Little Richard

I would actually love a Champions League type tournament every year amongst state leagues. They could play it over the 3-week bye period - get the top xx teams from each state based on results from the past season, maybe two from SA, WA and VIC and the other spots made up from the other states/territories. Play a knockout-style tournament over those few weeks and crown a winner. Maybe the AFL could even dish out some significant prize money to the winning club. Personally, I think that would be a heap of fun.

That attitude set us back years during the tanking saga. We should always be aiming to win, everything else is secondary.

I still remember when, early in his career, Clarry started kicking (and running) more. He went from an inside handballing machine to a much more dangerous player, and arguably that pushed him up to superstar status. Now he's a shadow of that player, probably due to physical and mental fitness I guess. He looks so far off winning another Bluey it's crazy.

I'm not sure we have the luxury of taking a risk like that. He can play for sure, but that has serious potential to be another bust trade.

Hopefully that's the game he needed to end his form slump, definitely looked like he regained some confidence. We still need a genuine spearhead to shield JVR a bit and allow him to keep pinch-hitting in the ruck. Where that player comes from, I have no idea.

Great games from Viney, Bowey, Disco and Melksham. 38 marks across Disco, May and Lever is crazy. The goal review system is garbage.

Agreed, good time to do a Roos and trade in a Bernie Vince and Jordan Lewis, if they're going.

Who is he rucking against in those contests though? Might be the other teams part timer most of the time. Having said that it's a pretty interesting stat and he's a super useful player in that area. At the end of the day we're better off if JVR doesn't have the burden of being our number one forward, at least until he's 25 at least.

Petty has flashes but he's still a natural defender. Disco is playing well down back but he also looked really good up forward. I think we need to bite the bullet and send Petty back, Disco forward with JVR.

We even managed to turn Brown into a 'kick it on top of his head' kind of forward. His lead-up game was much better at North, no doubt thanks to the fact that they had a proper forward structure and knew how to deliver inside 50... even when they were terrible.

Feeling quite optimistic about this game. I think we can get it done and if we do it'll be a huge statement, hopefully a galvanising moment for the rest of the season. Viney to go ballistic.

Fit Spargs is a really important cog in the machine, need him back at full flight in 2025 if we're going to go far.

Losing Gus and Nibbler was a huge blow to the leadership stocks.

Can still remember walking back to the car with my dad, holding his hand and crying my eyes out. I was 29 years old.

That would be very optimistic in my opinion.