00:00:00
Speaker 1: Draft Value Index, bids, draft deficit primary list spots. If you don't know what any of that means, you're in the rights place. This week on the cod AFL Show, I'm Josh Barnes. I've got Ed Burke and Glenn mcfarne with me. Ed, we sent you down to the AFL HD this morning to try and wrap your head around everything that has changed in the draft, the binning system, all that sort of lingo. You were there, You're going to run us through everything in the next or the ten minutes or so.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: Where do we start?

00:00:23
Speaker 3: Well, Yeah, I had the honor of being invited to the AFL's Draft briefing, which took place at the same time as some big Melbourne years across town. So it was it was the b team over at AFL house, learning about the learning about the draft, a lot of terminology to get the head around.

00:00:36
Speaker 4: That's the main thing.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: I've had to really get familiar with the Draft Value Index, which is the points system that was brought in in twenty fifteen and as really defined the last decade of drafting. The teams that have gained the Draft Value Index the best, like Gold Coast with the best spreads.

00:00:52
Speaker 5: You'd call it for the bit of humor there. The DV I what I say, you index draft value?

00:00:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, the DVI.

00:01:00
Speaker 2: What's the biggest change, what's the headline?

00:01:02
Speaker 3: Well, the main thing, the mechanism that has changed that will be the most difficult for clubs to adjust to is that only two picks can be used to match a bid. So we knew that something like this was coming, but it's effective straight away in this year's draft. No more hoarding of picks in the thirties and forties to secure will Ashcroft. I believe it's something like the combination of thirty four, thirty eight, forty forty one, forty two that Brisbane used to get Ashcroft and then a similar similar combination. No more, that'll be something like giving up picks four and eleven. It's a match a bid if it came at pick one for will Ashcroft. So that's the main change.

00:01:39
Speaker 1: And why the afl've done that is the theory that they are going to force club's hands into getting rid of senior players to get father sons or academy players.

00:01:47
Speaker 2: Is that the theory?

00:01:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, competitive balance.

00:01:50
Speaker 3: So Brisbane, now if will Ashcroft was in this year's draft, they would seriously have to consider parting with Zach Bailey, who's a restricted free agent. If they used him in a trade or they sent out and established player, they could get the higher draft picks that they need because you need a high draft pick. Now you basically need a pick inside the top ten to get anyone in the draft. So either the top clubs pay up more or they just don't bid for their players, which opens up the access to top end talent in the top ten.

00:02:19
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:02:19
Speaker 5: I don't think anyone's upset that this is coming in. It's just a question of when it's coming in. Barnsi, I think and Ed as well, like we did need a realignment. Some of these clubs got away with murder in a sense to be able to get through what they really wanted to get those players to stockpile a list of players. But I just wonder whether we didn't need a longer lead in time. They started talking about this the AFL about July last year. We're already, you know, basically seven rounds into a season, and there's clubs like Carton and Port Adelaide who are going to be furious. ED.

00:02:47
Speaker 3: Allow me to parrot Greg Swan, who just freached me, I'll fly the flag.

00:02:51
Speaker 4: He said.

00:02:51
Speaker 3: There's no perfect time to implement this, and obviously Cartmanport Adelaide will have players will have a vested interest in pushing it back. Could they have been of these clubs perhaps and grandfather did in a couple of years down the line, Yes, potentially. I think there is an urgency to their changes because they are worried about what happens to the bottom teams when Tasmania comes into the comp. This is the last draft before Tasmania comes in starts to take a lot of those top picks. So I think it's essentially to help Richmond and West Coast and potentially North Melbourne depending on how they go for the rest of the season, get access to some top You.

00:03:25
Speaker 5: Look at those other clubs that are most affected, and that's Port Adelaide and Carlton. They're down the bottom reaches as well, or could be down the bottom reaches, so it's going to be fascinating coming in. You're right though, if you're Richmond and West Coast, you're feeling okay at the moment in a sense, aren't you.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, And part of that is because they're going to be getting an extra first round pick potentially.

