00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's only round two and Essendon is already in crisis. Josh Barnes here on the Code AFL Show with Ed Burke and Daniel Cherney, ed, you're at Essendon. Let's get straight into it. You were there two days ago. Is the place burning down yet?

00:00:11
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:00:11
Speaker 3: Welcome back, Josh. Pretty calm peel at Essendon. It did help that they had this sort of roller door up in the section where we went for the press conference with Kyl Langford, and they rolled it all the way down to kind of keep the media inside of it while the players were just going about their business in the cafe. But there were still some left in the cafe when we got in there to file our stories. And it was interesting that the groups that formed in some of the booths around us.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, what did you say there were any sort of ructions in the playing group?

00:00:36
Speaker 3: No ructions, no visible or audible ructions amongst the group. But I did say the midfielder is gathering together. So Zach Merritt, Darcy Parish were in a booth with the larger status and I think archer Day Wicks was the fourth member of that group, but I can't confirm that. And then Ben McKay was having a coffee with Lewis Hayes, so talking bit of trade. Hayes is still a couple of months away off that ACL injury, but he could be a pretty important addition to their back line the way they're going at the moment.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course the Essendon is potentially burning down after what was a disaster's first two weeks journey. If you've seen a fair bit of footing in your time two rounds in, is this the earliest we've seen a team almost capitulating after that horror loss to Port Adelaide and.

00:01:13
Speaker 4: The mind that thinks back to Carlton last year, which was a half against Richmond. It was on for young and old then and of course they famously canceled therecy and membership day so infamously infamously.

00:01:24
Speaker 2: So it's probably never too early.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: I mean when shimal shimial Bush beg your pardon was sacked in the preseason nine ninety three, so it's all happened before. But it's right up there in terms of the concerns so early in the season. I think the other thing these days now Barns year, is that the seasons go for so long.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: That there's a long way to go for Esston.

00:01:45
Speaker 4: I mean just changes a very very long year and then you've got both the sort of relatively short medium term compounding effect of the fact that they lost their last thirteen last year and then needless to remind anyone that they haven't won a final to twenty one years and haven'tant a premiership be twenty.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: He's six now.

00:02:04
Speaker 4: That there's just it could be one thing if you were if this was happening when you were rebuilding, like an Richmond or West Coast situation, but for it to happen to a club that is sort of rebuilding off nothing, it's incredibly disheartening for Reston fans and they are wondering how as it got to this again and how are we going to endure another.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: Year of this? Yeah, it feels like a lot of deja vous.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: And as we said, you were there for Carl Langford presso as well as checking out who was drinking coffee with who, it sounds like there was a lot of movement around the leadership group. Already two runs in and a familiar face found himself back in the door.

00:02:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we had to kind of take a second second look after he mentioned that Zach Merritt had been invited into the leadership group, and the reporters there in the room sort of just nodded along, and then I think one was just like, hang on was the groop he was taken out, so you didn't know. It wasn't only stripped to the captains, he was taken out of the whole leadership group. It turns out Essendon like to rotate players through their leadership group. Blankford was saying they do it for younger players development. It is it would be one of the most crucial leadership group meetings of the season, you'd think, so probably a good call to get Merit in there. For his take, I think that they need to make sure that he's invested in what happens in the next few weeks. And on the field, they've definitely going to make sure he's invested because those star midfielders need to help their team defend the ground.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked about the You mentioned those star midfielders and I think that was part of the problem on the weekend that the senior players went up to Scratcher.

00:03:33
Speaker 2: The coach has been blamed already.

00:03:35
Speaker 1: Is it the players or the coach who what are we feeling is the biggest to blame after disaster input Adelaide.

00:03:42
Speaker 4: I mean, look, it's always both, but I think the players are underperforming. No, I don't necessarily think that Brad Scott has made every post to winner by any stretch. I think, you know, he's been central to some of this management decisions which have been very questionable too. But ultimately the lack of cohesion and two way running defensively and just defensive structure organizationally has just looked look very very poor and they are just not getting you. I mean you look, man for man, that team is not should not be losing by that much.

00:04:16
Speaker 2: To put Adelaide.

