Prediction Round 5, 2025: Changes vs Carlton

[boondy]

Kelly must be dropped to magoos to see his response and if that's where he wants to play out the rest of his career.

Ive fallen out of love with the Kelly

Bending over backwards to facillitate a trade and a very good coin and he hasnt shown much heart .

edit .. I posted this comment before reading the last 8 pages . So I had no idea of him being dropped and I didnt formulate my opinion on the swell of comments made by each contributor .

 

[boondy]

Grecco might get a game soon

 

[Kegs15]

Both of them lads didn’t really have a huge friendship base within the club but Jack spent 14 years here and like you said it’s 100th game compared to 300.

Interestingly hammer on radio mentioned us being keen on parfitt and having one of his good mates at the club might actually help him regain the passion after two of his great mates left last season (jd and jones)

JD might not have had a lot of friends here but if Norths socials are anything to go by he's in a much different space now.

I dunno I feel like JD was one of those types who was internally quite well liked and respected as a leader in his own way despite not being as outgoing or seemingly as intrenched in any of the bigger social circles at the club.

On-field was always a bit of a natural leader in how he played his role for the team, made the second-fiddle leads to give his KPF partner 1-1s or more space in the best spots, did his best tackling and competing despite having no turning circle and less height than his defender. Very unselfish teammate and I do think unfairly remembered for several brain fades in high profile moments, while things like how he willed himself back into the 2018 GF get forgotten.

Think on top of all the other shit Allen is realising what life's like without him around and with no experienced partner beside him. Will need to learn how to balance his game and generate his own opportunities while giving others to Waterman etc IMO in order to get back into form.

On the flipside for JD I reckon it'd be a breath of fresh air for Larkey, and think it'd actually be perfect coming into a new club and not being that type to start barking orders at training right away, instead being a premiership player in your 30s who knuckles down, is open to direction and plays a quietly unselfish game with good craft. Reckon he'd earn a lot of respect right away through that (their board is stoked with him) but he'd just be doing the same thing he's always done. Not a "different space" mentally or anything, IMO it's just a great move for him and timing of club to be around for the type of bloke he is and am happy for him. The bloke's not flawless but he works through it and I respect that.

Could see JD both as a player and socially being a good match for Kelly, who's also got his limitations on-field and is less outgoing. Think Kelly's played a role that's not quite his natural game throughout most of his time with us, and done it well for a good bit of it while being fairly at times criticised for flat patches. It'd be good having a mate there who's a bit older than you and gets it.

Then you had Jones who'd be this absolute energiser bunny and probably drag you out of your own head a bit, good motivation at training and could also see TK feeling a bit of responsibility and leadership to help Jones succeed at AFL level too, take him under the wing a little.

Obviously Jones gets delisted, not through not getting the best out of himself or anything but just not quite being up to it/list timing, but I'd still feel gloomy about it if I was Kelly.

Definitely needs to be dropped, and ideally for more than a week and until he dominates multiple WAFL games in a row. Performances haven't been up to scratch and while it's not good to have a senior player this out of form, I'm at least excited to see Gross/Hall get a chance to be the foundations of our midfield for a while.

But still do think it's worth acknowledging those 2 blokes leaving would be tricky, and hope TK finds motivation somewhere, gets any and all help he needs footy and life-wise and comes back and does well for us. If Gross and Hall lock down our centre bounces we may actually get to play Kelly in his Geelong role which is a silver lining I'm crossing my fingers on.

 

[jdisc]

Grecco might get a game soon

whomst?!?!

 

[sharps24]

I dunno I feel like JD was one of those types who was internally quite well liked and respected as a leader in his own way despite not being as outgoing or seemingly as intrenched in any of the bigger social circles at the club.

On-field was always a bit of a natural leader in how he played his role for the team, made the second-fiddle leads to give his KPF partner 1-1s or more space in the best spots, did his best tackling and competing despite having no turning circle and less height than his defender. Very unselfish teammate and I do think unfairly remembered for several brain fades in high profile moments, while things like how he willed himself back into the 2018 GF get forgotten.

