2025 Pre-Season chat

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I think I can recall once hearing of someone who broke their femur - it just seems unheard of and can imagine it'll be a cautious return
My grandma broke her femur while she was hanging out the laundry. Not even a fall, just turned and twisted at the right angle to fracture the bone while she was standing there. 95 years old
 
I can see SDK playing the old Blicavs role but with a greater focus on creating play than being the midfield defensive spoiler.

20% ruck and 80% roaming menace in the middle.

Leaves an open question on who takes the 80% of ruck. Ideally Stanley for rounds 1-8 and Conway from there. But Conway is a fair way behind it seems.

Edwards seems more like the second ruck option.
 

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There's a peculiar thing about a players kpis there. If Knevitt was being measured by a metric we couldn't see last year then who is to say he didn't meet or exceed it?
That's fair. But I'd say that the biggest KPI that he didn't meet or exceed expectations would be his games tally. Only managed 4 AFL games (1 as sub) in 2024, but played double that the year before.

I like him, but don't have strong feelings about whether he'll 'make it' or not, mainly because i don't get to watch much VFL. However, it'd be hard to convince me that last year he exceeded internal expectations, even if you're right in asserting that I don't know what those expectations were.
 
I'm in no way writing off Clark but it's the first time I think external noise pushed us to a pick. 'The Next Selwood', 'A Falcon'.

But then you look at Phillpou and probably Ginbey. Poo came offas having an bit of a FIGJAM attitude and Ginbey has been arrested for urinating in the street. Maybe character played a bigger.

After the discussin of the last few would you pick Philipou if he was the better plaher but not a good team fit?.
I thought the Clark attitude hype "Selwood type leader etc" was overblown. He was (is) just a kid but he never interviewed like Selwood, actually came across a bit shy.
Phillipou is/was arrogant but I don't always view that terribly, I feel there's two types of arrogance - one who isn't competitive and doesn't put in the work and the other is competitive. I think Phillipou is the later.
He was also so young (youthful arrogance) but I saw this as a huge upside. Only 17 but already big bodied, he only just made the draft cut off. Imagine him a year later playing under 18s.
I was also a fan of Ginbey and would've taken him over Clark too but maybe WA was a concern...(though hasn't hurt us often, Duncan Corey etc).
If Phillipou attitude was going to harm the team then no, I'd never bring someone in like that but I wasn't as worried about his arrogance, I thought he was just so young and even considered it a positive.
 
Sounds like a few people rate Hofmann... Oisin and J Kelly. But it could be because they are working with him specifically.

Interested to know why Saints passed on him, maybe they already had similar types on their list.
I still think they thought he would slip through and they could get him as a rookie
 
I still think they thought he would slip through and they could get him as a rookie
In true Geelong (and Saints) fashion Lenny will probably end up better than Travaglia & Tauru combined.

Being sent to St Kilda is like being sent to the Eastern Front in WWII. Those poor kids deserve so much better.
 
Sounds like a few people rate Hofmann... Oisin and J Kelly. But it could be because they are working with him specifically.

Interested to know why Saints passed on him, maybe they already had similar types on their list.
I think the saints just thought they could rookie him having got him to the back end of the draft. Got greedy and took a ruck.
 
In true Geelong (and Saints) fashion Lenny will probably end up better than Travaglia & Tauru combined.

Being sent to St Kilda is like being sent to the Eastern Front in WWII. Those poor kids deserve so much better.
From what I've been told Lenny and the family couldn't be happier that we picked him up.
Something along the lines of their program being a bit underwhelming...............
 

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Have to admit, with Cam Guthrie now unlikely to play Round 1, with ten games in the last two years, turning 33 this year... I fear that it's now a genuine chance that he has played his last game of AFL footy.

He will still play some games as depth I reckon but I wouldn't be surprised if he goes at the end of the year (Duncan Stanley and bews definitely will) and I wouldn't be surprised if his great mate blitz does also.
 
Sounds like a few people rate Hofmann... Oisin and J Kelly. But it could be because they are working with him specifically.

Interested to know why Saints passed on him, maybe they already had similar types on their list.

They used their last pick and they thought he would get through to their cat b spot. They gambled and lost.
 
Yeah, perhaps. But I think they could've matched the bid from memory... not really important I suppose, we have him now.

They couldn't match one they took patrick said. No list spot.
 
It's amazing how harsh we are on our youngsters.

I had a look at the Hawthorn board and they're way more positive about Josh Ward than we are about Clark. His 3rd year looked a lot like Clark's 2nd and he's been injury free.

It's taken as read that taking Clark over Philipou was a mistake but Philipou's had no injury issues (until now), plays a much more outside game and was still playing VFL for chunks of last year despite the Saints being shit.

I don't know how Clark will go. But I wouldn't be shocked at all if we're sitting here in 12 months saying it looks like a great pick.
 
He will still play some games as depth I reckon but I wouldn't be surprised if he goes at the end of the year (Duncan Stanley and bews definitely will) and I wouldn't be surprised if his great mate blitz does also.
I'd rather get important games into someone else sure have a look at him in the two's but none of that crap they afforded Jack Steven.Cams midfield or nothing I don't like him down back he leaks goals like a sieve.
 
It's amazing how harsh we are on our youngsters.

I had a look at the Hawthorn board and they're way more positive about Josh Ward than we are about Clark. His 3rd year looked a lot like Clark's 2nd and he's been injury free.

It's taken as read that taking Clark over Philipou was a mistake but Philipou's had no injury issues (until now), plays a much more outside game and was still playing VFL for chunks of last year despite the Saints being shit.

I don't know how Clark will go. But I wouldn't be shocked at all if we're sitting here in 12 months saying it looks like a great pick.

The concern with Clark was his VFL form. His AFL performances were probably just a pass.

But his VFL form is way below players drafted around him and equivalent Geelong players from prior years.

That is not to say he won’t be a good player for Geelong but it is not being overly harsh to say he has been a disappointment so far.

That is just a realistic assessment.

I like the way he moves and has shown some good flashes but he needs to step it up this year.
 
The concern with Clark was his VFL form. His AFL performances were probably just a pass.

But his VFL form is way below players drafted around him and equivalent Geelong players from prior years.

That is not to say he won’t be a good player for Geelong but it is not being overly harsh to say he has been a disappointment so far.

That is just a realistic assessment.

I like the way he moves and has shown some good flashes but he needs to step it up this year.

I'm not really wanting to jump to his defence and yeah I've got some question marks over him. But the criticism of his VFL form is utter horseshit.

He dominated VFL when he went back early in the year. Received coaches votes against Carlton. Was dominant against Coburg until they put him on ice because he'd played as sub in Darwin 2 days prior. He was outplaying much more physically seasoned players like Parfitt, Hardie and Knevitt.

Late in the year we completely changed his role to be set up ultra defensively behind the stoppage. I suspect that was training for how he'll be used at AFL level this year. He was super defensively and still showed way more classy moments than his teammates but the role meant he was never going to rack up big numbers.

Then people who didn't watch the games or didn't watch closely enough to see his role just look at his stats and say he played badly.
 

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2025 Pre-Season chat

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