00:04:17
Speaker 4: They're not a Look, they're not a good list Essendon, They're not a they're certainly not a top six, top ten list, but they're not the type of list that should be losing so convincingly to put Adelaide, who have their own issues so early in the season, and just to be capitulating at this point. I know that they do have a third of youth in there as well, which and to a degree there's weakest link element to that, so that if you have young players that aren't necessarily following the game plan in terms of defensive positioning. It can look worse than it actually is and it may only be one or two positioning moves.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: That are actually going wrong.

00:04:53
Speaker 4: But ultimately I think it is the likes of Peter Wright now I know that football hasn't been down there much and Kyle Langford Darcy Parish, I think ultimately, as a player who's an Australian and in a very sign of lucrative long term deal, he's got to be getting more out of himself, you know. And several others that have to own up and say they have just not been good enough.

00:05:15
Speaker 1: Well, we'll go through the numbers in a moment with Champion Dati's Coy Mambilio. But journey, it's been a long slug. We've already talked about deja vu. How much of the past is still hanging over Essendon and decisions made by people that are long gone.

00:05:28
Speaker 4: Well, this was so well covered by our colleagues Glenn McFarland and John ralphin Essen in the Lost Years, which is still available if you listen now, thank you, I'm on my third read.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: Listen at the moment.

00:05:42
Speaker 4: You need to get out more but and you we've just been in the Olympics, but no, look at all seriousness. There's obviously these huge historical burdens that this club carries. I mean, the central figures of you know, Kevin Sheedy, James Hurd and Adrian de Door are hard to completely escape from. Heard somewhat obviously the most him similarly historically significant, but playing different roles.

00:06:09
Speaker 2: Sheet he sort of is this now elderly, sort.

00:06:13
Speaker 4: Of somewhat pantomime character who hovers around and says somewhat provocative things but people say, aha, yeah.

00:06:20
Speaker 2: She's whatever.

00:06:20
Speaker 4: But sort of an element of truth there heard in his media roles where he's quite articulate and a good footy brain and sort of just needling a bit. And then it's sort of almost it's a bit of a what's the what's the dog whistle? Sort of to the to the masses to sort of get the old Essendon crowd back. You've got this weird dynamic now with Dean Solomon, who you know is the old age Goes, is a widely respected footy person and has gone to other clubs, and it is not a purely estened person, you know, is it free? I was at Gold Coaster, was at the Giants, but back having gone from the board. So that's just there's such a strange dynamic.

00:06:56
Speaker 2: There's always been this sense that Scott was the outsider.

00:06:59
Speaker 4: I mean, he was in mostly dubbed the visitor at Arden Street by David King, and there's an element of that now too at the Hangar, where he just doesn't seem to have been really embraced by the old Essenon guard. Really, that was from day one when Kevin Sheety went on records saying that you've woted for change urge and ever since then, I mean, I think you're always going to be well arguably doomed from there. That that's a very hard place to come back from.

00:07:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of work to do. Now.

00:07:27
Speaker 1: Speaking of work, journey, I'm booting you out of that chair. I'm going to throw to myself into the magic of vodcasting. Corey will be popping into that chair sparkling in just a second. That's enough of the intangibles and the coffee chat. Let's get into the serious numbers. We've brought in the second smartest man in football, Corey Mobilio, one spot behind Ed Burke, one spot ahead of Daniel Journey, I would say in the rankings, but will work that out as we go.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Essenon is bad Corey? Just how bad are they?

00:07:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's obviously no sugar coating their last two weeks, and more so defensively, so whether it be their defensive fifty, the pressure, transition.

00:08:04
Speaker 6: Turnover, So just the facts here.

00:08:06
Speaker 5: So they've considered two hundred and seventy eight points over the last two weeks. It's their second worst two week stretch since twenty twelve, conceded one hundred and eighty two points from turnover, worse two weeks stretch by any side since twenty twenty two. And they've conceded forty eight marks inside fifty, which is the fourth worst two week stretch by any side over the last ten years. And you know, you don't just have to look back to that fourth quarter on Sunday where the pressure went completely out of the contest. It dropped to one hundred and twenty. They're pressure rating in that fourth quarter, which you just don't see a number that low. I think we have to be realistic and with the Essendon chat around like, I don't think you guys, and I certainly didn't have him in a top ten or winning a final card, a wild card, or playing.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: In my top ten, that's for sure.

00:08:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, but it's just more than marginal games.

