Macca

Excellent post @DEE fence and I agree with just about everything that you had to say ... especially your thoughts on the great Windies players. They were a must watch and had so much talent and charisma!! As for England, as much as I don't like Bazball, they did play well to win the first test against India after being well behind on the first innings That might be 12 or 13 wins from their last 16 tests using that method so it's got the cricket world sitting up and taking notice Anyway, the first of 3 ODI's against the Windies starts Friday at the MCG (3 x t20's to follow) But is there much interest? What sort of crowd is expected? The game is not on Ch7 so I reckon a lot of people won't even know that the game is being played My preference will be to watch the 2nd test between India & England (starts Friday as well)

The Changes 2013 Off Season Rodan, Sylvia (RIP), Magner, Tynan, Gillies, J MacDonald, Sellar, Davey, Davis, Taggert, Couch, Stark 2014 Off Season Frawley, Byrnes, Clark, Blease, Strauss, Nicholson, Evans, Barry, Tapscott, Clisby, Georgio 2015 Off Season Toumpas, McKenzie, Howe, Jamar, Bail, Fitzpatrick, Cross, Riley Additions 2013 Off Season Salem, Tyson, Cross, Michie, Vince, Kennedy-Harris, Riley, Hunt, Georgio, Harmes, King 2014 Off Season Lamumba, Brayshaw, Stretch, Frost, Newton, Petracca, O-Mac, ANB, vandenBurg, White, Garlett 2015 Off Season Oliver, Melksham, Weideman, Hulett, Bugg, King, J Smith, Kennedy, Wagner Overall So 3 good players along with 2 others who gave good service replaced by 4 top players along with 8 players who gave (or have given) very good service So in my view, if a club can add 2 or 3 good players year on year, the list ends up in contention and then continues to remain in contention But you don't want to have a year or 2 where you miss out completely Adding an A grader every year is a big ask though. But free agency, trading up in the draft or trading for a gun is entirely possible. One star added every 2 years is not a bad ratio Fast forward to 2024 and we continue to build a good list but we have to now deal with injuries halting our progress to more success. So good depth in all the positions is all-important. In the 2023 off-season the recruiting team addressed our forward line issues but it remains to be seen how that will turn out So our starting point now is the confidence that we can win more games than we lose And you go from there And most of us can remember numerous seasons where we didn't know where our next win would come from

Vegas has set the SB as a virtual pick-em 49ers are at -1.5 which is close enough to a point after I was reckoning -3.0 KC but I'm 4.5 points out

Maybe but the point I'm making (again) was that there was zero outcry at the time. Of course, we've now got new information but that info was not visible 4 years ago. Brown & T-Mac were running on top of the ground in 2021 so there were no alarm bells The chronic injuries came later But every part of recruiting is a risk, some high, some low For instance, swapping draft picks for known talent (at the highest level) carries with it a risk that those players can maybe not come up to expectations. Or they can shine In the last 10 years we've swapped draft picks for Lewis, Brown, May, Lever, Hunter, Langdon, Vince, Melksham, Billings, McAdam, Tomlinson, Hibberd etc etc and most have paid off. Not all, but most We've also drafted a stack of youngsters in the last 15 years ... Scully, Petracca, Trengove, Oliver, Morton, Hogan, Brayshaw, Watts, Salem, Kozzie, Gysberts, Weideman, Toumpas* & Jackson were all top 5 or top 12 picks And the results are all over the place So the focus on Brown & T-Mac is a small-picture argument. If we broaden the argument, there are hit and miss stories left, right & centre You're not going to get everything right as we don't live in a perfect world. Nor are we going to get everything wrong But overriding all that is that our Head of recruiting, Jason Taylor, is one of the best in the business and he would have had a big say in the recruiting of Brown. And given his strike rate, we may have thought that Weideman and/or Hogan* would be power forwards for us right now but alas, you can't win them all From an overall perspective, there's been a lot more hits than misses in the last 10 years so we're punching above our weight. The 5 or 6 years prior to that 10 year stretch was abysmal and was the stuff of nightmares *Jason Taylor wasn't 'officially' with us for the 2012 draft but I'd be astonished if a few phone calls weren't made for his opinion on the worth of Hogan & Toumpas And of course, Jason Taylor is with us on the back of the Mark Neeld recommendation. What a sliding doors moment that was

The other aspect is the frustration with a player who gets injured or gets injured a lot to a point where a player becomes injury prone But a contract is a contract and these days (with the input of the players association & the CBA) those contracts are mostly watertight The thinking in the future might be that a veteran player is earmarked for a limited amount of games. Especially if there becomes a need for bigger lists For instance, the MC would not be expecting Brown & T-Mac to play 26 games in the seniors. However, the MC would have high hopes that Petracca & Viney both play 26 games

