Big Col

Should come up with a decision soon ...

Harmes for sub IMHO.

With the VFL the game before the seniors, are players withheld in case of an injury during warm-up? Perhaps one of the other emergencies get pulled out of the VFL game at half-time in case we end up needing them as a sub, and the player  who was supposed to be sub, gets promoted?

With 20 teams could you have 2 divisions of 10 with promotion and relegation?

*18 H&A plus another 5 games against teams in the other division (ensuring there's always a crosstown game eg Crows vs Power and other 'traditional' games)
* Final 5 in Div 1 and Final 4 in Div 2 with Div 2 finalists playing off against the lowly Div 1 teams for promotion/relegation (eg 2nd in Div 2 plays vs 9th in Div 1, 3rd in Div2 vs 8th Div 1, 4th vs 7th, with the respective premiers and wooden spooners promoted/relegated automatically). The promotion/relegation games at the end of the season would be huge.
* Div 1 teams have higher salary caps/lists allowing for the better players to move there. Highest draft picks go the newly promoted team(s). eg winner of Div 2, gets #1 pick. wooden spooner in Div 1 gets #20 (and is relegated). 
 

A 19 team competition fixture can work if you do away with the concept of 'rounds' and have more mid-week games and more erratic breaks between matches. Season length could still be 23 games - or any other length.

eg

Season opens on a Wed night as Carl vs RICH
Between Thur and Sun, there are 8 games between 16 of the other teams

On Monday night Carl plays the remaining team, say StK

2 nights later on Wed night, Rich plays one of the teams that played on Thur (say Coll) and so on, with StK playing Sunday and Rich playing the Monday night game.

If you run games Wed-Mon and are prepared for lots of 5 day breaks, it could work. Perhaps it could also be coupled with a reduction in playing times (17.5 mins) and extended benches to make it more tolerable for players.

I'm not really proposing this, just answering about how it could work with 19 teams.

1 minute ago, whatwhat say what said:

melksham with a FREAK goal - gaelic style volley to himself with a ball going over his head, up into his arms, snapped the goal

incredible

I want to see a replay. Did that really happen?

May was back in form after the caning he got in the media this week

Just now, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

Best pick we could possibly recieve is pick 4, no one is out tanking Mitchell, Simmo, Clarko.

Those picks 1,2 and 3 are sorted after that it's anyone's guess GC, Freo, BWS all in contention.

Look out for the Tiges as a late bolter for tanking material in the 2nd half of the year.

Tigers first pick goes to GWS so they won't be tanking

I'm in the multiple picks within top 10 category rather than the all-in for #1. Here's an experiment I did looking at drafts since 2012. Yes, lots of flaws in my methodology and on any given year your picks could bust, but here goes...

Would you rather have pick #1 and #40 or #4 and #10? (3429 draft points)
#1 picks

Most of these are pretty good players - in particular Walsh and Rayner atm.

#40s

Tom Stewart is the standout with Neale-Bullen the next best. Most have been delisted after less than 50 games or are only just starting their careers.

#4 and #10

Imagine a team with Bontempelli, Oliver and Daicos kicking it to Coleman medallist Mckay or maybe Max King? LDU is having a breakout season this year and Tom Green is pretty handy. Phillipou is on track for a rising star nom this year.

And to top it off, this team could be captained by Jimmy Toumpass /s

Legal online betting in the USA only starting become available (outside of Nevada) in 2018.  There's a huge market there that's 20 years behind Australia. It's only going to get bigger.

I'm not sure how much a game held in the USA would increase betting revenue for the US but I'd be surprised if it didn't (given decent marketing). If the NRL trials this and it makes $$$ then the AFL will be soon to follow.  GWS vs GCS seems an appropriate match up.

Very happy to see Josh Schache get his chance. Played a great game 2 weeks ago in VFL and was the resting emergency last week so will be fresh legs.

Harmes should get the sub role.

