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Analysis 2026 - The Way Forward

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There's still a huge emotional hangover from the two grand finals and the tings that did not go well this year. Ehswan makes a good point.
However, there seems to be a consensus that we need a gun KPF, a quality midfielder, a gun KPD, to draft the best of the academy kids and, if we can, the best available tall or mid with our first pick if we still have it.
From there argument only seems to be about who, whether the club can or will and whether we can afford it.
About right?
 
Kiama Chris said:
There's still a huge emotional hangover from the two grand finals and the tings that did not go well this year. Ehswan makes a good point.
However, there seems to be a consensus that we need a gun KPF, a quality midfielder, a gun KPD, to draft the best of the academy kids and, if we can, the best available tall or mid with our first pick if we still have it.
From there argument only seems to be about who, whether the club can or will and whether we can afford it.
About right?
Click to expand...
I get it and it's definitely scarred us supporters. I'm not an optimist by nature. I look at other finalists and wonder how we can make inroads.
At the end of most seasons I usually get a big dose of optimistic ideas of how we can improve though.
As I said I can easily see it going not so well next year...
However, improvement can come from a lot of different ways.
Current list I would hold hope for all the under 22 guys that got games improving. Sheldrick, Cleary, Co Warner, Bice Dattoli Hannily . ..Buller if he stays (24)
Injured players Papley, Gulden, McDonald, amartey ,mills..Edwards.
Better season from Florent , Mccernerny Warner Blakey Roberts, McClean, Rowbottom.(if still here of course)
Another year and improvement from untried players.
Hopefully more depth.
Hopefully decent trade period.
Juh, Rosas, Curnow..The great Finbar Marley...any decent mids..Mckenzie
Hopefully good drafting.
More experience for coaches.
More experience with game plan.
Hopefully new assistants.
Better draw.
Improvement in muscle and tackling.🤞🤞🤞
 

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JackHiscoxWasFast said:
So I think we finish about 10th-11th next year at best. Natural improvement is relative and our youngsters, when you take the emotion out of it, are bottom 4. Injuries are relative too so not much upside there and who’s to say other teams get injured and we don’t.

So we either won’t, can’t or don’t have the capability to recruit some big names. So our AA plus Grundy to carry a massive load again next year. Without the signings we do not move up, we go down.

So the only things you can fix is conditioning, game plan and attitude.
If Cox wants a contested style and players aren’t buying in, then move them on. If players are allergic to the gym, move them on.

It’s a chance for a reset but I don’t think this group is prepared to do the hard stuff needed.

That’s why we need to make opportunity for real talent if winning a flag is the goal.

It’s actually stress free knowing you can’t contend and good on the wallet too. Still watched every match this year and will do next.

Need to temper our expectations on 2026.

JHWF - truth teller since 2024.
Click to expand...
This is underselling what this group is capable of and overselling Cox and his gameplan
 
Heeney2Franklin said:
Most thing im worried about is the transition that Cox seems to suggest moving into a more contested/stoppage style instead of the turnover game.

We were ranked 1st in scores from turnover in 2024 this season we were 13th.
Click to expand...
I find it so weird that he's knowingly made that decision despite having clear and obvious evidence that the transition game is the key to success for the current game. It's self sabotage and actually find it infuriating. It's literally what got this group into 2 gf's in 3 years.

Stinks of an overcorrection based on that single game last year. There's this general consensus that we lost that game because we weren't hard or contested enough. We actually lost that game because they played the transition better than us. That's literally all it was. Their setup around the contest in terms of numbers and positioning was better than ours. Nothing to do with the inside of the contest. We shat the bed on the occasion mentally and didn't play our usual game as a result. The gameplan stands up, it's the players who capitulated.
 
Ehswan said:
I get it and it's definitely scarred us supporters. I'm not an optimist by nature. I look at other finalists and wonder how we can make inroads.
At the end of most seasons I usually get a big dose of optimistic ideas of how we can improve though.
As I said I can easily see it going not so well next year...
However, improvement can come from a lot of different ways.
Current list I would hold hope for all the under 22 guys that got games improving. Sheldrick, Cleary, Co Warner, Bice Dattoli Hannily . ..Buller if he stays (24)
Injured players Papley, Gulden, McDonald, amartey ,mills..Edwards.
Better season from Florent , Mccernerny Warner Blakey Roberts, McClean, Rowbottom.(if still here of course)
Another year and improvement from untried players.
Hopefully more depth.
Hopefully decent trade period.
Juh, Rosas, Curnow..The great Finbar Marley...any decent mids..Mckenzie
Hopefully good drafting.
More experience for coaches.
More experience with game plan.
Hopefully new assistants.
Better draw.
Improvement in muscle and tackling.🤞🤞🤞
Click to expand...
Definitely improvement available from "Current list......to.......if still here". All of these guys can play better than they mostly did. Another preseason, more experience, better coaching and better leadership would unlock this.
There are some good looking players available in the draft if we don't screw it up. 🤞🤞
Trading is hard. There don't seem to be any surefire risk-free winners available who aren't already spoken for. Coaches in the same boat. Uprooting a family to move to a much more expensive city is a big call. At least the players can share it.
I like that they've brought in the rehab specialist. Suggests we've learnt.
Agree about the strength work.
 
