Fat Tony

It’s only a bog ordinary assessment if he ends up an AFL quality forward.

I think Jefferson’s best chance to make it is as a defender like Mitch McGovern. He has zero ground game, lacks second efforts/intensity and will never be big enough.

It was definitely slippery due to the humidity being 89%.

We have not played well in humid, slippery conditions since Roos/Goodwin took over. (We have struggled in Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Gold Coast.) My theory is that the slippery ball takes away the aerial strength of Max and our intercept defenders. Plus our midfield is not skilful and overuses the ball to exit stoppages. The team selection was poor last night, with too many midgets. We need to place a greater value on small forwards who can compete in the air. The game has gone past players like Spargo and Laurie, who are hopeless in the marking contests, and not quick. We need Woewodin and Tholstrop to come on. Oliver looks too heavy and lacked pace. Schache just isn't urgent enough or strong enough. Howes looks good and will be a player. Windsor did some great things and will get better but is still really a 2025+ prospect. I am often critical of Tomlinson, but he played a good game. We can still win the flag this year, but we will need everything to go right.

The only Sydney I’m a fan of right now is Sydney Sweeney!

Langdon, Windsor and Billings will be the wingers.

We will see mono. The gap between AFL and VFL is huge.

Hopefully Howes can adapt to the pace and intensity of AFL reasonably quickly. He has the skill and athleticism but he will need to be more desperate than he has shown in the VFL.

My mail is Hunter is struggling. So that’s optimistic.

We played extremely well and had no injuries. Perfect. While our delivery inside 50 was better, we were a bit risky going inside the corridor at times and this cost us several turnover goals. I don't think we have to take a lot more risk with our ball movement than we did last year. We need to be a bit more precise with our final delivery inside 50 and kick straight. Kossie, Fritsch and JVR need to convert better. I still have doubts about Laurie and Schache but we are low on soldiers early in the season. Windsor needs to work on his kicking but is clearly a future player. Tholstrup looked great for 2 possessions. Salem did well in the midfield and exceeded my expectations. Not sure how he fits when Clarrie comes back though.

Hopefully we get salary cap relief for 2024, as well as later years.

There is certainly a bit of Judd in the way he moves, but Judd was 5cm taller and heavier/stronger. Plus Judd was big for a mid when he played but would be only average size today.

Windsor's speed, balance and coordination makes you think we have something special here. He moves like Josh Kelly, Whitfield and Rozee. Hopefully he can get strong enough to play inside the centre square one day.

Disappointing to hear Petty cannot get going again but at least he isn't icing up.

Bowey? I would prefer to leave him at high half back. But with our midfield depth being tested and Brayshaw potentially moving back and Howes possibly coming into defence, we might need to make some adjustments (i.e. ANB might need to be shifted to the midfield).

Bowey is too small to be a mid at AFL level. He does not have the power and agility of someone like Kossie or the strength of Viney. I think Bowey can only play as a high half back or in ANB's role as a high half forward. (His lack of size would be a deficiency on the wing and he is not an absolute elite endurance runner.) If our midfield depth gets tested, I would be much more interested with experimenting with JVR as a centre square midfielder (Gawn in the ruck), with ANB rolling up to play as a midfielder after the centre bounce. Rivers is the other obvious player to go into the midfield more often but he does not run well enough and is a very flexible defender. I see the centre bounce as being extremely important and the need to insert our best players in there. Once the bounce is over, our defensive systems are extremely strong an the risk of conceding scores is much lower. Players like Salem and Bowey would increase the risk of losing clearances.

Salem lacks the size and pace to play inside midfield. High half back is ideal for him because it masks his lack of athleticism and allows him to use his excellent skills and reading of the play. He needs to get his acceleration back this season and be able to kick 50m+ otherwise he will be in the VFL. I like Gus at half back, but we have a lot more options there than in the midfield now. I am also unconvinced the chance of concussion is much different in the midfield than in defence and so I think we will need him back in the engine room. Rivers to the midfield makes sense given our lack of options, but he might not have the running ability to play four quarters. Pickett and ANB are others who will need to play more midfield minutes this year.

Jordon is a capable AFL player. Laurie has not shown that yet and he has none of the athletic traits to have strong belief he will be good enough.

I think we missed a trick not playing Disco Turner earlier in the season in 2023. I hope he is given the opportunity to start the year in the AFL in 2024. I think he has all the ingredients to be a very good player.

Howes has two years on his contract, so 2024 is probably not make or break. He looks very classy at times in the VFL but he needs to get stronger and show a bit more desperation in the contest to be ready for AFL (which is probably also related to his lack of strength). I think he will make a good AFL player but he has a lot of competition, albeit B-grade competition on the flanks and wings.

I just spoke to the club and they are about to send out an email with barcodes for Gather Round.

Another ruckman would make more sense IMO. I am not sure Hore has the pace and agility required and he kicks the ball without sufficient penetration. That said, our recruiters must see something I don't and they are often correct.

Ran 6.17 for the 2km time trial which was 10th at the Draft Combine. I think he’s actually a decent runner.

We have seen how important the wing position is in modern footy, particularly on the MCG. He looks to be a very skilful and speedy wingman with a big leap.

Our existing small forwards are B graders except for Kossie.