Adam The God

And during that spell, Dunstan and Harmes played hardly a game between them, and JJ did very little. I'd much rather Rivers in place of JJ if there is a spot for him in the midfield mix. Meanwhile, we're freeing up cap space to attract players who will be best 22.

We have the best midfield in the game, we need a replacement for May, and more forward power/x factor and finishing forward of centre. I'm sure we'll target some mid replacements, but Harmes, JJ and Dunstan going isn't exactly a big hole given Gus is playing on. If we had three top 10 picks, that'd be different, but instead, we need to be more strategic about the most pressing needs here. We would hope Rivers and maybe even McVee and Bowey move into the midfield next year and then we have Howes coming in to replace them at half back/wing, so unless we have huge injuries which we'd never be able to cover sufficiently no matter who we add to our list, IMV, we're better going for improving areas we're not already elite in. With Petty forward, the second tall defender is no longer very good, we're relying on a questionable Tomlinson, an undersized Turner and a developing Adams. A key back that can play now is undoubtedly a key area of need and within 2 years, May will be gone, so we'll be left with Lever and that's it. Secondly, with McAdam on his way, we add him to Petty, JVR, Fritta, Kozzy. ANB will likely be in that forward mix too, so there's a spot there for another x factor forward. Chandler is okay, but he's not quick enough, nor does he have enough x factor IMO, so there's another area I'd be targeting list wise. A player to partner Kozzy and tag team out of stoppage and deep forward. If we could somehow land another top 10 pick, I'd love Watson. But the midfield as it stands is Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Sparrow, Brayshaw and likely Rivers and potentially McVee and Bowey. I'd much prefer we target a FA for our midfield in 2-3 years, and get either end of the ground sorted in the meantime. Each to their own though.

Mids are a dime a dozen. If they land in the top 2 or 3 picks I agree they're often more special than others, but KPPs are so much harder to pick outside of the first round. O'Sullivan every day of the week. If he gets picked by another club, then maybe a mid comes into the equation, but a Tassie mid is super dangerous. I agree with @old55. We're asking for trouble if we go there.

Max Gawn.

Haha, I meant I assume you know him through EY, but I guess you could know him through any channel.

How's work at EY?

He didn't want to play for us...

He definitely seems to have a good contest game, but has leg speed that we lack and seems to have excellent disposal. Does he fall to our second pick?

I hope we'll be able to do both. Good KPPs tend to (not always) go in the early first round.

Who said the midfield is fine? It's this sort of extreme that Jimmy laments too, and then frames all his arguments in exactly those terms. Black and white. Extremes. I said the midfield is great at winning contested ball, but their disposal isn't their strong suit. There are a number of factors for this, such as where and how they are winning it, and the forwardline that they're kicking into. That doesn't mean they don't choose the wrong option from time to time, but that's the point I've been making. Our personnel forward of the ball dictates how aggressive or conservative we are with our ball movement.

Which would make sense. And IMV speaks to the personnel issues we had forward of centre this year, which then has a flow on effect both strategically and ball movement wise. But nah, let's just look at a very broad stat to justify an argument here.

I'm coming around to this view, but I do think we need to improve our forward half personnel.

Richo should stay as Head of footy IMO, but who really knows? We don't have a great insight as supporters.

Yep, I think so. He's got his level 4 coaching, if he wants to become a senior coach, the next step is becoming essentially the senior assistant. It's then about whether he keeps the defensive responsibility or takes mids or forwards, along with the game day strategy.

I love Salem, but he struggled this year. If he struggles again next year, irrespective of fitness/thyroid concerns, IMO, his spot has to be looked at.

Agreed, and we were therefore playing the percentages with our ball movement, like we did in 2022 when injury started to strike, but it kept us in games.

We'd have played Howes this year too, but for injury. He's a good ball user, so we can add him to the list. And indeed, if Salem doesn't improve form wise, his spot will ultimately come under threat.

