binman

Whistle blower. Cranky, you write some funny [censored], but that takes that the case. Whistle blower. You are an alchemist. Merde into pure comedy gold. That's some skill.

Why would he disguise himself as something a snake might climb? Some sort of sexual, only fans side hustle? Personally I'd disguise myself as a predator that eats snake. So perhaps rock up in a Hawks or Eagles jumper.

Which is why many of our players get caught with the ball - they don't have a strong side.

And you've done it twice within seconds! Banner day in fashion.

Agree. I loved the little nugget too.

Dpositive, did you ask a question at the AGM?

Do you under appreciate Laurie Cranky?

The problem I have with these posts Ethan is not that they aren't funny - they are very funny - but that they don't work as satire. Sadly, they are way too well written to work as satire of AFL journalism circa 2025.

People - or person?

Agree on fritter being at his best leading out from the goal square an on the fast break when he can get one out and/or lead into space. Jeffo is interesting because I reckon he's similar. Can you have two such players in the same team? Perhaps. But only with fast ball movement. Jeffo and Fritter leading from the square with Turner and JVR waxing at CHF. From what I saw at training it would be folly to underestimate melk. Looks is ripping nick, and his field kicking in matcch sim drill was sublime - 50 metre darts that opened up the play or hit leading forwards lace out.

He is indeed - pound for pound one of the best one on one marks in the AFL. And a brilliant kick. He's a gun, one of my favourite players. And to be clear, I expect him to be in our best 22 In 2025. He should be, he is one of our very best players. But as I've noted intensity is a non negotiable. As is defensive pressure, one percenters and defensive gut running. It's been a long time since a player can be poor in those non negotiable areas and not be at risk of being dropped, regardless of the number of goals he's kicking (well I guess if we was kicking 100 a season he might be safe - but fritters not in that camp). Leaving aside selection, players who meet those non negotiable kpis play their best footy. It's no coincidence Fritter's two highest goal scoring seasons (2021 and 2022), and the two best seasons of his career, correspond to his two highest number of tackles in a season. Fritter has plenty of credit in the bank, but lost a little bit of that credit last season. But as Redleg noted he had several barriers to playing his best footy last season - one of which was, like many teammates, he was never fit enough (another player who had an interrupted preseasons). He looks very focused at training, and is working very hard so I'm confident he'll be come our firing and be the best 22 lock he deserves to be.

IMO his intensity dropped to a level that is not sustainable, as evidenced by his tackle numbers:

Well let's not over egg the pudding on the goal kicking front. Sure he topped our goal kicking list, but he only kicked 41 goals. Who would take his spot if dropped? Well for a start Langford, who is 3cms taller than Fritter, will likely be a forward mid. So Fritta has got one more medium forward to compete with next season - two if you count AJ. Melk is a medium option as is McAdam if he comes good. Again, Fritter is a gun. Love him. But if his intensity is not AFL standard he'll find himself out of the team.

I think you are confusing most goals and best. Don't get me wrong, Fritter is a gun. But even at his best I have koz and JVR ahead of Friitter in terms of ability. And he was miles from his best last season. Sure he once again topped our goal kicking list, but his effort and intensity was sub par as evidenced by his polling in the bluey. Barely missed a game, kicked most goals but still couldn't crack the top 10 - unlike three other forwards in nibbla (3rd), koz (4th) and Chandler (8th). Fritter looks very motivated this preseason, so signs are positive he'll pull his finger out. But if he doesn't there's every chance he'll be dropped.

Sure, but fritter is not a key forward. And besides, fritters intensity, after significantly improving previously, was decidedly average last season and if ot remains so, even with his ability to kick goals, i could see him being dropped.

