Adam The God

We have access to the cream of the crop at the end of this year. Why are we making such a big deal out of what is essentially a rookie draft?

I'm not saying Newcombe, Jordon or Harmes are not good players or don't have good attributes. In fact, that's exactly what I said. But, they are not of the level of Trac, Viney or Clarry. We need to add a Callaghan or someone of his level, someone with the potential to go A/A+ alongside Trac, Viney and Clarry.

Quote of the year. 🤣

We don't need an elite KPF, 2nd ruck. We need a good player. Newcombe is a good player for example, but he's nowhere near elite. We need to add elite talent to our midfield, not another Dunstan, Harmes, Jordon or Newcombe...

The problem is elite midfielders almost always (particularly in the 2020s) come from the top 10 picks in the draft. This was a midseason draft. You cannot expect the cream of the crop out of season...

Some people also forget that we may have an FA or younger on the hook for 2025, the club will also know Petty's intentions better than us, and will be drafting accordingly, as well as planning contingencies should things change. I completely agree with @binman, surprise surprise, in that this year Luker is seen as the next in line for JVRs spot as KPF/2nd ruck. It will also give us cover for Petty if he goes down again. As @old55 puts it, this list decision makes perfect sense from how we're looking at setting up. I'd also say it's spreading the "bet" across multiple players, rather than relying on too few to make it.

Sorry, slightly off, but my point stands. Hawthorn vs GWS, Round 11, Sunday 1st June 2014, 4.40pm. Crowd 17,906. Ironically, the same year, Hawthorn played a home game against St Kilda at the MCG in Round 7. The crowd was 32,924. They were coming off a premiership and up the top again. So we managed a higher home attendance this week against St Kilda at the MCG. Short memories, those Hawthorn nuffies.

So if Luker can make it, it frees up JVR to stay a KPF only and we gain someone who can play as a KPF/2nd ruck. Turner is a forward for this year I'd say, but next year Luker goes forward and Turner goes back. Be interesting to see if they think he can play this year. Doubt it, but we'll have to wait and see.

In JT we trust.

I guess I think we should target someone for the 23 and naturally they'll create depth at Casey. I hope we go Voss. I wanted O'Sullivan last year, hope we get old mate.

I'd much prefer Bowser playing off the back of stoppage, ala Salem. That's realistic too. Not sure McVee through the midfield this year is.

But surely we shouldn't be looking to draft for our Casey team. Whoever takes up an AFL list spot, should be expected to break into the AFL 23, rather than provide depth to our reserves side.

I remember Hawthorn getting 12,000 to a game at the G against GWS in one of their premiership years. It was a graveyard game. I'd say [censored] off you muppet.

I noted @titan_uranus brought up the fact we take too much low percentage shots at goal. I'm sure we'd rather take them from 30m directly in front, but we had quite a few from 45m directly in front and missed. Surely, these are very gettable shots.

This makes sense. It surprised me yesterday though given we played a higher line, so ground ball gets against had the potential to cut us open, but didn't. Yep, let's see how they're looking come September for personnel and game style.

Given Marshall killed Max last year and was arguably best afield in our win, it was strange how Max focused he was yesterday instead of playing his own game. He constantly held Max at every stoppage and there could have been even more paid Max's way. I thought we got the rub of the green on a few tiggy touch wood ones, but on the whole most of the frees against the Saints were there. I also (strangely) felt sorry for St Kilda too.

Look at that -21 for ground balls stat. Crazy how that stat has become so inconsequential to how we play.

I'd like their half backs in Wanganeen-Milera and Sinclair. Brad Hill wouldn't be bad either. Otherwise, I agree.

I reckon it depends on who the opposition put up in terms of aerial threats. St Kilda don't have much to offer outside of King at the moment and some other youngsters who may or may not be good enough. Freo aren't much better, neither are Collingwood in that department. It's definitely an interesting one. I worry about our ball movement and ground ball if we're playing Lever, May and Tomlinson. May's clear weakness is ground ball. He panics. I wouldn't say Lever is flawless is this area either. So it's a bit of a tough one. I suspect Howes may even come back in next week or after the bye. Maybe Tomlinson simply goes out then?

You can't move the ball quickly if you're playing a forward half game and not kick it straight to a contest or the opposition numbers. This is why we modified our game from 2021-2023 and started playing a defensive half transition game early this season.

I think they both have strengths and weaknesses that aren't the same.

Indeed. I thought ANB was terrific again this week. I felt he was near our best against West Coast and I think his agility is becoming a real asset at centre bounce. Salem got it a lot, but wasn't pressured much. St Kilda's half forwards were pretty ordinary. Salo hits targets no doubt, but I think he goes too slow and sideways too often. He's a beautiful kick and if he was more attacking with his kicks, I think he'd be more damaging. I don't have a great deal to say on Salem's midfield work, I felt he was a bigger contributor off the back of stoppage and as an outlet when we moved the ball forward from D50. I'd almost prefer Bowser playing that quarterback role that Salem played yesterday because IMO Bowser is the better kick. Both in terms of penetration, flatness and accuracy. I do love Salem's grit when the ball is on the ground though.

He's excellent at getting to the outside like Lingers is, to provide that extra overlap option. I actually think Billings has been pretty good for the most part, but his goal kicking has really let him down. Hunter and Billings also play slightly differently. Hunter is a natural winger and wily. Billings is more a half forward / forward pocket, so they probably have slightly different assets, which change the complexion of our forward half game depending who is in. Hunter is also a more aggressive tackler, which enables him to slot into our team more seamlessly than Billings. At his best, I think Billings could be a much greater scoring threat than Hunter. He just hasn't shown it at Melbourne yet. It's good. It means we have depth here. And given how we're utilising our wingers and half forwards, we need some depth in this position.

Except I'm not the coach in the presser. ;) Goody is classy. No doubt the Wegels were great last week, their tails up at home and we were terrible. But COVID would at least partly explain our worse loss since the middle of 2020.

Lingers to half forward is a genius move. His work rate smashes most half backs. Having Windsor and Hunter/Billings taking the wings enables this. Thought he and Max were our best. TMac and Tomlinson excellent too. Loving ANB in the midfield, and more CBAs for Koz exciting too. We reverted to a forward half territory game. Hard to know if St Kilda let us play that way or whether it was us dictating terms. We seemed to be fine with playing a higher defensive set up today. Be interesting to see which way we go next week. Rumours of COVID through the camp last week would make a lot of sense.