JJJ

Can’t help but I have a bet with the family. if we win the next 2, I go to the Gold Coast and thaw out while watching the footy. If I lose, my wife gets a weekend retreat. I assume the dees will have some sort of function up there…. As long as we win the next 2!! 🙏

Speak to anyone in AFL circles and they will tell you Petty will again ask to be traded. That should give us some more draft capital. If the top 40 is as deep as one people and posters think, it represents a good chance for us to pickup 3-4 players.

JT is on record as saying that they like his attitude and power. Hopefully he can play a couple more games with Casey to show some other skills. I think he is relatively underexposed which is odd given his heritage. He used to tell people he liked soccer more than AFL which is not unusual for sons of guns. I went to school with Kevin Bartlett’s kid and he always said that he barracked for Brisbane and preferred tennis and cricket to AFL.

I played on him for 15 min when he was 15-16 and I was 17-18. He was comically good. I was psyched when we drafted him. The good thing to come out of that 15 min from my perspective was that my then coach never experimented with me in the midfield ever again.

I was reasonably confident we’d go well on the weekend as they are massive pretenders in terms of their results from a very easy draw. Nothing would make me happier than them either missing out on the finals all together or making an elimination final only to lose. It’s a win-win either way.

I wish. It would be way more scandalous and interesting. I could be a paid journo like the rest of those media muppets.

Neither can I. Still, that’s what I was told at Kings Birthday.

I’d rather Waterman. King needs to be rebuilt. Schwarz is an awesome bloke and is a legend of the club but some of his observations aren’t the best.

I know an umpire too. It’s a tough gig. They are scrutinised very heavily internally and externally. Making decisions is harder than ever as there are way too many players around the ball and the rules are difficult to interpret. Very rarely, if ever, in the cold light of day can I point to umpiring as a deciding factor. The AFL on the other hand…. they are an entertainment company that is completely unaccountable to the game.

I think it’s more to do with the parents. I’ve not heard that it was/is a player(s). It’s probably pretty normal but there’s plenty of smoke around us at the moment.

The Bowey thing is interesting. Not from a StKilda perspective but there are a bunch of parents and families, particularly of the younger players, who are a bit unsettled re their respective son’s. It doesn’t mean anything will eventuate but Bowey is an example of a player who fits the above profile and his old man still supports the Saints.

They won’t. But I really wish they’d make Bowey come back via Casey. I feel we have stalled his development by rushing him back to the big league at all costs.

I watched a bit of Eagles vs Hawks. The Eagles pretty much packed their bags at half time and went home. They were pathetic. If we can’t run with those guys we should sack every HP coach we have.

I wonder if Goodwin feels pressure to go all in for the finals or is comfortable enough to continue to blood new players. Our list is in need of continued development to see what we have in the tool bag for 2025. We aren’t going to win it all this year, 2 of our top 3 players who are also 2 of the top 10 in the league have had their seasons compromised and our new game plan was not successful. Play some more youngsters in different positions (Bowey to mid/fwd, McVee to mid, Howes to mid/fwd), debut Jefferson and give the kids extended runs. This would necessitate loading the backline with senior players, something I am a-ok with. We can continue to tweak the style of play as we still have enough quality in our senior players to do so. Load up on 2025. Bank another top 10 draft pick. Throw the cheque book at somebody good.

He played ok but boy does he go to ground a lot. His balance and agility are very poor, which you’d expect from a player a lot older.

Liked the video. I’m oddly pretty excited about this Friday. AMW has a lot of traits that translate to AFL. Haven’t seen him live for a while though so won’t pretend to know how he is really going. I remember watching him at training during his 1st season participating in some tackling drills and thinking he was already one of the better tacklers at the club. He also has speed. 🤟🏼

Sounds like the Dogs will be ok with him leaving. Won’t impact the asking price but they know he’s super unhappy.

I think there was mention of Kolt playing in the news yesterday.

That’s the profile of the player we need in terms of age, exposure and cost out. Whilst I think we’ll have money to spend this offseason I think it might be better spent going for 2 younger players as we have holes everywhere. Our draft strategy is simple; if we still think we are competing for a flag, we will only use 2 picks and use other assets to make the picks as good as possible.

I think the whinging is ok from an opportunity cost perspective. We wasted time and resources recruiting a redundant player. We would’ve been off pushing for another up and coming mid or trading into the draft to get access to elite talls. Recruiting Grundy was a mistake at the time and potentially cost us 12 months is another JVR type. Also re Max. Whilst he may not have volunteered to drive Grundy to Sydney, he certainly wouldn’t have begged him to stay. Max’s memoirs will be an interesting read one day.

An epic fail, yes it’s a bit early. Based on his output in the VFL I think you could definitely say it won’t help us this year.

This is speculation but you could easily understand why the following may have impacted the psyche of some players: Brayshaw… Oliver…. Players held to different standards. EG Petty, McAdam, Bowey & Turner coming straight in without having to prove themselves at Casey. Confusion over the game plan. Finger pointing by players Failure to execute under pressure Mixed messages for younger players EG Woewodin getting dropped after Freo when senior players fundamentally are not following team instruction such as Fritsch Lack of development as players/ careers stalling Aside from JVR, no discernible targets up forward Petty. Mishandled. Came back early. Playing forward with zero result. And still wants to leave. As I said above this is speculation but in the pressure cooker of AFL life, you wouldn’t need too many issues like the ones above to lose focus. I think a lot of it comes from the coaches box which isn’t a direct shot at Goodwin but it’s a shot across the bow. I vaguely recall falling asleep last night listening to the Demonland podcast when someone mentioned we needed to clean house and bring in some new thought leadership. Not a bad idea.

Sestan was told a few weeks ago that he was close to selection and was given a couple of key items to work on in order to debut. I haven’t followed the Casey games closely but I think he is going ok, might be a smokey next week.

Maynard only goes hard when it on his terms. How many contested possessions for the hard man yesterday.

Free agency this year might get us a solid player but we need to be aggressively looking at “pre-agents” like LDU from North.