I reckon Petracca could kick 45+ goals in a season if he played deepish forward for decent periods of time Up until now his forays forward have been fleeting. But in an ideal world we don't need him forward more than 20% of the time. And maybe on a HFF rather than deep forward But we've got forward line issues with regards to quality forwards so we'll have to see how things play out A lot rests with the availability of Petty and how much JVR improves. Along with how much contribution we get from McAdam, Billings, Tholstrup, Fritsch, Chandler, Kozzie, ANB and maybe T-Mac or Brown (Fullarton?) The other issue is the forwards creating separation and the delivery forward along with the speed of the entries and the use of the corridor So it's not just one player or one thing

Green is a no.6 ... of course he bats at no.4 for WA but Doug Walters used to bat at no.4 for NSW To me Green had to bide his time and a specialist opener (Bancroft or Renshaw) to bat at the top of the order Smith stays at no.4 How is an ageing Smith going to go against a top class fast bowling attack led by Bumrah next summer? (India) It looks like the selectors have mapped out the next 12 months but they won't want to lose against the Kiwi's or India

Smith had to back himself to get a single off the 5th or 6th ball ... especially when a bloke like Shamar Joseph is bowling lights out There's a big difference in Hazlewood having to face 1 ball instead of 2 balls. Or none if Smith gets a single off the last ball of the over Smith always seems to be in his own little world. A great player and tactician but that decision to take that single off the 4th ball lacked thought. To me it was a reckless decision As Joseph was running into bowl I thought if he gets any tail from leg to off with the pace that he bowls, Hazlewood is out In terms of whether it helps test cricket in the West Indies I'm not too sure either. The board over there are cash-strapped and it's costing them lots of money to field a test team That's the grim reality

We don't have a leadership issue, we have a forward line talent issue and to a lesser extent, a 2nd ruck issue. And a forward connection issue If we're going to win big we need JVR to improve and we need Petty fit & firing Without 1 of the 2 we're back to a possible T-Mac, an extremely uncertain Brown or a player like Schache who the MC seem to not have much faith in Unless ... we make the decision to go medium tall with McAdam & Petracca playing decent minutes in the forward line. But for that to happen we need Clarrie back and firing in the midfield (so Petracca can go forward) And then there's the other issue apart from the personnel, the mids to forwards connection. That needs a lot of work too but that's a coaching issue, not a leadership issue Our issues are technical and we need to fix that

No one was foretelling that both Brown & T-Mac would end up with chronic ailments that would mean that both would miss heaps of games Certainly not when we signed Brown nor when we extended T-Mac's contract It simply did not happen After the fact, yes. But not beforehand As previously stated, no one can use hindsight to justify a stance. It's like the draft revisionists. The shouda, couda, wouda people But if you or anyone else can point to where there was strong opposition to signing Brown & extending T-Mac's contract, I'd like to see it Besides which, even if you do happen to find such a person the chances are that they've got a 100 things wrong as well. Even a broken clock is right twice a day Certainly, the majority thinking here was happy with both decisions with Brown & T-Mac What it is really all about is that many here love to moan. So give these types any opportunity to have a whinge and they'll be all over it. It's their speciality (whinging)

So the Aussies get past Indonesia 4-0 in a round of 16 match but now it gets really tough Next assignment is a QF vs Saudi Arabia or South Korea. The likes of Iraq, Iran, Qatar & Japan further on This Saturday morning 3rd Feb at 2.30am

Kinda reminds me of Michael Owen at the end of his career at Man Utd and later Stoke. A great player (and contracted) but his last few years were dogged by injuries But in soccer, those sorts of stories are quite common and there is a lot of money in the sport to cover those types of instances Much smaller scale in the AFL but some of the same principles apply (or will apply as the salary cap increases with more money coming into the sport) The salary cap could be $16Million+ soon enough with the new broadcast rights money kicking in Another example is Luke Jackson. Freo reportably offered him many $Millions over a long contract and I believe we just didn't want to match the offer (or couldn't do) even though we didn't want to lose him With Brown, North were only offering 2 or 3 years IIRC so we got him with the 4 year offer. Otherwise, we don't get him

I believe you're right, Rab

Fairly sure we gave Brown a 4 year deal to acquire the player which included his first year (2021) and T-Mac might have has his contract extended after the 2021 season But it should be remembered that T-Mac played 23 of 25 games in 2021 and there was no outcry when we did extend his contract. None that I recall anyway So you make decisions and you live with the decisions. There's no shouda, couda, wouda aided by hindsight

Recorded both games but followed the games on gamecast Looks like the Lions imploded or was it just the 49ers stepping up at crunch time? And the Ravens just couldn't score TD's despite being at or near the redzone a lot of the times. Couldn't get it done?

