DeeSpencer

I think he thought it was not 15, which isn’t totally crazy

Affluenza?

His ball use does seem to be getting better. I do wonder how much the decision to put him on Wilkie was about nullifying Wilkie and how much was about getting more pace in to the midfield mix. And whether Culley picks up his pace now he’s had a hit out after missing the preseason games.

Both I believe came from miscommunications/reads with Langford. One had Langford peel his lead for the kick over the top when Salem was under pressure and would’ve taken a lot of leg to get it to where Harvey wanted it. The other was the kick back into the corridor after the wide option was shut down. Harvey led flat across the ground. The saints player from the fat side came forward and intercepted. I’m not sure the coaches would put either on Salem as much as you’d expect.

Totally different tactic up 13 compared with up 3, I can see the argument either way but though AJ was right to have the shot, especially as he would’ve had to have gone backwards with the ball. One errant kick and the giants would’ve had the footy at half way. We mucked up plenty late yesterday especially in the period after the Sharp goal with about 7 minutes left. Refused to take short kicks across half back when they were available. Lever had a horrendous turnover. Gawn and JVR bombed nothing entries awful spots. But the last few minutes after the Fritsch goal we found some short wide kicks, put Mihocek back, forced repeat stoppages and iced clock at the end. We nailed the end of game procedure, just need to work on tempo footy for the periods where it’s required

individually most were fine and certainly 1.5 practice games against bad sides doesn’t compare with St Kilda having a proper first game. It’s just going to be a big balancing act for King and Co to find the right mids and flankers with so many imperfect options. Culley forward gave us another target, added pace to a midfield mix that needs it with Steele and Langford, but took away a ball winner.

Kolt’s athleticism is in the combination of a big tank, above average speed, and the agility to jump on a couple of loose balls and fire handballs out. He hasn’t always looked quick or agile because he’s been adapting to AFL footy. But the tank has generally been evident and it was on display running off Nas before half time to get involved in several scores.

We’ll stick with Jake. But geez he has to stop making so many disposal mistakes and he had probably 5 more chances to mark and 5 more chances to punch in contests where he did neither. I suspect we stick with CJ too. It’s a new zone that will take even our smarter defenders time to sort out. I actually think our problems were more with midfield transition, midfield defensive pressure and despite the improvements still a heap of room with forward cohesion/ball movement. Kolt tagging took CBA’s from Sparrow who’s been our best defensive mid. Culley played the second half as the 3rd tall forward tagging Wilkie. Culley, Langford, Sparrow, Rivers all looked a step off the pace. As did Sharp before his crazy last quarter. There’s a reasonable argument to just play Melk as the 3rd tall forward given that’s what he does best then trimming a spare mid. Although I’m not sure we do that off a win.

Turns out Max likes high game time, who knew? But also he didn’t have to bail out the backline on every inside D50 and more importantly didn’t have to be the long down the line for every forward attack

Sounds like Culley is a lock, but that is injury related. I’m not sure the likes of Sharp, Laurie and Kolt got enough out of 6 quarters of fairly low quality practice games to cement them in. Especially if others are doing more in match sim drills that have been held routinely for weeks now.

I’d personally wait a few weeks to see if he’s got any interest in handballing, tackling and putting his head over the pill before I’d offer a lucrative deal. We can’t have senior players with conditional effort during a rebuild.

For the sake of the exercise I'll assume Kolt and Sharp get the last two bench spots and Melk and Laurie miss out, of those who miss one will possibly be held out or play a half and then be the carry over emergency. FB: AMW Adams Berry HB: X. Taylor T McD C: Onley HF: Mentha Henderson FF: Cross Melksham Matthews Foll: Heath Laurie Injured: Campbell, Jefferson, Kentfield, AJ, White, McAdam, Bowey, Viney Backline has some quality especially when you add the Casey half backs. Even without any genuine talls the forward line can do some damage if it comes in quick. Midfield is super thin though. We'll be reliant on Casey uncovering a couple of hidden gems to have any kind of success this year.

I can see him playing a fold back wing role. I suspect they'll ask Culley, Langford and even Howes (as he did in the practice games) to take on that kind of role at times. XT would be another option. Rivers and Steele will also both play like that from the midfield at times. If we have more than a few half forward injuries I'd just throw him forward and tell him to use his competitive spirt and athleticism to do his best. Richmond did that last year with Luke Trainor. I don't think it would hurt him as a short term thing, and the way he reads the play and attacks the ball at half back would make him a bit of fun across half forward, at least in getting the footy.

From watching some of the better sides in Opening Round I suspect transition defending is basically impossible against good sides (or even mediocre ones). There's a very limited window to get pressure and force a turnover. After that window closes all you can is your best to force teams wider and slower. So then getting an out-number to win the ball back inside your backline and take it the other way is vital. It does make me wonder if we pick a more dynamic small forward in Matthews or Cross purely because of the need to score and create chaos inside 50 in those brief windows you've got to score or force a turnover. That might depend on just what they expect from Latrelle and Kozzie and how far up the ground they play.

They were both GC picks. All our loses did was make Essendon's first rounder better. C'est la vie. I don't think he's far off, but his disposal does run hot and cold and unsurprisingly for a kid he's got to build his tank and strength. I suspect King's adopting the Cats model of making the first year kids wait a while and learn the right habits and behaviours before their heads get too big.