Deespicable

Just home. A few observations before I see the replay. 1) It grates to see us lose to the Hawks and also that a so-called hack in No.23 plays his best ever game against us. A few times O'Brien marked because of our zone being breached, but the majority were off forced kicks down the line and he'd come in from the side like Howey used to do. The question that begs is why wasn't his opponent making it harder to block his run? So who was his opponent - mix of T-Mac, O-Mac and Wags I think. Not Frost because he was at full-back on Roughy most of game. 2) Twice we had five defenders flying for the one ball - which means their roles haven't been made clear enough. Jetta always flies rather than stay down and with Wagner now joining in you have to wonder if he has to be told is he third man up to spoil or whether he just lack experience to read the play. Their last goal (maybe second last) came via a courageous effort by him to spoil a marking contest that the Macs had covered. He got winded and the ball spilt to his opponent. Great courage, even greater stupidity. 3) Watts in the ruck. How many more weeks do we have to use him in this role for a fair whack of the game? I can tell you now, he won't have any chance against Jacobs and it is no longer a shock for his opponent. This is the second game in a row where he has been murdered early and only T-Mac was able to get us a fairly even split. I have no problem with a Watts in the ruck cameo as it can get him in the game more and he can exploit going the other way with a loose opponent. But the ploy as a regular back-up is a laughing stock for other sides. Pedo got burnt by McEvoy today, so we have big issues next week - perhaps we may have to bite the bullet and start O-Mac or T-Mac with a view that Pedo can be the trusty back-up. For the second week in a row, Pedo was thrashed in the hitouts early. This time he was still getting beaten up late in the game. he ain't tall enough for Jacobs. problem ahead. 4) Why is Salem not playing down back? I get that a lot of people want his silky (offensive word) skills in the middle but he's not big enough to be a brute against the current players and never recovered today after Oliver spoiled his overhead mark. And let me think - where was he playing when he was best on ground versus Carlton? That's right ... half-back. Play him there please. 5) What happened to the switch back like in the first two weeks. I get that we want to switch but suddenly we aren't buying in as much to switching back the way it came from. If we are playing soccer style (and we are), then trust that something will eventually open up and don't listen to the old blocks in the stand. 6) I don't want to join the JKH bashing, but it's hard for anyone to understand why you remove a player who has finally arrived last year (Kent) and then take out a player who does all the hard things and is quick (Harmes) and go for a really small guy who is not quick and can't tackle. If we are playing basketball, then JKH might be a Patty Mills, but I'm sorry this ain't basketball. I will be looking on the replay to see just how many crumbs JKH got. Jeffy was the same till half time, but at least he read it better in the third. 7) If our philosophy is to run hard and fast on the break then how come we are playing Bugg, Tyson, Vince, Lewis all in the the same side. The obvious answer for three of them is clear - Lewis is smart, Vince is a lethal kick (unless there is only 20 seconds to go) and Tyson is a quality ball user (usually) who keeps presenting. But how can you pick Bugg as well ahead of Stretch or Harmes or Kent. Please note: It is fine to have slow players with big tanks, but there has to be the right balance and today we got exposed on the break by them, almost as much as we exposed them. Bugg should not have played unless one of the above three was out and even then I'd have my doubts. 8) Final thing. In our passion to keep possession have we created a monster. We are overdoing the backwards handball way too much and the biggest culprit is our greatest talent - Oliver. At what point does the coach sit him down and explain that stats mean nothing if you don't take the game forward on occasions. Time for a chat with him Goody. And if he won't kick it, start him up forward - he's classy enough to find the pill anywhere. And even he wouldn't handball backward from 10m out ... or would he?

I'm still suffering the shock of having no idea which player will be included/dropped this year. I'm not sure which of the following has gobsmacked me more: 1) Jack Watts being told he wasn't training at the required level (I still think there was more to it than a poor skinfold). 2) Weids being persevered with for seven games until he made an injury-induced howler that will have shot his confidence and may well ruin his career. 3) Kent being dropped after just two games back for JKH - who is yet to leave a mark on any of us, except for one game in Adelaide two years ago. 4) Harmes being dropped despite being possibly the hardest worker against Richmond - thereby throwing into question the whole logic of coaching staff loving the guys who do the one percenters. 5) Melksham being persevered with as a defender when he seems to lack peripheral awareness. Happy to see what he can do on the wing. Having said that I think it goes with the territory of having a new coach at a club and they will have a different set of favourites to the previous coach. I'd be shocked if Jesse didn't get a call up this week but who goes out is in the lap of the gods, or rather the Goods.

