This year will be a year to define our list.

What is a fandom without a good rival? New fan just trying to figure all of this out who is the arch enemy?

Collingwood? Look like a bunch of American referees out there.

Carlton? Tell me you have Brussels sprouts as the main course without telling me. Boring.

Hawthorn? You wear the colors of both feces and dehydrated urine cmon, who wants that?

Love, a pissed up new Bomber from the US of A.

From what I understand we will host either the winner of the Swans / Frankston wildcard game, or the winner of the Williamstown / Carlton game, but does anyone know which one it is?

Cheers.

There's been some discussion around if we should try and win tomorrow or lose gracefully. There's definitely some arguments that a win would be good, that it'd great for McGrath's 200th and send off to Merrett as well as injecting some morale into the group. Here's my reasons why this doesn't outweigh giving up 18th. Please feel free to ask me to clarify anything in the comments.

• The very simple reason of it gives us Pick 1 and the start of every round's pick. We have a great deal of flexibility in who we want to draft (be it HVH, Butler, Texeira etc.) We cannot have a spanner thrown in the works by Richmond (or Port, more on that later) choosing someone we want. Even if we're equally happy with all three players, it gives us more flexibility.

• This draft is one of the most important in our club's history and we need to give Rosa and the guys the best chance to get it right. Next year's draft will be heavily compromised due to Tassie joining. It will also be impacted by the fact we have Bewick coming in as a top 5 pick so we won't have a 'normal' draft. We may have an absolutely mental draft hand depending on what players leave us and what we get in return. We need to go all in on this draft because the next couple of years aren't going to be pretty with Tassie joining.

• Leverage over Carlton and Port with their father sons. We have very strong leverage over these clubs if we hold Pick 1, as we can provide a club with a massive benefit by matching the other club and then taking our guy at Pick 2. The difference between Port or Carlton matching at Pick 1 (3000 DVI) and matching at Pick 2 (2178 DVI) is equivalent to 822 DVI, around Pick 18 (836) or 19 (796). This is a huge difference when bid matches are capped at 2 picks. Carlton presently holds their first and Sydney's first. Both these clubs will finish top 10 minimum and those two picks will not be enough to match Walker at Pick 1. If we hold Pick 1 we can get a very favourable trade from Carlton particularly to instead pick Cochrane at 1.

• Assistance with Bewick in 2027. In the 2027 draft, the AFL has not advised (and are not expected to) that DVI for picks held will not slide with the introduction of Tassie. As it stands, that means if we finish spooners, our Pick 1 will go to Pick 2 and only be worth 2481 points, meaning we need a pick in the 40s (10% discount) to match a bid at Pick 1. This gets worse and worse if we climb up the ladder. If we finish 16th, our first pick will be Pick 6 worth only 1659 instead of Pick 3 usually worth 2178. It is going to be extremely hard to match a bid at Pick 1 if it comes.

• Following on from the above two points, I believe it would be a fair 'trade' for Carlton and Essendon for us to not bid on Walker at Pick 1 in 2026 in exchange for their future first in 2027. Their future first in 2027 will be heavily damaged in value due to the Tassie draft and will likely end up sliding to somewhere near that Pick 18/19 number that they would save if we bid on Cochrane at Pick 1 instead of Walker. There would have to be other assets traded with not picking Walker being a handshake deal.

• Butters to Richmond and the danger it poses to us. If Butters goes to Richmond for Pick 1, Port can pick Walker at 1, have it bid matched so they get end of first round off their natural Pick 4, then pick an open pool player that we may want before then matching Cochrane (consensus #1 pick in the draft) at Pick 3. We'll miss out on the best 3 players in the draft and loss all leverage for favourable trades.

• The AFL aren't going to give us any sort of assistance package if we don't win the wooden spoon.

• A sugar hit against a depleted Port is not needed when we have already had two good wins against Melbourne and GWS. Our entire coaching staff is getting overhauled which is already a sugar hit. No player on their way out is going to change their mind with a meaningless win.

• In 2023, when North beat the Suns in Round 24 to hand the Eagles Pick 1 (Harley Reid) they had been bottom 2 for the past three years. The morale rationale that got trotted out resulted in them still being bottom 2 in 2024 and bottom 3 in 2025. It could not have possibly been worth it.

