Fat Tony

I don't see Tholstrup being explosive enough to play as a midfielder at AFL level. I still think his best chance is as a high half forward. I think tagging makes sense for clearance players at the stoppages and for players who can drift forward and kick a goal, but I don't think a hard tag at all times makes sense.

CJ did a silly play where he ran too far but was solid otherwise I thought. I think we are a better side with Melksham in it if he is fit. I wouldn’t pick Heath. We should only play one ruck. Latrelle needs to practice running at the goal and kicking a drop punt from 45m. You can’t plan to walk it in every time. I want Rivers to play back and Lindsay on a wing.

Lever gave away a free to Ryan when he had the advantage and did a two fist spoil when he had the sit in the second quarter. He needs to be better and King should suspend his licence for kicks in the corridor. Personally i think TMac is better than both Petty and Lever (but I can also see why he is going for younger players). Melksham and TMac are being held back for injury and are both in our best side.

I thought our team selection was good. The decision to play with Petty as the second ruck gave us an extra runner and Max's amazing effort in the last quarter won us the game. Apart from JVR, I thought our better players had mixed games. Kossie was great in the centre bounce but fairly well held around the ground. Max fumbled a bit early on. Lever made poor decisions. I am still not sold on Rivers in the midfield long term. He is a weapon off half back and just average in the midfield. Lindsay is not a great defender but Bowey is still months off returning, so we will need to persever. I thought CJ was pretty good. Not sure why he is geeting criticism. JVR looked fantastic being 4kg lighter. He is a fantastic set shot and just needs to keep holding his marks. Culley playing as a forward was a good move. Good start for Latrelle. I think he is going to be in and out of the side this year and he is probably not in our best side, but he showed enough signs and kicked a great goal. Good effort to go from SANFL seconds to the AFL. Langford had a quiet day. We need to feed his left foot more. Mihocek looks the same as he did at the Pies.

Waverley will be a better option than Caulfield anyway. Dingley, Tullamarine and Casey are all terrible training facilities due to the wind and Caulfield will be the same because it is so open. AFL players need to train in good conditions because they play in protected stadiums and a lot of what they are training is ball movement and team defence, which requires learned running patterns. Having the whole club together is not essential. Admin is a very seperate job to playing. The AFLW is at a different time of year (and they all have jobs). And the VFL is semi-professional as well.

I would start Kossie in the midfield and Langdon forward and then push Langdon to NMW and let Kossie cheat forward.

With 5 on the bench, i think TMac or Petty could play both forward and back at times. Rucks and key forwards usually play 80% and key defenders usually play 85-95% game time. Having a player that can be versatile and play both ends makes sense with the new rules. I would play JVR as back up ruck. I think he competes in the ruck very well. I know there is a thought that it hurts his forward game, but I am not convinced he will ever really be an A-grade forward.

Fritch, JVR, Mihocek is plenty tall enough. Langford can pinch hit. Culley and Steele offer good options as well. We will likely have one key position player for depth on the bench out of 5. Definately no two rucks. We had a season trying it and it failed with TWO ALL AUSTRALIANS. Jackson was a different player.

Gawn played last week and I haven't seen him on the latest injury list. Regardless, we play only one ruck because Heath or Gawn would unbalance the forward line. The fact that Heath didn't play last week, means he won't play. If both play, there will be 50% of game time with both on the ground at the same time. It didnt work with Grundy and Gawn, why does everyone think it will work with Heath?

I think the only change to that 22 will be CJ for Taylor.

May was 32, looked nearly done and had another year left. The coach was under pressure and we weren't sure if we were still in contention. It was a horible contract which we tied to trade out of 12 months later. It cost us $700k and we got nothing. We extended Viney because North offered him deal and because Petracca tried to leave and we unsuccesfully shopped Oliver. Now he has another 3 years including this one. We recuited Mihocek because our forward line sucked but we brought him in three years late. The decisions make no sense.

AFL clubs can front load and back load deals to create space and it compounds. Spending $700k on May this year and $3.5m on Oliver for the next 5 years shows how poor we have managed our list and cap space. We have a bottom 8 list and have lost some ability to bring in players over the next few years. The MFC needs to reset and work out what year we can win it again. Gawn, Mihocek, Steele, Viney and Lever are unlikely to be part of the next premiership team and they make up circa 30% of our cap space. And Oliver and May is another 4-5% each. I am not saying we should have completely cleaned out the club but there needs to be a timeline and strategy here.

Thanks. Still no reason to extend his deal. Stupid waste of money.

The fact that we are not in contention and that we don't have significant cap room IS a reason to worry. Our club needs a timeline to win our next flag and our list management is not coherent.

The fact that we signed May in March last year for another year requires an investigation. Our list management is amateur.

Someone has to be the second ruck. Mihocek needs to come back into the side and Kentfield will go out. The other option is bring in Mihocek and Heath but that completely unbalances the forward line.

I am not convinced Petty is quick enough to play as a key defender anymore. Seemed too slow for Tom Lynch.

How did Melksham play?

Think we would be much better playing JVR as second ruck than Heath. The new rules are anti-second ruckman (and we shouldnt play a second ruck with Gawn anyway). Think Steel, Langford, Fritsch and Culley (if he plays) give us another forward marking threat. I also want to see Melksham in the side when he is AFL match fit. The side looks ok on paper but we could do with more pace. Bowey is a loss.

There is definitely some truth here about game plans but Langdon definitely has weaknesses in his game. Especially when playing on the left wing. I thought these were covered up better last year when he played in ANBs old role. I hope he plays this role again because it allows Kossie to cheat forward after the centre bounce. My point about the rule stands that the wings need to be even better at keeping their kicks in play when close to the boundary.

With the new rules for free kicks for out of bounds between the arcs, I think playing wings with their kicking leg on the boundary side will become more important. I wouldn’t play Langdon on the wing (better high half forward or on ball). Think it also means territory is more important and kicking to the pockets inside 50 MORE important. You don’t want to get split open on the counter attack.

Doubt both Kentfield and Heath play. I know there is another man on the bench but Gawn will play 75-80% in the ruck, so that's a lot of minutes for both to be playing forward.

I think the new game plan requires more skill and Bowey and Salem are losses, especially early on. Culley also a loss because of Viney being out. Looking at our list, Culley, Steele and Langford (and Sparrow) give us a few players who can drift forward and take a mark and kick a goal in a slow play. I can see us using a lot of pulled 40m kicks into a stacked forward line to these players who have a marking advantage. The main issue with our midfield is it is too slow (apart from Kossie and Windsor). And we have Kossie who can cheat forward on a fast play.

It sounds like Viney, Culley, Bowey and Salem are the most likely players doubtful for round 1 who would be selected. And May is very, very doubtful and Petty is unlikely. I can see issues implementing a new game style with so many personel issues.

Spoke to the head recruiter of another AFL team and they said they really liked Latrelle and he watched him play about 6 times last season.