There's plenty of players to bring in for Melksham, not to mention sending Salem back there as he did for Vince in second half. Anybody at the game would have seen his lack of awareness at times and rather than him feeling more secure after six games, it seems to be getting worse. He provides amazing run, but it's got to the stage that his mistakes outweigh his high mileage. Tricky decision coming up for Goody - perhaps he can use the (rested) line that has become popular not to offend players.

6 T-Mac - Really strong in air, covered heaps of territory and his cameo in ruck was impressive. 5 Frost - Boy has he improved his kicking and his dash and tackling is huge. 4 Oliver - Shades of Dusty with his second quarter forward cameo and prominent all day. Still wish he'd take game on more. 3 Watts - Lost his way in second term, but his class won through and like everyone I spotted that early tackle that created Jeffy's goal. 2 Pederson - A slow burn but significant when he went back into ruck in third term. 1 Trac - Our Jake Stringer, hopefully without the low off-field acts.

Love your confidence and like you I would have thought one of O-Mac or Weed was a certainty, but having just been down at training, I now suspect neither. Firstly Weed did not train with the other 24 so he's no chance of playing - put that down as a certainty. My logic was that they needed another tall up forward to support Watts, but that's not going to happen - the forward group at training was Trac (he will play FF), Watts, Hannan, ANB, JKH, Harmes and Jeffy. We are going small, small, small and that means lots of switches of play and hopefully high forward pressure in the hope of causing quick turnovers. The group training down back included Oscar so he is still an outside chance, but Frost did no ruck work and will start back with T-Mac, Hibberd, Melksham, Vince, Jetta and Hunt. My guess is that because Essendon aren't majorly tall and because they cut us up for speed last year and because the game is indoors, we will go without O-Mac as well - although I personally would play him because why leave yourself so open to issues if say Pedo, Watts or Frost or T-Mac go down. But it does appear that we may have decided to risk it all again for the sake of pace - hope I am wrong. Tyson looked the most likely out with Weed - I just felt Dom's body language wasn't quite was upbeat as normal - I may be reading the wrong tea leaves though. And then it comes down to Bugg or O-Mac. Bugg was doing midfield drills and looked very sharp earlier when practising goalkicking.

Like Deeko and most of us, the two obvious ins are Hoges and Hibberd (not sure why one or two think he needs another week - he played the full game, he's in unless he pulled up sore. If Jones was coming back off injury would you expect him to play two games in the VFL to prove his fitness?) The one obvious out is Weid, although the coach may actually try and talk him up again at selection table. But even Goody will be shut down quickly this time and he can't try and make out that there aren't any options this week as Hoges is back. The big question is who the other out is and it would be a huge lack of faith statement to drop Melky, especially for his mate - so that won't happen. Given that Salem will now move up to a wing or half forward and Melky possibly to a wing as well, it's possible that Billy or Bugg may cop a surprise bullet. If that's the case the last man-in, first man out says Bugg, but I just reckon he's a good needler that suits Richmond, so Stretch may have to miss a game and watch on from the coach's box before returning for the game v Essendon. He's too good to be left out for a long and probably just needs a reminder of his running patterns, which were brilliant all pre-season and have been a bit off the past two weeks - he collided with our players about four times against Freo. The other tricky one is Hannan, who hasn't hit the heights of Rd 1, although quite often he does the team thing on the lead and protects his teammate. He may need to go back to VFL with his AFL experience and find a more ruthless goalsneak edge. The other selection question is whether we can again go with just five talls (six being the norm nowadays as it gives you cover if one gets hurt). We only need two down back this week as the Tigers are going small up forward these days and Hibberd and Vince are big enough to handle Dusty when he rests at full-forward. There's a theory that we won't play Pedo as the sixth tall if it's wet. But personally I'd play Pedo as the sxith tall anyway because he attacks the ball so well, even if he's not quick enough for a long term option. In the wet, Wattsy ain't necessarily going to be a great rucking backup option anyway as he prefers dry conditions to leap and break free and fully utilise his smarts. You also need to go back up the line more often in the wet, so you need a marking outlet with strength and Pedo can be that guy.H e may not take the mark, but he will contest. He's also useful as a step ladder for Watts, Harmesy and Trac. So I'm going with six talls - that was how we started the season and won our first two games after all. I'm also hoping that Nat Jones starts in defence with a planned move to bring him into the middle when we need a spark late - opposite to last week. The reason is that now we ain't as likely to get the hitouts, it means we need bigger bodies in the middle so Oliver, Tyson, Viney (he's big in muscular sense) with the cameos from Petracca and Harmes is a better option now, especially with no VDB to scare 'em. Trenners will most likely have to wait, although I'm sure we'd all love to see him get a game. O-Mac and Angus sound like they need to show their desperation to get back - they'll get back soon, just not this week. Ideally O-Mac should play forward in VFL, while Angus in my view should be playing as an attacking intercept defender - versatility has been lost in recent years with zones all the rage, but I just sense we are close to sides playing funny buggers again and swapping guys down and back regularly. B: Hunt Frost Hibberd HB: Vince T-Mac Jones C: Melky Oliver Salem HF: Harmes Hogan Kent F: Garlett Watts Petracca Ru: Spencer Tyson Viney Int: ANB, Bugg, Jetta, Pedo Emerg: Stretch (23rd), Hannan, Trengove

