00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's foot his longest weekend as we prefer for East and we've beefed up the panel here on the Code to AFL show, Josh Barnes hosting with Glenn mcphon and Jay Clark. We've got the big dogs in. It's a huge weekend. Thanks for joining me. We're going to go straight into it. Did Bradon Maynard drop a little bit of the anks to Collingwood this week when he had a veiled swipe at Justin Lapitch.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: I'm serious, Barnesy. I think this is one of the stories of the AFL season so far. This is how much I love it, so Braidon Maynard, and I believe this is your story? Is that right? Is Braidon Maynard? And we know the predicament that Colin was in its forward line. They're trying to kick goals and you know the list cliff et cetera. Now Braidon Maynard and this story questions why they got rid of Brady Myercheck, basically saying that he is at odds with the list management decision that was made on the gun goalkicker. So he says, here we got rid of a five time leading goalkicker and Checkers. No one wanted him gone. I don't know what happened there, but anyway, then Coxy Bloody left as well. We had the figure out of way, what how are we going to score? You know, I do miss him a lot. I had a really good relationship with Check is a real unique one. I love him so much. So this just incredible Maca. Culturally, Check is a big part of the fabric. And Maynard is saying, right there, why on earth is this man still not in our forward line?

00:01:17
Speaker 3: Is that your Yeah?

00:01:18
Speaker 4: Absolutely, he was a glue guy, Brodie Mychek. We know that absolute glue guy. Everyone loved him. You couldn't dislike Brody mycheck. And clearly when you kick eleven goals and eleven goals before last weekend it had been five straight games die and this year two without Brody mycheck, it really does. It's interesting that a co vice captain, a man who could be vying to Captaincy one day, is having a bit of a crack about list management.

00:01:42
Speaker 2: He's basically said, this was a dud decision to let this guy go, and we've struggled to kick goals anyway, And this is a club who wants to be in the premiership. Winn know you interviewed him, Barnsey, So how did this flesh out? You said?

00:01:53
Speaker 3: What?

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Well, to be honest, it was a bit of a Dorothy Dixon. I was a big court unawares and I was talking to Bradi Mana in the room on Friday night to say, is.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: The question you went there with it?

00:02:02
Speaker 1: Well, this explains perhaps the crux of the story. So I threw up a bit of what's going on in the front half. You guys aren't scoring that much? You won today, but what's going on there? And he unloaded and saying basically we have to find a new way around it because we got rid of a five time leading goal kicker in checkers and nobody wanted him gone. So I followed up with that, just saying, well, what's happened there? You guys are not happy you how much do you miss him? And he said about the relationship and it's great that he's going well at Melbourne. This is the industry we live in. The keywords you know.

00:02:30
Speaker 3: What I love?

00:02:30
Speaker 4: I love honesty though, don't you Brandon Maynard? If you had an honesty test across the entire AFL brilliant I reckon. He's the man, the man that you're light to take the test or whatever.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: Like he could not I could not jump out of this man's way quick enough. I'd be' He hugs everyone, he's got a big heart, and he's just saying what he feels. But this is interesting. He's saying that they have stuff that made a mistake getting rid of either one or both of these key forwards, which is cost And we love seeing Ausgarstine in his I.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: Think that's the only flip side to it in the end, like he's frustrated because I think players will get frustrated when they lose their glue people. You know, footy clubs really hurt when they lose glue people. But the way Osgarstein played, they probably took a week or two long to get him into the side. But gee, he was impressive. That leave clerky unbelievable.

00:03:18
Speaker 2: Interesting for Darcy Cameron now, who beat Nick Daikos in the Best and Ferris last year, you've been all over this mag ag currently he did didn't So what's his role now? Is he going to fly? He's going to be forward? Does you float behind the Ball's the what's the future for the best in Farris.

00:03:31
Speaker 3: A bit of a mixer match, isn't it.

