DeeSpencer

Richmond usually get smashed in the free kick count, why? Because they’re a physical side with a lot of mongrel like their coach, and they’re full of dumb players too. My guess is Richmond sent the word in to the AFL about our marking tactics and made it a focus. So you get the McVee block which was perfectly legal fighting for position and ready to mark being penalised. And the one taken off Fritsch that had no bearing in the contest. And the umps largely took their eye off the ball when it came to Richmond’s backline and midfields constant shoddy tactics of holds. Throw in some blatant wrong decisions like the Gus htb and Nibbler non 50 and you’re on a rough end of things.

Great when they work, no so when they don’t. Handy way of avoiding extreme pressure. Still room for more cohesive tapping of the ball on especially up forward. Hunter’s smarts and bag of tricks is handy but it’s also a reflection that he can’t break the lines at all any more. Could only find room for 6 kicks last night and most weren’t effective.

He was excellent at winning the ball but used it like he was drunk last night, either way, at his age he shouldn’t play 5 day breaks. There’s 17 weeks left to build some consistency.

But the ball had bounced right? I’m not imagining it? Insufficient intent rule has nothing to do with what your opponent may or may not do

Ball had bounced, no? Marking contest is fine but you can’t spoil a bounced ball directly over line. The Gus holding the ball a far bigger crime against the sport

Honestly one of the worst umpired games I’ve ever seen. Paying all the technical ones one way. Missing so much key defender holding. Missing a stack of late Richmond hits.

Richmond without Lynch and Nankervis (and Broad, Soldo, Gibcus and Graham) are ordinary but they were very keen for the game and we did well to grind it back our way. The backline has ball use under pressure and tempo problems. They need to both commit to more attacking footy and pick their moments better. Lever, you’re a long and wide guy. Hibbo, you’re a pick your moments guy. Pleasingly Gus used it better than normal. Mids did a good job. Big 3 all had moments and Langdon was a machine: Sparrow and JJ both worked hard. Grundy couldn’t play much worse early but came in to it. Hunter doesn’t have much left but is working hard, he didn’t trust his kicking tonight. Forwards…. Well it took 3 quarters but they got their in the end. Gawn’s presence was important. Chandler solid. The kid broke it open. Fritsch - pull your finger out mate

Can’t rule out Harmes or Dunstan for one of the big 3 mids either. We can’t have a repeat of the Essendon game running on empty

Out: Hibberd (rested) Hunter (rested) Petty (rested/sore) In: Turner Spargo/Laurie Schache We have to play as a squad on a short break. Petty looks like he can barely move at times. Fresh legs and managing veterans are important.

Well the good news is we know by April that this list is as currently constituted is done. New forward and backline assistant coaches and a big influx of running players needed. Going to be a slog watched 17 more weeks but better to know now than pretend

They got their cap space is a terrible way which led to backloading and over extending Treloar but the decision to move him and his dodgy hammies on has hardly hurt them. Same with swallowing some dead cap money to get rid of Grundy and get a proper mature key forward in McStay with the space. That’s a great out come from being in a bad situation. We’ve signed up a stack of players long term now and there’s every chance at least one of them will be a good candidate for opening up some cap space one day. We’ve even tried it with Tomlinson and Tommy Mc in recent years.

We should laugh at their desire to turnover their list and better allocate resources. It’s something we should learn from

If Johnson’s available and the price is right then maybe we go for him because I agree with need someone. I just think the better fit would be a bigger body

I’m hoping he’s not out for the entire year and they’ve got on top of these groin problems. The last tall we had with iffy groins was Petty who they put on ice for all of 2020. I like the talent, but at his size and having to ruck he’s probably 3-4 years away from us knowing much about him at all. Jefferson might be the same but with his skills and ability to kick a snag my hope would be it’s more 2-3.

I’d like us to better manage the squad when it comes to games with short turn arounds but I think it’s fair to play Gawn in the game he’s first available for even if he’s in doubt for the second. If he’s healthy they can potentially manage his loads through the matches too with Grundy doing a larger share of ruck work.

With Cox, Elliott and Mihocek the wrong side of 30 and McStay not on huge money I doubt the Pies will be short of tall forward dollars to keep Johnson. The only question would be if he gets dropped from the 22 and cracks it or if they’re very confident in landing Ben King or another big name. I’m also not convinced he’s the right guy for us. The plan will be to get Jefferson up and going fairly quickly if things work well, hopefully best 22 alongside Fritsch and JVR in 2025. That’s a fair line up of mobile tall options. The gap in our list is for a genuine tall, possibly who can ruck to take over from Gawn and Ben Brown. Unless Schache suddenly reignites his career or Vitzy becomes a guy.

It was the same May we saw the week before against West Coast when he didn’t chase Darling out on a lead, the same May who got ripped up by Hipwood and McStay in the finals last year. He’s 31 and doesn’t like being vulnerable over the ball, nor does he like going back with the flight in marking contests either, he’ll often drop or double grab those ones. We have to adjust our standards now he’s in the veteran stage of his career. Still a heck of a player but can’t be relied upon to be a complete wall, especially if the ball is coming in white hot.

