DeeSpencer

Clear A graders: none

Potential A graders: Windsor, Langford

Should be at least a nice player: Lindsay

Could be anything from quality to fringe player: Jeffo, Kentfield, JVR, Taylor, Latrelle

Useful role players: Kolt, Culley

Should be useful: Howes

Unsure: the rest really. Matthews on draft pedigree hopefully is something. Disappointed by Cross’ injury because he’s a fun player with real scope for improvement. Hopefully we see more of AMW soon. Kalani White is super raw but a mobile skilled 2m+ player is worth developing.

It’s a huge year for our key forwards. I believe in all 3 of them but we need to see more than just 1 good JVR game. We’ll know a lot more in 6 weeks time. If we’ve got 2 yet alone 3 genuine prospects the list is looking much better long term.

Those ins don't give much away.

Do we play the 4 talls down back? Would be interesting to have a look at it and can always swing Petty or Disco forward if it's not working?

That would free up Kolt to play a different role as he did in the first two weeks, perhaps tag but possibly role him right in to the role Cross did last week trying to get a deep forward who can hit a pack and provide some ground pressure.

Which gives us the 23rd spot for Heath, Melk, Luker or Laurie with also the potential of a late Fritsch out.

Luker in would be very exciting but I'm just not sold on the idea of picking a guy who's been out for 5 weeks for a debut even if he's just set for limited minutes.

51 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Fogarty is the most instructive comparison — similarly passive, similar pressure numbers. But Fogarty's career accuracy is 59.9%. If you're going to be a pure finisher, be elite at finishing. Fritsch at 52% last season isn't quite making that case.

I’m a certified Fritsch hater but he’s a career average of 63% accuracy and went well above that when we were a good side. Last season he struggled in a team that couldn’t generate scores.

Give him good looks in a functioning forward line and he converts.

He should be replaceable but the 2 most likely replacements in Melk and Jeffo aren’t fully fit.

Now, the ball hogging I won’t defend! But he does need to be a touch selfish at times to kick goals like the top class finish in the come back.

Hopefully isn’t 6 weeks but I prefer caution rather than playing through a foot issue.

Hopefully they scan it fully and get him looked over by a good surgeon. We don’t want to see the repeat of the days where we just wrecked players careers with foot injuries.

Silver lining if it is an extended period that’s a huge chance for Jeffo especially (after a VFL hit out or two) to come in and own that role.

In the mean time I’m feeling it’s Heath time.

21 minutes ago, binman said:

That surprises me I have to say

He’s probably a safer option than Kolt to play half back, but the question is what do we do with Kolt?

Maybe he plays the Paddy Cross role.

3 hours ago, Demongirl35 said:

Hate Salem in the backline. Wayyyy too slow.

I rather see him up the ground kicking inside 50 or not in the team at all.

Where would you play a slow player up the ground?

No one is loving Salem’s form right now, but until Bowser is back we don’t have a better option. His second half against Carlton was good

Not entirely sure where to go with selection this week but I don’t see the need for another defender unless there’s suddenly a big Rivers recovery or we think we can play 4 talls without losing run. Kolt’s looked comfortable across half back and our midfield has done better without the tagger.

I’m a bit doubtful that Disco, or any of the 3 key forwards are ready to go.

So I’d give Heath a run to mix up our forwards set up and semi rest the veterans.

If he’s ready to go give Matthews a run as the 23rd man, if not go with Laurie and play Sharp and Latrelle a little close to goal.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

Nailed number 3 already, while Langford is showing some second-year blues which might warrant a short break. And now Sparrow goes and plays his personal best game. Contender?

Harvey took a big step forward on the weekend, so I'm hoping it's just onwards and upwards from here. But I wouldn't be surprised if at some stage he gets sent back to Casey just to play some pure on ball and rack up the footy and clearances for the sake of development.

Sparrow B+F doesn't seem too likely but he had a good summer and I hope he can start playing like a genuine full time on baller. If he does that he'll get a lot of votes through his team first stuff.

Any update on Paddy Cross, Ghost-train?

The biggest key to better kicking is better running. Guys are presenting clear options which the kicker is drawn to, the kicker then has more confidence and a bigger margin of error.

And our goal kicking on the weekend was the perfect illustration of how ball movement creates better shots, which equals goals, which increases confidence and then you start kicking them from everywhere.

Vs the first half, missed shots create more dump kicks and more missed shots.

