Well I for one haven't been this excited since our Wizard Cup preseasons


Bring it on!!!!!

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#DonTheStash

You've changed, a lot, over the holiday season.

Why are you negative when you don't know what has transpired over the preseason?

You don't think the signing of Nick Daicos and Luke Jackson on our list as SSP's isn't going to help us make Top 4 this year?

A lot has changed, and a lot hasn't changed.

Every season is a new season. What's your prediction? and Why?

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

There were a lot of things to like in this game and a few questions yet to be answered. I liked seeing Ben Campo get a run although it was very limited. I know a few people are disappointed in his output but it's hard to be critical in these match sims of stats. For all we know, the coaches may have given him a specific role. If it was me, I would have told him to run around with one of the Ashcroft boys and watch how they position themselves, where they run etc. What a great educational opportunity that shouldn't be wasted.
Same with Chesser. He didn't do a lot but I'm unsure of his role in the game. Obviously he played wing but he may have been instructed to run the fat side and just concentrate on blocking BL switching outlets etc. Or to concentrate on getting a specified number of high speed metres to test his body.
These games are opportunities to try new players, roles, testing player physical capacity etc.

I loved the work of Ainsworth, Hayward, Byrne, Ollie, Pitto, Fog and many others. I still get frustrated with the flakiness of some of our players. The best teams carry very few flakes and we have more than our share. Elijah, Williams, Harry, McGovern and to a lesser extent Saad. They can turn up one quarter and look disinterested the next. Be beautifully skilful and fumble badly the next. Sadly i think Moir is a perfect candidate to be top of the class as well.
It's why I love watching players like Fogarty, Evans, Hewett etc. They're not world beaters but you know they'll die for the team each time they pull the jumper on.

The ruck situation will be fascinating. Pitto performed well but I can't have Pitto, HOK, Harry and Reidy in my best team. One misses out so I'm not sure who is the relieving ruck.
Reidy didn't do a lot but his efforts to bring the ball to ground resulted in a couple of goals. HOK had a low output game and I'm not sure we can carry him as a forward only.
IMO, he needs to be a forward/relieving ruck and its out of him or Reidy.

Derksen is the interesting one. He looked right at home and wasn't intimidated at all. If he gets a spot (which by reports is looking unlikely), could he be a second marking target when Weiters and Haynes return?
He has filled the role very well in the VFL. If HOK and Reidy don't prove themselves, could we at times play Harry and Derksen as tall forwards with Harry giving Pitto the chop out? It's a big week for Kemp as well IMHO. His attempt to take a hanger instead of creating a proper contest was garbage. He needs to get his kicking boots on and play the team game.

The other unknown is how our midfield performs with Crippa back this week and Cerra out. Does Cooper Lord stay in the rotation? Does Crippa have less CBA's this year, enabling others to step up?
Wednesday will tell us a lot about our Sydney game you'd think. Most importantly, I'm looking to see how Jagga goes. He gives us something the other 40+ players on our list cannot. Same with Ainsworth and Byrne. They give us the pace and crumbing ability we've been crying out for. It will be interesting to see how it transforms our style of play.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

When you lose 3 Key Players in Silvagni, Curnow & TDK, it is only Common Sense that we are going to struggle & finish Lower than last Season.

However, we did very well in the draft and we got some handy players but are they the real deal?

My Bigest concern is our Forward line & our Ruck division.

We have not been able to replace Currnow. Instead, we opted to bring in some smalls in the hope they can all chip in with some Goals to make up for Currnow's loss.

This is why I have big Concerns:

1- Hayward, Ainsworth & Co are all good players, but they are not A Graders. I have watched them closely when they were at their Clubs, especially Hayward. Often, he would go missing in Games and only produces a good Quarter of Football. Were they good players because of whom they were surrounded by? Will they be able to stand up and consistently kick Goals for us?

My Gut feeling is that as the season moves a long, they will be exposed and will have no impact at all. The other big Concern is the fact we are entering the Season with only One Big Forward which is Mckay. Is he going to be able to stay on the park for long?

I doubt it. He is so injury prone, it's just a matter of time before he breaks down, and when he does, we will be in massive trouble. We have no else that can play forward and play Big. Kemp & Moir are not Key Forwards and will never be able to kick a bag week in, week out. Let's also not forget that Mckay has serious mental health issues. He can break down at any time.

2- We also have not been able to replace TDK or bring an established ruckman to share the Load. The fact that we are entering the Season with Pitto as our number one is disaster. The guy is a liability. He does not cover the ground well and offers very little. He is also very injury Prone and i will be surprised if he plays more than 10 Games. The new guy that we brought in is untried and we have no idea if he is going to handle AFL footy. Freo didn't rate him & didn't give him a chance, so there must be some flaws to his Game!

