DeeSpencer

I think it’s fair to have a crack at them but round 7, Saturday, 4:35. Early in the season and a decent time slot that’s family friendly but after junior sport. If they’re 3-4 or even a competitive 2-5 with a new coach they’ll turn up. Especially if it’s one of their Tassie replacement games.

I'm pretty sure the stadium deals were reworked to be much better for clubs but if we break even in all games - assuming the Freo one gets to 25k or so - then that's a big step forward compared with routinely losing money. Then there's significant opportunities in many of the other games, the Dogs, Hawks and Bombers should all be big. Ok, they don't make mega bucks like 70k+ does but 50k crowds are big earners. Given the significant limitations of not hosting ANZAC and QB'day I think it's about the best we can do for crowds. The only change would be maybe moving the Carlton game earlier in the season but the trade off there is you move a low drawing game later. 4 of 10 MCG games v interstate sides matches with the reality that 8 of 17 of our opponents are interstate. Syd and Brisbane as part of the 4 is a big result commercially compared with say Gold Coast and Port (at the G). If the sponsorship deals aren't linked to prime time exposure then someone is doing something wrong. It's TV time, photos in the paper, social media reach. The first game of the season alone is worth a truckload in exposure. Worst case scenario if we're locked in to contracts without significant performance bonuses we can negotiate better deals with whoever comes on board next and can always sign up a lot more lower tier sponsors. Zurich extended in June last year. I'm sure Pert and co would've made sure they weren't getting the deal they got for previous seasons for 2022. I'm not sure if Jaguar are on board for next year yet but whoever is the 2nd major sponsor is getting a huge amount of exposure.

Given we were locked in to away games against Richmond and the Pies it's a great commercial draw. - First game of the season, that's huge. - 4 or 5 of the first 6 on free to air prime time - Essendon and Hawthorn as well as the grand final rematch in 3 of our first 4 home games = 3 big money spinners, all should go clear of 50k. - Coll and Carl for reliable big crowds at the back end of the season - Only 2 low drawing home games for the entire year in GWS and Freo, and the Giants game is locked in round 5 on a Sat night. Our sponsors get more exposure than they ever would've and that's without the end of the season tv fixture which we will figure in prominently if we are top 4. Our crowds - we can just about lock in 9 of 10 MCG home crowds over 30k I reckon if the GWS turn out is good. And there's got to be a strong chance we can go 6 of 10 over 40k given they are all against Vic teams and some big drawing ones at that. Most years our MCG crowds probably produce very little revenue apart from the blockbusters. This year we've got a chance to bank really good cheques in almost all games and then know we've got the 2 big blockbusters to come in 2023.

Anzac eve locks us in to a Sat-Sun stretch between rounds 5-7. Also makes it 4 vs 6 prime time games as well, which looks more even. Given we are hosting rounds 1 and 3 and are involved in the big marquee games I reckon that’s fair enough. This looks about as big of a commercial fixture as we could get in a year we don’t host Anzac Eve and QBday.

6 of our 10 MCG games are against Vic clubs and 2 more against Sydney and Brisbane who draw a crowd. Commercially that means a lot of big home games. I’d love to just play the bunny interstate teams at the G and rack up wins but apart from the financial outcome that doesn’t sharpen us up like big games with big crowds. I’m not too worried about where we play our away games. A Richmond or Collingwood style 16 games at the G sure would be nice but that’s just not realistic for us.

Because it’s our turn? After years of nothing McGuire got worried about us and demanded splitting Queens Birthday matching the same year we’re away to Richmond. We seem to get 2 games a year against the Pies semi regularly though, so it’s up to us to make round 21 a big game.

Seems that way but often the new guys start off in jumpers that fit them based on their previous owners before the new seasons training gear arrives. Would be surprised if Woey isn’t in the 22.

