Little Goffy

I see your point and I don't intend my comment as a slight on Vandenberg. It is just a fact that if the team is in form then it is likely we will be absolutely stacked for midfielders and half forwards and he'll have some work to do to establish himself. In the midfield we look like now having Viney, Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver as full time strong bodies, with presumably Salem, Harmes and a couple of others rolling through. For the mid-sized forwards we've got Melksham and Fritsch basically locked in and a whole collection of other 'possibles' who Vandenberg will be competing with. The addition of Langdon and Tomlinson has tightened the 22 quite a bit as well. Vandenberg's physicality sets him apart and I think he is AFL quality, but if the team is up and about in general then, no, he is not a walk-up start for our best-22. Give him a season to find his best, though he may well play more and more as the season progresses and I'm sure there's a part of the coaching panel planning to time his peak for september as the positive side-effect of managing his loads early in the season.

I expected Vanderberg to still be coming along so cautiously that he wouldn't even play this weekend, so for him to be out there doing a few of the exact things that make us appreciate him as a player was a great moment. Best scenario in my mind is the team in general finding form and Vandenberg needing to really press for AFL selection. As it always should be. But in his case it is particularly nice knowing that even were he to be in and out a bit as depth he would a) appreciate the opportunities fully, b) see it as part of making progress and c) be that rare thing, a depth player who opponents actually have to think about in their planning and playing.

Yep. Yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yep. I've been in Sydney for years now and the thought had crossed my mind that the only way to get a good place to watch AFL would be to run it myself. So, kudos to you for doing it and I'll surely see you there!

Hmm. If you have a mostly mortgaged house and two kids you end up with peraphs $10m debt and 52 kids. So, win the bet and your prize is basically "Melbourne football club 2009".

I claim the exception AND I claim points for grasping the general issue before commenting. It would be surprising to see a significant link, but on the other hand, in that way that sports medicine sometimes does, a good bit of epidemiology here could lead to a fascinating addition to a chronically understudied aspect of human bodies.

OMG so racist.

It goes without saying that Daisy is the true champion of the league she helped create. Elise O'Dea will just become unstoppable as the benefits of professional level conditioning and preparation have their effect. I do feel a little sad that O'Dea couldn't get any of that, say, ten years ago. But my gut says she'll be around for a while yet to reap the benefits. May even play out the later years of her career as a difficult forward. But what I can't shake is the regular feeling that Karen Paxman is just that much more poised and fluent than most of what goes on around her. That collect and snap for goal sums it up - with the general skill levels still needing years to consolidate it could well have gone astray whether with finding the handle on it or get it cleanly to boot in a rush. But with Paxman, I never really doubted her kick would go through and I don't think she did either. I really enjoy the women's game because it's in red and blue, it has real meaning away from the grounds, and the variability of individual quality means the better players do stand out. But what I'm really, really looking forward to is AFLW in about 2025. We'll start to see players who were the first to really believe that AFL could be their path, back when they were 15 or 13. Girls who would have been able to say to trainers and friends and that uncle who played seven games for the Bears or whatever, "Hey, I want to be good at this, genuinely good. How about we head to the park and work on my ball drop/marking/etc." And as of now, compared to even five years ago, they're about a hundred times more likely to get a "Yeah, sure." I wholly expect Daisy to guide us to a premiership or two as a player and then do a few years of development before returning for a full Norm Smith and coaching us to another half dozen.

Well, this all seems to be going according to plan. Just scrape our way through the first few rounds until we get some match fitness into our underdone players and get Lauren Pearce & co back. On a side note, it does seem to be an AFL tradition to in some way make a mess of the women's fixture/ladder. I love that after the roud one win we were out of the 'conference' qualifying line, while the team we beat managed to be inside their conference qualifying group. But the quirks of the fixture means it would be very valuable to pile on a few more goals late in this game and try to bury the Bulldogs, particularly given their first game percentage surge. It's a genuine 8-point game and in a short season percentage is much more likely to play a part breaking deadlocks.

Lol. AFL Accountant: Hmm, our total revenue is not growing as much as our wild expectations and we might not be able to fund everything to the full extent that is anticipated by our stakeholders. AFL Execs: I'm pretty sure that is a problem to do with funding the women's league. AFL Accountant: Well, actually, the entire women's league is less expensive than... AFL Execs: Now now, don't get excitable. AFL Accountant: ...Karmichael Hunt... AFL Execs: Shush now, bigger picture, you know? AFL Accountant: ...Shanghai... AFL Execs: No, no, we have this covered. AFL MEDIA: "Excessive costs of women's game to be covered by cuts to male player's salaries." Personally, I'm just surprised they AFL HQ didn't also blame the lack of funding for grassroots football on the AFLW.

Among the worst things you can face when you're dealing with anxiety and mood types of mental illness is losing your best support (dad dying), getting false 'support' from the people you think you should be able to turn to and who you set yourself to rely on (my impression of Freo's behaviour) and having strangers constantly speculating and catastrophising about your whole career and life going off the rails (various media and randoms). Poor guy needs to spend three years playing local footy and working on a farm. Not to give himself time so much as to give everyone else time to calm down. Ideally at Todd Viney's farm, come to think of it.

