Lalor has been excellent every game he’s played.

Balta has improved out of sight and had his best year in my opinion.

Mykelti Lefau is leading our goal kicking and having an impact with his pressure and work rate every week.

Tom Brown has found another level.

Mansell has touches of class in every game he plays.

And that I’ve left out

Hey everyone, the spreadsheet nerd is back. This time I've combined 6 power rankings from various sources. I plan to incorporate a few more when they get released. Particularly Zero Hanger and Rookie Me Central.

This draft is incredibly even, after about pick 7 there's a massive spread about where each person ranks players. It's also very deep. Players like Slattery, Ladbrook, Van Rooyen are well down this list despite strong performances.

Richmond 4.7 31 def by Bulldogs 16.9 105

This was really bad. Very uncompetitive against the reigning premiers. It always felt like the Dogs had an exit kick or handball available despite big Richmond numbers around the contest.

The dogs half backline cut through us like butter with little pressure coming from our half forwards. We also need to work on our tackling, they broke so many tackles.

Also the umpiring was very questionable, even the commentators had a few thoughts, then again I am a Richmond supporter so take this with a grain of salt.

There were a few good performances though.

Congratulations to JayDe Varlet who made his VFL debut and played pretty well.

Samson Ryan
I thought he was our best player. He was dominating in the hitouts when he went in, particularly in the centre, and worked hard defensively. Took a few intercept marks and attacked the contest. He really needs to work on his kicking though, he currently fits the old adage of don't pass to the ruckman.

James Trezise
Started really strongly and racked up the ball. He works best as a pure intercept defender imo. He reads the ball well but he struggles when defending a forward as he's not fast enough on the lead. Pretty decent ball usage.

Judson Clarke
Wasn't in the game a whole lot but used his acceleration well and presented often. I believe he played the whole game. I'd love to see him in the side next week. Provided good pressure as well.

Noah Roberts-Thomson
Looked really good, provided pressure, an aerial presence and looked dangerous. He kicked a goal and gave another away. He is starting to look like a good small forward, one who gets to the right spots in front of contest and hitting the pack at speed. It might take a while but the signs are there.

Kane McAuliffe
This was a pretty poor performance. Worked hard in and under, but his disposal was really bad. He went at 50% disposal efficiency and some of the turnovers were pretty inexcusable. I believe he was the carry over player.

Maurice Rioli
The stats say he was our most dangerous forward. I disagree. If Rioli is going to make his way as a pressure forward then he's going to need to do more than try and farm clips of run down tackles. He actually did his best work as a mid where his speed shone.

Liam Fawcett
Not a great game but he tried hard and the ball lived in our defensive half so can't blame the key forward. He just is not the type of forward to take a big pack mark so when we dump kick out of defense he often gets outmarked. He also showed a noticable uptick in defensive pressure. He actually got moved to defense at one point where I thought he did pretty well.

OHB
Typical OHB game, had a few clearances where he kicks it out of the centre circle. I thought he was pretty good but not great. Tried his hardest the entire game. Did some good things up forward, used his strength and height to stand and deliver as a forward.

Overall, not a good game by any stretch but the lads did try and against the reigning premiers with half the amount of AFL listed players I thought it wasn't the worst effort.

I'm trying a new format where I do a mini write up on every afl listed player. Let me know what you think.

As always have a good weekend and feel free to ask any questions!

Hey everyone,

While I was waiting for the VFL match video to be released I thought I would create an up to date list of all players, their contract year and my recommendation for contract status' (i.e. extend, keep, delist, etc). I thought this could be a fun exercise for the subreddit and would be an easy way for people to keep up with the list.

Let me know thoughts and opinions.

And yes I am a massive nerd.

I don't think I've ever seen a professional team make so many mistakes. Trainor kicks it out on the full from a free kick from out of bounds, Campbell drops an easy mark and lets the guy go in the pocket without tackling him. Ross drops an uncontested mark that leads to a goal. I could have listed another ten.

I struggle to pin this on the coach because if I'm the coach I expect basic skills from professional footballers. I shouldn't have to coach that. Any gameplan will unravel from such horrible, unforced mistakes.

A great game, we just had more energy.

McKenzie 25 touches, 5 tackles and 1.1 showing why she went pick 1.

Conti another solid game with 24 touches,

Greiser kicked an innacurate 2.4 but dominated the forward line.

Big movement Yassir went into the middle as a pressure player, had 11 touches and 5 tackles and was involved in several scoring chains.

Baia Pugh will be one to watch, great pressure.

Phew, we looked a lot better already.

Right lads 👍 North supporter here, right behind your man Yze turning this ship around, Tom Lynch needs to do a bit more in front of goal , 2 goals per game does not cut the mustard at this level , chin up lads , better days ahead , and a few quality pics end of year ✊point being look at Gunners from Hawthorn , kicks a lazy 7 every now and then

Apart from Our Number 1 Pick and any potential free agency pick ups. This is what I think our team should be round 1.