42 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Langford Sparrow Rivers will provide grunt and class, maybe Kolt too who must be learning lots from the best in his tagging roles. Lindsay

Windsor,, Sharp, Kozzie and maybe even Cuzzy for run and flair. Who knows about Onley and or Taylor?

I'd say who knows about Sparrow, Rivers, Sharp, Kolt or Trelly at this stage. All have plenty of work to do but they can contribute in other ways.

9 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Yeh good point.

I guess Steele and Viney are enough for our “bulls”. Wonder who we go for when those two hang up the boots?

We certainly have the speed already, they just need to polish their craft.

In saying that, we have Kozzie who put on heaps of beef in maybe 1 or 2 seasons. Wonder if he can teach the other young boys like Windsor and co how to stack it on.

It might take until Steele moves out but Langford mostly needs some work on his defensive pressure and tackling, if/when that happens he’ll move inside.

I wouldn’t totally rule out Kolt, they’re giving him the tagging jobs for a reason and he has moments that look like a strong midfielder.

Windsor has already added lots of size, he’ll end up a strong boy. He’ll never be a bull but hopefully he learns a few more ways to win contested ball. Kozzie has all his spins, taps and weaves to win clearances without relying on strength.

6 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Matty Lloyd suggested Carlton should trade Cripps after yesterday 😂 bet we would take him

I bet we wouldn’t. After his early goal he was basically a tackling dummy for Steele.

I suspect King only wants 2 out of his 4 main mids to be bigger bodies, one as a defensive mid and one as an explosive type. At his best Cripps had some explosion, but for a while now he’s just a big lump who gets little value for his possessions.

There really is no best 23 this year.

Kentfield, Jeffo, AJ, Henderson, AMW, Melksham, Heath, Taylor, Matthews can all find a way in to our team if they’re fit and firing.

We should take a look at a heap of players in different spots. Kolt at half back is one of them already. Howes as the defensive winger could really work now he’s a bit stronger over the ball, just need a small/medium defender. Culley and Langford on ball once the pace of the game slows a bit.

1 minute ago, Sydee said:

I can't work out if Adams is simply not strong enough, his technique/positioning is poor - or both

He doesn’t read the play well enough.

He’d have been a beast in the 90’s if he just charged out behind an old school full forward and used his pace to spoil.

Every now and then he reads something correctly and makes a big spoil or intercept mark, but usually he’s slow to react. And even full back in the VFL involves playing on forwards who are consistently moving the way the game is played today.

I’ve been dead against 2 rucks but we don’t have a bye for ages and we’ve got 2 big games against Essendon and Richmond in our next 4. We need Max ready to go in those games not spending all his tickets against Witts and super physical Suns team.

The Suns game seems a perfect opportunity to give Heath a go for 50% game time and take some load from Max and Mihocek. Max can play some forward too. And use Roo up the ground hitting up as he was in preseason.

Kolt replaces CJ across half back.

Paddy Cross was super in the role they made for him but I’d be keen to see him with some more game time and a go across half forwards and Trelly and Sharp are both flirting with becoming useful players, no point leaving them on the pine too much!

2 hours ago, Deespicable said:

Good news: We drafted an absolute gun in Xavier Taylor who can play a similar role, albeit with more polish and more ability to intercept. We are now three games into the season and this guy has to play. Just has to.

If you’ve watched the VFL you’d know Taylor was ordinary and Adams wasn’t much better. Neither are anywhere near selection barring more injuries.

Watched the replay. I think the big structural change was putting Windsor to the back of the stoppage and using a half forward (often Chandler) at the drop.

That gave us protection on the defensive side but also speed to run out of the stoppage. Once we ran out of stoppage we hit targets inside 50.

Carlton had a strong patch early in the first, then it was an arm wrestle at 18-1, then they had another run late in the first. But it wasn’t a 6-0 goal quarter.

Otherwise for most of the first half we just fluffed chances to have plenty of goals on the board. We should’ve had 5-6 by half time.

1 hour ago, binman said:

I reckon Cerra is significant out for them - agree he is no world beater, but he would have helped them mitigate our strengths (and their key weaknesses - their lack of leg speed and running power) because he uses the ball pretty well and is decent runner who can run and spread defensively (and offensively).

I think it helps them as Cerra is neither of those things.

2 hours ago, Deespicable said:

Adams played well last week in VFL (I am reliably told) and is the quickest guy over 100m at the club. Kozzie would easily beat him over 20m though.

