binman

I have always loved naughton, particularly the way he flys at the ball. And he is a natural forward who times his leads super well. Personally I think that was a key issue for us late in the season. With no bb, melk out and jvr missing the blues game we didn't have natural forwards leading to the right spots forcing the ball carrier to make a good decision. You make a fair point about Petty's injury history. But assuming he does stay fit, a forward line with Petty, JVR (who after another preseason will go to another level), Fritter and McAdam - with bb, tmac and schache as back up - is not too shabby. So I don't think using up so much capital on another forward is what we should be focused on. I say this every year, but I'm clueless about the trade and drafting markets and all the related palaver. I get all my Intel from dl and am always amazed at the knowledge of posters in this space. So I've got no idea who is available or if these players are even remote possibilities. But if I were in charge of recruitment I'd be focusing on getting in: - one or two quality high half forwards who are elite athletes and decent kicks (ie two more nibblers - who by the by was our best kick inside 50 this year in terms of kick to score ratio). Bedford would be ideal (yes I know he ain't going anywhere) - a mid size half forward/utility/mid who is an elite athlete, above average to elite kick, wins their own ball and kicks goals (the player type I'm thinking of is McCarthy and Bailey from the lions. Sparrow is our equivalent. We need more sparrows) - a distributor from half back (or wing or outside mid) with elite kicking and decision making skills who can reliably execute difficult, high risk kicks - even under intense pressure (salo and bowey have been these players for us, but for diff reasons neither were able to play that role to the required level this season. I'm thinking of players like locasious, Coleman and anderson) - a second ruck (I've got no idea who)

On the espn footy podcast the champion data guy was talking about cadmans numbers around early august and saying they were woeful accross the board. Compared him unfavourably to jvr, noting he is a year behind (was in the context of praising dees for how we managed jvr). The worst player ratings to predicted average of any top 3 draft picks or some such.

Apart from the fact that he is woeful kick for goal. In all seriousness we should not be drafting or trading in any player who is not an elite kick. Not one.

In a way I'm glad tracc didn't win it. It would have been framed as some sort of consolation. Not by trac or the dees, but by the media. To not at last make this years gf is a fail. The last thing we need is a consolation to distract from that fact.

These are the only 'questions' you have posed in this thread: Who was responsible for it? (in reference to your assertion that 'Any way you look at it that’s a list management howler. Worse than the Grundy trade if we’re being honest' that frames any response) Will it hamstring our chances to win the flag next year? Should we try to come to an arrangement with at least one of these players to call time on their careers? These are not genuine questions to create reasoned debate. They are 'questions' designed to to create angst. Straight out of the troll handbook. The same book that Tucker 'i'm just asking questions' Carlson has on his bedside table.

Sorry, how do you get to Tmac and BB not contributing anything meaningful next year? I mean that presupposes neither will be fit and injury free next season. Or even if they are they will still offer nothing. Sure, both scenario's are possible, particularly the former But so is a scenario where one or both have brilliant off seasons (remembering Tmac basically didn't have one after 2022 as he was recovering from complications from his foot surgery) and play key roles in our 2024 season. Lets be honest, unless you haver the power of seeing the future, or perhaps have access to a top shelf Balinese Shaman, the following statement is not really acceptable: 'By the end of 2024, a full three years later, both will have contributed next to nothing to our push for a second flag. THREE full seasons'

As opposed to a fella who played 150 odd games against one of their arch enemies the bombers? Methinks three flags with an outsider might sooth the savage Tigers

I presume they have lower pressure numbers because they do less chasing, corralling and closing than mids (which means less pressure acts and therefore less pressure points).

Chopper straight from Portsea. Understable mix up. We should have the week off.

He did a solid job as a mid for a black of time allowing tracc to go forward

Sure. But most opposition rucks are pretty tall.

This was def a factor in why we couldn't get more goals from our inside 50s. We have been really good at scoring from stoppages in the last 6 weeks. But could only manage 2 goals 2 this week (they only scored 2 points from stoppages!) Lets say 16 of those rich contests were inside 50. And we'll be generous and say both hit outs were inside 50 too. Pretty hard to scrounge a goal from a stoppage inside 50 if we cant win a ruck contest.

Quite a lot actually.

Jvr did terribly in the ruck. 15 ruck contests for one hit out. Tmac nor much better. Nine ruck contests for one hit out. Two hitouts from 24 ruck contests from our two back up rucks. Not great.

The Maynard hit is in my rear vision mirror now. But it will come into sharp focus when we next play them. We will see in that match the truth about his innocence and mindset. Or at the least what the dees think about that. If the dees players go after him we will know for sure the dees believe it was, if not premeditated, at the very least opportunistic and deliberate to iron Gus out.

Forward? He's been training with the forwards and slots in for JVR. Our very own Dermie. Disco.

Of course we don't plan to be down at quarter time but my feeling is that is how we have approached our last 5 or six games. Let the oppo take their shot, work out what they doing, respond and run over them with superior fitness. But i don't think we can risk another slow start this week. And i don't think they will. Go hard and fast early and get a break on them. And take the crowd out of the equation.

I think we will come out and play fast in the first quarter. We need to get some pace on the ball and have the ball in transition a lot more. And we need a quarter time lead which will help the game not becoming a low scoring arm wrestle. The first quarter against the Pies was that sort transition game, its just that we didn't have out head in the game and couldn't create enough chances or take enough risks. The Pies did both and deserved their match winning lead. In a funny way it would have been better if weren't so dominant after that becuase they couldn't get it out of our half and it turned into a grind. If the they were able to play their normal transition game a bit more it would have put some speed on the ball. They would have scored more, but so would have we. All that said, as the Swans proved, if we kicked as inaccurately as we did last Thursday night it wouldn't have changed the result playing a faster, transition game (that would have meant less inside 50s and therefore les shots at goal).

8 pressure points from 4 pressure acts. Season average is ad you say 30 pressure points Had to check it, coz it's so low. That's terrible for any game let alone as a final for a pressure forward.

Very disappointing. Let's see how serious the AFL is about concussion. But doesn't matter for us. Guilty or not guilty, gus isn't playing this week. We've got a game to win.

That's a good point. To get back into the match we needed to dominate around the ball, which we did. Hard to see us doing so without tracc in there to cover for Gus. I focused on the first quarter in terms of where i thought we lost the game. but really giving up four goals against the run of play and only managing 2.5 (Jesus wept) in the third was also huge factor. if we could have gone in at 3 quarter time only, say, two goals down they might have been more prepared to risk throwing trac forward and perhaps rivers onto the ball.

Had to do a mountain more work in the middle against the pies than what they would have planned for. Can't help. I'm surprised they didn't use Laurie on ball at all. Even 5 or 10 minutes would have given tracc a chop out and chance to play forward. Laurie played as a mid at casey all season after all.