I assume we are meant to bag Goody after the loss today, but he's a young coach with a modern game style based on possession retention, switching and hard-nosed tackling and clearance work that has been a breath of fresh air for much of the year - the third term today excepted. It is a very similar gameplan to the one that the Dogs used last year and the Crows use as well and relies on a high press, which has a high risk but high dividends. I am all for it and I am sure it gives our players confidence as well and I think it will show benefits against the good sides this season - as it did against Geelong until we ran out of legs. But all good young coaches are prone to arrogance and after a good start to the season, he let his own confidence get the better of him at the selection table. His faith over seven games (three pre-season) in Weideman has been bordering on crazy and today it cost him a game and he may have done irreparably damage to the kid as well. Beveridge arrogantly thought ruckman were basically a waste of time and learnt the hard way midway through his first season and eventually backtracked and picked ruckmen. Goodwin obviously thinks Weid is special, yet he has forgotten that sometimes young players need to go back to the twos to regain confidence and direction. Persevering with him for seven weeks for a return of one very classy goal against St Kilda just shows an amazing brashness. Imagine if all players were afforded such a selection luxury. But even young coaches feel embarrassed at times and even though he probably won't admit any guilt at the selection table, he is clearly smart enough to figure out what went wrong and why his forward line is not quite functioning as well as he'd like.

A really hard game to give votes to Dees because nobody really deserved them, but in the end I went for 6 Petracca - I thought he was the spark that got us going in the second term with that snap and in the last with that monster. 5 Spencer - Sure he lost the hitouts but he kept working and even Gawny struggles to kick two goals a game. 4 Watts - A couple of really nice grabs and not having Hogan hurts him big time. 3 Oliver - For his 10 clearances, but certainly not for his pissy backwards handballs when he could easily have gone forward. 2 Frost - With zone it's hard to figure out who had most responsibility for McCarthy, but his dash was good to see 1 Garlett - Quiet third term like everybody, but clever at times

