DeeSpencer

Of course I do but I think that's more individual circumstances, age and motivation more than the actual structured fitness program. Fitness and results go together especially when it's core pieces like Oliver, Tracc and Salem who have dropped away. A big part of the Burgo effect was his ability to tap in to motivation and get guys to certain levels. But like 16 other clubs aside from Adelaide we need to find a way for non Burgo fitness guy to connect with the next crop of players.

No tipping for me this year thanks Macca but all the best for the season guys. My predictions: AFC North - Bengals East - Bills South - Texans West - Broncos WC - Ravens, Chiefs, Chargers NFC North - Packers East - Eagles South - Bucs West - Rams WC - Commanders, Vikings, Cardinals Broncos over Packers SB.

Pick 23 will be 30+ by the time it is used, it's unders. But I hope we don't offer any more if we can get Windhager to nominate us.

He might be a one paced ball butcher but we don’t have many of them under 25. We can’t build around Viney, Oliver and Tracc any more, replacing one of them with Windhager would give us midfield continuity so our young kids can step in when needed.

McRae was an assistant 2007-2021. Kelly, King, Lade, Skipworth all clear the 8 year mark. I agree about not making it public but seems like a reasonable metric. Clarkson was 7 years. Hardwick 5 years. Chris Scott just 3 years. But I think you can argue Hardwick was a fraction too green to begin with. I also think Scott brought a good tactical change to win the 2011 flag but then Geelong weren’t actually all that good for the next half a dozen or so years.

Watching tonight it’s hard to argue against someone from Geelong over Buckley’s fairly unimpressive coaching tenure. The game is constantly changing and Geelong seem right at the forefront of it

Does he ever!

To me Clarry is purely saying the results went downhill, not that anyone new did anything wrong. ‘It’s’ means results not fitness. Burgo being great doesn’t mean Selwyn isn’t the next best.

How many did we win when we were 2 goals down to say 5 goals up (or 8 in the case of the saints game)? Winning them when you’re 6+ goals down but never threatening or 6 goals up and the other team has packed it in doesn’t mean much. In close games we seemed to consistently run out of puff.

Bartel, Kelly, see if Bomber can offer something in the background, get TommaHawk in for a day a week to teach JVR how to push in the back and belt people. Geelong 2007 here we come

Yeah he was meant to be a Grundy style around the ground type and he doesn’t get much of the footy and uses it very poorly. I suspect Heath takes his list spot. No need to carry 4 mature(ish) rucks

I don’t really care about a touch of nepotism or the expense blow outs if they were expected. I do care that we’ve got more snakes (not the Casey fields types) lying in wait, preparing ammunition on a CEO who is yet to even start his job.

This year was a write off for Essendon but if they have a very low win total next year I don't suspect he'll have bought any goodwill for continuing in the job. Not many coaches get 4 years of no progress. There's certainly a good argument to go as hard as possible for the job that's open now, but it's not like Bucks needs the job for the money or to say he's been a senior coach. The chance of a flag is really what he needs and I think he has to go somewhere that at least provides a chance for that with a timeframe that suits his plan.

Essendon's 20+ years in the wilderness seem to suggest no but if they actually bottom right out yet again with another poor season next year and have let guys leave and had a super strong draft they might actually set a new coach up with a talented young list to actually build the right way for once. Carlton are in a similar position to us but they've hired a serious operator as CEO, who's then gone and got one of the best Head of Footballs around in Chris Davies from Port. Linked to some quality assistant coaches too. I get the feeling they're thinking long and hard about making the tough call on Curnow and retooling their list. Voss might be a victim of that retooling but I wouldn't at all be surprised if they're looking pretty decent under a new coach in 2027.

Skipping our job for a complete ground zero build that may or may not start in 2028 in Tassie is crazy. But Carlton, Essendon and perhaps the Bulldogs could all come open next year. It wouldn’t shock me if Bucks is eyeing off a better job

He was one of the better half forward flankers in the comp last year. Kicks well on both sides. The talent is absolutely in there. Odds are he fails the background checks. But if by some chance there’s reason to believe he’d change with a fresh start the talent would be worth it if he got himself right

We'd potentially have to shift others out but as long as the contract allows us to sack him on the spot for any new issues I'd actually be all for it. It reminds me of when we took on Harley Bennell, and honestly I'm completely fine with that even if it ended up going nowhere. I'd rather act like a strong club and fail than sit back and saying there's too much risk. (Of course this is all based on the due diligence showing there's a path to it working out. If Carlton are being so open about it there's probably every chance he completely fails the background checks, in which case don't bother).

Waterman was a useful big half forward flank with good defensive attributes for a taller/stiffer type until he suffered some bad injuries/illnesses then somehow came back as a powerhouse full forward. Noah hasn't really shown the ability to do much up the ground and mostly I've thought what's the use of an undersized leading full forward in modern footy, it's pretty much been a dead position since the early 00's. But right now Gunston is dominating, Jamie Elliot just had a career best year, Jezza has been moved back to full forward and for us Melksham is our best path to goal. 7 goals in a final doesn't hurt but overall I think footy has shifted in a way that makes Noah's skillset look more appealing and if he doesn't make it as a forward I reckon you'd have a good look at him down back.

If anyone is crazy enough to want Oliver they aren’t going to admit to it now. Nor are the demons going to put it in the public for the 3rd year in a row. Team Tracc overpaid their hand last year. They’re going to be more considered this year. The new coach is a great excuse for club and player to slow play any media rumblings.

Agent favours

Sure but if you want better forward entries you need to play with width and use the flankers in space. Geelong, Hawthorn, Brisbane, the teams that move the ball the best get their flankers the ball

If going short from kick outs - a fairly incomplete stat as a lot of the short kicks get held up and followed by a long down the line kick anyway - was actually changing results in any way the coaches would change it back an in instant. There's a couple of reasons why we wouldn't be as good at it anyway. We lost the tall forwards to be the next long kick down the line. So often Gawn marks it now and it's almost pointless because he has to bomb it further up the line to a bad key forward. Oliver's decline and Tracc's absence (and absence from the midfield) took away a lot benefit of playing bomb down the line ball. But overall there's about 100 more reasons why we've changed with the competition also changing. It's good news we've at least being proactive with this part of our game.

Culley and Langford played almost exclusively on the wing. Langford played a couple of games late often deep forward, the only game he played purely half forward was round 1 and he had 5 touches, subbed off and dropped to come back as a mid/wing. Chandler averaged 14.6 touches, but his outlier games were on the wing including North in round 2. Sparrow, Sharp, Henderson, Kolt the rest of the guys we tried were just like Spargo. 12 or touches is all you’re going to get. If there’s one guy who did find some footy on the flank it was Fritsch.

This is in no way informed but I don’t want Bucks, the rucks in Lade and King and Skipworth seem like assistants, do they have personalities to handle the pressure of the top job? Cal hasn’t named Gia or Monty as DZ has. So not sure if they’re part of the final 6. What happened from Hale? I think we need someone from Hawthorn involved. Which then leaves Kelly. Honestly he might be my choice on the basis of that I’m sure he’ll either succeed or be a total disaster which is better than just mediocre.

I like McQualter, he knows exactly what he’s doing which is playing on, pace on the footy run and gun and pressure at all costs It was a disaster for most of the time we tried it given our personnel and has been an absolute disaster at West Coast as they’ve got less of a running midfield than we even do. Hence why he sidelined Tim Kelly and played as many pressure forwards and runners as he could. No idea if it will ever work but at least he has a vision and is committed to it.