Demon Dynasty

While i'm not 100% convinced at this point the bloke has shown that he just might offer some X factor and make a difference up forward, albeit still only in short bursts and a long way off B or A grade. Not expecting him to be at this point obviously especially given the interruptions with only about 60 games behind him but he is already 26. A young 26 maybe given the lack of time on the park? Seems to work hard both ways, quite accurate in front of goal. Pressures reasonably well inside 50. Plenty of score involvements, quite good on the ground and average meters gained quite solid as a forward. Disposal a little off AFL level both handball and kicking at this point. Turns it over a little too much as a result. Not a major skew but enough to be a concern. If he can clean up the last part and with a few more pre-seasons/body growing stronger and some more experience, particularly up forward, he just might become a decent 2nd/3rd stringer medium mobile forward who pushes up the ground quite a bit. Depth at Casey initially and added pressure for a spot in the 2nd/3rd string medium/tall role up forward might be handy to keep Weid and Melk honest. Worth considering if available on a reasonably inexpensive package deal. https://m.afl.com.au/stats/stats-pro#/Compare?playerIds=CD_I993806,CD_I295340&comparisonTab=h2h

Bruce just cracked a fat

Geelong starting to look ploddish and getting caught too far off their men on the turnover. Now who does that remind me of? ?

Would like to see Narkle playing alongside Elliot in our 50!

Rad's been handy in the air so far.

We all have our pet hates SW. The drugsters & meth are at the top of mine. Closely followed by a few others. I suspect, while not alone, Meth have gotten away with murder over the decades pre the intro of ASADA.

Good...a close relative of Essendrug and just as slimey.

All i know from what i've seen and heard from that place is i would want out Mono. I'm not sure but i might need a pipe of some sort if i couldn't! Their top brass who signed off on all the nonsense on the camp are still in place!

CoolX have you thought about a name change? Something ending in 'aid' maybe?

The injury cloud could be an issue and club's have been known to tell the odd porky pie over the years (cough cough!) but if there's any truth to the comments from Bucks below he might not be as badly off as some are suggesting. Need to put a caveat on the contract amount & terms regardless though. Is it possible to put some sort performance based / time on ground trigger into the contract?... “He’s put in a good block of form. No one wants to be injured ever and when you’ve had a history of it, you don’t like to re-injure. But the block of work he’s put in will sustain him and will have him in good nick — that’s the positive aspect of it,” Buckley said. “There’s always a worst-case scenario, but that’s going to be a product of the work Billy puts in now and our ability to pull the right levers to continue to have him grow that strength in his whole posterior chain, not just his hammies. “We know how much work he’s put in, so he’ll be rewarded.” Elliott and teammate Darcy Moore flew to Germany last November to see world-renowned doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt to help overcome their hamstring issues. End. Extract courtesy of SEN - May 2019

A very pleasant interview ...the only thing missing was a crackling fire in the background! Said all the right things but in the end it will come down to how well we do at fixing the present list at the trade/draft table. A fair portion just isn't up to competing and holding down a regular spot at AFL level or adding any value in terms of what's needed to fill the gaping holes and lack of depth. Massive cull and turnover needed in the next draft and beyond. Like any "good or great" coach you gotta have the cattle to make finals on a regular basis. Culture and coaching the difference that can take you from just making up the numbers in finals to a GF and possibly a premiership but list management and clever selections/trades also play a huge part. Anyway, here's hoping we do well in the off season in securing the likes of Langdon, Elliot etc and re-signing the likes of Frosty. A big name recruit or two might also help change the negative narrative a little also. Expecting a bounce in 2020 but we really need something more substantial after the horrors of 2019.

On here or at the forum?

I doubt a veteran like Ross would take on a place as toxic as the Crows right now unless they offer him amazing coin. Hard to believe but culture wise they're in a worse state than we are right now. Will take them weeks to go through the appointment phase. Then there's the new coach's style/playing methods and player preferences. He will have little time to assess before the draft. What a shimozlle! Disgruntled players will be leaving like rats out of a burning drain pipe i reckon. A great time to raid them for a few morsels if they fit our bill.

Blight suggesting Pyke might go to Freo.

Pyke gone!

Lots of mixed messages ...not unusual at trade time GM.. ...."When contacted by The Age, Frost's manager Anthony McConville said he was yet to receive a formal contract offer from Melbourne, but he was confident the two parties were having positive discussions." Courtesy of Sam McClure from the Age

The old saying "when you're on a good thing" also applies when you "feel" you aren't Steve. It's no different at any professional club or workplace really. People get attracted to success in sport, or even the smell of it, like bears to a honey pot. The converse can also be true. And it goes without saying that people often do things and make decisions for particular "said" reasons that are a fair way from the truth. Diplomacy is often the path best trodden from a career POV, especially in such a constantly moving feast that is the AFL.

Thank goodness. Hopefully that means we are closer to locking up the Frostmeister. No more defenders until 2020 trade period pls.

I think FITB meant gettable as in someone else getting him AF

This is / was one of the key issues this season plus the fact that we had a forward line pretty much incapable of getting separation on their opponents often enough to present a regular target (incentive to kick to or kick to favoured side where player can run onto the ball). It is a dual edged sword which only works if both sides are sharp and you have clever/classy ball users coming from mid field and beyond to deliver. Outside of Big Maxy, Tracc on odd occasions, Melk and the occasional decent pass from the usual bombing mids, we just don't have many quality ball users outside of 50 who are capable of consistently finding targets or kicking beautifully weighted kicks to the favoured side. Having said that you also need the occasional big pack mark around the hot zone inside 50 from occasional big bombs and/or chaos worm burners to mix it up. However even this wont work as well if other forwards aren't playing their role and leading their defenders away from that zone/contest. How often do we lament other teams doing this against us yet we are often left complaining about how crowded our forward line is. We don't really have that KF pack marking impact option either. Then there's the lack of quality smalls to feed off that latter situation (front and square or out the back) when the pack mark isn't taken and the ball spills free. As many have said and i've said so often over the past year or more, our list is completely out of wack with too much emphasis on slow plodding 'see-ball-get ball' mids. The mix on this list needs a major overhaul. I would anticipate an improvement / bounce back off a very low base next season but might take three to five seasons at the trade table before we start seeing a serious phoenix type rise with regular finals appearances & cred.

Weid and Oscar were both big favs of Macca. Dunn's career (for us) was cut short as a result of the Oscar preference. Hopefully all that nonsense of "the next big thing" (or the earlier classic "youth policy" - Schwab) left with him and those within the FD are now basing their selection decisions on relevant qualitative and quantitative performance measures, game day results and the players' ability to carry out the roles being asked of them. We might get the mix / culture within the FD right at some point ....hopefully sooner than later.