00:03:32
Speaker 4: And we know that he was in a situation, you know, throughout most of last year where he didn't have a contract or didn't have a contract that he wanted to and Western Australian teams were coming for him. West Coast was certainly doing that, and it came down to a couple of teammates going in and saying, we've got to get this deal done. This guy is such an important playoff but was lucky Schultz hadn't been there very long, but was very close to Darcy Cameron and knew how good a player he actually was, went in and got it done. Now they've got to reshape it a little bit. He seems to have embraced at Darcy Cameron that he's going to play forward a little bit more and give Oscar Steen that opportunity. So I think it'll work out really well. What does it mean for Jack Buller that's going to be the interesting scenario.

00:04:11
Speaker 1: Not good for Jack, believe dumped on the weekend. Basically he was the swap for mycheck and that's not working out and he's playing VFL. It leads me back twelve months too. Last time I spoke to Bradon Maynard and and he said he was interested in looking elsewhere. During that year his negotiations took a while. Last year Jamie Elliott took a while, Darcy Cameron took a while. Jay, what's going on with the list management at Colin.

00:04:31
Speaker 2: It's interesting. I mean, I think Justin Leffie has been really strong in some of his decision making. Whether that's put some noses out of joint along the way, I think it is fascinating. And there in such an interesting predicament where they're trying to stay in premiership contention. But whether they've got the weapons in attack, I'm not sure. Joey montagnan first crack was really interesting. On a Sunday, Colin was going to have to defend their way to a premiership. So with all this burst running and extra scoring, Colin was trying to go the other way. We're going to have to go the other way, put out the bowler constrictor and strangle the opposition. Can you win a flag like that? Backer well sort of training.

00:05:09
Speaker 4: I think it's certainly bucking the trend of world where we're going into the future. But you know, Colin would have done that all the way through that you know, they possess I think about the top twenty five or thirty oldest teams ever put out on the park. So they're doing things differently, and you know what I think they're doing from a list management point of view, and we actually covered this a few weeks ago, they're actually probably taking a bit of ownership back on list management and saying to the players, we've got to earn what you you know, you're actually getting. And I think that's certainly happening with some of the older guys. I think, you know, some of the veterans there would like to be on more money.

00:05:38
Speaker 3: They're not. So I think what's going on there is.

00:05:41
Speaker 4: The pie are just going, you know what, We're going to reshape this list a little on the run.

00:05:44
Speaker 2: It's a bit how we feel exactly.

00:05:46
Speaker 3: We won't go there, But yeah, absolutely, I couldn't agree more. But with that, they're gonna have two million dollars at the end of the year to splash.

00:05:52
Speaker 4: If they don't get the player that they want, they're prepared to obviously throw that into next year.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: It could be four million dollars. Barns at the end of next year. That's almost tight money, isn't it.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: Can I ask can I ask you a question? Without notice?

00:06:03
Speaker 3: Always scared of these excellent about my paypack know.

00:06:07
Speaker 2: More about that, you're excellent reporting at the weekend Ralph with ralphiel on Collingwoods sort of predict him at the moment. Just do you do you think that Carlton will have another crack at Craig McCrae.

00:06:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm certain they will if that's the way.

00:06:19
Speaker 2: That it is gets the lem. Do you think they'll go again?

00:06:22
Speaker 4: Absolutely, they'll have another crack. Now he's you know, he's contracted.

00:06:26
Speaker 2: What does that mean?

00:06:27
Speaker 3: What does that mean in this day and age? How long does he want to coach for?

00:06:29
Speaker 4: But I think they'd be derelict if if Michael Voss does go at some stage, whether it be you know, in the course of the year or at the end of the season, they'd be derely Graham right, it'd be derelict not looking at someone like Craig McCrae, who's one of the top two or three coaches in the in the business.

00:06:45
Speaker 3: That's why I think very rarely now.

00:06:47
Speaker 4: Do we have a coach sacked and a new person comes in straight away, whether it was a long wire to come in from the outside, John Longmoyer or Adam Simpson. So I think it's more likely that it all roll through for for Michael Voss, depending on what actually happens. But yeah, I've I've got no doubt that Craig mccraige, you've got to ask the question, Clarky in any sense of the word. You ask the question, you're probably going to get a no because he's contracted. But why wouldn't you ask the question?

00:07:09
Speaker 2: It would be the biggest coaching sort of move or plot since Rossline.

