deelusions from afar

I'm intrigued as to how this works. My understanding is that teams have to pay most of the salary cap. So if we prepare a warchest for Cerra and miss out on him, do we say to other players "are you interested in being paid $X early to help us bring in a big fish / keep the list together in future years?" Does that happen?

I like the look of Chandler - if Kozzie and Spargo had not kept their form and health over the year, he would almost certainly be a premiership player. From what I have seen, Chandler is quick - maybe not as quick as Bedford - but seems to lower his eyes a bit more and use the ball well. As we saw in his debut in 2019 he can be a tackling machine too. Plenty to work with - despite him being small in stature.

But things change very quickly. For example, if the tigers were looking at their draw after their 2020 win, they'd be pretty happy to play us twice as we finished 9th and they've had our measure. But we're a different team this year to last. There will be teams that did not trouble us this year that may do so next year... especially with a shorter pre-season (relative to our competitors)

I'll probably be corrected but regardless of the list, I don't think many coaches have taken over and got to a flag straight away - it usually takes years for players to learn a new gamestyle and for the coach to tweak the list to implement it. Scott is an exception but they had already won a few flags. Bevo maybe the other exception - except McCartney had laid the ground work with a number of their young players. Could we say Teague has done the same?

I have a feeling the "grand final guarantee" option will sell out pretty quickly!

Can't see the dogs looking to deal with us in any way that could improve our hand - there will be plenty of others they can work with.

Very hard for a CEO to be truly successful at a football club without (sustained) onfield success. Our performance this year gives Pert a real opportunity that our previous CEOs could only ever dream of - so far it looks as if he is making the msot of it. Strangely playing the finals in Perth might be a blessing in disguise

Yes I've heard Selwyn was highly rated at Brisbane and so was a good get. You seem to know how it works... Does that mean someone will replace Selwyn's role? I imagine with Burgo moving on some decent coin will be freed up in the soft cap?

So does Selwyn step into Burgess role? Or do we bring someone else in?

Keep bringing in the kids - the ones that are good enough will break through. They allow us to pay our proven stars and will prolong our window if we find some gems.

Hope we use 3 picks in the draft (is the rule we have to?). Taylor has shown he can find talent in the 2nd / 3rd round - as good as Melksham has been for us (particularly) in 2018, I'd rather use another pick than keep him on the list. He's good enough to play at the top level but doesn't seem to buy into our team first style in the way that we need.

I've said all year I think he's a good chance to slip through. But after seeing those highlights, surely a team that ends up with multiple top 20 picks will take a punt on him. With limited exposure to U18 form you have to pick on potential and he has it in spades - even if he won't play at AFL level for a few years. Ironically the game of Jackson in the GF prob has increased the value of mobile big men in the draft which (I think) will ensure he doesn't quite slip to us.

Still can't believe this - he's obviously had a huge impact on so many players. And yet we got him involved almost as an after thought. Someone will correct me on this but our previous development coach Egan? left late last year and Richo decide to ring his old mate from Port Adelaide days. How were we not competing to win the services of someone who has that much impact on teams?

Hope it's not Lever - he will always be a leader but he is very boring in interviews and I think that is important. Petracca has shown this year he could do it - still plenty of time to go before that kind of decision needs to be made.

With the lock down and not being able to celebrate with friends and family, I've found myself trawling the individual (non participating) club boards that have grand final threads - it is quite satisfying seeing them go from "Dees are shot, give Bont the medal" to "Holy [censored] this is the most insane football I've ever seen - and in a grand final!" This was also enjoyable: https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/best-30-minutes-of-football-ever.1287418/

Noticed that too. I reckon you're spot on. Fits the narrative - from what they've been preaching all year it's everyone's contribution that enables him to shine. To show off the medal and take the glory (despite having an amazing game) goes against that. Once again Tracc is pure class.

Would love to have versions of the whole match with an alternative to the channel 7 commentary team - can do without BT and Brayshaw! SEN or ABC would be great. How do we find / get this?

I'm interested to see if there's a bump in our membership numbers in WA next year - could we play some games there in future?

Pretty amazing to think that Tomlinson, Hunt and Smith all would have been part of the side if not for injuries. Some reasonable depth! Plus Hore, Disco and Deakyn Smith have decent wraps on them as well.

I agree - I think when Thommo is back, he, Petty and Weid should all be thrown around a bit - surely playing at the other end of the ground helps develop their game and provides enormous flexibility if and when injuries occur. The talk was that Sam was on fire prior to being injured in the pre-season - if you think of where TMac was this time last year or even ANB, Jordon, Sparrow etc he might be one preseason away from being a best 22 player. Very happy he is likely to stay - hopefully he can reach his potential. All the same, I'd be keen to draft a young key forward in the draft who can develop for a few years at Casey as insurance when Brown / TMac finish up.

I'm glad to hear our club is getting out of the pokies - although the real problem going forward in terms of gambling is online / apps which AFL HQ is probably turning a blind eye to at the moment as it would be pumping so much $$ into the sport. The cynic in me wonders why this announcement comes in the lead up to the grand final - has this not gone as well as we would like? Why waste a great PR opportunity when it will be lost in the GF shenanigans? Or is it just a case of the contracts being signed and its just a coincidence that its right on the eve of our grand final?

Quite happy for people to get caught up in the narrative of the dogs having momentum, that it's a 50-50 (as they beat us last time) etc I think they are more of a danger to us if they go in as underdogs - it plays into Bevo's narrative which is clearly working for them.

Agree 100%. Particularly when the Dogs jumped them in both their previous matches this year. I know most coaches like to "back their system" but you have to respect the opposition. Everyone knows Port win when they win contested ball. But when they come up against a contested ball team, such as dogs, us, lions, they can't hack it and have no plan B.

I agree - but now that our quarantine has ended, it sounds like the players can move around a bit. Are we still at Joondalup? I know quarantine isn't fun for anyone (and it's my MFCSS kicking in) but wouldn't you just keep all the players there together like we have the last few weeks regardless of the quarantine period finishing?

If we win, we will be the hardest team to play against as Neeld prophesised!