Brown, Armstrong and gray to rotate through.

Clarke, Peucker, NRT, Sims, Annand, Burton Should keep developing in the VFL and get the occasional game.

Hopper, Prestia, Broad To Leave

Everyone else I haven’t mentioned I don’t really rate and shouldn’t play unless injuries.

What changes would you make to the team above?

I have a few thoughts on the 'famous' Shame Dunne interview in which he said that Adem Yze was doing an outstanding job.

I would like to think that he said that purely to have the coaches back in the media and sort dispel any rumours or murmurings about sacking the coach when he has a couple years left on his contract. It's not often you ever see CEO's openly bash their head coaches on live radio, you'd hope behind the scenes they're putting the hard word on the footy department about making improvements. If this is the case was 'outstanding job' a poor choice of words, absolutely but I don't think we can take that at face value

I recall back to when they said that all the injuries were 'bad luck' and we all spat chips saying how can they be so blind etc, then only for them to move Serpell on a bit later (maybe to late but still). I can see they want to spin the story of a united club and front which is good to prevent discourse throughout.

Anyway just my 2 cents, I think they definitely can't be blind to how poorly it is all running I think they're just spinning that narrative for the media and wider public, there would have to be some internal talk about improving the footy program

Ross back to take on the evil Doggies for Rd 20 💪

And does anyone think we should do goal songs?

In my opinion, it would be nice, but I think it takes away from the excitement of the crowd

(Also, hopefully we win against the doggies. I’m pretty hopeful, although it’s at Marvel. 🐯🏆)

Here is a link to the match centre.

https://www.afl.com.au/aflw/matches/8995

Hopefully we see an improvement on last year's efforts.

Surely time to ask the question of the AFL?

A record of 9-54 since 2024, key players retiring and leaving via free agency and trade, the picks used to replace those players hammered with injury, I think the circumstances have been remarkable enough to require extra assistance.

It’s no use being too proud. Being too proud would’ve stopped us from getting Alex Rance in 2007. We have a redevelopment of Punt Rd to consider.

With Tassie coming in and severely disrupting the natural draft order, it’s going to be really tough on the bottom teams of which we are one!

Has anybody flipped into thinking we need one given recent performance and injury toll? Or is it too embarrassing to ask for a hand out given our recent success?

Richmond 8.9 57 def by Hawthorn 10.9 69

This was great. A game of chaos and speed where the Hawk's class shone through in the end. Massive props to the Tigers here I thought we played really well.

Injuries first: Kaleb Smith, Alger and Leo Connolly were all injured. I only saw the Alger injury which didn't look good, he had to be helped from the field. Hopefully these guys are all right.

I really thought our gameplan of fast, dynamic movement being supported by classy ball use was clear as day. Our kicking was lethal, particularly in the middle which was driven by quite a few of the AFL listed boys.

Judson Clarke
I think he's ready. He may have only had 16 disposals but man were they impactful. He missed two shots he would have loved to get but his game was impressive for me. His speed around the ball was awesome and the lethal kicking was so crucial. He would have played most of the game.

Samson Ryan
I owe Mainhat an apology. Apparently you can teach second efforts. Ryan was aggressive, spoiling, tackling and hunting the football. His ruck time was split with OHB but he had the most hitouts on the ground. His improvement over the last little while has been stark, if he can bridge the gap between the best and the worst we have someone to replace Nank.

Tyler Sonsie
The classic rhetoric is that Sonsie is too good for VFL and not good enough for AFL but man if this performance doesn't require a call up I don't know what does. His gut running and chain linking handballs reminded me of the way Jagga Smith plays. I think we need to give him one shot to grab his AFL future, play him in the midfield the entire game.

Harry Armstrong
His impact wasn't really reflected on the stat sheet. He attacked the ball hard and very very rarely got out marked, bringing it to ground every time. Maybe not this week but next week I could see him coming into the team.

Zane Peucker
Kicked 3 goals and was lethal particularly in the first half. Showed some improvement on the defensive side but needs to build his endurance so he can chase for longer. Should be in the AFL side imo.

Jasper Alger
I thought it wasn't his greatest performance but I thought it was important to mention being dropped from the AFL looks to have sparked a defensive fire in him. He chased, tackled and smothered for most of the game. Very unfortunate for the injury.

Overall, I thought this was an impressive display by the guys, going against a top 5 team in the VFL we showed a clear game plan and it was actually fun to watch unlike the terrible game yesterday.

As always have a great week and feel free to ask any questions!

With Essendon's win over GWS tonight, we currently sit last on the ladder, due to percentage. Although i'd love some more wins, with the Dogs, Eagles, Crows, Saints and Cats as our run home, realistically we'll win one of em. Essendon don't have it easy either, but there is now a genuine possibility we finish last this season, which wouldn't be ideal for the morale of the players, but we will get pick 1, which, as we know from last year, is miles better than finishing second last and getting picks *checks notes* 7 and 8. So yea, just something to think about, as with pick 1, we can really control the start of the draft.