Lord Travis

Hoping Trac can work on his set shots. He’s great otherwise and could be such a damaging player for us this year. We look to have good depth through the midfield. Preuss has been fairly poor though. Opposition ruckman have just been taking it out of the ruck against him. Harmes and Brayshaw both look like continuing on from last year and dominating again.

Coniglio is a serious jet. IMO was unlucky not to be named All Australian last year. One of the best rounded goal kicking midfielders in the game. I'd love to land him, but I suspect it's either GWS or a return home to WA. We should just focus on keeping our own going forward. Keep Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Lever etc together and the success will come.

I attended the match out at Casey yesterday and I gotta say the standard was a big step up from previous years. The girls really put in, worked hard, had great intensity, and we were the better team and dominated the play...but our gameplan let us down. We repeatedly kicked the ball out wide to the back flank and wing, which slowed our movement and turned it over due to AFLW rules of last kick before out of bounds being a free against. Late in the third quarter we were smashing them, had the ball at CHB with free players in the middle. Inexplicably we elected to kick to contests on the wing and ruined our own momentum. Yes the umpiring was not in our favour, but if we played more direct footy we would've won by 3-4 goals comfortably yesterday. Was one of the most frustrating game I've watched live in a few years, as we were clearly better and lost due to gameplan and nothing else. It was like watching our mens team from 3-4 years ago dominate without scoring (similar to when we lost to West Coast a few years back despite having twice as many inside 50s). Over all though, the standard has improved and if this was a glimpse at the quality we can expect in future, the AFL would be wise to invest more heavily into AFLW as opposed to AFLX.

Fritta got through uninjured which is all that matters. He’s still a stick figure though, was hoping he’d put on some size over summer! I tuned in and out, but it was pretty uninspiring and low intensity stuff. Was better last year when we won it...

Helmet looks good, and we'll be seeing more of it. Gus had the ball on a string today and looks set for another big season!

The changes to kick ins will be by far the biggest change. The man on the mark being pushed right back combined with the ability to play on and not have to kick the ball to yourself means that the player kicking out makes it halfway up the defensive 50 metre arc before they are even confronted. The first kick is hitting the wing or centre square. Teams will start flooding hard if they score a behind, as they are now little to no chance at regaining possession of the ball in their forward half. It's going to create some very ugly matches with lots of flooding IMO. The changes to the rules, as they are every year, are poor and reactionary. The AFL just want free-wheeling shoot-outs at the expense of key fundamentals of the game. The addition of the 6-6-6 rule is going to mean teams who don't have the talent on their list e.g. Gold Coast are going to get belted by bigger margins. We're going to see far less competitive and close games. It's going to be boring and ugly. While I love watching us win, beating up on teams like Gold Coast is going to feel pretty hollow when coaches don't have the ability to change tactics to combat what's happening.

I agree. I think both the Smiths are depth. All Tim Smith did today was lead to the completely wrong areas and get in Weids space. Calling him depth is the most polite thing I can do. I don't want to see him in red and blue at AFL level again. Joel Smith I see as valuable depth. He's definitely behind all those names you've listed, but he's not the worst option out there due to his ability to compete in the air and versatility. He's behind TMac, Weid, Gawn, Preuss, Petracca, Melksham, Fritsch, Spargo, Harmes, and Garlett as a forward option IMO. I don't believe he'll make any meaningful contribution this season. With TMac, Melksham and Fritsch to return, and T Smith and J Smith gone, I think our forward line would function very well. TMac and Weid paired well late last year, so I'm excited to see them build more synergy and not lead into each others space.

Horrible luck for the kid. It would be really tough going through that before you’ve even played a game and gotten into everything properly. Here’s wishing him a speedy and solid long term recovery.

Keep them separate. This board’s convoluted enough as it is.

Oliver

Jetta Oliver

Jetta Harmes Oliver Gawn

Hunt Oliver Gawn Brayshaw

Jetta Melksham Viney McDonald

Oscar Fritsch Brayshaw

Viney Spargo Harmes Salem

I'm thankful he chose to come to us when we were still a pretty average club. He was a key player and bringing a bit of arrogance and confident to the place. I loved him silencing the Richmond crowd that time after kicking a goal! He was a good 22nd player. Obviously no superstar, but could competently play a role tagging, up forward or down back. He's better than most on here give him credit for. He's a really friendly guy too. I've bumped into him multiple times at the supermarket and he's always up for a chat. All the best to him with his media marketing business. It's already a multimillion dollar business he's established with his model girlfriend and some of her friends. Done quite well for himself has Buggy!

McDonald Garlett Hunt

Melksham Lewis Hibberd

He was swung forward against the Hawks a few years back and turned the match for us there, so it’s not the worst idea. Personally I’d like to see him settle on the wing. Ideally him and KK own the wings, so we have good running power, elite pace in Hunt and elite kicking in KK.

Harmes is no slouch either! Hopefully Hunt can stay fit and build on his early career form. He looks to have put on some muscle in the upper body over summer. He could become a serious weapon for us, and is probably the player I'm most excited to see in 2019.

Fritsch had a great first year. He's already got the skills and smarts. Track watchers, has he put any size onto that small frame over summer? Good to hear KK's foot skills are standing out already. He's going to be a surprise packet to most and the wingman we've been crying out for.

Understandable that Pies midfield is ranked first. They got to a grand final on the back of a strong midfield and have added Beams to that group over the off-season. I do think it will drop off, as Pendles is slowing up and Beams has to start dropping off soon too. Tigers rely on Martin. Cotchin is a good player, but doesn't get heaps of ball compared to most other mids. Edwards is average, Lambert is decent, Prestia is decent. Hardly anything to write home about and we are comfortably better IMO. GWS is still strong despite losing an insane amount of talent. Imagine if they had Shiel, Treloar, Adams, D Smith etc still in there! As it stands, Ward, Kelly, Coniglio are all guns, but their depth has been eroded now. We've showed we can beat them late in the year. Our midfield is right up there. Best of all, our 1st choice mids are young and have years ahead of them. Gawn, Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw. That starting 4 is one of the best going round and will build together for years to come. We'll never struggle to win our share of the ball if we can keep Viney, Oliver and Brayshaw on the park. Add in guys like Harmes, Jones, Petracca etc and it's a great midfield. It would be good to get another quality pacy mid though, hoping that Sparrow could become that player. While we lack key forward depth, the midfield is still the most important part of the team and we need to continue to add elite talent there.

Can’t wait to see him on a wing. If Hunt can return to form and claim the other wing we could go from no/average wings to seriously dangerous wings. Hunt for elite pace, KK for elite kicking. Here’s hoping one or both of them can stay injury free and build consistency!

See the other thread opened recently about the same topic.