00:03:42
Speaker 3: Yes, So there are compensation picks that are being introduced as one of the changes. That applies to clubs that will have a natural selection in the top five at the drafts. So natural pick natural, Sorry, natural selection wasn't the right phrase to you. That can mean a few things, but your natural draft pick is the one that you're given based on your ladder position. So if you finished in the bottom five of the ladder and you don't trade that pick for a player, you take that pick into the draft if there is a bid in the top five and your pick gets shuffled back, So it usually goes.

00:04:10
Speaker 2: Back once you're the team doing the bidding.

00:04:13
Speaker 3: Even if you're the team doing the bidding and you're under the new system, if you're doing the bidding you're probably using that pick in the top five anyway, unless you've got a remarkable draft hand.

00:04:24
Speaker 4: So we'll talk about that in a second.

00:04:25
Speaker 3: But if your top five pick shuffles back a spot, you will receive a compensation pick at the start of the second round, So instead of a really clogged up first round like we had last year, whether I think twenty eight picks or something like that, instead it will be a very bloated second round that there could be. If there are three bids in the first round. High in the draft, there could be three compensation picks at the start of the second round. But you only get one compensation pick per club. There's no point hoarding top five. Very hard to ask, but say if Richmond had picks four and five and they both slid back, it's still only get one compensation.

00:05:01
Speaker 4: That makes sense.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: And if you're Sydney and you've managed to trade into the top five world done Swans, if you pull that off, you don't.

00:05:07
Speaker 6: Get compensation with that.

00:05:08
Speaker 5: Like if you cast it back to the twenty twenty one draft, I think Barnsey, which is one of the more interesting drafts. When you look North Melbourne to take Jason horn Francis, would they do that again if they had their time? It didn't work out great under the current system. Nick Dakos was obviously there as a father son. Sam Darcy was two descos four. Under the current system, North Melbourne would be almost duty bound to take one of those players who were linked to by the father son or the like, wouldn't they Because you've got access to that start of second round selection.

00:05:39
Speaker 6: There that extra pick.

00:05:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:05:40
Speaker 3: Well, one thing there's changes do is incentivizers clubs to put those early bids in.

00:05:44
Speaker 4: We're not going to see those players.

00:05:46
Speaker 6: We're going to be there. Yeah. Absolutely.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: What Swanna said is they want a more natural draft order. They want the best players to be reflected in the order, and it's almost There were clubs that pushed for the top ten to be completely anyone's game, open season.

00:06:03
Speaker 2: Father Sun matching.

00:06:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, imagine that. That would have been a very radical proposal. It didn't get up, but essentially, what all these little changes have done is chipped away at club's power to bid on those players anyway. So there will be players who slip through. I think that we will see in the next few years a highly touted father son or academy player who goes in the top three and a club isn't armed to match the bid even if they want to.

00:06:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's fascinating how that's going to play out on draft though, when you think, isn't it so?

00:06:29
Speaker 1: Do you think that's good maca that father sons might slip through the cracks because.

00:06:33
Speaker 5: We had to change Barns, we had to change something. I'm a massive fan and every time I mention it father son. I get hold down by you know, from teens outside of Victoria who haven't probably had as good a you know run in terms of father son.

00:06:46
Speaker 6: That'll change.

00:06:47
Speaker 5: I'm a romanticist in the sense of a father's son, but we had to change. So that's just life, isn't it in that sense? So I think I can see that. My only issue is and my only gripe is that I think we should have been talking about too three years down the track with this, rather than bringing it in immediately.

00:07:03
Speaker 7: Now.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's unfortunate.

00:07:04
Speaker 1: We didn't get a full trade period for those clubs to prepare, but they knew something was coming, so Carlton did prepare. Speaking of Carlton, they and Porte later the two bought as the big losers. I suppose from this change in those examples with Cody Walker and Dougie Cochran, what does it mean for those fans watching and listening right now?