Think on top of all the other shit Allen is realising what life's like without him around and with no experienced partner beside him. Will need to learn how to balance his game and generate his own opportunities while giving others to Waterman etc IMO in order to get back into form.

On the flipside for JD I reckon it'd be a breath of fresh air for Larkey, and think it'd actually be perfect coming into a new club and not being that type to start barking orders at training right away, instead being a premiership player in your 30s who knuckles down, is open to direction and plays a quietly unselfish game with good craft. Reckon he'd earn a lot of respect right away through that (their board is stoked with him) but he'd just be doing the same thing he's always done. Not a "different space" mentally or anything, IMO it's just a great move for him and timing of club to be around for the type of bloke he is and am happy for him. The bloke's not flawless but he works through it and I respect that.

Could see JD both as a player and socially being a good match for Kelly, who's also got his limitations on-field and is less outgoing. Think Kelly's played a role that's not quite his natural game throughout most of his time with us, and done it well for a good bit of it while being fairly at times criticised for flat patches. It'd be good having a mate there who's a bit older than you and gets it.

Then you had Jones who'd be this absolute energiser bunny and probably drag you out of your own head a bit, good motivation at training and could also see TK feeling a bit of responsibility and leadership to help Jones succeed at AFL level too, take him under the wing a little.

Obviously Jones gets delisted, not through not getting the best out of himself or anything but just not quite being up to it/list timing, but I'd still feel gloomy about it if I was Kelly.

Definitely needs to be dropped, and ideally for more than a week and until he dominates multiple WAFL games in a row. Performances haven't been up to scratch and while it's not good to have a senior player this out of form, I'm at least excited to see Gross/Hall get a chance to be the foundations of our midfield for a while.

But still do think it's worth acknowledging those 2 blokes leaving would be tricky, and hope TK finds motivation somewhere, gets any and all help he needs footy and life-wise and comes back and does well for us. If Gross and Hall lock down our centre bounces we may actually get to play Kelly in his Geelong role which is a silver lining I'm crossing my fingers on.

Absolutely. JD a bit like Oscar looks like a lovely bloke, especially in his older years. But I did get the impression there was a fair divide among the senior player circles in that 2018 group, maybe more than usual. JK and Darling always rumoured not to gel on a personal level but they played well together. I think the Rioli situation might of brought a lot of rifts to the surface, seems to have been plenty on players in both camps of wrap your arms around him/**** him get him out of the club. Not sure Shuey ever really had a unanimous playing group behind him on the back of that, got the sense he was very anti Rioli. Could easily see Shuey and Kelly not being the closest, imagine how much it'd suck having the team mate who's job you'd been doing for years retires and then is suddenly your boss and then your best mates leave the club. No idea if that's the case, even if they were mates as players just strikes me as a really bad idea to make a player like Shuey the coach of Yeo and Tim Kelly. Hurns probably less of an issue but even that I don't like. When the coaching group has 2 former players in it, maybe sitting in match committee, can kinda see how that might result in certain former team mates always getting backed in, and others not so much. A change in head coach is not necessarily a new start for Tim Kelly if his stoppage coach is his former captain under Simmo and the guy whose constant injuries basically ruined your career y'know. Kinda wild to me how the two captains during the darkest days the club have ever had are coaching their former team mates in the rebuild. I'd be a bit like, mate you spent your whole career chowing down on diamond service from Naitanui and lobbing balls onto JKK's head until I came here to play with you and you couldn't get on the park, your captaincy was a joke, I've been getting up for games week in week out for years despite taking a beating at the coalface trying to win clearances off Bailey Williams and your helping me how? Personally I couldn't do it, co-worker to boss has been a disaster every time I've seen it tried in my work life.