Bit of a danger game for us without a few big guns, but if we show the same intensity, then barring our system being negated by windy conditions, I can't see Freo stopping our run. Selection wise we will find out if Goody is a bit like a young Bevo and thinks he knows best. He certainly deserves a lot of brownie points for the improved system that has turned our perennial losing side into one of the most attacking outfits in the league. But what worries me is that he will try and make a statement at selection - just as he did with Watts and Jetta pre-season. The first statement would be to not play a ruckman - a bit like Bevo in his early days. Personally I'd be [censored] off if I was Jake Spencer and I wasn't selected this week, so I'm hoping Goody isn't hatching some plan to ruck Watts all day against Sandi. Sure Watts will beat him on the ground but at what cost in the air. And after how many games will Watts finally succumb to the wear and tear of being a ruckman. He seemed to already be getting a lot of work done on his legs last week. So please play Spencer. The second statement would be to stand defiant on Sam Weideman and play him again. We all know Weids looks an impressive long-term project, but sometimes young players have to be dropped as part of their development. They go back to the magoos and usually step up as leaders, thereby improving their quality when they return to the seniors. There's no way that his output over three weeks (and pre-season for that matter) warrants selection, even allowing for his youth. He still has a bit of agility work to do before he gets anywhere near the grade required for him to be a star. And please Goody, stop protecting him at training and get him to do some practice ruckwork. How in god's name he wasn't summoned as Watts' backup when Gawn went down is beyond belief. In the meantime, it gets down to selecting either Pedo or Frost. Personally I'd go Frost and send T-Mac forward. O-Mac is off limits because his superb kicking is crucial to our switching, so it has to be Tom. He's shown in the past he can play forward and his athleticism makes him way more damaging than Weids. If Frost is still a week off full fitness, then Pedo deserves the spot. The final change I hope we are considering is how to get either Bugg or Wagner back in the side. Both have done their time in the VFL and deserve their chance. I have only three possibles for them to replace with the most likely being Vince via injury - he has a slight ankle issue I believe. The only other two who could be pushed out are Hannan and Smith and both did pretty well, although if T-Mac goes forward with Watts, then I'm not sure we need them both. Ultimately though I expect there to be just the two changes.

Whilst I'd like to see Spencer get a game (especially since he was a ket factor in our win over the Cats two years ago), I can't quite see how they can do it. In order of likely recalls, I reckon Goody will want Vince, Kent and then Wagner - he has already shown his man-crush on Wags. After that I imagine he'll consider Spencer and Bugg. Geelong, unless they recall Zac Smith, have gone with a much more mid-sized line up than last year and so that means Spencer is even more unlikely. The big question to me is who misses out for Wags. Do they suggest to Angus to take a rest, axe Hannan after one game where the midfield didn't look for him or omit Neal-Bullen, who looks more confident than last season. The player they probably should omit is Melksham but that won't happen unless he completely balls up things. I reckon that with Vince and Wags in the back seven, Melky will end up on a wing or could he be a surprise tag on Danger? Of course they could move Salem back to a wing, but after last week, that's a brave call. So I'll go with the following side - I have nominated defensive opponents, but I also get that most of the time we are in a zone, so switches occur regularly. The good thing is that our own switching of play will make the Cats work harder than normal to get it back off us. B: Hunt (Horlin-Smith) O.Mac (TomaHawk) Jetta (McCarthy) HB: Vince (Menzel) T-Mac (Taylor) Salem (Lang/Parfitt) C: Stretch (Murdoch) Viney (Selwood) Melksham (Lang) HF: Kent Petracca Harmes F: Garlett Watts Weidemann Ru: Gawn Oliver N.Jones Int: Tyson Hannan Wagner Brayshaw/Neal-Bullen

6 Salem (Wow what a first half and kept tackling and hitting targets by foot all day). 5 Jones (reliable, kicked goals and broke lines with his kicking) 4 T-Mac (I know the zone means he didn't have Weitering all the time, but when he did, it was man v boy) 3 Garlett (I bet he loved fixing up his old side - Will Docherty ever recover?) 2 Watts (Timid early but once he got into the ruck his confidence grew and he is still the best kick in the side) 1 Jetta (How about the bump on Kreuzer. He was brill all day with his attack on the ball) Sorry Clayton but you were a cancer early going backwards almost every time you got it and when it comes to the key stat you lost 10-5 in clearances to Cripps. Don't worry i still rate you as the most likely superstar in our side, but you have legs, you can kick and you can go forward some times and take responsibility for setting up our offence.

Based on VFL report and the fact that he is regarded mega highly by almost all of us, I think it's fair to say that Dom Tyson will be playing against Carlton this week. Whether it is just a straight swap for Smith with Salem having to play down back for longer periods like he did after quarter time last week I don't know, but after such a strong win I can't see many changes. The only other discussion I imagine they will have is what they have to do to regain Jack W's confidence. Casboult is a lot taller and stronger than Bruce, so whether it is something the selectors are happy with wearing for another week I don't know. My gut feel is that, barring injury, it will just be the one change and that Bugg, Harmes and Kent will have to wait their turn to get back into the side.

