deejammin'

Yet to play a single contender and 1-3, perfection.

COVID not injury right? I don’t think we’ll see rucks as the sub. It’s too risky if you lose a mid or a small. They’ll manage Gawn and Grundy’s ruck time through the games and maybe if we can get ahead enough they’ll each get a rest in the second half of the season. The added run of a mid sized sub is huge in a game with no injuries, as we saw this week. I think we’ll keep the sub mid size players like Melksham, Tomlinson, Sparrow, JJ even Salem this season so they can fill a hole almost anywhere. If Trac or Clarry (heaven forbid) go down early in a game the last thing you want to be bringing on is a ruck.

You’re right, immense is overstating it. But he hit targets, moved the ball quickly and won one on one contests. Salem got dinky kicks that led to turnovers and couldn’t move, compete or tackle to his usual standard. Bowey should’ve been able to move better and complete his role better, would he? who knows? but I think an unfit Salem was one of many mistakes we made in last years finals.

100%. Dropping Bowey for Salem for our two finals last year was a big mistake. Salem didn’t look quite right and Bowey was immense in our round 23 flogging of Brisbane. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson, 2019-21 Salem is one of our absolute best. 2022-23 sore Salem needs to get right back to his very best to fight his way in, with our current backline balance I’d even be tempted to move him to a forward/mid role, although there’s stiff competition there too.

Maybe the club wants to hold its cards close to its chest but I would’ve liked a more thorough injury report this week. No mention of Hibbo, who Goodwin mentioned had a sore achilles in his presser so it’s hardly a secret, Woey who is listed as 4 weeks between the AFL club site and ours which is a lot less than the 6-8 weeks last week, Farris White, Turner and Verral all not mentioned. There’s between 7-10 players to talk about there, it wouldn’t have been hard to be a touch more thorough. Thrilled about Gawny though, I reckon he’s aiming at Anzac eve.

Ditto. We need him, we’re light on for rucks and we need him to be developing. Such bad luck for the young fella.

I agree that Harrison Petty looked very good in his short stint in the ruck, he had a huge leap and his follow up work and tackling was good. Tom Petty I see more as a freefallin’ heartbreaker.

Lever being fully fit has been one of the biggest boons to our team this year. Looking back at 2022 he really only had one or two games (Brisbane at the G mid year) where he was at his best. These first three games he’s been back to his AA best and despite the backline being somewhat shuffled at the start of this year with some new young uns and the absence of May has been incredible.

Roo had already stopped being our second ruck in place of Petty by the last quarter against Sydney. He’s a great kid and he’ll be incredible but JVR also needs to build into full AFL game time. If Brown goes out for TMac due to back soreness I think Petty and TMac will cover backup ruck and JVR will play pure forward. Regardless, if we’re smart we’ll play two backup rucks and try to use them as much as possible to protect and freshen up Grundy. I’d be shocked if we dropped a tall for a small for this reason. Let’s see, but I don’t see Petty being dropped under any circumstances. Also WC with Bailey and Allen have a stronger ruck setup than Sydney, Ladhams may be better than Bailey but only marginally while Allen is a true second ruck option and is miles better than Amartey, who is no more a ruck than any of our options. Grundy will need more support in this game. With their decimated team the only area WC remain decent in is the ruck and for this reason we need talls.

We won’t drop Petty, we won’t drop a tall, we need back up rucks to give Grundy less game time to look after him and ideally freshen him up for the next two games. It may be Sparrow, I’d be surprised if Kozzie replaced Hibbo, if the pig is sore I think a back will come in. JJ would be very stiff, I don’t want to drop him, but I think he’s most likely. He’ll be sub I think.

I agree, I think it will be JJ, but my point was everyone played well so someone good will be dropped.

This is a super tough week for selection and it will we get tougher in the next few weeks, with Gawn, Salem, Harmes, Woewodin (who I thought was close to debut on his pre season form) all fit we’ve got an incredible list. There’s a bit of logical inconsistency amongst those who are saying Brown for Kozzie however while also saying we should test players. The player we most need to take care of and rest is Grundy, we can’t drop him, Bailey and Allen are good rucks and we need to at least nullify them around the ground in contested marks as well as at stoppage, side note since Gawn went down against Brisbane stoppage is where we give away most goals. If Brown is sore, sure Rest him, but you have to bring in TMac for one very important reason, a back up ruck. Whether it’s JVR, Petty or TMac we need to give Grundy more of a chop out in the weeks to come, he was immense against Sydney but he played nearly 90% ruck until the last ten minutes when we were home and took him off to bathe in cotton wool. We can’t play him 90% against West Coast, we need to rest him for big battles against Draper and Nankervis to come. Petty looked good in the ruck yesterday but if he and JVR are our only tall forwards we won’t be able to put them into the ruck enough to rest Grundy and Grundy is not a natural forward so I wouldn’t be putting him forward when the others ruck, not that that’s a rest anyway. Whatever we do someone who played well will come out but for me it’s: Out to sub: JJ In: Kozzie If sore out: BBB In: Tmac If sore out: Hibbo In Tomlinson Tough week though, I wouldn’t be surprised if ANB or Sparrow went out for Kozzie.

