binman

You are probably right old. But what i would say is there is a different culture in rugby league in terms of players announcing they are leaving during the season and continuing to be super committed to the club they are leaving and playing at a very high level. There were two such players in the Penrith team that payed in their incredible GF win. I'm not sure the same culture exists in the AFL. It certainly doesn't in terms of announcing they are leaving mid season, but i wonder if it is more common for some such players to perhaps not go full tilt once they have decided they are leaving than it is in RL. I'm not saying that's the case for Brodie but it is a possibility. And whilst i'll happily give him the benefit of the doubt, i'll also give the club the benefit of the doubt (ie there is a chance, albeit slight, that there hand was forced in terms of not selecting Brodie for the finals - which by the by I would have preferred he was). It's worth remembering too that we didn't axe brodie, he asked to be traded. For understandable reasons he wanted out, but the fact remains he could have chosen to stay and make it work. And perhaps if he had done so he might have been selected and he might be premiership player.

This times 1000. As Scott said on 360, what do you think Maynard would have done in that exact scenario, ie jumping to smother from a distance, at training and he was about to collide into a teammate. Does anyone seriously think he would have turned his body to and hit his teammate in the head with his shoulder? Or, as you suggest put his hands out to protect his teammate, which is the instinctive reaction (unless you are a thug). Even if just falling over face first, say onto a mattress, the instinctive reaction is to put both hands out in front to brace for impact and cushion the fall - not turn and hit the ground shoulder first. I cant believe the biomechanics expert was not asked about the the latter point (ie 'what is the instinctive, natural way to break a fall?') And i can't believe Maynard was not asked how he would have acted in the same situation at training. Scratch that. I can believe it. The fix was in.

I've heard they both want to move to Nhill.

Living in a city where he went to boarding school is a draw? Because he has such fond memories of being hazed by wealthy country boys?

You misunderstood my question.

A serious question. Do you think there is a chance they didn't pick Grundy becuase they were worried he wouldn't be all in for fear of getting injured and scuppering a move to Bondi?

Unless we trade it (our future first rounder that is). And then when asked to package it up in some deal, Lamby be like, sorry but:

Oooh, hard ball over McAdam. I bet the lambster is trembling in his boots

A very mild death ride next year. Perhaps a slow decline ride?

Does the question mark indicate you are not sure if offence was taken at your end?

Wow Big if true.

To make it clear i was joking lest dazzler thought i was having a go at him or accusing him of being DL's version of Elon (which in both instancers i wasn't)

Elon Musk has a habit of getting involved in random threads on twitter (ie ones he didn't start or was otherwise involved in), usually to amplify utlra far right views, and posting 'Interesting if true' - or some variation of it (eg just 'interesting' or big if true').

Thanks Elon

I would have thought as a Senator Jacqui would be too busy to be involved in trading Grundy to Sydney.

All part of the plan. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks back to the remarkable scenario with both the Roos and Eagles WINNING late season games that no-one would have begrudged them losing to secure pick one. In fact they both received some heat for WINNING and risking losing access to pick one and Harley Reid. At the time felt like a back room deal between headquarters and both clubs to avoid the inevitable tanking fugazi. Something like 'play games out, win if you can and we'll sort out a draft pick scenario, most likely involving pick three for McKay, where both clubs are happy. Roos you will get pick one and Harley Reid if you want him, but you will need to sweeten the Eagles draft hand so they can get who they want' Nothing that has happened since suggests the above scenario is fanciful.

I'd add that chandler didn't kick a goals in either final, when goals were gold. Goals from small forwards often make a difference in big games - it's their time to shine. I hope he can go up a level, but I'm not convinced he will.

Dees fans, even those who think they were ill advised or plain wrong, should double down and really lean into maysie's comments. Add a dash of conspiracy - 'I've heard from a reliable source that Gill was obsessed with finishing his career as CEO with 100k plus crowd at the gf and put pressure on the tribunal to get Maynard off - the flag has a huge astrisk' Tell them the blues were a better team. Make some other merde up. Collectively troll the hell out of pies' fans. Psy ops.

Typo, which i thought was pretty obvious given the context and my comments about over rating the skills of oppo players). It should have read: I thought he was excellent this season - though his kicking wasn't as good as i had hoped

I know nothing.

Kate Roffey called on dees fans to get louder and MORE obnoxious 'like Collngwood fans'. To be honest, i'm not convinced we need more obnoxiousness at the footy, but i get what she was saying. Maysie was merely doing what the prez asked!