00:07:13
Speaker 4: Well, absolutely, the ross Line one was fascinating. We've seen some amazing ones over the journey. We had once where Robert Walls and David Parkin swap clubs. Can you believe how big that would be now they actually swap clubs.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: Can't see Bossy going to Collingwood, But we'll see how that one works out. Now, Jay, you've been on the beat. We're doing some very very important reporting over years now. But this week a few things have come to a head, in particular with Nathan Murphy and Paul Steedsman. Can you give us a rundown on where things are right for them and what this means.

00:07:40
Speaker 2: And certainly my latest interest levels in insurance. My wife starting to ask some questions about why aren't showing this amount of enthusiasm regards my own insurance? Got a great place to be life administration policies. I will break out, We'll get to that stack of paperwork. Surely, I'm very serious note shattering bloth and that for Paul Season and Nathan Murphy, they've had years long wait for this concussion payouts. It's been such a sort of devastating process physically and mentally. Their health has really suffered. And the independent Umpire Africa Australian Financial Complaints Authority ruled with the insurer and said, essentially, Murph, if you want this insurance payout, you basically have to prove that you can't perform daily activities. So can you play football? It's whether can you wash and feed yourself and have a job and drive a car that sort of stuff. That's the level of sort of disempairment that we're talking about. And Murph, who's essentially chosen to get on with his life and do a bit of a job at Colling with the VFL team, has essentially chosen moving on with his life as opposed to sitting in his house or day doing nothing, suffering horrifically from a mental health perspective, just waiting how goodness knows, however many years to get these hundreds of thousand of dollars, so he looks like he's moving on with his life. Paul Seedsman is in the same case, and he's been open about his concussion symptoms. They are harrowing, absolutely hurrowing to read. So Angus Brayshaw is the third one that that that's sort of in the final stages of the assessment. It'd be interesting if he's unsuccessful as well. The AFL playing cohort will feel really let down, not imagine. And now the safety net MACHA is gone the whole in all the the TPD insurance which covers head trauma is gone from May one, so players will be going out in the field in two months time a month.

00:09:27
Speaker 4: Time, yeah, May one for a month time. Now that's four games, five games.

00:09:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unbelievable, clerk, and I don't think they'll find a replacement. I'm certainly not in the short term. The NFL insures in self, that's an x amount of billions of dollars or whatever.

00:09:44
Speaker 3: A chance that may have to happen to some extent.

00:09:46
Speaker 2: They already deal with the aflpas fifty four million dollars hardship fund, So that's about twelve million dollars a year to players capped at six hundred thousand. But it's like that amount of money is going to have to swell exponentially for it to be provide significant coverage. The game is. The concussion crisis is at a shattering new low, and the AFL was warned in a Senate report in twenty twenty three, you need an insurance solution because these are disappearing around the world. There's retail and tped their products are now. So the game's left left of its pants around its ankles a little bit or two things.

00:10:23
Speaker 4: Amazing reporting wasn't advantage. Thank you amazing reporting. And the other point I would like to make is, you know there's a conger line of bonus clauses in fat AFL contracts at AFL HQ that are all based on increased participation in the game.

00:10:37
Speaker 3: There's a lot of money to be had in that point.

00:10:40
Speaker 4: At what stage do they need to get on top of this because we're going to have parents walking away from with young children not wanting to play this game.

00:10:48
Speaker 3: We need to get on top of this asap.

00:10:50
Speaker 4: It is the biggest issue in the game, without a shadow of a doubt, and it's got to be resolved very quickly. We can't be getting now a month out and we don't know what's going on. If you're a player, morest the point, if you're a parent of a young kid who's going to go out and play on the weekend, you want to know what's going on.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: And then you have a situation like Jordan Butt's on Thursday night Barns. You were probably there where he has that terrible front on head clash, then goes to the bench. You can see the vision if you haven't seen, it's extraordinary. Eight minutes fifty seconds remaining in the third quarter. The doctor shows him a clipboard answer this question, and he says, looks, looks up to the left and then stares off to the right. You can tell there if that's your son, And if you're the parent on the bench, you're like, no way, are you putting him back out in your field. That's my child, that's my son. Absolutely doesn't go back you can see he looks a bit dazed and confused. He goes back out there, Shannon Neil goes berserk. He wins the game for Geelong like he's the best player in the last quarter. That's Jordan Buttzer's man. He ends up on the bench of the last six and a half minutes. Let's be honest. If we're going to say everything's ultra conservative and ultra cautious, what the hell is he doing out on the field. We can tell. Mark Howard called it straight away to his credit, David King called it straight Away's cricket. Steve Johnson on Trip ble Am said, this man's eyes are rolling back in his head, back in his head, the words to that effect. Everyone could see that he wasn't well. So not only you know, do you question this stuff now? They can't get insurance as well? To your point, participation is a big query. Where's the slafeguard?

