Lucifers Hero

Its a shame I don't bet...😉 (except The Melbourne Cup)

When I saw the thread title and the 'Uncle Bitter' avatar I fully expected a quip saying that 'dry...(any month) ...' is too ridiculous to contemplate and any day is a good day for a 🍷! 😉

Andy, this is as close as they came to acknowledging the inevitable! Think we will lose by 40 points. I was going to go on Sunday, but genuinely hope we get pumped by 100. * this club. If we go down the path I think we are going to - in terms of selections, then I hope we get flogged. I hope we get badly exposed and questions are asked. The 40pt loss sounds about right.

After 26 pages!! Still in ‘eat their own mood’! Starting to realise they are playing the Dees which has done nothing to improve their mood. Zero confidence in their midfield!! And finally some humour!! Gawn, Brayshaw, Petracca, Viney (Oliver injured) VS ROB, Keays, Crouch, Dawson (Laird injured). The difference in quality is hilarious. Regardless of how many clearances they win.. our midfield is garbage. Anyone else get the feeling that this will be another Collingwood game whereby we play well, really well but lose? I need help for my cynicism. No we will lose comfortably. We are due a win. Would be so Crows to win this week then get flogged in home Showdown. I don't know why, but I've got a sneaky suspicion we might win this game I feel sad already. Crouch, Sloane, Keays for a CBA.... 🤮🤮🤮 Let that just sink in.... Crouch will get 40+ ineffective disposals Sloane will give up directly 5+ goals. Keays will kick every ball out of bounds Melbourne midfield will start laughing at first bounce when they see Sloane and Mrouch rock up. Melbourne defenders busy laughing at Keays up forward. Forward line still looks decent. They'll need to make the most of the 20 inside 50s we'll get on Sunday! Crouch trying to chase anyone, let alone Petracca... 🤮 Keays hopefully gets the job on Petracca .....he's their barometer, in Oliver's absence .... Petracca to get 40 and 4 goals then. Keays is not a good tagger. Will be great having the worlds slowest and ****t@st midfield again Petrecca, Viney and Gawn… My Favourite They don't have their designated Crow killer playing Clayton Oliver! Who'se usually good for 38 disposals, 12 clearances and a couple goals against us. Not only is their midfield ordinary they don't run both ways. A weakened backline and poor upfield defence will starve their forwards of opportunities. Dees by as big a margin as we want.

No reason why they can't use pick 3 (should they get it) to trade in a player or 2.

I posted this yesterday: Not sure what all the fuss (or Goodwin's word: hystereia) in the media and in this thread is all about as I thought the club's intentions were clear from the beginning. Had the media not gone all hysterical there was no need for the club to clarify its intentions.

Sorry Jaded, Buckley was right in saying: "Brodie Grundy is not a forward and “never will be”. He hasn't asserted anything, simply stating his opinion. The club has come out and said we don't intend to make Grundy a forward but a ruck/fwd, ipso facto Buckley's opinion was correct.

He is right. As I said in an earlier post that is not what we are trying to do and the media have misread the reason for the move. imv it is to give Grundy a specific role within our fwd structure not as a KPF or necessarily a high goal scorer. And to develop fwd strategies to win finals.

Not directly relevant to Tomlinson but there is every chance North will get a first round pick for McKay. The clubs, with the AFL's endorsement, will engineer a contract (eg like Daniher) that gives North a first round pick ie pick 3. North are lobbying for a priority pick and a 1st for McKay is a way to get it without the AFL giving them one. We can't complain as that is exactly what happened for us when Frawley left. The only problem for us is that pick 3 to North and the top 5 GCS Academy player means our Freo pick will slide from 4 to 6...

LOL!! Layzie, I reckon you are smarter than going all in with 'group think'!!

Um, what is Buckley's opinion...I can't seem to find the relevant post...

Not a gambling person but I would bet Pick 4 is already ours!

He has a contract from the club ready for him to sign. He has put off a decision. All the noise indicates he is going albeit reluctantly.

My take is that the Grundy move is primarily part of our finals strategy: Petty will not play as a tall fwd. we are accepting of 4th on the ladder with the double chance: we don't need to win the rest of the games. we now know the other contenders, their systems, strengths and weaknesses. we have the luxury of testing finals tactics over the coming weeks to defeat those contenders. if my hunch is right Grundy would know and be a willing participant in these finals plans. Am expecting to see different fwd half tactics when Grundy returns to the seniors in readiness for finals. A few fwd half surprises for opps in finals would be fun!!

The not so esteemed HS has ignored that little word 'if'! Of course he will be back in the side playing ruck fwd! Its click bait! And of course a heap of other media scribes jump on the headline and miss a crucial little word.

No MCG. Bit of a surprise since iirc they held a prelim final there are few years ago. And no Marvel stadium. Two years ago they got 40,000+ to the GF in Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval. Any theories on why they are using second string venues which have very small capacity and probably limited facilities...really limits revenue raising and merchandising for the GF.

You are right. I forgot the finals part. Thanks

I don't know☹️ Mu guess would be that we use our next available pick.

The 'bold' part is the answer. I think it is like Woewodin. iirc in 2021 we did a draft night pick swap of our 3rd round pick (reported as 51) for a future 4th. Our next pick was 80 something which came in to 65 because teams passed and the number of picks that had been used for points.

When the Captain's did their preseason predictions one had McVee as their RS winner and he hadn't even played a game. It couldn't have been Max as the rules are you can't vote for club/teammates. Wouldn't mind that captain giving us Lotto numbers!! The RS will probably go to Ashcroft being a midfielder and draft position. McVee is 'off-broadway' but deserves to feature on the podium: played every game, consistent performer and like Ashcroft will play finals. What is in his favour is that the voting is at the end of the season rather than game by game. So the judges can look at the season as a whole rather than tally the game by game votes.

I can't find the article which talks about a limit of 2 Academy players. It was in a discussion related to GCS who have 3 top Academy players. I suspect it will be discussed a lot as the EOS gets closer. Yes, they can take the 3rd player on a straight out bid.

I'll post to the Draft thread to avoid sidetracking the kalani thread.

tbh I see many differences. The common factor being they play a similar role however play it quite differently. We don't need McVee to get to Hibberd's strength as we have Brayshaw to take that forward as and when needed; McVee will outsmart the rest, be they small or medium defenders.

Agreed. Anyone would think we want him to be a KPF like Jeremy Cameron. I'd say learning the 'forward craft' Richardson referred to is related to a specific role where he needs a few forward skills to compliment our other forwards and to not compete with them. To me it seems like we have identified a gap in our fwd structure/system and are looking to Grundy to fill it. So all this talk about Grundy not being a fwd is shallow thinking by the commentators. Of course he isn't and won't be but he can play a role which may not be kicking heaps of goals. And as for being traded. A key reason he chose us was because he likes the city lifestyle and didn't want to go back to SA.

Good guess. The Age is reporting that recruiters think he will go in the 3rd round (pick 45 to 60) which should be easy for us to match. Especially as JT doesn't use picks outside the 2nd round.