I don’t think the injury will have much of an impact. I think it was just a syndesmosis ankle so he’ll be back full recovered for pre-season training.
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Kako El-Hawli Merrett would be a more dangerous set of small forwards
El-Hawkins Smart,skilled, tackles, marks well overhead, kicks straight
Merrett dangerous in forward line
I think mcgrath would be a handy small forward too to be honest
Should we offer Brisbane our future 1st for there pick 18. Or Sydney pick 17. But only after Kako has been matched hopefully between 10-15.
I reckon we could get a tall forward in either Armstrong,Shanahan,faull or the Whitlock bros.
So along with pick 8 we would have Kako and pick 17:or 18
So you want to trade a potential top 5 pick for pick 17 or 18
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I’m banking on us having a good yr in 2025
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Lol
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Ok, cool.
Thanks for your ongoing contribution to this thread, Noobermensch. And thanks for tolerating all the bullshit from clowns like me that have plenty to say despite having no idea!
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Caught my son watching Essendon games from the last couple of seasons. His comment was ‘nice to see Wright when he used to take marks’.
I’m guessing it’s Wrights regression that is driving our first pick. We appear to be tagged with key forwards in mock drafts. Makes me feel the best draft options will pass us by, unless a Jeremy Cameron mark 2 drops into our lap.
I’m happy we are being forced to take a small forward through Kako being nominally ours.
By the way, he watched bath hawthorn games and my god they looked like garbage. How they made the finals is beyond me
Why is it that we can’t seem to get more than one or two good years out of 95% of our players? Probably on Zach Merrett who has given us any sustained performance.
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Maybe that shoulder surgery for Wright was far more debilitating than we assumed. It rightly destroyed 2023 and I thought he was shaping up well for 2024 but for whatever reason he regressed.
Redman went backwards for no apparent reason. He had some really good games, but disappeared entirely too often. This should have been his year to shine, but didn’t. If you’re injured you’re injured, it’s the guys who go backwards for no reason that annoy. Perkins is another one. Going back and watching some old games he just has the stamp of a very impressive footballer, he gets over the 50 game hump and is looking to build to a team leading position and instead he goes so far back he gets dropped. Can’t figure it out.
All good mate, we’re all just clowns at the end of the day. My problem is that I have just enough knowledge for it to delude me in thinking I know better than other people sometimes.
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no apparent reason…or the change in role to accommodate Martin as the designated kicker in the backline?
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It’s the jet exhaust
#jokingnotjoking
There was still plenty of opportunity for him to show his best form. I’d also suggest as the season went on Martin played more and more up the ground. We also have two wings, and the ball was being switched enough to his side of the ground. That also doesn’t explain why he wasn’t as effective in covering his forward opponent as in previous years, that’s a core part of his role regardless of who else is playing in the backline.
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He missed a game due to suspension which was rubbish.
Also missed the Carlton match due to minor hamstring strain and 2 games post return were down.
stats wise not a heap down on last 2 years.felt worse than that.
I think the role of KPF’s has changed over the years and that they are far less important now than what they have ever been. It’s all about good ball movement and small forward pressure. I will go as far as saying that KPF’s are a liability unless they can ruck.
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I reckon it was the shoulder injury and then the big hit for which he was rubbed out for four weeks.
He seems like quite a sensitive player, doesn’t really have the “want to hurt a man” mongrel in him, and I think that incident probably preyed on his mind rest of the year. From memory he’d been playing well up until that point
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That shows he still got enough of the ball, but I felt he was way too lax in covering his direct opponent. Maybe that’s not his fault, and it was what he was being asked to do to, but he got caught out too much for my liking.
Of course he wasn’t alone in that, McGrath lost his guy out the back more times than I care to remember.
Yeah maybe… What I’m seeing is that more than ever before, they just have to do more than mark the ball and kick at the sticks… it’s the one dimensional KPF’s that are just not viable in the current game i.e. Wright who is arguably only good as a lead out forward. Take that away from him by blocking the leading lanes and he looks useless because he can’t take a contested mark, ruck adequately or be useful around a contest at ground level with pressure or hands on the pill…
Caddy on the other hand looks pretty unique in that he clearly wants to command a contested marking presence (although not quite there yet with execution), excellent ball handling and pressure skills in contest to the point where he was played as a mid in his junior campaign, and has capacity to run his opponents all over the ground. I reckon Armstrong has a bit of that about him too - making himself useful to the team if he’s not just marking the ball coming his direction.
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