Ted Lasso

My gut feel is the coaches really want to settle the team down and minimize changes, trusting that the pre-finals bye and modified training will be enough to get guys up and going for finals. I don't think you want to be making too many unforced changes at this time of year

It'll be very interesting to see how aggressive we are at the trade table and how much we simply just back in what we have and add to the core

If he doesn't i say we trade him to Freo

Baily Laurie debut if Koz doesn't get up?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was due to him trying to drag an opponent deep and out of the way, but i agree, having Ben Brown as the deepest forward player makes a lot of sense

Melkshams kicking is a huge part of why he's in the side. the Club identified the need for higher efficiency going inside 50 and Melksham is elite in that space. he's also a surprisingly good 1v1 player and very smart, he generally goes to a good player and keeps them fairly accountable. He's in the team for the rest of the year in my opinion, i think our efficiency in terms of creating opportunities has spiked since he's come in

Me too. i reckon we need to really think about using Harmes in the tagging role for the rest of the year. the interesting thing is when he's tagging his output generally is very very similar to when he's not, so why not shut out a good player?

A bit i'd say, but yes if he's gettable i reckon we'd be very keen

Captains run mate, really just stretching their legs.

Demonland petition, obviously we're relying on breathtaking incompetence from the Kangaroos list management, but given they all quit i think we might be alright

No, but you can close the obvious ones. I think it's a bit of a worry when a really obvious procedural error is the reason a big name player gets off on appeal. the skeptical part of me finds it really hard to believe that the AFL could actually do that accidentally

Happy to swap Melksham for Zurharr.

I would ask the AFL why despite being a multimillion dollar business they'd leave such a silly oversight/loophole open to exploitation. it's either breathtaking negligence, or a break glass in case of emergency contigency for a big name player to use to avoid missing a big final/important games.

My most hated team is easily Port Adelaide, they're so entitled, their fans are feral and gross and i just don't like their stupid faces. Don't mind the Pies, i'm sure that's unpopular on here, a lot of my family support the Pies, so i've always had a semi soft spot

I know the guy has done every role in footy this season but i'd give Brayshaw the role of going to Cripps at stoppages. He has the strength to compete with him in there and the footy smarts to expose him on offense. If we can mitigate Cripps at stoppage and our backs can keep McKay and Curnow under control i find it hard to see how Carlton can get us

I rate McLean highly, he's a very good contested mark, which is exactly what we need, Brown is more of a lead up player and we get exposed a bit when we go for territory because he's always been someone who can get outmarked. Tmac is a little bit better in regards to bringing it to ground so we're missing him a bit i reckon

their midfield depth will be a real concern for them, they can probably match us when they have the 3 big guns in there, but the moment they rotate we should have a clear advantage. I also think Gawn/Jackson will run Pit around which could be a huge challenge for him. I think we really need a statement win, you've got the Blues with their season on the line, i think we need to really put them to the sword

To be fair, it's impossible to know what he was intending, my opinion of Cripps is that he's a tough but fair player who walks very close to the line, a lot like Jack Viney. It may well have genuinely been careless, but i think if you make the decision to contest the ball, turn your body and brace, you're probably responsible for the outcome i'd say

I hope he does take the job, he's too good a footy person to not be involved at the highest level. He played a massive role in our premiership and hopefully he can help North get back on track

For the legal minds on demonland, is it fair to say that the technicality they seemingly have found would be a difficult one to counter on appeal? essentially in order for an appeal to succeed they'd have to prove the original hearing was fair, which could be interesting to say the least

That's a really big oversight on the part of the AFL and the skeptic in me does wonder if small technicalities like this are left open in case a big name player needs a break glass in case of emergency out like this.

you really don't like Gus do you?

Nice to see Harry Petty get some recognition by the broader AFL community, i know most Melbourne supporters rate him, but i'm not sure the rest of the comp quite realises how good he is/can be. I'd argue he's our best young key position prospect by some distance.

100% the conditions should be the trade is extremely favorable for us, and our medical staff get a really good look at Grundy to make sure they're confident they can get him fully fit.

I'd probably look at Sparrow out for Harmes, I really like the speed Hunt offers down back, gives us some cover for our biggest weakness those lightning small forwards