DeeSpencer

Tim English wanted no piece of Bowser

Macrae should go for headbutting, the dogs have form

Looked far more comfortable than last year and credit to him. Better at ground level too. Maybe Caminiti at the Saints is just really good? Reports are he gave Weitering trouble.

GWS dollars aren’t worth as much, they were dying for a pressure small, Bedford was 1.80. Ready for more senior footy but a 2 year deal was probably fair. Chandler is hardly a lock for a 2 year deal. But today was a very start. Stocks rising to a 1.85 tonight.

English is super fit and will ruck high minutes with a brief chop out from Lobb and possibly Darcy. Maybe even some Bont as I doubt Bevo is scared of Grundy's marking around the ground. Lobb chose to go to the Dogs so he can play predominantly forward. And we aren't going to use Max Gawn as a full back. Gawn and Grundy will drop back from the ruck, which is a move we do to engineer a spare defender and that's entirely different to playing as a key defender. Obviously the aim will be to get the ball forward, lock it in and establish our set up of the ground with Gawn or Grundy dropping out. If we could establish that consistently then yes I'd go with Turner. But I think the Dogs mids and ball movement deserves a lot of respect and that we will have to defend one on one at times and I don't like the match ups of Turner or Lever forced to take one of Lobb or Naughton, or even Darcy with his extra height. Where as at the other end I think we can get the resting ruck or JVR to have success against Bruce or Keath if we get the supply right. And it's chicken v egg in terms of whether we lost our drive off half back last year because Tommy was out, or if we just lost run in general and broke down more at CHF. But with Hunter and Pickett in the midfield and more midfield rotations I don't think Tom is critical to our drive from half back. The half backs just need to run and use the ball, the talls will make space.

Is it negative or the practical thing to do? Tomlinson isn’t in form. Schache hasn’t trained back with us. Forget them. Turner’s the only viable option from those 3 and he’s only just developing as a key back. He came in to the system as a tall flanker hasn’t really played key back at Casey given he’s had Tommo and Ellison alongside him. T Mc can go back and give a strong aerial contest which is what we need. The training reports got a little out of hand but JVR is ready to go and the best tall outside the 22. I’d be backing him to do the job.

I agree. I’m one of our bigger depth skeptics because most of the players outside our best 22 are break in case of emergency types with specific roles or untried kids. The best depth is ascending young players who have had a taste and are pushing for more opportunity. We’re potentially going to expand our depth pool by 3 if one of Turner or JVR replaces May and they all do well. Add the leftover tall and Taj Woey who I think can push his claims and suddenly there’s 5 potential upside guys ready to contribute

The back half of last year we didn’t have any options up forward without Tom. This year we’ve got JVR fitter, stronger and ready to go. Get him in

Laurie might not offer much but he has some class and craftiness, JJ just doesn't offer much at all as a forward. They'd have to play him wing and use Hunter and Langdon forward which isn't the plan. I'm tipping JJ is the sub. There's now a challenge set to Woey to show he's close to a debut because I think he was next man up as a half forward flanker. And the same for AMW who has the talent, just needs a run of matches to build match fitness after missing a lot of preseason.

I think they've known Fritsch and Viney were out for a while, no point making it look like a mass collapse of our players all at the same time. The Dogs might still have to play for May, so keep them guessing for a while longer yet

I think Hibbo’s case over McVee is strengthened if it’s Turner. They won’t want to be so young and inexperienced down back. If it’s Tommy Mc then McVee might still get the nod.

Do we have depth? Tomlinson hasn't been able to win a contest since his knee injury, anyone who saw him play v the Saints wouldn't be picking him. Disco is a good young prospect but he's best suited filling in for Petty or Lever rather than being tasked to take someone like Lobb or Naughton. His best footy is up the ground intercepting rather than being isolated on bigger and stronger talls. I don't want to weaken the forward line but with the rucks and BBB we have avenues to goal and height up forward. The 2nd key forward role is more supportive so I'm ok with JVR in that role. Fritsch is a loss regardless but one we'd like to be able to cover with Chandler and a rotation of Tracc/Pickett.

Yep I was going to say the same, that's Jay Z just taking a guess. McDonald back and JVR in at CHF for me.

It's always hard to judge on ballers from the ground so I couldn't say much about what he did or didn't do v the saints in the first game, but I thought his positioning and work rate was pretty solid against the Tigers. They could go JJ but he's never looked comfortable at half forward. And I'd consider Taj Woey, but I think Laurie has trained all summer (and years previous) as a half forward and they'll want someone who gets the defensive positioning right.

