Pates

With this discussion about Gus I hope the coaches are looking at creative ways to shuffle the abundance of inside miss around the park. He was having a very poor year in 2020 until (I can’t remember who it was against) he was given the responsibility as one of our main clearance players. Suddenly he looked like the Gus of old. I didn’t want Viney to go and I’m glad he’s committed to being basically a demon for life, but we do have an imbalance when he and Oliver are there with Gus. With Harmes as well returning to the midfield group I would like to see Gus, Viney, and Harmes rotate on the HFF to be pressure mid/forwards and hopefully snag a couple of goals. But I think a big key to Angus being in form is that he does long stints as an inside midfielder.

I wouldn’t mind them being this rule in if it didn’t incur such a massive penalty, if it was 25m I think that would be fair. Like @Clint Bizkiti get the theory behind it but I think the execution is going to be interesting to see. I think there’s going to be a lot of frustration in the early rounds.

That was such a disaster last year, he’s got some tricks but jeez playing him as our No 1 (especially the way we played) was such a ridiculous tactical blunder. Sounds a little boring but I think TMac goes back to being our FF, perhaps shuffling between CHF and FF with Jacko and Mitch Brown. I worry that Jacko is still to raw to take hold of the FF position (at least as the main FF). I also worry that Kozzie may need a little bit more time after Round one before he’s ready for selection. I also like Hunt forward, but I know he has been training with the defenders. Hunt and Fritta could rotate on the HFF and FP. I would see us starting round one (assuming not more injuries!) something like this: Fritch Jacko Melksham/Harmes Hunt TMac Spargo (EDIT Also continue to have Petracca do stints up forward, potentially at FF for periods if he’s on fire. We actually need the midfield overall to kick more goals this year.)

Not saying it does, and never said anything of the sort. I just made an observation of his physique. I’ll be honest when I’ve seen him play for North I’ve often felt he hasn’t had a great ability to read the play. Maybe some different minds and a change of location will help him, maybe the club won’t even go with selecting him in the end. Who knows what’s going to happen, but it’s in his hands to prove his worth.

I know this thread’s about Brown but I feel for Preuss, finally gets his crack as a first pick ruck and gets injured.

Really good to see Gus running in boots, maybe round one for him is a good chance. Majak really is something, makes every ripped player at the club look like they haven’t touched a weight. We have a good number over experienced coaches at the club now so perhaps with their help we can get something magical out of Majak. Ultimately if we take him on it’s a low risk move.

With Chocko I wouldn't put anything passed him, he's a different unit and he'd be wanting to make a strong point. Hopefully if he burnt anything physical it was a photocopy! I'm really super excited to see LJ this year, he was showing a bit of something different last year with the way he almost glides across the ground. He really could be anything. I think there's things to be excited for this season, but I'd be lying if I said the injuries to Broad and Weid haven't dulled my eagerness for the season to start.

Realistically 5 years is the soonest I could see it happening, it makes sense for Tassie to aim for sooner rather than later but with the way the world is it’s just not going to happen that quickly without the AFL being 100% behind it. Absolutely agree, if they can get people to register (even put a down payment towards a membership) and there’s enough people interested it might just force the AFL’s hand.

He really is an absolute unit, perhaps a little bit of creativity from Mark Williams and Yze will be able to unlock his full potential. I always look at these guys as a free hit, if they come off then brilliant and if they don’t then we’ve lost very little.

Just saw on the Richo interview thread the reason for Kozzie’s absence, awful news my heart goes out the entire Pickett family. So very sad. Take the time you need Kozzie and your Dees family will be here to support you when you’re ready.

This stance from Tassie could end up with a mini-ultimatum for GC from the AFL, get competitive or be prepared to relocate to the coldest part of Australia. The thing I wonder about is whether the AFL genuinely feel they are making headway with the Suns at winning supporters. If they do think it’s building then it’s worse pursuing over Tassie, because as much as it doesn’t seem right that Tassie have been dudded there isn’t room for growth there. So the only advantage with Tassie (should they take the opinion the Suns AREN’T gaining support) would be you maintain the 18 teams for TV rights and you get a team that would (surely) be more popular and closely followed than the Suns. I think North relocating has been done and dusted, despite their ongoing precarious position. The loss of income will really hurt them though. The Hawks will not relocate, but I will have a little smirk about the hole in their budget. Perhaps they’ll have to do games in Darwin (that would be sensational to watch).