Tubby Taylor will find it difficult to avoid a few media interviews and a few new major offers after his selections have consistently come up trumps - not bad for a bloke who left the Pies in embarrassing circumstances. If someone, with inside knowledge, on who was behind the choice of Hannan can reveal details please. Obviously the VFL GF was the major rider on this as he cut us up, but I doubt Tubby would have been there as he would have been off looking at other players in GFs around the country and the Etihad game was an easy one for so many of our other key staff to get too. But I do know Tubby was right behind the choices of both Oliver and Vandenburg and had the backing of Paul Roos to go for big-bodied midfielders.

Finally the real stuff is almost with us and anyone who watched the Saints take on Sydney last night would know that our Rd 1 mission is going to be major. Richardson is a defensive master, a bit like Malthouse before his ego took over, and you just had to admire how he has developed a defence that scrags (the treatment on Buddy by Carlisle was amazing, mainly because they kept getting away with it) and a hard midfield that hunts in packs and a bunch of forwards that know how to tackle. You can tell their style by the fact that Acres can't get a game - they don't care about skills if you aren't tough as well. It won't be easy and it isn't a game where we can pick a side on hope - hence I am in the Spencer, not Weideman camp. The reason for that is twofold. 1) So far Weids has laid about as many tackles up forward as Jack Watts - it rarely happens because he still lacks the agility and the strength. Weids day will come, but he ain't ready and certainly not for this one. 2) Only one ruckman beat/matched Gawn twice last year - Hickey. He jumps early to counter Maxy and works hard on the ground. If there is one game you want Maxy to finish off strongly it is against the Saints and if he's got no support (Watts gave him a chop out when he rucked against Bruce last year), he will tire. If Spencer plays we have cover, should one of Hickey's early jumps give Maxy a corkie and we also have a winning back-up against Bruce when Gawny has a rest. St Kilda may counter by playing longer, but I doubt it because they already have four tall forwards (if you include Riewoldt on the wing). And whilst Spencer will lack mobility up forward, he is more likely to lay a tackle than Weids at this stage. he also has a bit more mongrel - which is what we will need against the Saints - they aren't Carlton! This week at Casey, hopefully four of our keys play well after injury - Kent, Garlett, Hibberd and Jetta - as all are in our best 22 when fit. The two crucial issues for the selectors to discuss after last week are: How do we get the tackling intensity/pressure back up to a high level again after we were so poor in that area against West Coast without VDB, JKH and Jeffy? That's why at least one of Kent or Garlett will come in barring injury concerns and IMO, in a selection shock Hannan will be considered if he dominates at VFL level this weekend. How are we going to counter/stop wingman Roo on the lead up and from kick-ins? We can't afford for T-Mac to play on him again and with Frost out we don't have enough talls to mark him anyway. So my go would be to treat him as a midfielder and play a good spoiler. Riewoldt is still not a natural when the ball hits the ground, so he can be exploited. Vince has been suggested and he's a good negater but he has been doing the kick-in duties. So maybe Lewis or Brayshaw? I'm going with Vince though and would rather if Col or Oscar kicked in for a change. Here's my Rd 1 team: B: Jetta or Hibberd (Billings or Gresham) Oscar (Bruce) Garland (Membrey) HB: Hunt (Webster or Wright) T-Mac (McCartin) Lewis (Weller) C: Vince (Riewoldt) Viney (Steven) Salem (Gresham or Billings) HF: Brayshaw Hogan Melksham F: Kent or Garlett Watts Petracca Ru: Gawn Oliver N.Jones Int: Spencer, Tyson, Stretch, Bugg Emerg: Harmes, Weid, Neal Bullen or Hannan

