Lord Travis

Would gladly take him as steak knives if Jackson chooses to leave. We have no ruck depth. Gawn is 31 next year, Daw has retired, Bradke was delisted. If Jackson leaves we have no proper ruck backup on the list for Gawn and will be reliant on make shift rucks like Weid, Brown, Tomlinson etc. Meek is a solid guy, still quite young for a ruckman. He's no world beater, but he's serviceable with scope to become a good AFL ruckman. He is solid in ruck contests, gets around the ground on the wings to contribute, can provide a marking outlet, and knows his limitations to handball to receiver after marking if play is quick too. He's a country Vic boy, so may agree to come home to too. Definitely worth pushing to get thrown into the Jackson deal along with first rounders.

Expected and best ins available. Dunstan in for Clarry is a no brained. He’s next cab off the rank in the midfield and has been consistently good in VFL waiting for another chance. Chandler has been our best player in the VFL over the course of the year. Surprised he didn’t get promoted after his 29 disposal 5 goal game 2 weeks back! Bowey omitted for poor form a few weeks late, but at least they’ve made the call now. Hunt the likely replacement. Hunt should never have been dropped, and our backline (and team) have performed worse since he was omitted. Cannot understate how important he is as a small/medium lockdown defender who has pace.

It’s an issue because some players are actively playing for these free kicks instead of playing the game as intended. Ginnivan is obviously a rodent, but just this week Luke Shuey was interviewed and asked about it and said “I’ll keep doing it unless they change the rule and I don’t get free kicks anymore” (paraphrasing but close). We’ve had Weightman come out and say it’s a skill in his game to draw free kicks for high tackles. We’ve now got Dangerfield defending it. The fact the players have trained themselves to essentially go weak at the knees and raise their arm to draw high contact when faced with confrontation instead of actually playing the game is a problem. Someone will get hurt and there will be no sympathy. It’s also a terrible look for the sport. The rule just needs to be officiated as it’s written. If the initial contact is below the shoulder but is then pushed high due to a shrug, then it’s not a free kick for high contact. It’s either play on or holding the ball depending on the success of the tackle. The duck/shrug/flop/arm raise is prior opportunity. At the end of the day, these footy matches exist to entertain us. If the customer doesn’t like the product, then change the product to fit the customers needs or die. In this case, officiate the rule as written, and no free kicks for tackles that are pushed or adjusted high by the tacklee. The players need to reel it in and accept they’re not above anything. If it wasn’t for us supporting with our dollars, they’d likely be brick layers in bumfuk nowhere on a pittance of a wage.

I feel for Noble. He was clearly never going to have success at North, and has had to deal with being surrounded by incompetent rubbish whilst having a poor playing list to utilise. The media jumped on and no-one can survive a losing record like that. He's a good football person and will get another gig elsewhere, likely in an assistant coach or football ops type role.

Zuurhaar isn't a key forward at 189cms, he's a forward/mid type. Very powerful, decent pace, fierce at the contest and hits the scoreboard. At a good club he could be a real weapon IMO and would add a different dynamic to our forward line. Larkey would be a huge get. He's a very promising tall forward who has already shown he can be a main target, clunk marks and hit the scoreboard. I think both players are contracted, but if the place implodes we should get in their ear and see if we can lure them across.

Can we pinch Larkey or Zuurhaar? Both could add to our forward line!

Yep, sitting on a beach in Hawaii sipping cocktails while North burns. Roos is a great footy person, but doesn’t seem to have been entirely invested in North!

Lewis is a very solid KPF, however he signed a long extension last month and will be a Hawk until 2027. Obviously a key pillar in Hawks rebuild and doubtful he'd be an option. Would also cost a first rounder we don't have.

He's 28 years old, will be 29 early next season. He does not have a marking presence and has not been effective up forward. He can only play number 1 ruck and he's on over a million bucks a year for another 5 years. He doesn't fit our age demographic and would retire not long after Gawn. We need Gawn's replacement to be younger than Grundy, otherwise he is a very expensive stop-gap. If he had a presence up forward like Lobb or Marshall type, then I'd consider it. As he doesn't, I'd avoid and look for younger, cheaper, more suitable options.

Ok that makes sense thanks. So further up the ground, not inside 50 then. That is still surprising, but disappointing to see such a low success rate from him. He's definitely out of form, but frustratingly we lack quality tall forward depth. A lot of that failure is on the delivery to him also. With the ball being bombed long or moved slowly, it makes it harder for him to have it kicked to his advantage. It's a problem all over the field though, not just forward. The synergy is just not there and needs to be found in the month to come or we'll struggle come finals time.