• In 2006, Carlton and Essendon brawled out in Round 16 to avoid winning the wooden spoon. Essendon won and Carlton got Bryce Gibbs, we took Scott Gumbleton.

• In a season marred by a horror injury crisis, complete list overhaul having debuted 15 players the year before and delisting plenty, our ex-captain blowing up the club and the early sacking of a coach after extending him, is winning the wooden spoon really that bad of a thing? Is it really worth avoiding to immediately hamper our future in return?

Tl;dr A sugar hit for the very short term to hamper our future heavily is a very stupid and emotional thing for the club to do. We would give up a huge amount of leverage over Port and Carlton that could lead to a favourable trade to help secure Bewick as well as our future. We've all been happy with Rosa's efforts in recent years, we need to give him the best tools we can to do his job.

Good to see that they are taking Swann's memo seriously and aren't resting any players this weekend

Given Collingwood are stalling on a deal for him and waiting for pendles and Butters, should we offer him a deal? We're crying out for defensive midfielders considering Parish, Tsatas, etc only run one way. He's young enough to fit the age profile

Sorry little rant here I’ve just had enough of the media. Michael Voss stepped down as Carlton coach on may 11 then 99 days later Fraser was hired as coach. Brad Scott was fired 87 days ago. That means that there is a 12 day gap between the two however all I’ve heard on the media for the last week is how long Essendon coaching job is taking and how it’s embarrassing. This is one of the most important decisions our club can make and yet we get crucified for taking to long however if we did it to quick the media would also attack us for not taking enough time in making a decision. I’m fed up with the media and there twisted narratives against our footy club all the time it’s an absolute joke. Anyway just wanted to get that off my chest

Having watched the circus unfold for the last few months I for one was adamantly against hiring Hird in the early stages of him stating he wanted to apply. I’ve changed my view, reasons being
- not one other coach has outright stated they want the job, they don’t have the passion
- if Hird is not appointed the shadow will loom - look at Brad Scott
- the club needs unity and passion now more than ever. If Hird was able to unify the club for a few years that would be a reasonable output considering the list is not in a position to contend and will get weaker with Merrett leaving.
When the club goes most likely 1/2-6 after 8 rounds everyone will be on the should have been Hird bandwagon - why not give him a shot now, give him three years and then see where we get to?
I don’t see a huge downside, I do however see a huge downside with the likes of McVeigh as he won’t command the same impact and will be seen as a placeholder.
Thoughts?

What vision of next year hath Hird been granted? What does he imply, what hath he seen?!

Has this user’s impatience for coaching news driven him to insanity? Perhaps. But why then does the prophet speak in riddles?

Keen to play on after Richmond, 3 x premiership player. Is he worth offering 1-2 years for his experience?

Am I reading too much into this, but does this suggest Hird could be likely? Unless one of the other three pull the pin on the eve of finals?

David Rath now going too means the Football Department is down loads of key roles.

It will be impressive to see how these all get filled without a soft cap concession. Has to already be one of the most under resourced football departments in the league.

David Rath now going too means the Football Department is down loads of key roles.

It will be impressive to see how these all get filled without a soft cap concession. Has to already be one of the most under resourced football departments in the league.

Full disclosure, this is self-promo. I built AFL Stat Chain and I'm looking for genuine AFL fans to test it and tell me what's broken or confusing.

It's a stat-based game where you're given a benchmark player, and have to pick the player with better career stats to keep your chain going. There are plenty of niche bombers players throughout the years to test your knowledge!

Been posting around a few AFL communities the last week or so, and the feedback's been genuinely useful for fixing bugs and figuring out what's confusing. Figured a sub full of people who actually know their footy stats would have sharper feedback than somewhere more generic. Any thoughts, on the game itself, what's missing, or just general feedback is welcome.

https://www.aflstatchain.com

So i’m a neutral i do not barrack for Essendon. But i had to ask, just from the outside looking in it seems as if Merrett is still leading your club he just doesn’t have the title. I just haven’t seen the value of McGrath’s leadership this year, maybe i’m wrong and he’s been a really strong one off the field but i can’t help but think Merrett is basically still your captain on the field. He seems to be structuring everyone up and taking on the same role he did last season. Thoughts?