My Verdict is Simple:

If the new recruits can shine and make a real contribution whilst Mckay can keep himself on the Park, we can finish as high as 8. Most likely any where between 8-10. However, if they fail to live up to expectations, then I expect us to bottom out, finishing anywhere between 12-15.

Regardless of what happens, I do not believe we are good enough to finish top 6. We are way far off it.

Curnow and McKay kicked 50 between them last year….

Curnow and silvagni had attitudes that were conditional and that undermined the dressing room.

What you fail to recognize is the value of ‘many hands’ make light work. Particularly when those hands want to do the work.

Whether we are more successful in wins and losses is to be seen. 2026 invites us to enjoy watching a bunch of guys who actually give a toss and committed to team first.

Thanks for your reasoning. Makes sense.
I'm just as keen on the negatives as I am of the positives.
You do realise, you do give this list a chance?
There's just something different to this team with 10 new players.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Fair. I think some of us have similar thoughts.

Perception is reality.

The Swans List Manager and the Players did not want to part with Hayward.
They convinced him to stay when he was inches from joining Carlton as a FA.

Coxy unsettled more players than you know when he put up names to get his Big Fish, Charlie Curnow, at all costs.

Believe me, losing Hayward was a big cost, and a big deal to players. His name came up next after the "untouchables", Heeney, Warner, Gulden...and Gulden was...lets say, sounded out. The rage trading any of those 3 would have been at a similar level to supporter rage when the news Wallace was to coach instead of Paul Roos.

I don't think you've watched Hayward close enough at the Swans.
Players play sacrificial roles. You don't see that on TV.
He's a super fit and a gut runner, back and forward repeat efforts, like Gulden.
Swans play a team first game, and love a focal point.
They haven't had a focal point since Buddy retired.

The interesting thing about Hayward, is when the Swans needed someone to be the match winner, it wasn't to be the focal points Amartey, McDonald and McLean, it was Heeney or Hayward doing the finishing. Match winners in the eyes of Swans.

Hayward, who you think only played one quarter was involved in:

40 goals in 2025 (kicked 29)
51 goals in 2024 (kicked 41)
38 goals in 2023 (kicked 25)
56 goals in 2022 (kicked 34)
39 goals in 2021 (kicked 28)

How many goals did Charlie kick as the lone target in the goal square?

2025 32 goals and 7 asissts = 41

I'm not going to miss much TBH. Ditto SOS,
TDK was valuable in the CB. That's it.

Now, at Carlton, we have got rid of the self acclaimed big dogs Charlie and SOS, and Hayward is allowed to be a leader on the field. I expect him to kick many more goals than he did at the Swans.

Derksen adds to our depth forward and back. I strongly believe Derksen is a better KPD than Kemp and O'Keefe.

Its not all doom and gloom. Its a different mix.

Aisnworth was let off Dimmer's leash and he kicked 4 goals last week, and goals in previous intra games.

The sum pf thos e parts are greater than the sum of Charlie and SOS imo, for obvious reasons.

Its not the size of the dog, its the fight. We have added fighters to our team
Our boys are hungry for success with the will to stick it up the Swans and Suns who sought success by trading them out.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

TDK, Charlie and JSOS didn't contribute much at all in 2025, either on the field or off the field, it's very likely we'll improve as a team in 2026 as their replacements will have much greater positive impact.

I like that their replacements are under far less scrutiny than them.

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#DonTheStash

Bingo

This is why I don’t quite get the doom and gloom.

TDK had his best season statistically but was far from a dominant presence. In our four finals over the last three years he averaged 11 hit outs and kicked a grand total of 2 goals.

Charlie had his worst season in years. Not counting the almost two years he missed due to injury this year was statistically worse than every year since he was a second year player in 2017. He played in three of our four finals over the last three years for the grand return of 3 goals 3 behinds. Add in the off-field bullshit and good riddance.

JSOS was going well in the backline but ended up playing only 13 games. He’s played just 13 games out of the last 55 games including missing all four of our finals in that time and he’s averaged less than 13 games per year over his career.

We’ll miss what all three of these guys could have been but the harsh reality is they weren’t. If we’d been smart we would have traded them earlier and got significantly more than we did but we always overrate our own.

One of our problems has been consistency of lineup.

Average games per season over the last five years…

De Koning 18.2
Curnow 18.2
Silvagni 13.0

Hayward 23.00
Florent 22.80
Ainsworth 20.60

The three new guys gave their clubs a combined total of 66 games per year for the last five years.

Our former three gave us an average of 49 games per year.

