Adam The God

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.

It's not like he didn't manage to get on the park this year. He's played 14 games. We've also rejuvenated the best 22 the last two years. It's now JVR, Turner, McVee, Howes, AMW, Kolt, Windsor with Jefferson in the wings and Woey getting games. What we need is to address our midfield deficiencies. I know they're pace and ball use, but we should be trying to get two picks in the top 20 this year (ideally 2 in the top 10 as @middleagedemon suggests), and picking the two best ball winning mids from the top 10-20. I'd like us to add Cumming if we can to our back half despite his injury history as well, and that is plenty of rejuvenation given Yze will also likely to be picked as a rookie, and we have an elite sounding NGA ruck/forward and KPD F/S next year. I'd be putting guys into surgery now to make sure all our guns are ready to hit pre season running as hard as possible. I'm also not scared of Tasmania, as the whole league has to deal with that prospect and we have plenty of our talent. We just need to beef up our midfield, so that's this year and next as far as I'm concerned.

I really don't think it's worth trading Salo. He's a close member of the team, he won't net us anything anyway and he doesn't have much longer to go on his contract, nor would he be anywhere near the dollars of Trac or Clarry's contract. It simply doesn't make sense, and risks cultural blow backs as well. I get you're frustrated by the injuries, but it's not a great move. Support him. See if you can get 10-15 games out of him again (he's played 14 this year) and show Melbourne people (he's a premiership player afterall) that they are valued and not things to be given up on and thrown out when it all gets a little hard.

I'm sorry, you and I have agreed on Fritta's lack of forward pressure in the past, but there's no way we will or should get rid of Fritta. It's a ridiculous suggestion really. He will kick at least 40+ again. I don't see Turner as a depth player, but maybe the FD agree wirh you as he keeps being named sub. Also, you're down on Fritta's forward half pressure, but want Melksham to play? I'm not against Melksham playing next year, but ultimately, I think we need three talls or at least three that can play tall. IMO, it's JVR, Turner with Jefferson, Melksham and McAdam sharing that other spot. It'd be great getting a KPF like Waterman, but I'd much prefer to strengthen the midfield and back in the KPPs we have.

You do realise that Sydney not only have had the COLA salary cap bonuses, they've got academy accesses that has enabled them to grab pretty much all their elite players (captain Mills, Heeney, Gulden and Blakey are all academy). Like imagine if we'd just needed a bunch of junk picks to pick up those 4. Comparing the QLD and NSW list management builds to any other club is ridiculous and not comparing apples with apples. As for Geelong and Collingwood, they've had at least 2 champions each in the 21st century that were father sons. That's luck. Not real list management. Compare that with us. We've had one in Viney.

All fair points, but I think with the poor midfield performance (which is putting it lightly), our defenders are constantly under fire. What I would say about the defence is that despite it often being too aggressive and getting done at the back (see last night multiple times), I think it bodes well that we're still trusting the process. Our defence needs the midfield to defend with it, and the high half forwards to provide team defence. It's no coincidence that TMac has been exposed the last two weeks like he used to be as a defender, where earlier in the year he was rock solid. Our midfield has been destroyed two weeks in a row at stoppage. This is where we are losing games.

What? This has been covered continuously. Defensive diamond, inside sliders and defensive zone that won a flag. He's been a constant innovator. The thing about Goody is he plays the percentages after the innovation.

Who do you partner with JVR? Jefferson...and? I reckon one has to play forward. Then up the other end if you have TMac, you'll have May and Lever. Where do Petty and Turner fit in defensively? I admit, I'd love to be able to manage May a little more, even Lever, so that come the pointy end, they're fit and firing. But it may not be possible.

On Kalani's kicking, does he kick it like his old man? He was a beautiful kick, particularly for goal. I think nowadays, Jeff White would be a perfect key forward/second ruck. I'd love Kalani to fill a KPD post, but I wouldn't be expecting that for a few years.