How could anyone be sold on jeffo yet? He's yet to play an AFL game, and until he does its all supposition on whether he'll make it. Before making his AFL debut i was very confident JVR would make it, but even with him you still had to wait and see how he went before being certain he had what it takes (and there is no doubt he does). My query on Jeffo from the get go is whether his second and third efforts were instinctive and whether he had the want for the contest. I hate to say it (because it feels like an unnecessary potshot at weed), but in that respect the player he reminds me most of is weed. Those concerns, particularly the latter, were somewhat assuaged in the second half of the 2024 VFL season. He started attacking the ball, on the ground and in the air, with much more intensity and his performance level demonstrably improved as a result. Maintaining that intensity is a non negotiable if he wants to make it as an AFL player. The key forwards role is now as much about crashing marking contests and making sure the ball comes to ground as it is kicking goals. Key forwards also now have to be strong defensively when the ball hits the deck, and pressure and tackle fiercely - attributes JVR has in spades (id be pretty confident he averages more tackles than any other key forward in the game). That takes intensity, preparedness to get smashed and physicality. And that's what Jeffo will need to bring week in, week out if he is to make the cut. The club have extended his contract so they obviously have faith he can make it. And key forwards taking time to find their feet is a cliche because ots true. That said, I'm hopeful, but not confident, jeffo will make it.

Nah that's Clarry. Good on him. Looks fit, healthy and in a good place. A million miles from this time last year. If we get big years from those three lads lok out.

Agree. Hard not like someone who so clearly enjoys what he's doing. Super talented player who probably deserved to win the Norm Smith.

Way too early for ladder predictions given how critical a team's preseason is in terms of determining how well they'll go. So far so good for us in terms of number of players completing all sessions, our small rehabilitation group and no long term injuries (last season we had a big rehabilitation group and came into the season with Gus, Melk, Brown, McAdam all with long term injury, and sparg's nagging achilles soon becoming season ending). But there is a long way to go before the season starts so I'll wait until late Feb before making any predictions. Does anyone have any intel on how other club's pushing for the 8 preseasons are going?

No it's not the point. So much rewriting of history. #demonland myths As I have noted several times recently, we tried to implement a different, more transition based game plan last season. We faced several barriers to doing so successfully, in short: - it takes time to implement a new game plan (particularly one so different to the one drilled into the team over the previous 5 seasons) - injury meant we almost never had our best 23 play together - we didn't have enough of the right type of players, in particular enough elite kicks who could be relied on to hit high risk kicks (exacerbated by injury to our best players) - and perhaps of most significance, we were clearly not fit enough, for any game plan, particularly one that demands so much all team running We could only be ‘in games when we played an unwatchable, unsustainable to win big games, style'? That's just not true. There was really only one game where we reverted to a defence first method in a big game to maximise our chance of winning - our heartbreaking two point loss to port late in the season. Two rounds prior we came out firing, with exciting all out attack against the Giants, up nearly 5 goals at the end of the first quarter before running out of puff in the second half to lose by two points. In another big game, our round 16 match against the ultimate premiers, we blitzed them in the second quarter, kicking 8 goals. Very watchable. Another heartbreaking loss ensued after once again running out of gas in the second half. Another big game was our early season win over Port at a sold out Adelaide Oval where we beat Port at their own transition game (coming on the heels of smashing the dogs - our third highest score of the season - and hawks with a fast, exciting, transition game). Not a big game given we couldn't make finals, and our opponents were woeful, but our highest score of the season came in round 23 when we played a fast, exciting transition game to smash the Suns. Yes we were often low scoring and terrible to watch. And we got hammered more often than we had in the previous four seasons combined. But not because of an 'unwatchable, unsustainable' game plan - we just couldn't consistently implement the new game plan we were working on, or defend against that game plan when used effectively against us (hence the number of big losses). Ironically, we would have likely won more games last season, albeit not enough, and certainly not have been opened up as often, if we had stuck to our previous defence first method.

You're right about verall (cut and paste typo) but from the MFC website (and lord knows the dees website could well be wrong):

Indeed. I'll bet London to a brick that if the hawks stumble this year Mitchell's adherence to hok ball will be questioned and questions asked about no plan b.

Yep, first rounders But I suspect it falls fairly dramatically after that. Much more a raffle in the subsequent rounds. And I'm guessing some of those first rounders would still play if the age was raised (that's to say if players had to be say 19, like Langford, before round one, some of those 2023 draftees would have met that criteria).

Enjoy DZ.