00:07:20
Speaker 3: So we know Kevin she And on Code Sports has released his shifty you can read that right now, his top seventy for the twenty twenty six draft. As part of that, he's put out a provisional top fifteen. It's in no specific order, but it has both Cody Walker and Dougie Cochran, and they've both been touted at.

00:07:38
Speaker 4: Different times over the last year as a potential pick.

00:07:40
Speaker 6: One, top five, maybe even fraction higher.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: So let's say Carlton has faces a bid on pick one for Cody Walker, and say the Blues finish sixteenth, where they are at the moment they get picked three, they would need to use pick three in a bid for Walker. If they took that into the draft, they'd probably also need well, they need to pick within the first twenty seven pick.

00:08:03
Speaker 4: So we've crunched the numbers and the DVI.

00:08:05
Speaker 3: I won't go through the specific mass, but they need to pick within the first twenty seven. So they do have a pick from Sydney. Yeah, yeah, so they could use that, or they could they could trade back. They'd probably trade back from pick three if if they were in this situation and use a pick as high as they could in the in the first round, but it would be three and twenty seven, and that's with a ten percent discount that you get on the draft points if you finish in the bottom.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: Eight of the ladder between eleventh and eight.

00:08:34
Speaker 3: Almost wasn't there was it it No, No, and it will be expanded to nine teams when Tasmania enters a competition, so that that's a that's a flat change from eleventh to eighteenth, which means there's no real incentive to tank for a draft discount. Just anywhere that missus the finals gets that discount. If Sydney was trying to match a bid on, if Sydney had someone who was being bid on at pick one, they would need to give up a lot more because of the twenty percent loading that would apply to a top two team. So by the end of the season that would mean a Grand Final team. But just for the sake of this argument, that would be a combination like picks four and eleven or pick six and seven. So a top side would have to trade really aggressively to be in that situation. At least Carlton finishing in the bottom half of the ladder would have fewer points to cover.

00:09:20
Speaker 5: It maybe makes for an interesting trade period, doesn't happen. Really, I think it's gonna be. Clubs are going to be more willing to really unload and as we said before, to get rid of some of those high end players because you need to get someone else through the door.

00:09:33
Speaker 3: And it might be the trades that don't happen as well. So the case was made that gold Coast had this bumper academy crop in last year's Draft five players. The case was made that their trade with Melbourne for Christian Petrarca, they would have had to choose between making that trade or securing Zeke yuland because they wouldn't have had the points to match that bit, I think it was a pick four might have been earlier.

00:09:54
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:09:55
Speaker 5: So with that though, that's fascinating, isn't it. Like that's what you say if you're a gold Coast and say you've got away with one.

00:10:01
Speaker 6: But yeah, absolutely have, haven't you in that sense?

00:10:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've hoarded the high I think one of the other big losers for me out of this is the team that finishes sixth last, so in thirteenth at the moment, that's adelaide on the ladder. That will change, I'm sure at the end of the year. But if you're in the top five, you're in a much better position than in the bottom five. Then if you're six sixth last, because you miss out on that chance to get the extra first round pick and That's where I'm concerned about creating more incentives to lose. Is you don't want to finish sixth last that gets see nothing, but you finished fifth last year a chance of getting something. So that's my concern. I think it's good that they discourage tanking by making it flat. As you said, Once it's at incentives, teams start thinking about those incentives, in part in the last few weeks when they we know they send players in for surgery early.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: And all the early surgery could be bad.

00:10:44
Speaker 1: There's going to be a crunch there, I think to finish in that bottom five, because you don't get any benefit for finishing in thirteenth compared to you, say, fifteenth.

00:10:51
Speaker 3: We might not see those those top five picks change hands very often anymore either, because the incentive is there that if you keep that top five pick, you can get access to that company sation pick. But anyone who gets your pick in the trade no longer has that.

