Yokozuna

I would like to have Gunston, but would prefer a bigger tall, just one sure who there is! But........ for those who want to get rid of Bailey, I just don’t understand. He is a very, very good player. Yes, he has missed his fair amount of goals, but who hasn’t this year (for all clubs). He is laconic and can improve his defensive work, i totally get that, but so many are underselling what he CAN do. He is a super mark, has a great footy IQ and his kicking skills are great (not saying goal kicking). He is at that stage in his career when he will hit his peak now, so why get rid of him for someone in the draft? people saying Gunston is a gun, and look at his game yesterday then say fritsch was just ok in our game. They both did the same thing. And going to Gunstons early football, I wonder how good Bailey would go with a young Franklin and Roughead next to him!

and anyone comparing him to ryan, can at least say he shows traits that ryan has, but those who totally downplay that and say ryan is a star (which he is) and kozzie is nothing like him must also Realise ryan played 2 full year of WAFL football before being drafted. Kozzie has played 10 or so games. Give him time. I think he will be a star.

Not want to watch it as we may be travelling to WCE!

It’s almost as if these so called melbourne supporters want our players to be [censored] so that they can be right and feel better about saying how bad they are. he is in his first year and has a long way to go, but if you can’t see his upside, you are a very poor judge of a footballer. and comparing him to a mid is just stupid. Of course a mid will get more touches. We might as well compare him to a defender and say he doesn’t spoil as much as them!

Watch the last quarter again and watch viney. no dropping the head there, ran his [censored] off and had a real crack! (First 3 quarters werent great, I agree)

Not having a go at you, just an honest question, what did you thing of fritsch tonight? Did you see the job he did on Haynes? I know he looks laconic at times, but we need some people who can kick the ball. Of course he can improve, but i wouldn’t be dropping him. plenty ahead of him to go,out, hunt being one, as he touched it about 4 times.

I watched that and just laughed. The commentators talking up Maynard (who i really like by the way - always have him in my multis!!!) as a bulldog, and loving this and it being part of his make up etc. etc. When AVDB lighly pushed someone the commentators crucified him and said it was ugly, a blight on the game etc. At half time they tore shreds off AVDB and were so over the top! Which was a worse look? Which was more aggressive and unwarranted? Not a word from them at all - i was really annoyed about that. Then to hear the umpires with their condescending tone telling robinson to get up and that he was the instigator, so he didn't deserve the free kick. By verbally getting into someone you deserve to be run through your back 20 seconds later? That is a free kick every day of the week and he deserved to be bagged by the commentators, not lauded as a tough guy for wrestling with all the lions players. We shouldn't be surprised, the AFL has no consistency and they will say it was the right call. The only thing that surprised me was that it didn't happen to us!

First time on here in a long time, and good to see things haven’t changed. judging some of the comments, we have already lost the next 4 games, sacked Goodwin and are a rubbish club, While that may all be true, we haven’t even okayed the game yet! Replying to people questioning our small forward structure, I can tell you that we will have 2 tall forwards, I think tmac and wied, along with a stack of smalls this week. Someone said carltons defense is poor, that is half true. Their tall backs are very good, their small backs are very good at going forward, but crap at defending small forwards. If you look at their games recently (last season, praccy games and round 1) the oppositions smalls all kick goals, so we are planning on kozzie and others to kick 3 each. we also need to make sure our talls are separated as Jones and plowman are very good help defenders. bennell definitely in the mix, but they may play Jones as a HFF. rivers and Smith very much in line to play this week too.

Was at my first session in a while, and did my best to watch while having my young daughter with me. I won’t add too much more, as most has been said. Firstly, I do love how so many jump at shadows or are so pessimistic about injuries (or apparent injuries) to players. Take a deep breath, it is January, and we are way ahead of where we were last year. I had a chat to a few people I know at the club and they are all upbeat and extremely positive with how things are going, and from what I gathered, it wasn’t just your usual talk you read in the media to drum up publicity, they were genuinely excited by the new fitness people, by the players mentality and efforts and by the different training they are doing now. on a personal note (so I am unsure if this matters too much to some ), I was impressed by: Jackson - he moves well and flies for his marks, second efforts are great. Kicking skills on both feet pretty good too. Kossie - silky, quick, just what we need. Just needs some fitness as he won’t play much u til he can use his speed and pressure for more than 10 minutes. Trac - moves so well, clean and vocal. Trained with the mids all the time. Will have a huge year! And we need him too and we need to make him happy and re sign him! T Mac - looked super fit and moved well. Back to 2018 movement, I hope! O Mac - his kicking skills are great and he used his body well today. Just needs to work one quicker decisions! Brown - he will play a lot of games this season, and I would be happy to have him in the team, whichever end he is at. Good body size, moves well, takes a strong mark. Astute pick up imo. Melksham - his kicking is elite, his left foot is better than most others preferred foot. And he uses his body so well. And he is vocal and guiding people. We need him if we are to be any good this season. Tomlinson- didn’t realise how big he is, muscular more than height. He was getting annoyed with Burgess as he was itching to join in the real training. Think he will be in there ASAP. I could go on, but I was relatively impressed overall, as much as you can be for an early Jan session. Of course we need to wait a long while to see anything put into action. Overall it was just great to see the majority of the players all training, the entire session, at full pace and training g at a pretty high standard and looking like they were enjoying it.

