BLWNBA

Previously they were priced separately, from memory last season GWS’ was comfortably the cheapest. My understanding for this season is that they’re all the same pricing across all 18 clubs; admittedly, I’ve not researched this though.

Is the OOC status correct? Not challenging you directly, but some reporting over the past 12 months states he's OOC at the end of 2026, whilst other reporting states it's this year.

Practice matches (i.e., distinct from match simulation / red team on blue team) enables sports specific knowledge and wisdom to be built, outside of a 'simulated environment'. By practicing against an external source (e.g., North Melbourne) an additional layer of complexity and unpredictability is added which is extremely hard to replicate. As a result, MFC listed players are tasked with combating and overcoming genuine elements of anticipation, awareness and collaboration which for the most part, aren't present in internal simulations. There's also strong data to indicate that when athletes are competing against a known quantity, such as a teammate, individual pieces of information are able to be retained more easily, as there is an awareness of the relationship between players and tactics which enables a level of 'prediction'. Of course, as an elite athlete you will study the opposition in order to be able to predict what's coming and react accordingly, but doing this in an authentic and genuine manner which has a meaningful return can be very difficult to replicate in a training scenario - not to mention the diminishing returns.

AJ and Langford will be the 'new editions' to the forward line, IMO. I fully expect both to play Round 1, as it stands.

Melk may be in a spot of bother for R1, given he's going to miss 3 - 4 weeks with a hamstring.

He's definitely still a plug and play defender, but May has really seemed to have lost a step over the past two seasons. His closing speed is has diminished, as has his ability to gather a ground ball with that one-touch finesse he's previously had which meant he was uncharacteristically caught out a few times (last season, especially).

While I agree with you on a base level and in this case think your comments are fair, I'd say the commentary has centered more around the disambiguation between being ethnically Chinese, and Chinese by nationality - as both groups form part of the Chinese diaspora. The identity issue pertaining to being 'Chinese' ('Sino'), is more complicated than it is with many other nationalities and ethnicities.

There was a very good conversation on SEN yesterday about this - essentially, have they simply over performed with the list they have, and have they done enough to bring in early elite talent?

I thought school holidays ended?

Cornes has consistently stated that we have the ability to perform at the top and that we've underperformed. During the first half of last year when our form was looking reasonable, he stated that he thought we'd be contending for the flag, which many on this site continue to believe to be true. Cornes also said that throughout our drop-off in 2023 and thought we could still finish in a meaningful position in the Top 4. He's criticised our game plan (which is hard to argue with), and the length of contract that Oliver received (that's not a unique criticism of the MFC). Being an advocate of a club doesn't require your adoration to lack analytical value or warranted criticism.

Cornes and King were two of our biggest advocates over the past four to five seasons.

Return of the Prodigal Son, LJ - then yes.

This is broadly more around the mark from what I’ve heard (admittedly, second-hand). I suspect more will come to the forefront regarding the situation soon.

Apologies in advance if this has been widely discussed previously, but is the reason behind Kenterfield's absence(s) known - injury / niggle / general soreness etc?

Interesting, I'm (potentially incorrectly) assuming that Sharp has then taken the wing position that was previously held by Windsor then?

Is he still being used primarily off the wing?

I think there's every chance that there could be a bit of a 'watch this space' on TDK...

Sounds like there'll be another sponsor announced in the not too distant future too.

Historically, I think we've been a reasonable club to deal. I'm not sure we'd be going down the Peter Bell / Adrian Dodoro route and trying to 'win' the trade, as opposed to positioning ourselves for fair and reasonable compensation. Though as I mentioned earlier, for me it really comes down to what a club would be willing to pay for Kossie's potential - and if they think they'll be able to unlock it.

Yep, don't disagree on that, mate. It's a fair point for sure.

Personally I can't see any world where a club would be prepared to pay two first rounders for Pickett, and if we did get that I would take that in heart beat. Like a previous poster suggested, I think that it is completely overs for him given his output and you'd still be picking him largely on potential. If we're using a like-for-like trade, I would think that the Daniel Rioli trade is somewhat of the benchmark (where the Tigers received Pick 6 and 23). The Bolton deal as an 'equivalent' trade is interesting, noting that Richmond sent Bolton and Pick 14 to Freo in exchange for 10, 11 and 18. Noting we currently don't have a first round pick this year, I suspect in a potential trade we'd be looking far more at something in the realms of the former example.

Many thanks for this post. My ability to keep up with most of the player given nicknames over the past few years has seriously degraded! Glad I'll no longer have to look like this when I read through the odd training report.

This is a pretty good video which goes into some of the points you've raised. If people like data-led analysis, this is one of the better 'list analysis' videos going around.