poita

When in the next decade will this happen, and at what level will he be playing at that time? Keeping Laurie on the list is the equivalent of a gambler chasing his losses. I agree that Bowey needs to be tried elsewhere, because he is not working as a defender.

Richmond got a crowd of 19K to their game against the Giants two weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon. Given our respective member numbers and the poor forecast for Saturday night, are we in danger of falling below that number?

I'm more concerned about what our 2027 team looks like, and how we recruit and develop adequate replacements for Gawn, May, McDonald, Viney, Melksham and Salem in that time, whilst acknowledging that Lever, Langdon, Petracca, Fritsch and Neal-Bullen are also 30 by then.

Lamb has been a massive failure from both a personnel and a contract perspective, whilst we have been a top 4 side. How is he going to attract and retain top end talent if we drop out of finals contention when he can't do it now?

We definitely need to change our thinking. If a team like Geelong can get away with 1 year deals for their older players, we shouldn't need to lock players away until their mid 30s. The Brayshaw situation should also be a reality check for us.

Do you really believe that, if a coach says "please Mr List Manager, I need a genuine no 2 ruckman to back up my ageing, injury prone lead ruck", he is going to be ignored? He is absolutely responsable for the imbalance of the list and our obsession with recruiting undersized utility types.

When May and Lever are bad, they are just horrific. It feels like we've spent the entire game taking 5 steps too many and running into trouble, or just banging the ball long to the Freo defenders.

I'm glad people have worked out that Lever is a liability. I'd rather see Billings in there. Goodwin is an absolute moron for the team he has selected, just completely incompetent.

Pedersen was a great contributor when called upon, but the key line in that article is that his presence allowed teammates such as Jack Watts to play their preferred roles. Goodwin clearly has a short memory if he thinks that weakening the forward line by playing Van Rooyen and Petty in the ruck is the best thing for the team.

You mean when we're out of finals contention? Fullarton should have played against West Coast, after Petty was ruled out.

As others have said, the issue is not that we have overlooked two poor options in Fullarton and Verrell. The issue is that we're destroying our forward structure, and potentially the players themselves, by asking Van Rooyen and Petty to play as permanent rucks, particularly against an aggressive ruckman like Draper. It is exceedingly poor selection and coaching, which will look even worse if we cop another injury to a key position player.

They probably allow for the possibility that he'll do something stupid like trying to play with broken ribs and a dodgy spleen, much like Max wants to play before his leg heals properly.

Just to clarify, we: 1. Continued to play our most important player in the second half of a game that we had already won, after he had sustained a significant ankle injury in the first half; 2. Have no AFL standard backup ruck on the list, even though it was blatantly clear to every man and his dog that it was sheer madness to assume that a 32 year old ruckman would make it through an entire season unscathed; 3. Repeatedly balked at the opportunity to give an opportunity to Fullarton in recent weeks, even though Max has clearly been at less than full fitness; and 4. Feebly tried to cover for the absence of Max by throwing our best young forward (in the middle of a career best game) into the ruck, and therefore completely destabilising our forward line in the second half. You'd think the Petracca debacle might have taught us a few things, but we continue to do our very best to destroy our players.

Lever was absolutely terrible. I'm guessing he was directly responsible for about 8 shots on goal, mostly to Allen. He is tall, but he's not a genuine tall defender.

Imagine thinking that Hunter, Schache, Billings, McAdam, Fullarton & Hore are the experienced heads that we needed to stay in the premiership window. Our recruiters and list management staff need to be replaced pronto. What hope is there for the likes of Verrall, Adams and Brown when they see how those guys approach their football?

Not that I've seen. If he can't leap at the ball, he has no plan B.

I just love the idea that we're building our form and fitness for a finals campaign that is increasingly unlikely to happen. More likely we're just not good enough this year, and the happy clappers that dominate our supporter base are utterly deluded.

His best football is clearly very good, but we have barely seen it for three years. In some ways he has actually become a liability because his talent has demanded selection in a struggling team when he clearly hasn't been fit enough to contribute. His safety first approach also doesn't help our efforts to move the ball quickly, although he may have helped us to retain possession in the fourth quarter on Friday.

Second quarter was fantastic, but otherwise we kicked three goals (and thirteen points) in three quarters. We got exactly what we deserved by returning to negative, timid football in the last quarter instead of trying to win the game.

Absolutely cretinous Neal-Bullen.

How many marks have Brisbane taken inside 50? Our defenders are nowhere near their men.

As bad as the umpires are, we're still our own worst enemy.

Has Windsor hit a target by foot or hand in the past 6 weeks?

My 70 point estimate is looking like being massive unders.

I'm more than happy for Kalani to travel under the radar for the next 18 months. The last thing we need is for him to be a no. 1 pick contender. If we can get a quality prospect with a later pick and develop him internally, that sounds perfect.