00:11:03
Speaker 5: Actually think that the point you made is a good one too. The law of unintended consequences, we've seen it on the field, could we see it off the field at some stage as well?

00:11:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've talked about losers winners Brisbane and Goldkost probably because they've hoarded that talent in so far and they didn't have to pay the same they will have to pay from now on.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: Any other winners for you.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: Ed, anyone who's benefited from the previous system in recent years, The winners of the Western Bulldogs with Sam Darts, Yeah, yeah, those are the main ones. I think, the teams that finish right at the bottom and don't have anyone coming up in the pipeline that's really popping out the winners. So Richmond and West Coast, for mine, will will do well from this if they get a top five pick in this years draft.

00:11:41
Speaker 1: What about Tasmania They have to trade some picks we're expecting when they get them, but they're going to own almost every single pick for the next two years. Are they just going to be able to sell them off at a king's ransom to help teams get in line for academy selections?

00:11:53
Speaker 6: They could do some serious will you can have a pick and you can have it.

00:11:56
Speaker 5: It's going to be like you know, it's going to be fascinating to watch, isn't it.

00:12:00
Speaker 3: Levels are also well protected because of this extra competitive balance. One of the points that Greg swan made. I'll just powered him again. From the briefing was that they don't want to see a team sitting down the bottom reaches the ladder like North Melbourne has for the last six years. It's going to be a bit easier to jump off the bottom now with these changes and getting better access to those players in the top ten. So Tasmania is well protected if they don't get off to the best start. If they have a Gold Coast like start to their existence, they should be able to rebuild quicker because they'll have more spending power in the drafts even once their access is reduced.

00:12:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't get pushed back to pick five or six without any sort of compensation, so I guess that's a plus for them.

00:12:36
Speaker 2: I feel pretty caught up.

00:12:37
Speaker 1: There is there anything else you need before we move off this complex issue draft.

00:12:42
Speaker 3: I think we've covered all the main things. I might just touch on the deficit changes. So there's draft deficit in the DVII economy that we've been discussing, and previously clubs could enter a deficit of up to one and sixty seven points, which I'm not sure of the reason why it's worth that much, but it was worth the combined value of picks eighteen, thirty six, fifty four and seventy two, So at the end of each round that deficit has been slashed by almost seventy percent to four hundred and twelve points. Four hundred and twelve points is interesting because it means that if you're prepared exactly to match a bid on pick three, you can just get into enough of a deficit. So the new maximum deficit of four hundred twelve points would allow you to scramble match a bit on pick two. You couldn't get to pick one, okay, So it just makes it. It's another one of those things that makes it a little bit harder for teams to plan if their player goes a bit earlier than they expect, and it gives more incentive to another team to put a bit on early.

00:13:41
Speaker 6: You need to be a mathematician, now, I think, don't you too?

00:13:43
Speaker 5: Actually a beautiful mind almost to be a recruiting and a list manager at this time, isn't it.

00:13:49
Speaker 1: The screadsheets are vital, and I think I'm pretty caught up. I think you've done a pretty good job there. You need a break after what's been through your head. So we'll get Corey to sit in your seat for the next couple of minutes and then we'll drag you back in after that. Well, I needed a break from that draft points index. So we've got two more numbers.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: Now.

00:14:05
Speaker 1: With Corey in the guru from Champion Data, let's talk about actual footy on field stuff. Corey, You've got a couple of teams you like where they're heading, a couple tams you're not sure about. We start with North Melbourne. North Melbourne fans have altitude sickness. They're up so high at number six on the lad at the moment. Tell me they're staying there.

00:14:22
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:14:22
Speaker 8: Look, I think you look at their draw this year, easiest draw of any side in the competition of the completed season four and three. Would have loved to have pinched a couple more there. I think from a positive point of view, their contest and clearance work has really led the way. That's been strong their pressure game. So if you watch a North Melbourne game now, their contest and their pressure has been the pin up to their game and also their ability to move the ball of half back that's been really strong this year and that's kind of a measure that's correlated with premiers and then number one in the competition.