00:08:57
Speaker 5: And for so long this Essendon team, not only the Brad, just haven't been able to defend. So since the turn of the millennium, every Premier have been top six defensively for points against. Essendon haven't been top six in eleven consecutive years. Seventeen of the last twenty one Premiers have ranked top six for defending ball movement. Essen have never ranked top six on record for that measure.

00:09:18
Speaker 3: Staying true to their identity, aren't they not being able to defend ball movement? People saying what's the brand? Well, that has been the brand, unfortunately for the Bombers.

00:09:25
Speaker 2: Perhaps has the sen and edge.

00:09:27
Speaker 1: We got Corey to look back over Brad Scott's history and it's not pretty in terms of defensive numbers. Even though they made a couple prelims at North and he had a decent record there, still defensively they weren't much chop at the roofs.

00:09:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, like these are the facts.

00:09:39
Speaker 5: So just looking at the thirteen seasons, So we'll just park twenty six due to sample size. So just ranking top six defensively for points against zero from thirteen seasons, score per inside fifty against one from thirteen seasons and defending ball movement also won from thirteen seasons.

00:09:55
Speaker 6: Just ranking top six.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, not great again, ed Is that a Brad Scott issue or is that an Essenon issue now? Because I think fans don't mind losing. They know where the club's probably at in terms of refreshing the list, but just the manner of the way they lose, the way they get opened up over and over again.

00:10:10
Speaker 2: It must be very frustrated that.

00:10:12
Speaker 3: The coaching staff would have changed drastically over over the years that have been this bottom six defensive team or been unable to be in the top brackets. I think you just put that down to coincidence that had several different coaching groups who haven't been able to get it right. Maybe there is some kind of attitude thing there at the club that's that's managed to stick around this long and affect their ability to defend as a team. But yeah, those numbers just seem to be it's I think it's just a bit of misfortune for from an Essenon fans perspective that They've never been able to get this right.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, even accidentally, sometimes you luck.

00:10:45
Speaker 3: Chance upon, you can chance upon, Like imagine you just have a crack at some kind of zone and you accidentally invent the new Clarko's cluster and then all of a sudden the ten goals. How has that not happened in twenty years at the Bombers.

00:10:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, at some stage they might fall into it.

00:10:57
Speaker 1: I guess the pendulum of blame has sort of around a little bit throughout this week after that future effidence port Adelaide. Part of it's been on the coach and his press match conference, and that has been dissected to the nth degree, and then the blame has sort of shifted to the senior players. Corey, A lot of them didn't play that well on the weekend. I thought, any numbers onto how much they struggled those top liners.

00:11:17
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm looking at Parish, durzmar mcgrat, Langford, fear any all outside the top twenty five players on the ground for their impact through ball. Use again, like and you Carson and I Ford to Saturday night, if North Melbourne get a run on around stoppage, they will using your words light light. This team up from stoppage, that is their strength, but led by Jerry and the Rock Aldiu Funo Sullivan, she'es or these likes. If they get a run on from stoppage, watch out.

00:11:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, massive responsibility for the midfield group. If Brad Scott sticks with the rotation you had last week, which was Merrit Caldwell, Parish, Durham Archie Roberts, those five of Vestmond's best seven or eight players will be out there on Saturday night. They really need to at least level it in the middle for them to be a chance, don't they Definitely.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: Tristan Cherry, I think one hundred and ninety six super coach points for those players out there on the weekend. He's coping against Locky Blackston this week. I'll be putting a very thick captain's armband on him. If I had him in my team, I'm trying to scramble to get him in.

00:12:15
Speaker 3: At the moment, he struggled a little bit in the first couple of weeks. Lucky black Sneer, you look really capable over the preseason. Hopefully he settles in, but at the moment that's a bit of a worry. For them because Nick Bryan still I think more than a month away.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, desperate to getting him back, and they don't have a lot of other other options.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: There is there any.

00:12:29
Speaker 1: Positives please Corey. I'm sure fans are still listening, stay tuned, Essendon fans. So we have anything that we can sort of give him some kind of hope.

00:12:36
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:12:36
Speaker 5: I look at the two, you know, the two forwards in Caddy so he's the youngest Essendon player since Joe Danaher and twenty fourteen to kick four plus goals in a game and then CaCO. So give me this output every week and I'm sure the goals and behinds are going to swing eleven disposals, six shots on goal for a turn of one goal for so obviously had a poor day in front of the sticks. But I think you can take a lot of positives with those two moving forward.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully I can show up their defense.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: I'm sure Jacob Farr has to be very close to a debut after dominating the VFL and a big loss, so he might replace Mason Redmond in defense, so he might have some moves around there.