Heeney2Franklin said:
Most thing im worried about is the transition that Cox seems to suggest moving into a more contested/stoppage style instead of the turnover game.

We were ranked 1st in scores from turnover in 2024 this season we were 13th.
Click to expand...
I ask this as a genuine question, does anyone know what we ranked for scores from turnover in the last third of last year?

I felt that Horse’s game plan got found out around that time and then we had no plan B.

I’d be surprised if we dropped as far as 13th but we also didn’t have the injuries Cox had to deal with.

The best comparison we probably have is the last third of last year with the last third of this year (in terms of measuring Cox’s progress).

Still a lot to do regardless…
 
Punts said:
It’s hard to pick someone in that 8 who is going to drop out , we will get a better draw.

They all seem to be improving there list also , lions , hawks etc

Maybe the pies due to age

Gonna be a hard year imo
Click to expand...
4 teams that made the 8 in 2024 missed the top 8 in 2025.

Happens very quickly.
 
Punts said:
It’s hard to pick someone in that 8 who is going to drop out , we will get a better draw.

They all seem to be improving there list also , lions , hawks etc

Maybe the pies due to age

Gonna be a hard year imo
Click to expand...
GWS most likely imo, they have a bit of Bulldogs about them where their top 6 are very good but their bottom 6 are crapola. Also pretty demoralising to lose 4 finals in a row, including two at home and two giving up big leads.

Not sold on Freo either, they have a few passengers and have a tendency to let close games slip.

We should theoretically get an easier draw than everyone above us as well.

If we can field close to our full team for most of the season we should be top 6 imo. If we can improve our back line this off season then top 4 is on the cards again.

We were cooked this year by having to play Warner and Heeney ahead of the ball too often, get them back in the middle kicking to McDonald and Paps and they'll make it work.
 
Maddo11 said:
GWS most likely imo, they have a bit of Bulldogs about them where their top 6 are very good but their bottom 6 are crapola. Also pretty demoralising to lose 4 finals in a row, including two at home and two giving up big leads.

Not sold on Freo either, they have a few passengers and have a tendency to let close games slip.

We should theoretically get an easier draw than everyone above us as well.

If we can field close to our full team for most of the season we should be top 6 imo. If we can improve our back line this off season then top 4 is on the cards again.

We were cooked this year by having to play Warner and Heeney ahead of the ball too often, get them back in the middle kicking to McDonald and Paps and they'll make it work.
Click to expand...
Hopefully get midfield time from Mills as well.
 
RedBloodBlackSwan said:
I ask this as a genuine question, does anyone know what we ranked for scores from turnover in the last third of last year?

I felt that Horse’s game plan got found out around that time and then we had no plan B.

I’d be surprised if we dropped as far as 13th but we also didn’t have the injuries Cox had to deal with.

The best comparison we probably have is the last third of last year with the last third of this year (in terms of measuring Cox’s progress).

Still a lot to do regardless…
Click to expand...
We'll never know for sure but i don't think the whole league all of a sudden had an 'aha' moment with some sort of silver bullet to 'figure us out'. I feel like it was a mix of a shift in our 22 with Mcinerney, papley and Adams being absent and coincided with a 1 dimensional slow Parker and very underdone Mills coming back in along with some complacency + Grundy slumped into some pretty awful form.

I would argue our transition game this year has not looked remotely as good as our backend of last season, even with our form slump. We looked completely lost this year, no cohesion what so ever. We've gone from a team who was pretty slick and predictable in a good way, whereas this year we looked very random in our transition similar to Carlton who make it up as they go. Problem is that randomness gets fed by contest first focus footy.
 
zyzzbruh said:
We'll never know for sure but i don't think the whole league all of a sudden had an 'aha' moment with some sort of silver bullet to 'figure us out'. I feel like it was a mix of a shift in our 22 with Mcinerney, papley and Adams being absent and coincided with a 1 dimensional slow Parker and very underdone Mills coming back in along with some complacency + Grundy slumped into some pretty awful form.

