binman

Agree. If Tracc wants to leave that is 100% on the club. The players bear no responsibility for the culture of the club. They are passive observers.

Ta. We need at least one or two more players who can regularly hit those really high risks (by the by I'm hopeful XL wil develop into one such player), particularly if we do end up losing McVeee, but players who can reliably hit those 30 metre kicks are even more critical i reckon. Games are won and lost on turnover these days and missing those sorts of kicks has a double impact - the oppo win the ball back and are often gifted a scoring opportunity, but as significant, perhaps more so, a potential scoring chain is broken.

He could quit footy.

In the Sun's games I've watched Flanders seem to be a pretty good kick but when watching other teams it's easy to over rate kicking skills as the (inevitable) turnovers don't stand out as much as when watching the dees. Do any keen watchers of the Suns have an informed view of Flander's kicking skills?

Disappointing it looks like he might be going. That said, whilst I agree his best position is a half back that pushes up the ground I'm not a big fan of the 'i want to play more in x role' seemingly being part of his rationale for staying and leaving. For one thing circumstances, in particular AMW going down, meant that wasn't the best thing for the team last season. So shut it. But leaving that aside it just screams me, me, me. Someone who is 100% team first doesn't make it a thing. And besides, that position is no picnic, and given there is usually only one such player, two tops, in any team that player has to excel. Now, he may well have done so at the dees, he has the tools, but it's not as if he has runs on the board in that role to back up his confidence or make demands of the club. And I'll be fascinated, assuming he actually gets to Freo, if he even gets an opportunity to play that role as Freo have more options than us.

I have been saying this for years, and using the lions as the exemplar - teams need mutiple goal kicking medium mid/forwards, forward/mids and wing/half backs who can push forward and be a threat (eg dempsey, ah chee). Icing on the cake if they are also good over head Two such players ain't gonna cut it, let alone one. Just look how man such players the lions have - McCluggage, Raynor, Bailey, Berry, Ah Chee, Lohmann, Zorko and Wilmont. And that's not even counting smalls like Cameron, as he's a permanent forward (though does push up when not in the game) or more pure mids like Fletcher, Ashcroft x 2 and Neale, all of whom kick their share of goals. To illustrate the importance to lions of such players, if you include the latter group (ie Cameron, Fletcher etc etc) 17 of their 18 goals were kicked by small/mediums (the outlier was Morris' late goal).

Was just about to post the same. Given how potent each team are and how good the weather was, save the tricky wind, the total match point line was a very low 177 points. They blew past that, albeit late, and the TMP ended up being 197. So, a very high scoring game. But despite both teams having gun tall forwards, kpfs scored bugger all and had barely impact on the game. Worth keeping in mind when the drum starts beating on us needing to bring in a gun key forward.

I wondered if that nasty gastro bug ad hir again. Geez the cats are dead unlucky.

Agree on Wotherspoon - high footy iq and I love her kicking action. Strong over the ball too, which is important because that's the area north have tge edge on us. Generally i really like the coverage of the AFLW, on fox and 7. Compared to AFLM, less hype, less volume, Kessler rubbish inane banter and more focus on the game in front of them. Most of all the special comments people are, like the AFLM, are ex players but very much unlike the AFLM, their knowledge is current and they use that knowledge to bring genuinely interesting and informative insights. I don't think it's a coincidence that the majority of the commentatory crews are women

We need outside players, so a Flanderst trad swap would be advantageous from that perspective - one less midfield bull with average foot skills (albeit a star) and one more outsidish player (though he can win his own ball) with decent foot skills.

Trying to be as objective as possible, i disagree the Saints is a more enticing club to go to than the dees. Personally. i think we are much more likely to play finals next season than the Saints, but for the sake of argument lets say that's not the case. I still think there a bunch of reasons why the MFC is a more enticing option for Flanders. When did the the Saints last play finals? 2020? And they were bog average before that. Hell, they haven't won a flag since 1966. Leaving that lack of success aside, looking forward i'd argue that this current iteration of the team under Lyon is bog average. Yes they are adding some decent players to he mix but there are few examples of average teams suddenly becoming a contender on the back of trading multiple quality players in during one trade period. Sure, we have missed finals last two seasons, but the fact remains that our last decade has been the club's most successful era since the 60s. We won flag in 2021 and then made finals in 20222 and 2023 (and yes, went out in straight sets). I'd argue our off field governance has been questionable in the last few seasons, and over decades too, but the Saints have been even more shambolic on that front - recently and over the journey. The saints have a good, but not great, training facility, but hopefully our purpose built facility at Caulfield (assuming it go ahead) will well and truly trump Moorabbin. The Saints have to play their home game at Docklands whereas our players get to play their home games at the best venue in the AFL. All players look great in the MFC jumpers - though i do quite like the Saints jumper. The one thing thing Saints do have in their favour is their theme song is terrific, whereas ours is, well, grand, but not outstanding. That said any player who goes to the Saints instead of us will have less cause to sing the club song.

Is clarry slang, like like Ray or Charlie, in that sentence? I'd prefer that than a more literal interpretation.

Agree. Unless the relationship between tracc and the club has irretrievably broken down and we simply want him gone then paying any part of his salary shouldn't even be part of the conversation. It's win win for us. We trade Tracc, get an ok return (no need to gild the lily on that front - it doesn't need to a crazy good return, ok is fine) and get his salary of our books, helping us negotiate, say, the Bison's and XL's next contract. Or we keep Tracc, and he continues performing at high level for us, and in an ideal world fully gets back to his rampaging best (which by the by will be the expectation of any club keen on trading him in).

All your own work. Cool cool. I like your new style, very formal with your neww found love of sub headers and conclusions. Welcome to the machine. Why would I rebutt your claims? They were made in response to my comment that the winner of the GF could have claims to be the best team of the 21st century. And your argument doesn't change the fact that winner of this year's GF will have won 5 flags this century, more than other team. And what is your argument? That you could make a case that the Cats and Lion's success this century is all BS because of the leg ups they have enjoyed? I agree they are big factors in both clubs success but that doesn't change their records. And besides, since when is taking advantage of the rules created by the AFL a proble - isn't that what well run clubs should be doing? It's not as if either club cheated.

You mean a chat bot can make that argument. Putting a prompt into a LLM does not an argument make. Amd besides that doesn't rebutt the argument the winner of the GF could lay claims to being the best team of the 21st century.

Agree. But like Geelong the real key has been how solid they are off field and in particular how strong their governance had been.

That's the million dollar question. Can our game style hold up against the roos' uber pressure come finals? I have my doubts, but I love that stinnear has stuck to his guns game style wise.

The standard of AFLW is improving every season. One areawhere it has improved out of sight is marking - more terrific marks and a lot fewer easy ones dropped.

You could make the case the winner of the GF had claims to be the best team of the 21st century. Cats, lions, and hawks have all won 4 flags this century, with the cats and lions, including this year, appearing in an incredible 7 GFs and the Hawks 5. These three teams have won over 50% of the flags this century.

Yep. A crazy circuit. Fun track for qualifying.

They could take a poll.

I haven't watched any footy media this season, and listened to very little radio. I might this week to enjoy all the Pies tears. The video 360 will do of the non call on Elliot, and the build up, will be mega dramatic and ridiculously over the top. And I'll love every second.

Ich bin ein Brisbinner.

Spot on. The better team for much of the match. The pies threw their last punch in the third. Blimey they have a seriously big group of gun mediums, all of whom can kick. They lose one in Berry and he's replaced by Bruce who does a servicable job as a medium off the bench.