Adam The God

And I hope Essendon spend years in the wilderness. I'd really like Carlton to join them.

Happy with the win. Move on straight away. Oh and that was probably Weid's best game. I'd play him ahead of Tom McDonald next Thursday. Clarry, Gus and Lingers best on for me.

I think it'll be close. I agree with the comments RE Lever not being in. Smith and Hunt are still poor by foot and haven't been exposed yet positionally. Our defence doesn't look at sturdy, despite our results, as a Lever team. However, how long are they going to bang on about being a young side? They're not that young. Taking Merrett out would drop their age demo, but I'd love to know.

I hope 65-70k is the target for this year. If we can snag another flag in the next 2-3 years we should be able to solidfy a good portion of those and start getting some younger admirers that are converts from other clubs. If we can go anywhere near replicating Richmond's recent success, I think 80k is not out of the question in the relatively near future.

One of the big improvements in our game that I don't recall as much of last year is the little tap ons, knocks and blocks from stoppage. Petracca, Oliver and Viney are very good at this part of the game. It enables our guys to get separation from their opponent in relative space and maximise the dangerousness of clearance wins. The aim.being to get out the front of stoppage as cleanly as possible. In their glory period just under a decade ago, Hawthorn were excellent at the little taps and footy smarts in these situations forward of centre. We're becoming very good in tight in stoppages like I've never really seen before. Richmond were also good at this sort of thing, but less so at stoppages and more forward of centre like Hawthorn. I can't help thinking Yze is having a big influence here.

Yep, worrying for me. Hunt was good last year with solid heads around him. Having Smith back there as well means we suddenly have two questionable decision makers in our back 6. If our midfield can get on top and our 18 man defence is switched on it probably won't matter, and Smith will provide flexibility to play on Naughton, Weightman or Schache. This will allow Lever and/or May to drop off.

Tomlinson an offensive rebounding defender? Do these guys actually watch football? Tomlinson was very much a lockdown defender who was rarely given licence to be too offensive.

I haven't watched the replay in a while, so when I caught this yesterday I definitely cried a bit. Very emotional still. It actually gets sweeter and sweeter the more time passes. Let's hope we can make some similar memories this year.

Difficult to gauge how much to take from that. We were putrid, sloppy with the ball in hand, dropped marks, poor kicking etc, but they were very impressive. Hunt, Smith and Baker in the backline was a recipe for disaster, but worse was our intensity around the contest and our inability to shut down opposition switches. Were we playing safe with our bodies to ensure we're there Round 1? Who knows, but if we play anywhere near that level against the Bulldogs, they'll wipe the floor with us. Most teams would have today. I wish someone would tell Viney every week is a final, because he's such a good finals player.

I've just read this last page and not the rest of the thread, so it may have already been touched on, but I thought Rivers struggled most of the game. He wasn't terrible, but he made a few mistakes and seemed to lack some cohesion with team mates. I love him, I think he's going to be a star, but he played a few wobbly games towards the end of 2021 too and I just wonder if his spot could be in jeopardy in the early rounds this year.

I'd be surprised if there's less than 60,000 there.

I remember often saying last year that our defensive system was so solid that providing our accuracy was decent, we'd beat anyone. My big fear approaching the final series was that given we were the best team in the comp, we'd only blow it with inaccuracy. There's a piece of commentary late in the GF, from I think Luke Hodge IIRC, and he says our accuracy in the GF was incredible. Something like 16.4 from when the game turned in the 3rd. Providing we take half our chances, that usually means we win the game, as we're decent at generating inside 50s, but also brilliant at defending opposition inside 50s. If we can improve our efficiency, and BBB could definitely help here, we could take another step ahead of the pack. Unless of course, we become too BBB focused.

The question I immediately asked myself was would we want him now? Hypothetically, let's say we could land him, I wonder...

He was very meat and potatoes in my book. Too slow, average skills and no real elite trait to compensate for his shortcomings. For a top 5 pick he was no star.

Reckon your side is pretty spot on, although Tomlinson will play lock down FB and May will take Hibberd's role on the dangerous mid size players. Sparrow will likely be ahead of Dunstan too. To begin with...

If it doesn't work with kids, it doesn't work with kids. I am male, I do live in Melbourne and I have a kid under 12. Whatever happens people will always find something to complain about. If it was on a Friday night there'd be some nuffies still saying it's too late for the kids. Well don't take them then. FFS, it's not that hard.

Jeepers, some of you lot are whingers. Looking forward to it. Will be massive.

I was very frustrated by his lack of physicality too, particularly playing along Melksham, but the last 2-3 weeks of the H&A season he turned this around and brought physicality into the finals series. His presence and ability to hit the scoreboard helped us win a flag. Well worth the contract extension. Again, we're likely offering more years at lesser dollars to spread out the TPP.

This is nonsensical mate. PJ aimed lower because where he started was near rock bottom. Pert and co have built on those PJ foundations and looked to grow the club. The idea that we shouldn't aim to be a big club and aim to be a middling club instead is mindblowingly stupid and not at all in line with running a multi million dollar business in a multi billion dollar competition.

I like the idea of another young KPB as the May retirement plan. I still hold hopes for Turner too, but we'll have to see on that one. When you look at our young defensive crop there's Petty, Rivers, Bowey and then Lever at 25. May has at most 4 or 5 years left and given his hammy issues, I doubt anywhere near that long, so we need to be looking at contingencies. I'd much prefer we were strategic about list needs for 5+ years from now this year, rather than in 2-3 years going to the FA pool to keep us going. As we've seen at Geelong and to a lesser extent Hawthorn, it leaves you with a very long rebuild, with middle of the road first rounders to build a core around. So if we can get another Harry Petty and JVR fits that bill it's a no brainer. We can worry about replenishing elite mids down the line and I'd back our list management team to be clever in acquiring the necessary capital to get a look at the elite talent.

FFS, who'd want to watch an 8 part series on Essendon outside of Essendon supporters? Maybe you'd get a few neutrals that might tune in for one or two, but these series' feel super niche to me. And I make pretty niche documentaries myself. Strategically, it probably makes sense for FOX (who are going down and need content to fill Kayo) and Amazon (who are trying to establish a subscriber base), but I'm not that convinced any of them would be successful. It's probably why they haven't commissioned any further docs, to my knowledge, this year.

Really happy with this extension. Now we just need Turner to come along too. Lever, Petty and Turner post May. I'd be completely happy with us targeting another KPD in the first round this year, if we think they're good enough. We want that second wave of elite talent continuing to come through underneath Petracca, Oliver, Salem and Lever. Since you game style relies heavily on excellent defence, I'm happy if we keep nurturing those sort of players.

Being the best post clearance team got us to the GF and kept us in it. Nothing is ever one thing.

Just getting around to listening to this episode and loving it so far, but I am going to pull you up @binman on your point about Oliver not chasing in the Bulldogs pre season game. I reckon it's rather hard to chase when you're not playing in the first place. 😜 Unless I'm mistaken, that was the first game Clarry has missed since his debut season.

I still don't know what's going on in this thread. 🤣