I would argue our transition game this year has not looked remotely as good as our backend of last season, even with our form slump. We looked completely lost this year, no cohesion what so ever. We've gone from a team who was pretty slick and predictable in a good way, whereas this year we looked very random in our transition similar to Carlton who make it up as they go. Problem is that randomness gets fed by contest first focus footy.
Click to expand...
No doubt whatsoever that when we were “on” last year, it blows anything we did this year out of the water. I am sure fluency in attack will be a big focus in the off season - let’s see if they can turn that around.

I do though think our game plan largely got found out, especially by the better sides that brought 4 quarters of pressure and clogged up the corridor. Our lack of contest / height then meant we had no plan B. I think this is what Cox is trying to rectify.
 

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Cox experimentation this season was shuffling chairs between Hamling/Francis forward or back, Campbell a HF role(i thought it was successful for the most part) Tommy as a forward(didnt work but understood the intent) and his most successful Wicks at HB(a major positive for 2025).

Not picking Buller earlier however is a real lack of foresight from the coaching panel.

The rest was just more of the same when we played poor under Longmire ridiculous forward 50 entries no sense of forward structure unable to stop the opposition momentum what was it 12 goals in a row by Adelaide/GC.

Honestly i think 2026 will be the most intriguing and fascinating season to come.
 
Can we get Taylor Adams on a player/strength coach contract for 2026? He had a readymade inside mid build within two years of being in an AFL system.
 
Heeney2Franklin said:
Cox experimentation this season was shuffling chairs between Hamling/Francis forward or back, Campbell a HF role(i thought it was successful for the most part) Tommy as a forward(didnt work but understood the intent) and his most successful Wicks at HB(a major positive for 2025).

Not picking Buller earlier however is a real lack of foresight from the coaching panel.

The rest was just more of the same when we played poor under Longmire ridiculous forward 50 entries no sense of forward structure unable to stop the opposition momentum what was it 12 goals in a row by Adelaide/GC.

Honestly i think 2026 will be the most intriguing and fascinating season to come.
Click to expand...
It will be very intriguing. Refusing to lower my standards though, i expect us to improve magnificently purely based on what this group had demonstrated it can produce. Can't say i have confidence in Cox getting us back there though based on what we've seen this year. The gap in our standard last year vs regression this year is way too stark imo. I get injuries etc, but fundamentally we looked lost. It's a big gap to reign back in. I could see our win loss ratio with a fit list getting us into the 8 but hoping we don't become a gws just floundering there without being a real threat. Cox has to unlock this teams best again.
 
I'm bored at work waiting for anything to happen so I’m gonna do a little bit of looking forward to next year and a possible best 23 based on what I think we need right now.

I think our main needs are:
  • an intercepting defender
  • a Dunkley type of big-bodied defensive midfielder who can also be a good stoppage player
  • a small, pressure forward who is good around goals
  • a tall forward who can win contests more effectively in the forward half

I'm going to just assume for a second that we get Rosas and Curnow. Also that we re-sign all of Lloyd, Rampe, and Ladhams etc and Florent gets traded. I know - big assumptions and I have no idea if any of that will happen but hell with it, I'm bored and this makes it more interesting for me.

I can see a best 23 (assuming the sub rule goes) of:

B: Wicks - McCartin - Melican
HB: Blakey - Edwards - Bice
C: Gulden - Mills - McInerney
HF: Rosas - McDonald - Hayward
F: Papley - Curnow - Amartey
R: Grundy - Heeney - Warner

I/C: Rowbottom - Dattoli - Cleary - Green - Campbell

Emer: McLean - Cunningham - Jordon

Depth: Sheldrick - Warner - Lloyd - Rampe - Roberts - Buller - Bowman - Snell

In terms of our needs, this is how they play out into this best 23:
  • an intercepting defender - McCartin is the obvious guy and is the best interceptor we have but he focuses his time on playing on the best forwards. I think he could make the slight switch to be the Harris Andrews type meaning that Melican steps up to be the Jack Payne type (to continue the Brisbane analogy) and we bring in Will Edwards to play as a key back (kinda like a Darcy Gardiner). McCartin would of course still get to play on the best forwards here and there as needed but he would essentially be told that your main role is to intercept and set up the defence. I've also made a change to who is rebounding which I'll cover further down
  • a Dunkley type of big-bodied defensive midfielder who can also be a good stoppage player. We’ve got him - it’s Mills. He needs a big pre-season but we need him in the middle I think if we’re gonna be our best. I wish we had two of him so he could play in defence but I think he’s best used in the middle as the primary guy to defend and then have Rowbottom be spelling him to give high energy rotation as a defensive maniac.
  • a small, pressure forward who is good around goals. I’ve liked Rosas for a while so I’m keen for him and hope he picks us. He’s a good tackler when he’s engaged and he’s athletic and creative around goals. I think a front half small cast of hom, Papley and Dattoli would give us really good service. In this world, I’d move Campbell into defence and tell him to rebound with Bice and Blakey at will. It’s another in the long line of shuffling Campbell around which isn’t ideal but I’d rather have the other three smalls up forward with Hayward and then three talls.
  • a tall forward who can win contests more effectively in the forward half. Then Curnow suits this need down to the ground and fits well with McDonald as a higher tall forward and Amartey as the deep tall. I like that forward line a lot.

