

throw the chequebook at these free agents in order of preference: hugh mcluggage (bears) ollie florent (swans) tim english (footscray) andy mcgrath (peptides) will haywood (swans) cam zuhaar (north) ben ainsworth (gc17)

I am now the same too many key players down to start

Fudge

There seems to be a significant misunderstanding between ‘forward connection’ and ‘goal kicking accuracy’ The latter is the biggest issue, for mine

it's not like we're claiming a moral victory after the 8th worst test loss of all time

mebbe if we'd been beaten by 100s of points that'd be true

5-13 for mine, but voted 5-8 to show some relative optimism too many injuries in the pre-season

caruso's defensive work on robinson first rate tho

prior to this last three years, no one born before 1962 has seen the dees finish top 4 at the end of the home and away season in three consecutive like everyone, i want to 'bank' this successful era with another flag (or four) but to at least see us being consistently competitive is a far cry of anything we've witnessed over the last 60 or so years

there's a clear difference between a player performing strongly at under 18 level as a tall forward and doing the same at afl level

i think kornes says a lot without thinking jvr + petty = the ideal tall forward structure the fact that petty is signed up until the end of 2025 gives us the whip hand; if the crom offer of ~7m for 7 years is still there at the end of 2024, then we can re-assess our trade options accordingly

why? so he can win the clearance, run around in a circle, then bomb long to no one in particular? he's brilliant at the first part, the second part is fine if he can work himself into space, but his disposal execution post-clearance leaves a lot to be desired

turps werk

nothing would surprise me about the baggers in 2024 like us in 2018, they were overdue to make the finals in 2023, and similarly got through to the prelim final they might drop back again but from all reports they had nothing like the injury concerns we had in 2019 preseason they are a lot more experienced than i think is credited and, like us in 2018, should have already been in finals before then

if salem is going to become a permanent part of the midfield rotation, does this allow for the inclusion of a new player in the back 7 (e.g. howes) to accompany the standard core of may - lever - tomlinson - mcvee - rivers - bowey?

seems to me the plan is for salem to play in the guts in 2024 i expect, given this is the last run before season start, they'll go with a similar line-up to that which they intend to take on sydney with, which might mean pickett doesn't play in this practice game

yeah but they didn't

melbourne 22.13.145 (0 injuries) richmond 21.21.147 (1 injury) good to see em blow the cobwebs out

gotta say, loving salem as a pure inside mid

about 15 picks later everyone had multiple chances to get darling, and ignored him

nimble bit of work with loose ball up for grabs by jefferson to hit the scoreboard

positive new additions in billings, pup brown, and windsor negatives in lack of pressure and skills

on both these points, i think that koz at least puts the fear of god in the oppo when he breaks into space with sheer acceleration and crafty moves based on the two quarters that have happened for the 2s, salem and oliver will definitely replace nibbler as players who roll through the guts

looks that way he knows how to use the ball cleanly exiting the contest, so it may well work