DeeSpencer

The ball spent most of the time locked in either forward line and the far wing. Deliberately running a player off the ground either leaves a free man in a really dangerous spot or provides one less in the congestion which means an easy clearance. Either way that’s not good. Mids/forwards don’t rotate off at specific times, it’s up to the players to come off for fresh legs when tired either after goals, at set shots or when the ball comes near the bench. That never happened. We let Kossie come off at a time when there was a chance for him to come back on with 2-3 minutes. Unfortunately we didn’t get a shot at goal and the Saints didn’t either until there was 20 seconds left or whatever it was.

Spargo was fine at Casey. Woey is injured, Laurie’s just going at Casey and has never done anything at AFL level in his entire career which leaves Billings, who is playing decent footy in the midfield at Casey. If we knew our midfield was going to fall apart he would’ve been more use, but fresh legs to play half forward to mitigate the Saints run was still the logical choice. As is picking a guy who we need to make a contract call on in Spargo than a random Billings game.

Take note of what? Sharp’s proven to be a very ordinary footballer who’s had multiple goes as the sub and rarely done anything. He’s got some speed but it’s only useful on the very rare times he’s got a clear run to goal and he has no smarts in traffic. He also needs to play some full games. He’s been subbed off 7 times and the sub twice. If we had a genuinely quick forward capable of winning the pill and making an impact they’d be playing in the best 22. I’m not sure why you’re focussed on our weakest position with tall forwards and flankers. Our 5 million dollar midfield fell apart and there’s nothing at Casey. He ran out of puff after half time so subbing him was totally reasonable but at least they finally had a look at Windsor in the guts.

Defensive forward is a reasonable sub, he got that tackle that could’ve saved the game with just a fraction more smart play from the other clowns. Doesn’t matter who gets injured week in and week out we and most other clubs bring on a half forward. Spargo looked flat when he first came on tho. I think he’s as checked out as most of the rest of them.

Jefferson dropped chest marks in miles of space and nearly missed the ball on set shots last week. He had to be dropped for his own sake. Petty was his usual poor self but did a role and allowed Fritsch and Melk to play deeper. Heaven knows why Fritsch was the spare back and not Petty tho. That’s a howler. But this loss was overwhelmingly on our midfield - who are also our leaders and most expensive players - just having zero stamina, smarts, composure or skills.

The coach can’t do it for the players, at most they can do is send the runner out. It’s our senior players who are the problem. Oliver is a flat out embarrassment. Gawn’s had stuff all leadership for 2 years. Where was his awareness to make sure we had 4 in the square? Viney is dumb as a post. Tracc has zero defensive running. If Gawn stands the mark and the 3 mids man up the Saints have one chance to win with a bombed kick. If our last quarter involved just a fraction more composure we win. No moment more than Oliver just hacking it around the forward 50 when any score extends the margin to at least 7.

lol, there’s not going to be a big enough crowd to worry about a boycott

Jackson is playing alongside Darcy playing pure mid as much as ruck. There was never any mention of him wanting to be a permanent ruck. Grundy and Gawn didn’t work but they’re both top notch pure number 1 rucks. No team plays 2 genuine rucks in their best side. Max didn’t tell them to choose Fullarton. Nor is it his fault we haven’t got a high 190’s forward/ruck on the list. I also don’t know where JVR is expected to thrive if he’s not rucking? He ain’t much good as a forward, the ruck time is good for him.

I’m a Jeffo fan but I think the moment was too big for him and I’ve got no issues sending him back to Casey before he gets more in his head. Still plenty of games to get him more chances. I’m a firm no on Kentfield because he just doesn’t have the endurance base. He’s a talent, let’s get him a preseason. So May and Jeffo out, Petty back and AJ or Petty forward and Adams. Don’t have a strong opinion either way. As for the smalls: some combination for Sparrow, Spargo perhaps Laurie for Kolt, Sharp maybe Lindsay for a full game at Casey. Howes for Salo, McVee. Maybe but unlikely.

I have some questions about Gawn but I don’t see how in any way he’s to blame for Verrall being not very good and the club not developing good back ups. Plenty of teams have dominant number 1 rucks and still have good back ups coming through. If we lost a good 23 year old back up it would be a fair concern but we don’t.