Pre-season supplementary selection still possible. The question is, would Hogan be an effective top-up to cover Nietske?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at this stage he is the third best key position forward we've drafted in the last 25 years. ? I actually feel like he can be something really valuable. Not a Hogan replacement, not a beast of the goal square, not an All-australian contender. I just have this feeling like he'll put together a long 'effective' career that will do wonders for our team structure and salary cap balance.

It's a tricky one, because on the one hand Franklin's presence probably made the difference of - Two additional finals appearances (2018, 2017) Two, debatable three, top-four instead of top-8 finishes (2016, 2015 and perhaps 2014) So in the first five years of the nine year deal he has basically been the difference between Sydney being a genuine premiership contender and having an image as an outstanding, exciting team, or Sydney being just another mid-table better than average team in and out of finals with a few flashy stars and reliable old hands. On the other hand... what would the salary cap difference have meant? Players traded out of the Swans in Franklin's time include several handy names; Lewis Jetta, Toby Nankervis, Tom Mitchell(!), Nic Newman, , Dan Hannebury, Gary Rohan and Zak Jones. For how many of those losses was Franklin's recruitment and salary space a factor? As for the future? No doubt Franklin's athleticism won't be as potent as it has been, but he is still a very smart forward. You do have to wonder though - ten weeks out of full training for a 'simple' knee arthroscopy does seem like a lot. Maybe it isn't just the Demons who are a bit shady when it comes to injury reporting?

Nobody. I am convinced that the structure these days should be 2xCHF with the nominal FF position being either left open for players to run into or used to rotate a player (obviously usually a ruck) to mess around with opposition defence structures. Two centre-half-forwards share the job of ensuring there is always someone offering the long lead to our confused clearance packs AND always someone lurking ready to burst out with the shorter lead or at least contest in a dangerous area where all our mad mix of medium-sized half-forwards can swarm through. And those two CHFs should be McDonald and Weidemann, particularly so that Weidemann has a constant reference point for the work rate required in the role while also always having an experienced player around to direct and encourage him.

The great Norm Smith himself. Or maybe you mean Paul Roos, but I'm pretty sure that adds up to two.

Our current set of imports alone would have to be a considerable core to a team if all playing well etc caveat thing thing. Hibberd, Melksham, May, Tomlinson, Langdon, Kolodjasnij, Preuss, Lever and Mitch Brown now too. Possible Harley Bennel at any moment now. I almost included Hannan, from Footscray! And Gawn is literally foreign - New Zealander! Or possibly some as-yet unidentified planet. May have arrived with the Murchison meteorite.

I think I can see what the club seemed to be trying to create, even though it went so horribly, horribly wrong in 2018. I also think I can see that the actual players required to do it are there on the list now - we aren't playing a style that is mis-matched with what we've got. Shiver down my spine but I really believe if it comes together we're not talking about 'competitive' or 'respectable', we're talking about truly dominant. I think what our current list, and strategy, could conceivably produce is even better than the Round 6 to 11 run of 2018. So, bugger it, I'm going to say that success in 2020 looks like: - a few rounds of being 'competitive' while we find our feet, being 4-1 after round five but people saying it is mostly a soft draw and we were lucky against one of the Giants/Eagles. - pushing the Tigers to the wire in round 6. - and then going 15-1 in the remaining 16 rounds, to finish top of the ladder with a 19-3 win loss and a metric obscenity of percentage. Maybe we win the premiership, maybe we wont. But the finals will be epic.

I unfortunately don't go as far back (in AFL life) as the Northey years. But what also strikes me about the Daniher years is that we had many 'senior' players who would only produce the occasional really grand season and then just be good the rest of the time. Some of that was just plain old injury, some of that seemed to be a bit of self-satisfaction. I'm not going to try to judge too much, i just find it an interesting pattern. Hmm, off the top of my head, Johnstone is the poster boy for it. And then quite a few definitely good players - but the question is, if they had strung together the form consistently could they have been 'great' and could the team have jumped an important step further? Johnstone, White, Woewodin, Robertson, Rivers, Leoncelli, Mclean, Bizzell, Bruce, even Green and McDonald who only really consolidated late in or after the Daniher period. A dozen players bobbing up like whack-a-mole rather than being a potent, consistent core to keep turning over the wins column and provide a structure and leadership for new kids to develop in. It is clearly still a pattern and is why I prize the consistency of the likes of Gawn, Oliver and Harmes, and why I desperately long for a few nice clean preseasons for important players who I feel would be consistent if injury let them, like May, T.Mc, Melksham, and Viney.

I'm really annoyed about that. Particularly Kat Smith who I really rate the way she goes about it. I also think Lauren Pearce is right up amongst our most important players. It's going to be a hard start to the season for them but in the end the AFLW game is still 'young' and variable enough that whoever conditions best, trains best and wants it most on the day will get the wins.

