Lucifers Hero

A real improver this year. Helped by being played in his 'best' position. It was really sad that he missed the finals after missing the 2018 finals. Who knows if he wasn't injured he would be a premiership player. Nonetheless, his sheer joy after the GF showed how well he dealt with any disappointment and exemplified 'being a good teammate'. . Its no secret that he is my equal number one favourite player. He is OOC next year and a RFA. A bit of talent and competition coming up the ranks. Hope he stays.

He did an excellent job on Hawkins in the Prelim when May went off with hamstring issues. If he puts on a bit muscle, learns a few more tricks from May and in due course can replace him. Contract renewal is for 3 years 'til end of 2025. By end of 2025 May will be a smidgeon under 34 (January birthday) if he is still playing. Petty will be 26. Great signing not just now but for future list planning. Edit: Just noticed that he will be an RFA at the end of the contract. Imagine if he has another premiership medallion or two and will be 26; at his peak. Will be in huge demand. Oh well. Let's make hay while the sun shines with him and the other premiership youngsters.

Yes. Last year clubs were allowed to move senior list players to the rookie list without the player having to go thru the draft. The AFL treated these moves as delistings. Thereafter the player is an RFA every time they are OOC.

An article about draft pick wheeling and dealing: picks-clubs-most-likely-to-swap "The Demons entered the trade period without a first-round selection and walked out with Pick 17. But they mightn’t be done there, with rival teams wary the Dees could still try and force their way up the draft order because they have a specific player in mind. Melbourne also has Picks 37, 49 and 57, but is weighing up whether to use two or three live selections at the draft". Who might be our 'specific player'? Obviously likely to go before #17. Let the guessing games begin! Who will be our two or three picks? Based on info in other threads (not in order of pick): A first round player, be it pick 17 or a better one if we can trade up. Taj Woewodin Andrew Mac if he slides past 20 or Andy Moniz-Wakefield (who could slide to a B rookie). We currently have 4 overall list spots (Seniors + A Rookies) and 2 B Rookies. With two or three draft selections we will have at least one overall list spot for a DFA, the PSD or MSD.

The interesting thing about the JJ mark was that Max immediately set up to block an easy run into goal. Bowey on the other hand was walking away from JJ and Max to appeal the umpire. The kid will learn. In a similar 50/50 situation a few games earlier Rivers was appealing a decision with the umpire when Lever slapped him on the chest and yelled: 'Focus'. The kid will earn. Even JV has been 'tamed' (an oxymoron concept, I know) when it comes to appealing umpire decisions. McCrae rammed his head into Jack's legs and was paid a free for 'high'. Jack just stood the mark and shook his head. Those antics just make Jack tackle harder! While our players are showing respect to umpire decisions, more importantly they stay focussed.

Very expensive gigs when all costs considered. And do the players want to be presented 5 times to paltry crowds. They deserve the full shebang of a packed house of the demon faithful that they worked so for, to bring the cup home.

I would guess it is in line with the Vic average; around 70% heading for 80% so currently 35,000 heading to 40,000 members.

The umpires were too mesmerised by the torrential storm of goals to notice the bulldogs antics, let alone interrupt such a spectacular show...

That would be awesome but we have 50,000+ members! Who misses out?

A whipping boy? Only in the eyes of impatient fans. In his first year (2018) he played 18 of 25 games including all 3 finals. Shows how highly he was rated by coaches almost from the day he was drafted. He may be in our bottom 6 but our best and next best players are so good that our bottom 6 is equivalent to the 6th -12th player in other teams. He is such a cool cat, rarely gets really animated. Love him.

In today's 'Road to the Draft', Cal Twomey suggests we will take him and he will go in the back end of the draft.

Good pick up. Thanks. Will show Dunstan as an FA in next updates.

Thanks. I will update Sam's AF status next time. As I understand it Dunstan won't qualify as an FA as the 8 years needs to be continuous at one club. Happy to hear if that understanding is incorrect.

I have little doubt only vaccinated people will be allowed at the football. The part of the Premier's statement that was less than encouraging were the words the GP "would likely have crowds". Have you seen your belief stated somewhere by the Premier?

Saw this in the Premiers covid update: "The Premier said the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, scheduled for April, would likely have crowds made up exclusively of people who were fully vaccinated". Not sure if that is encouraging for attending the football or not... ...unfurling the flag without fans (or limited numbers) doesn't bear thinking about.

Updates for delisting of Hore and Declase and Hibberd one year contract. We have no more players OOC. A few points: I've corrected the Allowed A Rookie numbers to be: 1 - 6. Jordon has been shown as a senior all year so I left him there for the sake of consistency. He is contracted until 2023 so a late pick will be used (94 or 112) to make that official. Chandler has been assumed to be an A rookie, pending further clarification. If he is promoted to the senior list a late pick will be used to make it official (94 or 112). In summary, we have 38 senior and A rookie players giving us 4 overall list spots. Based on Jordon/Chandler assumptions herein that is 3-4 senior spots and 0 -1 A rookie spots. (Plus two 'B rookie spots). The classification of A Rookie vs Senior is a bit academic regarding list numbers and eligibility to play. The benefit is that being a rookie helps manage the sal cap as a portion (I think the first $80,000) isn't include so their is an incentive to max the rookies. As @Turnercorrectly noted if Andy Moniz-Wakefield gets thru the draft we can take him as a 'B' rookie. Some forthcoming dates may clarify our list intentions: List Lodgements, NGA and F/S nominations. Refer to this thread: . Re our draft picks: Collingwood and Bulldogs currently have 10 draft picks between our 37 and 57 and will use them for their respective F/S, and/or trade/consolidate them. This means our picks 49 and 57 will come in a long way. My current estimate is that 49 will be in the low 40's and 57 will be high 40's. I won't make it too exact as it will change with more pick trades. The next update will be after the Draft, unless their are significant changes to our draft position.

