Dappa Dan

Bloody helll What is going on?

Our good luck with Injury gods last year coming back to visit us... Are we seriously in front? Goody is gonna win high praise for putting the two extras behind the ball. Great move at AO.

Oh no Hunt.

Jeez Watts. Not a leadup forward.

Ha. Stevey J. If you have to wait to see your club smashed by the best side in the comp, then this is the way you like the day to start.

Ah. Well [censored].

I dunno about that. If they genuinely saw it that way, wouldn't they have traded him to Tigers when they asked?

Yeah a lot of people say that, and offer Watts as a good example. Where we differ is that I don't think we're gonna get done like that. We've been in every contest this year, I expect us to show a lot and get outclassed in the last quarter this week. With that in mind, having Weed run around against the best KP defender in the game is something that can bear fruit in the long run.

I'd like to see them play ANB for this reason. Can give you four quarters. Weed would learn a lot, but we're not in learn mode yet.

In two days it'll be over.

I reckon for Crows Talia gets the heaviest, best contested mark. Lever (if he were fit) is an intercept mark guy. I'm not sure of the stats, but I think Weed might already be heavier than Watts. Just checked... yup, he is by 1 keg. I reckon Weed is a bigger threat on the lead for the high ball. They'll know that. I hope you're right though. Watts will go up the ground a lot. One thing about him this year, he's been able to shake a lot of close attention with his variety of roles. Hard to tag a guy when he goes into the centre circle for ruck taps.

Hogan out now makes this a real blowout danger. Sort of hoping we say screw the tall options and just put run in. Weed will get slaughtered by Talia. Real shame this.

Yeah definitely. I think about the mental side of things for the players a lot these days. We get word from coaches and from a lot of our own sources about the state of mind of the youth in the team. If you look at the Cats and Hawks in their best years recently, they recruited skilled players, but I don't think any more skilled than our list. The buzzword used to be "culture." Then it was that leading teams thing the cats brought in. Then under Roosy he spoke openly and often about keeping the kids on track mood wise. He said some of our players were mentally damaged through our worst years. Some of the things these guys can do are absolutely remarkable, but we're only able to see them switch on and off intermittently. More than ever the game is played between the ears. I'm really confident with where we sit now though. We have confident players, who are fit, run out games, and back their skill very often. Some of our defensive players still have hospital kicks, which will never be ironed out. But overall I'm seeing a team taking the game on in a way we haven't seen, well, probably since 2000. Goody's getting great results from a mentally iffy player like Watts. Aside from him we have Hogan who's early season moodiness can now be forgiven (IMO). And we have Braysh who has medical concerns. But I don't see guys dropping their heads. I see them enduring through a really tough period. I think it's fair to say our youth is the most exciting, but also the most problematic part. We need leaders. We're still short in that area. And while we can trade one in in Lewis, who's been great when on the park, we really need to grow them ourselves so they can choose their team's footballing identity in the way Scarlett, Chapman, Ablett, Corey, Harley, and Enright did. I really think we're on the way there. We're just in the embryonic stages. Our future captain is in place. I'm not as down as some others... I'm really looking forward to seeing who we unearth now that we can.

It's just the kind of [censored] you expect these days from the dees. Bereft of confidence. Falling over in the simplest ways in close games. And then coming out and beating the unbeatable on their home turf. Sounds like the kind of thing we do, doesn't it.

TBH, not sure what those guys will really bring. None were incredible beforehand. I'm fairly certain Adelaide will get a cricket score. But yeah. There were only a few really terrible individuals this week. Goody is starting to annoy me.

Pretty much. Not to the result anyway. But we'll get back to just trying to play our brand now. And for that... In: ANB, Weed Out: Bugg, JKH Weed only if he's right to go. We needed another tall leadup type. And if Lynch plays will need an extra tall as all of TMac Omac and Frost will have their hands full all day. The Omac sooks are in fine voice yet again, and for absolutely no reason. Was pretty good today without starring with heaps of disposals. Frost was agony 1st quarter and ecstasy 3rd. I've been defending JKH, but he's gotta go. Not quite doing enough to keep the ball in. It's a vital job in Goody's system and ANB does it better. Bugg probably unlucky but he's had his two, and will be moved back again. Maybe also for Harmes or preferably Kent. Stretch also. Wags will get a second game. Got lit up at one point and played it out. Looked a little off the pace, but that's how you go one game back from interrupted year.

