Ted Lasso

Geez this one could get ugly. Plan A for the WCE Tag all 22 players and hope the scoreboard doesn't get too ugly

I can't work out what can be taken from that game. you'd like to think there is a blueprint against the Pies but they blew a lot of chances. i suspect the slippery, dewy conditions at the Gabba at night have been an adjustment for the Dees and Pies

I wouldn't discount Kozzies managers involvement in this. his round 1 performance was scary. it's not outside the realms of possibility Kozzie finishes the year as one of the better players in the comp, and if i was advising him, i'd tell him to hold off to get a better deal, even if his intention was always to stay. mind you i think as a club we've probably moved past it being quite as dire when a player leaves, if Koz goes we'll be very well compensated and move on pretty quickly, but i'm sure everyones preference would be for him to sign for 6 more

I just think they need to go through to the logical conclusion and have an in season trade window from say rounds 1-15 and then some capacity to sign free agents and release players via pay out as well. the more capacity to move and shake your list on the run i think the better for all teams In our case i'm sure we'd love to sign another ready to go ruckman and probably have some mids who might not get much of a look who could be best 22 elsewhere

I think Goody has kinda nailed the challenges each team is facing in his presser today. the game has opened up so to be successful you have to be more aggressive with ball movement, but it's an ongoing challenge to figure out how to defend well against a fairly big shift in how teams are attacking. It makes sense the Pies have started well because i think Fly has read the play well and their game style is very well suited, they're almost 12 months ahead of the pack in a way because they're used to it. The thing is though, teams will figure it out and it'll change and evolve and by the end of the year it'll be totally different again

Sounds like they're missing a few which will make life hard for them! i must admit i am never 100% confident going to Perth to play a perth team but this is probably going to be one of the weakest Eagles 22's that they've had on the park in a long time. Dees by 71

Not sure what our Cap situation is like but i reckon we'd be crazy if we aren't viewing Ben McKay as a potential long term replacement for Steven May I'm sure someone will suggest it but i don't think we should be looking at Gresham as a potential Kozzie replacement if he decides to go we've got 3 first round picks including next years to throw around so no doubt we will have a pop at Ben King

I predict C.Oliver will retire with 350 games for Melbourne 1 x Brownlow 3 x Premierships 8 x All Australians 6 x Best and fairests

Ben Brown is in really solid form, Tmac is a bit flat but JVR is ready to be unleashed. i'm pretty confident in where the Key forward stocks sit. I reckon we're best off using Tmac as the back up ruck/Third forward, bringing in Rooey and unleashing him on the poor saints. I reckon being in the ruck will hopefully give Tmac the chance to get his hands on the ball and get more into the game, plus he's got the running power to play the role

I guess we will have to wait and see what happens this weekend. for the record i'm predicting a pretty strong message being sent to the rest of the comp when we beat them without Max. but it's going to be an arm wrestle and a battle of probably the best 2 way midfields in my opinion.

Would love to know his thoughts on what learnings he took from 2022 and what is likely to change in 2023 to hopefully have us hitting finals more in the sort of shape we were in 2021

I don't really agree on our form line, we smacked the Saints and Tigers around, both are looking like top 8 sides. we smashed the dogs and likely caused the confidence issues. and there are reasons for our flat performance against the Lions that won't be made public i'd suspect. In terms of the Swans i'd say their grand final performance was a bit of a reflection of how close they were to winning it and i reckon even with all the issues we had, we would have given the Cats more of a shake on Grand final day

It's going to be an absolute arm wrestle. both teams missing their big contested marking force around the ground in Reid and Gawn makes for an interesting Dynamic on the flip side BBB seems to have found some very solid form he hasn't really had as a Dee, Fritsch will be better after the run last week and Trac and Oliver are building nicely. I think if we manage to win this game it'll really help set our season up and give the lads some believe we can do some damage regardless of which players are in or out.

Very confident for a team that only made a grand final because we had injuries and niggles coming our our ears and the umpires let Papley do what he likes in a Prelim. I reckon we've got their measure even without Gawn

I think one thing Mark Neeld got wrong as coach was he thought that by virtue of playing x amount of games history tells you that's when you become good. i think the reality is you need a core of the right young players, surrounded by the right development coaches and program to play a significant number of games together with a similar game plan to build cohesion. Fremantle i'd say haven't identified and adapted to the new trends in footy and have gone back to an outdated game plan with slow movement, they don't have the players to kick a winning score consistently and by clearing out the players to fit in Luke Jackson, they've destroyed that cohesion, and upset the player group by paying him so much money. they're a live possibility to have a similar year to what we did in 2019 when we finished second last following a prelim.

900k a year and i bet he made his mum shout the snags

Thank goodness! the flags back on!

ACL is definitely a live possibility :(

I hope they don't panic too much, but i'm a bit concerned by McDonalds output, he'd want to find some significant form very soon I'd guess May will come back in, and potentially someone like Josh Schache. depending on Maxy's situation i reckon we might grab a ruck in the mid season draft

Brisbane were red hot and we were a little bit off from the first bounce, dissapointing but not the end of the world, aside from the injuries, my biggest worry was how disorganised we looked post the Gawn injury, we have enough high quality leaders that they should be getting back on track faster than that. I'm absolutely certain we will see a response against the Swans

Looked like a medial but you never know with these things! hopefully get some confirmation of what they suspect soon!

Bringing in Fort really highlights the great challenge other teams are going to have with "Gawndy" you think you need another actual ruckman to compete with these blokes so you bring in a tall lumbering guy who's almost certainly going to lose anyway because that feels like a better option that using someone like Hipwood who would definitely be exposed both in the ruck and around the ground. I reckon Grundy will spend more time in the ruck this week and Gawn more time forward. i think Brisbanes backline will struggle to contain Gawn, and Grundys mobility will really challenge Oscar and Fort. i suspect we will tag Neale and Berry will Tag oliver and Petracca will take home the 3 votes Brisbane have been and seemingly always will be a team that can't beat good teams on system, and instead relies on acts of brilliance from their big name players.

I hope it puts 2022 into perspective for us. winning back to back flags is soo hard, the cats from a conditioning stand point look miles away from the teams they've played. i suspect a lot of them are carrying niggles and just don't have the run in their legs yet, they'll get there, but it's really challenging to build the fitness base when the season has started, it's a bit like starting a road trip with 3/4 of a tank. I suspect they'll rotate and manage their players a lot to try to catch up with the pack, which is probably a mistake we made in hindsight, not managing the challenges of that well enough.

Even when fully fit, it's not clear to me that he's an obvious best 22 player. i suspect the club likes his potential upside and ability to play multiple positions, but i'm with you, not sure i'd have given him 2 more.

Sad reality is Brisbane are mentally soft, they can't handle a hungry team coming at them, and they're just not that well coached. they're going to be 0-2 after this weekend, they'll beat up on enough lesser teams to play finals but they won't fire a shot again this off season