00:12:17
Speaker 1: Even on Saturday afternoon, No an'sworthcopter a massively in the back of the head from Alex Daru. They didn't stretcher him off. He had to stumble off on his car and that was a shocking look for the game. Look, he could not walk straight at all. He was really battling to you off the ground. Everybody in the comedy booth again saying where's the stretcher and the doctors are heaving him up of the ground. One doctor dragged him by the elbow to get him to his feet so they could take him off the ground. It's just these bad looks over and over again. That's on the footy field, and now we're getting bad looks in the insurance boardrooms. How are we in a place that is worse off now than perhaps we were ten years ago.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: That's what it feels like.

00:12:50
Speaker 4: And that's why it's got to be something's got to be done straight away, because you know you're looking at we've just started a junior footy season for all across Australia and as we said about part is patient numbers.

00:13:01
Speaker 3: That's the number one thing at AFL HQ.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: Let's get this sort of Yeah, the thing is so May one's the deadline, Like you can't set up a group insurance policy for eight hundred players in this environment. Like if you if just if someone just say someone was willing to do that, that could take two years of work. Get to get that gun let alone being able to been able to bring in straight away, and I don't think he actually actually anyone's willing anyway, So I don't think it'll happen. I think people are players. We go out to the field taking an enormous risk.

00:13:30
Speaker 1: Plenty more to come from Jay and all our other reports on Hell at Sun dot Comedy and Code Sports dot Comedy will be following this with a fine tooth com But we're going to switch gears. MAKA, you're out, You're off to the interchangements. Cory Mobilia is going to come in and I'm going to throw to myself. Thanks for that, Barnady. Now I finished with Colin would have set Macka out of the room. We've got the great Corey Mobilio into take his spot. A little bit of an upgrade, I think for us for the next five minutes or so. Corey is our stats man, and we put him to work this week looking at the fixture. Well, what for four and a half weeks in to the season, what do things look like for clubs looking at that fixture? Who's faring better and who's faring worse?

00:14:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, there are some interesting ones.

00:14:10
Speaker 6: Obviously we're not counting for injuries that might pop up on the way home. GW also are a really interesting case, and we chatted briefly this morning about just the injury list with them, So Bedford, Buckley, Cadman and Daniels, they're they're on the shorter term list that might return from injury.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: Forward half is a real issue for them, I think at the moment.

00:14:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, and correct and their efficiency going inside fifty and their accuracies really dropped off. We've got them of having the easiest to run home, so kind of one that we spoke about where if you get this GWS side in they're obviously going to have to bank the wins. So run home Melbourne, Carlton, Essendon, Port Adelaide and West Coast. They've got Richmond in the next six weeks, They've got North in the next six weeks. Banks and wins, get your troops back, and then they might be a side come wild card week that you probably don't want to face, potentially dangerous.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: Do you still think they're best footy with their full available side can threaten the top weights? Yeah?

00:15:03
Speaker 5: I do. Like I think they're doing a lot a lot right.

00:15:06
Speaker 6: Like Barnesy just touched on their efficiency forward of center said it last week. I'd still get Toby out of there, getting forward of the ball, and hopefully these these troops, you know, Cadman, will strengthen them up. What you do with Bedford and Daniels, I think will help him in that forward half of the ground as well.

00:15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I found on Friday they would get the ball through the handball to the wing or half forward and then wouldn't know what to do with it. And Jesse Hogan's staved down there at the moment he was. He was looking a bit grumpy on Friday night because the balls just not getting to him. Sit there thinking about chess.

