deelusions from afar

C'mon mate - it was (I think) his first AFL game. We wasn't coming in to dominate against the best ruck in the game, he was coming in to compete. And by Gawn's own admission, Gawn didn't have the greatest of days.

Think it also depends on the what he's capable of. He was not the same player in 2022 as he was in early 2021. In early 2021 he had the best 1 on 1 record (or something) in the league. Coming back from a serious injury he may still get back to that level. Needs a 2020-2021 TMac style summer working on agility and speed and we may lose little in defence if Petty goes forward.

I agree with your point. The gun forwards that you can build your side around are generally top picks. If we are in the position to draft Cadman, then along with JVR we have a good chance of having at least one gun KPF over the next 10 years. Look at how quickly Richmond and Geelong are able to rebuild on the run - it is in part from having quality key position forwards at the peak of their powers. It is easier to bring in midfielders / defenders when you have the big key forward sorted. And who knows, Petty might become a gun forward himself if played there regularly next year. Will be interesting to see how this plays out - if could all be for nothing if North rate Cadman highly and draft him with their first pick (should they retain it).

Looking at those highlights I'm thinking maybe we should be looking at his teammates that can kick inside 50 to a moving target 😆

That's a bit harsh for mine. No team has depth in every position on the field and we are no exception. To make the cutoff at 195cm conveniently rules out JVR and Turner who are both promising young KPP. Weid hasn't come on as hoped (but was a high pick) and Jackson has performed well beyond his years when compared with other ruck/forwards at the same age. The reality is good players over 195cm are rare - the good ones generally get snapped up pretty high in the draft and a fair portion of them end up as busts anyway.

I think you're right - and maybe Max also wants to prolong his career and playing with another ruckman is the only way. With Trac and Clarry signing long term deals he prob wants to stay in the team as long as he can. Re the strategy though, while it makes sense, isn't this making it a little easy for the pies. They are a rival next year (not to mention beating us twice this year). Grundy has barely played for them - is not in their finals side or the sides that beat us twice. By paying 70% of Grundy's salary and locking that in, it allows them to go after players that will plug holes in a side that has already overtaken us. Geelong and Port are (reportedly) out of the race for Grundy and the pies want to move him on to sign De Goey and bring in McStay/Hill and whoever else they're chasing. What's the rush? If the cap is so tight for them then we hold all the leverage. Having said that, I feel like this is already a done deal with most of the details nutted out - it's just a matter of waiting for the pies season to finish / trade period to start to announce.

If we can get Bedford for 22 then that is a steal IMO (unless there is truth that Kozzie does want to go to SA)

I don't boo unless they make negative comments about the club, our facilities, our supporters, etc etc This is why Scully, Howe and co deserve to be booed

He's drawn comparisons to Cameron with his aerobic ability, and footskills to go along with his contested marking and goal kicking. Haven't seen him live so have no idea how realistic those comparisons are.

I know we were huge wraps on Georgiades when he was drafted. But Port haven't exactly been setting the world on fire - how is he not best 22 for them?

And while on the Freo topic, is Blake Acres someone we would look at. After recruiting Langdon, we were going after Isaac Smith to have another genuine wingman. Since then we've largely persisted with Brayshaw / Jordon and a little bit of Harmes and Spargo. But I don't think the wing is the best position for any of these players. Blake Howes is meant to be a winger but I wouldn't expect him to be playing regular senior footy next year. The rumour is that Acres is going to Carlton. Would he be of interest as well?

I love Spargo because he makes good decisions with ball in hand and gets the most out of himself - he chases, runs hard both ways, tackles, drops the shoulder when tackled etc. I've learnt that when he has the ball in hand we will usually score (probably moreso than anyone else in the team). But he has limitations - he's short and can get pushed off it easily, not quick (for a small forward) and can't kick more than 35m We could be a better team if he was replaced with someone who doesn't have these limitations but I don't know of an obvious option: - Bedford - is electric and has x-factor but his kicking / decision making lets him down. - Chandler - yet to be given a proper go at senior level but wouldn't be much faster Spargo. Better ball user than Bedford. - AMW - developing nicely at Casey. Not sure what his ultimate position is. Regular Casey watchers would have a better idea. - Bowey - played forward / wing as a junior. He could be dangerous kicking to our forwards - but I still think he'll have similar limitations to Spargo due to his size.

Apparently Liam Henry from Freo may be exploring other options after being left out of their finals side. Was rated as the best small forward in Kozzie's draft and clearly others such as Kozzie and Weightman have gone past him. In my view it seems like he hasn't shown the sort of aggression needed for that sort of role but has a lot of upside in terms of skills and athletic ability. Potentially he may be more suited to a flank or wing role. Is he a player of interest (potentially part of the Jackson deal)?

