whatwhat say what

8 minutes ago, The Chazz said:

No.  That's my point - they couldn't GAF because they have the silverware.

And my point is further supported by the amount of times in this thread alone that there is mention of these clubs doing it themselves, which helped lead to premierships.

The amount of top end picks that we had should've seen us have a team of champions.  Instead, we picked Watts, Scully and Trengove.  FMD. 

correction: morton, grimes, watts, maric, blease, strauss, $cully, trengove, gysberts, tapscott

ten top 30 picks in three years - not a genuine star among em!

This is more about Warner hating Gil and the afl than it is us tanking 

Quality timing...

https://bit.ly/2FNgq9T

18 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Sounds like a double album of classical music.

we're gonna run rings around em, perhaps?

cows missing jacobs favours the puddy tatts for mine

our game, toss of the coin, least worst wins, which i fear will be them

you'd think cola should get over carltank without charlie curnow

gw$ should be too good for rance / riewoldt less tiggas

the filth over meth coke in the gf rematch

bears-pear could be the game of the round, i favour the former on their home turf

footscray should continue their strong start to the season over gc17

i like the future tasmania over the soon to be former tasmania, without shiel and burgoyne

jokers should be too good at home for the aints

4-6 is likely you'd think - three to de-load, three to re-load

we're playing friday night football, desperately trying to resurrect ourselves as a club that can draw big crowds, and people don't want us to promote ourselves

that would be a backwards way of going forwards

i'm all for the promo that they've done this week in the lead-up to a very important game

elliott got door-stopped and said 'nah' which happens ALL the time...but cos it was blown up by the media it BECAME the story, and a joking one at that

guaranteed the spin on, say, melksham doing the same would've been very different - "dee refuses interview"

cue garry lyon saying the players and clubs need to be more accessible, blah, blah, blah

no it's not

players must speak to media and get messaging out there

anyone who thinks the cone of silence is a preferred method of operation in this age of over-information is living in the distant past

harry himmelberg signs a four-year deal to stay at gw$

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

What?

what??

Say what???

Pardon?

4 hours ago, bobby1554 said:

If that’s the case what was the point of getting him? And giving up so much in the process! I can see this turning to [censored] very quickly

cos like chip, he's got the hallmarks of an all-australian defender?

i didn't mean that as a knock on may, at all

but in terms of comparable players, may is arguably a better kick, but both very similar in the grand scheme of things in terms of what they bring to the side - strength and agility 1:1, as well as a tough attitude

frawley gets injured / suspended less tho, and has one more all oz guernsey already

elliott is not really a 'small forward', more a forward who is small

good player, but why would he leave the filth?

16 minutes ago, ProDee said:

Right now, for whatever reason, the bolded aren't the equal of their equivalent players in other top 6 teams.

It's pretty hard to win games of footy with 9 ordinary players.  And others not in bold are also not in good form.

i think, right now, you could add to that lot...

B: Jetta - Frost - Hibberd
HB: Salem - O Mac - Kolodjashnij
? Jones - Brayshaw - Viney
HF: Fritsch - T Mac - Hunt
F: Lockhart - Weideman - Melksham
Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes
I/c: Petracca - Stretch - C Wagner - Keilty
Emerg: Spargo - Preuss - Neal-Bullen - Petty

it's not JUST that we're not fit as a team, it's that our fit players are in horrendous form

biggest bummer is that mcg is now predicting a crowd of 58k

that's at least ten, possibly twenty, short of what we'd ideally want to be achieving on what should be a fantastic night for football - 27 degrees during the day, cooling slightly in the evening

if both teams were 2-0 and had played well to start the year then there'd be a lot more theatre goers and fans who can't be bothered coming along to it

i can't wait, but i think it'll be peptides by 13 points in a scrapfest in front of a disappointing 54k or so crowd

hope i'm wrong tho! i'd take a 31 point win in front of 45k that's fer sure

3 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Shaun Higgins is the type of player we should target. Strong, quick, accumulator, elite foot skills, wins his own ball and not expensive.

he was a free agent, who had had a career riddled with injury, but has been fantastic for north since landing there

north were always the frontrunners, but i believe we were the second team chasing him at the time

coniglio will cost a lot more, in terms of contract, but will deliver gw$ a better than second round pick, which is what footscray got for compo - with that pick they chose lukas webb (pick 27)

whoops, meant lockhart stays in...

IN: stretch, c wagner, keilty
OUT:  may, anb, sparrow

B: Jetta - Frost - Hibberd
HB: Salem - O Mac - Kolodjashnij
? Jones - Brayshaw - Viney
HF: Fritsch - T Mac - Hunt
F: Lockhart - Weideman - Melksham
Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes
I/c: Petracca - Stretch - C Wagner - Keilty
Emerg: Spargo - Preuss - Neal-Bullen - Petty

unavailable thru injury: may, lewis, lever, hannan, vandenberg, kennedy harris, garlett, j smith

in answer to the query as who plays sweeper, i think it'll rotate btw jones, kk, fritsch, and hunt, which is what would seem to be happening against the cats too

44 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

May is out injured.