00:13:10
Speaker 2: Anymore Essdon thoughts edity Essendon.

00:13:12
Speaker 3: Now I just wanted to ask you, Corey, when Port Adelaide was stat padding in the final quarter of that game, do you, guys barrack for that in the office. Do you like to see some stat padding or does it annoy you because it throws out your numbers?

00:13:21
Speaker 6: No?

00:13:21
Speaker 5: Well, the game goes quicker, so it's in dansic, so I'm always for a quick quarter. But and then you obviously have the super coach hat on as well, so like three points and whatnots.

00:13:32
Speaker 6: So yeah, a bit of a bit of a catch twenty two.

00:13:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on down, Jack Watkins in that last quarter, he was taking over there quickly before we boot you out and get Daniel Journey back in the the What are I having the number three smartest man in football, Journey waiting at the door to get back in two big games to start the round Thursday and Friday. Thursday Adelaide goes to Gelong. They'll be without Jordan Dawson, no Taylor Walker, so a bit depleted. But you've had you a bit of a lens on Shannon Neil who came alive in the second half.

00:13:58
Speaker 2: As Gie Long did against Free Mantle.

00:13:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, off the back of that Freemantle game, so career high five goals, enjoys getting back down to the categories, kicked three plus goals in each of his last three matches down there. I think for him like he's closing it in on that fifty game mark and there's so much room and scope to improve.

00:14:14
Speaker 6: From a one on one.

00:14:15
Speaker 5: But we know what he does and when he got up in abound in that Freemantle game, there was a bit of swagger about him and he can take marks two to three deep and he is a bit of a brometer. So when he finishes a game as a top five rated player on the ground since the started last year Geelong a six and zero. So he's going to draw a good match up on Thursday night Jordan Butts, who's.

00:14:36
Speaker 6: Had been really good.

00:14:38
Speaker 5: He's held the likes of Mackay, Georgiardi's Lynch Saam Darcy last week. He's a traditional Chester back, keep your opposition player grounded. I think it's going to be a really good challenge for Neil to not only relieve a bit of pressure from Cameron but give him a focal point forward of the ball. And again Butts last week eight in US at mark so he did it not only defensively, but with his aerial presence as well.

00:15:00
Speaker 3: A couple of changes to the DeLong forward line in that game. We've got mail unconfirmed that Brad Close has been dropped. He's played one hundred and twenty one of the last one hundred and twenty six games with the Cat, so that's an interesting one after just two rounds.

00:15:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like he'll be Patrick Gainfield will missed with the calf as well, So two changes in that forward line for the Cats, so they're going to be retooling and a lot of it will without Tyson Stengler as well. A lot of it will probably land on Channel and Jeremy Cameron, so those two needed to deliver. And GWS comes to Marvel Stadium on Friday night, Toby Green will be there to take on Collingwood.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on him so far this year?

00:15:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, just want to like the move to him being in midfielder.

00:15:34
Speaker 5: I've got no issues with, but it's now the fly on effect when he's in there. So GWS a minus forty points per one hundred minutes when he's a midfielder and then minus seventeen center clearances over two rounds. Which is stacking up to be one of their worst two week stretches in their history. So more, I'm more shifting to the likes of Connelio and o'haleran and rousing the pick up the slack in there. Move Green forward. We saw Green last year when they target him inside fifty. It was the most effective target in the competition in terms of GWS generating a score. So again I had no problems him going forward and so going into the midfield and GW is trying something different. But I think they're losing a bit too much now that in that forward.

00:16:17
Speaker 6: Half of the ground.

00:16:18
Speaker 5: The other name I'm going to throw up is Locky Ash, So they've got plenty of half back depths waiting in the wings. Give it a couple more weeks and if not, we saw Ash under Leon Cameron b midfielder be a bit of a tagger at times. I think he's a name that can elevate his game and go into the engine room a bit more.