00:14:52
Speaker 5: This year, it's quite a few changes there, isn't there in that sense, and just on that are you seeing them as a wild card possibility at this stage?

00:14:59
Speaker 8: Court, I think we're going to find out kind of where they are over the next six weeks, and you look at their next six weeks, they've got the hardest run of any side in the competition.

00:15:08
Speaker 7: Starts this week.

00:15:08
Speaker 8: They travel down to Geelong, Sydney, they travel to Adelaide, Gold Coast, a little bit of a freshen.

00:15:15
Speaker 7: Up with their buy and then Freemantle. So I think we're going to find out more about them in.

00:15:20
Speaker 8: The next six weeks, and more so for me, it's how they hold up behind the ball, and that's been an aspect to the game which has let them down.

00:15:27
Speaker 7: You look at their profile this year, they've.

00:15:29
Speaker 8: Made smalling roads, but it's still an aspect that I'd love to see improve. And I'm not necessarily suggesting that needs to jump the top six or you know, top three defensively behind the ball, but they're currently the sixth easiest side to put in intercept onto the scoreboard against and the fourth easiest side to move the ball against from defensive fifty. So that's the watch for me across the next six weeks.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: Doesn't surprise me. I think their defense is always going to be a question mark. I think personnel wise, they've moved a lot around that half back line, but the key pillars still need a bit of work.

00:15:58
Speaker 2: They they haven't won.

00:15:59
Speaker 1: They've won one sit down to you long since two thousand and seven, and they've been routinely smashed down there.

00:16:03
Speaker 2: So a good litmus test for them this year.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: Brisbane Lions are sitting fifth on the ladder, but I think most of us, I think we're in a group maacat that they're probably number one in our hearts this year.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: Give us a chink in their armor.

00:16:14
Speaker 1: Are they just going that well Corey that a three peat looks like it's on the agenda.

00:16:18
Speaker 7: They're traveling well.

00:16:19
Speaker 8: I think if you look at them, you look at their season so far, they've had the second hardest straw of any side in the competition.

00:16:24
Speaker 7: I've got out the other end of it. Other end of it.

00:16:27
Speaker 8: They're four and three, but it's more comparing their offense this year compared to this time last year and they are really good shape from an offense point of view. So you look at this year scores per inside fifty their second at this time last year after round seven they were fourteenth. Much better shape in that regard intercept to score, So how often you put an intercept onto the scoreboard? Their second this year forward half game you know obviously that you know their pressure and their ability to win the ball back in that part of the ground. Their fifth for generating a forward half intercept, fourth for scoring from a forward half intercept this year, So that kind of aspects last year that were bottom ten in the competition after round set.

00:17:09
Speaker 6: Defensively, how are they holding up in that area as well?

00:17:12
Speaker 8: Yeah, look it's it's basically a dead ringer. Their defense and their ability to defend ball movement basically a dead ringers this time last year, and as we know, that improved as the season.

00:17:22
Speaker 6: Went on, which is really very afraid.

00:17:25
Speaker 7: The other one is that their draw does soften up now more good news.

00:17:30
Speaker 8: They get a little bit of personnel back behind the ball, even more good news as well.

00:17:33
Speaker 7: So I think they're in really good shape. The Suns, where do you see.

00:17:36
Speaker 5: The Sun's just talking about the Suns? I Reckon Bunty. They're fascinating at the moment. I don't get It's just when you think you can trust the Suns, you can't trust the Suns.

00:17:43
Speaker 6: Where are they sitting at the moment.

