There are a number of concerns going into round 1 and season as a whole.
In my opinion, nothing has changed with the game plan at all. We still look to bomb it into our forward 50 and hope for the best.
We were not only beaten around the ball but smashed on the outside once again. What did we do to rectify this in the off season? Nothing.. I watched Tom Phillips on the weekend rack up 30 disposals and provide great run along the wing. After missing our on Isaac Smith the arrogance in our coaching staff thinking that we had the players to cover that other wing position will now bite us in the [censored]. We had no plan B after we missed out on Smith and Tom Phillips was ripe for the taking. Baker will not make it as a wingman and as much as I like Jones game, to see him back playing on the wing was just a perplexing.
Our player development and depth is also another concern. Baker, Spargo, Sparrow, Harmes, Vandenberg and Jordon were all simply poor. Sparrow and Harmes especially had the perfect opportunity to really make a statement today and they let themselves down with poor disposal and poor efforts. I actually have no idea what's Sparrows strength are at all. 9 disposals today playing as a midfielder is simply [censored] poor. VandenBerg just 5 disposal and looked as slow as a turtle. We are absolutely screwed if we lose Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw to long term injuries. Jordon showed exactly why I was gobsmacked that he was taken high in his draft year.
The game is now built on speed and gut running and when you carry plodders like Tmac, Jetta, Vanders, Tomlinson, Jones all in the one side then you'll get exposed like we did. WB just looked so much fitter and I was getting increasingly frustrated that they continued to out number us around the ball and run with such speed.
Neville Jetta is finished. The signs were there last year and he is sadly absolutely cooked. I will be shocked if he plays more then 5 games. Adds 0 offensive skill set to the team and just trails behind his opponent. Be a leader down at Casey and start transitioning him into an off field role.
Tom McDonald, he is a shambles. Was expecting a trimmer more agile Tmac but he looks just as worse as last year.. he had a 0 gamer on him who was able to nullify him in thr aerial contests. Our forward line is in trouble.
Vanders is cooked and will play majority at Casey.
Tomlinson is a very ordinary footballer. Chewing up our salary, and this is already looking a bust. Incredibly soft and always gets beaten one on one. Start getting games into Harrison Petty.
I think Luke Jackson will hopefully be a good player for us moving forward. But he really didn't domuch. He's marking is not really a strength of his and I'm not sure if the forward role is going to to work for him. Watching Ben and Max King in their 2nd year of AFL football last year and they just demanded the footy and both are strong contested marks who have enormous work rate. He'll get there and actually like the idea of him rucking and giving Gawn good minutes up forward while BB and Weideman are out. Was jumping over English and thought that I'd love to give him a bit more added responsibility. Think he'll thrive more on this.
Lever and May were clearly our two best by a long shot. I liked Chandlers game and thought ANB was also impressive with his midfield/forward role. Honestly was pleased to see him play well.
Honestly, there weren't much positives to come out of that game. We had key players out but so did the doggies. They will be a great team team to watch this year.