Beyond that, I’ve put Green in to be the second ruck and that may be speculative but I want him to be prioritised over Ladhams. Then Cleary and Sheldrick are battling it out for a spot and I’ve gone with Cleary because we’ve got Rowbottom and Mills as slower inside guys so having Cleary as a more athletic inside guy seems ideal to me.
Jordon also loses his spot for now but I’m very happy to have him in the side. I think having Mills and Rowbottom as defensive minded guys in the midfield reduces the need for Jordon but he’s still a valuable member of the 26.
I have said this before but broadly I think we have to be moving past the Lloyd, Rampe, Cunningham trio and this year is the year to do it. Put more responsibility in younger guys to do the job. They’ll still be around the mark assuming the first two re-sign but we’ve got to go past them.
 
Last edited:
S120 said:
I'm bored at work waiting for anything to happen so I’m gonna do a little bit of looking forward to next year and a possible best 23 based on what I think we need right now.

I think our main needs are:
  • an intercepting defender
  • a Dunkley type of big-bodied defensive midfielder who can also be a good stoppage player
  • a small, pressure forward who is good around goals
  • a tall forward who can win contests more effectively in the forward half

I'm going to just assume for a second that we get Rosas and Curnow. Also that we re-sign all of Lloyd, Rampe, and Ladhams etc and Florent gets traded. I know - big assumptions and I have no idea if any of that will happen but hell with it, I'm bored and this makes it more interesting for me.

I can see a best 23 (assuming the sub rule goes) of:

B: Wicks - McCartin - Melican
HB: Blakey - Edwards - Bice
C: Gulden - Mills - McInerney
HF: Rosas - McDonald - Hayward
F: Papley - Curnow - Amartey
R: Grundy - Heeney - Warner

I/C: Rowbottom - Dattoli - Cleary - Green - Campbell

Emer: McLean - Cunningham - Jordon

Depth: Sheldrick - Warner - Lloyd - Rampe - Roberts - Buller - Bowman - Snell

In terms of our needs, this is how they play out into this best 23:
  • an intercepting defender - McCartin is the obvious guy and is the best interceptor we have but he focuses his time on playing on the best forwards. I think he could make the slight switch to be the Harris Andrews type meaning that Melican steps up to be the Jack Payne type (to continue the Brisbane analogy) and we bring in Will Edwards to play as a key back (kinda like a Darcy Gardiner). McCartin would of course still get to play on the best forwards here and there as needed but he would essentially be told that your main role is to intercept and set up the defence. I've also made a change to who is rebounding which I'll cover further down
  • a Dunkley type of big-bodied defensive midfielder who can also be a good stoppage player. We’ve got him - it’s Mills. He needs a big pre-season but we need him in the middle I think if we’re gonna be our best. I wish we had two of him so he could play in defence but I think he’s best used in the middle as the primary guy to defend and then have Rowbottom be spelling him to give high energy rotation as a defensive maniac.
  • a small, pressure forward who is good around goals. I’ve liked Rosas for a while so I’m keen for him and hope he picks us. He’s a good tackler when he’s engaged and he’s athletic and creative around goals. I think a front half small cast of hom, Papley and Dattoli would give us really good service. In this world, I’d move Campbell into defence and tell him to rebound with Bice and Blakey at will. It’s another in the long line of shuffling Campbell around which isn’t ideal but I’d rather have the other three smalls up forward with Hayward and then three talls.
  • a tall forward who can win contests more effectively in the forward half. Then Curnow suits this need down to the ground and fits well with McDonald as a higher tall forward and Amartey as the deep tall. I like that forward line a lot.

