Fat Tony

Is there a full stats sheet somewhere?

Langford looks the goods but is a bit slow. Will need to get strong enough to bully them on the inside. Lindsay looks excellent. Has time and can kick it a long way. Jefferson is a mile off. Lacks football smarts and intensity. Oliver was just ok. I’m not convinced he’s going to be an A grader again. AMW played well. Hopefully it’s not an ACL. Sharp looks a magnificent replacement for ANB. Great recruiting. TMac is a better defender than Petty. Sparrow played well. Campbell played a good game and will be handy depth. Johnson was good in his cameo.

In modern AFL, a key defender might have a dozen true one-on-one contests in a season, but they will be in hundreds of contests where pace and mobility is more important. Petty is less mobile than TMac. Petty is not "a much better option". It is marginal and I would go for TMac.

You’re definitely right about the balance of the side being out with four tall defenders. I want to see Petty forward in Round 1. TMac is a better fit, as he is more mobile.

Watching the recruiting team talk about Henderson, it is hard to believe they went for Johnson.

The Roos also put the intra club match on YouTube in full.

My bet is that TMac plays well in the preseason games and that Petty plays ok but gets played as a forward in Round 1. TMac was the 14th highest rated key defender in the AFL last season based on Wheelo ratings and our best. While this may not be the best way to measure key defenders, he was very good last year and he has reportedly had another good preseason. I also think Petty could be much better as a forward this season than last. His lack of preseason last year meant he lacked power and acceleration. Moreover, our midfield supply was reduced last year due to Oliver being so down and Petracca getting injured. The forward line showed against the Suns that it could work with Petty, Turner and Van Rooyen playing forward.

I don't think the forward line is an easy fix, because our midfield contains a lot a great ball winners but they are ordinary kicks. That said, I think our forward line always looks worse on paper if Melksham is picked as a key forward, but it functions a lot better with him in the role. Richmond won a flag with Jacob Townsend as a key forward and Melksham is a similar and more skilful player.

I’m not convinced Petty is an upgrade on TMac as a defender. TMac was excellent last season.

You have to trust the club, given they would have all the information, but I think our list needs another fast small forward more than a slow inside midfielder.

ANB played an important role in recent years, particularly covering for Petracca in defensive transition. I would like to see Langdon play this role this year, which is a 50% mid and 50% high half forward role. I don't really see the benefit of playing Langdon as a centre bounce midfielder. Gawn, Kossie and Petracca should be in most centre bounces IMO and that leaves only one spot for Viney, Oliver, Rivers, Langford and Sparrow.

I have picked a team based on best and fairest results and All Australian honours. B Frawley May Hibberd HB Vince Lever Woewodin C Johnstone Jones Yze HF J McDonald Robertson Petracca F Green Neitz Davey Fol Gawn Oliver Viney Int White J Rivers Bruce Farmer Sub Moloney Emg Jamar Garland N Brown McLean Year B&F 2nd B&F All Australian Team 2000 Shane Woewodin Jeff White Jeff Farmer 2001 Adem Yze David Neitz 2002 David Neitz Cameron Bruce David Neitz, Adem Yze 2003 Cameron Bruce James McDonald 2004 Jeff White Nathan Brown Jeff White 2005 Travis Johnstone Russell Robertson 2006 James McDonald Cameron Bruce James McDonald 2007 James McDonald (2) Nathan Jones 2008 Cameron Bruce Brock McLean 2009 Aaron Davey Brent Moloney 2010 Brad Green James Frawley James Frawley, Mark Jamar 2011 Brent Moloney Jared Rivers 2012 Nathan Jones Jack Grimes 2013 Nathan Jones (2) Colin Garland 2014 Nathan Jones (3) Dom Tyson 2015 Bernie Vince Jack Viney 2016 Jack Viney Nathan Jones Max Gawn 2017 Clayton Oliver Jack Viney Michael Hibberd 2018 Max Gawn Clayton Oliver Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver 2019 Clayton Oliver (2)/Max Gawn (2) Max Gawn 2020 Christian Petracca Steven May Max Gawn, Christian Petracca 2021 Clayton Oliver (3) Christian Petracca Max Gawn (captain), Jake Lever, Steven May, Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca 2022 Clayton Oliver (4) Christian Petracca Steven May, Clayton Oliver, Max Gawn, Christian Petracca 2023 Christian Petracca (2) Jack Viney Christian Petracca 2024 Jack Viney (2) Max Gawn Max Gawn

I favour shorter quarters, shorter half time and more games in a season. Dangerfield makes some good points about reducing the number of overlapping games in a round. The other advantage of shorter games is they finish earlier at night. As much as I love the current length of the Demon games, my interest in the other games fluctuates (I still would watch 5-7 games per week).

We really need Oliver to be an A-grader this year. We won't be a genuine chance if he gives us another C-grade season. We also hope that Max can continue to be a dominant force, Petracca comes back well from injury and Langford has a good debut season, but I think the rest of our midfield is much more predictable in terms of expected output.