King has already shown his liking to prioritise playing the fittest players at our club and that's partly why our best 2km men Kolt and Sharpy are in the side and they have rewarded him by being two of our best players both weeks.

But adding T-Mac alongside Lever and Petty does not imbue our defence with the pace needed to play at such a breakneck level of 2026. I am very happy for T-Mac to come back in because he provides versatility and has a little more height to play on Hudson O'Keefe or McKay. But it should be at the expense of either Lever or Petty. Adams should replace Turner.

Jed was just ok at Casey. The usual story when he’s in great position he can mark or spoil and use it well but the moment he’s out of position he’s a non factor.

Yeah he has legspeed but he doesn’t have the footy smarts to put it to work.

T Mc comes back in as perhaps our best tall defender and a decent rebounder (if volatile).

Petty and Lever move up the ground where they have the footy smarts to make an impact. Sure they might give up some things with pace but they’ll intercept if we can get some pressure on.

I’d imagine Petty rucks a fair bit too. The coaches should take the chance to throw Max forward a little to see if he can snag a goal.

11 minutes ago, KoltTheRam said:

I reckon we should have a bit of a war chest (Petracca 1.2M, Oliver about 600-700k, May about 600-700k) plus veteran players retiring at years end (TMac, Milkshake, Campbell, McAdam), less assumed new contracts and probably pay increases to Fritta, Chin, Disco, Langford, maybe X. Gus's contract counts for 50% in the cap next year (circa 400-500k.)

Long story short, we should have enough to get a big name star, such as Bailey.

We'd have less than the Filth at around 2 mil but we aren't in a horrible position (maybe 1-1.5mil)

A lot of cash. But likely very little to sell in terms of winning prospects.

The best thing for us would probably be the Suns holding Humphrey at least one more year.

About as good as possible news for Disco, hopefully only misses 2.

Also nice to see AJ progressing, although I'm confused why what was initially reported as a hamstring injury became a knee.

Aidan Johnson will be unavailable after sustaining a hamstring injury at training. Scans confirmed the injury required surgery to repair the hamstring tendons, with Johnson having since undergone a successful procedure. He will commence his rehabilitation program next week.

Jeffo and Luker making progress too.

No Melky on the injury report. Hopefully he's ok.

T Mc for Disco. Petty rucks a little more. Lever takes a few more spells on the pine so he can play with actual energy across half back.

Paddy Cross for Langford.

This one is controversial but I want Harvey getting 30 touches at Casey and developing his strength inside and marking game as a dominant on baller.

He looks to have all the hallmarks of second year syndrome and we could keep playing him through it or give him the sharpen up now.

Cross comes in deeper forward.

Some more half forward and wing for Windsor. Kolt released from tagging to play half forward/wing. Some more on ball and wing for Culley. Rivers, Sparrow on ball more too.

Open to the idea of Matthews or Henderson for Latrelle, but I might give Latrelle one more week and those other 2 need match fitness. But if he’s running straight at goal inside 50 and doesn’t kick a drop punt he’s going to Casey for 6 weeks.

2 hours ago, poita said:

I really don't see any benefit to playing Laurie, Henderson, Johnson, and McAdam at any stage, and probably Melksham as well, unless we run into injury / fitness problems.

Do you really want a repeat of the Bailey, Neeld mess?

We’re bad enough organically for the kids who are ready to need games to get games. Anyone who’s putting their hand up at Casey and makes us better should be given a go.

The more we stay competitive the better environment for player development.

47 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Yeah but he only had 8 pressure acts, 7th lowest in our side. 0 tackles, 0 score involvements. Not much defence, not much offence.

He also looks 2-4 steps off the pace.

Yes, he brings excitement, but it's also pretty apparent that the step up from the level he was playing at last year to AFL level is significant for him, and having had a taste, it might be best to get him back to Casey and get him finding some confidence on either offence or defence before he's back.

That's my doubts with Trelly.

Kozzie's first season he went weeks barely touching the ball and was often a little timid at the contest, but his pressure was undeniable.

Trelly has a different build, is a different athlete who seems best suited to longer sprints and slippery agility than Kozzie style ballistic change of direction.

Langdon and Harry Sharp are providing some version of that kind of high half forward player. For team balance we might be better off with Paddy Cross or if he's ready Tom Matthews who both have more crash and bash and lay tackle kind of games.