Prediction Best 23 - 2026 edition

[txbyhull]

That's funny, I never made any comment on the difference between Williams and Flynn, but I still got called over that non-comment.

That a backman, Balta, could play both ruck and resting forward only reinforces my point about our lack key defenders and why trying Williams in that role is worth looking at.

Removing Williams from the ruck means playing Flynn

 

[stallon]

Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result? Where have I heard that before? We'll never know if he could fill a hole in defence that needs filling under your scheme. Just same old, same old.

So what is your realistic ruck solution?

How do we make this happen?

You havent come up with anything yet

 

[Mighty Eagles]

Even Simmo mentioned our average ruck work on Saturday.

I’m sorry Bailey fans, I still think we’re better off letting Bailey walk and sign Briggs as a Free Agent. Bailey won’t be there when we’re back playing finals.

 

[stallon]

Even Simmo mentioned our average ruck work on Saturday.

I’m sorry Bailey fans, I still think we’re better off letting Bailey walk and sign Briggs as a Free Agent. Bailey won’t be there when we’re back playing finals.

Bailey wont fetch us much, id rather sign Bailey another 2 years, let Flynn walk and sign Briggs as a FA to compete with Bailey if anything

 

[Mighty Eagles]

Bailey wont fetch us much, id rather sign Bailey another 2 years, let Flynn walk and sign Briggs as a FA to compete with Bailey if anything

Mate, we’re non-competitive. If we win five games or less - which is highly likely - I can’t see how the AFL wouldn’t give us a Second Rounder if Bailey walks.

 

[stallon]

Mate, we’re non-competitive. If we win five games or less - which is highly likely - I can’t see how the AFL wouldn’t give us a Second Rounder if Bailey walks.

Arent we signing Briggs as a FA?
Bailey would have to be via trade then, wont get better than a 3rd rounder. Id rather just lose Flynn for nothing

Briggs is still GWS number 1 ruckman(barely), at least for the moment with Madden dropped last week.
They wont let us trade nothing for him, itd cost us a second rounder to trade for him if we let BW go via FA(likely band 5 areas or 3rd rounder)

 

[bzparkes]

Briggs is as bad as Flynn.

Inanimate carbon rod would be more useful, as well as free.

 

[Rids]

Arent we signing Briggs as a FA?
Bailey would have to be via trade then, wont get better than a 3rd rounder. Id rather just lose Flynn for nothing

Briggs is still GWS number 1 ruckman(barely), at least for the moment with Madden dropped last week.
They wont let us trade nothing for him, itd cost us a second rounder to trade for him if we let BW go via FA(likely band 5 areas or 3rd rounder)

Madden wasn’t dropped, he did a PCL and is out for an extended period.
Briggs is barely an upgrade on Flynn/Williams.
Surely we’re better off chasing Witts as an UFA for a couple of years until CDT is ready to go.

 

[Rids]

We aren't beating the oppo with Baz in the middle but his opponents are not single handedly winning the game against him like Flynn's oppo regularly does. If Archer was healthy I would be saying play Archer/Flynn in the Steene/Cameron, Jackson/Darcy, Aleer/Briggs or Aleer/Madden roles that we have seen lately.

Flynn gets dominated in the centre, Archer and CDT get outbodied around the ground, needs to be around the other way like so many other clubs are doing. Get your tall leaper in the middle and let your bigger bodied ruck around the ground and in the back half.

I think some of this is to do with opponents.
Flynn copped Witts, Xerri, Sweet and Grundy vs Baz getting Edwards, Jackson, TDK and Balta. Only Jackson is a top 10 ruck of that lot and he whipped Baz (albeit not to the same extent as Witts/Grundy thrashing Flynn).

I’d seriously be looking at moving back to Flynn if Baz is beaten badly again this week. Flynn isn’t as good at centre bounce but he’s at least equal at around the ground stoppages and, probably most importantly, his around the ground positioning is streets ahead of Baz.

It’s no coincidence that the wheels have fallen off with Baz in the ruck rather than Flynn - Flynn is so much better at getting back to help out defenders and providing an outlet option out of defence.

Baz gets some leeway because he was genuinely good against Geelong but I think it’s last chance now for him and we may just cop Flynn’s centre bounce shortcomings in favour of doing literally everything else better than Baz.

 

[stallon]

Madden wasn’t dropped, he did a PCL and is out for an extended period.
Briggs is barely an upgrade on Flynn/Williams.
Surely we’re better off chasing Witts as an UFA for a couple of years until CDT is ready to go.