Entitled to your opinion about Pickett, and who knows, he may end up being great, but I won’t call anyone an A+ and a gun after 1 game.

I do find it interesting how people wonder or muse as to how many players from one side would fit into other top sides and be effective, and how highly people rate individuals playing in the top team over those in a lower side. I think the example of Marlion Pickett in this years Grand a Final gives you the example of how any reasonable AFL player could become part of a TEAM and make an impact. So, I would suggest you could pick 10 players from this years GC side who would fit into richmonds premiership team. I wouldn’t suggest they could all pay at once, but many would those fitting into the team and paying their role. I would say that Oliver, Gawn, May, T Mac, Melksham, Jetta, Harmes and Petracca could all play in top sides, together. You look at the Richmond side and they have some everyday, regular players who just play their roles, but as they play in a strong side who plays consistently, they may look better than our players. Difference between harmes and lambert for example??

Having just read that, maybe my money isn’t safe!

Told by a source who I trust. Was told about Jackson before it came out in the press. The club, from what I can understand, are leaning to Jackson, but are not 100%. They are also undecided on who they would prefer from that next bunch of players, and seems as though they are happy to gain any number of them, thus the pick swaps, but they seem to think that stephens will be the one available then for whatever reason. They do want a small forward and rate both weightman and Pickett highly, but I can’t see them taking Pickett at 10, possibly Weightman.

I will put what little money I have, and although I know the recruiters are excited by the prospect of Pickett, there is no chance we are taking him at 10. I have been told Jackson’s 3, they believe Stephens at 10 (or someone who slides) and possibly Pickett at 28.

No, they wouldn’t play him as an onballer, I am just saying he has the knowledge and athletic ability to be a good running player, not simply a tall marking player.

No, de koning actually played as an onballer in juniors. Ha splayed everywhere throughout his junior time, but was played key back due to height as he shot up to over 200cm

Not yet, I will see what I can find out. I do like the idea of it though! I just know they believe Jackson could be an absolute star, And while they rate Young highly, they see Jackson has a bigger ceiling. They also love Pickett and weightman and would love to get them both if possible, so I guess that could see the Geelong trade happen. If it doesn’t, we get someone at 10 who could be any of stephens, serong, ash possibly.

I tend to agree, but I am just passing on what I have heard around the traps. but there are other needs for those clubs, so there is a belief that stephens may fall to us.

They see Jackson as a forward to start with, and actually as another onballer! At this tags they don’t see him as a ruck at all really, especially with Gawn there, he would just go in for a few minutes here and there.

This swap has been in the pipeline for a while. We will pick Jackson, then whoever slides to 10 (I don’t think it is weightman who they want), have heard it may be Stephens, and they are wanting Pickett, they really, really like him. I would suggest we may need to do something to get pick 28 a bit lower to get Pickett though. Also heard De Koning has been spoken about. Super tall but plays tall back at the moment but has played as an onballer in juniors!

Ha ha ha. Sorry, been out and haven’t been glued to the trade radio like some ? The players were from St. kilda, with Tim Membrey being their main one and Bruce second (once he flagged interest to move). Once Bruce nominated the Bulldogs it made it harder of course, and once King re signed it made it even harder. Some of you may not rate Membrey that high, and may not have been so excited by the prospect of him, but I rate him and would love someone who leads up to the ball and actually kicks straight for goal and has a pretty good record in the past few seasons. Attack me at will if you thought I oversold him as a strong prospect we were after ?

Not sure if this is in regards to my posts, but I can categorically deny that Daniher is the person I was talking about. I do not want Daniher and wouldn’t be excited to have him, unless we knew he was fit and able to play full seasons, and I doubt that at this age.

Glad I can keep you interested. I will later tonight, if that’s ok with you guys. Let’s wait and see.

No idea if it is going ahead or not, but I am surprised nothing has been said in the media (which is one of a few things, the suggested target and/or club shut it down so quickly it was not talked about enough to spark media interest OR we run a tight ship and nobody is speaking OR it was never on the cards) and I would unfortunately have to say the target I was told about is highly unlikely now, given the time left in the trade period. I am of course hoping it is the point that nobody is speaking and we run a tight ship! Doubtful though. Some of the other trade and contract signing news has also most likely hurt our chance of getting said player now! But, let’s not give up hope of something happening before the deadline, whether it be this player or someone else.

I would only be guessing, but I would dare say they would want some draft picks to help them out, so we could do that, but only my opinion. I hope we are still trying, haven’t heard or asked anything further (sorry, but haven’t had the chance), but we do need someone to help up forward. Hoping and expecting our forward line to get back to 2018 form, fingers crossed, if we can get a few on the park and work on our delivery. I don’t care who we had forward this year, nobody would score with our movement and delivery from this season. I still think TMac will/can kick 50 goals next season, as a clean bill of health and some confidence will get him back to the form he had, and as a starting point up forward, that isn’t bad. A fit melksham can kick over 30, as can Trac (if he works on his kicking) and Fritsch. I hope I am not being too biased and wishful, but we can’t go from being such a high scoring side in 2018, with the same forward line minus hogan, to being so woeful without the possibility of working on it and getting the form back.