00:17:45
Speaker 8: I think with the Suns, we know what they're good at. Their offense is the pin up. Their territory game is really strong. I think the aspect for me now and it's coming under the spotlight, is their defense. And I keep going back every time I know, I sit down and I look at Jetait Sorry gold Coasts, and have a look at their run post their mid season. By that draw is really going to test them out. So it's a seven game stretch where it's Brisbane, Geelong, Hawthorne, Freeman, Collingwood, Adelaide and.

00:18:17
Speaker 7: The Dogs, who hopefully are a little bit healthy.

00:18:19
Speaker 6: Not so how many you give them out of that bracket.

00:18:22
Speaker 7: And especially the way they're going defensively.

00:18:24
Speaker 8: So they've conceded one hundred points now in four consecutive rounds, so the first time they've done that since twenty nineteen. You know, you just look at some raw measures to points against tenth this year. Last year though fifth scores per inside fifty against this year twelfth, last year's seventh. So I think for them they need to get in order behind the ball because that seven game stretch is coming and it's going to come fast.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: They need to sort some things out. Mac Ian mac Andrew's all over the place there. He's playing in a lot of different positions. Damian Hardwick has talked about big Boy month. He's got a big boy two months coming out there. What do you see with them?

00:18:54
Speaker 5: Well, I think you spot on there, as I say, you just you think you can trust them, But there's little issues a little whole there that are a problem. Does mac Andrew need to settle down in one position? Do they need to find the right spot for him? It is going to be fascinating to see where they're at. Everyone I think was starting to expect earlier in the year that they'll be a top four side. I think I'm prepared to say they're not a top four side. They're going to drop down now. It's a question of where they will finish in that bracket and I think we're going to be watching for the next two months.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be a disappointment for them not to finished top four, but the way they're defending at the moment, not at the moment, the revolving door really that defense his expansion Cup time. This weekend they'll be playing GWS. They're the lowest team we're going to talk about here. They're fourteenth on the ladder. But it's not as bad as it seems.

00:19:35
Speaker 4: Kory.

00:19:35
Speaker 8: Yeah, three and four and I think you've got to take into consideration they've had a tricky draw and have then crawled by injury. So you know, last couple of weeks Daniels has returned Cadman Bedford, so they're getting some personnel back. Sam Taylor is the big one now he'll eventually come back into the side. So it's a bit of a two fold with the GWS discussion. I think what they're doing well is what they've done in the past. Ball movement, number one team in the competition, post clearance, round ball number one team in the competition and streaks clear of the next best side. But I think with them and you look at the previous two seasons, have never really been a strong territory side, so timing forward half inside fifty differential, winning a forward half in a set, but that is starting to improve. The North Melbourne Cape North Melbourne game took a little bit of a hit on that profile, but that is improving as well as defensively behind the ball, and you know they haven't had Taylor Buckley's missed a couple of games, you know, and the likes.

00:20:31
Speaker 6: That is still relatively good shape.

00:20:34
Speaker 8: You look this year, fifth hardest side to score against going inside fifty, second hardest side to move the ball against from half back. So I think if you couple this all in together, next six weeks is important just to get back on track and get some wins, you know, tick the win column. I think there's four winnable games there. If they can split a couple of them, I think they're in really good shape. It's more now just you know, starting to see that win column tick over.

00:20:58
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:20:58
Speaker 1: Thank goodness for Griffin Lag not being called touch for them, otherwise two and five would be a lot different to three and four. It was a massive win for them on the weekend, Corey brilliant as usual. Thank you for coming in. We'll have you back next.

00:21:07
Speaker 6: Week, beautiful, Thank you mate.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: All Right, it's time for quick hands now that Corey's out and Eddie's back in. We're always on Milestone watch at the moment marking around Scott Penury.

00:21:19
Speaker 2: But he's taking a break this week.

00:21:21
Speaker 1: What does that mean for when he's going to play and what do you think that means for potentially a day with West Coast.

00:21:25
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think this has been in the pipeline for a long time. Guys.

00:21:28
Speaker 5: There's been a lot of discussions going on inside Collingwood and I think they always pinpointed that West Coast game in a few weeks and a month away, like they play Hawthorne on.