Laurie unlucky but if he was sub again and got only 5 minutes play it'd be bad for match fitness (although I note that Casey plays on Sunday - are subs still permitted to play VFL and AFL on the same round?)

3 hours ago, rpfc said:

I think we simply have to rotate players the next three weeks. Geelong would do it and still win, we might do it and drop a game but we can’t smash our stars and expect different results to last years fade-outs and then season fade-out.

I'm with rpfc on this. From the outside it's hard to tell who's beat up the most and would benefit from a break, but we do have some fresh players:
*Schache who didn't get to even play VFL this weekend after coming off 4 goals for Casey the weekend before
*Laurie, who as sub, played all of 5 minutes on Monday night after a BOG in the VFL the week before
The VFL team will be coming off a 6-day break so it's not a such a huge "freshener" as we might be thinking, but nonetheless we have Harmes, who was never actually dropped, who has had 2 outstanding games for Casey in the last 2 games, and 2 weeks off w/o actually being injured.

That's before we even think about BBB and McD and others.

22 minutes ago, Nascent said:

Suns have more potential to finish above freo in my view so I'm hoping they have a good win today.

I came to the same conclusion!

4 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

That was a hec of a game.  Reckon i mightve had a hand in his form this season after i gave him a bit of a pep talk towards the end of last year!

While Bompt plays for the Bulldogs they'll always be a Premiership threat.  He is a champ for sure.

I wondering if the 5 day turnaround (vs 6 for Casey to AFL) is playing a part in selection?
Brown, Schache and Harmes (8 coaches votes in the VFL last week, Laurie got 10) are almost on standby to come in and be 'fresher' than those with a 5 day break, especially if their VFL game time is limited/managed.
 

8 minutes ago, Deeoldfart said:

Bowser having shots on goal from the pocket during the warmup, and nailing them.  Interesting!

I'd love to see how he would go as HFF/small forward

11 minutes ago, Winners at last said:

Tigers v Swans ... who do we want to win?

Possibly Tigers because I suspect they won't be much of a threat this year?

I'm barracking for soft tissue injuries by Tigers and/or 1 match suspensions

7 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Yeh he was right up there in that 2019 draft with Kozzy, LJ etc.  Actually early on im pretty sure he was ranked higher

He went #2.  I'd pick Kozzie above him, but he'd definitely be top 5 in a retrospective draft

Anderson is a gun. We have a game!

Big comeback by Freo but Gold Coast with the breeze last Qtr. Personally I'm finding this fun to be so invested in another game. 
I tell people now that my second team is whoever is playing Freo.

Pretty sure  I just spotted a Demons scarf!

10 minutes ago, layzie said:

A fixturing blunder. I know I'm speaking to the wrong crowd as it seems everyone has been watching from the start but I'm not even home yet amd it's half time. If MFC had this timeslot I'd be ropeable, sort it out next time. 

If you're a Freo fan the game started at 3pm Perth time.
They'd never schedule West Coast at that time.

2 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Lever Hibbard and Jordan out.

With Brown back in , do we think Petty will be down back again?

2 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Okay, I'm being purely sadistic here but how about we aim to use our 2023 draft picks to take the best tall defender (Curtin, from Claremont) and best ruck (Edwards, Peel, and Freo Academy) just so we can watch Freo supporters implode?

Handily, they're probably the two most suitable first round picks for us, anyway.

I mean, recruiters always debate 'best available' vs 'needs', but I don't think there's enough consideration of merciless trolling as a draft strategy.

Oh this is good. LOL. It appeals to my inner trollness.

20 minutes ago, rpfc said:

But I get 4 laugh emojis and her 9?

 

It's not cool to claim someone else's joke, rpfc. Next you'll be saying you're high on potenuse.
 

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

The greatest mystery of 2023 will remain how we lost to Brisbane 

I'm happy with an unbeatable Brisbane team at home that is [censored] away