Second half wrap. At least we kept trying and certainly the humid conditions meant it was very hard to be clean with disposal. We got back to 11 points I think before Oscar rushed a handball and with the slippery humidity-induced conditions made a howler of it and conceded a goal. As stated at half time - Oliver was our best, although there's a case for Hunt whose run was unbelievable and he kicked a ripping 9-pointer in the last. Garland knockers may have to eat a bit of humble pie tonight - I can't remember one poor disposal and he certainly is in contention for Rd 1 now, unless they decide to go back to Smith. Spencer also did enough to warrant a game and at the pacy venue of Etihad, it surely has to be Weid that misses out. Viney kept contesting after his first-half howler, so worst player on the night probably was a toss up between Tyson, who needs a game in the VFL next week, and Petracca, who quite obviously read all his press this week. Petracca did register one assist for the night - a delightful missed tap on to Hill in the goalsquare. He also still thinks he doesn't have to move more than 5 paces back when he marks it, which means his kicks get smothered or loses its distance. He is a work in progress and I'm sure on his night he will be sensational. Lewis, Salem, Gawn were among our best. Hoges was good in patches, but also back to his petulant best at times and no match for McGovern when they had one-on-ones. Did Watts do enough? No. But the same question and answer applies to Harmes, Bugg and Neal Bullen - the latter of whom had a superb first half and quiet second. Ultimately we missed our small forwards. The one whom I really missed was Kent - we lacked a fast lead up player. Garlett and Vanders would also have helped and maybe even JKH. I watched Kent at training the other day and thought he was still a bit underdone, but he must be a chance now if he gets through a VFL game next week. The same applies to Garlett. I'd also be playing Jetta, who looked good at training this week. Hard to believe Goody doesn't rate him, but it can take time for a coach to warm to some players. The zone needs tweaking, but provided we can keep our intensity we should be fine. You have to remember that a midfield of two Brownlow Medallists as well as Shuey and Gaff is not going to be one in which we can maul like the game against Carlton.

Quick half time wrap. Oliver and Lewis sensational. Salem, Hoges, Hunt, Gawn impressive Neal-Bullen probably playing himself into side for Rd 1 barring a second-half fade out by him. Garland yet to make a mistake and also could be a chance now for Rd 1. Negatives Our zone is getting spanked as they switch sides quickly, whereas we have often failed to switch the play, instead going up the line. McGovern impassable and Shuey and Priddis and now Mitchell very difficult to beat - although Oliver is trying. Worst half of football seen by Viney - get him out of your SuperCoach team. But note, he will be one of the few buttering up this half. We have to choose between Spencer and Weid for Rd 1 - based on first half Spencer wins easily. Tyson will have to impress in VFL next week to get a game Rd 1.

Can original poster P-man explain where he got his "Viney would be a gun if he wasn't a butcher" line from. I read a lot of papers but I've never read that comment about him. Certainly in his first year under Roos he had to get out of the "Neeld encouraged" habit of dropping it on his boot madly to clear a pack. Vince had to do this as well and my understanding is that under Roos, they received instruction on how retaining possession by handballing or kicking sidewards or backwards was better than just blazing away to a 2on1 contest. And they bought into it, as most would when replays showed you the outcome of blazing. I certainly noticed a huge difference in Viney's decision making in 2015 and it continued in 2016 and because of his strength he was often able to break free of contests and be damaging as well as occasionally going backwards. As to his kicking technique, as Colin B asserts, he is not flawed with his ball drop like his dad was, and he also has benefitted from better tuition at the club in the past three years. The result is that he is now quite a good kick - obviously being small he can't kick it 60m - but he usually hits a target when he gets free. The thing people have to remember is that Fyfe and Danger and Viney and other stars invariably are being chased by a tag and don't get to relax with their kick nearly as much as a half-back flanker. So you have to decide if the kick was impacted and expectations are too high.

