leucopogon

Nice report Tasman, I went and checked out said basketball mix tape, impressive, I urge all D'Landers to do the same. Check out Petracca's explosive burst capability. Once this guy builds a midfield tank, he could really be anything in the middle and he along with Brayshaw will soon rival Fyfe in terms of their impact on games. Mark my words.

just watched the long curnow video, I'm not sold. His strength appears to be marking on the lead, but his disposal is pretty ordinary and once the ball hits the deck he's not clean at all. Didn't see him kicking many goals either. I'd be looking elsewhere.

As others have said, its simple: our attendance must get bigger if we are to have any clout in negotiating a "fairer" or "more equitable" fixture.

He reminds me of one of the original oompa loompa's (see new avatar)

People calling him a spud need to watch his game when we beat the Crows over there two years ago. He was sublime that day. He has what it takes, needs to lift his consistency.

Someone better post a decent parish highlights video soon or this forum will spend the next month in purgatory. Everything I've seen of Parish is bog ordinary and he looks like an undergrown weed. These Francis highlights are epic in comparison. The kid Milera looks pretty exciting to my eye. Great pace super slick hands in traffic and decent evasive skills. Looks like the second coming of Stephen Hill.

Underwhelmed by Parish, Clear standout highlights are Francis (what pair of hands he has). Schache would be a handy foil for Hogan. Was thinking about the prospect of a last minute three way trade with the Dockers and GWS Pick 3 to Dockers for Steven Hill or Lachie Neale Dockers on trade pick 3 and another sweetener to GWS for McCarthy

GCS aren't interested in any points though because they don't have any academy prospects this year so why would they do that trade?

Kent, Garlett and Hogan: I have full confidence that next season this trio will do major damage to opposition defences Predicting Hogan to have a 60+ goal season Garlett 40-45 (maybe 50+) Kent 20-30 All WA boys to boot!!

Kent

Can't wait for the GF to be held at night, for chrissake, watching professionals stare directly into the sun while balls hit them in the face or fall at their feet is simply ridiculous for what is supposed to be the showpiece of the season. FFFUUUCKK you AFL, for allowing this Hawthorn dynasty to develop.

Dreamt that the Eagles won 78 to 72.

That may be the reality under the current set of conditions, but I for one, am not all too pleased that, a) it takes so long for that development to occur, and b) the clubs that have already developed the good lists and winning cultured get to hold onto that mantle for so long. As others have said it gets mighty boring seeing essentially the same teams finish in the top 4 for almost half a decade. How much more interesting would it be if drafting/trading conditions were changed to shorten the cycles of success and failure?

Next year's top 5 predictions: 5) Vince 4) Gawn 3) Brayshaw 2) Hogan 1) Viney

That game against Adelaide set the tone for a great season, well done Bernie.

Agree with OP, as an idea to try and even up what the Free Agency debacle has quickly become, I propse that the AFL incentivise movement of players from top clubs to bottom clubs by paying a top-up bonus to that isn't included in the TPP (salary cap). This bonus could be a sliding scale with the top-up bonus getting larger the lower down the ladder the destination club sits. So in the example of Patrick Dangerfield, he leaves as a Free Agent for three hypothetical destinations For simplicity sake lets say all three potential destination clubs are offering the same base contract of $850K/year 1) Geelong (finished 10th) no top-up bonus allocated for teams finishing (9th to 11th) to discourage teams from yo-yoing in and out of the 8 each year. Contract offer = $850k / year 2) Melbourne (finished 13th) top-up bonus of 20% allocated to teams finishing (12th to 14th). Contract offer = $850k + $170k (top-up) = $1.02M/year 3) Carlton (finished 18th) top-up bonus of 30% allocated to teams finishing (15th to 18th). Contract offer = $850k + $255k (top-up) = $1.105M/year If decent players from top clubs are looking to set themselves up financially this could catalyse movement to clubs near the bottom, obviously the sliding scale needs to be tweaked in order to entice the movement of players.

Don't see what harm there would have been in offering him a one year extension and then just use him like they use Bail and M. Jones this year as depth. Don't tell me he couldn't get up to perform a role for us if he was managed throughout next season. He performed the Jeremy Howe backline intercept role this year better than Howe ever did/could. Very sad to see him go.

I was watching from behind the goals yesterday and paid close attention to Hogan. Don't know if he does this every week, but the thing that stood out for me is that he hardly ever leads from the goal square. Seems like he just likes to play from behind and point in the general direction of where he wants the ball bombed in so that he can try to use his body strength to nudge his opponent under the ball. This strategy came majorly unstuck yesterday because Freo had a veritable forest of tall defenders that just chopped off our slow long bomb entries. Infuriating. Hogan needs to lead hard and demand the footy in more dangerous positions if he's ever going to be a great full forward.

I don't really see any serious contenders in our current squad. Perhaps Max Gawn, but reckon we'll need to buy one in.

The second coming of Jack Watts, an indictment on our recruiting woes. I guess he's probably better than Matt Jones and Rohan Bail.

I was sat behind the goals and watching him closely, he just doesn't man up and always plays from behind. Chris Mayne, is a running machine, that guy just does not stop presenting, I'd make a serious play for him just to set the example for our bunch of slackers.

Dunn is worse than [censored]

Just practiced defending behind kick ins with a pressing zone defence. Pretty good pressure forcing quite a number of turnovers although the defenders were outnumbering the attackers.

Third drill, variation on the second drill but with pressure. 20 attackers versus 10 defenders and they're starting to butcher the ball a bit offenders include Daniel Cross, Christian Salem, Grimes and Howe. Shine coming off a bit now.

Not as yet. Second drill length of the ground quick transition hitting up a leading target from the wing handball to player running past, run and carry and kick to leading forward. Ball movement very sharp, good skills on show. Goodwin running the show, Roos unsighted, answering more emails perhaps?