I might be a little different to others on this and kind of enjoy it when a player goes to another club, loving watching the JD story play out it genuinely seems like he and his family is in a great space and the group has embraced him fully. Happy for TB as well, though won't be enjoying him succeed because I hate the Hawks but that's ok if he gets a premiership good on him [he won't]. The move for JD was Brisbane 2 years ago and for TB to Sydney end of 2023, both could already be premiership players. Really hope it works out for Oscar as well. Whether its going to a new club or retiring there just comes a time when the logical journey for a player at a club is over and the best thing to do is depart gracefully, and the majority of fans will remember you fondly. Jason Ball, Lycett and Rioli, was happy for them all. Judd I actually never particularly liked and was glad Carlton sucked under him, but he was the sweetest of all. JKK, how good.

On Kelly yeah the WAFL could be good for him, guy could probably do with a break. At the moment its not an either/or with Hall and Gross given literally its a 3 person midfield and Harley has gone down back for a little while and Yeo is out. I'm going to be pissed if this was done by Mini in order to get Graham or Baker back into the midfield. To me the move for Kelly has always been to half forward, but it is an either/or there when it comes to Cripps being in the side. Would kind of suck for Kelly to fancy a role change and being literally an All Australian calibre half forward and having to go play WAFL on 900k a season looking to get your last contract, when there's a guy 2 years older than him spudding it up in that spot getting his 12 possessions a game for 1.2 goals when you could be getting 20 1.5. Just feels like at no point in the past 5 years has there been an opportunity for Kelly to get to play to his strength and enjoy his footy. Could have finished his career in that spot but likely is done now, in and out of WAFL and the delisted free agent is how it'll most likely play out. Cripps plays 22 games again and retires a hero, Kelly the villain.

 

[bzparkes]

I wonder how long until chapter 2 of "I hate Jamie Cripps" will take before it's released to the masses?

 

[Quinz]

Excellent, a team with zero midfielders. I reckon there's something in this plan.

 

[Barrybran]

I wonder how long until chapter 2 of "I hate Jamie Cripps" will take before it's released to the masses?

I don't see why. Cripps has been decent despite comments over the past month.

 

[bombard]

Excellent, a team with zero midfielders. I reckon there's something in this plan.

Well we've been playing with zero midfielders for about four years now. It'll have to work eventually!

 

[bombard]

Side note: it's possible to happy about the decision to drop Kelly and be serious about selection integrity while ALSO not being a massive knob about Kelly as a person. Get a grip you ****ing degenerates.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Good to see Kelly dropped, hopefully more to follow today.

 

[PremiershipNo4]

My own feel for the curious case of Tim Kelly is that he has some form of mental illness, i.e. depression. The weird freudian slip about not loving the game anymore, the atrocious body language he is always displaying these days.

You put that together with the fact that he has every reason to care about his form and the quality of his footy at this moment as it might be the difference between another half million to a million dollars of income for his family over the next two years, but he looks for all the world like he just doesn't care. Thats not normal behaviour for a human being in his position. 99.9% of us would be trying our asse off if there was a million bucks in future income on the line.

I reckon you might b right there, he’s not in the right headspace, hopefully this can be a good reset for him.
Personally I just think he’s just too slow, never been overly blessed with pace, he struggles to burst clear of a contest and isn’t quick enough to make a tackle. Sprinters peak at roughly 27yrs old and then decline, it’s pretty obvious to me that he looks much slower now. I don’t think Kelly is ever going to back to his peak, and it’s downhill skiing from here.
Just my opinion.

 

[PremiershipNo4]

whomst?!?!

You know, Roman Grecco wrestling, it’s back in vogue

 

[Total_Juddshanks]

Side note: it's possible to happy about the decision to drop Kelly and be serious about selection integrity while ALSO not being a massive knob about Kelly as a person. Get a grip you ****ing degenerates.

Yep, the amount of amateur psychology and long range personality analysis going on at the moment is mindblowing.

Kelly isn't playing well and I think it was the right decision to drop him.

But anyone trying to reason from his poor on field form to a conclusion that he's lazy or a toxic influence on the club or unhappy because he has no friends or whatever needs to go outside and touch grass. There's just no conceivable way you can draw that conclusion or know what is going on in his head based on how many kicks he gets in a game.

