whatwhat say what

what was the injury? i only turned it back on for the last few mins and he was on the pine

ben brown was preferred to hogan from a performance and cultural fit perspective and helped us win a premiership we tried for lynch from the tigs and he said no, elected to stay there and be a part of the rebuild - probably justifiably given that he came in as a free agent during their ascendancy

jordon has improved immeasurably since he was at the mfc he and sparrow were on a par, with the latter slightly more damaging as a rotation mid and in front of goal too jj's finals' performances were really poor in 2023 as well and his disposal was a liability - he didn't win his own ball turning him into a tagger has been a fantastic tactical move

i think we're all frustrated and upset about the club's performance however, he has the capacity to do something about it we're just keyboard warriors who cheer for laundry

hird or buckley have been removed from modern football for some time and i am not convinced either will ever return to afl coaching ranks neither achieved much of note other than ruining the fabric of their clubs no thanks

what, yr suspicious of posters who joined five years ago, had nothing to say during our most successful period since the early 1960s, and now seem to love to pot the club at every opportunity?

flagmantle running on top of the ground was super in that quarter

wtf are you talking about he's been a board member for a while

harmes with a goty contender

two entertaining games on at the moment pear coming home with a rattle and a bang

easy to forget that the aints were in finals in 2023, losing an elimination final at home (well, the mcg) to gw$ before having a shocking start to 2024 their transition football is fun to watch

hogan having a field day 9 marks, 9 kicks, 9 goals

yes, if he leaves as a free agent, they will - most likely - get band 1 compensation

did the mro lay a report?

bedford and jj both left for more opportunity; chandler and sparrow were both ahead of them at the time, and chandler is still a superior player to bedford we got second round picks for both, from memory, which enabled us to trade 'up' to get the likes of tholstrup etc. they had contract offers with us but took the chance to go north to get more game time; it's worked in their favour, just as langdon leaving flagmantle for us worked in his and ours swings, roundabouts jj being able to leave as a free agent was galling and only possible as a result of the stupid afl's stupid rule changes (that have since been rescinded, i think) for delisted free agents, where the only reason we 'delisted' jj was because in those days you had to take a mandatory # of picks in the draft, but could 'retain' that player as a dfa on your own list seriously one of the dumbest rule changes ever, that cooked us just like the change to nga selections hurt us (and the aints) after jamara went #1, which has since been rolled back, and everyone had a hissy fit about academy selections

i've found that pressing <ctrl><enter> at the same time enacts the 'submit reply' button much as <tab> then <enter> used to do

all indications suggest otherwise the big q is who is going to offer him the juiciest deal and give meth coke what they need to prise him free we're been in this position before, where a prince who was promised was selected at #1 and never truly looked committed to the cause ain't fun

got ben brown and a premiership instead we prioritised chandler over bedford, and the former is probably winning our best and fairest at this point in time, and getting better and better all the time

tholstrup traded was effectively two wilson's for one Kolt darcy wilson is a ripper for the aints; billy wilson is yet to debut for the baggers i presume 35 was sucked up into points to ensure gw$ could get an academy kid; players of note who were drafted after that point: shane mannagh - pick 36 as a mature ager to the cats joel freijah - pick 45 to footscray hugo garcia - pick pick 50 to the aints lawson humphries - pick 63 (second last pick in the national draft!) to the cats

be interesting to see if as much 'tunneling' attention is given to what toby greene just did to matt owies as has been given to bayley fritsch doing similar to tom stewart

chandler and bedford were competing for the same role; chandler has been preferred, and i still say he's the superior player jordon and sparrow were competing for the same role; jordon has improved since going to sydney and is the superior player you win some, you lose some...

as an example, aleer is a target for about 5 different vic clubs and will command significant coin for a player who, thus far, hasn't got much afl experience under his belt it will be interesting to see what his decision is if he still can't crack a very settled gw$ defence for the remainder of 2025

yes, limited minutes, but played full time as an inside mid when he did he's not quick, but he extracts the ball and is a good handballer in traffic the issue is who goes out? our inside mids of oliver, petracca, viney aren't injured - i suppose he might replace sparrow, but he's much more of a pure inside mid than a half-forward who tags the key running back like sparrow from what i saw: fullarton must come in this week - he's really playing the part of a leading key forward sestan is getting better in a new role and is a great kick adams is a good kick but needs to add a fair whack of muscle to his frame to play key back brown's second half was very good with repeat defensive efforts but he is not a very good kick verrall battled away as an undersized ruck johnson works hard in patches, goes missing, and gets his hands to the ball but drops a lot of marks two weeks in a row campbell has not played after half time mentha has pace but runs himself into difficult situations i don't think any of woewodin, billings, howes look like afl-ready players the only thing stopping laurie from being delisted is that he's contracted for next season

hawks have followed our model and they haven't won a premiership doing it as yet once that first clutch of players recruited 2017-2020 were part of a premiership, we had to keep the likes of oliver, petracca, brayshaw, as WELL as still paying significant contracts for may, lever, brown let's see how hawks go with maintaining a red hot recruiting drive in the wake of a premiership it MAY be easier as the tpp has gone up so much and they are an attractive destination; it may not don't forget we came very close to recruiting cerra and houston since 2021, as well as bringing in grundy for a year before working out it wasn't going to work for us recruiting and retention go hand in hand, but often robs peter to pay paul - the recruits we brought in that the op highlighted post-2021 premiership were not highly priced recruits but instead last chance saloon bargain basement types we pivoted our recruiting to focus on the draft; since the premiership we've picked up 6 first round picks in 3 years

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