Who do we play on Joe Daniher?  He could kick 12

gonna be difficult from the stands seeing as he's yet more weeks out injured...

the real dangers in their forward line are orazio fantasia (0.4 against the aints) and jake stringer (1 goal 2) - my biggest concern is that our ideal match-ups for them - jetta and hibberd - are in atrocious form

if mitch brown (frost) or shaun mckernan (o mac) get a hold of us we are in big, big trouble

IN: stretch, c wagner, keilty
OUT:  may, anb, sparrow

B: Jetta - Frost - Hibberd
HB: Salem - O Mac - Kolodjashnij
? Jones - Brayshaw - Viney
HF: Fritsch - T Mac - Hunt
F: Keilty - Weideman - Melksham
Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes
I/c: Petracca - Stretch - C Wagner - Keilty
Emerg: Spargo - Preuss - Neal-Bullen - Petty

unavailable thru injury: may, lewis, lever, hannan, vandenberg, kennedy harris, garlett, j smith

3 minutes ago, Jaded said:

So far it’s not been a good start for May. At 27 he doesn’t have a decade of chances ahead of him. I understand that injuries can’t be helped, but keeping himself in top condition over pre season and not getting suspended for silly stuff is within his control. 

Very disappointing. 

unfortunately, like eddie mcguire with his disparaging comments of anyone and everyone he deems 'below' him, may is a recidivist when it comes to a) not being fit and b) getting suspended

he's too small (height-wise) for modern forwards, many of who are lightning quick 200cm+ athletic freaks

may is no better / no worse than chip frawley

Raised on today’s real footy podcast 

also, who's panicking?

i think most are just resigned to us wasting another year of our football-supporting lives

like supercoach, i'm presuming the season begins in round 3 

open the draft board!

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-draft-2019-pick-1-top-10-prospects-order-afl-draft-watch-noah-anderson-finn-maginness/news-story/11281d9e0ba91ca6a1a6519e1965116c

could be an ugly friday night btw two 0-2 teams! 

peptides are quick - can't hit a target to save themselves thus far in 2019, but quick on the outside

no idea what to do with team changes, but at the moment we have at least half a dozen ostensible top ten players severely out of form - jones, petracca, anb, hibberd, jetta - who are all, more or less, integral to our side as they bring a experience and mid depth, mid-sized forward target / rotation mid, small pressure forward, half back rebound, defensive stopper

can't drop all of em but you'd think trac and anb would be on a knife's edge

i still don't understand recruiting a bloke and then not playing him, but i would presume given the casey report that keilty is more likely to come in than preuss at this stage - his recruitment is a bit baffling at the moment 

peptides have a small, zippy, dynamic forward line so there's no point playing o mac and frost alongside may, presuming he's right to play (was very proppy), so one of them goes - i prefer o mac as a footballer, but we need frost's pace

you can't have both frost and hunt in the back half of the ground, as they're absolute liabilities, so either hunt plays forward, replacing anb's role, or he gets dropped

forward line was completely dysfunctional tonight so something needs to change

sparrow needs a run at a lower level to get his hands on the pill

IN: Stretch, C Wagner, Keilty
OUT: O Mac, ANB, Sparrow

B: Jetta - May - Hibberd
HB: Salem - Frost - Fritsch
? Jones - Viney - Brayshaw
HF: Petracca - T Mac - Melksham
F: Keilty - Weideman - Hunt
Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes
I/c: Stretch - Kolodjashnij - C Wagner - Lockhart
Emerg: Spargo - Preuss - ANB - Sparrow

unavailable thru injury: lewis, lever, avb, garlett, j smith, whatever player comes down with a mystery injury of the week

1 minute ago, Older demon said:

I read the article differently. Not much substance on who we target but the key message is we have money in the bank to protect and re-sign our guns in Oliver etc who we know other clubs will come after with million dollar offers. An earlier post was spot on Shiel, Scully and Lobb going eased about 2 mill. of the GWS salary cap.

With only Jones nearing the end age wise I doubt his retirement will free up a lot in our cap.

lewis will either finish up this year or be on a severely reduced contract in 2020, and he was on very good coin for three years with us

we also won't be paying $70k a year for watts to not be on our list any more

of the players out of contract this year, here's some names that stand out:

• hugh greenwood (crows) - sort of their equivalent of harmes, i guess
• riley knight (crows) - he most plays outside mid, has some pace
• daniel mcstay (bears) - very good tall defender, not sure we need another
• brayden sier (pies) - tough inside ballwinner, has some defensive liabilities
• tom phillips (pies) - jet wingman, would love him; no way they're losing him
• darcy parish (peptides) - a slightly better version of stretch...pass
• ed langdon (freo) - pace to burn, we've gone after him a couple of times
• nakia cockatoo (cats) - has skills but his body has let him down
• peter wright (gc17) - another key forward who doesn't seem to read the play that well
• adam tomlinson (gw$) - free agent, not sure what role he's play with us given kk and fritsh play def wingmen
• jacob hopper (gw$) - another inside mid, might be able to get him if he's squeezed out cos...
• josh kelly (gw$) - ...stays at the franchise, and so too does...
• steve coniglio (gw$) - ...this bloke
• brandon ellis (tiggas) - turnover merchant, but has pace
• jack billings (aints) - so we have someone else other than petracca to complain about
• harry cunningham (swans) - another rfa, a bit limited as a wingman, occasional rotating inside mid
• zak jones (swans) - all the brothers!
• josh dunkley (dogs) - another inside-outside mid-forward combo player, big bodied

of that lot my preference in order would be a top five of coniglio, kelly, dunkley, billings, jones and then of the more likely lads langdon, tomlinson, hopper