It’s difficult to know what to make of last week. Clearly we were smashed around the ball, in every phase of stoppages and made many uncharacteristic defensive errors, including allowing players to get free 20m out from goal. Something we haven’t done since 2019-20. At the same time we were missing 3 incredibly important players, both for their ability, x-factor and structurally. I can’t see the same defensive errors happening to that extent with May leading the backline. Tomlinson did a serviceable job but Petty has looked under enormous pressure during May’s absence, which I think is because while Tomlinson is good one on one, he lacks May’s ability to goalkeep and structure up what has been a relatively inexperienced backline group. With May back I think we’ll see Petty back to his best as second key defender. Also in Kozzies absence we lacked pressure around contest, his X factor is also missing but his physicality, pressure and speed were a key ingredient in our midfield and up forward in round one and we suffered without him. I had hoped Viney would pick up the slack but he looked a bit off. We looked sluggish and let Brisbane move the ball outside the contest with little pressure, that would not happen with Kozzie in there. Lastly losing Max hurt and will continue to hurt. He’s huge around stoppage, he’s our number one contested marking option forward and behind the ball, he helps out the defense, he kicks goals and he worries opposition. I think it’s easy to forget but this is the best ruckman of this generation, possibly all time, he dominates games in a way no other ruckman does and he plays a selfless team brand that makes us better on every line. He’s also a brilliant leader, an onfield coach and the spiritual heart of our team. I have no doubt if Maxy plays out the game last week we win. How we cover for him will be a huge challenge, the inclusion of May behind the ball will help cover Maxy a bit, it’s also clear we’re hoping JVR will offer us better contested marking down the line and Grundy will cover the stoppage work. But it’s a huge challenge for us. I’m not too down on last week, take the FB, the explosive X factor forward mid and the number one ruck out of any team and they will struggle, let alone our team where these three are in our best 6 or 7 players comfortably and on field leaders for us. Imagine Sydney with no Ladhams, Papley and T McCartin, they would struggle. Our depth makes it feel like we should still be very good, and we should, but we’ve had huge outs throughout this early season and if we get through these three weeks with a couple of wins that’s a massive result. Ultimately if we can reach round 8, when Max should be back, at 5-3 or better, we’ve done well. Our best team, with Max, Kozzie and May all fit and in form will belt almost everyone the way we did the bulldogs. The challenge we failed to meet last week is without these players can we still eke out a win against good opposition. Hopefully we can do that against Sydney this week. For me it’s: Out: Tomlinson, Harmes, Gawn, McVee, Melksham(sub) In: May, JVR, JJ, Hibberd, Laurie(sub)

This is the point when it comes to footballers. Not only are there the medical reasons you list in this and your other post on ketamine, but these players work in an environment where the slightest change to diet, a weight regime, 2 minutes extra at training can make an enormous difference to their performance during the year. These guys work in an elite performance environment and the challenge of that is if you slip, even slightly, in your preparation you can ruin a game or even entire year, for yourself and the team. The medical reasons you list, as well as the most minor disruptions to your bodies performance that would be negligible for the rest of the population but huge for athletes and also the fact this substance could be cut with something banned that sees you before ASADA and out for a year make it a very stupid thing for a pro athlete to be doing. I’m sure I’m certain football player circles they make arguments that these drugs are better than alcohol as you burn them quickly and can take them in a way that doesn’t wreck your skin folds but the risks outweighs these relatively minor pros. It takes a certain disregard for your conditioning and health to take these risks and while these players operate under huge stress and deserve a chance for relief, anything that risks their career and health should be avoided and that’s the way the clubs should be educating their players, which I believe they are. Stupid from Ginnivan.

I’m really enjoying the discussion on this thread. It’s respectful and informative despite opposing opinions. Very refreshing in the internet age. I would just point out that the internet and social media is facilitating far less “seedy back alley” deals. There are entire sites and delivery services that are far more formal, non contact and professional than the old school, it’s still illegal and not my thing but you’d be surprised how easy and professional some of this stuff is. The recent international police operation where they invented a social platform for selling dark web material was aimed at precisely this market, delivering hundreds of arrests and thousands of kilograms of product. These operations are more akin to Uber eats than an 80s Scorcese film.

“Cashin’ in Jackson”

I care, I want Freo to finish stone cold motherless last in 2023 so that in addition to another flag we get the number one draft pick! 🤪🤪🤪

I think we have different ideas of what “doing a Tomahawk” is. For me it’s sniping players faces with your elbow and pushing opponents in the back. Are we hoping Schache or JVR will do this or are you thinking of something else? 😈😈

Unless the plan is Darcy forward Jackson ruck?

Love the interview. What’s going on with the pronunciation of “Petracca”, we saw Christian mouth “it’s Pet-rah-ca FFS” at the Brownlow but in this interview Max says “Petracka” about 30 times. Is he baiting him?

I think this is a very simple deathride. Injuries to Brayshaw and Pearce lasting more than 4 weeks and Freo are done. They have a good coach, a good defensive setup and some guns but they fall away after their top five or six players and without Mundy, Acres, Lobb, Logue and a few others there’s a lot of pressure on very few. Lose Brayshaw and a Pearce and it will all fall apart very quickly.

Deemania I was loving the posts and comparisons. I’m excited by all our draftees, the position of our list and our potential to win more flags in the near future. I was enjoying how positive things get about every player at this time of year, it’s only a matter of months and one loss before all the negativity returns. I was enjoying it not lambasting it!

You gotta love the pre-season. The only time of year an unknown recruit playing school and country footy becomes a Gary Ablett Jnr/Leigh Matthews clone in a matter of two or three posts. Thank you to Kev and all the posters for your brilliant training reports they are so appreciated!

Damn, that sucks. Ben has been great in his coverage of both AFL and AFLW, his work on Gus and Gawny and Ben and Lil and has clearly been a huge part of the marked increase in quality and quantity of our online content. You’ll be missed Gibby! Whatever “Bursty” is is lucky to have you!

I don’t disagree. I do disagree that the bulldogs had “average” wingers last year. That was my point.