Great post. Some reflections on it: How a midfield is defined is a semantic exercise to a degree. But i think its a stretch to include the wingers given it is such a specialist position and don't really get involved at center clearances and around the ground stoppages - other than being an outlet distributor option. For example in your list above Sidebottom, Hunter and Langdon didn't attend any centre bounces all season (Sidebottom might have attended 2 or 3). Josh Daicos was also a winger (an AA winger at that) and only attended centre bounces when his brother went out of the team. You'll get no argument from me that Sidebottom and Josh Daicos are better kicks than Hunter and Langdon and were more impactful this year. You left out arguably their best mid, Taylor Adams, who attended 40% of all the Pies centre bounces over the season. Adams only averaged 52% by foot, which is in part a function of being an extractor and often kicking under pressure (something that makes Mitchell's 60% by foot super impressive given he is also an extractor). If you take out Sidebottom and Josh Daicos and add Adams the pies KE average goes down. I would add that of the Pies players you list Nick Daicos played more than half the season at half back flank and Pendlebury also spent large periods behind the ball, as did Crisp, which is a big factor in why their DE is so good (more time and space). And you included Max Gawn and Darcy Cameron's as mids. Rucks are not usually considered midfielders, but of course are part of the midfield, so for the sake of this exercise lets include them So, if you don't include Sidebottom, Josh Daicos, Hunter and Langdon, but DO include Cameron and Gawn, using your metric of including rucks and utilities who roll through the middle as midfielders: The Pies seven mids are: Cameron, Daicos, DeGoey, Pendles, Mitchell, Adams and Crisp (7 AA selections, with pendles having 6 of them) The equivalent seven mids for the dees are: Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Sparrow, and for the sake of argument James Jordon (12 AA selections) I 100% agree the Pies seven are better kicks over all than our seven mids. And i also 100% agree we need to bring in a quality distributor with elite kicking skills and one or two utilities of Bailey and Mcluggage's ilk who can kick goals and reliably hit targets by foot. I have said as much in several posts of late, including this post in the What's needed in 2024 thread. In fact I've been banging on about this ever since i started posting on DL 10 plus years ago. For example, i was strongly in favor of taking Kelly rather than trading pick 3 out and ending up with Salem, Hunt and Tyson instead. And for the same reason i was against trading Watts out. But kicking efficiency is of course only one metric to determine the relative strength of midfields. And arguably not a particularly useful one. From the 14 players listed above the top four for average: center clearances per game are (in order): Oliver, Viney, Petraca and Pendles stoppage clearances per game: Oliver, Petracca, Mitchell and Gawn contested possessions per game: Oliver, Petracca, Viney and Gawn metres gained per game: Tracc, Daicos, Oliver and Crisp (nb: Daicos' numbers are inflated by the fact he takes most of their kick outs) score involvements per game: Tracc, Daicos, Oliver and Adams goal assists per game: Adams, Tracc, Pendles, Viney goals per game are: Tracc, Daicos, Adams, Sparrow Perhaps of most value in terms of determining who has the better midfield is the AFL player ratings, a metric that the industry apparently values very highly. The top 4 rated players from the 14 listed above are (in order): Tracc, Oliver, Daicos and Gawn. The upshot of all that is i don't think the numbers support the assertion Collingwood’s midfield is/was better than ours this year.

Bollocks. Leaving aside the fact that clarry missed half a season, a starting midfield of maxy, oliver, tracc, viney with Gus and sparrow as back up is the best midfield in the afl. Just look at the annual midfield award, the brownlow, tracc didn't win it because viney got 24 votes and before he got injured Oliver got votes. Leaving aside the ruck, our best 4 mids collectively got 60 votes (with our best missing half a season). By way of contrast Neale got 31 votes of the 47 votes their best 4 mids got (noting Ashcroft missed half a season - it says something aboot the lions midfield though that a first year player pllled the second most votes for a mid). And the pies had 63 votes, but daicos got probably aprox 20 of his 28 votes playing at half back flank. Port got 64 votes between rozee, butters and Horne Francis. But whilst all three are super impressive they are still young and in oliver and tracc we are talking about, what, 7 AA selections between them, god knows how many best and fairest (6?) and both already are considered amongst the best mids of the modern era. And on top of all that we have the best ruck of the modern era, and the best ruck in the AFL to feed our mids. Our whole game is based around the relative strength of our midfield in the sense that it allows us to play one less at stoppages to either put ahead of the ball in an attacking spot or an extra behind the ball. I'm pretty sure we are the only team that sets up this way. By contrast the pies and lions bring an extra to stoppages. Despite have less players at stoppages we were still sixth in the AFL for clearances, just behind port and ahead of the blues (whose game plan revolves around winning clearances) and the pies (who bring extras up). In fact I would argue we were over invested in pure mids and need a better balance - more like the lions and pies with more outside distributors. So no issue losing JJ.

I wasn't having a shot at you dd. And many wouldn't have picked him to finish top 10 - chronically under rated player. Well, not by the coaches and players, just fans. How did I go with my predictions? Picked the top 10 in order. Edit: picking the top 10 in order was meant to be a joke.

Nibla 6th.