DeeSpencer

Right now, I think the likelihood that Tracc starts forward and the emergence of Langford means they’ll go small. And without Kossie I think we’ll see Langdon in a forward and possibly even a fraction on ball. Sharp looks the favourite to start in the defensive forward role. C; Lindsay Rivers Billings HF: Sharp JVR Langdon FF: Fritsch Turner Tracc Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Langford, Chandler, McAdam Sub: Sparrow/Kynan Brown Assuming Tracc, McAdam and Chandler are right to go, but we could see Langdon or Sharp slide back to the wing to open another forward spot and we could go tall to spread the load on the big guys.

There is no long term injury list. The pre season draft was in November. There’s an Inactive List where by a player is medically ruled out for the year and can be replaced by a pre season supplemental selection period that ends on Feb 21 or with the mid season draft. Unless Luker has lost all physical condition or there’s more going on I struggle to see how he’d be deemed out for the year now due to an illness suffered in January. It could happen, but I’d say the more likely outcome is he’s given a chance to come back and if he’s still no good then he gets shut down before the mid year draft.

Wasn’t heavily involved but looks lean and had a couple of classy moments, his change of direction and confidence in his skills are obvious

Tall backs and Forwards did some marking work Mids some rough stoppage on the wing stuff. Laurie copped a nice one from Rivers in a tackle and went off with a blood nose Some different running, sprints for some, longer runs for others. Lindsay dropped by Bowey and Howes in a longer run. Judd McVee is out there, did I completely miss him? Tracc’s doing set shots. Yze, Culley, Roy and Mitch KS were the fill in players today.

Shuffled the teams and pulled a few out so it’s opened right up. Clarry prolific, Langford still finding the ball. May has dominated defensively in both drills really. Ollie Sestan is a lovely user at half back, not sure if the rest of his game will stack up but his kicking is lovely. Jeffo (I’m watching closely) with a beautiful turn of pace, run through a couple of tackles and corridor kick

Spargo and McAdam doing laps with Conca. Fullarton, Tracc, Chandler doing another stuff McVee, Lever, Verrall and Kossie unsighted. Plus Kolt and Luker

I don’t think the Jeffo, Aj, Yze, Ricky Mentha, Roy George forward line will get a run at Afl level but they’ll be fun at Casey

Jeffo juggled contested mark on the wing, in to Andy, picks out the Yze lead to the picket who nails a tight shot under plenty of Viney sledging

Back: May, Petty, Howes, Windsor, Salo Mids: Gawn, Riv, Viney, Sparrow, Billings, Lindsay Fwd: Disco, JVR, Fritsch, Sharp, Langford, Langdon Sharp busy, Langford found good space for 2 snags, Fritsch a class above, Disco with a nice grab. Salo with a lot of the best patches of ball movement with some Windsor moments too. White backline: T Mc, Adams, Hore, Bowey, Sesto, AMW were under the pump.

I think this year is still more about Jeffo getting a taste before pushing for a more permanent spot in 2026. But the match sim highlights show how quick his feet are and how he gets to positions to kick goals. Easy to be optimistic at this time of year but I imagine he’ll have an up and down year but overall he’ll be getting closer. Excited to see a debut at some stage.

Still 6 weeks until round 1 so the good news for Kolt he could miss less than a month. Need Judd and Chin back in the main group sooner than later.

Yikes there’s some work needed if that’s any indication. Not a lot of flow or clean skills involved. The one big positive might be right at the end with the look May and Lever have reacting to McAdam’s spoil.

Rivers is really a mid now until anything changes. Hore is depth. Howes hasn’t gotten involved enough to show he’s an attacking player. AMW is still a project to me, let’s see if a preseason has improved his tank and concentration. So that leaves McVee, Bowey and Salo. All have strengths but none of them are line breaking runners. If Windsor is on the wing he rarely gets to turn the burners on and run by guys and even if he does the reward is the ball is still up against the boundary. Push zoom at half back and the ball is charging through the corridor and on a direct path inside 50. It might not work and for the balance of the team he might have to go back to the wing, or even high half forward. But I see the vision and we need more counter attack from the backline.

Talls: JVR, Turner, AJ, Petty, Jefferson, Fullarton, Kentfield Mediums: Fritsch, Tracc, McAdam, Melk, Langford Smalls: Pickett, Chandler, Spargo, Kolt, Kynan Brown etc Some big changes in every role. Does AJ make the team and then allow JVR full time forward. How does he do in that role? Can Disco round out his game and find consistency between the high quality flashes his showed in 2024? Is Petty a lock down back or does he keep the froward spot given he's the most likely to take a big contested mark and has the tank to hit the wings? I still think there's a very good forward in there but it might take him going back before being swung forward to bring it out! Mediums are a real x factor. I hope Frtisch can bring great form in an up the ground role. Then McAdam can take the deeper role. Combine that with a good dose of Tracc and who knows, maybe Langford is ready to go too and we'll have a super strange line up with a heap of options. Unless McAdam and another of the taller options are pressuring at an insane level I can't see the coaches going away from 3 pressure players. So there's going to be game time for someone like Kynan Brown to take if he's good enough.