00:15:36
Speaker 6: I think on the bench credit to Colin Wood, like they did force them wide, like we were at that game and at halftime, I definitely thought this, this feels like a Giants game. So no credit to Colin would They've got some Giants have some stuff to tidy up in around center bound some personnel, but you can't ignore that injury list.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's easy to forget as well. They're off their home turf for quite a lot in the first half of the g W to the Easter Show, so they could come home with wet sale if they get some bodies back. Gold Coats are sitting on top of the ladder right now, but they've had a tricky jaw to start the season. What do they have to do in the next sort of six weeks to make Hayli it's unshiny.

00:16:10
Speaker 6: Yeah, so Humphrey, Petraka and Row in that next six weeks. Wouldn't really rush Petrarca and Row back. Obviously they haven't dropped the game this year, the next the next six look, you know easy on paper is where it gets interesting that so post their their round twelve buy in order. It goes Brisbane, Geelong, Hawthorne, Freemantle, Colingwood, Adelaide and the Bulldogs Wow Geelong, frew and Adelaide all away seven game stretch post there by. You know, if you can split that go four and three, three and four. They're probably a side where we know their numbers might look good prior to that buy, and then we know we could take them a bit harder on the on the way home. Yeah, it's an interesting one because they've got their relatively healthy So I wouldn't rush getting Petrarca and Row back.

00:16:54
Speaker 5: Like I said there, the next six weeks is pretty easy.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: That'll be That'll be the tests, wonn't they of this club which we're you know, maturing, and we're wondering whether you know, they have the belief in themselves even do they believe that themselves that they can that they can challenge for the premiership. That's been the biggest thing for Damian Hardwick. He'll breed that belief within his group. So that'll be interesting because if they can knock over some of those on that very tough run home, then there'd be no reason why they can't win the flag.

00:17:23
Speaker 5: It might be like their rock hardcome finals.

00:17:25
Speaker 6: You know, you set them up for a prep into finals and again they're one of those teams where the bank wins early in the year. You know, you never want to account for injuries, but you know you can manipulate your least heading into finals.

00:17:36
Speaker 1: And they are going to want to finish top two. Do they need to finish top two to win the flag? Do you think, Jay, or they go away and go sort of a longer way around.

00:17:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we've seen in recent years you can win from outside the top two. You definitely want to be inside the top six. You know, we know about the world it's not a top eight effectively to the top top six now, so you know, I think if Brisbane finished fourth, fifth, six, they'd still be very danger rus So obviously top two would be handy. They'd be incredibly hard to beat at home. But if they came to Melbourne and played a big final, I think they'd be really dangerous because you know, dim a hard week, we'd have them wound up and you'd have a great plan. And they've got the capability with the players. So he said it's been a big thing. They have to start winning on the road and that's what they've been doing over the last eighteen months and I think they'd be a formidable force on the road in September end.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: At home, Carlton and Essen and fans are listening on their commute home at the moment Corey waiting to rip the headphones out of their ears. You've got surely you've got some good news for the picture. Please please get easier for them from him.

00:18:35
Speaker 6: No, so we've got maybe, Yeah, it doesn't get much easier. So we've got Carlton's second hardest run home sen and third artist run home.

00:18:44
Speaker 5: So obviously loose on.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: The Bombers they got two of the three hardest runs home. Are you kidding me?

00:18:48
Speaker 5: Yeah? Like it doesn't get any easier after them.

00:18:50
Speaker 6: Unfortunately, I don't know what more to had.

00:18:54
Speaker 5: It's it's not good reading.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: It might not be good reading for us either, Jay, you had a quick look at the fixtures well on TV quite a lot.