Great to see that we have almost all now moved on from bagging the media for a beat-up. Most of us are now siding with the club and Goody - "good pre-season tactic to get him to work harder, lazy trainer, since when do we pick best 22 pre-season (that person seems to have forgotten last year) etc". A few of us are siding with Wattsy and the club stupidity - as evidenced by ridiculous justification comment from Josh Mahoney or the fact he was top five B&F last year or that his replacements lack his vision and in a side hellbent on attacking, Jack fits in now more than ever. And now we have Saty saying effectively that Jack understands it - which is either complete nonsense (if you believe the club's poor trainer logic, because anyone who has been to training as regularly as Saty has been, knows that the cleanest worker on the track along with Nat Jones is Jack Watts), or completely likely (if you subscribe to the view that he is under a club-imposed ban that nether he, nor the club, wants to declare) . Think laterally gents. Is he a tad slow like Lynden Dunn (and therefore needing pushing gently aside like last year)? Does he not quite fit in with the group (like Mark Jackson)? Is he a poor trainer (only a dill would even suggest that, but some of you are falling for it)? No, he is Mr Marketable and the life of the club. So why would Goody and the club be making a statement to him and then be unable to explain it via the club website? Think legal.

Love this topic, love how so many are quick to jump on the media beat up line and love how some are trying to interpret things about one of our most marketable and best talents - like me for one. It is a great story of interest to us as Dees followers because we all felt that he progressed as a player last year and showed signs he could be a world beater and as a result it will now be the story of our pre-season. Will he play, if selected how he goes, what does Goody think of his game etc, etc. This is a huge pre-season story. Each year there are questions that only insiders can answer and coaches have to make selection statements to their players - especially when your list bats 35-deep. To me, there were two big surprises on the weekend. The first was that Wags actually started in the side - that just shows Goody really rates him mega-highly - although now that he's injured he will have to work his way back. But how would we all have felt had T-Mac or O-Mac got left out of Rd 1 for Wags - just like when our 2015 vc Lynden Dunn got left out for Oscar at the start of 2016. Coaches' views on players change with time. For instance did Frosty get overlooked for Wags last week or did he pick up a niggle after what I thought was a pretty handy intraclub game from both of them. The second was Wattsy. Like many of you, I'd be very surprised if Wattsy was left out just because of a bit of cockiness/laziness in our intra-club game but it may have happened. He certainly looked a bit lethargic that arvo, but I did notice that he worked his butt off chasing Hunt on a couple of occasions. But clearly Goody wants to make an early point to him about work ethic. Hopefully it is just a one-week lesson and he's back in this week. It's not quite as big a lesson as the one David Schwarz got when he was offered up for trade to Richmond several years back. The end outcome - less than a year later - was an emotional speech as Schwarter accepted the B&F the following season. Hopefully the same results happens here.

He will be a very handy defensive midfielder for Casey and my crystal ball tip for the Norm Goss Medal. He's tough, uses it pretty well - probably just doesn't get it enough to press for senior selection at this stage - not to mention the fact that he'd have to come off rookie list. But a welcome addition. By the way, apart from Tyson, BenKen and Kent, the other player whom I didn't spot training/playing was Joel Smith. Not sure what is wrong with him.

A couple more things from this evening. Best play of the night was when Salem strolled through the middle and sent a 65m kick over the Macs and down Weids throat for a goal. Weids had to make body contact with Buggy to take the mark and it hurt Buggy and he's a tough boy. The post-game training drill - I think a Max Rooke initiative - was sensational. It was basically a one-one wrestling drill and then a lead-up. It was so mean. Watching Watts have to battle VDB was gripping and Salem and Vince was intriguing. But the main act was Petracca and Maynard. It was huge. They will all be sore boys tomorrow.

Plenty to like and clearly the improved attacking game style last year was a Goody initiative based on what we saw today and you can expect more of the same this season. Positional moves - Hoges playing futher up the ground with Weid leading from goalsquare, Salem in the middle, Bernie down back again. If you take the view that our best forward six was matched against our best defensive six as it seemed to be, then Harmesy at this stage is missing out. But then the midfield was a complete swap of stars, so don't read too much into that. There were two memorable collisions - the first involved Viney barrelling into Oliver and the second involved Harmes and Vanders. All parties gave as much as they took and it was yet another sign that we have some tough hombres now. My best six, and clearly it depended on what side of the ground you were on a bit, were as follows: Viney - he was part of what I'd say was a weaker 18 and was in everything and absolutely scary. The number of backward steps by some of the Casey boys when he went at them was quite evident. He is a monster - I call him Naim Suleymanoglu. Dion Johnstone - He was everywhere for the weaker team and with Kent out there is a chance he'll get a go in a pre-season game as a high half-forward. He tackles well - but don't they all do that now. But he's really fit for a young bloke - although kicking precision somewhat questionable at times. Billy Stretch - the longer the game went, the better he got. He just makes space and makes himself available all the time and he man's up so quickly. Oliver - the big difference is that he now kicks the ball as well as handballs it. Everybody I take to says the same thing - he's the one that will be special. JKH - As with Billy, he came into it more and more as the match went on. As with Dion, there's Kent's spot available at the moment, so don't write him off just yet. He looks stronger than two years ago - perhaps he just needed to fill out like Hunt. Wagner - Okay yes I know Hunt was more explosive and we all like to put Hunt in our best six because he just attacks like a madman, but Wags accumulated the ball down back and switched with confidence. He played with the weaker back six, but he's another who might just shock a few by being named in the squad for Rd 1.

