Lucifers Hero

We have recruited quite a few WA players in the last 3 years. Lets hope we keep them beyond their first few development years.

Lobb will be 30 soon and has requested a trade to the Bulldogs for a 3 year approx $500k p.a. Freo are resisting a trade and aim to keep him to the one year left on a $700/$750K contract.

I suspect neither. The start date of the Jackson thread was Oct 2021 when negotiations started. Negotiations stalled sometime early this year and talks went on hold. I suspect that having spent Oct to Jan back in Perth after two covid years ie at that time his whole life as an AFL footballer, locked out of WA, he/family questioned his longevity in Victoria. The two years locked out of home would have been very difficult. While Jackson was in Perth over the preseason, it gave Freo plenty of time to prepare a plan.

I'm warming to getting Grundy to cover Max. This year Max had knee issues, syndemosis, a bad back, op issues to go with his past 3 ACL's, hamstring issues and constantly being bashed around the head and felled to the ground. I wouldn't mind a Geelong-Brad Ottens management plan for Max. When Ottens started getting banged up they played him for 'big' games and sometimes put him in cotton wool for the finals. Ottens' games in GF years were: I just hope our policy of 'not resting' players is applied more judicially and we play Max less often keeping primed for Finals. The blueprint is there with Ottens. Then Grundy will be a very worthwhile investment. Edit: @RedlegI hadn't seen your post when I wrote this. We are thinking along similar lines.

I'm guessing the assistant coaches are on 3 year contracts but don't know when they were written/updated. Goodwin renewed until the end of 2024. I think we are one year ahead of Geelong and Collingwood. We overhauled our FD at end of 2020. In particular Josh Mahoney left replaced by Richardson and we got in Williams and Yze to replace a few inexperienced coaches. Radford went from Casey Coach to Opposition Strategy and Education. All of which gave Goodwin much stronger support which had been lacking. The constants were: Goodwin, Chaplin and Stafford. The team is very capable (they delivered a flag) and if we were to change maybe let Stafford revert to ruck/stoppage coach and get a Forward coach. Interestingly we haven't had a forward coach who played as or previously coached forwards, for the last 10 years. The soft cap goes up next year so we may see an addition to the coaching staff.

Much has been made of our lack of pressure. This paints a different picture. We ran into a red hot Sydney and then a red hot Brisbane. For some reason we eased up in the second quarter vs Brsibane, gave them some momentum and that last 10 seconds goal, thanks to a Viney lapse, gave them a look in and kept them in touch on the scoreboard. Collingwood and Freo would have wilted in comparison. So we aren't doing as badly on the pressure stakes as the media makes out.

There have been signs that maybe he has already made the 'mental' shift out.

I admire your trust in him. He needs to do a power of work to get back into the team, a team where spots are tight. His last senior game was very very poor. It was against Sydney where Reid beat him one on one several times and Reid got 3 goals in very short time. Worse, Tomlinson sulked each time. I haven't watched Casey to know what he has done to redeem himself but he has quite a bit of work to do to get ahead of Smith and Turner. Attitude as well as form.

Its in Tomlinson's interest to look for a trade. He is 29 with one year on his contract when he will be 30. It is only a year but reaching 30 may reduce his value to another club. Now he may get a 2 or probably 3 year contract extending his career into his early 30's. His salary was rumoured to be in the region of $500k so it would be a good move to free up some TPP for us imv he falls into the category of: we are happy to have you on our list next year but if you can find another club we will support you. This is what we did with TMc and ANB two years ago.

On page 40 of this thread there are excellent graphs by @Watson11and a discussion on the above. Our fitness program and the timing/balance of the training program will have to be a major consideration in the coming months. I don't think we lacked fitness per se but we ran out of puff at about round 11 when the injuries started. The graphs show how we hit the wall.

Maybe this is GNF new idea of a riddle🙄 The Riddler returns!!

This line amused me: "They will re-examine their method of play and the mentality of players to become more conservative with the ball once a lead was established". It is what playerrs were instructed to do in the first 10 rounds. Goodwin notably said after the GCS game: we didn't need to score (in the last quarter) !! The same tactic was very noticeable after the second Port game and they nearly ran us down. It is hard for players to unlearn something once ingrained. Early in the year we were able to get the momentum back when teams were starting to overtake us Not so later in the season. The graphs above tell the story why!

Oh, I didn't realise the 20% was in. I will edit my post. We could offer them our picks 41, 50, 63, 68 for their pick 34 immediately increasing their points tally. Maybe get a future pick back. After all JT doesn't often use picks > than 40ish.

Not that it makes much difference Grundy's contract has another 5 years, expiring in 2027.

Re the last para. AFL changed the rule of picks=list spots for covid affected 2020. Unfortunately they didn't change it back last year and has greatly advantaged the F/S and Academy clubs, namely Bulldogs. Saints and Sydney. Terrible loophole they should close. Brisbane will cash out #15 for later picks, for sure. Brisbane can go into points deficit to get their F/S this year and their first 2023 pick drops down the order by the 2022 points shortfall.

Looks like WCE are back in the game, altho they may be leaving their run a bit late: “At this stage Tim, no it’s not,” O’Brien said in response to whether pick No.2 is on the table...“If we get the opportunity to trade for Luke, we can split selections to generate more, we’ve got future selections and there’s player trades.” O’Brien says that while he and his team are yet to contact Melbourne or Jackson’s management they won’t be “gun shy” in negotiations. “We haven’t spoken to Melbourne yet at all, I’ll contact Tim Lamb in the coming days and start working through that,” O’Brien said. “But we also need to get in front of Luke and his management to find out their position as well and put our case forward to hopefully convince him that we’re the right club to come to. SEN

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.