Playing bad football does not make you a bad person anymore than playing good football makes you a good person- Wayne Carey managed to be arguably the greatest player of all time and a lock in the All-Shit Bloke best 22, so clearly there doesn't have to be a correlation between on field form and moral stature.

 

[FKASC]

Oscar2midfieldorGTFO

 

[bUCKET__]

Flynn2Bailey, make it happen Mini

 

[Boohemian]

Absolutely. JD a bit like Oscar looks like a lovely bloke, especially in his older years. But I did get the impression there was a fair divide among the senior player circles in that 2018 group, maybe more than usual. JK and Darling always rumoured not to gel on a personal level but they played well together. I think the Rioli situation might of brought a lot of rifts to the surface, seems to have been plenty on players in both camps of wrap your arms around him/**** him get him out of the club. Not sure Shuey ever really had a unanimous playing group behind him on the back of that, got the sense he was very anti Rioli. Could easily see Shuey and Kelly not being the closest, imagine how much it'd suck having the team mate who's job you'd been doing for years retires and then is suddenly your boss and then your best mates leave the club. No idea if that's the case, even if they were mates as players just strikes me as a really bad idea to make a player like Shuey the coach of Yeo and Tim Kelly. Hurns probably less of an issue but even that I don't like. When the coaching group has 2 former players in it, maybe sitting in match committee, can kinda see how that might result in certain former team mates always betting backed in, and others not so much. A change in head coach is not necessarily a new start for Tim Kelly if his stoppage coach is his former captain under Simmo and the guy whose constant injuries basically ruined your career y'know. Kinda wild to me how the two captains during the darkest days the club have ever had are coaching their former team mates in the rebuild. I'd be a bit like, mate you spent your whole career chowing down on diamond service from Naitanui and lobbing balls onto JKK's head until I came here to play with you and you couldn't get on the park, your captaincy was a joke, I've been getting up for games week in week out for years despite taking a beating at the coalface trying to win clearances off Bailey Williams and your helping me how? Personally I couldn't do it, co-worked to boss has been a disaster every time I've seen it tried in my work life.

I might be a little different to others on this and kind of enjoy it when a player goes to another club, loving watching the JD story play out it genuinely seems like he and his family is in a great space and the group has embraced him fully. Happy for TB as well, though won't be enjoying him succeed because I hate the Hawks but that's ok if he gets a premiership good on him [he won't]. The move for JD was Brisbane 2 years ago and for TB to Sydney end of 2023, both could already be premiership players. Really hope it works out for Oscar as well. Whether its going to a new club or retiring there just comes a time when the logical journey for a player at a club is over and the best thing to do is depart gracefully, and the majority of fans will remember you fondly. Jason Ball, Lycett and Rioli, was happy for them all. Judd I actually never particularly liked and was glad Carlton sucked under him, but he was the sweetest of all. JKK, how good.

On Kelly yeah the WAFL could be good for him, guy could probably do with a break. At the moment its not an either/or with Hall and Gross given literally its a 3 person midfield and Harley has gone down back for a little while and Yeo is out. I'm going to be pissed if this was done by Mini in order to get Graham or Baker back into the midfield. To me the move for Kelly has always been to half forward, but it is an either/or there when it comes to Cripps being in the side. Would kind of suck for Kelly to fancy a role change and being literally an All Australian calibre half forward and having to go play WAFL on 900k a season looking to get your last contract, when there's a guy 2 years older than him spudding it up in that spot getting his 12 possessions a game for 1.2 goals when you could be getting 20 1.5. Just feels like at no point in the past 5 years has there been an opportunity for Kelly to get to play to his strength and enjoy his footy. Could have finished his career in that spot but likely is done now, in and out of WAFL and the delisted free agent is how it'll most likely play out. Cripps plays 22 games again and retires a hero, Kelly the villain.

Gotta love some AFL fan fic.

 

[SAweagle]

These dreadful mistakes need to be highlighted. It may be annoying to be reminded but pyke and co, must accept responsibility for this shitshow.

nah man just accept the sh!t sandwich and dont ask questions

stop being negggggaaahhhhhtive

 

[RookiePick]

Excellent, a team with zero midfielders. I reckon there's something in this plan.

