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Shaun Atley is still only 31. He would have been handy playing Scott's role and pushing Bailey up to the wing.

I don't see him being checked out. The effort is there, but he is dropping marks off his chest, fumbling the ball, and trying to take three guys on at once. He is clearly in his own head and needs to relax a bit. Maybe he needs to buy another dog.

He is top 20 in the AFL for goals, assists, tackles inside 50, and marks inside 50. That's an incredible effort in a struggling side.

Great post Better Loosen Up! The major difference between 2022 and 2024, is the faint light at the end of the tunnel. The feeling I get with this group, is that they'll skip being midtable, and that once Sheezel, Comben, Wardlaw, Duursma, McKercher, Curtis, Ford, Goater, Powell, Hardeman...

He was always going to take a bit more development time compared to Sheezel, Wardlaw, and McKercher, but the early signs have been good and he played a lot more football so far than most expected. We're sadly now in the box seat to draft his brother next year, but that would be a fun...

I really like this idea, and will now be disappointed with any other outcome.

The club employs a CCO and CFO, and are one of the few clubs that employ a President and CEO who don't have any experience in a football department. It creates a void of accountability for the Viney and Clarkson duo.

We needed football department experience in that role, which means the only names available would be under qualified. Peter Bell may not be the perfect answer, but he is an example of somebody with that experience who clearly has aspirations to be an AFL CEO.

This has to be the week Archer comes in. Our biggest need at the moment is passion, and he brings it in spades. He'll compete for four quarters and bleed for the jumper. If they're moving Sheezel up the ground, then Archer is the best replacement.

I wish Hutchinson the best of the luck, but a 190cm forward coming in after averaging 9 disposals at VFL level seems destined for failure.

My greatest concern is that we're going to see Clarkson make the exact same mistake as David Noble. David Noble started by instructing his players to use the corridor, but once the team started turning the ball over he week by week neutered our ball movement until we were left with the most...

The scheme does him no favours and I like him more than Pink. I think you have to persist with him until Kallan Dawson is back. There's no point between switching back and forth between Pink and Nyuon every other week.

For a lot of reasons, we have no choice but to retain Clarkson for next year. That said, this is an incredibly important week for him. This is the second year now that we've embarassed ourselves trying to make his high defensive press work. It's time for Clarkson to admit to himself that it...

I thought I'd go back and talk on some more positives after a pretty disastrous day. Riley Hardeman is a fun player to watch with his confidence rebounding the ball. He loves to take off and has been using the ball very well at the end of what will become his signature 10-30m dash from half...

Port took the pick we gave them and traded it to Fremantle. In: Pick 6 and a 2019 third. Out: Pick 11, Pick 23, Pick 30, and Pick 49. That Pick 6 became Ben King, and we could have easily put together a similar trade.

If you want to play the wishing game: Tom Stewart over Declan Watson in 2016 Sam Taylor over Will Walker in 2017 Don't trade for Polec and draft Ben King in 2018 Chad Warner over Jack Mahony in 2019 All of these will be more impactful than Duursma instead of Reid

People talk as if we forfeited our entire draft hand with that win over the Suns. McKercher is about as good as it gets for a pick-two and would have been a worthy pick-one in another year. He plays quick, has great skills, and put up incredible numbers with an automatic 30+ touches and four...

My gut feeling is we drop the Hawks game, but win three from the following Crows, Saints, Suns and Bombers stretch.

If anything this should be motivation for how quickly things can turn. West Coast lost 48 games out of 53, and are now set for back-to-back wins. They opened the season losing 15 quarters in a row, and lost their opening four games by an average of 9 goals. With Hawks, Crows, Saints, Suns and...

Everything I've seen from Shiels this year suggests that he went on one year too long. I'll appreciate what he brought to our side on and off the field last year, but he shouldn't come anywhere near our senior side for the rest of the year. I get why they played Greenwood in the middle, but he...

Sheezel is clearly our best player, so it certainly wasn't meant to signify that he had anything left to prove. To put my conspiracy hat on, in previous interviews he has talked more openly about a potential move forward. There's some potential that he knows that this is the week of the switch...

In Clarkson's structure, Powell, Wardlaw, and LDU are taking most of the responsibility in the middle, with two half forwards pushing up into the middle with one of those players getting the occasional CBA. At the moment those half forwards are Simpkin and McKercher, but ideally we're seeing...

This might be my most unpopular opinion this year, but McDonald has been completely fine down back. He has tidied up his disposal, and has been steady in defence. You need a leader down back with all of the inexperience that we're playing, and McDonald is most definitely the lesser of two evils...

The club might do better on the Thomas trade than some expect. We will obviously have no intent to do right by the player, so we will have no issues sending him to the draft should we only be offered a token pick in return. If Geelong or whoever wants him, they need us to agree to terms on a...

Noble's famous spray after the Lions game is probably the most a similar approach has ever backfired, yet we still played great footy the next week. We absolutely have to be prepared for the Hawks to come out firing.

From watching a bit of the VFL, part of me already wants to see Curtis Taylor brought into the side. I get we've all written him off, but he might still have more to offer on the wing than both Tucker and Stephens. However, if we're adjusting the wing rotation I'd prefer if Archer came in and...

I don't rate Lobb much at all, but we're currently playing Hugh Greenwood in that role and are one injury to Xerri away from playing Hamish Free. If he comes cheap, I wouldn't say no.

In the early Brad Scott era, we'd routinely get belted by the mature sides. 2010 was an 11 win year, but with an 0-8 record against the top five sides with an average losing margin of 58.5 points. We split our games against sixth placed Fremantle, but our loss was by 61 points. That's 9 horror...

Just in case more retrospective back patting for David Noble pops up, I think the differences between Clarkson and Noble need to be pointed out. 2021 was a decently coached year, however it was partly on the back of some good form from Ben Cunnington, Robbie Tarrant, Tarryn Thomas, Aaron Hall...

Even if he has lost touch tactically, I think the player development side of his coaching is as strong as ever. Clarksons final years at the Hawks may not have led to a ton of wins, but from a player development perspective, he was doing some great work with what he was able to get out of some...