I do enjoy this thread because you get a chance to see how wrong you were when Rd 1 comes around. As a result here's my latest offering which is before the pre-season and before injuries take their toll. The only injured player whom I have excluded due to injury is Dom Tyson, who may well be back by Rd 1 depending on his scan results and if so would force a rethink. But such is our midfield depth that losing Tyson actually makes it one less hard decision. I have also taken into account our opponents St Kilda. As a result I have Frost on a wing - for Riewoldt purposes. I also think that Goodwin will be aware that Hickey was the only ruckman to nullify Gawny last year and given that I doubt Weid will be ready to thrown to the wolves for Rd 1, I've gone with Spencer and his pre-season form deserves consideration - even though many here don't rate him. St Kilda is a physical team and love hard nuts like Weller and their rucks like to jump in early - hence I don't want to see Wattsy with a bad corkie Rd 1. I also think that having Spencer will allow Gawny to impose himself up forward on occasions and cause the odd mismatch with Belinda Carlisle. Clearly like everybody else here thinks, Weid is the long-term answer, although thus far I haven't seen him do much ruck work drills at training - something that must happen down the track. The two positional changes that I have from 2016 is that I believe Hoges will start at CHF to maximise his fitness value, although he'll obviously play deep forward on occasions in games. I also have Nat Jones at half-back - I really liked his cameos there last year and I reckon he is suck a great tackler that he can impose from there. But he's also a player who can be thrown onto the ball late in close contests to try and inspire. Please also note that I would have Stretch in my own 22, but I know under Roos they would get a bit obsessed with playing and talking up Petracca, Angus and Oliver (they have amazing potential after all) and Stretch is more one of those reliable players who makes position so well without quite as much flare. Ultimately my guess is that Stretch will play more games than the big three because once he's in, you can see his value as a link player and now that we have toughness, our link players will become even more valued. B: Jetta O-Mac Hibberd HB: Hunt T-Mac N.Jones C: Frost (Roo) Brayshaw Lewis HF: Vince Hogan Kent F: Garlett Watts Petracca Ru: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Spencer Harmes Melksham Salem Emerg from: Stretch Vanders Garland Bugg Weid

Misso could be worth a topic on his own. I have been a little critical of Misso's methods in the past - he seemed to be concentrating too much on 400m/60sec reps, rather than speed work and most of us have noted that we lacked pace. The bigger question though was whether we did when he arrived and whether he inherited a slow list that was too late to mend. My view in the past was that we needed a specialist sprints coach on top of Misso to help young guys like Trenners and Salem and Petracca and Tyson and Brayshaw and before that Toump and Michie. But based on what I saw at training on Monday, and also two other sessions this year, Misso seems to have corrected this a bit this year. Training was broken up with a switch to Misso and he did leg-speed drills with them - emphasising the first leg push off with short steps - has Misso been to see Matt Shirvington? Most of the reps they did later were about 50m in length - a clear speed emphasis. The rehab group has been doing a lot more 100m type progression sprints - with their efforts often being timed. It seems we are going down the path of getting them fit, then working on their speed and at the same time making sure all the footy fundamentals are being covered by Goody and his team. So far no one (that I know) has broken down with a hammy tear - but we are in peak summer and that's more likely to happen at start of season or in May when it gets cold. But for those of you who have also been at training this season, have you noticed the speed emphasis that I have witnessed? And if so, do you agree that Misso has altered his modus operandi this season?