whatwhat say what

dominant ruckmen feeding big bodied mids who can kick it to leading forwards will be worth their weight in gold in 2019

so, given that preuss will likely miss a bit of time with a groin, will we 'risk' gawn in the pre-season or withdraw him from today's game against the bears?

and essendon, and carlton, and richmond...

not just that, but it means their next two to five year contract after that takes them part way thru the next cba, which is due for renewal at the end of 2022

jkh runs all day and can hit a target by foot, and loves to tackle he's not overly quick but he's a classic workhorse

I....can’t see it In terms of supporter base we have one of the smallest in the AFL To double membership base from 35k to 70k in the space of four years (2015-19) is unlikely and in some respects I fear Pert is setting himself - and the club, by extension - to fail

He’s not a small forward

i love how secretive teams are especially when the basic tenet of football - see ball, get ball, kick ball through big sticks, stop oppo doing the same - remains the same

I completely agree with you, fwiw, but I was still pleased to see Garlett’s attack on the ball and man - something that went missing for him big time in 2018 Spargo is a little ripper but still so young

i wouldn't of the nominal small forwards who played last weekend - garlett, spargo, and anb - i thought he offered the most

with a truncated preseason, i personally think it's vital to run out with general game plan fortunately, brisbane seem likely to do the same, and - like port - they play tall to a certain degree, with all of martin, smith / mcinerney in support, plus hipwood and mcstay likely to rotate through their forward line if it's six on the pine, i'd personally be interested in seeing: B: Jetta - May - Frost HB: Lewis - O Mac - Hibberd C: Salem - Brayshaw - Fritsch HF: Petracca - T Mac - AVB F: Preuss - Weideman - ANB Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Jones - Viney - Spargo - Melksham - JKH - Hunt Emerg: Stretch - Jordon - Sparrow i see no point in the likes of jones, viney, or melksham playing vfl praccy game as, even coming off the bench with reduced minutes, afl-level intensity will give a much better gauge as to whether or not they're 'right' for round 1

lever is about as expected - 12 month recovering, considering he did it in rd 11 last season hannan is a bummer tho

that is more likely to assure that they run with fort and stanley in a dual ruck approach

will miss 4-6 weeks of the regular season; won't play round 3

be interesting to see what major changes they go with given the expected whopping changes that might happen - all of may, jones, lewis, viney, gawn, hibberd, melksham, vandenberg, and jetta are expected to be back 'in', with a couple mooted to come back via a vfl hitout given that only garlett appeared to be injured this week, if they do bring all those nine back through the seniors that means they might need to make a further eight changes if not more if they choose to go in with a reduced playing list to get a more realistic hit-out ahead of the season proper

of all our young guns, he's arguably the most skilled

i'm giving preuss the benefit of the doubt, and presuming he was basically not playing for almost two quarters because he got a knock to his calf, rather than him blowing up after a quarter and a bit...cos for that first quarter he was pretty good, and when he was back on in the last we looked okay at this point i'm telling myself 'it was 38 degrees out there, plus he's barely played senior football' for the most part i thought we looked okay, but richmond when they have that a-grade midfield and run from defence up and going are seriously good - gotta remember they were premiers two years back and won more games in 2018 than that year they'll be there or thereabouts this year, so to hold close enough to them for the most part was pretty good given how shallow our stocks were - i reckon missing 12 of best 25 outstanding: oliver good: salem, harmes, brayshaw, fritsch, petty about expected: petracca, maynard, preuss, jordon, jkh, weideman, o mac, sparrow, hore, garlett, c wagner disappointing: spargo, stretch, frost, t mac, hunt, anb, j wagner, j smith oliver is a bona fide freak of a footballer; kicking it way more this match too we couldn't seem to get much overlap run going whatsoever - dunno whether it was heat or personnel-related, cos hunt and j wagner really didn't give much bounce from half-back when compared to hibberd and lewis i loved the mid trio of oliver, brayshaw and harmes with trac and salem moving through it too - the idea of adding viney and jones to that rotation is genuinely exciting

that midfield combo of oliver, brayshaw, and harmes with trac and salem coming in would have to be one of the most exciting group of 21-23 year old mids i've seen shame gus can't hit a target and trac can't kick a set shot they're basically full strength, and when they had the centre square combo of martin, cotchin, prestia plus titch edwards coming in they were so much stronger than the group that we had up against em, which at one stage seemed to include stretch and jkh

Having not seen him in aflx , Fritsch looks a lot bigger through the shoulders

He really pushed that wide; might’ve been an opportunity to go around the body there

Stretch burns Tom but lovely kick from outside 50

ridiculous assessment, he hasn't even been in the job six months yet

port look slow; crows look good

it's fairly likely we'll finish third in the division, with the fourth best overall record, and still fail to make finals

north-saints is not a good game to watch only interesting thing to note so far about it is that both teams really are lining up with pure 'wingmen' - polec doesn't even move from his spot until he's worked out which way it's going - and having some space i50 to move in if there is a quick clearance might be the making of mccartin edit: oh, and tyson can still win the ball in the contest but still can't kick, and kent remains a solid small pressure forward