00:19:03
Speaker 2: They're the biggest story this week, aren't they? Along with the Bombers, the Blues predictament. He is fascinating. I think Michael Voss needs a miracle to keep his job from here. As the president Rob Priestley said to me last week in the Sunday Herald Son, there are no excuses. Got a Bolsted football department and they've sort of adjusted the team to provide a bit more run and polish. Is there enough? You know? Who knows? But certainly when your big boss says mate, there's no excuses for the team not to perform. The clock's ticking clearly, so to your point, Round four, Round five, Round six and round nine. So four out of the next six weeks. Carltherne on the big stage. They're on the main stage in primetime Thursday and Friday night, so it is going to be on show for all how Michael Voss and his team go over this first half of the season, because we're going to know in the first half of the year, I think what the fate of Michael Voss is because if they're going to be looking for another coach, and maybe that's Craig McCrae. Again, I don't think that work is going to suddenly begin at the end of the year.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: Hopefully Corey's given them at least some kind of small excuse with the fixture. Maybe that's something that they can hang their outside. We'll come back to Carlton Sen and Richmond in a few minutes once Maka gets back in his seat. But we've been watching forty in the first sort of almost a quarter of the season. It feels like it's a bit quicker, a bit more on edge. What are the numbers telling us?

00:20:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, the eye doesn't lie.

00:20:23
Speaker 6: So something that we've introduced to the industry is the speed of ball movement, honing and king of really big advocates and to you know, kind of phrase what Horney says, it is a cheat sheet on how teams are trying to play and just competition trends as well. So we've never seen so in terms of a time element. So winning it, possession to disposing of it, never been faster from set position as well, you know, nearly twenty percent faster. Again, how teams possession to disposal? What the kind of the asterix on that it isn't all out aggressed towards goal. It's more that lateral ball movement we see.

00:21:03
Speaker 1: Not blind just turning and going all the time.

00:21:05
Speaker 6: Correct, It's more you know, that's sifting through, creating pockets. You know, move the ball lateral, you see a gap, you take it, hunt for it. The dumb kick is dead, yeah, exactly right, and you know we don't want to bring up cart And again they got hemmed in in that second half last week and tried to go long down the line and things didn't eventuate. Brisbane do this really well, so they've been a pin up for it. Copycat league lateral ball movement, Dogs, Lines, Crows, Saints, Pies and Hawks are all playing this method. So just something to keep an eye on overhead in the next next couple of weeks. This when they win it, watch the eyes, watch how they pen they look. Lateral scoring is the highest we've seen since twenty thirteen. Ford efficiency, so the ability to score inside fifty high since twenty seventeen, ball movements still really damaging. That's still coming up quite high compared to what we were wedded to for the best part of seven eight years.

00:21:58
Speaker 2: So when I spoke to Carlton Mace said that their high speed running, their high performance department did a presentation on the physical demands and the running because they're talk about it being quick a game. They said, they're sprinting has gone up nine percent across the board. So what do you think in terms of the speed of ball? What what what is the actual impact of nine percent? How you know, in terms of the in terms of the running power, What does that mean to you core?

00:22:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting.

00:22:23
Speaker 6: I'd love to have a look and dive a bit more into this data, but without seeing it, it might be an extra effort, an extra couple of efforts. What I will say is that there's obviously high scoring, so you know, maybe that high velocity burst would be up and you know the potential for injuries as such. But really without having it, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it is it's completely relevant. The game is faster, like the eye isn't lying with football in twenty twenty.

00:22:51
Speaker 2: Six and you said, Panzi, as you pointed out, maybe this is where the ham strings, et cetera are coming in. Can you join these Do you join these dots in your mind or not?

00:22:59
Speaker 1: I'm certainly no performance boss, Jay, but it seems to makes weapon makes sense if your players are sprinting more and everybody, say, is doing an extra sprint or two in a game, one of those players is going to pin a hamstring potentially, So that's where we might have seen that extreme explosion in the first two or three rounds. So another one for you, Corey. You follow the trends of the footy. Is this rule changes that's making quicker or we're already getting there because we were talking last year about a ball movement. Is king has been said a lot in the last two or three years, so we heading this direction. Has it been supercharged by the changes to the rules and how foot is adapted.

00:23:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so.

00:23:31
Speaker 6: And obviously with the stand rule, your ability to kind of cruise pass, we saw teams exploit that quicker. You know, ball goes out last disposal, bang you straight back in. Hopefully you can shift the ball off that off that line. So I think the rules have had definitely a bit of a say on it as well. The interesting one is the gaps in the fixture as well, which you know teams are having eighteen day breaks early in the years, so you know how that works with structuring your list and players and their health as well. Because the game's faster, it's more high burst and yeah, just something interesting.

