Adam The God

I know they're missing players but they're a complete mess at the back. I think it's poor coaching.

That's what I'm hoping.

He's not in my best 22 at the moment. It's between Spargo and Kolt for the half forward spot. Chandler potentially as well, but I rate Charlie higher than both as it stands.

I have Tom as midfield/half forward depth. Injuries permitting, I think he'll be on the fringes this year unless he really starts to impact with accumulation and/or with ball in hand.

This is a team based on attack and may not work every week, but would utilise Trac and/or Langford to play tall if we want to keep the three marking players forward when Max is off. McVee May Salem Lever Petty Windsor Langdon Oliver Sharp Spargo Turner Viney Fritsch JVR Kozzy Max Trac Rivers Chandler Lindsay Langford Bowey Sub. TMac Backs: McVee, May, Salem, Lever, Petty, Windsor, Bowey, Lindsay Mids: Oliver, Windsor, Viney, Kozzy, Trac, Rivers, Langford, Lindsay Rucks: Max, JVR and Turner Forwards: Spargo, Turner, Viney, Fritsch, JVR, Kozzy, Trac, Chandler, Langford

If we change our game style a bit, I'd actually hope we could use the running power of Langdon, Sharp, Chandler and Spargo to run teams off their feet and get on the end of easy shots at goal by outrunning opponents. ANB got 27 in 2018 when we played the more attacking footy and Spargo got 14. In 2021, Spargo got 18, Langdon 13. As long as we get goals out of those four guys, say roughly 15 each, it'd make us so hard to play against. They're all really good runners though. Sharp and Chandler quicker than the others, but Spargo's ball use is the best out of all of them. It then enables us to play both Windsor and Lindsay behind the ball, and play Salem deeper, next to McVee and Bowey. Suddenly, we have great ball use behind the ball and some hard runners to gut run back and forth, and get on the end of the precise kicking and ball movement from the back. I'm really excited by the possibilities in 2025.

He was. My mate Gianni used to be a Violet Crumbler on the 8th hole at Elsternwick Golf Course too. Used to always crumble his shot into the drink and Adam the God would mostly land it on the green.

Spargo is best 22 IMO.

Chandler isn't a natural crumbler IMV. Spargo is a much more natural crumber and better ball user and decision maker, but doesn't have Kade's pace, nor does he hit the scoreboard as much as Kade. It's an interesting one. I think we'll play games where we have Sharp, Chandler and Spargo in the same team.

Kalani will play for Melbourne. I've no doubt. You don't sign autographs as 34 if you're not on the way. Historically, it's pretty rare for a major father son not to nominate their father's club. Marc Murphy is the only one I can think of. He'll get to Melbourne. Bookmark it.

Agree, 2024 felt very 2019 at times, but with more light at the end of the tunnel given where we've been (ie we know we can win the flag and finish top 4 multiple times). 2019 saw us try to shift things on the hop and play the 2018 style (and couldn't due to personnel/fitness) and try to tinker with our press and zone on the run. Then 2020, it was slow progress, but we started to hit our straps in the second half of that season with the zone, only to mentally switch off at crucial moments. But come 2025, many of the guys on our list (it's conceivable 16 premiership players will make up our best 22), with some promising young guns making up those remaining spots. So I hope we can make faster progress than 2020 with gun experienced players now. And with the mental side of the game nurtured by Crowe and Shand.

Anything about diversification of investments outside of football? Being tied to football outcomes is not very sensible, despite that being the core business of the organisation. We will have lean patches on the field, and having investments that are non-football tied would be a smart strategy. And no, I'm not talking about gambling revenue. We can still be a responsible corporate, but diversify our assets across different sectors, and not just rely on the share market or bond market. I hope we're thinking about ways to replace the pokies revenue without resorting to merely calling high net worth members to tip in each year. That's certainly one strategy, but it shouldn't be the top of list.

A lot of them seem to live in East Bentleigh, where we are. I always see Melbourne and Collingwood players at the local supermarket and on Mackie Road.

I hope we go the majority of the season with JVR, Turner, Fritta with support from AJ and Jefferson where needed injury and freshness wise. I'd much prefer we manage Max out of certain games with Campbell taking his place. And we go shorter but more mobile if JVR has to take second ruck duties. Kozzy and Trac should be other mainstays of the forwardline, with Langford in there too. For me it might come down to a Chandler vs Spargo for that 7th forward spot. Chandler hits the scoreboard slightly more, but if Spargo can have another 2018 (which I think the way we move the ball will suit him more), then he goes ahead of Chandler for mine. If we could get 15 goals out of him, we probably get another 15-20 assists out of him too. And that'd be my forwardline. With Melksham as the guy that can come in for Fritta or for a different look (see AJ and Jefferson too). Petty may swing, but I hope they just keep him back. But maybe when Lever is fit again, they push Petty forward. Wrong move for mine. TMac should just move back to deputy in the VFL. We'll see.

In 2018, we scored the most points by some margin with 2299 PF. That year, Hogan kicked 47, TMac 53, Melksham 32, Hannan 22, ANB 27, Fritta 17 (he played some minutes behind the ball from memory), Petracca 19, Garlett 18, Jones 15, Harmes 15, Spargo 14, Gus 14, Gawn 13, Oliver 12, Weideman 10. So 72 goals from midfield (Viney contributed 2 goals) that year, and all of our forwards got a "lick of the ice cream" as Goody used to say. This was off the back of hard running, fast ball movement, and extremely central ball movement that often saw a remarkable number of goals kicked by us from within 30m. This interestingly was a hallmark of Collingwood's premiership year too. The other thing worth noting from that spread of goalkickers in 2018 is that we tended to favour two talls (TMac and Hogan) with support from Melksham, Fritta, Hannan and a young Trac. We seem to love the two permanent talls now, supported by a ruck/forward as that's what worked so well in 2021. I hope we're a bit flexible and experimental with this like we were in early 2023. But a forwardline of JVR, Turner with Fritta, Trac, Kozzy and Chandler with support from Melksham, AJ and Jefferson, I'm confident we can generate some strong scoring power again with different ball movement. I also think it's likely our defensive prowess will suffer slightly in this renewed push to open up our play through the corridor, occasionally exposing us back the other way, but our defensive mix in 2025 will be lightyears ahead of 2018, with a bunch of premiership defenders in their prime. The one question mark is on Lever and what his interrupted pre season will mean for him and our defensive exploits. But it may mean Petty TMac and May are the three headed defensive triangle.