00:21:36
Speaker 6: The Thursday night. He was never probably going to play.

00:21:39
Speaker 5: I know Caane Corns was very upset that he didn't play, but he was never actually going to play in that game. The five day break the Geelong, he'll equal the record against Geelong. The following weekend he'll rest for the Sydney game. He didn't look like he needed a rest. But then we then play that four hundred and thirty third game, the record breaking game against West Coast, and you can see why the Collingwood's doing it.

00:22:01
Speaker 6: They did want to organize some breaks for him during the year. Boys.

00:22:04
Speaker 5: The biggest home and away crowd Collingwood and West Coast, this is aside from finals, was sixty two nine hundred and fifty seven in twenty twelve.

00:22:13
Speaker 6: Could he get ninety thousand?

00:22:15
Speaker 5: Do you think back to Dusty in twenty twenty four, which was his third last game. It won't be Pendlebury's third last game. It was ninety two. This is against Hawthorne, Richmond Hawthorne ninety two, three hundred and eleven. Could we get ninety thousand for Collingwood West Coast home and away game? Seems crazy, but ed there's a chance.

00:22:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, that'd be an amazing occasion for Willem Durzmer and Josh Lindsay and coriop it up Tyler running around from ninety thousand.

00:22:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, they got thirty eight thousand when they played thirty eight last year.

00:22:42
Speaker 2: That was at Docklands.

00:22:43
Speaker 1: That was under the roof, small stadium obviously, But yeah, what's your guess, Mack, You reckon they'll get ninety.

00:22:47
Speaker 5: I reckon they get let's just say ninety Between eighty five and ninety ninety is a lot bit huge crowd, like a huge crowd, But it's such an occasion. We know he's going to you know, we wrote a number of weeks ago that he's going to wear the gold old number ten, the af.

00:23:02
Speaker 3: That would have clashed with Hawthorn's jumper a little bit.

00:23:04
Speaker 6: The reason why he couldn't they do.

00:23:07
Speaker 5: But no, I would think between eighty five and ninety it's a huge occasion.

00:23:11
Speaker 6: It's massive.

00:23:13
Speaker 5: I think it's a really important game. And like I know, there's been a lot of talk about him, he had to rest at some stage.

00:23:20
Speaker 6: He didn't look like it in that last quarter.

00:23:21
Speaker 5: If he was going to play the Hawthorne game, and I don't think he was ever going to play the Hawthorne game, he would have been at three quarter a time. Just eased out of the game last week. If anything, he was a bit busy after three times.

00:23:31
Speaker 3: Going to make it quite hard for the occasion of his four hundred and thirty three games to live up to what happened on Anzact because it just felt like the biggest celebration of his career.

00:23:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, and having been lucky enough to see a lot of those, you know, four hundred plus games, it was in his top five games of all time.

00:23:46
Speaker 6: Like statistically it was his best in the sense that you know, he.

00:23:49
Speaker 5: Has the highest number of disposals of disposals, you know, it's not necessarily never really.

00:23:54
Speaker 6: Been a disposal thing with Pendles. It's what he does with the ball.

00:23:57
Speaker 5: But it's right in the top five bracket and I'm going to have to try and come up with the top ten for Pendles.

00:24:02
Speaker 6: It's not easy.

00:24:03
Speaker 4: It's right up there with the most time and space I've ever seen him have.

00:24:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's because they were running the other way. I think Yesterdon players just quick before we move off Pendals. Is it becoming a distraction at all? They're not going that well apart from big an'sac Day win. Are they two? Pendill be focused about this milestone or do you think it doesn't well.

00:24:17
Speaker 5: I think it's a massive milestone and you cannot not be focused on it. You should be focused on it. This is history. We might never see this broken again. But I don't think it's impacted. In fact, I think it actually last week seeing the way he played, it actually lifted some of the players. You know, they couldn't score one hundred points. I hadn't done it since round seventeen last year. And speaking of steel side Bottom after the game, he had the biggest smile on his face. He said, that's the most fun I've had in months and months and months, So I think it actually might give them a bit of a kick along more than anything else.

