DeeSpencer

Didn’t like it from Jack, but also don’t know why the club felt any pressure when he was still contracted. If he was out of contact he would’ve deserved at least 2 years, maybe 3 for such a great servant. But effectively 4 was just crazy stuff.

It was a bad contract the day it was signed. I said it at the time. It was effectively a 4 year deal which was crazy. He’s 32 in April and combative inside midfielders so rarely play beyond that age and nearly 250 games.

Correct. We should’ve called Jack and Todd’s North bluff. 2 more after this year, horrendous list management, leadership etc.

Totally agree. And Culley has done a full preseason and should be back ticking the legs over sooner than later. Henderson, Campbell and McAdam take the seriously interrupted preseason count to 6. There’s a few others like AMW, Melk and Mihocek who’ll need to be eased in to the season but that’s normal. We’re already overloaded with talls and light on running depth so 6 is far from ideal, but we hopefully get a few of them back as the season goes on and replace the others with mid season or even a sneaky SSP.

He sure isn’t the fastest. But he seems to be enjoying the ruck contests and took some nice defensive grabs the other day. Whether he’s in line to play round 1 probably depends on Gawn’s fitness and the glut of key forwards. I just haven’t seen enough of Heath forward and don’t expect King to want to glut up the forward line we a ruck if we have 3 key forwards ready to go and at least 1 of them has pinch hit ruck ability.

Since the pre finals bye I think 7th and 8th became very small live chances, although they needed a freak run like the Dogs had with some other advantages on the way. Dogs played Thursday vs Eagles in the first week, then home against the Hawks in Melbourne, then away to GWS who they outnumbered in the crowd. That said, I care little about 7 and 8 losing premiership equity, they didn’t qualify high enough to really deserve any. What I am concerned about is 5/6 suddenly having an easier path than 3/4. 3/4 usually plays a war in the Qualifying final, as the away team and often on the road. 5/6 will now play a beat up 7-10 who have already played a final without any rest. Even if 5/6 has to travel the next 2 or 3 weeks they might start the first week beating up a 10th team that’s travelling for the second week straight, didn’t have a pre finals bye and is generally just happy to have made finals and won a game.

To be a dashing half back, possibly, but as long as CJ is ready to go and the likes of Rivers, Lindsay and Windsor can play back I doubt we do that.

He was seemingly absent today but it will likely be Howes or a chance to blood X Taylor in to a role. If we get beat by small forwards so be it. We've got a lot more to worry about than that. AMW looks good, they just aren't rushing him. I think he's done as much training this year as any other! CJ is a concern, just how much they have to leave him in the rehab group. I think the price we paid for him shows we knew it was a possibility but they're treating him like he's a big injury risk. Chandler's always going to be too small to be a long term back pocket. If we're really desperate I'd use Kolt.

Pythagorean wins works well for the NFL because so many games are one score results decided by just a very small (often 1) number of defined plays. A hit or miss field goal or touchdown catch. That can be true for close games of footy as well. A set shot hits or misses and that’s the ball game. My concerns with using it for Melbourne 2026 is we lost a lot of close games last year because of lack of on field leadership, lack of fitness and lack of scoring power and I doubt any of those issues will be fully resolved. We’re also going to be a drastically different side so it’s hard to predict we’ll be a tough opponent involved in a number of tight finishes. Our new game is designed to have a lot less gritty tight games too, it’s a lot more variable, it will hopefully work some days but there will be plenty it doesn’t work too.

Long pause for some extra hydration including some icy poles so that’s enough for me. Tommy Campbell coming back across the river, must’ve gone for a walk around the tan which woukd be far more pleasant than laps of the oval

Really nice ruckman in the hole mark from Heath. 2 now actually. Gawn sitting out around the arc as the attacking team ruck. Windsor run and ping from 50 - touched Gawn and Langford dropping in at 40 for marks and set shots the other attempts so far Onley drift down from the wing to the pocket for a mark and goal just now

ANZ121 Boeing 777 from Auckland just dwarfed our little drone in the battle for airspace supremacy

Heath, Culley, Windsor, Kolt Gawn, Steele, Langdon, Trell Next rotation in if you didn’t like the first 6!

Centre bounce practice under the eye of Russian and Jones. Heath, Pickett, Sparrow, Onley Gawn, Langford, Lindsay, Chandler 2021 it is not

Nice warm blustery Northerly blowing which is testing the players control on their kicking. Impressed by how quickly Oscar Berry has improved his kicking and trimmed up. Watching Disco mark a footy even in a fairly simple kick to kick drill is a pleasure to see. Such easy hands.