00:24:05
Speaker 2: I think the feedback from the players is they're saying that normally when the ball goes out of the bounds, that's their time to get a bit of a breather, but that isn't happening. So it's that repeat sprint effort without much of a a bit of a rest in between that they're missing, and that could be those efforts more high speed efforts on the fatigue is where we're seeing the soft tissue.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: Definitely, speaking for both of us the JR. I feel a lot smarter with you being there. Thanks Corey, but we're going to beat you right now. Macca is coming on back. Thanks for joining us once again, Corey from Champion.

00:24:31
Speaker 3: Of Data, Thank you for that.

00:24:40
Speaker 1: All right, Macca is back on the couch. I've had a look at the ladder and it's not looking great. For Melbourne teams Richmond eighteenth, Essen and seventeenth Carlton sixteenth Corey only had bad news Verson in the Carlton in the fixture. Surely we've got some positive spin here. We've asked so that each of us have a think. Who would you rather be in the position you are right now? Who would you rather take over? The playing list and a class? Richmond, Essen and our Carlton Mackie. You've had to think about it. Is there a four jumping you're pulling on?

00:25:05
Speaker 4: Is there a fourth option? Choose your own poison. This is the hardest thing going around, I think, isn't it? Because you've got they're all at different ends of the spectrum, they're all in horrendous position. Marginal Lee, I'll take Richmond because there is a little bit of upside there, not a lot. What worries me with Richmond, I think going down the track is we've had a number of their key young players who've had serious injuries and that really does worry me going forward.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: I don't think that's great. And do rebills work anymore? They don't.

00:25:33
Speaker 4: Brisbane would say yes, they did it in a long patient sort of way, but they had everything go right in a lot of ways, and the good people put in the right spots. Essendon, my goodness, they might not even be at ground zero at the moment, Clarky, we might be going.

00:25:44
Speaker 3: Backwards even further from there. They've got a horrendous draw.

00:25:47
Speaker 4: Could be noughts and big trouble Carton. Have Carlton come out the other side, and are they no longer? Is the window completely shut from them? What happens with Patrick Gripps? My goodness, meet please help me out.

00:25:59
Speaker 2: I'm in massive So I've got Richmond, Carlton Nesson and my choices that hang on there that yeah, rich okay, so I rank you in that way. I'd rather Richmond, I'd have the Carlton second. I think the Graham right factors significant. Plus they've they've still got some assets like would you trade Jacob Wirding for two first round picks? Something like that? Would you trade Harry mckaye for two first round picks? Probably if you can get probably not going to get that, Butte that's the sort of thing potentially they're.

00:26:26
Speaker 3: They're thinking, haven't you in that sense?

00:26:29
Speaker 2: Yes? And then that would be my third ranked option. I think that the pressures on Bad's got there clearly. They think they've got some talents through the door. Have they got enough? I think it's going to be a very difficult season for them. I think the Graham right factor is strong at Carlton, and I think Richmond has got some of it's uh these key pillars in the door already. And I think that the decisions to trade really Bolton helped me out here, mak who else today?

00:26:55
Speaker 3: Graham left it a different way, yes.

00:26:57
Speaker 2: When Baker so I think I think that those really tough decisions, knowing they were going to be essentially poor, they'd rather be young and poor than old and poor. So that brave decision making looks like it's helped accelerate to that to some degree. Because they've got some of those players in, we'll get them to a fifty hundred games quicker than potentially the earlier The other two.

00:27:16
Speaker 1: Are you pulling the trigger on Caltro and then are you saying, jacob Eda and you're on the trade block, Hary mckaya on the trade block to do those hard decisions or are you hanging on a little bit long?

