Ted Lasso

Agreed, not many kids are going to play every game in their first year unless they're superhuman these days! the interchange cap has made sure of that. It was difficult for first year players to run out games with unlimited rotations. Brayshaws issue imo this year is he is not a very good forward and not fit enough to play midfield yet.

A source out of Richmond, we expressed some interest in Hooker as well, an experienced key position defender is certainly something we're really keen on bringing into the club, which is probably not a great sign for Dunn or Garland. The Hurley chase is being led by Goodwin and Macca It's a unique situation with Essendon where we can bring in an A grade player potentially without having to trade for them, and most if not all of these guys are going to consider leaving imo, some might stay but at least 1 of their guns will leave again imo.

The last really bad one i've seen that has cost a team a game was Geelong vs Hawthorn Cyril rioli tackled the Geelong bloke after he'd run about 15 meters trying to shake him, spun him around, he threw the ball up in the air, the umpire called play on and they whipped it down the other end for a goal after the siren to Tom Hawkins. That non-decision was clearly a huge error and cost the Hawks the game, though i'm pretty sure they won the flag that year so not like it mattered. but your point is right, the human element will always result in mistakes, but so very few actually win or lose teams games at the end of the day.

Absolutely, you see guys like Joel Selwood ducking constantly and people saying how tough they are for trying to win free kicks, personally i think it's just a matter of time before it backfires and someone gets seriously hurt trying to be " Tough" for a free kick. I think it should be treated as staging and hand a free kick to the tackler, and consistently doing it should result in fines and brownlow ineligibility. fairest and best player in my eyes isn't someone who plays for soft free kicks constantly.

Unfortunately AFL is a contact sport and i can't see much that can be done to avoid concussion outside of discouraging ducking for free kicks. There are going to be times where a bloke like Viney has his head over the ball and gets a hit, i think we're going to have to live with it and be really careful when it happens. I don't mind the idea of a severe concussion leading to a forced period of games out depending on how bad it is, for example, a moderate to bad concussion = 1 forced week off

I did it as well and i think we'll win between 10 and 14 games, and miss the finals by 1-3 games I think our best is top 8 standard but our worst is bottom 4, we need to build that consistency if we are going to win often enough to make a serious play for finals. having said that the improvement is obvious in attack, we can kick winning scores but we haven't got the defensive balance right just yet and i think when that comes so will the consistency. Massive weakness in mistakes kicking out of the back half resulting in goals, every game this year we have coughed up more goals as a result of our own errors than the opposition has scored outright, i know this is a result of opposition pressure but to me it's also an indication that we can defend but we can't always make the most of that good work in counter attacking moves, and those mistakes open us right up and allow easy goals.

We are having a massive dig at Michael Hurley, while i'd love both him and TMAC in our backline it honestly wouldn't be the end of the world if TMAC left. 1. We'd get a first round pick in return 2. our biggest weakness at the moment imo is our inability to move the ball well enough, consistently enough, mistakes out of the back half are costing us a lot of goals both goals that we aren't scoring ourselves but goals to the opposition as well. 3. He's talented, but he's got a huge weakness in his disposal that imo will keep him from ever consistently being considered an AA level player, his mistakes would cost him nearly as many goals as he saves at times. Time will tell what happens here but if i am being 100% honest if we got an indication that Hurley would jump on board as a F/A i would not be very worried if TMAC did decide to leave.

Reasonable player in the O&M under age comp, played a couple of games for Bushies as well, but lack of pace as a midfielder really gets exposed as you go through the ranks these days.

Have it on pretty good authority that there are no lingering concussion concerns with Viney and they just decided to take a conservative approach and put him on ice for the day, given we were 50 odd points up with about 15 minutes to play i think it was the right call. Salem, Lumumba and maybe another KPD would be on the cards as potential in's but i'm not sure you can make that many changes after a win like that. I think it would send a really good message if someone like Salem had to earn his way back in. send him back to Casey where he will dominate and he'll be back in soon enough anyway.

Would want to have a very long look at O'meara's medical report before recruiting him.

Saints deserved to win that. The Roos play Essendon next week so they'll be 8-0 but i'm far from convinced they're in the elite group with Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong, i think they'll be exposed when they have to play one of those sides. Port looking okay again but still seriously below expectations compared to the talent on the list. Which coach is under more pressure? Dimma, Bucks or Rocket? I think Bucks.

Spot on, he may not even play this year, but geez it's exciting to think of Him, Hogan and Watts playing together long term!

Scores?

As others have said i think Lynch is a good comparison, he's quite mobile, got a bloody good set of hands and a beautiful kick, once he develops an AFL body he'll be very good in tandem with Jesse. he seems to be past his injuries which is a huge plus and still very much building confidence and form but he's good enough to be the best player that comes out of his draft.

Picked up where the dees left off

Our current inside mids: Jones, Tyson, Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, We are okay on the inside Outside mids: Vince, Salem? Stretch?

Just listening to the Sunday footy show, interesting stat pulled out, Number one ranked hit outs two advatage player in the comp 1. Max Gawn (113) 2. Nic Nat (74 ) when you combine that with how good he is around the ground with attacking and defensive marks i think he has a very strong case to be ahead of even Todd Goldstein

He was also clearly going hard at the ball, you can't suspend a bloke for having more courage and going harder at the ball. had it been off the ball he might have been in a spot of bother

I really think Kennedy is going to develop into a very good B plus grade player, i can't see him being a star, but i reckon the boys just love having him out there, he just goes in hard no matter the state of the game.

Dion is a class player and as i've mentioned on here a couple of times, the club has chased him pretty hard the last couple of years. I don't think you ever turn down class players but as good as he is i am wondering if we'd be better off chasing a high class outside mid, to take the next step i think pace and skills are definitely required.

Out: Garland, Michie, Stretch In: Lumumba, Salem, O'mac

6. Gawn 5. Jones 4. Jetta 3. Bugg 2. Viney 1. Harmes

Crows will fight back

Huge positive for me is the good players who weren't at their best as well! Tommy mac, Hogan, Watts and Dom for me were a little off

I was close