Fat Tony

Great insights. I see Laurie in a similar vein. He lacks athleticism which makes it hard to see his role at AFL level. I think Merrett is much quicker and a more dynamic and a more penetrating kick. I see him more like Jade Gresham, albeit I think Gresham is better in the air. Still, it is great to see he is getting so much more of the football, albeit I would like to see more kicks than handballs at VFL level. Woey obviously had a poor kicking day yesterday judging by various reports but he has been tidy in previous games. Did he just have a bad day on return (in the wind)? He has a bit of Billy Stretch about him. Sestan looks very good with ball in hand and in the contest, but he is still a way off AFL fitness. I also wonder if he is a bit short for a player of his profile.

Laurie has no overhead game at all. He is competing with ANB, Spargo, Chandler and Kossie, not Melksham.

I think May looks unwilling to go to full pace. Last week he let Darling win a ball on the boundary and gave him a 15m leg rope. This week he didn’t look to have any intensity and struggled in the air.

It is positional and role. Melksham plays an undersized key forward in our system. Jordon is a midfielder. I think we should be rotating the sub role but that’s a separate issue.

I think it’s time to start a Deathriding thread for Essendon. I know we don’t have their draft pick but I hate them so much!

I don't think Fyfe is a good enough kick to compliment our midfield including Oliver, Petracca, Viney and Langdon (which already provides us great grunt and breakaway capability but are not the most effective kicking). And he has proven to be an ineffective forward in the back end of his career. That said, you might take him on a very low salary but there would probably be better suiters for him (i.e. Geelong, Collingwood or Port)

I hope they start using the sub to rotate our lesser players. We are coming off a short break and also back to back road trips this week. "Squad mentality" means rotating and not playing your best 22 every week. This approach gives us the chance to experiment, develop and freshen up over the course of the season. We obviously then will pick our best 22+1 in September and probably also on the big 8 point games. Jordon should definitely come into the 22 this week, with one of Sparrow, Spargo, Chandler or ANB getting a turn as sub. (Or we could go smaller with Brown not selected and Petty going back to replace Hibberd.)

Channel 7

We will take 24 at least. Tomlinson looks most likely to be travelling emergency.

Gold Coast will hand No.6 draft pick Bailey Humphrey his senior debut against St Kilda on Saturday night, while Mac Andrew will play his first game for the year after serving a club-imposed ban for drink-driving during the off-season. Humphrey was the player we were rumoured to have been wanting to trade up for.

The Pies have a list very well suited to playing ballistic football through the corridor. Not many other sides have a group of smaller players who are such good kickers (Daicos x2, Pendlebury, Sidebottom, Maynard, Elliott & Noble). It is a hard strategy to form a plan against because you need to hope they miss targets through the corridor or just give up territory and defend the D50.

Yes ANB had Covid I think

I got the impression that Goodwin wants to persist with 3 key forwards (including Petty) and so TMac would probably come in if Brown is unfit.

Firstly, I don't think we should consider being the sub as being dropped, more rested/freshened up. I hope we give Spargo and ANB a turn as sub at some point this year. IMO we should be using the sub role (during the season) to give all our lesser players a rest and then subbing off some of our top end stars off if the scoreboard is lopsided. (Oliver won't like it but premiership > Brownlow.) Last year we generally played 3 speed forwards (Pickett, ANB and Spargo), one tall (Ben Brown), one defensive tall (TMac or Melksham), a mid size (Fritsch) and a midfielder/forward (Sparrow). This year Chandler has come in and has shown he can be an AFL quality player, so I can see our system still working well without Spargo and ANB. Note: ANB missed with injury against Hawthorn last year.

Go Crom! (I don’t even know what that means.)

We owe this mob for 1994, 2018 and for their oversized share of the GST.

Did Joel Smith train?

Was Disco Turner training? He missed for Casey on Sunday.

A low centre of gravity is an advantage when the ball is in close, but the game has evolved into far more of a running game since Peter Daicos and Carey. Heavy set players like Petracca and Martin are the absolute top of the tree, but having that elite power and also being able to cover 10-12km in a game is very unusual. I see Sestan as a prospect a bit like Darcy Fogarty for the Crows, who is in his sixth year and finally looking like he could break out and star at AFL level. It took Fogarty five pre-seasons before he was an accretive AFL player, so I think we need to keep our expectations in check for a while.

Expected Score takes the distance and angle into account and compares to AFL averages. The number of shots at goal and the quality of the shots are the best indicator as to how well you have played/the system is working. The actual scoreboard is subject to the vagaries of goal kicking accuracy.

I am confident we would beat very under strength Eagles with a smaller side, but the balance of our side looked perfect last week.

I have seen about half of the Casey game (first and last quarters). Howes looks a beautiful mover and has some star AFL traits. But he is not fit enough for AFL and does not give enough second efforts. When he hits the ground he takes too long to get up and he also needs to be more desperate in the contest. He looks like a young Jack Watts but he shows potential to become a star player like Hird, Josh Kelly or Gunston. Sestan looks nowhere near AFL fit IMO and is a 2024/25 prospect (if he makes it). He will have to really want it because he does not have a body ideally suited to AFL. He will have to become as good a runner as Petracca or Kossie (at least) and he's a way off, noting that ANB, Spargo and Chandler look to be better endurance runners than those two. AMW was a player who looks to have improved and looks one to watch. He plays with AFL intensity.

Yes. I am saying that Pickett needs to come in for a small forward or midfielder. If Brown is not fit or gets rested, then TMac or Tomlinson needs to come in IMO.

I really think those advocating for Pickett for Brown are making a cop out decision. We dropped a tall player last week and went smaller in defence. I hope we don't go that way again because it opens us up to being beaten if a tall player gets injured during the game. I also think we need to start using the sub to freshen up the squad for finals. While Melksham looks to be a good choice as sub, he will need to play full games as well (VFL and AFL) to maintain conditioning.

The scoreboard definitely flattered us.