Adam The God

And yet you've got Fritsch as your display photo?

By the end of 2021, I reckon we'll have the site locked in. Lots of work to be down between now and then.

What does that look like? No wingers or no flankers or no pockets? Or does it look like whatever you want it to look like?

Reckon you've misrepresented the view of quite a few here, Doc. I haven't read anyone claiming that Weideman is a champion, only that he is tracking upward, which for a KPF at 23 is somewhat expected. I do agree that competition for his spot will be handy and welcome, but I'd prefer not to be paying lots for his back up. And let's be clear, McDonald is the back up here. That may change, but at this point, it's Weideman's position to lose. I wouldn't have McDonald anywhere near my backline, but each to their own.

Interesting. Go on...

Fair enough. And yeah, as a fund-raiser myself, I find the bigger the number, the harder it is to raise, so the same urgency should still be there with only $400k to reach. Anyway, we'll see.

Hang on. Now the club is talking about a $5 million deficit this year? We were also over $600,000 at one point, so interesting it's being talked of as $500,000 being raised. I may have misread the email sent by the club earlier in the year, but it was my understanding that we'd be in a position to be an unassisted debt-free club by the end of the year if we raised $1 million. We didn't get there, so I figured we'd be $200-300,000 short. Now it's $5 million? I know these are exceptional circumstances and it's been a tough year, but going to the supporters every few years is not a sustainable business model. This was Cameron Schwab's problem. Have I missed something here?

Really like this guy. He's a stand up fella off field and he seems very real to me, and most importantly, he's a very good footballer.

Sure, this almost certainly played a big part in it too.

The entire interview was cringe. Completely out of his depth.

As a possibly oversimplified comparison, I've been saying for a while that we appear to be in a similar position to Richmond prior to 2017 clicking for them. We have an elite core and then a drop away from the rest after this, as the system and coaching has failed to get the best out of the group. Likewise, the group itself has been too inconsistent. For comparison though... Riewoldt, Rance, Martin, Cotchin, Prestia Brown, May, Oliver, Petracca, Gawn Our bookends and midfield are elite. If we get the system right, there's no reason why our team can't win a flag next year. Time to put up. Next year the window is wide open.

I'd love to know if we were ever interested in Treloar. Would have loved him, but anyway, it is what it is.

We all know this, but how are the AFL? They really make it up on the fly, don't they? Strange year and strange times, but seriously, it's farcical for a multi-billion dollar industry's peak body.

I saw them all play, except Robbie (I was born in '87). Oliver is miles ahead of any of them. His elite consistency is better than any of them. And I rate midfielders higher than ruckmen, forwards and wingers. Not really sure what you mean by his mate Cripps. They're quite different ages and I doubt Clarry would go to Carlton, but he might go elsewhere. And as for @old dee, @Little Goffy, I'm not particularly distressed and I'm very calm haha. Just don't feel like laying the boots into Collingwood for losing best 22 players.

My read on Harmes is he's always had a good tank. You need a good tank to be able to play tagger. And yes, I like the drifting forward idea, but just generally, Harmes playing on a wing frees him up to be able to defend and attack in a more expansive way than playing off half back in some strangely rigid role.

No, but we're celebrating another team losing 3 best 22 players when we could lose 2 best 22 players and the two best Melbourne players in my 33 years of following the club.

Look, we might be okay. I agree with @Pollyanna that Harmes could fit nicely on a wing. And Tomlinson is a reasonable back up winger. I'm less concerned with the Blues TBH, I think they've got a good spine, but an ordinary midfield and I think they'll fall short of the top 8 next year. St Kilda are difficult to predict and they could well drop out IMO. People know what they're going to bring now and I don't think it should scare too many. We should be right up there with the Dogs. I think we've got a slightly better 22, but their midfield is more balanced than ours and better coached. If we can add a plug and play young star like McCrae this year, as well as Brown, I think we should be top 6. Top 8 will include Richmond, Geelong, Port, Brisbane, Melbourne, Bulldogs, St Kilda and West Coast. The bottom 10 will come from North, Adelaide, Essendon, Hawthorn, Fremantle, Sydney, GWS, Collingwood, Carlton and Gold Coast.

Love the starting team, mate. I'd have Melksham and Lockhart in there, but question Baker and Jetta. I really like Harmes on a wing there.

I'd have Melksham in place of Smith and whilst I like Spargo, I worry about that forwardline without another tackler in there, but I guess there's always going to be a Harmes and/or a Petracca rotating through there too.

Welcome back DA. Where have you been? And I'm very happy with BBBB, but there's not enough exposed evidenced on Baker for me to trust that he'd be a walk up start come Round 1 next year.

I really think this is a furphy. When we wanted to trade him we were saying things like we'd bulked him up and if he lost that weight he'd be magically back to 2018 McDonald. In other words, he'll be great, take a punt on him, please. No one did and IMO it's telling.

We do this most years now though. We'll worry about trading back into the first round next year if we need to. FA next year will also be an option.

I wouldn't have Spargo, Bedford or Chandler in my best 22. I'm happy Spargo has a new contract though.

Haha, indeed. I hope if I write it enough, it'll filter up to Goodwin. ;) Given we haven't really been seeking small forwards this off season (with the exception of having a chat with Hind) and we've traded out Hannan, and been open to letting ANB go as well, it seems like we think we have the players on our list to apply enough pressure. Or that we're changing our forward system altogether.

Viney has to play pressure forward. @Pollyanna and I have said it million times, but he and probably Harmes need to play forward. Sure, they'll get some midfield rotation too, but that could be the answer to the pressure forward problem. Fritsch - Weideman - Pickett Viney/Harmes - Brown - Jackson/Petracca It's not a million miles from the West Coast forwardline in 2018. I think we can find the balance here. I may have just overreacted before out of concern, thinking we needed more smalls, but if we keep everyone fit, I reckon we can structure that forward to add enough tackle pressure, but importantly be dangerousness enough to kick a winning score.