Leaderboard Post Season Tipping Comp 22 - BDA 21 - Go the Biff 18 - DemonDave 17 - Clintosaurus 15 - Dee Zephyr 14 - Macca, titan_uranus 13 - Gorgoroth 11 - JV7 9 - layzie 8 - DeeSpencer 3 - Dr. Gonzo

Haha! Kelvin* retired at the end of 1985, PF, but the point remains that by the end of any given season, the writing is on the wall for a number of players These days, a player like Templeton would probably command a 5+ year deal. Even average players can get 3 year contracts in the modern era So the times they are a changin' but after a while, we'll start getting used to it. To counter that, we probably need bigger lists *Ventured to Catland in 1983 when Templeton won the game for us kicking 8 goals (we were 6 goals down at quarter time) At the time, we thought we'd acquired ourselves a superstar after that match

Spot on LD And with these sorts of things becoming more prevalent, the AFL should be looking at add-ons to the salary caps (in a separate form) to cover the veterans Or a slightly increased list size so clubs aren't left short? Going back 40+ years ago the clubs had players on their supplementary list to call upon The Eagles & previously the Gold Coast have had massive injury lists in recent times yet couldn't even add State league players to help out (?) Stand corrected on that though

Ordinarily dropping a player because of form issues is quite straightforward But with Grundy it was different as he was doing quite well in the ruck but we decided to go down a different path and he became surplus to needs I've no doubt all that would have been explained to him but effectively, the relationship was over (in my view only, Kent) So picking him as an emergency was probably token to make it look a bit better? But again, that's only my view and there was probably a lot more to it I've come to terms with it as nothing ventured, nothing gained The rucking position and the back up to a stellar ruckman like Gawn can be problematical in terms of what is needed as back-up. And then we can't predict injuries. There's more than a few what if's

Full credit to the Windies and a star is born with Shamar Joseph! Just brilliant! To temper all that is hearing that it has cost the WI cricket board $2Million to send their team here ... that's sobering. And the WI is not at all cash-strapped. Test cricket in the Windies has no broadcast partner The big 3 nations and the ICC really needs to step in and save test cricket from a worldwide point of view But for the Windies, they ouplayed the Aussies fair & square Not sure that Smith should have exposed Hazlewood to the last 2 deliveries of Shamar's over? And apparently the West Indies were fired up after Rodney Hogg called them pathetic & hopeless And just 986 spectators on day 4 and it's a Sunday? That's a shocking turn-up

Interesting that Klopp told the ownership in November and apparently Xabi Alonzo is odds on to get the position (according to the bookies)

Travis Head with a king pair (out first ball in both innings of a test match) That would haunt you! It's happened 23 times now which includes 2 Aussies (Adam Gilchrist & Ryan Harris)

With Fullarton & Brown not being available for the first month of the season (that's a guess) here's the make-up of our Rucking & Forward line as I see it R Gawn (80%-85% game time) HF Kozzie/Trac JVR ANB/T-Mac F Fritsch Petty Chandler/McAdam T-Mac is the relief ruckman as it's either him or Schache as I see it (or JVR at a stretch) I understand that T-Mac is training with the backs but with Brown & Fullarton being injured, that thinking will possibly change Unless, we use JVR only as the back up ruckman but if that happens and T-Mac doesn't play, we'd only have one tall forward as a target in JVR's absence (Petty) ... Fritsch as a forward works best when he's the 3rd forward Gawn could go forward occasionally (as he once did) but it's his time on the bench as he gets older that creates the issue We need to at least neutralise the ruck contests in Gawn's absence as we can't lose them pointblank

I agree but we might have to use JVR as a bit of a forward ruck if Gawn needs time off the ground. As Max gets older, we will need to manage him through a long season. Max has taken a lot of punishment over the years As it stands, Gawn might only be on the ground for 80%-85% of the games So, maybe a total of 8-10 ruck contests in the forward line for a player like JVR ... not a great workload for a forward ruck But the question might be is who rucks around the ground with Gawn on the bench? With Fullarton & Brown not being options to start the season, who else is there? Schache? T-Mac? And if Schache or T-Mac are preferred as the relief ruck, where do they play on the ground when they are not rucking? The can't really play as the sub as either might be called upon to ruck early in the game n.b. T-Mac was the relief ruck in both finals last year and JVR was called upon occasionally in the QF Gawn shouldered the large majority of the rucking role in both finals but can he now do that for an entire season without risking breaking down?

Many would be thinking that our best 22 doesn't include either Brown or T-Mac ... they are both more so back-up players and you might rather have decent back-up than zero-experience back-up (as key forwards) We are in contention, after all But as others have mentioned, we don't have real cover for Gawn with Fullarton going down but it's hard to justify paying reasonable coin to more than one back up ruckman ( neither of whom may not play much at all) Although Schache had his contract extended so maybe the MC felt a need to have another back up ruckman anyway Many of us were wondering why Schache's contract was extended (if he was surplus to needs) but he now comes into play if Gawn needs proper help around the ground (forward line rucking can be the domain of JVR) Schache as the sub? Well, he's played that role before!