DeeSpencer

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.

Looks like he has long arms for his height, might be useful for spoiling. Interesting that he was a quality midfielder in under 16's then kind of relegated to a half back flank role in his draft year. Seems to have gears like good players do. Cruises when evaluating his options then can pull the trigger if needed. Did he finish school in 2020 like most WA guys do a year earlier than here? I just wonder if he's a bit cruisy. Bit of a Travis Johnstone vibe almost. I wonder if the professional and competitive environment of the MFC will fire him up a bit.

I'm not completely writing off Rosman but he was undeniably a risk-reward gamble and I'm comfortable to say he remains as that level of a gamble. I'm completely fine with the strategy of using a pick every now and then on a potential freak, but I still think it's long odds to pay off. Hunt did nothing for 2 years and whilst it's been bumpy since has paid off. I think Rosman's around that mark. JJ was underwhelming in year 1 too, so, sure I get your point. He was a December birthday with a lot of work to do physically. Rosman walked in as the best runner on the list and with some strenght. The premiership has made a lot of people on here act like the club can't do any wrong and are completely infallible. Any hint of criticism gets jumped on at a rate of knots. I think I've been more loyal to Goodwin than the vast majority on here. I think Jason Taylor is a freak, but I don't think pointing out that whilst he's clearly in the best tier in the business he's still human. That doesn't mean I wouldn't worship the ground he walks on. And my original point for where this Rosman discussion stemmed was that Jason Taylor has been like Bradman at recruiting but the wing has been a bit of a bodyline for him. Howes is a serious talent and a fairly decent pick in a deep enough draft and with JT's record I expect him to pay off where other moves at finding wingers have yet to pan out. If JT can keep his perfect 2nd round draft record going and fill a need with a versatile winger than he'll only go higher up as a phenomenal recruiter and the team will only be stronger.

Did you watch much Casey? Apart from one game against a hapless North side Rosman looked totally lost. The traits are great but he makes Baker look good in the contest. Of course Langdon was worth paying for, but we don’t have the 600k+ and an early 2nd round pick to offer up for a guy like that now. We’d have to trade our first and clear cap space. When you’ve drafted Oliver, Petracca, Salem, Jackson etc you can make a move like that, if you’re constantly at the top of the ladder you can’t. Just look at the Cerra situation. We didn’t have the draft capital to grab him even when he was available cheaply. JT’s entire strategy with this draft was to get cheap needs based picks so we can keep the list together. If we have to make aggressive moves to fill needs we might have to push out players and that’s how you get in trouble.

I really hope he keeps the dual sided kicking. Speed and an accurate short kick on both sides seem to be his main assets. Even though the game is very homogenous these days every player needs a weapon. Development coaches can round out a player but you have to have something to hurt the opposition.

Roos took over a 2 win team and went 4 wins, 7 wins, 10 wins. Only someone like Carlton would sack a coach for that record.

Gus has barely hit a target on his left in years. I liked it early in his career but these days it’s a myth. If he cut out the inexplicable out on the fulls his right foot would probably be serviceable.

Stretch no good, Baker and Rosman not looking promising - I know that’s an early call on Rosman but he was miles off in the VFL. The 35 different options we used in 2019 like Wagner and Dunkley not working out. JT’s been much better getting mids and flankers through the draft than wingers It took paying top dollar for Langdon and shifting Gus to really fix it but to stay at the top we need cheaper home grown options pushing up.

Stranger things have happened but I don’t think anyone is predicting the Crows to play finals so it’s a matter of moving 41 to probably 40-46. 41 in one of the most compromised drafts of all time to a similar pick in hopefully a normal draft year with bonus extra players who snuck through. The thing I don’t like is the lack of list flexibility that we go in to the draft with. We could’ve left one or more of Baker, M Brown, Majak, Rosman, Bedford etc open to re rookie them and had that extra list spot. But the footy department have consistently valued locking in our own guys, evaluating the depth of the draft early and it’s hard to argue with the results.