Macca

Yes, mentioned him in a prior post. But Fullarton might only play if we play 2 rucks or if Max is unavailable. Schache ends up being the spare We tend to see the best in a ruckman once they are the main man. Right now that is Max easily but we'll probably play 2 rucks in at least 4 or 5 games. Unless Fullarton cements a spot. And the seasons are getting longer for Max Not forgetting that JVR can also ruck occasionally (more so in the forward line) And he's not too bad at the caper - doesn't mind body contact

I don't believe we'll be relying on T-Mac or Brown but they're both contracted and if either can get reasonably fit, that's ok back up I didn't mention Schache either but he's back up as well. Jefferson might come on too and we have extended his contract so the MC can see something. He's one to watch Where we will probably be reliant is with Petty & Fritsch being fully fit and over their foot complaints There's a few if's & but's so fingers crossed we can get healthy up forward Still, our backline is stellar with good depth and if we acquire 2 x midfield/ Utility types in the draft, an already established midfield will be bolstered I'm reasonably confident going into the next year as even with our forward line woes we still won 16 games in the season proper and went very close in 2 finals In the dark days winning 16 games was a pipedream so we've got a good team right now that just needs to be a bit better I can't imagine playing finals next season with a C- forward line. That would be unlikely to happen again ... as for our kicking at goal, practising under pressure is a good remedy. And an easy thing to simulate

Well we're running out of time to pick up an experienced forward and we may feel we've got the personnel anyway The issue with the forward line is staying healthy along with the delivery to the forwards ... and our forwards need to be able to create separation better as well McQualter coming on board with new ideas is sure to sharpen things up in that area So Fullarton (Forward/Ruck) and McAdam (small forward) have been added to JVR, Petty, Smith, Fritsch, Chandler & Kozzie with some back up from Brown & T-Mac (if required) Melksham might be available at the back-end of '24 And in the games where Fullarton plays, Gawn can push forward occasionally as more of a surprise packet And if we bolster our midfield (2 x midfield/utility types?) then we can safely push Petracca forward whenever required And I agree with you with regards Brayshaw

The reverse mozz in operation Lankans now 4-166

And now we're staring down the barrel at another loss Batting first Sri Lanka 1-156 off 26 overs

It's a mystery unless a modicum of logic is applied ... but that logic can be flawed logic haha

A lot of our errors and poor decisions from our mids were caused by the pressure from the opposition ... and we need to fix that Yze was our mids coach so the faults can be sent his way. Put it this way, if it's no fault of Yze why did we have him in his role? What was he there for? And I'd argue that if Petty, JVR & Melksham had have played instead of Smith, T-Mac & Chandler, we don't exit in straight sets Brayshaw being taken out hurt as well as Petracca couldn't be used forward as much But these things happen and let's not forget that we got a dream run with injuries in 2021

As disappointed as we were in exiting the finals the way we did, September football exposes weaknesses Ours was a forward line that lacked quality and marking power. And to win the flag you can't hope to win 3 finals with a makeshift forward line And that's not an excuse, it's a reason For what it's worth, the reasoning on why we exited doesn't make me feel any better

And what were Schache & Tomlinson going to do? Neither are forwards of any note Grundy wasn't under consideration and he's no forward either Face it, we ran out of options in the forward line (in terms of injuries) and that's all there is to it

But you didn't say that or know that at the time. None of us did You're using hindsight to strengthen your argument

Wouldn't have made much difference at all and we might have been worse off So not the fault of the coach

Good question Is he taking on the same role that Yze had or has that role been tweaked? You'd imagine he'd have a fair bit of input

Or another version of total football where a lot of the players can play different positions or roles within a game. We need a bit more versatilty regardless I suppose we've had our version of chaos-ball especially with the forward 50 entries but we'll need to tweak that you'd imagine And in 2017 (Goodwin's first year in charge) the mantra was 'fearless' football which by and large, was adopted and has stayed. We're very good at winning the contested ball Most of all we need a healthy forward line

I reckon there's a decent chance that most (or all) of the clubs know which players are the preferred choices of the other clubs (at least in the top 6 or 8) For instance, we moved up to pick 4* in the 2015 draft as the strong rumour was that Essendon were going to use either pick 5 or 6 on Oliver All the top prospects would already have managers (by and large) so there'd be a lot of dialogue about. Would be difficult to keep everything secretive *Pick 4 was originally pick 3 but Mills was taken at pick 3 as an academy player by the Swans

Our depth in the forward line was exhausted to a point where the last alternate wasn't considered (Schache) And we had to play a clearly unfit T-Mac as our only KPF T-Mac, Smith and Chandler don't play if JVR, Petty & Melksham were available. And if Brown was fit he might have forced JVR out Hindsight tells us that Brown ended up being unavailable but that wasn't being said at the start of the season Melksham coming good wasn't foretold either but nonetheless, we ran out of depth players in the forward line By contrast, the backline mostly stated put and we were only missing Brayshaw out of the midfield during the finals (Oliver missed a fair chunk of the season but we managed to cover for him)

49ers, Eagles, Lions

Well, we've appointed McQualter so expect some changes of some sort

We could look at 2-3 week windows with both players The issue is that the sport requires a stack of running for all the players and a player can't be just plonked in the forward line these days. So both Brown & T'Mac are going to be needed to do a fair bit of running in games But all clubs will be experiencing the same issue sooner or later ... related to the longer contracts being offered or handed out these days (far more than yesteryear) And that's related to the resticted FA's or unrestricted FA's. Clubs don't want to lose talent, especially KPF's And it's often the KPF's who start feeling the pinch once they hit their late 20's or 30+

In a practical sense, I can't see the club delisting both players with a close on a $1Million payout figure just to create 2 spots on the list What I can see is we bite the bullet and retain both but with a reduced pre-season (a case of have-to to keep their bodies able) And then nurse them through the season proper Somehow, find a way to keep them both fresh ... the alternative is a $1Million payout or risk them breaking down in the pre-season

Top 6

@dazzledavey36 So how would rate our forward line going into the SF? On available talent What was your practical alternative?

So @dazzledavey36 If you miss a shot at goal do you blame your coach? Or if you get injured, do you also blame your coach?

Grundy had checked out or wasn't under consideration (in my view) If he was under consideration he's the sub instead of Schache (surely) And with Brayshaw taken out, we needed Petracca on the ball. Perhaps we could have played Petracca forward more but that in effect, weakens our midfield (shifting the problem)

We have in the past paid the odd player out but not for the sort of money that Brown & T-Mac are probably on But I tend to agree that if a tortuous pre-season hinders rather than helps, it's counter-productive So do we bite the bullet and payout close enough to $1Million to create 2 spots? With the advent of longer contracts right across the board, paying players out at the end might become a normal occurance One way to alleviate large payouts is to front end contracts. Another is to transition into assistant coaching but that's tricky as the playing contracts are water-tight without any KPI's attached The other issue with paying players out is that the money is still included in the salary cap so it's not like cap space is created Another way to go about it is to set both players for 2-3 games at a time - in rotation (and then rest up and train in simulated form for a return in 2 or 3 weeks time, instead of grinding away at Casey)

Who would you have played up forward instead of T-Mac? As I see it all our key forwards were injured or suspended going into the SF Even on 1 leg we had no other alternatives ... as it was, we went into the SF with I key forward only and T-Mac was also the 2nd ruck So who were the alternates?