00:16:34
Speaker 3: I'm a big believer in Locky Ash the midfielder because he's never really been able to do it off the leash. He was a tagger when he was in there. I'm not sure his foot skills are necessarily that suited to playing half back, but he can drive his legs and get them all along. I do reckon he's really suited to playing in a center of stoppage. The he've got Whitfield that got Joe Fonti you the've got other guys that can come off half back.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's just held on to smartest man football coy. But getting closed next week, next week, all waste time. Thank you for coming in as always, get back to the numbers, Thanks for having me. The third smartest man in football is back in his seat, Daniel Journey. Welcome back to the couch. Let's move on to another coach that potentially is on the hot seat alongside Brad Scott. Michael Voss might have been happy they had a bit of a bye this week. His Carlton side will be the last game of the weekend against Melbourne. This is going to be an important game for Michael Voss, as they all are ed. The Blues had a long time to recoop and get ready after a miserable first two weeks. Really, what are we expecting from them?

00:17:35
Speaker 3: I think we need to remind everyone that the heat that Carlton and Michael Voss for under seventeen days ago last time they played. It's been an interesting build up to this game. They've sort of had to simulate a match in the middle of this break to try and be matched fit for this clash against Melbourne on Sunday. I think they do have work in their favor as the D's are coming back from Perth, so they might have heavy legs. That's what the Blues will be hoping. But trying to turn around this second half these second half four issues is going to be difficult for them. They had three days off after the game against the Tigers that had Friday, Saturday, Sunday off. There was a team dinner in there, we believe Mark Kidnett mentioned yesterday. I haven't been able to work out where that was yet, but I'll get back to you on that. They've had a regular week on the track that first week on the break, it built up into a really intense hit out on Friday from what we're told. So it was behind closed doors. They didn't have any of their track watchers picking little holes in how they were training, but they had a pretty full match simulation. You obviously can't capture the intensity of an AFL game. But they had a crack on Friday, a couple more days off and then into a full week of training in the build up to this game.

00:18:34
Speaker 2: Now you mentioned those second half fade out.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: I think we wonder often on the outside weather clubs ignore them and hope that they get better themselves, where they dissect them completely. Carleton has been dissecting those for six months plus, for an entire year. They have been going through them with a fine tooth coment and nothing seems to be fixing. So whether that's the coach message not getting through, whether it's the players in their own head and they're thinking about it too much, it could be an issue this week because Melbourne, at least in the first game they played against the Kilda, they ran all over the same set end of that game. They're playing a new running style which we hadn't seen at all under Simon Goodwin, and it is a bit of a mismatch of styles. I think the way Melbourn is trying to run versus Carlton's slow plotting style, which they're slowly trying to fix in these first these next two weeks are vital I think for Michael Weiss. He's got Melbourn that they probably should beat. I think the tips would maybe be fifty to fifty and they've got good fright against North Melbourne after that, which they probably have to bank two wins because the heat's probably going to come following that with Adelaide Away, Collingwood, Freemantle Away, Sin killed Up, Brisbane away at Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide on their slate after that. So if he doesn't bank two wins here, I'm not sure how many wins is going to get in that next group after that. So this is a crucial time for Michael Voss and there are people around Carlton who believe that the leash I suppose that the rope is not that long for Voss, that he might get yanked if these things go bad very early in the season. So he needs to be winning and Carlton need to be winning and they probably need to beat Melbourne this week.

00:19:55
Speaker 4: Oh, I think ultimately, when you sorry, I think ultimately, when you go into Seas with a coach out of contract, it's every week, particularly a coach that's sort of just fifth season at his second club and a club a bit like Essendon which we touched earlier, which has now had historically successful club, which has had.

00:20:13
Speaker 2: A long runabouts.

00:20:15
Speaker 4: Each week is a referendum on Michael Voss and whether that's fair or not, it is the case. And you know there's only two ways for this to end. Either they extend him or they get rid of him. And that's not a healthy position, particularly when you have brought in a lot of new players. We're at a level you know, there was a sense of regeneration where it was a step back to go step forward, but that doesn't really I feel like now they will say that it is, but for me looking from the outside, those two things do not align. Having a coach in the final year of your contract and a team that's sort of half rebuilding on the run without going full rebuild, that doesn't really work. You've either sort it could be the foot in one camp or the other at the moment they're half pregnant. They dodge a massive bullet with that Richmond. I mean, I know ed you said earlier that we would have easy to forget that Carlton were battling. No one would have forgotten had they lost to Richmond, that would have been a massive two.

