Ted Lasso

I must admit i didn't realize until the last couple of weeks how good a footballer Lachie Hunter actually is, getting him for a future 3rd round pick is incredible. He's a serious chance to be the best off season recruit of the year, he will not only add a huge amount to our team, but i think he'll take a lot of pressure off Langdon. teams did really hurt us by tagging Langdon at times. Lachie will make that much much harder

Seems to be quite a lot of Hype around the dogs and a lot of commentators thinking they might bounce back to their 2021 form and push for top 4. I think we will beat them up around the midfield, the two rucks will be very mean to poor Tim English and those two forwards won't get much in the way of silver service because of our pressure. On paper they're a very good team though and should be good enough to play finals, i just think we're in that next level above them with Geelong and maybe Brisbane

To me, the Tassie model always made more sense with a relocation, though I'm not surprised no team was putting their hand up for it. Hopefully, they have a really open-minded look at the format of the competition to make it work, I'm coming around to the idea of more games, but shorter, and playing potentially during the week as well, part of the issue is all of the games being bunched together always leaves the bye as an annoying challenge to deal with

Another flag. anything less is a failure and those are the lofty expectations we should all embrace. this list is primed.

I reckon it's a fatigue build up as well. a lot of the players are still so young and then to suddenly go into a full finals campaign including a grand final, and have to back that up is physically demanding. when coaches talk about players really needing 80-100 games imo what they're referring to is the need for 4-5 solid pre seasons to be able to stand up to the week in, week out nature of footy. in hindsight, as wonderful as it is, we probably did need to rest/rotate the players a little bit more.

I think regarding point C) I don't think Max is always tapping looking for a player, rather a position to support team structure, and opposing structure set ups have evolved and become significantly more difficult to break down. If you go back and watch the 2006 grand final when WCE won the flag, and compare in to 2022 it's a very different looking game in regards to clearance i think

Max gawn is likely to retire with 6-8 All Australian nods, having been All Australian captain in a premiership year, his record reflects an all time great. Cox for me really showed the value of a ruckman who can add almost that extra mid, and started the craze, this is controversial but in terms of pure rucking, i don't even think Cox was the best ruckman in the league at the time, it was the whole package he offered. big Sandi and others were at least as good. Max in my view is the best pure ruckman i've ever seen, and his mobility and impact around the ground put in right in the conversation for the best ruckman ever, full stop

The Geelong strategy isn't without risk though, i understand it worked incredibly well for a team of over 30's but potentially for a younger side it could upset the balance and team chemistry so it's a tough one to balance. i think with those things they could do the exact same thing next season with totally different results, the reality seems to be winning a premiership requires so many small things to go right for you that it's almost out of your control. i think the top few teams are so close, that it almost comes down to luck in some ways. I do agree though that Simon Goodwin at times probably could reward strong Casey performances, a good example would be that Ben Brown in hindsight could have been replaced by Jacob Van Rooyen who despite being young, was clearly in much better form.

Essendon are very seriously looking to split pick 4, i suspect we won't be in for that though, i reckon we wanted Cadman but the Giants have gotten in first

Initially i liked this idea but the more i think about it, we've had the best backline 2 years running, Petty is the natural successor to May, why break up a good thing? I'd rather back a combination of JVR, brown, Schache, McDonald and resting rucks to be able to play roles down there and hopefully we can find a developing key forward in the draft or lure Ben King in 2023

Would they do it for Freo's 2 picks, 13 this year, future first next year? i doubt it, doesn't hurt to ask though

I'm quite optimistic about this one, i've always rated his talent, a bit like Weid he's not quite been able to really lock down a spot, but i think he can really take a step at the Dees and be a best 22 player.

Every off season they talk about how the next season is a much stronger draft. to be honest i think it's all a bit silly. we've got a history of being willing to bravely trade out future selections and i've got no doubt our 2023 first round picks would be on the table if a deal came up that saw us moving right up the draft order and in a position to get one or two guys we really rate. Given Cadman is off to the giants and some of the other mids are a bit similar to what we already have, i'm not too sure who we'd have our eye on

Hungry! looks ready to make the Pies pay big time.

I'd say there is a very good chance between now and draft night we make at least 1 trade of picks and move up the board. i suspect that's been Tim Lambs plan all along with the picks for Luke Jackson

I reckon Ross Lyon has got the Saints job over the line so no point Yze even applying, in terms of strengthening our coaching, i think we do need to look at a change up in our offensive ball movement and forwards coaching. Nick Reiwoldt would be worth a call, even part time, he sees the game so well and i think would really help our forwards with their craft, leading patterns and working as a team

especially given what they've done to convince him to leave, inviting his family into the club, promising they'd get a deal done, offering him huge money and now they're risking breaking that promise for the sake of saving some token draft picks, and getting a better deal.

See the difference between us and Freo though, Collingwood wanted a top 25 pick, so we've made trades to improve our offer and we're proactively looking for a fair deal in line with their request

I actually agree with MMW6D, i think they're trying to take this to the last minute so we have to either take that or lose him for nothing, can't see any indication they're negotiating in good faith, or looking to improve the offer.

For sure. i'd happily put on the table picks 13, Future first, future second from North and Josh Treacy or Liam Henry, if they can't stump up more significant picks. But i wouldn't be doing the deal as it stands, Freo need to up the offer

I'm going to put this out there. Let him go to the PSD, walk away from trade negotiations, two reasons. 1. Freo will panic and offer more, they're desperate to get him 2. the consideration in this is Freo is a premiership rival, we should only do this trade if the return makes us better as well, 13 and pick 18 are okay, but we make Freo significantly better without significantly improving ourselves, our commitment is to get him to W.A so let the Eagles have him, let Freos trading out of players be for nothing and keep a rival down. Freo with Jackson are going to be a top 4 team next year IMO

the deal will happen simply because little man Peter Bell won't be able to handle the dent to his ego that missing out on Luke Jackson would leave. the final hour of trade week he'll scramble a better offer together.

It would be a nonsensical list management decision on every level not to take him.

I don't think we need to, i think North would be insane not to take him, even if he decided to leave after 1 year they're going to turn a pre season draft selection into at least 2 first round picks, plus Jackson is definitely going to make them better and they'd have to back themselves to get him to stay. it's a no brainer from Norths perspective to take him

I'm all for Petty playing forward, i reckon with Tommo slotting into CHB and Gawn and Grundy providing extra cover in the air we don't lose all that much and Petty could totally change the look of our forward line. i'd also suggest JVR will play a lot of senior footy next year down there. for me he's already gone past Ben Brown and Sam Weideman