Demon Dynasty

What made you come to that conclusion Mono!

Not with his kicking woes and a bad case of the yips he isn't. Would rather leave him at the Blues for them to sort his problems out for that price. We need to grab one of Sanders, Caddy or maybe Watson with 5

Surely not, we'd be jumping from the frying pan!

While i'm not totally against McKay our record at fixing set shot kicking isn't great. Would need to sort out his head too. Not just accuracy but in terms of which kick to use from where (snap vs drop punt). He was allover the shop here in the back half of the season. We also had players having problems with same in the finals (Max & Smith from the same position on the ground towards the Punt Road end). Having said that i can't see him leaving the Blues unless he's effectively pushed out the door.

Only if there's any truth to it Mega

Yes exactly what we need. If we can add Watson, Sanders or Caddy into the mix that would be handy.

Grundy likely to be off the books as well yes?

Thanks but i'm not referring to clearances Axis. First use / extractions. I know Champion keep the numbers on these but obviously we never get to see them unlss it's released in a paper or via Fox analysis etc. I have no issues re Clarry being up there from a clearance POV and never have. I'm merely saying that i don't think he (Clarry) has been as involved and/or maybe as effective in this area (first use/extractions) in 23 vs prior years AT CBs. Stoppages.... no issues and looks to be still as involved / effective as he has in prior seasons. P.S. this may not be Clarry's doing either. He might have been asked to play a somewhat lessor role at CBs in this area with Simon wanting others to get more involved / experience. Pure speculation though as is most of my thoughts above having no data to conpare to prior years.

That about sums up Gil's reign. As long as the $$ kept flowing in, him & the other ring masters at Barnum & Baileys couldn't give a rat's tossbag about where the actual game is headed from an on-field & off field integrity POV. That they never seriously addressed the ARC issues that arose (over two consecutive weeks) tells you exactly where they sit. Of course it was the umpire's fault. Out you go son, nothing to see here folks. We had the Cripps & Maytard fiascos. Again nothing to see here folks. Here's your Best & 'Fairest' Brownlow Crippa and there's your Premiership medal Maytard! Nice footy act mate, sorry you had to suffer through all that nonsense that followed afterwards. Everyone get around Maytard including all you Chanel 7 & media folk on the AFL gavy train (or else!). It's dispicable all these accusations that were thrown at him. Poor fellow! Then there's the complete farce that is the Stand rule. Initially introduced to prevent players from encroaching across corridor / fat side in order to prevent the player taking the mark or free from playing on or kicking on 45 angles through the corridor or into 50. Now we rarely, if ever, see players getting pinged for entering / running through the protected zone. Sometimes 3 to 5 seconds after the mark/free has been taken. So why is the rule even there? Like all good corporate leaders and politicians Gil was very good at speaking with forked tongue. I don't hold out much hope for improvement with his replacement either. They're very much starting to sound and act like the IOC of Aussie Rules Football. Untouchable and accountable to no one.

Yes agreed but he wasn't extracting (first use not clearances) as often at CBs this season imv. Probably should have clarrified im referring to our effectivenes at CBs hence the LJ out of the middle GF references. Not as often or effectively from what i witnessed anyway. Around ground stoppages yes. Pretty similar to prior years. Most of our 'effective' CB extractions came from Viney imv. Max not too bad, with cameos from Clarry (when not injured) and minor assists from others attending (Gus, Tracc, Jordon & Sparrow).

We really only have one key extractor though and that's Viney. Most teams don't usually have more than one genuine quality extractor on their list but i think we need a decent back up 2nd stringer that either relieves Viney when resting or comes on for a chop out if he's getting tagged out of the game. Figure this 'was' Dunstan but he's now gone and was never selected anyway. If Viney doesn't fire, escpecially at CBs, we generally don't do so well imv. Teams know this and put extra work into him to try and curb his influence. From his last four finals he's probably only fired on most cylinders once. I suspect due to the counter effect the oppo are bringing. There may have been other unrelated factors at play of course. Imo we've lacked at least one mid with leg speed / zip at CBs & stoppages to close down space on loose ground balls (and the oppo hunting them) once the ball gets outside the inner ring. Critical for first use and clearances when it does which must be the outcome in a fair percentage of CB contests. We dominated CBs in the GF as we had a tall part time ruck bringing bringing the agility with some speed once the ball hit the deck in LJ. Since he left we've struggled to win CB clearances againat the top line clubs on a regular basis. Sure, occasionally we come out neutral and some might say that's ok. Against the mediocre / lessor teams we better them much of the time here as one would expect. Which is why i was both surprised and disaapointed Simon did not look to up Kozzy's attendances at CBs this season, especially in the two finals.

At least one of the two FT. If they have both its a bonus. If they have one and the other is up tp scratch (AFL worthy) then all good.

D: Demonstone reminding us that we wont (probably should be an F!)

