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It was made easier though by the fact they had traded a raft of high picks to bring in players like O’Meara, Mitchell etc hoping to stay up but then plunged for three years. I think if Clarkson had gone for youth at the end of 2016 instead of mortgaging the future, and they’d been on the up by...

The Outlaw Jesse Wells. Regrettably never pulled on the boots for a seniors game.

I just wish it was North. Imagine how Smith would feel near the deadline in trade week facing a blockbuster king’s birthday game in front of 20,000.

Under 50% of players taken in the 20s become long-term best 22 players. I mean we’ve taken Dylan Addison, Toby McLean, Josh Dunkley, Kieran Collins, Jesse Wells, Will Minson and Charlie Clarke in that range. It’s a crap shoot by then. They can GAGF if that’s it.

The flip side is that players like Smith and Petracca who crave that kind of profile are a handful off-field. Happy to bypass Brand Petracca and Brand Smith. We’ve often had a bit of trouble bringing in genuinely top end talent via trade but we’ve usually done well drafting and retaining it...

Yeah I hope he doesn’t play well and a Geelong commence an Essendon-like two decade descent into mediocrity starting next year, but certainly we shouldn’t wish him harm. Most of us didn’t rate him that highly anymore and he was becoming an off field distraction so if we get well into the first...

The only upside is that it was a terrible draft mostly so we probably would have picked a hack with pick 6 if we kept it. Mundy was available later but not highly rated enough at the time that we would have taken him then.

Also just missed playing in front of 97,000. We get some small crowds but over the years we’ve had some massive ones too.

Thought it was brilliant at the time. In hindsight forcing a player with a bung knee to come to your club when you’ve just won the spoon was probably not a great idea. Brown snapped his leg, Jacobs was a hack, Veale never got a game and Rawlings got to North three years later and played two...

Certainly worked out brilliantly for all involved!

Ok let’s send him to St Kilda. The Bellbrae Seaford commute would be a joy.

Being fair to Geelong I don’t think they try to screw others at the trade table. They paid a fair price for Dangerfield and Cameron etc. They’re great at getting deals done but I don’t think they’ve generally done it by shafting other clubs.

Hawthorn were right into him last year. In hindsight we probably should have rammed it through. I figured he’d played his last game for us as soon as he did his knee. This is a formality.

Another slightly weird one - of the last four sides standing in 2021, Geelong have obviously been fine but Port, Melbourne and us have played in a collective 6 finals series and 9 finals and are 0/9.

Darcy is not going to be the same build he is now at 21 for his entire career. If you look at Gawn, Mason Cox etc they are still lean but very strong and thicker through the core than they were when they started.

Being fair to Bevo, he pretty quickly switched to Roughead, which worked well for a while. His issue in the end was that he wasn’t tall enough and they got rid of third man up. He competed well and was good around the ground. With English locked in for five years we basically need to hope that...

Being fair to Jamarra he was mostly good over a six week stretch and I thought he had turned the corner. But you’re right that there is over the top defence of him on these boards. I remember how people used to be about players like Patrick Bowden when they had an off day. None got the free...

Yeah we actually need him. Who plays CHB if he goes? It’s not like Buss or Croft will be able to slot in there round one. You wouldn’t give up a key plank of the side for the likely pick in the 30s or 40s that would be offered.

He’s far from young now and most of us thought he’d turned a corner last year. Now he’s back to being flakey as anything. We’ve backed him right in but I wonder if we had our time over if we’d have aggressively pursued someone else a few years back and let him go.

I was the one who brought Geelong into it, but it was to show there was a point where they were repeatedly flopping in finals and their Bigfooty board generally wanted Scott gone.

For what it’s worth, people think that Bevo doesn’t rate the ruck, but he absolutely hated getting smashed there back in 2020 (the Dunkley era). He just wouldn’t pick someone who didn’t offer anything around the ground. We’ve obviously decided to back Tim in, but I think Darcy offers quite a...

That’s how I feel. We blew an elim final in disappointing circumstances, but two sides are always bitterly disappointed week one. I think we cured a lot of the things that plagued us in 2022-23. If that’s right then next season should go well. I think if it doesn’t more or less everyone will...

Between their 2011 and 2022 flags they won 4 finals at the G and lost 9. The point is that they keep giving themselves an opportunity.

The problem with this is that what happens if we start the year the way we finished the H&A season and finish top four? If that were the case I’d be dead against moving on. If we’re languishing mid-table then I think everyone will agree it’s enough.

I admire their club for sure, and I don’t blame them for exploiting natural advantages. The GMHBA factor is not nothing though - let’s just say it’s worth 1-2 wins a season (I think it is comfortably). If you go through the Bevo era and add a win or two each year it looks quite different...

Yep and it seems to be consistent. I know that in 2021 Melbourne had a full scratch match in the week off and we had a heavy training session. Then again, we had totally different lead ins. It’s not something we can really know from outside. Plenty of clubs struggle after a week off. The fact...

Bont was absolutely horrendous in the first half in the middle. If he’d stayed there and the game had gone the same way you can bet there would be people on here saying “why didn’t he throw Bont forward, just to try something”. The critical thing for me was that a lot of key players played...

For a bit of perspective it’s worth looking through this autopsy thread of Geelong’s elimination final loss to Melbourne in 2018 off the back of a few finals flops. https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/cats-lose-to-demons-by-29-points.1204095/

This is 100% how I see it. If next year is a flop we all know what will happen, but after two years of forward line distinction, leaky defence and easy opposition goals we turned into a great defensive side who could score quickly week after week. Meanwhile a lot of our younger players are...

One thing I’d love to know is what we’re doing in our weeks off before finals and whether it’s different to other clubs. The bye has only ever worked for us once - there wasn’t one until before the GF in 2021 and we know how that worked out. We very often come out flat.