bing181

Just shows the importance of an uninterrupted pre and early season for younger players. Watch him in 2026 (unless he's played out of position ...).

Yes. But not just from game to game, within games. It's no good having a cameo quarter and then disappearing for the rest of the game. Not saying he does this, but with younger players it's often where the challenge lies.

I'd be surprised if CJ can match McVee of 2024 as a lockdown/stopper defender, also very different players. It's not for nothing that Hawthorn let him go. And AMW is still unproven, he's miles off what Bowey brings - Bowey was/is emerging as an elite half-back. Not to say that both those players can't play a role and in the longer term nail down a position, but we shouldn't underestimate the quality of McVee (at his best) and in particular, Bowey.

Suns the dark horse. Mids to die for, younger players a year older (Humphries!), the addition of one of the best players in the AFL (Trac) and if JUH gets back to anything like what he's capable of they're going to be a force to be reckoned with.

A bit of a worry this, it goes back 4 months now. At the very least, you would have thought that there'd be a clear timeline by now. He's missing a lot of training and match sim.

Don't disagree. But there's a lot of "ifs" in there.

Age. Once you have 10 or more pre-seasons under your belt missing sessions or slabs of pre-season becomes less critical. On the other hand, with players in their first few seasons you sometimes feel that one or two weeks out in January and their season is shot.

Still a bit to go before he's over his injury. Shows how serious it was.

Got any stats for that?

Mihocek. This from September: "Craig McRae says the Mihocek injury involved a torn tendon in that dislocated toe" Is it a concern that it's still an issue 4 months later? Injuries to feet seem to really drag on, or worse.

No.

Except that it usually doesn't. Those are outliers. Go through all the sides with poor win-loss ratios over the last 10 years (you went back to 2015), and see how things turned out. But even in what you've cited you're cherry picking. e.g., Hawthorn. You omitted the 5 long seasons before 2024 when they lost more games than they won. It actually took them 6 seasons to make finals again after 2018, hardly a case of "it can turn quickly". Always great to be optimistic, but let's be realistic here.

Easy to see us going 0 - 6 or 1 - 6 on that (Essendon?). I feel we have a decent enough backline (though losing McVee + Bowie won't help), a decent enough forward line now with Pickett x 2 plus Mihocek. But around the ball some of those teams could cut us to ribbons.

I just think this is a complete Furphy. The club (led by Richardson and Green?) had had enough, and with a new coach wanted to put a broom through the place, with Oliver first to be shown the door. The "play in different positions" is maybe how it was presented, at least publicly, but it was always just a way of everyone saving face. Not to mention, going through the motions of maintaining some semblance of trade value for him. (A waste of time as it turned out, no-one wanted to touch him.)

All I'm saying is the way it is. I'm really not sure why it's so difficult to understand or accept. As Brad Scott said "I'm one vote among 4." There are a LOT of decisions that occur within and across a football club where the head coach has little or no say.

You're presuming he was "driven away". People change careers/jobs/life paths for any number of reasons. Amongst those and in the case of Trac, there have been suggestions here that he wanted to get out of Melbourne (the city) for family reasons.

Staggered or not, it's the way it works. Also, not sure how you got to " if the list manager has the final say on who stays and who goes" from what I posted, which was that these are group decisions - there's a List Management Committee for a reason. And I know that at Mooroopna thirds the coach has final say on everything, but it has been well-documented that across the AFL, head coaches are NOT the last word on list management decisions. There's an interview out there with Brad Scott on the subject if you're actually interested in informing yourself.

Trac was never going to be our next captain. Or our captain after that. Not without a major shift in attitude. Before anything else, a captain has to be a team player.

As always, (sigh ...) major List Management decisions are not made by any one individual, much less the head coach. But even there, once the dust settles and it all comes out, I think you'll find that King had little to do with it and that Clayton's papers were stamped quite some time ago.

Perhaps because there's a perception that there has been a disconnect between the admin side (CEO/Admin + Board) and the FD?

Revisiting this, might shed some light: "Competition sources have confirmed the Demons, who are on the lookout for a new senior coach after the sudden sacking of Simon Goodwin, are also making inroads into creating a new senior role – to be in charge of strategy. The West Coast Eagles did a similar thing at the end of last season, hiring their premiership coach John Worsfold to oversee the football department in a role that the club said would include coaching structure, development, performance and culture. If the club were to make the appointment in the off-season, it would mean that current football boss Alan Richardson, who is contracted for 2026 is part of the club’s subcommittee to choose the next coach, would answer to the new appointment. The role would essentially sit between the football department and Guerra."

The latter. Reading between the lines, to make sure the Board, Admin and FD are all singing from the same hymn sheet.

This x 1000.

Once again, for me it's not so much about the team, it's about onfield direction and leadership. Players like Hodge and Pendlebury can control and shape play off their own boot. In contrast, Max, Viney, Lever ... ?? Great lead-from-the-front generals, but not a lot of smarts, especially with ball in hand.

Reluctant as I am to agree with you, I agree with you. But it's not so much a criticism of the team as a criticism of the on-field leaders. It's no accident that in those final tragic minutes against Carlton, arguably the two key players were Lever and Viney. McVee also with his failure to intercept or kill the ball when it reached Docherty, but as a first-year player we can cut him some slack. The ball should never have been out there in the first place, Viney should have had the know-how to make sure we maintained possession, or at least force an OOB/contest.