Lucifers Hero

As much as I dislike Scott and his smugness his tactical brilliance is to be admired. Like Longmire he has a clear plan for the opps playmakers while backing in his system. For them it isn't either/or. They do both. Successfully. Geelong didn't tag Neale. Scott said before the game they knew he would get the ball but try to control where he got the ball and they would have several players for him. At half time Jimmy Bartel said Geelong let Neale get the ball when he was facing the wrong way. They shut Neale out by having Atkins on him at stoppages, someone to close his space and stay goal side of him. He was picked up by whoever was closest to him. The latter is how they played Oliver. If Sydney win today, Longmire vs Scott will be a fascinating GF to watch.

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Kozzie is very close to his uncle, Byron Pickett a Port premiership player who lives in SA. iirc the Pickett family took him in hence why he has Pickett in his double surname and why he lived in SA prior to being drafted. imv he is our #1 priority to recontract and the soon the better. Not many like him and his x factor is almost irreplaceable . He is one of the few players that gets the crowd on their feet making noise whenever he goes near the ball or starts a chase. It isn't this year that I am worried about. It is next year when he comes out of contract.

Who knows with Bell. Young called him out last year for breaking the 'cone of silence' regarding Lobb's interest in going to GWS. It does seem Freo have gone back on an 'agreement' last year. If one believes Bell they couldn't let both Logue and Lobb to so are keeping Lobb who is under contract. Interestingly, Young manages both Lobb and Logue. Unless, Freo get lots of trade currency in via North I don't see how they can do the Jackson deal without trading Lobb to Bulldogs. The Jackosn trade may drag on till the end of the trade period, for another month, if it gets tied up with the Lobb deal. Sigh.. Bell's list management tactics seem very sus!

Thanks 🙂 Shouldn't rely on word prompt!!

They couldn't lose both Logue and Lobb. They can keep Lobb because he is contracted. If they had been fairer to and kept Logue they could let Lobb go. However, Freo have their eyes on a North priority pick so figure that might be better than what they get from the Bulldogs for Lobb. Having said that Bell doesn't strike me as an honest broker and plays hard ball more often than not..

They wouldn't need to if they had given injured guys some time out in the second half of the season.

$700k for 4 years will do it! Especially when his own club apparently turned down his contract request of less than half those $/yrs.

I wouldn't even do it for pick #19 if North get it. Having said that Logue is said to be on a $700k x 4 year contract so #19, +/- other bits and pieces for him and Tucker could be in the ball park. As an aside, Freo have certainly kicked a few 'own goals'. They could have signed Logue for half those $ and terms at the start of this year but they thought it was too high. They have low-balled a few players so it is no wonder they want out. Chickens coming home to roost...!

The bf Freo board have their sights on a North priority pick, delusionally hoping North get #11 and Freo gets it for the two players..

Thanks. With all the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks held by Geelong and GCS they are very well placed to snare Brisbane's first pick and their comp pick for McStay to help get their two F/S. GCS will be further strengthened with the Rankin pick from Adelaide. Hopefully Brisbane deal with GCS rather than Geelong!

It seems both Jobe and Tim Watson are anti Hird's return to the club. Jobe spoke against it when Rutten was exited: "Former Essendon captain Jobe Watson has urged the crisis-riddled Bombers to avoid the temptation of chasing a quick-fix saviour, saying the possible return of James Hird to the coaching role would not work". Tim has said "Essendon do not need a saviour" and "I think for a lot of people it would drag back all those things that happened during that period of time that he was there as coach,” Watson said. “I’d be more than surprised if he ended being the coach of the Essendon Football Club, but I’m happy for him to be part of the process and for him to have the courage to put his hand up and even go through it". Looks like Watson snr is the leader/spokesperson of the anti-Hird for coach camp. Robbo the cheerleader for Hird. Of all people Jobe and Tim would know exactly what went on during the drug saga and would have good reason to strongly speak against Hird as coach.

Players move clubs for money, more games and 'success'. Not sure we can sell the first two and without either of those two, there is little chance of them sharing in our success. So in the short term I doubt we will lure many to the dees.

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!