Lucifers Hero

Probably because we don't have a lot of money to throw around and because it is very difficult to get a game let alone be part of the regular 22.

Its is unfortunate Oliver missed a game for this broken thumb (thanks to Selwood) when he could have received a few extra votes.

My theory on Bowey is he, understandably, ran our of puff and couldn't hold his ground against bigger bodies. Geelong rag-dolled him. He was dropped the next week. If my hunch is correct he will be bulked up a bit over the preseason. I expect to see a bigger, stronger, better Bowey next year.

Not sure about Max (or Grundy) behind the ball. I think that belongs in the 'it was a 2021 tactic' basket. It worked in the first part of this year but when we played Geelong they did everything but kick it high into f50 or anywhere near where Max was. Other teams have followed that with varying degrees of success. Not sure Max behind the ball is the same weapon in future that it was in 2021. The new mantra to play against Melbourne: keep the ball low into f50 where Melb struggle to defend. Every team will try that tactic in 2023 so fixing that part of our defensive game will be a key for 2023 success.

You are correct. Thank you

Do you think we should chase the picks to get Cadman?

I was meaning Pert and Roffey may not have the detailed data and graphs but they don't really need as one could see that we weren't 'fit' and not playing out games. Interesting that it is left up to the head coach. In that case Goodwin (and maybe the selection committee) have some answering to do. I'm sure Pert and Roffey will be asking the questions!

Lady luck smiled on Richmond. 2017 played Adelaide who were already under the influence of the wacky leadership gurus and believed in the magic of the 'power stance'. 2019 played a banged up and depleted GWS who never got out of the starting blocks 2020, their back-to-back year was from a covid hub they rarely left, after 16 H&A games and shortened quarters vs Geelong who stopped at half time. Of course they could only beat who they were up against and they did that convincingly. But I'm not sure they were really challenged during those finals campaigns.

Now a fact: JUNIOR Rioli has made a decision on his future and informed West Coast of his desire to be traded to Port Adelaide. Eagles didn't mince words: "We could not have done any more to support Junior since his infraction in 2019," CEO Trevor Nisbett said. "We facilitated his appeal and subsequent return to football, so this decision is bitterly disappointing." They paid him while suspended and paid his legal and QC bills so reaction understandable.

Subtle! One of your best posts. 🙂

Off to Collingwood to replace Grundy.

Couldn't agree more!

Isn't that JVR's role? Wouldn't we be better off chasing a BBrown type forward rather than Cadman?

Love your work ET but #pleasedon'tteaseus...

Cal Twomey's latest: But now the Demons will be locked in trade talks. If he chooses Fremantle the reigning premiers would be expected to target two first-round picks for Jackson, including a very early selection this year inside the top-10. The Dockers hold pick 13 in this year's draft, but could look to move up the draft board using other selections, with the club bracing for trade requests from Rory Lobb, Blake Acres and Darcy Tucker, with Griffin Logue also considering a move to Victoria. West Coast holds picks No.2, 20 and 26 this year but as AFL.com.au reported in May, would need AFL approval to trade its first pick under League rules. The AFL would be expected to tick that off given Jackson’s age and experience. However, the Eagles look set to protect their strong draft hand this year, with pick No.2 not considered likely to be part of a trade package to attempt to land Jackson. Looks like Freo but it will take some time for them to get their trade package sorted. So now we wait. It will be a long month!

See, I said I know nothing about him 🙂 My read of DL was folks see him as the answer to our 'tall' fwd woes. So if Cadman isn't a replacement in a year or two for BBrown and we have JVR of Cadman's size what is the attraction of Cadman?

I wonder if MFC has set its sights on Cadman in the way that DL has? DL logic: We need a tall fwd + Cadman is a tall fwd = Lets get Cadman. I know nothing about Cadman and don't doubt his worth but maybe the Club has other priorities. Just saying. So I have an open mind on how we might use the draft picks we get for Jackson eg we may prefer two picks in the 9-12 range than pick 2 or pick 3.

That is the $64 question. One on which the fitness, medical and coaching department need to look each other in the eye and have a serious heart-to-heart. I reckon Pert and Roffey will be asking the hard questions of the FD. They may not have the data and the graphs but the 'eye' test spelt out what was happening quite a while ago.

GCS will after the Rankine trade: Adelaide's first and their own: #5 and # 7. However, there is some noise that Crows don't want to deal #5 so playing hard ball as they did with the Swans for Dawson and Swans had to accept what at the time appeared to be 'unders'. So GCS's two top 10 picks are better than GWS's bundle of first rounds, while they have #3 are are unlikely to include another top 10 pick.

DIO, how badly do you think their suspensions will affect our chances of beating the Lions this week?

On Kozzie, from foxfooty: "Meanwhile Edmund also reports the Power continue to circle Demons young gun Kysaiah Pickett, who was drafted from SANFL side Woodville-West Torrens. It’s believed Pickett isn’t enamoured with Melbourne but loves playing for the for the Demons. He’s also contracted for next season". Poorly worded. I think he means Kozzie isn't enamoured with Melbourne, the City rather than MFC. Still very concerning that Port are rattling the cage to get him next year.

Interesting given that it was a shortened preseason. So on the back of that tough, short preseason we charged out of the starting blocks for 10 rounds, did better on the 3 metrics than 2021 and then started to hit the wall and injuries exacerbated it. And we never recovered enough to go the distance. The graphs and your comment suggest we might have got the timing of our fitness schedule a bit out of kilter. Hopefully, we get it right next year. As an aside, I'm avoiding using the word 'loading' as it is very emotive and could sidetrack the discussion of the illustrative work @Watson11has put together.

Thanks for adding the trend lines. It is easy to see why we went 10.0 this year from a fitness perspective. What the trend lines show that after round 10 2022 we were worse in all three elements and the gap vs 2021 got bigger and bigger. Maybe we went too hard a bit too early in 2022? We virtually fell off the cliff as the season went on in 'High Speed Distance' which would be consistent with our inability to move the ball quickly down the wings and implement our overlap running from d50 to f50. In 2021 this element was relatively flat for the whole season. The increasing rate of the drop off for 2022 is quite alarming. It all says we did fantastically well to be second on the ladder as about a third of our players (most of them in our best 10) had heavily strapped knees, feet and ankles for much of the second half of the season.

Great work. Thanks @Watson11. I'll leave it to others to interpret your graphs for loading purposes. From the graphs, with a few exceptions there is little doubt that from round 10 2022 we were worse in all three measures. Round 11 2022 was when our injuries started, some players were ill and we had three losses in a row. We didn't get a full 14 day bye. Progressively from round 11 our injury toll mounted. I won't list all the players but the list is long and it kept growing especially knee and foot injuries. It meant fewer fully fit players had to carry more of the work load. Not sure where the breaking point is on a player or a team but we hit it. The error in our ways imv is we didn't use our VFL players enough to give the injured players a decent spell to rehab with the side benefit of getting some experience into the next group of players. I'm sure there are many other factors that caused the 2022 drop off after round 10 and equally sure the club will go through those in great detail.

I definitely have no ill will. Not sure if you saw my post a few above yours.: I genuinely hope that wherever Jackson goes his career potential is fulfilled. I respect him for not having said a word publicly. He let the media hype swirl around. Could not have been easy to be unaffected by it. I'm disappointed to lose him but if he is always pining to be elsewhere then its ok to go and I'm excited about the multiple players we will get in return via trade or draft. Our list needs a refresh and this might be our best chance for that in the next 4-5 years.