Adam The God

Howes needs continuity IMO. Yoyoing in and out of the team doesn't help him or us. If May is fit, he goes to Larkey and Howes stays.

Spot on, we have very good DE. We let ourselves down in conversion in front of the goal though, as expected score shows.

TMac was terrific today, but he was playing on a beanpole 21 year old and should have outplayed him as he did on a number of occasions. Brave new world sans TMac if May is fit IMV mate. Not going to howl you down though 😄

In the back pocket? May as well try and unearth a player while we wait for McVee to come back, particularly given there's no option of AMW this year.

I think Kozzy into the midfield with out of the front stoppage take aways like today will see us hit up leading forwards more ofren. ie Kozzy is a beautiful field kick. The other guy who I wouldn't be against playing midfield very soon is Lindsay. He has the toughness and speed, but it's his cleanness and ball use that could transform our midfield, particularly alongside say a Kozzy and Clarry. And I'll say it again, vote 1 Jack Viney as defensive pressure forward. Add Spargo and Kolt into that forward pressure mix, and we're getting there.

If we had LJ filling in for Max's rests it'd give us so much flexibility with our forward line up. It'd mean Max could rest forward too.

I agree. And Kozzy's absence is huge, both through the midfield and in the forward half. It's hard to get a read on our future forward fortunes off today given the conditions. Even though Marvel is a funny shape, we'll get a better read next week or the week after.

I'm not sure I completely agree. I think he is certainly more dangerous deeper forward, but on a dryer day he'd be fine as a high half forward. Doesn't mean he doesn't ever go deep, but playing mostly high keeps the forwardline open.

I reckon it's between Fritta and Jeffo for that other forward spot. I disagree with the notion that we need to play 3 talls forward of the ball. Turner and JVR will be fine. The third tall/medium is either Jeffo or Fritta. If Fritta isn't kicking snags I don't think he offers enough. And to be clear, I think he's going through a rough patch and is definitely in our best 23. But he needs to start turning it on soon.

And this week's hyperbole award goes to...

Our forward set up at the start of the game saw us push all our smaller forwards up to CHF (Henderson, Chandler, Sparrow and maybe Fritta, whoever the other forward was), and left JVR in the goal square and Jeffo 20m in front of JVR. It meant when our mids won clearance out the front of the centre stoppage, our mids were kicking to two 1v1s, and each had separation. The resulting opening centre clearance was an entry to the two deepest forwards, with JVR making the contest and bringing it to ground, and Jeffo crumbing it and finishing. Our forwardline functioned so much better today. This will be an exciting watch this year. We just need to convert those very gettable shots.

Is Butters gettable?

We looked completely gassed in the last quarter. Combination of new faces and the extra week up the sleeve for GWS was a deciding factor IMV. AJ competed manfully in the last but was struggling to get to contests. Those he did attend, I loved his aggression. Was super impressed by Lindsay too, and all our debutants gave good accounts of themselves. Too many regulation set shots missed though. Gawn (20m out) and Sparrow (40m out) early on and Fritta's snap early second, we really should be nailing those. Even one of them goes through and we win. Was really happy with our centre clearance work, particularly early on. We really went for those pure, out the front clearances, and for the most part we converted them into scores. Play like we did today and we'll win more than we lose this year.

Green could be the difference. We've got no one who can play on him.

How good is Lindsay? 4 tackles and 14 from the first half. Playing wing and half back. Very clean in these conditions and when he burst off half back at one stage it was delicious. Long way to go, but if Lindsay can have a first season like Windsor did, and we play them both between half back and the wing, our ball use, cleanness and speed will go through the roof.

Geelong game we won last year was super slippery too.

Let's hope so mate. 🎉

Injuries permitting, we'll finish in the 8 this year. We could finish higher but it depends on that little bit of luck, and momentum. For me, it's really about how quickly we can master the new game style, and how straight we kick this year.

This thread is a cracker, thank you all for the updates and laughs. It's probably the last time for a few months we'll all be civil, jovial and vaguely happy. 🫠🤞

I still reckon he gave us a verbal prior to last year's draft. No intel, just a feeling.

I still tear up watching those 3 goals. Beautiful.

Haha, exactly what some said about LJ in 2022.

We've done a reset on the run post 2021. Or, you could call it simply replenishment, instead of relying on the FA market like Geelong and Hawthorn previously did, we've really hit the draft. We've kept our mature guns going (except for Clarry for a chunk of 23 and Trac 24) and brought in a strong new young core 18-21 (Bowey, JVR, McVee, Windsor, Kolt, AMW, Langford and Lindsay), underneath the strong 22-25 year old core that is developing (Rivers, Petty, Kozzy, Turner, Spargo, Sparrow, Chandler). If Howes, Henderson and Sharp can cement their places, that's 10 guys in that 22-25 core. We've managed to balance the age profile of the list really well with our guys in the peak of their careers between 26-30 being Clarry, Trac, Langdon, Salem, Fritta and Billings. Remember also, we lost Gus from that group. The list is primed for success IMO, injuries permitting, with our guns (Gawn, Trac, Clarry, Viney, Langdon, Lever, May and Kozzy) still firmly in their windows. Only May is getting close, and arguably Max, but didn't slow down last year. The only potential hole is that A+ class in the 22-25 core. I think Kozzy has that potential, but we're likely about to lose him. I'd be targeting a gun FA or 22-25 year old in the next 2-3 years. This bit is a watch though.

I reckon you've gotta play Viney and Henderson as small forwards/half forwards for significant chunks.

How long can a club that's never won a flag call themselves "Flagmantle"? If they were a Victorian club, there's no way other fans would let them get away with that [censored].