Adam The God

Did you actually read my post?

Life is more complicated than this. Sometimes you can't make it for all sorts of reasons or you don't live in the country or the state. The problem I have is probably with the 5-10k or so that would normally attend that game in the past 3-4 years. They are the bandwagon supporters that give most of us a bad name. I was embarrassed by the crowd the other night and have copped it this week from mates that support Carlton and Essendon. We have a really good conversion of supporters to attendees and members, but like all clubs, we have some softies.

Thanks for that. My sister and I were there. The most embarrassing and disappointing football day ever. But don't worry, we followed it up with another in Round 2 of 2013.

Good post mate. Couple of things. In answer to "1" - if we have JVR as the ruck/forward, Turner and hopefully Jefferson to support, I like the idea of a Waterman, but salary cap and trade capital make that difficult if we prioritise other needs higher, which IMO we should. Like midfield and ball use behind the ball. So I'd be playing JVR, Turner and Petty forward until TMac and May retire, then shift Petty back then. In answer to "2" - Agree with the need for more class behind the ball, particularly with the transition game and the ability to hit kicks not many can. We have such great structure behind the ball, that if we had some real kickers, we'd be able to really go for it regularly and would still maintain some structure behind the ball. I don't however think Gus was a classy ball user off half back in our premiership year, he was our defensive winger. Even when he moved to half back, he was elite by hand or foot. Gus' main strengths were his versatility, contested ability, his reading of the play and leadership. Bringing in a Houston might give us some traits that go some way to filling the void left by Gus' retirement. In answer to "3" - As above, Waterman would be nice, but I'm not sure our salary cap and trade capital is best spent here, when we have larger priorities. I think we can make a mobile tall and mid-sized forwardline work as we did for most of 2021. In answer to "4" - I agree with this, but not immediately. If TMac plays on, which I hope he does for one more year, he won't play on if he knows he has the Jones role. He's already hinted that this year would be his last. There is no point in going around again if it's to play in the VFL. So I think we want TMac to go around one more year. Then Petty can replace TMac in 2026 while Kalani develops, then Petty shifts to May's spot when he retires and Kalani shifts to Petty's. Then there's Jed Adams. Does he make it? It's really hard to tell. Not many would have thought either McVee or AMW would make it based on some of their VFL football, but they're both locks for mine now. In answer to "5" - I think this is why we can't do everything we'd like vis a vis "3", because we need more midfield support. I don't like the "midfield depth" line, because I think it's probably more we need a greater spread of elite talent that can play through there. If Clarry and Trac are back to somewhere near their best next year, another pre season for Kozzy, McVee, Rivers, we then have Viney, plus Sparrow and ANB that can run through their too. What happens to Laurie? Can he solidify a spot? But we need elite talent. Is it the top 10 pick this year? There are so many permutations to list management this off season. Do we manage to hold onto our top 10 pick by trading a future 1st for someone like Houston? Then hit the free agency market for Cumming from GWS. So we fill two needs, half back ball use with Cumming and Houston, more elite midfield support with Houston and a top 10 youngster, and it allows us to slide McVee into midfield, I'd be trying AMW as a small lockdown defender (reminds me a lot of a quicker Nev Jetta), and maybe there's some cheap cover in free agency or trades for another defender to enable Rivers and McVee to play genuine midfield minutes. And where does Blake Howes, who I rate, fit into all of this? At the back or on one of the wings, where he played most of his junior footy? So I think my ideal off season would be having TMac sign a one year deal, landing Houston, Cumming, a top 10 youngster and maybe a cheap free agent/or trade to provide lockdown defender cover, and back ourselves to trade back into the 2025 first round of the draft, knowing we will have Kalani as a F/S anyway. I don't think that ideal is that outlandish. I'd love to add Waterman, but I think that's probably pushing the bounds of our salary cap and reality.

Bit of a step down, huh?

Chaplin is our defensive coach...

I wouldn't be going for David Teague. What's Josh Mahoney up to? Would he swallow/sparrow his ego and come back and work alongside Lamb and co in the FD?

Those votes seem fair to me. I'd have Clarry with a few more there, but none of our other guys deserved votes IMO.

Why is Tom Morris reporting what skin condition Goody has? WTF right do we have to know what condition he has? Such an unethical little runt.

I agree. I'd err towards us missing and re-setting, but I don't want the club to put the cue in the rack. The only guy I'd consider playing from here is Jefferson. We've played enough kids. Sestan would be a liability at AFL level. He doesn't currently have the tank for 2 quarters let alone 4.

This is a different point to what the club should do though. The FD should keep fighting.

You do realise this is the tanking philosophy, right? I think we can go hardcore and still not make it. And if we do make it, our kids get finals exposure and we get a chance to win a final.

It might just be Windsor for Hunter. Seriously.

This is it. Agreed. I hope he goes again, but I think Petty would be a great replacement.

We all want changes, just don't need wholesale...

Except 3 of our losses have been by a combined less than 2 kicks. But it's semantics at this point. The point I'm highlighting is we don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Agreed, we've lost too many games comprehensively to not be making up the numbers. But a fit Clarry and Trac would mean we'd have a better chance of not merely making up the numbers.

It's 2.5 wins to 2nd spot. It's as outlandish as you paint it...

And yet three games by under a kick go the other way and we're second. Lions and West Coast games were both post 5 day breaks, so it's clear we weren't "out classed". We didn't bring our game in either performance. As evidenced by the next time we played both opposition. We led Brisbane the majority of the game and late in the last, and we easily accounted for West Coast the second time...

Yep, exactly. 1 point to the Blues, 5 points to Brisbane and 2 points to GWS. It's such a game of margins. The difference between Collingwood finishing top last year and finishing outside of the 8 was often a kick or two. They won so many games from behind and by thin margins. We led for the majority of the Brisbane and GWS games. Both likely top 4 teams, and Carlton could still be a top 4 team too. Freo had our measure both times, and Sydney at home ultimately did too. So did Collingwood when we played them. Otherwise, we have nothing to fear from other teams.

Clarry faded in the last, but with a full pre season, that's when his gut running sees him dominate and go above 30+ touches. If Clarry was fully fit this year, I reckon we're top 2. Provided he has a full pre season, he'll be back to one of the best mids in the game in 2025. And that's with Trac only playing half a season. We have a lot of upside next year and I expect the media to write us off. Just as they did at the end of 2020.

You're kidding right? If that were the only attitude, and we weren't constructive with our feedback, we wouldn't see consistently brilliant development of our younger players...

Yep, and he'd give us good flexibility next year, given he's a half forward that can genuinely contribute at contest and stoppage. He's good by foot and has very good hands. I was impressed by his ground ball last night.

Yep, he was good. And we have to give him some continuity. Team high score involvements too.

Laurie? 19 touches, 3 tackles, 3 clearances, 1 goal assist, 6 score involvements (equal most for us).