Bombay Airconditioning

They finished 10th last season, yes they had some injuries but so did most teams. They picked up Bolton who is an enigma, on his his day he can gather 25+ touches and kick 2-3 goals but he can also go missing for large parts of games when the going gets tough.

What’s stopping us from offering one of their players a mammoth deal? It can be unsettling for the team but with the pending increase in the salary cap can also be justified for the right player. But as we’ve seen in recent years mega deals aren’t always enough, just look at North’s many failed attempts to land top end talent. We must get back to being a stable club off the field and back to being a dominant force on it.

Freo won’t win the flag.

Top 4 finish. Easy draw, everyone up and firing, seasoned team with good mix of youth, Rivers & JVR set to explode. Absolutely no excuses.

Which world is this? Not the one I’m currently living in, so much goes unpunished in all aspects of life.

This is it.

Didn’t he get a study junket in Europe paid for fully by the AFL or something to that nature?

And so we should, for many footy is our religion.

I was replying to a comment that said “come June / July if we look like making the 8 there may be a surge in membership sales”. By then most if not all memberships that have the guaranteed GF ticket attached are already sold.

Fitty on Langford.

As much as I hate rugby league at least they are honest about their intentions with regards to changing clubs.

Houston ruled out both us and North. North had plenty to offer Port.

Agreed, I would prefer a system where you get sent wherever the club decides but that will never happen. The easy compromise is you can pick the state the club then gets the best deal for the club.

I thought Warner was off to the Eagles? Was Nibbler the only player ever to say “I want to go home, don’t care where just get a deal done”? Also how come when you quoted me it changed thread?

If he wants to go why can’t he go to the Eagles?

At least one would want to be top 5, but how would Freo get any decent picks?

Great post, I clearly hadn’t run the numbers, it was more of an assumption based on my personal viewing of every Melbourne game and 6-8 Collingwood games (when they’re playing Thursday / Friday nights). Those numbers are interesting, recently we have struggled to score / make hard work of it, where as Collingwood seem at times to seem to score at will. To sink my initial argument even further, 2023 Melbourne F 2079 A 1660 Collingwood F 2142 A 1687 2024 Melbourne F 1785 A 1812 Collingwood F 1991 A 1943 Not a great difference there either. Moving on from any more ill fated comparisons I still believe and from I’m reading we will be, and that is playing a more attacking brand of footy focusing on quick direct ball movement into an open fwd line. I stand by my comment that we don’t back in our players in enough one v one contests when going inside 50. We have the some real quality, let’s play to their advantage / skill sets.

I hope you’re right, and look forward to seeing it play it, I posted something in the Gameplan & Tactics thread last night hoping for what you’ve mentioned.

What will our gameplan in 2025 look like? I read with interest that during pre Christmas training some of the drills had us full ground spreading and pulling the trigger, using the corridor with quick ball movement. I feel if we don’t play this way we will be left behind and have another wasted year. The obvious comment is do we have enough skilled players to play this way? My counter argument would be who does? The Giants perhaps the only one yet a few teams play this way, Hawks, Pies, Port etc. How much of this style is about Having elite kicks of the footy on every line vs Having your best users by foot coming out from halfback. Players running / spreading to create an overlap and breakdown a zone. Relentless pressure when not in possession including laying effective tackles. Quick direct ball movement to an open fwd line. A well drilled gameplan. Using Collingwood as an example,(some might say not a great one as they missed finals last season) they player for player wouldn’t be as skilful as the Giants yet they tick all the other boxes. Then when the ball goes fwd they have Miohcheck (no star but constantly presents and competes) DeGoey (on his day is very dangerous) Hill (unchecked will kick multiple goals) Elliot (is star often kicking clutch goals). We’ve struggled to score for the past three seasons. Now replace Miohcheck for JVR, DeGoey for Trac, Hill for Kosi and Elliot for Fritsch. How many goals a game / season do those four players kick playing in Collingwood’s forward line. With this style there’s also the element of bamboozlement, the ball constantly coming in quickly, and the opposition has a range of different sized, highly skilled fwds with space to deal with, they often become overrun and multiplie goals can be scored quickly. The other thing I believe teams do better than us is back in their guns in one v one contests. If the ball is turned over it can quickly come back the other way with interest, but both teams can be out of position. It’s also hard to sustain this week in week out but we should be aiming to play a more attacking style for longer parts of each game. Last year at times when we do play with speed on the ball we looked dangerous.

I hate this stat, we were absolutely dismantled by Freo, was an embarrassment. Are still mentally beaten by Collingwood before the first bounce. Does nearly beating the Lions at the Gabba change that?

But the only certain memberships are worth having and most are already gone.

That is great news.

I also think we’ve got too much talent and a gift of a draw to miss the 8, but it will all be for nothing if we can’t beat Collingwood (mental)), Freo (gameplan), Brisbane (gameplan) etc throughout the home and away season. I was thinking I’d hate to make by beating the weaker sides and losing to the top sides, but we always make what should be a regulation win over a bottom side hard work or even a loss re West Coast last year.

6 – HAVE THE DEES MADE ENOUGH CHANGES TO A FORWARD LINE THAT HAS NOT WORKED? Have we changed the way we play? Regardless of who was missing last year and how many games we lost by small margins, the game changes and we must change with it.

You can’t buy class.