I fee like that stat is wrong. He took more contested marks than that in the first quarter lone the other night! Or were they further up the ground or winning 1 vs 2 or pack situations (even harder lol). Regardless he's definitely not in form, but that stat seems off. Back on topic, Weid has the runs on the board and has held his own at AFL before, even excelling in finals 2018. As well as JVR is going in the VFL, Weid is going just as well, and mostly better, so even on form Weid gets the nod. As exciting as JVR is, and I think he'll be our best key forward long term, it's probably not the right time to blood a kid in a tall forward position.

He's appeared to lack a bit of confidence since the concussion and restaurant incident. To be fair though, I think all our rebounding defenders coming out of defense have lacked impact. Salem and Bowey have been borderline MIA. This time last year Salem was the best half back in the league and was hitting 30-40 passes on angles that opened up options and made us really dangerous on the counterattack. This year since returning from injury he's also resorted to dumping it down the line. I think May is in a similar boat. It can't be easy looking up the field and having no movement ahead of you. The bomb it long kick is mostly a result of lack of options IMO and for whatever reason we refuse to switch the ball too. If the mids separated and gave options then the rebounders job is made easier and they become more effective.

Crap news that Clarry is injured. Lucky it’s just the one week. Chance for some other kids to stand up and win the hard ball against Port. Viney might have another huge game.

Also, those saying the media circus doesn’t effect the players are wrong. There was a post on AFL Instagram account recently about Jackson, and Jake Bowey commented on it asking him to stay. If his team mates are publicly responding to that sort of stuff begging him to stay, then they no longer trust him. Can’t be a successful team without buy in and trust.

Didn’t have a disposal in the second half last night. Million dollar players don't go an entire half without touching the ball when the whips are cracking.

Think you may have misunderstood my post Picket Fence or missed the context of the discussion at that point in time. It was referring to Freo's Andrew Brayshaw not being part of a trade for Jackson if he requests a trade, not our Angus Brayshaw being somehow involved. I agree with @Neil Crompton's assessment in that jackson's value will never be higher than it is now. If he doesn't develop as hyped over the next two years, his value drops. If he does develop as hyped, his value remains the same as what's being bandied about ($1 million a year). If he does want to leave, we're better cashing in now to extract highest value rather than later.

This gave me a chuckle

I’m feeling this way too. Gus on the wing playing more defensively forced teams into attacking only through certain parts of the ground. He also covered the corridor well. The best teams shred us through the corridor on counter attack and having Gus pushing there would help nullify that and force them to kick long and high again. Jordan has played some good footy on the wing offensively this year, but teams aren’t as worried about attacking through his wing or the corridor with him there. We have heaps of options and depth for our half back flank. As great as Gus has been, it might be time to shift him back to the wing and bring in a different half back like Rivers for the overall benefit of the team.

Have said it on here for a good month or so now. Bowey out. Hunt in. On tonight’s match Bedford out too if Chandler performs well again as Casey. We must reward form. It’s good for culture to have competition for spots. If Dunstan plays well at Casey he’d be considered in place of Sparrow next week.

Our two worst losses this year have been the Fremantle game and tonight. The Freo loss was worse on the scoreboard, but more even statistically. We just kicked inaccurately for goal. Tonight was a more comprehensive loss. The key thing both matches have in common is we lost clearances by +10. It seems when our strength is taken away from us by good teams, we struggle to find other ways to wrestle back momentum and win. Time for Yze to get to work and come up with some tactics to address the stoppages when it’s not going our way. Centre bounces are huge in todays game use to 6-6-6 rule. Our third quarter in the grand final is proof of that!

Two obvious changes to start with. Chandler had 29 disposals and 5 goals last week. We should have rewarded his great form. He should come in for Bedford, who has had two poor games since the Lions game. Bowey has had no impact on games for a while now. We’ve also struggled with stopping ground balls and linking play in our defensive 50. Fine in the air, terrible otherwise. Hunt should come in for Bowey to help lockdown. Not as polished on offense, but infinitely better at defending. We’ve got Salem and Gus to rebound as is.

Max Holmes looks a ripper. Jason Taylor was bang on identifying him as a gun outside talent. Shame he went a pick too early for us. We need to look at some changes to our smalls next week. That game was lost by our small forward not getting involved, and lack of smaller lockdown defenders.

Seriously though it’s a fair point. Our second halves this year have been poor. Last year we were unstoppable in second halves. We’re a fair way off that level now.

Loading 😉 Every loss can be blamed on loading 😉

It’s more a midfield problem than forward line problem IMO. The kick before the kick that goes inside 50 is an issue. It’s not going to the right depth on the field, which is then leading to a [censored] kick inside 50 because it’s starting from the wrong spot and has no choice but to bomb long into the pockets instead of to a leading players towards the flanks. Whenever it goes to the flanks on a lead instead is the only time we’re marking it and getting decent shots.