I look at more through the lens of we only play the regular season never the finals so hence the time off
It doesnât change the time off though, just when. The players who are in the Grand Final have the same time off as our players. It just starts and ends later.
That is one of the reasons people say its harder to acclimatise to playing finals and get there again. Your preseason is shorter the deeper you go into finals. The time-off is unchanged.
Youâre just not getting it.
Iam not talking about training I am talking about games played coupled with the fact the post you are talking about is a joke made with another poster seems to have flown right over your melon
Lloydy just saying what weâre all thinking.
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One thing we need is more â â â â kicks to keep Tsatas out of the team for being a â â â â kick.
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A few posters are jumping in to every player thread to point out that theyâd be open to trading them (maybe not the very, but pretty close).
IMHO, I wouldnât trade out all senior players, if they are chronically injury prone, yes. If they are serial shirkers and underperformers, yes.
That doesnât include Merrett or Peter Wright. You still need leaders, and in the case of Wright, heâs in good form this year, and worked hard to get back there. Also, Caddy, May and McMahon will not be leading the line despite the delusions that they can. Peter and Draper take the heat off them by being a threat up front. I hope we keep them both.
Draper should be resigned. Heâs a passionate player who attacks the game and genuinely plays to win. I love him at the club.
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The things is this the attitude that has left us a middling team for the past twenty years.
You need to be ruthless and take opportunities for players before they fall away or look whatâs best for the success of the club for the next ten years instead of holding a guy to win an extra game here or there.
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You canât simply sell everyone over 25, you need some leaders and big bodies.
Anyone injury prone or historically average and non competitive can go though.
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Weâre all thinking?
Lloydy shouldâve suggested poaching Weitering & Cripps from the Blues to support Merrettâs dream of playing finals.
Dyson and a 3rd rounder should get it done
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So thatâs pretty much everyone over 25 for us
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I wish Lloyd would just whack the bellend that sits next to him on Footy Classified.
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One of our (many) issues for a very long time now is leadership and quality senior players over 27-28 years old. Besides Merrett/Jobe and few others weâve had few leading the way, let alone 5-10 players leading the way. The high end teams always have an abundance of aged leaders. For a decade weâve been a team of âpotentialâ because of that void. We still find ourselves in the same boat, almost waiting for 4-5 years for our Durhams etc to be at that mark
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Nothing Lloyd is saying there is wrong or unreasonable in my opinion.
Seeing as we have leaned further into the rebuild path and the short and long term viability of several of his senior teammates are in question due to failing bodies/S&C mismanagement, I think it is absolutely an important juncture for Merrett to have a think about whether he wants to dig in and lead through whatâs likely to be a tough slog with a low chance of success in his time left in the game or whether he wants to go to a club where he is likely to play on the big stage befitting of a player of his quality and have a shot at fulfilling his career goals. I wouldnât begrudge him if he made that decision. Heâs put in a long shift with our club without any real joy.
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This is why many of us believe itâs going to take a good part of a decade for us to compete for a Premiership.
The problem is, the young guys will eventually learn the bad habits from the current senior players. Without drastic change now, the bad habits will become ingrained in the young group and we can expect the next 10 years, to be just like the last 10 years.
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Iâve said it before but we should be targeting Zac Bailey as a RFA next year.
Turns 26 in Sept, premiership player, Darwin lad (moved to SA a year before getting drafted) & Bris wonât be able to match us cash-wise.
10 coaches votes on the weekend with 5 goals from 26 disposals, gives us more forward half class and kicks clutch goals.
Ben King, Butters & Walsh are really the only other big RFAs next year. McInerney potentially as well, if we want more outside speed & class.
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Donât be ridiculous⌠we donât set our aim that high. We aim more for the Jade Greshamâs of this worldâŚ
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Iâd understand if Merrett left, but I wouldnât push him out.
Iâd literally push out every other player over 24 though.
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Nah we certainly wouldnât push him out. Thatâs a different matter.
He can get to a club like Geelong/Hawkes if he wants out, the only reason heâd pick us is for a big pay day, we wouldnât get the committed elite Zac Bailey weâd get the relaxed rich guy version.
Having said that, would love him, perfect player for us.
And when we do and they agree to come to us we balk on the asking price and draft Perkins/Cox instead!!