Don't disagree that we would like to get more out of our small forwards... but I actually don't think they're doing a heap wrong. Yes ANB fumbles / makes errors but he runs harder than anyone which is critical to the team defence. The way we are currently playing (unless centre clearance or on turnover), we move it slow up the wing till it goes out of bounds. We could have the best small forwards (or tall forwards for that matter) in our forwardline and I don't think the result would be that different. It's a defensive strategy that is designed to maximise our clearance beasts and ruck dominance. I'm just hoping they move the dial slightly more attacking this week (and beyond). Aside from being better to watch it will bring all our forwards into the game.

This has been going on so long that I've lost track. They are obviously re-doing Gosch's Paddock and we have our facilities etc there at Aami park. What's the problem with it currently? Is it: that we are sharing our facilities with other teams? i.e. what we have at Aami park is too small / compromised? that we can't have closed training sessions? Plenty of teams eg North don't have this there isn't a social club attached to it? that our administration are separate (at the MCG)? Something else

I know a lot have followed this guy and he does have a number of good attributes. But given the hawks picked him up and let him go in a short space of time is a concern for me. THey've got some decent young promising talls already but you don't let them go if they're a potential gun

agree but dislike

Don't normally rate Ross Lyon's analysis but did find his segment on us and Sydney Footy Classified quite interesting. He highlighted some of Sydney's inside 50s. We were well setup for most of them and yet they managed to fake kicking long and pull the kick at the last moment which caught us off guard. Admittedly we might not have many players in the team that could pull some of them off. I don't know if we practice this sort of thing (regular track watchers would know) but if we don't, I hope we add this in for next season. It is a valuable skill that Sydney seem to be the masters of.

I'm keen to get Meek if Jackson goes (compared to the price tag, age and injury risk of Grundy who admittedly has a high ceiling). But @Damo makes a good point re two big immobile ruckman. I find it interesting that Mason Cox in recent weeks only plays as the second ruck and is not given time up forward. Mason Cox is not a natural forward but has managed to take us apart a number of times and we all remember the richmond 2018 prelim. Clearly McCrae see Cox as too much of a liability to their forwardline once the ball hits the ground. I think we have noticed this with Gawn and Brown in the same forward line. I guess that's the argument against getting someone like Meek in to play with Gawn. If Tmac/JVR can force Brown out of the team next year maybe this is less of an issue.

Looks great but the volume is minimal

If Jackson is leaving, I'd much rather take a punt on him and use the picks / cap space to attract the best key forward we can. And if we can't get one, at least bring in some talented youngsters - ideally a young key forward and maybe some outside class for the midfield.

Pretty sure he debuted against us Round 1 last year and surprisingly gave Gawn a bit of trouble. From that and the WAFL highlights (I know) someone posted on here a few months back I think he could be a bit of a diamond in the rough. People seem to forget that you can only play max two ruckmen and so if there is more than that on a list then some won't get a chance to prove themselves. There was a period there where we had Jamar and the backup was a topup between Spencer, Martin and Gawn. Gawn was not really a standout until that game against Geelong. With the success our ruckmen have had at other clubs, we should know this better than most.

Would be interested to know Kozzie's stats here - I think they only include players with 50 kicks inside 50. But I suspect his % mark rate would be close to Spargo. If the ball is in their hands, we generally score.

One thing that I find interesting is that from our kick outs, we tend to kick to the left hand side of the player kicking in. And yet at the same time Langdon is always on the far side and the defensive winger on the near side. So tactically, whether we kick out to the defensive winger side or the fat side (Langdon wing) is dictated by which quarter we are in. To me this is odd - you would think that we would kick to one (the defensive side) and allow the fat side to be used more on turnover / when the switch is on.

Maybe... but i actually don't think that was the case for our wins in the second half of the year. If you look at how we were going halfway through the 3rd quarter in the GF, we looked just as impotent and vulnerable as we did on Friday - we were going slow up the line and Brown, TMac and Gawn were not able to mark. Harmes gets through a stoppage to Fritsch and then we get two centre bounce goals in a row. Brayshaw gets his out of nothing and Petracca from the boundary and then two more centre bounce goals. The game was done. But none of that came from attacking centre corridor play moving the ball from our defence. As good as we were that day - this issue we were having in the GF has still plagued us this year - particularly against the good sides. I heard an interview with a swans player (maybe Mills?) post game. He said Melbourne are really dangerous in that once they get a goal they can pile on a few very quickly from the centre bounce. During the week they talked about ways they could nullify these repeat goals. So long as they slow us down in general play, we won't be a threat for the rest of the match. Other than the start of the third, they executed perfectly.