Tracc's ball use and defensive running were both pretty poor last year, I think he's at the stage of his career where its only certain games that he should play full time mid and that centre bounces and then forward provides the best way to manage his work rate and get high impact in his game. Especially if Oliver is back and Rivers steps up. That's 3 guys of a similar body shape, athletic profile and even some similarities in their game style. The forwards really can't be responsible for slow, predictable and low skilled forward entries. Chaplin moving to forward coach is clearly an indication they want better structure. Structure simplifies decision making and creates easier targets, that much is on the forwards but the mids have to hit them.

On ball: Oliver, Tracc, Viney, Rivers, Pickett, Sparrow, Kolt, Laurie, Langford Wing: Langdon*, Windsor*, Billings, Woey, Lindsay?, Langford?, Kynan Brown, Chandler There’s a lot up in the air and will be interesting to see how they manage rotations. I think both Tracc and Kossie will have to play forward a fair bit to give us scoring punch and speed/pressure Can Rivers tag? Can he split out to the wing for 30% to mix up his role. Can they work a 8 man backline rotation where he occasionally shifts to half back and Windsor to the wing. Will they trust Billings or either of the young guys on the wings? Because Windsor’s pace off half back and Langdon’s run at half forward give the team a much needed different look, but we have to hold up on the wings. And perhaps the big question is are we fit and skilled enough to play to the new game plan? Fitness seems much improved. But skills might continue to be an issue if it’s just Rivers and Pickett in.

Because despite people glazing over vfl players our depth has been bog ordinary and our best players at 70% fit are better than the alternatives. You also get a year like 2021 health wise about once in 100 years, most of the time you’re carrying guys below their best. I hope there’s most of a squad mentality this year but it’s going to take guys like Jeffo showing he’s physically and mentally ready for that opportunity. The worst of those errors was Spargo in the opening round last year. That was a costly and strange panic decision.

Don’t start the new year making false promises!

None, because I’d have to watch tipping point

Colts, Dolphins, Lions

He was always a phenomenal talent and had a good goal kicking record in big games but I’d argue he wasn’t even a completely serious footballer until 2023 when he really stepped up his two way effort. Had a big finals series that year and even bigger in 2024 where he won them the GWS final, was exceptional in the ruck against Geelong and probably could’ve won the norm smith if he kicked straight in the grand final. They’ve got options to cover him but he’ll be a big loss. I think 1-26 or so they’ve still got the best list. Freo maybe next. If things go right and some young and fringe players step up we’re probably somewhere in a deep chasing pack of teams.

Lions, Eagles, Bucks

It’s not unreasonable to say results were often worse with the new game plan than the old one. But the evidence from 22, 23 and even 24 (port, GWS games) was that it was falling short against quality opponents. Plus it was hurting crowds and I even think hurting players - both physically and with skill development. The club is right to continue to push towards a more attacking and spread out game plan. I don’t know what the myth is? If people think we didn’t try last year to change that’s a myth. But it’s also fair to see that we regressed at various times through the year and probably played the old game plan about half the time. I do think it was mostly out of necessity and I hope we don’t have to do that this year.

Brisbane nearly won the flag in 2023 and finished top 4 for the best part of 5 or so years despite being poor in transition defending before it all came together enough late last year. Geelong 2022 were heavily reliant on Dangerfield winding back the clock to really be a strong midfield contest side. Brisbane have a heck of a list even if they just lost their most talented player. Sydney have a star studded midfield. Hawthorn are coming in a hurry. Freo are stacked. But otherwise the comp seems more open than it has been for a while so you don’t have to be near perfect. The concern is to reach attacking competence with the current list won’t be easy. And it will open us up defensive when our defensive systems have long been based on keeping the ball in tight and good structure.

There were 2 elements to the repeated turnovers that annoyed me. 1. Players not playing to the game plan they’ve been practicing. There was a lot of freewheeling rather than stick to the short kicks that they’ve been training. When they did manage to find a couple of short kicks it often opened up for the switch and there were a number of examples of a half back getting a handball receive, out to a wing, up to Chandler or another half forward and inside 50. 2. Bearing in mind I know they review trainings and I don’t know how in depth their reviews are, a lot of the stuff you see in drills translates to errors in match sim. Just one example but Kynan Brown in the point to point drill received the ball running to the right boundary and then took the time to not just straighten up but aggressively cut back on his left before hitting the target. First play of the game match sim - he gets the ball going right, takes a big cut back on to his left back in to traffic and is pressured in to a turnover.