00:27:23
Speaker 2: Paul rus once said that everyone's tradable, and I you know, you want to be careful with the culture of your club, but you're looking at Patrick at the end of the year, and you're doing it behind the scenes very privately, but you're absolutely assessing what you can get for some of your most important athlete crypts as well. Yeah, I think Cripper might be open to a move back to w A potentially. I mean Graham right, seriously, I'm not sure if you've seen polp fiction. He's a cold heart the right way. Yeah, then we know the changes that he made at Collingwood and turn them from second bottom to premore in two so he'll be really unemotional about it all and we'll see that lands him. I think they're in a hurry to get this list sort of recalibrated back in line with them with the modern game.

00:28:11
Speaker 1: I'm taking Carlton actually, if I was picking someone at the moment, Richmond, I think just looking at the playing list, I'm sure Richmond will have a lot of goal in those young players they brought in, But Samuel is really the only one at the moment you would back into being genuine a grader right now. I think Carlton has too. Jago Smith, i'd say would be one. I think Harry Dean will be one and they will have a third with Cody Walker, so they've got three players to start that rebuilding that you can pretty much bank will get to a very good level. Definitely Jagger and what we've seen at Cody Walker their Australian level players almost within three years. So they're starting a little bit ahead on the Blue Chippers. I think of Richmond, as I said, I'll get more in but Essendon, even with their draft and they took three first rounders and they were sort of middle to late first rounders. I don't think they have a Blue Chipper on their list at all moment. So I think there's still a couple of years away from famously in an NBA draft. They are two years away from being two years away. I think that they're still going to go through a lot more pain. But I think if you get things right at Carlton, you can bounce a little bit quicker. Sam Welsh has a long contract so he'll be there for a while and he can sort of lead a bit of a bounce back. But I'd rather be probably fifteen other clubs in those three anyway, It's.

00:29:17
Speaker 2: Going to be some interesting work ahead and when if you're supporting one of these clubs, you've got Tazzy coming in. They're about to dominate the draft. And that's why I said this at the time and I absolutely annihilated from Essendon fans. They should have cut tires with Zach Merrity at ten possessions on Finno Sullivan at the weekend. They could have got three first round picks and a player for it. Like I think if history is going to judge that decision pretty poorly, And that's just how difficult it is for these clubs and you're trying to lead these real rebuilds and do it as quick as you can.

00:29:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, they tried to keep him from a cultural point of view, but in the end, from a footy sense.

00:29:47
Speaker 3: It was a no brainer.

00:29:48
Speaker 2: How do you look at the weekend?

00:29:49
Speaker 3: Awful? Like awfully he.

00:29:50
Speaker 4: Got completely destroyed on the weekend? Is he keen to want to keep feeling seriously, he'd be feeling sick. He doesn't want to be there, Jay, It's quite simple, isn't it. You can you know he's professional and I think Esenden were willing to say that as well. They know that he's going to try his artist but he looked at deflated, shattered.

00:30:07
Speaker 3: Man at the moment. He doesn't want to be there, defeated, defeated.

00:30:09
Speaker 1: It's good word on our way out, a very quick quick hands. It is April Folll's day. I thought for a minute there that Bally Smith had got a haircut like me, but apparently that is a trick. But Maka reminded you of one from way back.

00:30:20
Speaker 3: It's about the eighties, I reckon.

00:30:21
Speaker 4: I was Collingwoods porter and I watched Channel seven years and all of a sudden they're getting on there saying Colinan's had enough of the vfl AFL as.

00:30:28
Speaker 3: It was back then. They're going to move.

00:30:29
Speaker 4: They've had enough of this competition. It's a disaster. They're going to move to Queensland. I was on the phone.

00:30:34
Speaker 3: I remember the number.

00:30:34
Speaker 4: I won't give out the number because no one would answer it back then, and this never happened, but it was great, and I looked at the date after, but I think they did get a couple of hundred phone.

00:30:43
Speaker 3: Called and there was another one with Matthew richardson. It was COVID time and they announced him as a top up player. He's forty seven, probably still would have got a kick with the Tigers back.

00:30:52
Speaker 1: The aerobic endurance still, Richard, I'm sure I will need some of that for their eastreets and hot cross buns we're about to dig into over the Easter weekend. Make sure you are across the Code sports dot com. There a lot of great coverage from Macca and Kluky, a tiny bit from me as well, So I'm actually and he subscribed to this podcast.

00:31:13
Speaker 2: H