Adam The God

There seems to be some revisionism going on here. In 2022, Geelong did not rest all their stars. They rested some of them, when they clearly needed it. Every player is different though and Geelong's list was much older than ours. Last year, our players were banged up and pushed through it. At the end of 2022 and start of 2023, the club spoke of ensuring we managed players better and were able to hit the finals without being banged up. This has always been our aim and we've managed players' TOG throughout the season, and used a greater amount of personnel to give ourselves options at the pointy end. There is also a load management variable that simply taking a week off for someone like say Viney, means he then has to make it up on the track and risks losing match touch. We're about to get Clarry back, Jack is a warrior and can take a defensive back seat a bit more with Clarry's inclusion. As for Max's comments about 2022, has Max said anything about being banged up this year, Cranky? Max missed a whole heap of games and had Grundy rucking much larger portions this year than Jackson ever did, so last year was last year, and 2023 is a completely different story. To say selection against North could see us banged up like 2022 is frankly a ridiculous call, not to mention it presumes that load management, injury and our fixture in 2023 was exactly as 2022. It clearly wasn't... we have a much softer run in this year. 2023 looks like North, Carlton, Hawthorn and a struggling Sydney in Sydney. 2022 saw us play Freo in Perth, Collingwood, Carlton and Brisbane at Gabba. You could only compare the two run ins as similar if you were acting in bad faith. FWIW, I would have played Grundy this week for Max, but that might have been a bit fancy, and it's much better to maintain continuity, so I can see where the FD is coming from. Then what do you do if Grundy is brilliant? We've made the right call.

Finishing 2nd means we don't leave Victoria. If possible, we'd want to play Port or Brisbane at the MCG in the QF.

I'm surprised there's been so much speculation in this thread about who would start and who will be the sub, after@Dannyz, who has a great record here, said days ago that Smith would replace Tomlinson. That has already come to fruition. And the sub will be Hibberd. Bookmark it.

What the feck are you talking about Jimbo?

Excepting 15m snaps, how is Trac on his left foot? Likewise, Clarry... He's hardly going to say, yeah, 2 top 10 picks will get it done. You start as high as possible and work back from there. Given the mid season noise about us being able to get this Reid trade done, I'd say two top 10 picks and the F1 will get it done. And we should be happy to do that deal. We're getting the best player in the draft.

I wonder whether the penalty was a decision that was canvassed with every club to get their input. It's the sort of thing the AFL might do. 'How will this impact everyone? Are we alright to hit them hard?' 'Nah, better make it light, because what happens if we're the next club to do it'. Again, the AFL is a disgrace.

Yeah, exactly, this is the thing. And the strange wording around committing a similar breach in the next year and two months, to me at least, downplays the severity of the Aliir incident (remembering this is the third or fourth incident from Port now).

He can do it all I reckon. Some of those fend offs feel more like Trac fend offs than Dusty fend offs. They're less about simply bullocking through a contest, but giving himself time to cleanly feed off by hand. He's a smooth mover though and looks super dangerous one out in the forward half. That to me is very Trac, and even very Dangerfield. Imagine our team with Reid. Wowee.

Jesus. I just read a bit about this. Literally crying. Violence against children makes me even more emotional as a new father.

And anyone who listens to them is essentially a 'mark', in confidence trick parlance.

I wouldn't put it past SEN and the way all those guys work to have had a meeting on Sunday night or Monday morning and Kane's said, well, I have to back my contacts at Port and that's my position, and King's gone, great, you do your spiel on Monday or Tuesday and I'll go you Thursday. And they've probably gone, great, no worries. Kane gets to protect Port and King gets to bring balance to the debate. It really is that cynical the way some of this stuff plays out and SEN are real bottom feeders...

Furthermore, that $50k hit is probably most of the doctor's wage. So he moves on and they're back to square one. I was thinking of working with the AFL on one of my next films, but they're a completely corrupt corporate believe in nothing organisation. Their legal advice must be, don't give the current complainants any ammunition by coming down too swiftly.

So Port handed a $100,000 fine, but read this nonsense: "$50,000 of the fine will be included in Port Adelaide's football department soft cap, with the remainder to sit outside the cap unless the club commits a similar breach of concussion protocols before the end of the AFL and AFLW seasons in 2024." So they're allowed to [censored] up again, it'll just be a $50k hit to the soft cap. Are you [censored] kidding me? The AFL are an utter joke. Power cops huge fine over concussion protocols error - https://www.afl.com.au/news/993091

JJ will go out for Clarry. Bookmark it.

He'll get a week off after the H&A season...

That is an unfortunate typo, Binners. 🤣

Which presumably means that's the line the AFL want to take. The AFL press are a mouthpiece for the AFL.

Yes. Damage to the frontal lobe causes impulsivity and poor decision making. Look at the instances of boxers, MMA fighters and spousal abuse. These people have suffered multiple concussions and direct damage to their pre frontal cortexes, which is the thinking centre of the brain and helps us to self regulate, problem solve and provides us with a capacity for reflective thinking, thinking before acting etc. There's also a great doc on Netflix about NFL player Aaron Hernandez called 'Killer Inside'. He had repeated concussions that led to brain injury, that then led to dark outcomes. You get the picture, but it goes into all this stuff.

They're very capable of managing player loads without games these days. Salem earlier in the year was a perfect example. There's always Adams developing back there, but I love the sound of Curtin. Great post, but I'm glad we're not resting Viney. Without Oliver, if we don't have Viney's intensity, already missing Trac, our midfield is decidedly average. When Clarry is back, if Viney is sore, you could rest him for Hawthorn, but I reckon they'll push Viney until the end of the H&A season.

This is a good point mate and I suspect they want to trial one ruck against two and North is the perfect time to try it, given North's ability.

Maybe it's being pedantic, but a sweeper role (aka the goalkeeper) plays behind the final defensive line, so unless we're playing no player inside our defensive 50, May won't be playing a sweeper role. He might play as a pure interceptor though. And it sounds like Tomlinson won't play. It'll be Smith for him and Hibbo as sub. If @Dannyz says it, thus it must be.

He was asleep in the car for the first quarter, so got there at the end of the 2nd, he lasted the third quarter (I didn't realise ear muffs were a thing for the youngsters), and found it too loud, so we went home at 3/4 time. I had to watch it all on replay when we got home. But if all I teach him is structures and not being a nuffy at the footy, I'll be happy. ❤️

I actually have Lord of the Nuffs trademarked, so you've done well to get around it here.

Correct. The AFL funds all the clubs anyway, so financial is a slap on the wrist in the extreme. I wonder if AFL HQ will see this as a challenge for Dillon's new position and therefore deliver swift, uncompromising sanctions. (they've probably missed the boat on that one already) Or, whether they'll see it as a possibility to sweep it under the rug as it occurs between Gil's exit and Dillon's entrance. If the footy media wasn't totally captured by the AFL, the possibility of seeing some legitimate accountability thrust upon those involved might be real. But we know that the industry is completely captured and therefore a huge PR machine for the AFL.

Hibberd played some anchor for us against Collingwood. Was often the deepest defender. But I agree with what you're saying. I don't think we'll abandon the three tall defensive set up, nor should we.