I probably got that wrong and it’s probably more nasty, what I really meant is at least it’s more game focussed. A fair bit must come down to the break between them as well. The level of pain might depend on if it’s 2 or 10+ minutes between each run. We also don’t know what the players are asked to do. Is it go as hard as possible on each one, or is it run to an individually targeted time on the first one and see if they can match it 3 more times.

It was 27 degrees in Perth on grand final. Cooler by the bounce but still warm. I was at a Richmond gws prelim a few years ago that was 30 degrees at the bounce. Preseason and regular season March games are routinely that warm. The players also run 12-16km in games and match that workload in training sessions. The Clarko ‘if you can’t kick you can’t play’ axiom isn’t true. It’s ‘if you can’t run you can’t play’ AFL footy. I don’t know how they design a fitness program for players without giving them a good test. 4 x 1km seems nasty as can be but it’s got to be better than the old 3km. I think it’s fair to say it’s been unseasonably cold lately in Melbourne and very hot yesterday. They could’ve thought about managing that a little. But they’re about to embark on 3 months of gruelling summer training and potentially even head north to QLD to hunt hot conditions.

The ‘MCG sized oval’ that isn’t has temp fencing around it. Hopefully that’s a reasonably quick job to get it up to size. Casey aka premiership HQ has been great but I don’t think we should overdo our welcome with the players. They soft balled him and didn’t ask why Wednesday night is worth it. It has to be well in to 6 figures as a result for the club to sell out the families and working people who can’t go.

He’s doing a lot of training with his brother and Trey Ruscoe

I'm paraphrasing but I'm pretty sure in the Last Dance, Michael Jordan describes his physical peak in the late 80's when he was mid 20's but his mental peak didn't come until the 90's and only got stronger through that period of winning championships. He won his first championship at 28 and I think that's about the time when physical ability and mental capacity in both understanding your own game and team work combine. But it's different for all players and particular sports. I think there's a lot of AFL footballers who excel at about 23-27 and after that probably start to lose a bit of step given the physical nature and the extreme athletic demands. Repeat injuries can cause a toll too. Other players who rely more on skills and smarts and have the appetite for slowly but steadily improving sections of their game can get stronger and stronger through their 20's and even in to their 30's.

No goal posts so I’d have used some of Jeff White’s temporary ones and set them up super wide to make it easier! Could’ve put a couple of past players in doggies jumpers!

The club did a fantastic job. Put a fair bit of time and effort (and cash) in and surely got rewarded. Will get a heap of publicity. I would’ve pushed the envelope and got a couple of players to recreate a couple of goals just for fun but otherwise it was perfect.

The grand final rematch was a good idea for us but a bad idea for 7, who would prefer to save that game until later in the season. I can see why they’ve countered. Honestly I’d prefer we now cave on the idea. But maybe we need the cash? It would be a big money spinner in terms of sponsor dollars. Wednesday night works for me but I can see it wouldn’t for so many.

Overall I think our biggest weakness is still the trade off from our biggest strength. We play so direct and crash and bash that we waste a lot of opportunities to use run and skill and generate easier ball movement and scores. The positive of that is we’re used to finals type footy and eventually there came moments in each finals where we broke the opposition and strung together skilful passages and got easy goals. At its worse it shows up in the dysfunctional forward entries that plagued us all for years and were prevalent for a lot of the year. A fully healthy BBB late in the year straightened us up improving the forward line but also make a lot of bad entries look good or halved. Jason Taylor keeps drafting wingers and skilled back flankers - even with a rookie in Juddy. I’m sure the plan is to kick the ball from the back half more, use Langers and other runners and get it out to more skilful half forwards like Pickett, Spargo even Laurie. If we can keep plan A game strong whilst adding more run and skill to do it a bit easier that’s how you stay ahead of the comp.

I kind of think that was a little overplayed because our talls dominated so much the oppositions best chance was on the deck.

