I think BA is very impressive. He talked about standards and accountability in that interview, both of which have been the main ingredients missing for me.

He also said we need to clean up around the ruck, which is so true. Our initial contact is as bad as our passive defence. Players dropping off tackles and not dominating the ruck speed whatsoever.

Main change for me for next week - Cam Smith benched or out, and JOC in at 13. Smith has become too much of a player who wants to do everything, and so isn't great at anything. He has the fitness to make a lot of tackles, but lacks the fitness to do anything explosive in attack or D. Hoping Arthur will shake things up straight away.

There are a couple of "part of the furniture" players which Blease and Arthur need to get their head around for the good of the team. Cam is a good player, he is a solid clubman rather than international class IMO, and that's fine except when so much of our play goes through him. He slows us up too much. I still think Gannon might make it at 13, concussions aside - we also have a couple of loose forward potentials in the system who are very talented.

Smith is a good lad and he does his work really well, but I think his role needs to change in the team in all honesty.

BA ain’t getting on no plane

I’m not sure what BA can achieve in 10 ish games.
Expectations are high already but with the squad he has, it’ll be interesting to see.

Give him 10 games, some new signings and a full pre-season, we should see some difference in 2025.

Was it Brian Mac who tried to turn him into a prop? It might actually be his best position as a ball playing prop who can be spelled during the game. He doesn’t seem to be a natural captain and it has impacted his game. Think it’s time to remove some of the responsibility from his shoulders and simplify his role so he doesn’t feel he needs to be one of the main playmakers.
Try Jarrod at loose forward. Make Croft captain

"We've got to get off the line in defence and go after the collision, instead of waiting for teams to run into us"

Hallelujah.

I heart BA already. We need to try to keep the bloke here for a full pre-season and next year for sure.

Hilarious how he's got straight to the point with our issues, and has a plan to fix us up too.

What he's saying already is music to many ears: I love the way he's making a sober assessment of what he has to work with, and is trying to evolve us rather than revolutionise. You can see why he's so popular with players already, I reckon our mob will love him.

I still think our team needs several key additions, but if he can find the magic sauce to get the players more focused and smart, tighten up and improve game discipline, we could still be in with a shout for top 6 this season.

As mentioned elsewhere, he doesn't need to do owt fancy.

Just get them putting energy I to defence and respect possession more/ clean up the basics and game plan.

He's such a good fit for what we need, calm and experienced pair of hands who commands respect.

Arthur reporting Goudemand out between 4-6 weeks and McCormack out for at least 4 weeks.
Donaldson likely to be added to the matchday squad after recovering from a neck injury along with Newman who suffered a foot injury.
Still no sign of Bentley