I can't decide what joke to make here. Should I go with the 'game being santised' theme or the 'homoerotic fantasy' theme?

Most our our best 22 would, when injury-free and in form, fully deserve a place in a top-4 team's best 22 unless they were jammed behind a better player in their specific position. Most our our best 22 would, when injured and/or out of form, fully deserve a place in a bottom-4 team's best 22.

Let's go corporate speak and call it is his 'stretch goal' then. Quite right that it'll all come down to consistency. But I'm not worried about rivals up forward - a return to 2018 attacking power compared to 2019 is worth close to 120 goals (1570 points for vs 2300) to share around! Ugh. I just got a shudder at the exposure to just how much we stalled in 2019. All is well. All is well. All is well.

Fair enough - it's a big call but not an eggnog-level call! I'll start by just going 'yep, Tim Kelly'. I'm basing it on 16 goals in those final seven games when he was allowed to settle forward. For a mid-sized half-forward in a team which only managed 66 points a game in that period, that's phenomenal. Pushed out to a full season that would work out to a neat 50 goals. So, my call is basically that Fritsch's form of late 2019 once he was moved permanently forward is how he will continue in 2020, and that, without any further improvement, puts him right up among the top class of goalkickers, never mind half-forwards. Meanwhile, the top-pick midfielder Rayner, Brayshaw, Cerra, Dow all look great but are lucky to crack 20 disposals in a game and only Brayshaw has really earned the contested ball and tackling credits. Hell, those guys were all supposed to be midfielders when drafted and Fritsch has them all covered even on possession counts. They're all good players but there';s nothing the likes of Walsh, Taranto or Oliver among them. Liam Ryan and Jack Higgins are beautiful players who have done great things coming into top teams and been very effective as creative small forwards. Would be completely happy if Pickett followed their level! Jaidyn Stephenson is similar in the sense that he has had a clear role in a top team - luxuries denied to Fritsch. He also deserves a lot of credit for showing consistency. He's the most like-for-like rival to Fritsch in terms of role (assuming Fritsch is allowed to settle forward). It'll be a head-to-head comparison to watch in 2020. Aaron Naughton has had some GREAT!!! games and if that becomes anything like his norm then he'll be a superstar. But he's also turned in more than a few stinkers or had minimal real effect for many games. Impressions are influenced by just how memorable his best games have been. There's some others of note, like Worpel, Miers, and a few kids of course who might just emerge a bit in 2020. But that's not a big pool to pick from and the fact is that if Fritsch delivers in future what he showed in those last seven or eight rounds of 2019 then he is a truly elite half-forward. Plus, turns out 2017 was a weak draft that we did well to trade out of. Hopefully the same is true of 2020.

I'm confident that we will rebound at least well enough to have the horrors of 2019 become just a foul memory (learning experience etc). I actually really think our 2020 team has much better prospects than, ah, well, I guess I'd have to say any team of ours since 2000, really. If 2000's fourteen wins with good percentage is the benchmark, I think we'll get there. My 'reasons for optimism' list goes something like; - our entire backline leadership and brains group was chronically injured in 2019 and is looking available for 2020 - we have hugely increased the diversity of our midfield group thanks to Langdon & Tomlinson coming in - I personally (and I'm not alone) rate both Vandenberg and Smith as valuable inclusions who make things go a little better. - The knock-on effect of having many more senior bodies available is that it will allow our layer of players who aren't 'guns' to be used in roles best suited to their attributes and confidence. Hanna, Hunt, Nibbler, Hore and many of our younger guys will both benefit personally and be able to be more effective role-players than they could be under the depleted-team pressures of 2019. - Bayley Fritsch will consolidate as a top-3 player from his draft and with the returning Melksham (AFL King of Goal Assists) provide a smart and capable half-forward line that we crave. - I believe in the return of Tom McDonald to full prowess and workrate. That in my mind is worth a couple of wins a season even if nothing else changes. Hell, he had a rubbish year all up but when he found his rhythm he still managed to be absolutely crucial in three of our five wins.

Hmm, players I see as being of that core 'definitely AFL quality every week' unless something is serious wrong with their body or form - B: Jetta May HB: Salem Lever Harmes C : Landgon Brayshaw HF: Melksham T.Mac Petracca F: Fritsch FOLL: GAWN Oliver Viney Fourteen 'feels' like a good start, and then there's a good block of players who might also warrant that 'reliable AFL quality' term in 2020 but I'm not prepared to declare it based on some question mark or another, from age (at either end) to chronic injury to whatever - Tomlinson, Vandenberg, Smith, Hore, Jackson, Pickett, Weideman, Hibberd And of course all the guys like Hannan, Hunt, the Wagners, Nibbler, O.Mc who when in good form a perfectly acceptable cogs in the machine. Seems like the main thing we really have a question mark on whether we can have enough truly AFL standard guys out there is the tall forward bracket. Interesting to watch Weid, Jackson, Brown and see what they deliver. Just one of those proving to be a reliable target and hard worker for 2020 would make a big difference to our game.