That was my initial point. When you’re bad you’ve got more options to bring players in. If we stay at the pointy end of the ladder - which I sure hope we do - we’ll have less ways to bring guys in unless we push important players out. To elongate our flag window it would be handy if Howes because a home grown outside runner rather than having to trade for that need.

Does show how conservative teams are with trading back. They really prioritise the guys on their board rather than having multiple decent picks. GWS should’ve taken a deal from us or Sydney I reckon and moved back 3-4 places. They are one team that doesn’t really need future picks though. And there’s a fair case to say Hawthorns deal of 23 and a future 2nd would’ve worked out nicely for us. The other side of that is that we clearly were keen on JVR. In terms of the players I think the age factor of Wilmot is fascinating. He could take a huge leap forward as he catches up to his cohort. Or he could be an early bloomer already up to his age group. I’m not sure how recruiters adjust for that in any scientific way. But I can see how clubs were thinking this guy could’ve been a top 5-10 pick next year if he was born a week later. Conway doesn’t really surprise me. A young ruck is a need and JT hasn’t had any luck with late ruck picks. He’s got the size and physicality we seem to like.

Jacko and Gawn didn’t change too many games purely in the ruck, so I still think teams can get by with serviceable ruck options against most sides. But the ruck as a forward is something that even recently has been a liability. With the right forward mix and ball movement that liability can be flipped to become really useful. Defenders are just too good for almost all key forwards. But if you move it quickly and give a ruck a run and jump at it they’re more chance of breaking even against defenders than most key forwards. The extra height, reach and physicality makes a ruck in the forward line a weapon. Especially when you can mix and match between Jackson’s athleticism and Gawn’s reach

Will be interesting to see how they change things up next year. I hope we go back to using Pickett in the centre bounces to give him something to aim for. ANB as well, I think it really signaled a level in trust in his game that helped his confidence. Sparrow should be pushing for more. And I'd have no issue sprinkling in a bit of Spargo, or if he gets in the side Chandler who I think is more of a midfield type than a close to goal forward. I think both Harmes and JJ should have their eyes on nailing the 3rd winger spot and pushing for Gus' 2nd wing spot and moving Gus in to more of a wing/forward rotation. Hoping Laurie can push his case and the run of drafting half back flankers in the draft makes me think they're at least keeping an open mind with Rivers or Bowey in to the midfield mix somewhere.

Can we end with the ‘he won the norm Smith’/‘played well’/‘is a premiership player’ reply every time someone points out something about a premiership player. No one is wanting to change a single second of the grand final but there’s still room for improvement with even our best players and the team as a whole. The stats and the eye test both say Petracca’s kicking could get even better. Same with Oliver. Tracc especially could get a half decent left foot too. They’ve only had one season with Choco. Our draft picks get to come in working with Choco from the get go. Howes’ action looks a bit hit and miss. Choco should sort that out pretty quickly.

The Cats got a gigantic leg up from the father son and plenty of people talk about Dank and the weapons time there, but I won’t say more on that. The Hawks milked the most out of the priority picks and also traded a guy in Jono Hay that they knew wouldn’t deliver a fair deal in that trade. People will come for us for getting Brayshaw for Frawley. Even though Brayshaw hasn’t been better than what Frawley was worth which was a pick around 8-12 (not 3). Cola was a rort but otherwise did the Lions get all that much? I’m too young to remember too many details of the late 90’s but I can’t remember it being anything like GWS and Gold Coast in terms of list concessions.

280 games, 3 flags and an All Aus, no pressure kid

Both options are reasonable but I would've thought the older guys like Riv and Jacko would come back for training, even if it's only 3 weeks, then get a later break for a delayed xmas when the quarantine becomes 5 days for the Ashes or 0 days once WA opens. Assuming that's still the plan. They could stay until after Xmas but they've been in WA from the prelim until now. They can probably survive a zoom Christmas. The draftees start so slow and aren't in any hurry to play so I'd expect the 3 WA guys may as well stay until after Christmas.