Adam The God

Yep. Me.

So in that set up JVR isn't playing 2nd ruck, the pinch hitting season ruck/forward is? I know he's a bit soft, but a Chol type would have been handy...

That's a very good call if that's the way we go.

Reckon we got it the third time.

I'd love Houston, but I'd love two first rounders this year. If we can manage that by trading 2025 and 2026 future 1sts, then great, otherwise two firsts is too much.

Who said we were loading?

He looks like he's fatiguing significantly in the last few weeks. Another pre season under his belt and Koz will be even better next year. If we get some young blokes from the first round of the draft, it might mean we only need Koz to occasionally pinch hit, but mostly stay forward.

Would a mid season draft pick been able to play serious mid minutes? I know guys like Newcombe have come in during season and slotted into an AFL midfield, but that was a bottom 3 team.

I thought DS meant as rhe season progressed whatdid we'd to add fresh legs. Koz' mid minutes have probably reduced as the season has progressed, right?

Really? We added ANB and Rivers to midfield. What do you mean we've done nothing to add fresh legs?

Reckon you could fit him into one of your 22s for us mate?

Bloody great post, please post more often. Just on 2 and 4. On high performance, I think this is arguably the trickiest season of AFL to plan a high performance program for in the history of the game. Two byes, multiple five day breaks, just weird fixturing and scheduling all round. Look at Sydney tonight. They lose by over 100 points. It's unprecedented for a premier or even a minor premier to lose a game by 100+ points. Yet this year, anything could happen, because this ridiculous fixture throws up these bizarre results. So high performance is a really difficult one to gauge this year. I really like your final point about potentially using the rest of the season as a build into the 2025 pre season. That definitely leads into point 6 of yours. If the players know this or get a sense of it, the mind could easily go into self preservation mode. On the midfield, I think losing Trac has given us an opportunity to experiment, and I think you're right, they don't know what our best midfield mix is. I would suggest (or hope) they're also experimenting with set ups and structures, because we have been nowhere near it for weeks now. Despite everything you've written here, had we got a bit of luck in those three games we lost by under kick, we'd have managed to be sitting inside the top 8 *and* be tinkering with things. The fact that we're not and we've fallen in a hole, suggests motivation *might* be lower, but there is more room for experimentation without hampering a potential finals run.

A quick one on Lingers. He's probably been our best player the last two weeks and really has had a great season. I'm very glad the MRO cleared him. Further, I think the emergence of Windsor has helped Lingers, and it's great that Caleb has older guys like Lingers to look up to and learn from.

I remember going to a game against Port at the 'G and I reckon we had 9k there. We were bloody loud though. Even that 16k last week sounded loud at times.

Just watched his highlights against the Allies. He seems a bit of a prototype JT pick in that he's hard at it and seems like a great tackler. Seems to read the play well too, is a nice relaxed kick, but what he offers that's maybe a little different to the rest of our mids except Trac, is he looks like he can go forward and finish in the forward half. So @ChaserJ, we reckon he could go outside the top 10? Interesting.

That's why I want two picks in the top 10-15 if we can manage it. Then we could pick the potential Dusty/Trac and another surer player.

I'll check out Sam Lalor. I know it's an annoying question, but who does he play like in your opinion mate?

I don't think Jaded is saying Longmire isn't a good coach, just that he is made to look better by their ridiculous advantages. And you gotta say, his GF record is unenviable.

I told you JJs single possession after a quarter and a bit would have solved our midfield woes this year!

Haha, we just need ball winners. Sure, I'd love it if they were also elite by foot, but I'm more concerned with contest and I suspect JT will be too. Explosiveness from stoppage is something any midfield could use more of.

Because we have other priorities and big forwards are hard to come by. Midfields win flags. No idea if we're too nice. I think we just know what we want and get the deal done. I do acknowledge that our trades post Mahoney have not been great, but we were also a premier by that stage with a cap that was starting to bulge.

You do realise that by facilitating moves for fringe players, which is what JJ was and doing the right thing by the player puts us in good stead with the powerful player managers. This work doesn't occur in a vacuum. And player managers always speak highly of our club because we treat players with respect.

One is playing in a much better team. It's not an apt comparison.

Of course we won't trade him, but I'm just trying to understand the intellectual argument for trading him. I think Dazzler might be letting frustration cloud some judgement.

Is this revisionism? How did you feel about JJ the last 2 years? Probably like many of us, that he wasn't much better than fringe 22. I like JJ too, but you're kidding yourself if you think JJ would have managed anymore than he'd previously managed in a top 4 team 3 years in a row.