DeeSpencer

We had to put Disco on King because he was the only tall back to have the athleticism to go with him. Lynch does most of his damage these days with body work and clever short leading patterns. If there's a weakness to Disco's game it's that he gets caught ball watching at times, which is hardly a surprise when a natural intercepting defender is getting developed as a lock down guy. Lynch could take advantage in those moments. I'm also not sure Howes can really play tall. I promise I'm not hating. It's just a half against Amiss isn't a big sample size. Plus if you do make him one of the tall defenders you can't put him on the most dangerous small forward, he can't be two places at once. If Howes is playing tall then you're asking CJ, Kolt or Taylor to play as a lockdown defender. There's no perfect answer tho. We either give up a bit in the air but are solid on the ground or go the other way and cover the air but get a bit slow and clunky at ground level.

Right now he’s competing with guys like Laurie, Sharp and Latrelle (wouldn’t shock me if they gave him a rest at some stage) for the high half forward role. Can rotate on to the wing although King seems to prefer big wingers. Could play on ball but more likely to swap on ball post centre bounce. They seem to be using Matthews more on ball and higher up at Casey than I expected. That might be purely for needs or for his development. I suspect he plays a bit closer to goal if he cracks a debut any time soon. The aggressive pressure, crumbing and flying for marks is better suited close to goal.

Played a half in the last VFL practice match. Played more of a game in round 1 of the VFL season. 18 disposals. I believe he just played a half and was carry over Emergency against Hawks in round 3, 14 disposals, received a positive review from the coach. Played in the match sim vs Essendon. Played against Brisbane in the VFL on Sunday and was judged our second best player on the website. Coaches review: Jack Henderson (25 disposals, 6 clearances, 8 tackles) “Jack battled really hard through the midfield. His running patterns and power were strong, and he led the way at the contest. “He’s had an interrupted pre-season, but he’s building nicely and looks close to putting himself in the frame.” I wouldn't expect much from him first up, but he's starting to build back to the player he was before injury at gather round last year which is a guy who's excellent at VFL and a chance to impact as a high half forward if he can handle the step up in grade.

Most likely our psychologist, David Stiff. 205cm former NBL basketballer

Lindsay, CJ and perhaps Hendo (lower) intensity of VFL) and Cross are the available fresh legs. Perhaps Petty, X Taylor and Laurie could come out for CJ, Lindsay and Hendo and we manage Gawn and Mihocek in game.

I suspect the plan is to give Moose the game time they expected to give him last week before that game got too tight to risk it. But if that isn't the case with Lindsay potentially back in either he or Langdon could go on to a wing for at least part of the game and we could have a look at Culley as the back up ruck for some of the game.

He wasn't moving with anything like the same freedom as preseason, wouldn't surprise me at all if they give him a week off to really freshen up. Big AJ seems a mystery injury/illness. Would love to have him back at Casey.

He was good. The question is was he so good that we have to pick him or can we back in CJ or X Taylor (or both) as the third tall. Xavier probably didn’t quite impact enough in the air and CJ (if fit) is a bit hit and miss aerially. In theory they get a little help with height from Howes and Kolt, but there’s probably not a standout aerialist from that group.

He's a good kick and a pretty reliable set shot, but neither of those goals came off the boot perfectly. Not that I'm complaining!

Harvey's kicking is interesting, one thing he does very well is often makes the right decision in traffic to handball or get it on the boot. When he's running at full pace he can be prone to helicopter them. He also made one of the poorer decisions for him when he bombed a kick long in the 3rd when he had Trelly wide open in the pocket. I'd like to see him balance up a bit more generally but he's a guy without a lot of burst pace (but a nice enough top speed) being asked to play on the wing to learn AFL footy until he physically develops and gets a bit sharper with his inside ball winning and defensive pressure. There's times he'll be getting chased down by speedy wingers and won't be able to balance up. I'll worry more about his kicking if it hasn't improved by the time he's 23 and hopefully is an inside mid who can own the corrdor. I've always been a Chandler fan but he's munged both his goals through late, in his own words. He had the footy gods on his side. He also get a bit slingy with his kicking and can sometimes miss targets he could get. But because he has that left footer slingy action and they can out low and fast he's managed to convince Healy he's some kind of perfect kick.

It was shade of big AJ having a ping vs GWS last year. There was a moment to go to Langford just 15m away on the 50 but Harvey was badly winded by a late hit in the play to get it to JVR. That could’ve been great but also could’ve gone badly wrong. And there was a backwards kick to Lever but he hadn’t chewed up much time and then Lever would’ve only had a few seconds to probably just dump it in the pocket. So ultimately it was have the shot or chip to the pocket. Maybe the tall not on Harris could’ve led to the skinny side pocket and effectively tried to get a mark or boundary throw in.

That one was a straight up shank, even some of the best kicks on the best teams will shank one across goals every now and then. Guys like Sicily, Stewart, Zorko do it plenty of times. As long as it’s the right kind of switch and not a wild aggressive kick into the corridor (the list of our players we trust to do that should be very short) we need to keep taking those kicks on.

Watched the first half. The replay has the commentators ahead of the play which makes it a very difficult watch. Hendo: solid midfield game TMc: got better as the half went on and a class above in the air Cross: think he just played a half and a fair bit of midfield, tackled well, did some nice things. Didn’t seem worried by the thumb. Kentfield: moments of quality including a big grab and a clever goal but just isn’t moving the same way he was before injury. Matthews: has a red hot go, probably just needs to back his pace and elusive ability to get out to space that than going for miracle snaps or handballs. White: he does some crazy early jumping at times but when he keeps it simple he looks promising. Better than expected given the long lay off. Mentha: needs work defensively but starting to look more comfortable across half back AMW: willing competitor but ball use was poor. Adams: not the worst but not making a consistent impact on contests

We don’t have the midfield depth to lose anyone yet alone Koz. But aside from that if he gets weeks it’s 2+ not 1.

Bad missed tackle on Charlie in the last playing half back but I actually really like what Windsor gives us at centre bounces and either around the ground stoppages. I think he gives great defensive cover to Steele and Pickett. He’s playing fairly low TOG most week (usually around 70%) so hopefully we aren’t overloading him.