Ted Lasso

It's always hard to measure the best in a defensive position, but he's been bloody good for a few years now, has lost a battle maybe 5 times in the last 5 seasons and consistently been around the All Australian mark

I agree, but possibly we wouldn't offer him more than 1 year at this point so if he's got outside interest it seems likely he will go. he'd be a good fit at a club like North. Tmac is probably one more injury away from retiring, so really trying to enjoy his great form while he's going so well

I think it's going to take some time for him to adjust to a totally different system than what he had at Adelaide which was a lot more aggressive all over the ground, he's showing some okay signs early but i'd say he needs another 2-3 weeks to really start to hit form. He was absolutely flying at times during the pre-season

I think this move strongly hints that we will enter 2025 without Tom McDonald or Adam Tommlinson AND we intend to persist with Petty forward into the future. Battle isn't going to come to the MFC to sit in the 2's until May decides to retire, he would rightly want to come to a situation where he is clearly starting 22

If nothing else it does suggest we're running out the games pretty well. i'd say first quarters is a mindset thing, i wonder if perhaps early in games the players are maybe trying a little bit too hard and they relax into it as the game goes on, but as we saw with Carlton, Brisbane and West Coast, by the time we settled into those games we were miles behind

The only thing worse than losing is playing a slow, defensive garbage game style and losing, while at the same time having an deep lack of talent from systemically overrating and overestimating your list. I don't see a way forward for the Saints that doesn't involve bottoming out completely

Early days in his career at GWS they tried to play him as a mobile tall forward and he was solid without being spectacular, i think given the way Brown is playing, it wouldn't hurt us to give him a go in the forward line. I really liked the signs from Turner though so when fit i'd have him back in

6. Max Gawn 5. Christian Salem 4. Adam Tomlinson 3. Alex Neal-Bullen 2. Kozzie Pickett 1. Jack Viney

Love it! Gawn: Greatest Ruckman ever

I wonder if Lever could play smaller and we could keep Tommlinson in? we looked really good in the air

Taj is incredibly stiff, it's pretty rough to give a bloke a full game who's shown next to nothing in the 2's over a kid who's been playing quite well in the 1's

maybe it's only just come on in the last hour or so? in any case it really does highlight our glaring lack of ruck depth. Jacob Van Rooyen rucking against Rowan Marshall for a full game is going to give the Saints a pretty big edge if Max doesn't get up.

McKenzie is coming along really nicely at the Hawks.

I think we're still definitely capable of doing some damage at the end of the season but we'd have to improve a lot, the gap between our best and worst footy is widening, the form of some of our really important players is still a long way off their best and we're relying on a 21 year old and a 24 year old to carry our forward line when one has always been a defender and one is still finding his feet at AFL level, we're asking a fair bit. The loss of Gus has been profound on the team. The big positive is that at the end of the season and moving forward we will have considerable salary cap space open and some assets to trade so we can plug some holes and look to re-load for 2025 if we don't get there this year. a gun key forward would be very very handy

absolutely. i'm unsure who we have that's actually capable of going with them though, perhaps it's a case of whoever is on them needs to make themselves dangerous, you don't mind Hill getting 25 cheap touches on the wing if his opponent kicks 4 goals

It's going to be a grind this one, i am concerned about the Saints running power and their half backs on the MCG. if we lose this game i think it'll be really challenging to finish top 4 this season, Time for Viney, Oliver, Salem, May and all the other really good players who haven't been quite at their best to step up and find their best form because we desperately need them if 2024 is going to bring any sort of meaningful success.

that explains ALOT!

You'd have to imagine we would identify our lack of midfield depth and look to address that, i am sure if the club knew Gus would be forced to retire we may have retained Harmes, or fought harder to keep Jordan, the outcome ultimately is that we lose 3 AFL level mids from our depth and look a bit thin behind the big names. Unsure who specifically we might target but i'd guess we will at the very least be looking at the available mature age midfielders

I did feel dirty typing it. i'll show myself out! haha

I like the Dons, i think they're a team that can surprise a few come the end of the season, it looks like the Swans flag to lose but i wouldn't be at all surprised if the Dons are there abouts in Prelim week

are you suggesting Simon Goodwin the AFL premiership coach might know more about what he's doing than some of the fans on Demonland!?! outrageous

I don't think Goodwin is single focused on any one week or even the 2024 season, i think his goal is implement a game style that's consistent and has us there abouts year in year out, and keeps us towards the pointy end as long as we can. On the weekend we had Kade Chandler (24) Harry Petty (24) Tom Sparrow (23) Kozzie pickett (22) Caleb Windsor (18) Judd McVee (20) Jake Bowey (21) Trent Rivers (23) Blake Howes (21) Taj Woewodin (21) I personally think it's pretty impressive when nearly 50% of our best 22 is 24 and under and we're playing at the level we are, it's a good indication that the team is not only going to be hard to beat now, but will continue to get better. Our profile, age wise wasn't too dissimilar to West Coast on the weekend, a lot of youth and some good senior players. Normally we'd also have Turner and Van Rooyen in the side, so as long as we're playing a team that's anywhere near the 50% mark in terms of youth, we will be at times inconsistent, we will have down days and they'll find it harder to handle the pressure of big games and moments than senior players will, this is clearly a conscious decision by the footy department to go down the live re-set path.

JVR in for Brown seems like a logical one, i'd probably like to see Woewodin start and Billing as the sub.

Really missing Lingers

they're outworking us all over the ground. the fix is easy, we need to up our intensity and effort.