Lucifers Hero

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.

I was fairly upset about the change to NGA rules that prevents us matching an AM top 20 bid. Now that we are Premiers, I don't care about how the AFL manipulate the rules.

After trading out their round 2 picks for yet unknown later/future picks: Pies have picks – No.36, 46, 48, 55, 58, 78 and 79 Dogs have picks No. 43, 44, 45, 52, 93 We currently have 37, 49, 57 ie 952 draft points. Once Pies and Dogs use their picks for F/s our picks become 36, 43, 49 ie 1167 draft points. If Pies/Bulldogs bring in more picks below our #57 it will further improve the value of our picks. I don't usually put much store on draft points but this year Mac Andrew is in the mix. While there are many options for us, I wonder whether we might keep our powder dry until draft night. Use pick #17 and wait and see where MA is taken. If he is still on the board after pick 20 we can easily match the bid and have points left for another pick in the #45 - 50 range. If he isn't on the board we can then upgrade some picks or trade them into 2022. Footnote: Hope I have the arithmetic right on how our picks move up after Pies and Dogs match F/S.😬 The logic is sound but maybe folks check the calcs before relying on them...

Don't think so. He is WA based and so are most of his players, with quite a contingent from Freo so it is interesting that he called out Bell for breaking the 'cone of silence' re Lobb to GWS trade possibilities. Bell thought his comments amusing. Sounds like there may be history there.

This is a similar article moving-on-up-clubs-eye-pick-swaps-with-pies-dogs Both clubs have more picks than list spots, a 'loophole' the AFL closed a few years ago to stop clubs getting elite NGA, Academy and F/S talent for 'nothing' picks. It was relaxed last year due to covid impact on list sizes, altho I don't see a connection as it benefited only a few clubs in a highly compromised draft. From what I can find the AFL has allowed the 'loophole' to stay this year. Bulldogs are the really luck ones: JUH last year, Darcy this year! Once Dogs and Pies trade out their first pick; a 20'something, 2nd round pick, they will get 2 of the top 3 players this year for just 3rd and 4th round picks. Given the AFL stopped the matching of NGA bids in the top 20 this year they should have stopped the picks/list spots 'loophole' again.

A trivial observation: 'Josh(ua)' a popular name 18 years ago, especially in Victoria...🤔

Funny you should say that. Dangerfield may have his Brownlow and 8 AA's but he is no Mr September. any-danger-of-impacting-a-big-game "Let’s get to the crux of this article, which many will consider something akin to shooting Bambi: Patrick Dangerfield, as decorated and celebrated as he is, isn’t a clutch finals performer, nor has he proven himself over his career to be a big-game player". "...a glittering list of accolades that reflects his ability to be consistently excellent in home-and-away football. To argue against his excellence as a footballer is a fool’s errand and not the purpose here, but those awards don’t align with the idea that he can handle the pressure – the real pressure of finals footy – and he has never proven an ability to truly carry his side like champions do". Harsh? It is probably right. He has had a smattering of match winning performances but not when it counts and certainly not in finals. Lots of stats; not much impact. As an aside, I doubt any main stream AFL media would be prepared to write that article.

They probably don't. But Mitchell and co didn't give them and their managers much time to find other clubs. Next year might be a different story re finding new homes. Some will be OOC and some will still have a year left on contracts. Either way Mitchell and co will need to let them go for poor draft picks or keep them on good money.

The article says Clarkson has a 6 month contract by the Tassie government. So Clarkson gets nearly $1m from Jeff plus a tidy contract from the Hawks Home-Away-From-Home, hosts. Ouch, Jeff, Ouch!! I reckon Clarkson will take a lot more than members from the Hawks. Hawks can say bye bye to the millions they get from Tassie for the Home games they play there! They will become dependent on pokies and government handouts. Perform poorly for a few years and their Vic members won't go to games. Their mega Dingley base may never get off the ground. Clarkson will delight in bringing his nemesis down another peg or twenty!

Young is also Lobb's manager. The other day it seemed like Bobby was used as a trading chip to free up cap space so Lobb could get from Freo to GWS. GWS didn't like really entertain either deal. Young also didn't help Bobby's cause saying how distraught he was, how hard it would be to go back to GWS and he won't be signing another contract with them. Great way to devalue a possible trade next year. Meanwhile, Dodoro says: “My last conversation was with him at 5pm, I said, ‘Look, we tried our best, we wish you all the very best,’ and he was fine, he was getting a tattoo actually, so he was happy.” Time to change manager...

It will be interesting to see what the other 3-5 ruckman on the table get trade for. Suspect it will be nothing like our future 1st round pick Port is posturing for.

LOL at Dodoro lessons! We are saying the same thing about Cats not playing Clark then demanding the highly valuable pick #19

Its a bit rich for Port and Cats to demand 1st round picks for players on their lists for several years that they hardly ever play. I hope Freo hold off on pick # 19 which is a lot more valuable than it sounds as it is the first pick after draft day 1 and can demand a premium in a pick trade on that night. And the cheek of Port on Ladhams: weazel-word a 'he is available to trade but we are happy to keep him' message then demand pick #18 from Sydney. Hope Sydney hold firm, having just been worked over by the Crows for Dawson. Valuing Dawson and a 2nd ruckman (Ladhams) at the same pick makes a mockery of the whole system. I get that it is all posturing but I really hope Freo and Sydney don't give in.

I remember that. I think it was after he kicked his brilliant 'soccer' goal. As he walked back to the middle he was snarling! Lab playfulness + Doberman snarl = lethal combo!