Yeah look I dont want Briggs, I havent really been paying attention to him since like 2 years ago when he was last decent

I was just responding to someone wanting him

Happy to hold onto Bailey and chase Witts

 

[stallon]

I think some of this is to do with opponents.
Flynn copped Witts, Xerri, Sweet and Grundy vs Baz getting Edwards, Jackson, TDK and Balta. Only Jackson is a top 10 ruck of that lot and he whipped Baz (albeit not to the same extent as Witts/Grundy thrashing Flynn).

I’d seriously be looking at moving back to Flynn if Baz is beaten badly again this week. Flynn isn’t as good at centre bounce but he’s at least equal at around the ground stoppages and, probably most importantly, his around the ground positioning is streets ahead of Baz.

It’s no coincidence that the wheels have fallen off with Baz in the ruck rather than Flynn - Flynn is so much better at getting back to help out defenders and providing an outlet option out of defence.

Baz gets some leeway because he was genuinely good against Geelong but I think it’s last chance now for him and we may just cop Flynn’s centre bounce shortcomings in favour of doing literally everything else better than Baz.

The drop off has more to do with Dev and Graham going out than the ruckman we name imo

 

[Rids]

The drop off has more to do with Dev and Graham going out than the ruckman we name imo

Yeah that’s a fair call - definitely missing our defensive mids badly and not sure I see a solution.

 

[Weshi]

With the new ruck rules, they have made it harder for the slower big bodied rucks so unless you are exceptionally tall and or talented they are struggling, Briggs, Flynn, O'Brien are struggling. The rules would seem to favour the more mobile, jumping rucks like B Williams, his problem is he has rarely been able to time his jump, either marking or ruck taps.
After 8 years I have seen enough to say he isn't good enough and Flynn has played 10 seasons!
I would move on both if we can get replacements.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

Id rather Leek Aleer and just tell him to jump as high as he can and hope all goes well. Would certainly be a upgrade around the ground

 

[ballsohard]

The revolving door of ideas that involve us trading in another non AFL quality ruckmen is ridiculous.

ROB, Briggs?

They will do just as poorly as Baz & Flynn, we'll just be using more list spots and capital to do it.

 

[Kegs15]

Even Simmo mentioned our average ruck work on Saturday.

I’m sorry Bailey fans, I still think we’re better off letting Bailey walk and sign Briggs as a Free Agent. Bailey won’t be there when we’re back playing finals.

Not that we don't need an upgrade going forward, but...

Actually think Bailey does ok against the competitions elite rucks. Keen to see how he'll go against Gawn, he usually plays well against him. Bailey is such a chaos operator that he drags his opponent down to his level - did a great job against Freo. He's worse when playing against novice/low tier rucks, when opposition mids know their ruck is weak and set up to shark taps. Bailey is the most sharkable tap ruckman in history, and ends up dragging weak opponents up to his level.

Flynn on the other hand is so predictable and honest that good rucks have the games of their careers against him - he'd be the perfect training opponent cause there's no curveballs, nothing unique, type of bloke I reckon would be a really really safe driver. However against inexperienced/low level rucks like recent Bailey opponents in Hayes-Brown, Mitch Edwards, that honesty works well for him - Flynn outsizes them and is predictable to his mids. He's not sharkable cause his taps are honest and boring - he just gets annihilated when the other ruck is any good. His level remains the same, all game, every contest, which means it's totally up to his opponent how the game goes.

They absolutely should not be played together, neither offers enough when not rucking.

Know it's not how it works but would honestly be happy with a selection protocol of selecting Bailey against teams with a good/great ruck, Flynn against weaker lineups. It's ridiculous how perfectly their performances synchronise with the calibre of the opposition in this way - and our board fluctuates from "they're ok" to "send them off in a rocket to the sun along with Nisbett and Simmo" depending on this.

 

[evans1863]

Bailey wont fetch us much, id rather sign Bailey another 2 years, let Flynn walk and sign Briggs as a FA to compete with Bailey if anything

Pretty sure Cal was saying he'd generate us a R2 pick if he went?

I'd take that, give Archer and CDT more ruck duties and take a bit more short term pain instead of finding a mediocre quick fix.

 

[garlic munchers]

Need to implement KISS ASAP.

Give 198cm Jack Williams a sustained run as the permanent full fwd and Waterman to third tall (he's not even that tall).

Gives us a fwd line structure that we are woefully lacking and whilst no world beater, he has the size to stop the easy kpd marking that happens so often 15m out in front of our goal.

Hell, Demons running with a very similar Van Rooyen in this role now and he's averaging only a solitary goal a game.

Jack's in his 5 year, if he can't do it now then what's the point of him being on our list.

 

[Pottering]

Removing Williams from the ruck means playing Flynn

Thanks for confirming I never mentioned Flynn.

 

[txbyhull]

Thanks for confirming I never mentioned Flynn.

We can’t play neither of them