Beyond that, I’ve put Green in to be the second ruck and that may be speculative but I want him to be prioritised over Ladhams. Then Cleary and Sheldrick are battling it out for a spot and I’ve gone with Cleary because we’ve got Rowbottom and Mills as slower inside guys so having Cleary as a more athletic inside guy seems ideal to me.
Jordon also loses his spot for now but I’m very happy to have him in the side. I think having Mills and Rowbottom as defensive minded guys in the midfield reduces the need for Jordon but he’s still a valuable member of the 26.
I have said this before but broadly I think we have to be moving past the Lloyd, Rampe, Cunningham trio and this year is the year to do it. Put more responsibility in younger guys to do the job. They’ll still be around the mark assuming the first two re-sign but we’ve got to go past them.
Click to expand...
You've put a fair bit of thought into this.
All of the last 4 have a strong interceptor to complement or lead their lock down defenders (Harris, Moore, Sicily and Stewart) so either bring one in or converting one (Tom being the obvious) seems a smart move.
If Edwards (preferably) or Snell is not quite ready we have Hamling so that's not a big need to me. Getting say Wilkie would be a dream but unlikely.
One quibble with your team is that you have only chosen six defenders. You need 7 to rotate one through. Cunningham, Roberts and Snell are available from your depth and one of Dattoli, Cleary or Campbell would need to be omitted.
Not sure whether Rosas is preferable to Dattoli 🤷.
Second ruck Green will not get a lot of minutes otherwise. Personally I think it's 12 months too soon and should be Ladhams for now but that's arguable.
Great discussion piece!
 
Kiama Chris said:
You've put a fair bit of thought into this.
All of the last 4 have a strong interceptor to complement or lead their lock down defenders (Harris, Moore, Sicily and Stewart) so either bring one in or converting one (Tom being the obvious) seems a smart move.
If Edwards (preferably) or Snell is not quite ready we have Hamling so that's not a big need to me. Getting say Wilkie would be a dream but unlikely.
One quibble with your team is that you have only chosen six defenders. You need 7 to rotate one through. Cunningham, Roberts and Snell are available from your depth and one of Dattoli, Cleary or Campbell would need to be omitted.
Not sure whether Rosas is preferable to Dattoli 🤷.
Second ruck Green will not get a lot of minutes otherwise. Personally I think it's 12 months too soon and should be Ladhams for now but that's arguable.
Great discussion piece!
Click to expand...

Campbell is my seventh defender in this discussion. As I say, it’s another positional move for Campbell which isn’t what anyone wants because we all hoped by now he’d have made a position his own but in this world, I’d rather have him take up some of the rebounding from Mills and rely on Papley, Dattoli and Rosas as forwards alongside Hayward.

In this world, Campbell takes Cunningham’s spot but with more of a defensive/offensive balance to his game. I fully recognise Cunningham is very worthy of his spot still but I do think we need defenders who have a more balanced skill set moving forward so omitting the tried and true Cunningham for a speculative but hopefully more balanced Campbell could pay dividends. No sure things by any means, but something to consider.
 

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S120 said:
Campbell is my seventh defender in this discussion. As I say, it’s another positional move for Campbell which isn’t what anyone wants because we all hoped by now he’d have made a position his own but in this world, I’d rather have him take up some of the rebounding from Mills and rely on Papley, Dattoli and Rosas as forwards alongside Hayward.

In this world, Campbell takes Cunningham’s spot but with more of a defensive/offensive balance to his game. I fully recognise Cunningham is very worthy of his spot still but I do think we need defenders who have a more balanced skill set moving forward so omitting the tried and true Cunningham for a speculative but hopefully more balanced Campbell could pay dividends. No sure things by any means, but something to consider.
Click to expand...
I don't agree but it's exactly the kind of discussion that needs to happen, the kind of experimentation that needs to occur in preseason.
 
Player movement really is an open market. We used to excel in picking up younger players with their best years ahead of them, but feels much tougher going now.

James Jordan has been a good get, but we need more of the JPK's, Mattner, Hall, C.Bolton, Richards, etc. Backbone of our successes over the last 2 decades.

Which begs the question, where does the future lie without having players like that coming in when they head elsewhere?

Have to draft exceptionally well, but our first rounders don't always work out
 
Ed_Gein said:
Player movement really is an open market. We used to excel in picking up younger players with their best years ahead of them, but feels much tougher going now.

James Jordan has been a good get, but we need more of the JPK's, Mattner, Hall, C.Bolton, Richards, etc. Backbone of our successes over the last 2 decades.

Which begs the question, where does the future lie without having players like that coming in when they head elsewhere?

Have to draft exceptionally well, but our first rounders don't always work out
Click to expand...

It's not just drafting but more importantly development, the VFL performances of the last 2 years has got me worried about development.
 

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