DeeSpencer

Some strong stuff by Culley, though he won’t face a match up of Onley in the real stuff. Taylor was the other standout. Think we’ll need 2 x Pickett’s to clean things up and provide some defensive pressure. But the fast ball movement is still great to see even if the execution is a fair way off.

Firstly these 2 guys training at the moment are part of the AFL Academy not the Melbourne NGA academy. We don't have draft rights to either of them, although we have drafted guys we've had train with us before, most notably of late being Harvey Langford. In terms of our NGA I've got the feeling like I might be missing one or two but Toby Bedford is our best known NGA graduate who played for the club. Andy Moniz-Wakefield another who has played some games. And Ricky Mentha on the list this year. We we're ineligible to draft Mac Andrew and opted against drafting his brother Riak Andrew.

It's really not that bad, and most clubs have somewhere between 5-15 out at any one time. 11 isn't great but is pretty standard and not many are to best 22 players. We have 1 new bad injury since preseason started with was Bowser. We've got 4 guys coming back from injuries last season in AMW, McAdam, Mihocek and Matthews. AMW and Mihocek have done a fair bit of main drills. We've got 3 collision injuries to Gawn, Laurie and Campbell. Those are going to happen. Laurie and Gawn's don't sound serious. Sounds like TC's is, but that happens. 2 guys battling overuse injuries in Viney and Henderson, both since last year. Viney hopefully winning his battle. 1 short term soft tissue in Sharp.

Impressive images. Good to see the academy boys on deck. Xavier Ladbrook is the young beanpole. Darcy Szerszyn at the 10 second mark is a strong lad, he looks like he'd fit straight in.

Always nice to see the same people who fire off reactionary takes about footy feel the same way about cricket. The selectors did a masterful job picking a side who won the Ashes given there was no Hazlewood, almost no Cummins and Lyon was declining then injured. They juggle the guys they do have and found a way to take consistent wickets. The batting is a problem. Cam Green’s the only young player who’s made any kind of consistent runs at first class level, they’ll stick with him as long as possible. There’s some other promising names but the Ashes isn’t the time to blood younger guys.

He's fast enough to run himself in to trouble but not fast enough to run out of it. An early test of whether King can coach will be whether he gets fooled in to playing Sharp or leaves him at Casey until he demonstrates a lot of improvement.

He may be undersized but he made life hard for Goober Crossley in a VFL grand final. He can compete with most AFL back up rucks. The biggest question is can he impact as a forward without a heap of tricks? From what I saw he has built an excellent tank and continues to impress as a follow up at ground level type too. If the marking comes on I can see him being a useful piece of the puzzle. The way he presents up at the footy is better than purely a break case in emergency back up type.

There’s no real evidence he’s a violent or thuggish player, he’s physical, which is a good thing. But people have created a false narrative based on his appearance and rise from the VFL. He was suspended for a tackle I think, which is just adapting to AFL rules and a bump which was somewhat opportunistic. He had the chance to put body on and took it. Wasn’t any malice by it which is why NAS wasn’t concussed. I doubt he’ll end up with routine tribunal appearances. Not many players do these days aside from a rare Toby Greene type.

The big Pros are that he's been under the hood at AFL House and will know every contract, all the list rules and where the AFL are likely steering the game and rules. The Cons being he was a player manager, who then became the fall Guy for the Pies, that's not exactly a long history in footy management

The speed with which we are moving the ball is so clearly faster than the last few years. And all of the main 6 on ballers (3 a side) had moments. Koz was everywhere. Culley was a marking target and kicked a super goal from a half forward clearance. Sparrow was super busy and ran like a machine - his weaknesses remain but when he can keep it simple he’s effective. Windsor has work to do on his inside game but was just carving it up on the outside. Steele was solid. Rivers was very well rounded. All 4 key forwards were involved. JVR just kept hitting up on the flank. Seemed to finally have some connection with the mids. Jeffo had some good contests and clunked a couple, is moving well. Luker had a couple of involvements. AJ was up and back across half forward and now covers the ground like a genuine athlete and nothing like a tradie. All the key backs had moments too. T Mc and Adams at one end, even if both got beat JVR on the lead in to space. Adams kicking is looking better and better. Petty and Lever at the other. Fritsch, Chandler some almost moments from Mentha. Trell and Reg settling in. Not all that much to note from the flankers as we didn’t have too many out there!

Reg Taylor’s first instinct to counter attack with fast feet is very real and creates great transition. Plenty for him to work on but it’s always nice to see someone’s best attribute look legit

Pro: Windsor Con: Sharp just marked on the wing, took off around Heath, took 4 bounces, burnt the entire open forward line and got run down by Heath and turned it over. Unfortunately King seems to be a nice human being because I wouldn’t send him home.

Pickett, Fritsch and Salem were the standouts of the half field drill. In to full ground sim now and JVR has found the ball 4 times on the half forward line. 1 behind, 2 successful inside 50 kicks, 1 picked off. The Campbell, Riv , Windsor, Steele midfield on top Toby Sinnema looks like he belongs. As does the Sudanese fella whoever he is.

Sometimes if the best you can do is a Jarryn Geary level captain then that’s all you can do. At least Mihocek and Steele should give us leadership all on 3 lines. I’m interested to see if the addition of Pickett allows Chandler to play as more of an attacking half forward as well as wing and on ball. If he can do that he can get 15-20 touches and have more impact

Are we a united team - No Do we perform well under pressure - No Do we exhibit all the little signs of well led teams (picking each other up, communication, backing each other up) - No Were our players in great shape, indicating strong training culture in the offseason - Absolutely not It’s far from Gawn’s fault, but the player leadership is really poor.