Throw in the fact that our former three were all destabilising the club in various ways and that the new three appear to be super keen solid citizens with something to prove along with some salary cap relief and we should have done the deals whether our guys wanted to leave or not.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

This is what I liked about last year, the kids playing with smiles from ear to ear. I will miss Will White for exactly that, he was excited to be out there and I enjoyed watching that.

I am going to enjoy this year and enjoy watching a team that wants to play together.

That is a fair perspective.

But I think we have been conditioned to think that key talls are the only way to win games.
When in actual fact that is not correct and it has been a huge reason for us losing so many last year IMO.

For example. Brisbane won a GF by 47pts with a 20yo 191cm key forward who kicked 1.1 goals and a 21yo 194cm key forward that kicked 1 behind.
By beating a team that had a seasoned Coleman medal gun key forward, Cameron (their Charlie) who kicked 2 behinds but admittedly got injured, even that just solidifies the need for more avenues to goal.
The game has changed (until they change the rules again), the AFL want more speed and more goals and more players kicking goals.

So while losing TDK seems like a huge loss, it may not be, all we need is a ruck that can bring the ball to ground, nothing extra but if Reidy can go forwards to be a target at times, then great. And I believe Reidy can be that player for us, he won't be a TDK and he doesn't need to be.
JSOS, while he is a very smart footballer, he is slow and is injured more than he plays.
IMO, Haynes and Derksen will fill the gap he leaves and that is even before we start talking about the influence that Dean will have in his first year.
Curnow, solely as forward target is a loss, however he is not replaceable and both him and McKay are part of the reason our F50 entries have been so poor, they were an easy target to bomb the ball to for the players that panic under little pressure when they have the ball.

Last year our skill levels were poor, we lacked pace and we lacked the ability to capitalise on all the entires into the F50 as we were so predictable due to personnel.
This year we have 1 less key forward demanding the football, we have 2 new and possibly 3 new forwards that will be damaging at the feet of a contest or working hard around the ground to create opportunities to kick goals. We also have Jagga that can move well, kick goals and actually hit targets in the F50. We've added both speed and foot skills over the ground and we have a better atmosphere at the club also, going by what we have heard about some of the departed.

I don't think we were a top 4 or even a top 6 team last year with those players anyway, even though a lot of us including inside the club thought so, the list was overrated and luckily for us Wright seen this also.
We couldn't even run games out, mainly due to the above.
I think we finished where we should've and this year we should improve right in time for Cody to come into a good system and help push us up higher again next season. We've had a reset and that means we are not hunting a premiership but working on building a team and game plan to contend for one soon.

I think if we can get our midfield to have better foot skills, stop bombing into F50, be patient with our entries, even if it is to slow the game down a bit, kick goals and be relentless with pressure. That alone will more than offset our tall stock losses IMO.
Add to that, the pressure from our new forwards at ground level, we are going to be a more dynamic and exciting team this year.
Personally, I think if we can do the above and the team gels really well, 8-10 is a realistic position and anything higher is a bonus.

What I would like to see this year is, more players hitting their targets and not allowing our momentum to stop because of poor disposals and poor decision making like last year.
And if the usual players can't work this out, then ship them off for ones that can.
New standards across the ground.

Go Blues!!!

I agree. It was quite abvious Charlie, SOS & TDK have switched off not even half way through the year. All three knew too well that they were leaving. They did give a toss not effort.

This is why the Club needs to force players to make an early call. Your either in or out. If you don't Sign, then your our of the team. Its total BS that we have to put up with players who don't give 100% effort. This should never happen at any AFL club, yet it happened at Carlton last year!

I like your input, however without the talls, it does mean that all of our smalls have to chip in with a minimum of 2+ Goals a game or have them rotate in kicking bags of 4-5 plus for us to be able to put a competitve score and win enough games. Only time will tell!

I still think if Mckay breaks down, our entire forward line will crash out!

I am going to hold you accountable to your assessment of Hayward. He better kicks 4+ against his former side or ELSE lool

Mate, if he can chase, tackle and apply pressure, that's all we can ask for. Our forward line did not do any of that last year!

But we can’t kick or dispose efficiently …… effort won’t get us anywhere if you can’t change a game plan when you can’t execute. We are screwed. .

I hope that is the plan though.
We need our small and medium sized players kicking most of the goals.
What will win us more games is our mids and wings troubling the scoreboard, that is the unknown if they can.
I'd back Jagga and possibly Crippa but that is it.

I think if McKay breaks down we still have HOK that can step in, Reidy can kick goals, McLovin and Young can go forward if required for targets and Kemp and Moir need to aim to be 2 goals a game and then we have it covered IMO.
But the goal here for the club is better F50 entries and hopefully that forces the hand on a few players to step it up.

I'm optimistic on the team improving this year, I just hope we got a lot of our BS disposals out in that practice match and we build on that today.