We're finally ahead of the curve.

No ruckman and no mids. Let's go!

 

[SAweagle]

Boy oh boy. Big call from McQualter to follow through with it.

Clearly having a down year but a firm believer that Kelly has held up his end of the bargain since arrival so not quite sure I understand the scapegoating broadly, but for a selection integrity based on the first month of 2025 decision you can’t fault it.

HJ into the side, Reid back in the middle?

He had enough credits in the bank to stay in the side

 

[SAweagle]

He won our best and fairest two years ago

Ok lets have a bit of parliamentary procedure here.

2023 WCE had one of the worst injury runs in AFL history

Tim only managed to sneak past such luminaries as Oscar Allan, Liam Duggan and Jayden Hunt by virtue of playing all or most of the games on offer. At least he seemed to be trying though.

John Worsfold Medal Top 10 - 2023
1 - Tim Kelly - 200 votes
2 - Oscar Allen - 163
3 - Liam Duggan - 158
4 - Jayden Hunt - 116
5 - Shannon Hurn - 102
6 - Bailey Williams - 101
7 - Andrew Gaff - 85
8 - Alex Witherden - 84
Eq.9 - Tom Barrass - 79
Eq.9 - Noah Long - 79

 

[Jandamarra]

Tim Kelly was up before the sun, not because he was disciplined, but because he hadn’t really slept. He’d spent half the night watching 2019 highlights, wondering where that version of himself had gone. The version who broke lines, turned games, made midfielders flinch.

Now? He was stuck running stoppage drills designed by Luke bloody Shuey — the guy who once carved up centre clearances but now seemed obsessed with “structure” and “repeatables.” Tim swore if he heard the phrase “get front and square” one more time, he’d punt a Sherrin through the meeting room window.

He drove to training blasting DMX just to stay awake. At the club, the energy was dead. No Jack Darling wrestling with bags. No Jermaine Jones pretending to be late then winking at Tim as he rolled in. It felt like a hospital waiting room with grass.

Midway through drills, Tim straight-up ignored a setup. Charged forward, broke a line, delivered lace-out to a first-year. No one said anything — except Shuey, who called him over with a clipboard and a forced smile. Tim laughed. “You gonna fine me for creativity now?”

Evening brought calm — dinner with the kids, stories, bedtime. But before lights out, he tapped a message to the group chat:

“Miss you lads.”

Tomorrow, the grind continued. But it wasn’t quite the same without them.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Ok lets have a bit of parliamentary procedure here.

2023 WCE had one of the worst injury runs in AFL history

Tim only managed to sneak past such luminaries as Oscar Allan, Liam Duggan and Jayden Hunt by virtue of playing all or most of the games on offer. At least he seemed to be trying though.

John Worsfold Medal Top 10 - 2023
1 - Tim Kelly - 200 votes
2 - Oscar Allen - 163
3 - Liam Duggan - 158
4 - Jayden Hunt - 116
5 - Shannon Hurn - 102
6 - Bailey Williams - 101
7 - Andrew Gaff - 85
8 - Alex Witherden - 84
Eq.9 - Tom Barrass - 79
Eq.9 - Noah Long - 79

“Sneak past” is massively understating how good a season he actually had that year.

He’s in very poor form now, but let’s not rewrite history.

 

[darksquare]

Well, this thread is an eye-opener. I can only see about half the posts, because apparently everyone on my ignore list has congregated here, presumably to gloat at Tim Kelly’s demise.

I don’t mind the decision to drop him, but surely we need him back in the team as soon as he gets some confidence back.

 

[CountryLad]

Well, this thread is an eye-opener. I can only see about half the posts, because apparently everyone on my ignore list has congregated here, presumably to gloat at Tim Kelly’s demise.

I don’t mind the decision to drop him, but surely we need him back in the team as soon as he gets some confidence back.

Certainly interesting times both in regards to the football club and the level of posting of late.