00:24:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, now, ad you're at Melbourne yesterday. I was there this morning after big news about Paul We're being moved on from football. I have plenty of reporting about that on codsports dot com do. But you managed to sneak in what the entry bay or something to see.

00:24:57
Speaker 6: What the food was going on.

00:24:58
Speaker 3: I was completely oblivi to something going on, but in hindsight, there was definitely something going on because Stephens King's weekly press conference was essentially in a broom cupboard around the side of Amy Park. Melbourne have these little offices in there that belong to the Demons and the Storm and Victory, and the Demon's little administrative office was open.

00:25:17
Speaker 4: When I got there.

00:25:17
Speaker 3: A guy was trying to drop off a shipment of bananas and salt and vinegar chips and he was asking, oh, where should I take these? And I've just directed him around the corner and being like, oh, in there's probably okay.

00:25:26
Speaker 4: But yeah, they were trying to keep us out of the heart of the club.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: They're obviously meetings happening, and Stephen King's done a pretty good weekly press conference under pressure there because he might have been worried that the question was coming up.

00:25:37
Speaker 4: What's going on?

00:25:38
Speaker 5: It's I's fascinating how point panned out and Barnty the removal obviously happened yesterday morning, but the decision was made a couple of weeks ago.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was worked through a couple of weeks ago, as where I've written on Code Sports and Steve Smith started approaching a man on the board down Taylor, the head of stand streaming, and said do you want to take over? So that was reeling and dealing behind the scenes before Paul Whirre I had any idea about it, and he was unsomoniously shafted. Earlier this week the difficulty finding space naming park was real today. Melbourne Storm and Melan Victorili were both there, so the press conference involved in Steve Smith, a new interim CEO, Brian Cook, was held outside basically at Collingwood's training over which was quite bizarre and men that were standing there watching Caleb Windsor walk up and downstairs. He had to do some funny rehab loading because he was a bit sore. We're encouraged that he will be playing this weekend, but he didn't train. Instead, he walked up and down the stairs in front of a full throw on the media. And then as we were starting to depart, we saw Jake Malcham in full licrach getting on his bike as they were beginning training. Five minutes later at Gosh's paddock, Jake the Snake said, I'm not training today, I'm going home on a bit sore as well, started to pull out of the carpark and almost got cleaned up by a white car, so they could have almost lost a sea on one of their best freck key forwards within twenty four hours.

00:26:50
Speaker 6: Was there any more reasoning?

00:26:51
Speaker 5: We know that there's been a clearly you know, a falling out between the board and Paul Guira.

00:26:56
Speaker 6: Was there any more meat added to the bone in regard.

00:26:58
Speaker 1: To that, Well, clearly the relationship between Smith and where I had to about him very very quickly. He decided that Where was not bringing the club where they wanted to be. I think there's a lot of discussion about Carefield in particular, and we know Guere was sort of brought in with a racing background. He's on the board of Racing Victorian. Doesn't appear the club has made that much progress on carefield, so I'm sure a lot of that will be worked out down the track.

00:27:19
Speaker 2: But it is interesting and it is interesting that where Brian Cook said one.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: Of the issues with there is that he's not a football person, and then Dan Taylor's been jetted off the board to lead the football club and he's not a football person either, and Brian Cook with us a bend and said it only probably have to ask Steve Smith about that.

00:27:33
Speaker 5: So I thought that that was the gold element of the press covernence.

00:27:36
Speaker 6: It was quite funny.

00:27:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's plenty more of that to come out, I'm sure in coming days, as we said on Code sports dot com to you, but otherwise we'll be getting ready for a key weekend of footy and we're back next weekend on the next edition of the Code AFL Show.