Lucifers Hero

Did he? He didn't say a word. He was genuinely undecided as one would expect of a 21 y.o. The system doesn't allow a player to publicly say he is leaving. He stayed silent. It was the media and to a lesser extent Freo that fed the circus.

Updated for Alex Neal-Bullen contract extension to end of 2026 See ealier post today for other contract status/news.

I thought they would rest Hibberd given his ongoing Achilles problem. Perhaps with LD-U out they might do so and bring in Turner from the emergencies even tho they play different roles so they can rest Hibberd.

Happy to see Schache get a go. What surprised me is that TMc is preferred over Brown if the emergency nominations are anything to go by. I guess the club is still experimenting.

I wondered about making Woewodin a rookie, if we need the list spot for a draftee or traded in player.

Given our relative lack of list spots I can see us trading up for a top 5 pick plus a top 10 pick but it may take several pick swaps with different clubs to get them.

To play along with this hypothetical a bit further, this is the current state of play from the 'Contracts' thread. So I can't see us taking our two 1st and our two 2nd round picks to the draft as from what we currently know we won't have the list spots from 2023 OOC players. So we trade this year's picks up the order or cash some in for the 2024 draft.

Contract news updates: Chandler: In negotiations to stay Kade Chandler Hibberd: Will decide at year end whether to retire See @roy11 report above Jordon: Deferred to end of year. Has suitors. James Jordon Kozzie: In negotiations to stay. 🙂❤️💙🙂 Numerous reports Neal-Bullen: In negotiations to stay Neal-Bullen This leaves Dunstan, Melksham and Woewodin senior list players to be decided. A bit surprised there is no news on Woewodin as new draftees usually have their contracts extended fairly early. Among the Rookies: D. Turner is contracted for 2024 when he will be promoted to the Seniors McVee ❤️ is contracted for 2024 as a Rookie and will be promoted to the Seniors for 2025 Aassuming Woewodin gets a contract extension, I see a maximum of 3 senior list spots being available - 4 potential losses: Hibberd, Melksham, Dunstan, Jordon less one known addition: D. Turner. If we asssume we will take Kynan Brown that leaves a maximum of 2 potential senior list spots unless some 'in contract' players move on.

That was a trap by the esteemed author of the HWSNBN thread 🙂

Last year when we offered 3 firsts (all in the mid to high teens range) but we asked for a second rnd back which would have been mid 20's. Can't see us offering 3 firsts outright (where one is 5 to 7 range and the other two in the mid to high teens) and not ask for something pretty decent back - again that team's second round pick in the low 20's. This means one of the first round picks in the high teens simply slides half a dozen spots. So it wouldn't be 3 firsts as suggested in the proposed hypothetical.

From bigfooty perhaps: Had a "precautionary" scan yesterday and was spotted with a strapped up knee at training today. Our training Oracle @kev martinmight know if his knee was strapped at training.

And Ed hasn't been quite the same since. Played some very good games but not in the scintillating form he was in before the injury.

Reluctantly...yes😉🙃

He sure knows how to create 'click bait'!!! I guess that is the go now; the AFL know that trade and draft time is the highest 'click' time at the end of the year. Now they are garnishing that all year round with hypotheticals. Sheesh!

iirc we have traded our future first for every year except, fortuitously for 2019 (and last year). 2019 was a truly sliding doors moment: We ended up 17th with pick 3, took Jackson, won a premiership and that pick 3 is now Jefferson, pick 5-7 and pick 23-25. Oh, and did I mention we won a premiership with the aid of that pick 3 Lots of good came from that 2019 slide down the ladder.

Re barcodes for Ticketek. Are they input on the same line with spacing or a comma, or are they put on separate lines? TIA

Reckon Grundy can go another gear or two. When Max has played Grundy's game time has been 68% and 69%. Without Max it has been 71% to 88%. The lower game time could be to help him get to peak fitness after so long out of the game. Or it could be to keep him fresh in games to use as a weapon to get or keep momentum going our way as he did in the 3rd qtr vs Tigers. A similar strategy to what we are doing with mid fielders: preserving them for the second half of games. My observation is that what I call 'first half preservation' of Grundy and mid fielders, is why we are playing phenomenal final quarters. Even in the two games we have lost we have had exceptional final quarters. This will be a real asset for the season and one opps will find difficult to counter if they don't have the fitness for such a strategy to work for them.