No excuse. I will say this sort of thing is what I predicted something into the year, based purely on age of players. Not that I don't care. It's brutal. But I'm not slitting my wrists.

Fair enough to have a bit of doom and gloom. It's a long way back from here. Losing to average and poor sides will kills us even if we DO lift and beat some top 8 sides.

Absolutely. Feels weird. And not in a good way. I loved comparing the benches. Obviously their 18 will have names. Every club has a Salary Cap they spend on the highest currency players in the League. Cyril, Smith, Breust, Gunston... But check out their extended interchange vs ours... Us: Salem, Tyson, Stretch, Kent, ANB, OMac, Wagner. Them: Sicily, Hartung, Whitecross, Brand, Langford, Howe, Hardwick. Man that makes for pretty reading.

People get very excited about player types. We're so desperate for a ruck/forward player to chop Maxy out I even heard some people say they wanted Vickery, which absolutely stunned me. If you take it as read that Vickery is a terrible, terrible AFL footballer, then the facts he's a good bloke and knows his way around a ruck contest are moot. This team is building to threaten for a flag, we can't hold onto other teams list clogger just cos we need a type of player. That's Richmond-style drafting. So I'm interested in seeing a lot of fairly glass-half-empty type posters say they like him. I've only seen him monster a handful of games, and then he really goes missing a lot. And factor in the injury history. I can't see the excitement? Lever > May > Reid for me.

Don't really see any correlation between Trengove and Dunn. Trenners has only one thing on his side. Youth. If he can become a Sam Mitchell type then he can play a role in footy. Dunn doesn't have the physical limitations Trengove does, or the nasty injury history. And has some good AFL footy left in him. But his the opposite end of the age spectrum to Trengove. I'm with you on Dunn. I hated him for about the first 7 years of his career. Then his last couple of seasons at Melbourne I saw him beat gorillas again and again and became a fan. I was surprised to see him go since we were playing for finals and needed all the mature bodies we could find. That said, it's not a dumb move by the demons. He's not in the age bracket we need for the future, so it sort of makes sense to move him on. He might play a couple of ok seasons in and out of the pies side... but really, we're looking to the future. I reckon it's not a "mistake." Just a win-win that he was traded out.

Yeah. I think had they rolled with Bellchambers and Spence been fit, we'd have seen a massive game from Spencer too. I think it's encouraging though. There's ruckmen Pedo will play against that he'll be able to run off their feet. Maybe not the way he did to TB, but certainly to some degree. Says a lot about Pedo's work ethic in the last few seasons. I remember seeing him in the rooms a few years back and he looked just like me physically. I was disgusted that an AFL player could slip so far. Now he looks like he's carved out of granite.

Good form Mono, good form. That's a good point. And yes, running wise he'll be up and going. Good solid pre season too. My only worry would be that the type of player he is... his body will be hit from pillar to post. The aerobic capacity and ability to repeat sprint is a huge and underrated feature for Spence. People don't realise how quick he really is. But with Max out, and going through the midfield, it's his spoiling, tackling, and clearance work that makes him a respectable option. I remember when he strung a few together two seasons ago I was surprised to see he did all the "other" stats really well. He's going to need to be prepared for physical punishment. And it's almost more critical than his engine at this stage. It'll be interesting to see what decisions are made. Watching Pedo against a career ruckman... he was an absolute matchup win. On the Couch showed footage of him runnign back to take the mark he scored on. Bellchambers just couldn't keep up. That kind of workrate... that's hard to drop. Gee he was good.

Surely it can't be that bad. lol

Classy post Sku. And I think maybe a first in demonland. And yeah, I didn't quite see the playful tone. Maybe I'm just a bit of a dingbat myself. In any case... How good is Clarry!