DeeSpencer

Bont, Merrett, Pendles, Rozee..the list of classy pure on ballers is pretty short. If we had that player I think we’d play them! I’m hoping for more Rivers rotations and him becoming a mid in time. I’d also love to be creative with Salem once he’s fully fit too. I’d even consider Chandler getting a Pickett style one or two rotations a quarter - his left foot could give us balance when Viney isn’t in there. The only player on our list who could come in and provide class as a mid is Laurie but he’s just not there yet. Misses tackles, not strong enough in the contest and gets caught flat footed. The thing that’s overlooked with Sparrow is his phenomenal defensive running compliments our gun mids in a way that’s as important as skill. Viney’s a great defender at the contest but he’s not an elite runner. Oliver’s now turned in to a pretty special runner but he’s not always switched on with defensive positioning. I hate to say it but Tracc is labouring around the ground defensively these days. Sparrow’s always flat out to pressure and block the corridor. JJ or Harmes can fill in this week but my guess is it will be straight back to Sparrow the week after.

I’d have to watch the replay but I saw a guy sprawling in to the ground with minimal resistance. I would love to drop Fritsch again. His defensive efforts were once again abysmal and the way he goes at the ball in ground contests with one arm just wafting is so far below the team standard it’s not funny. He should’ve had 3 shots at goal in the first quarter from very good forward play but he fluffed the marks and then was largely invisible until junk time. He sure did look great when the game was well and truly over though. I challenge anyone who doesn’t agree with me about how poor Frisch is defensively to get a good seat with a nice aerial view and watch how often his man is the pressure release valve for the other side. And now I’ll get accused of hating him or some such nonsense. Nothing could be further from the truth. He’s an exceptionally talented forward and I love his skills and strong aerial work. But if he could just get up to AFL standard when the ball is on the deck or with his defending he could go from a very good to a great player.

Yeah sorry I’m not part of the MFC fitness team, what a surprisingly revelation

North had an afl midfield in their side in their last game. About as good as their actual side. I get there’s a little frustration about some fringe guys not getting a game but our kids and the ageing key forwards all needed the rest.

17 disposals, 3 turnovers, 2 frees against including one directly in front of goal. Very little quick ball movement or corridor kicking. Probably only ahead of Fritsch and Grundy for worst on.

I'm not expecting him to take contested marks, I'm expecting him to compete with the best of his ability. He's 6 foot and had a decent leap in his early days, now he can't get off the ground or put his body on the line. Langdon is listed as a cm shorter and isn't a natural at marking contests at all but will often get a fist in. Aerial ability for a winger is a very handy attribute to be good in, or at least not bad in. Hunter is trending toward the bad when it comes to providing some defensive aerial help. I never professed to be a fitness expert but I thought it's pretty common knowledge that there's a balance when it comes to maximising endurance without sacrificing speed and power. The fitness staff tailor training and gym loads to not over do players. Hunter is playing high TOG% which is good for rotations but in combination with what I suspect was a far bigger preseason for him this year than his recent ones at the Dogs is it unreasonable to think he might be far more fatigued in his current role than how he was asked to play the wing at the Dogs? Just being on the MCG compared to Marvel alone would require a lot more kms and more so in the way we get our wings to drop right back compared to the Dogs aggressive up the ground zone. Someone said he might not be fit enough. From watching the games I said fitness isn't the issue as he won't stop going up and back, but he lacks the pace or confidence to get the ball on the run and keep it moving in the way Langdon does. I don't have to be a fitness expert to see that, it's clear as day from watching it out on the ground. Whether that's a training thing or just the fact that he isn't Langdon (no one else really is) I don't know.

Langdon’s role hasn’t changed at all. They’re both playing wings and running forward and back as the game requires. Helping out the mids? He’s really poor at the back of stoppages because his lack of burst and toughness sees him miss tackles and get caught in traffic. He’s Zoolander out there with his inability to ever go on his right, not just with kicking but he won’t handball on his right either. He’s going to ground and giving away the kind of dumb free kicks that veterans who have lost it in the legs do. He’s utterly inept in marking contests. And honestly some of that would be ok if his kicking was a weapon like when he had time and confidence in preseason. Now it’s at best 1 great kick followed by 3 slow little up and unders and a turnover. I doubt they drop him just yet but for the last month he’s not giving us anything more than JJ did last year.

The other thing is May and Lever usually play close to 100% game time. Other sides usually have 4 talls, comprised of 1-2 rucks and 2-3 tall forwards. If they all play 80% time on ground then it’s only 20% of the time with 3 up forward. Last week Dixon 100%, Marshall 82%, Teakle 81%, Finlayson 73%. So 336%. 36% of time Hibbo would be on a tall. When Salem comes back in and gives us another left footer and hopefully more skill and composure things might chance. Before that I don’t expect it to.

It looked very good in the first half. Petty was playing the perfect CHF game we’ve needed. Not sure who will come in for him if he’s out but it’s super frustrating he had just put together a fantastic half

Marshall went off concussed but I assume Dixon comes back in? Whilst Disco could have another go I suspect we’ll go with Hibbo on Finlayson or Lord. The added mobility and run seems our best backline set up.