Until recently, clubs talking to player targets in season was an AFL no no. Against the spirit of that, this year the AFL has this new weekly program specifically to talk player trades and contracts. It is the AFL laying the ground work to introduce mid-season player trade. Yes, I'm a cynic when it comes to the AFL.

The throw in decision was correct. Don't remember his name but he was desperately waiting for ANB to knock the ball out of his hands which ANB did. It was a judgement error by ANB and should have let the guy stand there and be called HTB. Another judgement error by ANB was when he was tackled by Rioli which should have been a 50m penalty. However, ANB went to play on and caught HTB. The tackle was illegal and should have got the 50m. Had ANB stayed put he would have got the 50.

That is why I am wary. But couldn't possibly tip against us but to be on the safe side I'm just tipping a modest margin.

Yes, there are a few notable comments. At least they have mostly kept their sense of humour through the gloom. I think it is finding those gems that keeps me doing these threads - waded through 10 pages of bigfooty to find enough of interest for an opening post...

The mood is gloomy resignation. Not dissimilar to the Ess mood a few weeks ago. From Bigfooty. * me, can we just forfeit? This could genuinely be 100+. Play all the kids, anyone over 28 except Ziebell can be dropped. Looks like we'll be running out there with about 5 players but at least they should all be AFL quality. lol does it really matter? We’re gonna get done by 100+ no matter whos in BBB will come back from injury and kick 9 At least if we bring in some youth and inexperience they bring some fight We’re about to get smashed by well over ten goals, no point debuting anyone.. As a north supporter I feel like pain is our middle nameFritz will have an absolute field day. Lever and May to combine for 20 intercept marks Whatever the record is, they’ll beat it. That’s just the first quarter right? feel like it’s as good a time to get the dees…Off a short break, tough close game against tigers should have them sore Sounds logical... Dees by 60. Frisky had a quiet game tonight - red alert in our back 6 It’s going to be a blood bath Really? I don't think we will win by that much but I will take your word for it. We were neck and neck with them until time-on in Q3 and lost by 48 points last year. Despite everything, I refuse to believe we’re worse than we were back then. If Dees don't turn up we lose by 60+, if they do turn up 100+ My Favourites: McKay to full forward. If he is going to be a statue be a statue in our goal square so it frees up Larkey This Tarryn Thomas fella looks a player. Seems a class bloke too. Reward his effort with a stint in the ones I think He can't play right now. He needs to finish his homework. Footnote: each sub indented comment is a response to the point immediately above it. Always wary of a Clarkson coached team and Cunnington always plays well against us. Dees by 3-6 goals.. just to keep our % ticking over nicely.

They wear yellow and black to every MCG game. Daft, I know but that is how they work...

On AFL 360 last night Goodwin said Gawn and Petty give us the aerial presence we haven't had for a while. We can all recall the numerous games where defenders marked in fwd 50. On thinking about that, technically McD and Brown should provide it and they have in the past. I wonder whether their respective past injuries (McD's foot; Brown's knee) prevent them from jumping and therefore it is difficult for them to contest and mark or bring the ball to ground. Therefore their one wood and now maybe only trick is to lead out. Very easy to defend if a fwd has only one tool. So their absence from the team may not be their form or perhaps their form is a result of not being able to jump and contest. They have run out of tricks so to speak. So Petty isn't necessarily there to kick goals. He is there to mark or to give our small players a chance at ground level. Ditto Max. They will kick goals from time to time. Worth noting that of the 15 goals we kicked vs Tigers only two were kicked by Petty and Gawn.

That is hilarious!! I actually checked the full moon cycle last night as so many threads went a bit feral. Great minds think alike🥂