bing181

Good for him, perhaps shows that moving him on was the best for all concerned. (He says through gritted teeth.)

Source? On the other hand .... "The only thing I can go by is the conversations with Christian and (partner) Bella, and the fact that we've spent a lot of time with Christian and Bella and they're incredibly thankful with the support the club's given. From players, coaches, management and our welfare team who's not only been dealing with Christian but also his family." Goodwin also slammed suggestions the club's doctors had acted against Petracca's best interests by clearing him to return to the field. "I trust our medical team like never before - they're unbelievable at what they do and they're independent to the game," Goodwin said. "They did all the assessments possible and we're really comfortable where that stood." https://au.sports.yahoo.com/simon-goodwin-admission-about-christian-petracca-and-partner-amid-ugly-family-furore-212401368.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Ah, but they do have Charlie Spargo. (Who's still unavailable/injured I believe.)

Article does confirm that he wasn't in a particularly good head space for a while there, presumably since The Injury. Understandable, and great that he's in a better place. Shame he had to leave for an interstate club to get there. That said — as has been hinted at here previously — it does seem to confirm the move wasn’t just about footy or the $$$.

Very hard to take too much from this, given the makeup of the teams (VFL/top up players) and the shorter game time, but apart from the usual suspects was impressed by Kentfield. Just looks like he knows how to go about it. A real shame he spent last season playing catch-up after missing the pre-season, but worth persevering with I would have thought. To a lesser extent, Thostrup. Not a lot of exposure here, but for the first time it looked like he was playing a role that aligned with the kind of player he is. Whether going forward that makes him a defender remains to be seen, but promising. Will be interesting to see where he lines up in the upcoming practice matches.

We should have a better idea of all of this after the practice match against North.

Seeing the 3 present MFC'ers plus 3 ex (Jackson, Hogan, Bedford) ... that would have been a team!

Somewhat unfortunate as it's a trio that badly needed a full pre-season without injury interruptions. Not sure re CJ, but when did Salem and Petty last do a full pre-season?

`Clarrie had his papers well and truly marked before King arrived. The moment Goodwin was given the shove it was only a matter of time before Oliver and Trac followed, one way or another. May should have been part of that trio as well, but no-one wanted to touch him, just as no-one wanted to touch Oliver. Clean broom and all that.

You're a brave man. I know a lot here are getting on board the rebuild/transition bandwagon. But I know what the Gameday threads are like, and it's not a pretty sight.

Every club is looking at doing what we are, hardly going to surprise anyone. Here's Dean Cox recently: "We want to play with a bit more speed on the ball and I think we've trained really hard this off-season with really high intensity running."

Reductive post. First of all, I didn't say no-one understood a word of it. You're deliberately misquoting me. There are 60 million Spanish speakers in the US, not to mention the millions of Spanish speakers around the world who would have watched. As for the "message", communication is much, much more than just words. Everybody knows full well what he was saying and what this was about, which is why there's a backlash from the usual suspects.

Wonder if you'll still be saying that when we're 0 - 6.

Seriously? From what I've seen it's running around 20:1 for. With good reason. Incredible show, a fantastic celebration of the the best of latino culture and a powerful message (even though I didn't understand a word of it!). Hard to see how any of it translates to the AFL, though I hope a few at head office were paying attention.

Plus Brayshaw and ANB.

Facts.

We're already behind the 8 ball on the "keep the good" part. Out of our top 10 in the Bluey last year we've lost Petracca (second ...) and Oliver (7th), plus likely to be without Bowey (4th) and Viney for a good part of the year. Add to that McVee who was 7th in 2024 (his 2025 was seriously compromised by injury.) There's no way we're covering those holes, not in the short term anyway.

Your memory is probably better than mine, but that's not how I remember it. Which was that it was only when he was moved down back at Casey that he started to put it together. Even from when he was drafted he was seen as a defender. Jason Taylor at the time: "He has played behind the ball as a half-back and you speak to his coaches and the people who have been involved with him and they think that is potentially his best position. Having watched him live on the wing on occasions this year, I felt his last two games there he really started to get going. I'd like to think we'd put him on the wing and in the midfield and see him develop there initially."

He was played on a wing at Casey for nearly 2 seasons and was going nowhere until they moved him back.

There are too many other variables and you don't know what training Kolt and McVee were doing away from the group/inside/in the gym etc. About the only conclusion you might be able to reach on the limited data we have is that older players with more pre-seasons under their belt are less impacted by missing pre-seasons than younger players, who need pre-season to build long-term fitness.

Hmm. Certainly looks like hindsight? Viney's injuries haven't stopped him playing most games each season. And his current injury is an achilles, which I believe is a first for him. As for the rest, I'm not averse to the club giving decent long-term contracts to experienced players who bring leadership onfield and off, and you can understand the club's thinking after the loss of Brayshaw - plus the upcoming loss of ANB, which the club must have known by then as well. On top of that, there were fairly widespread reports of strong interest from North Melbourne. Some of us here are still haunted by the departure of James McDonald and the damage that that did, so I'm more than happy that we err on the other side of it all. It's all very well bringing in a heap of young, talented players, but you desperately need players like Viney around the place to take them under their wing.

And this from FoxSports (rather than start a new thread with all these different Season Previews). Hard to argue with: The Demons were a properly bad team at the start of the season, but after their 0-5 start when Simon Goodwin and his coaching staff made some tweaks, they were simply average. They lost just three games by more than 20 points, and had some very solid wins including knocking off Brisbane in Brisbane. Now, how much does the fact that they were an OK team by the end of the season matter when you’re projecting forward? Well, that’s the impossible question to answer… but it feels unlikely losing Petracca and Oliver is going to make them immediately better. Just remember when you’re doing your predicted ladder that they weren’t what their record says they were; they’re not a seven-win team that’s getting worse, they’re a nine or 10-win team that’s likely taking another step backwards in their first year under a new coach. We don’t think we’ll actually tip the Demons to rise above 14th this year, but the case can absolutely be made based on these numbers. Even if they play worse, just getting luckier in 2026 could see them pinch an extra win or two and ‘improve’.

I think for me in all this is how they finished the 2023 season. Which for me is also what to watch for with us this year. If across the last 6 - 8 games we see signs of it coming together, again, that would be a good/excellent outcome. And is what we were really missing last year. (Though what we did have in 2020.)

Valid point of course. But in 2023 the issue for Hawthorn wasn't so much what they were capable of, but consistency. Alongside some bad losses, they beat both grand finalists (Lions and Pies), as well as a couple of teams in/around the top 8. They also managed to find a bit more consistency across the last 8 games where they were in most games and had some decent wins. That's not a pattern we've seen with us over the last couple of years, which is one of the reasons for the change of coach and personnel I imagine. Not so much that we were mediocre, but there were no real signs that things were turning. For me, if we can match Hawthorn's 2023 it would be a decent season and auger well for 2027.

Admire the optimism of some here, but every supporter of every club would be saying the same kinds of things - some with good reason. Would love to be proved wrong, but the real world tends to behave in more or less predictable ways and it's hard to see us doing much better than we have over the last couple of seasons.