00:21:07
Speaker 2: Weeks Tom Lynch could hit the side of the barn. Yeah, exactly.

00:21:10
Speaker 4: So look they got there and ultimately that was just the pressure valve release that they needed. They've been able to go and do their work behind the scenes of the last couple of weeks hopefully get a few of these things right for their sake. But yeah, it won't take a lot, as you touched on, with that run coming up for things to go pretty quickly.

00:21:28
Speaker 2: A ry again.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple of big games that we've obviously spoken about at length here Sen and v.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: North Melbourne and Carlton v. Melbourne.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: I made the two of you sort of think about things and think about who is I guess the biggest loser from the weekend, who needs to win the most out of those four sides. I'd say probably Melbourne be at the bottom of the table that for each of us. But Essen and North and Carlton don't forget about where North Melbourn's sitting after was a really disappointing I guess second half against the West Coast on Sunday they probably need a win as well. So those three sides, it's going to be pretty tough for them this weekend.

00:21:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we can all agree that the D's probably have the least on the line. They've got the protection of a first year coach that have just had a trip to Perth. They looked exciting in round one, so they've bought themselves a bit of time to get up and going. I do think North Melbourne really don't want to be losing this game. It's probably a difficult time to get Essendon when it feels like a must win clash for the Bombers, but they really shot themselves in the foot last week not being able to get that win on the road. Two wins in a row would have been a great way to start their season and get some form of momentum, but instead there's serious frustration there because their senior players just sort of faded out of that game against the Eagles. I think that North Melbourne probably wants this more more badly than essen and all the noises around the Bombers and how dysfunction all the band. This would be really bad if North Melbourne lost that game on Saturday night.

00:22:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, Essendon needs to be competitive, North Melboin needs to win, so there is sort of a happy meeting there. North wind narrowly then everyone's sort of just a little bit happy, whereas if it's a blowout to North then Essendon Essendon sort of crisis continues, and if it's Essendon, it's up then North to sort of plunged into that territory pretty quickly despite all a you know, the optimism of round one. And then I suppose with Carlton Melbourne that the pressure is very different situation because of you know that's released when you stack the coach. But for Carlton certainly a heavy defeat to Melbourne would place them probably in a greater level of scrutiny either than either esther North could enter this weekend.

00:23:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think to your point the sort of essendonce had the heat on them this week I'm not sure how much more heat you can.

00:23:28
Speaker 2: You can't keep dialing it up at some point we can try.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: It reads as almost as maximum and Carlton, as you said, journey is almost a week to week things, so we're expecting sort of those up and downs. But North is almost not escaped it so far, but they haven't really copped it yet. So I lost here to Essendon given the Essendon's running and if they don't deliver, North I think they are going to be really under pressure because there is another question mark about the coach of that club, I think too, unless things turn around pretty quickly, so there'll be another a hot seat there. Now time for my favorite subject for the segment, quick hands. Speaking of hot seats, So there was a couple of in either end of the country earlier this season when Chris Fagan started a fire with some kilder. Now they meet this week, Journey, You've been keeping a very close eye on this spat between the two clubs.

00:24:10
Speaker 2: Can we expect fireworks? Are you going to give us fireworks? Look? I don't think it'll be fireworks on the field, per se. Who's right in this argument?

00:24:19
Speaker 4: I think everyone's wrong. Look, I think Chris Fagan's argument. I get the basic principle that you want to see the best players rewarded, but you're also got to appreciate that there are market forces at play. Not to mention that you know, Secular weren't the first club to offer, you know, overs for a player. And ultimately, if each club has the salary cap, then you know you've got to pay it somehow. And if Seculda wants to pay Tom Draconi over and above, well, over and above what he's worth.

00:24:48
Speaker 2: Well, let them lie in that bed.

00:24:51
Speaker 1: A lot of people were almost ridiculing them paying that much for Daconing and for Nazariah as well as a two million dollar player, and now suddenly they're complaining that that's affected the rest.