Right now he’s in no better/worse position than OMac being invited to train with Carlton.

Don’t mind this, good luck to him.

If he were ever considered a spot for us I would much prefer us offering a place at Casey (perhaps someone could shed light on if this is possible) and say to him let’s see how you go in competitive footy before the mid-season draft. Is it a similar system where you can nominate players to have first dibs on? But he’d have to be out there playing regular footy with zero symptoms before a place would be considered. And even then it just doesn’t sit well with me.

I vaguely remember that when he left it was family reasons, and therefor considered a private matter. I guess when you’re a football nothing is really private. I hope he and his family are ok during this tough time.

I'm concerned for Kozzie, but I'm hoping there are others who are stepping into the void to put their hands up for selection.

Great reporting PF! Fraser Rosman is sounding more and more likely to debut round one, looking forward to seeing him in action in the warm up matches. LJ as well is tracking well, could be a bit of a break out year, particularly with our first choice tall forwards injured for the early stages. TMac kicking a few snags is always great news, good for his confidence as well.

They were/are victims. Are you going to tell jewish holocaust survivors and their families to just get over what the Germans/Nazi's did to them? I think most people would recognise that changing the date of Australia Day won't solve all the problems, in fact it would merely be a small step towards reconciliation. Much the same way that Kevin Rudd saying sorry was a small step in the right direction. How can we expect to celebrate Australia Day as a united nation when it's the day the British people essentially began the atrocities against ancestors of our first nations people? Regardless of whether the British were any better or worse than the French, Dutch, or Spanish.

Oliver has the ability to be our best by the end of our career (potentially go down as a legend of the club) but right now he is not our best midfielder of the 21st century. Still plenty for him to work on, currently a great clearance player and gets plenty of the ball, but he needs to be more damaging, he needs to start kicking goals, and his kicking needs to go up a gear. To clarify I think he will improve in ALL of these areas, but pound for pound currently I'd have Yze, Junior Mac, Jones, Bruce, Green, and then others who you question "are they forward or mid" such as Petracca and Flash ahead of him as best midfielder of the century. Give it to as early as the end of this year and that could well change.

I'll just weigh in saying that at that time in history they probably would've classified essentially enslaving them in order to modernise them was considered to be doing it in their best interests. Much in the same way the stolen generation was because they wanted to get them out of the hands of their true parents to move them towards a white way of life (and basically breed their culture/race into extinction). I've got no doubt there would've been countless undocumented acts of cruelty in the name of "harm prevention". We are largely ignorant to our own bloody history because we aren't taught enough of it, and because the history books are always written (or re-written) by the "winners". Also it may well have been punishable by death to kill a native, I'd be very interested to know how many were actually convicted of it.

We took the punt on KK, it failed. We took the punt on Bennell, didn’t go so well. I don’t see any need for us to take a punt on Paddy when we actually do have depth in that area. Ultimately he would still be behind Tom, LJ, and Brown anyway. I also cringe at the thought of him playing footy and taking one more hard hit that could impact him long term (what he’s been through I can’t imagine it hasn’t already).

The funny thing for Tom was that the opportunity to play forward fell in his lap when we ran out of options, now with out first options (that were likely to keep him out of the forward line) injured he's got another chance to prove himself. Really hope he can take it.

I know some of the arguments against but I'm wondering whether we look at playing Salem on the opposite wing to Langdon. He's by no means quick but he has really good disposal and it would be nice to have that delivering to the forwards. Perhaps a situation with himself and Rivers rotating in there. I'm not sold on the idea of Melksham in the midfield, perhaps I'm just scarred by his poor output in 2020.

Through 2019 and well into 2020 that has been our biggest issue. I'm probably a little harsh on Tommy by saying welcome back to 2019, he's been training well and who knows he could have a second sunrise on his career as a forward. Either way we will either need that connection between midfield and forward to actually work (I personally think to do think Fritch needs to play on the HFF instead or rotating with Melksham) or we need to create more goals out of our midfielders such as Oliver, Brawshaw, Viney, and perhaps Harmes. I just really hope for Wieds sake that his hard work over the summer hasn't been for nothing.

Well this has been a crap week for our forward line, particularly as a strong start is so important to the success of our year. Poor Weid, he was putting in so much hard work and now he'll have to start all over again. Tommy has gone from being on the fringes (possibly playing wing), to competing for the other spot in the forward line, to now once again being our focal point. Welcome back to 2019 ?.