Exactly, I've watched old games from the 70's, 80's and even early 90's and as soon as a player was tackled it was either ball up or holding the ball. Then coaches bought in congestion and the AFL massively relaxed how quickly decisions were made in order to stop the game becoming one repeat stoppage after another and allowing players to use strength to break tackles. At the same time modern fitness programs really kicked in and the average bulk and upper body strength of players went right up too. I'd like to see 3 changes: 1. A massive and widespread clamp down on holding the man at stoppages. It's crazy to me that umps will pluck out free kicks in front of goal for a defender having their arms around the waist of a forward even if there's no holding and the forward has initiated contact, but allow so much at stoppages. Oliver should get 10 free kicks a game. 2. Be prepared to pay a ball up if a guy is tackled cleanly and immediately 3. Pay holding the ball if there's been prior opportunity more so than if the tackle is fully complete. Whilst it will lead to a few instances that look a bit like touch footy if a player has had prior they really only need to be wrapped up The first 1 in particular I just find really inexcusable that there is so much holding at stoppages. The more open stoppages are the less danger there is of repeat tackling.

They lined Petty up to do it last week he just took a half to get going, which might been because we couldn’t get any pressure at all on Essendon. Gawn will certainly help, if nothing else it will take some game time from Grundy and make sure when’s in the ruck he’s got no excuse not to be in position.

Looks like there’s someone in the group photo down from JJ that I don’t recognise. Could they have sent the AFL Academy to train with clubs this week? I don’t know

Turner was good a week ago in his first game back and even better this week. He’s now ready to be considered for selection as the second key back ideally alongside Lever and May. Schache has recovered from his concussion and is now ready to be picked as a forward/ruck, ideally alongside a couple of talls who will do the bullocking work and let him use his endurance and skills. But if Lever, Gawn and BBB all come back alongside Grundy, May and Petty there’s only 1 tall spot left. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that will be for JVR this week, with Petty down back. But maybe Turner could be the option from next week and we could look at a Petty/BBB/resting ruck forward half.

When Mitch Robinson is calling out your bs then you know you’ve stuffed up. Or you should. He was white anting North from the moment JHF got there and should take a lot of the responsibility for why many of the footy public aren’t happy with the kid. Few people actually dislike the kid, most dislike the way he didn’t give his best at North and then quickly bailed on them. So he gets a bit of booing and social media commentary and Cornes then suggests Hinkley is a hero for calling it out. He’s got no shame though and has already pushed the same angle with comments about Pickett. And he’s repeatedly had a crack at Walsh, Sheezel and other young players when the angle is the Port guys are better. Which goes completely against his praise or Kenny for suggesting people back off a young player.

It’s hard to compare Laurie to current afl players because a one paced small without much of an overhead game isn’t really an afl player, thicker slower Spargo is about it. But he has great agility and I think if he can develop that in to short burst pace in to the contest he can be a good mid/forward. Just got to see him drive those legs and use his bulk and a low centre of gravity. Missing that top age junior year where he would’ve been a mostly a mid at Oakleigh probably set him back too. Woey has the bulk (just a little now but more to come) and strength at the contest that held Stretch back. His kicking has always been below par. He has to develop like Ed Langdon or Nibbler. Pace, work ethic and versatility to play wing or half forward gives him a chance. I still think he can even debut this year (despite the set back) if we want a wing/forward role player. Sestan probably doesn’t project as a gun aerial target like say a Fritsch but he’ll find a way to take a nice grab here or there. I’m impressed that his burst, power and skills all look the goods even in limited doses.

It was an excellent defensive performance by Casey given they didn’t have Tomlinson, didn’t have Buntine who’s been the back up for Tommo at times and had a lot of youth up forward who weren’t in great defensive positions early. Disco did a great job on Patty Voss who has been one of the best forward in the VFL this year. Deak Smith shut down Walla and used the ball better this week. Howes wasn’t as good as he has been but still showed his talent with his zip and skills. Adams got more involved and I liked that he was in some body on body marking contests, still plenty of work to do tho. Harmes is too strong and quick for this level and his ball use was at least ok if not good for an inside mid. Would still like to see another sharpen up for him tho. Dunstan solid. Laurie slowly took over the game as it went on, just not sure his moves will work at afl intensity yet. Excellent first game back for Taj is every aspect apart from his kicking It was a quiet day for the forwards apart from Schache. Essendon set up well and didn’t allow many clean chains on ball movement through half forward and the inside 50’s were ugly most of the time. I loved seeing Sestan get some midfield time, even just as a taste.

I’m glad the people of South Australia have solved transport, education, health care, housing, crime, renewable energy and jobs and can now invest 15 million so footballers can bump their average wage from 400k to 425k. That’s great. I hate this round with an absolute passion. There was no need for a 23rd round. Already there’s too many injuries and particularly too many concussions. Now we just added more. There’s also no lack of opportunity to travel as an AFL fan. Already as a Dees fan you could’ve gone to Perth and Brisbane. With Gold Coast, Adelaide, Hobart and Sydney to come. Not to mention Geelong! The fixturing was outrageous. Freo played at 3pm WA time. Collingwood and St Kilda don’t play again, neither do we and Essendon. The 6 day break and double travel was a stitch up too, although serious questions must be asked of why we didn’t stay the week in Adelaide. Pert, Goody and Richo asleep at the wheel? Port should’ve been a standalone game, it’s obvious any double up shouldn’t have included a local side. The entire thing was rushed, which is Gil’s style (see AFLW and AFLX). So North and Brisbane played at the worlds most over-capitalised local oval in the Casey fields of Mount Barker. Which now is seemingly justification for the SA government to spend the same on ovals in the Barossa and McLaren Vale which is where they wanted to be in the first place. Health, education and sustainable jobs in regions are all stuffed but the AFL’s preferred turf company will get a cheque and tourism will be good for 1 week. Oh and my favourite bit, they’ve axed the round of preseason games where all 18 teams would go to the regions around the country and play on existing ovals. Don’t tell me the players are getting it easier in preseason either because they really aren’t, most clubs weren’t subtle at all about the formal intraclubs that replaced the 3rd preseason game.