So 3 direct goal assists we can add to Kozzie's own GF goals. The Gus goal and the Petracca 'soccer' goal were pivotal to us getting back into and control of the game. We never looked back. On Weightman. Anyone else think he should have gone off for a concussion test in the first qtr. His head collided with the goal post at about a meter high then he cannoned head first into the ground. He got up, looked quite ashen and for a kid who had just come back from concussion I couldn't understand why they kept him on (other than not wanting to be a player short early in the game when there is no tomorrow). I really felt for the kid. Never seemed go get into the game and his usual spark was completely absent.

Tomlinson will probably miss the first 6 rounds and then Hibberd is the most likely to make way. But then again Bowey is still young and he may not be ready for a 22+ game season and might be rested at times. Kozzie was an under the radar star in the GF. His harassing of a bulldog player (Williams??) on the boundary directly resulted in the Spargo goal. Early in the game he dumped Dunkley, stood over him and gave him a spray for good measure. He again targeted Dunkley which resulted in Petracca having enough space to line up his 'soccer' goal. Bear in mind there is about 20cm and 20 kg difference between Kozzie and Dunkley. Fearless! There were many 'moments' of aggression in the GF by Kozzie but they do not show up in any mainstream stats. I onlly noticed them on re-watching the game. Absolutely love his work when off the ball.

Would anyone on the Gold Coast even know who he was? In civvies he would like another bogan especially around midnight!

draft-rule-tweaked "Sydney, Collingwood, Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs are among the clubs who have been given a boost by a rule change on the eve of the NAB AFL Draft" The tweak has not been revoked this year so the loophole continues.. Our 49 and 57 picks come in quite a bit. From the 'Trade in Draft Picks' Thread:

cats-sound-out-lyon-for-key-coaching-role Can't see how Lyon's defensive game style will help Geelong win games... ... expect more boring football from the cattery!

Dees getting even better? Based on the finals we are frighteningly good. No team got close (poor goal efficiency stopped the Brisbane final being a scoreboard blow out like the others). Other clubs have a lot of work to do just to catch up to the 2021 Premiers: Us! 🏆 . Our team is so young there is heaps of improvement there. Our leaders are young and will steer the good ship for some years. Even if other teams bridge the gap to us in 2021; a mighty feat given the non-event trade period, any improvement by us means the gap can only get bigger!

Signs that players/staff won't have 'swollen heads': Petracca taking off his NSM. Brayshaw admitting he would love to be in the middle but sacrificed that with an exemplary attitude and took on the wing role. Viney, sacrificing the more attacking side of his inside mid role to allow Oliver and Petracca to do the more fancy stuff. Viney is not sufficiently lauded for that level of selflessness. Gawn on how badly they want to win a premiership in front of their Home fans: Us! Younger players set with the above role models will quickly be brought into line if they get too cocky. Enough depth in all positions that no player can afford to think they are a walk up starting 22. For staff: the opportunities that come from being part of a successful club. GF are incredibly hard to win. If we don't win next year it won't be poor attitude or being satisfied with one premiership.

Clubs double dip with top NGA/Academy/F.S players! They 'cash in' their first round pick by: Use it to trade in a gun player before the draft (there have been many examples; the most recent being Bulldogs with Treloar). Trade it for a future first Trade it for a later first round pick in the current draft. Trade it out before the draft then trade a similar pick back in after the player is drafted on draft night. Then they accumulate late picks to draft the first round player. They don't care if they end up with so so players at the end of the draft or no more players at all, if they have two potential first round guns. It backfired on Collingwood and the Bulldogs were a bit constrained because they had a top player in two consecutive drafts. The reason the "# of picks = # of list spots rule" came in was to close a loophole and limit a club's ability to cash out of top picks and use a lot of 'junk picks'. That rule helped a little bit but didn't stop the rorting of the tactics outlined above. To make matters worse the AFL has withdrawn the 'picks=spots' rule. The 'cashing in' of picks tactics isn't limited to first round picks. Note that in the o.p. both the Bulldogs and Pies are looking to trade out their 20-something second round pick for the same reason as they trade out their first rounders.

That also annoyed me. Then. Not now we are Premiers. The irony is those clubs that built their lists from the draft and F/S before the franchise clubs have been caught out by their past success (limited access to top draft picks) and covid list/TPP restrictions, meaning they can't easily move out players. WCE, Richmond, Hawks, Geelong and maybe Collingwood are in that category.. Clubs like us who rebuilt and were Premiership ready before covid hit are now benefitting. The worm has turned.