I'm not exactly buying the accurate of a stat that's been back dated. Aside from youth I just don't think we have the midfield make up to quickly switch from a contested game plan to a transition running one. Tracc, Viney, Oliver just isn't the right fit for it

I call massive amounts of BS on that Lions stat. I watched the 2023 and 2024 grand finals and the other finals along the way. There's no way Brisbane have been consistently slow moving in that time frame. Didn't Champion Data admit that they've only started measuring speed of ball movement this year?

Selection integrity is for losers. We’ve seen what Billings has done at afl for over a decade. I’d give it 15 minutes in to any game he plays for everyone to wonder why on earth we’ve picked Billings.

Interesting he's so high on Adelaide. Obviously a club champion and Nibbler and Burgo are over there, but I still don't think they've got the midfield to win a flag just yet. Clearly a fan of the Suns too bringing them up umprompted. Collingwood....they're loving the long down the line to CHF then explode from that contest. Wonder where I've seen that game plan before.

The one thing I feel confident in was Frosty and Oscar McDonald weren't getting it done, we had to bring in a genuine full back. But I think what you're really glossing over is Hogan had to go home and go through his struggles to get to current GWS Hogan. He did nothing at Freo in 19/20. Played 9 games in GWS in 21. Was better in 22/23 but still hit and miss and not a consistent performer. It took him until last year to finally really deliver on his talent. Meanwhile Ben Brown fell apart quickly but his 2021 finals series is super underrated. Obviously we are still searching for a replacement and I would've been nice to have him deliver in 22/23 but at least he did it when we needed to win a flag.

Thanks

Jeffo came from Oakleigh/Wesley before Casey. He’s a nice snap, but also a very nice drop punt when he hits them clean. I thought his miss to the city end was right on the distance out and angle that a drop punt is a perfectly good option. Snapping from outside 40 gets tricky. His 4th quarter miss could’ve been either a left foot snap, a right foot checkside or a drop punt. Most teams seem to favour left foot over the drop punt or checkside, opening the angle up seems to be worth the higher chance of miskicking.

Spargo was the best of the rest, should come back in to the side. Mentha flashed some really high quality stuff. Kentfield played about a good of a 7d 1g game as you’ll see, he genuinely crashes packs, can’t wait for next year. Adams was solid with ball in hand and he did make a number of nice spoils but it was more of a shut down defensive performance (on a good opponent) than the kind of complete game that would have him in line for afl footy. Some of that was probably role related as the only real tall defender. But overall he’s promising but not there yet.

Having now watched the replay I was underwhelmed with Howes. He was good, especially for a return from concussion, but not exactly a cut above. Good work rate and positioning but the intercept marks were almost all uncontested and the ball use was overly safe. We wonder why it takes until the 3rd quarter to break down Werribee or after half time to take care of North in the seniors and you can see that reflected in a player like Howes. Not sure he had a single kick that wasn’t down the line or sideways across the backline. And even if he doesn’t take the game on with kicking (which I understand to a degree because he’s not a reliable kick under pressure) he should run and carry the ball more.

He looked good today, long kick for a small, but he has spent most of the VFL season doing stuff all. I suspect he's not someone we'd be interested in for a variety of reasons

Tom doesn’t deserve to be dropped but I won’t be critical if he is. There’s a greater good at play here and dropping Lever again would be a story.

It’s a bit of an indictment that it came against North but I thought the last quarter today was the first time in weeks we started to tackle with some genuine intent. Oliver especially was dishing it out and others went with him. We have to find a way to do it more consistently

Spot on. He was also second in average speed in defence on the ground today. He’ll be a completely different player with a preseason.

First year Jeffo was rubbish in the VFL with just the most minor of flashes. Last year he looked fine in the VFL. This year he’s looked too good for the VFL and mostly not good in the AFL with just the most minor of flashes. He’s a year 4 or year 5 guy which is frustrating for a first round pick but sometimes that’s what it takes.

Kind of shocked he’s about 1 from 100 in taking contested marks even with getting clean hands on the ball so often. That has to flip, got to be purely confidence and some strength under the ball because he marked it with ease in juniors. His reading of the play and decision making are both excellent. Hopefully we see some more on ball time because we need that smarts in the corridor