Probably the most important thread of the season Edm. I would go one step further and say that Simon, Taylor & Lamb need to put a caveat on any future trades / draft picks. That unless they're elite with decision making AND skillls by hand AND foot (preferably both sides) they're overlooked for the next option. We also desperately need an injection of LEG SPEED (as per Dee Spencer's post above). Speed creates space which creates time which creates opportunities coming inside. And a key aspect from those opportunities is better looks for forwards. In other words taking shots from better angles and/or closer to goal, not so many from the pockets or from 50 plus. Simon, Taylor & Lamb chose to hang on to dour contested / defending types over leg speed in the past 18 months and its cost us imv. The likes of Laurie over Bedford and the loss of Hunt (albeit he didn't help his own cause with a shizen 2022) ensures we are really only left with one genuinely zippy player and that's Kozzy. Rivers goes ok as well. Time and space can also be created by agility / baulking etc or silky handball skills a la Pendles, Mitchel, Flower, Diesal, Cyril, Ablett Snr & Jnr etc but those types don't come along very often.

Yes i was calling for Schache as Max's back up in the second half of 23 once it became apparent Grundy wasn't in favour. At least when needed for match up purposes. Not as the weekly sub of course. And especially while BB & T-Mac were no goes. However that was prior to his last 3 to 4 matches at Casey plus his minor sub appearance in the seniors at one point. For whatever reason (possibly the re-sign?) from about 4 weeks out from finals he went from looking ok in patches at Casey, to looking like a cooked lame horse who had no interest in racing at all and had forgotten how to race on top! Then there's the sub/no sub fiasco. There was no greater opportunity to use Shack than from half time in the QF. Yet he was left picking splinters out for the entire game as we floundered with our inside 50 ruck contests, particularly in the final quarter. Then there's the separate question of whether we should have used him as sub at all in that match. There weren't too many serious alternatives though, bar Hibb, who's not exactly ruck chop out material. IF (and i emphasise IF) he was re-signed after those last 4 weeks (or so) i would argue it would have to be one of the worst list decisions in recent times.

Always risky to guage players from highlight reels as you don't see "the other bits" that a player may not be doing so well. On face value he appears to have some serious dukes and a great right hoof. Does he have a leap though to take the odd contested over a pack or across a pack? People saying he's not mobile enough. I'm not so sure. Has the feels and look of a reasonably mobile key tall. Not that dissimilar to Petty although again, the aerial side doesn't appear to be a strong suit from that footage. He also might come into the AFL fold a bit behind the eight ball physically. A little like May did in his first season? Could take a year to get somewhere near the requirements of AFL. That may mean 2025 before we see a pay off. Might be worth the chance though if he was super eager and willing to really commit to going full tilt on the training track & gym. Would be a big step up from Schache that's for sure and at this point offer more upside than either of BB & T-Mac given where they're at physically. Remember you only need to get a KF up and about in the H&A, putting in the odd decent game with some cameos thrown (see BB in 2021). Then set them up for a big tilt at performing in finals and the GF if you're lucky enough to get through a la Tom Boyd and Podds. He doesn't necessarily need to star for 3 to 5 years. 1 or 2 good or VG years might help us in picking up our next silverware. If he retires afterwards he's done his job and we'll all be patting the recruiters & FD on the back. BB a fair example of a similar pathway (to us) and helping us to get the elusive drought breaker.

Which raises the question again... Why the Schache re-sign? Incredibly perplexing decision

Possibly not listening to the players or maybe turning a blind eye somewhat? Although there is no way of knowing what the majority view is across all the clubs LZ.

Kudos to Turner for pushing this. At the same time, the Pies use their forwards and deliver to them at a much classier / effective level than we do (much of the time anyway). Plus they manage to clear out their forward line when they need to to get some of these one v ones going. Their ability to transition quickly plus then get the ball into the hands of dangerous finshers to deliver to these types and / or hit the scoreboard themselves on occasions is also probably the most effective going around right now. Simon would do well to take notice of their finals series here. It held up well under all sorts of pressure and their speedy transition, miserly team defence and quality forward craft ended up delivering them the ultimate prize.

Casboult looks cooked to me

Probably best not to mention it Ollie

Ahhh nope, now extinct having all fallen off the edge of the earth

Who knows deeves. Stocks were definitely low at Casey in terms of quality in-form options coming in to finals once the likes of Melk & Petty went down. Watching Melk do his knee against the Swans i couldn't help but think at the time, there goes any chance of a GF appearance. Was hoping for a Prelim minimum but alas. Here we are looking ahead to the draft / Grundy & JJ trade outcomes etc.

I would guess he made his decision to move on after he was brought back in after number of weeks at Casey, then dropped the next week. He probably did the right thing by himself and the club as he'd effectively checked out. And probably said so when finals arose. No way Goody (or any sensible experienced senior coach) would risk another LJ performance in a final. Would be like taking a very compromisef injured player in. But then there's the Schache mystery 🤷‍♂️

Would hazard a guess it's mostly the technique / method. He doesn't get his upper body over the pill at any stage. Sits back on it and kicks up & unders instead of through the ball. His present method hasn't changed since i've been watching, which means he's always struggled with any distance beyond about 35 meters. Hard to believe this aspect (set shots > more distance with accuracy) of his game hasn't been improved by now. Apparently though, if we just keep winning the contested, defend to the death and keep up with our repeat & record entries into 50, the rest will just take care of itself.