Ted Lasso

we're all just guessing ultimately! but awesome that Riv is sticking around! he's been a great pick up for us!

there were a few considerations around the Gus deal, our intention last year was always to re-sign both though. i think the difference is there is a possibility we have to pay slightly more than we'd ideally like in order to keep Kozzie, where as we would have paid LJ whatever it took i suspect to keep him

Because of the size and scope of a potential kozzie contract, and the reality he'd be our clear priority, we simply wouldn't make this move unless we had a level of certainty around what Kozzie is likely to do. If we didn't have a clear idea what that contract was going to look like, we'd be holding off on any major extensions as long as we reasonably could.

this is not just a great signing for the club, it's a really positive sign for the prospects of re-signing Kozzie as well!

Not a chance

I definitely think we will look at bundling up multiple first round picks this year and next year and trying to inject some top end midfield talent I rate our developing keys in Jefferson and Van Rooyen. i am really optimistic what they will become salary cap permitting i'd have a very serious look at Ben Mckay as a long term replacement for Steven May to extend our window

It doesn't help when you trade out multiple players who played roles for your club in order to fit in a kid who hasn't proven he's a consistent AFL performer yet on Huge money. this was a huge gamble by Freo and i suspect it's greatly upset parts of the club and really upset the chemistry of the team. Not to mention they're completely void of any real offensive power and have totally misread where the game is going

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 :(