Fat Tony

Good to have you back old55!

Melksham was good against WC in Round 21 and also played against Adelaide in Round 22 las year and had a poor game. (He was so frustrated with his game he gave away a free for booting the ball after it crossed the boundary line.) That said, I have no issue with him playing. I think he plays well on Docklands and I think the club is right to get him to 200. Who knows, maybe he can rewind the clock to his 2018 form and give us another avenue to goal?

That will teach you to be so confident on the podcast!

The jumper clash will be bad on Saturday.

Salem moving pretty well at training on 9 news.

Apparently we are 0-8 against North at Docklands. We really need to give them a good hiding.

If Max, Jackson and Daw get injured at once, we would be probably better off with TMac, Weideman and Brown as ruck fill ins. We have Van Rooyen and Tomlinson as KP depth. We could win a one off final without a proven AFL ruckman but three would be a tough ask.

We are 9-0 and our percentage is the same as Essendon finished with in 2000. We are going ok.

Do we need a season ending injury to get a selection in the mid season draft? Or do we have a vacant list spot?

Kennedy, Riewoldt and Cameron are all great players and I am not saying it isn't possible to be a forward at 193cm, particularly if you are a dead eye kick. That said, Paddy McCartin is 195cm and looks much more at home in defence than attack. Van Rooyen is the same height as Neitz and like Neitz, he can play at either end. If Neitz were to be recruited in today's AFL, I think he would have been a better key defender.

It was great to see Van Rooyen kick a bag on the weekend and get so much of the ball, even if the opposition was hopeless. He certainly looks a player of the future. But I still think the game is trending against 193cm forwards, so I think he is more likely to make it in defence. Why? The current Coleman leaders include 10 giant forwards who have kicked 223 goals (Tom Lynch, Tom Hawkins, Peter Wright, Max King, Lance Franklin, Harry McKay, Levi Casboult, Joe Daniher, Mabior Chol, Mitch Lewis), 6 tall/mid-sized forwards who have kicked 130 goals (Charlie Curnow, Jeremy Cameron, Aaron Naughton, Brody Mihocek, Bayley Fritsch, Nick Larkey) and 4 small forwards who have kicked 81 goals (Zac Bailey, Charlie Cameron, Isaac Heeney, Shai Bolton). I don’t see Van Rooyen as being as elusive as the tall/mid-sized forwards batch except for maybe Larkey and Mihocek, who are both focal points of their attack due to necessity. The other thing I would say is that our game plan for slow plays is to kick to big packs of 4+ and use our big ruckman and Brown. This isn’t a plan which suits smaller key forwards. I think he projects more as a Weitering type defender, which is pretty exciting. As for comparisons with the Ox. Pre-knee Ox was quicker and had a bigger leap and he played more like Charlie Curnow than Van Rooyen. Van Rooyen moves more like TMac but I doubt he has that level of endurance. All that said, playing forward is not a bad thing for his development this year.

I know we don’t like resting players but Viney and possibly Lever could do with a rest at some point. Two games on hard surfaces is not ideal and North are awful.

We need to manage our cap position, so players like Ben King are unrealistic. Jason Horne-Francis should be number one target for 2024. We have the lure of being a top side and, with our cap position, we won't be able to get him with money. (This would be revenge for Scully.) Next year, we should be looking at star veterans like Breust, Gunston, Issac Smith (ironically), Gray and Boak.

Let's demolish them and take JHF off them in two years!

Is a unicorn in the hand worth two in the bush?

It has us losing 3.6 games in the last 13. I don't know if I can cope with that much losing!

The squiggle predictor currently has Richmond finishing in eighth on 12.9 wins and WBD on ninth with 11.1 wins. https://squiggle.com.au/ladder/

The VFL have a bye next week and Chandler probably won’t actually miss any matches he wasn’t going to miss if he gets one week.

Weideman’s career is tracking similarly to Taberner from the Dockers. He’s a good player but won’t ever be a superstar. 6 goals and 20 disposals is a good game in the wind even if North is a rabble.

I reject the premise of this thread. The Swans lost the first 6 one year and made it. It looks like 12 wins will be needed this year.

I remember when we brought in Ted Fidge to belt Darren Millane and he got a six week ban. (I loved Ted as a 7 year old because of his name.) I don't think we need to do stuff like that anymore.

The VFL has a bye next week, so giving Bedford a game at Casey makes sense.

I favour a twilight/night grand final. The entertainment and fireworks will be spectacular.

Is it on Apple yet?

Ironically, my mental health improved dramatically when Neeld was given the boot.