Pates

It should also be said that most premierships are built on how good your best 25 is and how those who are in and out play their role when they are given the chance. It may well be he falls into that category.

Agreed, it's up to the players to prove them all wrong.

Pretty big difference! Good on Moons for really sticking his neck out (love the mic drop as well!), I don't see it happening this year but if we're not in the mix for top 4-6 I'll be disappointed. The first 4 rounds are just so important for us.

I could not believe that, literally reverse the players and it would've been a 50m penalty with Oliver getting two weeks.

Imagine him kicking his first goal in red and blue, just about the whole bench would want to clear! If we are lucky enough to get him out on the park, please let this happen at the G!

Perhaps he’s seeing AvB filling that role and potentially being able to hit the scoreboard.

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Lewis involved in a coaching capacity at the club. I understand him giving the world an idea of what KK is going through but surely he shouldn’t be publicly saying anything about his future. As for KK, I can’t see him stepping out onto a footy field again, obviously we leave it to the doctors and experts to make their decision but jeez even if he recovers from the current symptoms surely the damage done leaves it open for another big hit being one that leaves him with permanent issues.

I must admit I’ve been feeling similarly, particularly during 2018 he was one of our stand out mids, will be interesting to see how he goes. I can almost see a rotation going on between Harmes, Jones and a few others through midfield/half back/half forward.

This might not be a fair thing to say but I feel like Hunts good periods have coincided with the club being poor and his speed being an exciting change up to the usual slow efforts from others. I put Frosty in a similar category albeit he did play well during the latter part of 2018 as well. I hope for Jayden’s sake he’s able to find a next level otherwise I think he’ll be left behind.

Obviously winning is still secondary to just getting good time into the players but it’s Hawthorn and I like beating them any time of the year! Do we play our full best available? Maybe Nev has a break since he played the Origin match, is Brayshaw’s elbow in good shape for a full hit out? I’d like to see Bradtke given main rucking duties and give Weids a long go in the forward line, see if we can play with a trio of talls.

Sounds like 2019 was a combination of poor preparation and not doing everything in high intensity at GC. He’s done the work this year and it sets him up for a big 2020.

Jeez what a ridiculous piece of click bait, it’s just talking about how we said (last week) we’ll be taking things super slow and steady with him. Sometimes I genuinely wonder if they wake up and ask each other “how do we create a news story today?”

Last ep still my current favourite but still really enjoyed this, particularly Kozzie taking a cracking mark over Jacko!

I feel like a lot of the time it isn’t so much the wins in the preseason that give you indications of a year it’s the losses. Last year our losses we looked exhausted and bereft of life, Sydney losing the way they have could be quite telling. Fox Footy’s statistics had them going up but I think they’re going to be mid table at best.

Thanks for your little write up, lots of positives to speak of. How the Roos didn’t have the mental capacity to put on a couple of Sausage sizzles at either end of the grounds, hell even just do the profits for bushfire relief, is just plain bizarre. We complain about our club at times but really it sounds like North are amateur hour at times.

Anyone have access to some stats? Interested to know what numbers people racked up. I was definitely expecting a loss from what the team was looking like, that we beat them can only be a good thing for the confidence in the boys. We started losing early in 2019 and kept that going, getting wins now just builds a bit of belief that they’re doing the right things. Go again for Hawthorn, get three wins with good forward momentum. (The Essendon game can barely count given it was essentially Casey Scorpions playing)

A good result today is getting game time into players and no injuries, the score line doesn’t really matter, particularly with how many VFL list players we have in there.

Best moment of the ep for me!

The shame and anger I felt that day was only rivalled by 186.

I really think that our poor year following so many surgeries and injuries is getting the media in a little bit earlier with the Bombers, even though the media still treats our 2019 quite harshly a lot of those commentators are at least adding in retrospect dialogue that our season was almost doomed before it began. The bombers do seem to be given an advance free pass on the year that the narrative will always begin with "Depleted bombers beaten by...". It's also incumbent on us to be back in the hunt to prove that injuries were our downfall last year.

Seemed like it was right on cue! Oh well that's a big change of tact from Al, will be very interesting to watch. Frost will definitely help with keeping it moving but I always shuddered about what his next move was after he broke the lines.

Frost was in the side because May and Lever weren’t, he saw the writing on the wall that if those two were fit he would likely also be behind Oscar because he’s defensively better. Good luck to him at Hawthorn but for a club that prides itself on control of the ball and patience I can’t see Frost adding value to that plan unless they have a get out option for Frost to use.

Fantastic! Brings him into FA, very shrewd business by his manager.

I'd have mixed feelings, I'd be a little disappointed at not having any representatives, but then it's not like we wouldn't have any because we don't have any that is rated high enough, it would be a case of not having any fit representatives.

Grimes was clearly affected by both the captaincy and Neeld, he was an extremely promising player who regularly contributed positively under Bailey. Under Neeld and as captain he looked lost and unsure of himself. Never regained his confidence after Neeld’s departure. Trenners was also on a positive trajectory and under Bailey was attacking, creative, and young leader. He got the captaincy and Neeld as a coach and all that went away, he was absolutely asked to shoulder too much at a young age. Was a bafflingly bad decision to make him captain. He then got his debilitating foot injury and the rest is history, the club gave him time to recover, which was the right thing to do, but it he lost too much in that time. I agree with you that they weren’t up to it at the time to be captains, the way they were coached and used by the club contributed to their ruined careers.