Pretty sure Harris became All Australian twice after the Cameron hit. I think his decline started with the decision not to bulk up to the extent I thought he would after the 2020 season, and then was exacerbated by his knee injury against Adelaide mid-2021.
Why do young players trade value plummet so quickly? Dev at the very least can be a solid role player, he is almost 22. Outside of a few guys in his draft he isn't any worse than those guys. Is mostly a known quantity. I think the draft, for the most part involves a large element of luck. I'm sure there is 10 other teams that wished they had used their first pick for Cripps, we used ours on James Aish. Aliir Aliir was taken at pick 44 by Sydney that same year, completely overlooked by the WA teams. I just don't understand why the value of a young player drops so much.
If that is the case, and you'd think it would be the same for GWS maybe (not so much Gold Coast b/c seems like lots of Vics are happy to live there) and it is known in footy circles to be the case, then the afl should give us and GWS (if its the case) more in our soft cap to attract better assistants. I think i read somewhere on here that most of the assistance that were with Leppa at BRisbane are still here. No wonder its all on Fages. From my memory, only Stone, Cam Bruce and Morris this year are new additions and with the first two, not much seems to have changed. If we fail this year, I hope we have the brass you know whats to clean out the entire coaches and hopefully a new person can bring in a whole team.
It’s an interesting watch, worked so well last time but doesn’t mean it will automatically work again.
Against the demons mids, I would consider chucking Clugg on the wing. I'm not sure that we can have Neale, Clugg and Ashcroft as two of the mids next to Dunks against the Demons and not get bullied, especially with their dominant ruck. Clugg on the win against Langdon might also make Langdon have to be more responsible for his man than usual.
Yes could be an issue for some.
So this from Fages' press conference yesterday grabbed my attention, and I quote:
"People talk about defence... I talk about 'we didn't win the ball, and we had to defend too much'. So in the end if you have to defend too much it'll break down. Any team will. So, for me the solution isn't what we were doing defensively, it was more about 'get your hands on the ball, boys'."
Does anyone else think this completely flies in the face of all the talk since the end of last season, about how we had to work on our defensive running and transition? I mean, what are we supposed to be?
We PLAY in a manner which lines up with what Fages said there yesterday - always have. In principle I don't have a problem with this; basically every premiership winning team bar Richmond has been great at winning stoppages.
But then what's all this talk about "oh we're going to get better at our team defence" and "we're gonna come back fitter and ready to cover more ground defensively"? I don't even have a problem with lining these statements up with Fages' comment from yesterday, EXCEPT for the noticeable fact that Port Adelaide physically smashed us man for man, talls and smalls alike, last Saturday. The way we have been physically conditioned matches the off- and pre-season talk, but to me it absolutely flies 100% in the face of Fages' comment yesterday.
So what are we? A contested ball behemoth? Or are we supposed to be transforming into this manic, chaotic setup who swarms the opposition's forward line, opening up space in front of us and smashing teams on the counter with our ball use? Or are we trying to be both at once? Is it even possible to be both at once?
By the way, if you think I'm absolutely full of it, I imagine there's a few more of us here going to the game tonight than the couple of us who went last Saturday. At any stage during the game: centre bounce, around the ground stoppage, in play, wherever, pick out ANY one on one contest and hand on heart work out which of the two blokes looks more physically imposing. Happy to be demonstrated to be wrong on this but I reckon you'll have a hard time finding any contest where our bloke looks bigger and stronger than his direct opponent.
My personal view, for what very little it's worth, is that we absolutely should be playing in a manner which lines up with Fages' comment yesterday. But then why on earth are we so slight of physique? I could cop it back in the 2020 Prelim when Geelong taught us a lesson, but now we have the 3rd oldest list in the comp. It doesn't fly any more.
Fagan: We Just Want to Respond
Chris Fagan's after redemption this week against Melbourne following an uncharacteristic performance in round 1.www.lions.com.au
Wishful thinking on the temperature
When I am sticking an implant in some one's jaw I do a check list, that lists everything in order we are going to do for the placement, all instruments that will be used at each time, and has diversions covering possible complications that are possible.
Dunkley as well