They were a factor by umpiring very poorly. A stack of missed holding the balls. Poor control of manning the mark. A lot of holding off the ball. Poor positioning. Was never going to be 60 frees given it was a lot of kick to kick but they missed a dozen easily. It was a young and inexperienced crew for the worst game of the week doing their best, but not paying free kicks is just as bad as paying wrong ones

Fitness isn’t the problem, if anything he might be too fit and we might’ve trained the speed out of him. A week off or cutting his game time down towards 70% could help. But we might have to wait until the bye to see if there’s much change with a freshen up.

AFL tightened the appeal rules last year. So I’m not expecting an appeal. Strongly worded statement is required tho. JVR needed a freshen up too I reckon. The shame is it’s 2 weeks. It’s BBB time

If Viney had missed 8 weeks plus preseason with a combination of a medium term injury and serious illness… then absolutely yes, off to Casey. There’s not a single player on our list that I’d pick for a round 9 game under the circumstances Salem has had.

The lack of Casey game this week is unfortunate but I think he has to play VFL next week and then could be ready on the back of 1 VFL game and a lot of training to come in after that. He might take 2 or even 3 VFL games…I mean, I doubt it, but let’s let his Casey form determine it. No way would I be messing around with having him as sub.

Why does moving Petty back necessarily make us a better defensive side? Sure, he gives us more overhead ability but we seem to be giving up more goals when the ball hits the deck. If Petty goes back suddenly Lever gets matched up on a small that other sides can use to catch him out being too intercept happy, particularly as we often have Brayshaw doing the same thing. The balance of our backline (whilst a touch undersized) has looked best this year with Hibberd as the 3rd tall. The scoring differential compared to the last 2 years might well be less about Petty back and much more about moving the ball faster and taking more risks. We were elite defensively for most of last year and the end result was a team that played too safe and was far too focused on stopping goals and not nearly focused enough on kicking them.

JVR definitely gives him a good coat hangering around the head which causes the neck concern. Let's not deny that. But that's a risk when any player makes a spoil. The thing that never gets discussed in incidents like this because people fear that it's victim blaming is how many players have lost the ability to protect themselves. Ballard should've turned his body away from JVR, jumped to get to the ball early and stuck his backside out to protect the space. Had he done even part of that the worst he would've got is the arm in to his guts.

I said hardly ever, not never. Fritsch has had 2 in 3 weeks. And I suspect Gunston's 7 tackles made an impact in that 2016 game. 7 tackles is a good month for Fritsch

The AFL have leaked to one of their spokespeople the Zapruder film which apparently shows JVR looking at his opponent. Personally I’m not sure how looking at someone is a crime but I would think sizing up where an opponent is at to determine how you attempt to contest is actually the responsible thing to do. I don’t see how that’s incriminating at all. As far as I can tell his eyes are on the ball from the moment he leaps to make the spoil. I’d also suggest both JVR and Ballard misread the drop of the ball as it seems to drift away from the goal post late. Without that late drift of the footy JVR would’ve spoiled it cleanly.

Gunston was an excellent pressure player at his best and had versatility to play on a wing or behind the ball too. I doubt he hardly ever had a game where he was invisible for 3/4’s

Dropping him is radical, but I really think Ross Lyon would do it as he did Milne and Dal Santo one year at the Saints. Otherwise I think Fritsch should be constantly encouraged by whichever methods Goodwin, Stafford, Choco and co have to become a more rounded player. He was late to the AFL system and is only 26, there's no reason why he shouldn't be still improving. And to be fair to him I think he has made some ground this year. Disposals and tackles are both marginally up, goal assists are improving. I just think he can be so much more than what he already is which is clearly a very good player.

1. hit forcibly and deliberately with one's hand or a weapon or other implement. That’s a definition of the word strike. In this case it wasn’t deliberate, and there wasn’t a motion that could be called a ‘forcible hit’. JVR’s arm was out stretched in a spoiling motion. Not a striking motion at all. No part of this collision was a striking motion. If they wanted to charge him with some form of rough conduct I wouldn’t agree with it but I’d understand it. Striking - nope, there’s no strike here. Should be thrown out in 5 minutes.

That would most likely require Schache in as the second ruck. I think we’ll see BBB in. But I don’t mind the idea of Gawn CHF and Petty as the second ruck after centre bounces. Petty would be really valuable behind the ball and as an extra mid and would get more involved in games.

Yep, a couple of times our players stopped very quickly and got told they had taken advantage which isn’t how it’s usually called. Generally players get a fair leeway to stop if they haven’t kicked it

Also Brown missed a number of weeks through injury, it was reasonable to start him back at Casey to make sure could get through a game. As that happened others took his spot and he was ordinary at Casey. Why would that get him his spot back right away? Spargo missed 2 weeks. Players are often sluggish and unsure of themselves when they return from concussions so a VFL hit out isn't unreasonable anyway. Meanwhile JJ played some good footy as the 3rd wing/5th mid/half forward which - whilst not like for like - pushed Spargo down the pecking order a bit. Come finals I think you pick your best possible team and don't get too emotional with selection. And you often back in veterans and guys who you know perform roles. But for round 9 it makes sense to me to pick fit players and reward someone like JJ.