Diamond_Jim

You would think that the Dogs would be active in the trade market. Terrible defence and arguably surplus forwards. Add in a desperate coach.

BBB should be eligible for an early retirement pay out. Under the AFL rules a lot of this will be outside the salary cap. TMac elected to "smooth out" his payments by taking lower annual salary over a longer term. (Effectively costs us nothing). With the number of retirees we have ample list spots. TMac playing a year at VFL level isn't a big problem. Back ending is very common. Forward loading is far riskier (Ask the Suns with Ablett)

I would be hoping that we are doing rolling reviews of many aspects as a matter of course. Constant benchmarking against both internal and external KPI's. They've just announced the new CBA which I hope contains changes to the soft cap. Frankly the soft cap has probably outlived its usefulness. It's holding the game back. If teams like North can't afford the spend that is their problem

You wonder if it's injury risk. 18 months is a long time. Get injured next week and you kiss goodbye to big money. Should we have an NRL type system where players are signed well in advance of moving. There's really such little movement other than in fringe players you have to wonder how you break it open.

To trigger the higher band compo do you have to offer multiple years. If you offer say 1/2 year at mid level salary is that enough. I like the idea of gaming the compo band. Everyone else seems to be doing it

I suppose our bomb to the pocket is the AFL version of the wing attack followed by the cross. Strangely enough that became obsolete at the top level at least 10 years ago. (Apologies to the Socceroos who persisted with the style through Robbie Kruse for all those years) Mbappe slicing through the middle on an angle is closer to the Collingwood style perhaps

I was surprised how well our gameplan (which I have never liked) stood up against what I call the "corridor teams". Better accuracy and better forward play would have seen us atop the ladder. What worries me is that in 2023 even when we were winning we struggled. Close games even if you pull away in the last ten minutes take their toll. 2024.. I have no idea (2022 and 2023 have tempered my thoughts) Hoping for 3 youngsters from this year's draft like 2019 to give the team that fresh desire and skill injection

Wait while I "unpack" that

A massive coaching blunder on so many levels. Is there another story.. who knows The only saving grace is that we come out of it square. Funnily enough if we had played him in a more successful finals team we may have come out ahead. (Schache... in front of Grundy... smells to high heaven)

Surprises me. Having two of them at VFL level is not ideal. I suppose you could play TMac down back if Tomlinson leaves

BBB will retire under an agreed injury payout. TMac will be a useful VFL player next year and can be given a coaching assistant role. (Mentoring JVR and Jefferson for example). He smoothed out his existing entitlement by adding another year so in the overall scheme of things it's not costing us anything other than a list spot. With Duncan, Melksham BBB JJ etc leaving we have plenty of those

Thanks... He looks like going mid to late first round. Are we prepared to spend that much I wonder

Trouble is they will languish in the VFL until needed. Bulldogs have an immediate need so an almost there key defender would go to a club like that. A draftee is probably two years minimum from being ready Not sure how you solve it

Petty going forward exposes us to a big risk down back with Steven May. Add in Tomlinson leaving and the risk approaches critical. Tough one

The only one of real note is probably Jordon. Will we try to keep him?

PF ticketing is similar to SF and QF How many members do the Pies have? O boy Maybe 15 k neutral to 85k

Great win A ray of sunshine on an otherwise dark weekend

GWS or Port winning the big one is a zero emotional sum for most of us... Go the Orange

Not sure that there's been a bigger contributor to the post war game. A great player and a great coach. His halftime instruction to handball at all costs in the 1970 Grand Final changed football forever. RIP Ron

Our H&A season this year was below 2022 with both close losses and wins. In 2022 we had the famous 26 points of indecision where we would get out to a near five goal lead and blow it. We rarely got to 26 point leads in 2023 it seems. As others have said our best this year was not as good as previous years but the other teams are not stand outs either so perhaps we might have pinched the big one. Straight sets is burningly disappointing though. It will take me a while to get over Goodwin's SF selection and I will never agree with Schache as sub selection over Grundy (or anybody for that matter)

Skills coach please Increasingly football is in the corridor. Even our boundary line play relies on skills. Leveraging weaknesses. Give Lever an easy outlet for example. His up and under kicking is not made for pressure games. Goal kicking accuracy is 30% mental. Do it at training with earbuds pumping out distraction. Have a plan for 10 players that is variable each match. Left goal post at this angle arc etc. Less thinking and more about execution takes the mind stress away

Definitely worth a thread of its own but why o why the inaccuracy

I'm over this

We leave two goals on the table and they get 2 easy ones

Lever is not a great kick