You're the only one banging on about some elite status tag. I believe we did leave a flag on the table this year, as we're just as good as any other team, and we've beaten both grand finalists. It was more down to our injuries that were basically all in the same zone of the ground. No other team dealt with this same problem this year. It's abundantly clear that Petty and Melksham have forward craft. They're both excellent finishers too. We lost both of them for our finals campaign and looked what happened. Inaccuracy cost us both games. I want us to add more class and finishing in the forward half to go with Petty, Kozzy, Fritta and McAdam, to make us better. I think if we get our forwardline personnel, better craft from our forwards, we'll be extremely difficult to beat, because unlike Collingwood, we don't overcommit numbers forward (which we did in Goodwin era #1), if anything, we allow extras against us at contest and play extras behind the ball. Of course, I expect most teams to change things a bit over the season. If Collingwood fall again this weekend, they'd have to examine their game style, and certainly their personnel, pretty heavily. I've written about this already, but what we need to look at is our 7th defender and seeing how we can exploit this for offensive purposes with an outnumber at ground level, rather than in the air. We have to back May, Lever (I'd like O'Sullivan) and our second tall defender to halve contests when 1v1, and go for the intercept when it's on the table. But otherwise, we want an outnumber at ground balls (ie playing three wingers and abandoning the Rivers offensive intercept role), so we can slingshot back to a less crowded forwardline. I expect Chaplin to replace Yze as the game day strategist and it's likely we'll have a new forward and midfield or defensive coach. So we're going to have new ideas challenging the status quo, but it's also incumbent on the senior coach and coaches to play to the strengths of the list. Where are our strengths? Backline personnel, defensive system, our midfield personnel's ability to win contests (win them outnumbered too). So we need to accept that our mids are great at the contest, but less precise with their disposal, which in the recent history of contested players, is pretty much the go. Martin and Dangerfield for example can absolutely butcher the ball by foot. As to our defensive strengths, I think we can sacrifice a little more defensively to give a little more offensively, but that involves something like using two of the three wingers as wing backs, enabling the likes of Bowey, Salem and McVee licence to take on plays higher up the ground, knowing cover is out the back for them. It means we don't necessarily give up our intercept game (which will still be 2024 footy), but that we can get outnumbers at defensive ground ball (which IMV is just about the most important facet of the modern game given the speed the game has been played at since 2021), and this ability to win ground ball, then feeds into our ability to score, and improves efficiency of ball movement by having our better ball users (Salem, Bowey and McVee) instigating our scoring chains from the middle of the ground, and ideally through the corridor.

This is exactly my point and others. Brisbane have an elite forwardline, with great clutch finishers everywhere. We do not, aside from Fritta and Kozzy... FMD, do you read what you post? You're on your little train track and can't get off it.

Our forward inefficiency problem is exacerbated by poor forward personnel...

And now they get to play an interstate team with a horrible record at the MCG. Will Brisbane kick straight enough, and score from stoppage as they have? BTW, who are the elite users in Brisbane's midfield this week? McLuggage on the wing....?

Agreed. It's about quality in the forward half. It'd be great to have more quality ball users, but I'd like to be on a weekly wage like Mo Salah. I'd much prefer we strengthen our forward and back half to maximise what our current mids are the best in the competition at, and that's winning contested ball and owning territory. If you have a more dangerous forwardline, the repeated opportunities become much harder to defend for the opposition. And if your defence is better, you don't leak goals back the other way if we do decide to play more offensively. Goodwin has had two eras. The first was a highly offensive era and the second has been marked by a highly defensive focus. I'd back him to read the tea leaves again. But of course old mate would be reductive and black and white about all this. He's all in on the black and white.

Looks more like a Lewis Taylor clone to me. Aside from the pulled up socks, I don't see the JHF comparison that is bandied around.

No, I see Disco as cover for Lever and Jed Adams as the second tall in time.

Unless they're after someone else. ie not Watson.