00:25:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Brisbane, Brisbane now concerned about the prospect of losing Zach Bailey. Will you if you bring in free agents, you run the risk of not having as much cap space to keep yours. That's just that, that's the craft of list management. Brisbane has done an exceptional job overall with the list management. They've had some benefits, clearly, but you've also had to take advantage of them, which other clubs haven't necessarily done. So I think overall, Sin Kilder has talked a bigger game and you know this whole idea that I remember Andrew Bassett's comments recently on sen where he said, you know now that you know when we were down the bottom. No one was sort of well, you're still down the bottom. You haven't actually done anything yet. You finished the sixth seven bottom last ye year. You're not back up the bottom, back up from the bottom yet. Yes, they're having a bit of a crack, which you can admire, but it's not as though they're sort of they're not respected yet maybe they're a little bit they're annoying people.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: So everyone's a bit. Everyone's just self interested and.

00:25:53
Speaker 4: And is trying to best position themselves for their own best results, which is obviously the nature of competition.

00:25:59
Speaker 3: I had a flag for you to fly here for se We just had one in the cupboard for some reason. But it turns out as a pretty measure to.

00:26:06
Speaker 2: Take unfortunately measured.

00:26:08
Speaker 1: I think Chenney, having spoken to people involved in this at both clubs, particularly when it kicked off, I think there is genuine sort of angst at each other and I think it is one of those things where both clubs will think they're in the right because they did the right thing by themselves, and Kilder can argue that they did the right thing with the coning and although the money they spent that was the right thing to do.

00:26:27
Speaker 2: What they think is right.

00:26:28
Speaker 1: Brisbon things that's wrong, But part of that is because they're trying to safeguard themselves from a player that's wanting to leave it. It's always there's always other bits of play I think they are generally, I don't know if anger is the.

00:26:39
Speaker 2: Right word, but they're not happy with each other.

00:26:41
Speaker 1: But it's been a long gestating feud given the issues with the draft and academies and all that sort of stuff, So it just added more heat to It doesn't matter who wins Churney will there the club sort of claim some kind of moral victory on the field.

00:26:54
Speaker 3: The economic cuff who wins.

00:26:57
Speaker 4: The economies dive straits just and a side, but you we're talking economics here. But ah, it matters on the field for sure, because Brisbane's own too and while they have won a premiership from own three in recent times, it's still a fair way back. And for the Saints, you know they'll probably they won't get many better opportunities to beat back to back gragning premiere given that they have still have some keyouts, even the youngster Dan Animal now missing four months with shoulder surgery. So yeah, it matters because the pressure I stik one thing that Secula.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Have has done.

00:27:37
Speaker 4: And I get a bit annoyed at some other Sekel supporters who sort of don't understand why people are coming gets and killed. Now, yes you have you have money, and you have to spend it. Fine, but if you actively engage in a play movement period like that, of course there's can be more attention on you. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But don't then say, oh, you know, the scrutiny is unfair. It's completely fair, and you open yourself up to it. So they need to perform this week, and they've got a very good chance to beat the Brisbane lines, i think, because the lines are still gettable.

00:28:09
Speaker 3: Serious finals contenders have to beat Brisbane while they're down. Once Brisbane's organized again and they've got their best players back on the park, it's going to be so difficult to get over them. You've got to take advantage of your opportunities at this point in the season.

00:28:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, particularly at home.

00:28:21
Speaker 1: It's your one chance to sort of bank that win against them very quickly as we're starting to run out of time. It is still March, so it is kind of technically cricket season, Channey, you'll be at the Shield Final all week.

00:28:30
Speaker 4: Would you have picked Elliott or Perry? Perry actually just but it was very very and it was a brutal call either way. I've just gone Perry just for probably a bit more long term form and picking aort a bit luck Gee, that would have been really as unlucky as ever.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: So I don't know we're talking about this in the Footy Show, but we are. Who wins.

00:28:54
Speaker 1: Your confident ed that will be celebrating a job. We get the day off on Monday with a ticket tape parade or something.

00:29:00
Speaker 3: I'm reading a story about Nathan McSweeney's excellent off Spin. I'm now I'm worried. Yeah, with their two spinners Menantiu and McSweeney two right, arm off, He's we much wrong.

00:29:09
Speaker 1: It's got me stressed. But we'll have a full breakdown of Nathan McSweeney's new offspin action and he's juicer right and next week on the Code AFL Show and maybe some footy as well. We'll be back then. Make sure you check out everything that's going on at code sports dot com.

00:29:20
Speaker 2: Do you plenty of action and previews for footy leading into the weekend.