If he’s picked it’s not really to make a huge impact with the ball, although I’d hope he has some moments of class. He’d be picked because he’s a disciplined and smart off ball runner, he did a pretty good job keeping goal side of the tigers half backs.

Social media let a small clue slip with a prominent Laurie photo. Logically it with be Laurie or Woey and I think they’ll stick with Laurie as the forward. Same 22 as the Tigers game. Doubt they mess around with talls for no reason

He’s very smart, a beautiful short to medium kick and when committed a very good runner. But don’t overreact to a couple of preseason games when he’s been desperate to make a good impression. For one, we have to hope his commitment goes all year (and beyond). And his lack of burst speed and strength at the contest will both be tested at times. He’s potential a great help for Langdon but we also have to be prepared for teams running Blicavs through the wing and needing Hunter to go back or forward or Langdon forward to get a taller wing. Hopefully the coaches have plans for that.

Forward pressure wise I thought the Saints were good and the Tigers were at a minimum ok. Both sides weren’t at their peak in terms of midfield intensity. The saints ran a lot of numbers through and the tigers had experienced players cruising and new guys from gws learning the ropes. Of course neither were we, with Grundy new to the team and a stack of rotations

BBB was beaten in a lot of 2 on 1 contests by Grimes or others coming off Chandler as the 3rd man up. Fritsch back in his usual role could change that dynamic. Overall minus a couple of mistakes I think BBB did enough. I also think JVR’s willingness to chase and tackle looks great at training but might take a while to translate to afl footy. It’s damn hard to lay tackles on gun afl defenders when you’ve worked super hard to compete in the air and you don’t know their movements instinctively. Another factor is we love engineering the spare back by dropping the ruck out. That makes our key forwards compete 2v1. Not saying it’s wrong but our coaches have designed a game plan to boost the stats of Gawn, Lever, May etc and make life hard for the tall forwards. At the same time we absolutely have to be proactive with making the changes with the talls. JVR needs game time. Brown needs rest. I think Harmes will be sub if Viney and Fritsch get up. Pickett, Sparrow and a sprinkle of ANB will be the 4th, 5th and 6th on ballers (plus a dash of Rivers or Gus) and they trust Hunter to play big wing minutes. So they’ll prefer Chandler’s forward craft and left foot. I’m surprised Harmes is worthy of so much discussion. He’s a very good on baller, he’s a good wingmen, he’s very useful for versatility if used as a 3rd wing/on baller/forward as he was in 2021. If he’s a forward/mid and tasked with too many decisions with the ball especially around half forward he struggles and is fighting for a spot. Most players struggle in that role though, you can’t just go the shop and pick up gun 2 way mid/forwards.

It’s a bit unfair to compare as Taj came on fresh at 3/4 time to a fairly open game with most senior players pretty well in to junk time ready for round 1. He ran hard to get to get touches, had one risky corridor kick in to Petracca that was turned over but otherwise seemed to use it safely. Moved from half forward on to the ball late Laurie wasn’t involved much but his time on ground seemed to come mostly in the first half that was a tighter more contested game. I thought he worked hard to defend and seal off his opponent, but his lack of speed to lay tackles or break in to open space did seem noticeable. I was really happy he managed to have a great moment with the clever tap on.

You’re short a defender

Petty - in theory anyway - is a genuine pack marker, a thing Brown struggles with and JVR isn’t particularly strong in at this stage. I wouldn’t be dismantling our backline right now and making a downgrade, but if the forward line struggles we absolutely have to try Petty. And that means making sure we have options down back, so JVR would be a natural to move down back at Casey.

35.23 in his last 23 VFL games, I don’t think Chandler has too many issues. Hitting the right post from 50 with the wind blowing right to is the right kick with a bad result. I’ll have to see the replay but his long shot on the run didn’t see to miss by much, the other was pretty gettable but some days you miss an easier one and the stats look worse than the technique

Clydeaho still stinks to high heaven. Richmond supporters live locally and would rock up to Baghdad for a game of footy. But they’ve finally added a second entrance to the fields so you can get in and out. Plus almost enough car parks given the only way to get there is to drive. I literally heard Richmond supporters bragging about drink driving which is always nice. A stack of roadworks down Clyde road widening the road because they were too stupid or greedy to do that before they built all the housing. Not nearly enough toilets, food or drink facilities and there wasn’t enough capacity on the hill for todays game either. At least the usual gale force winds were replaced with sticky humidity. A nice change, especially when there’s next to no shade out there.

If everyone pulls up well then the selection questions will be; 1. Hibberd vs McVee for the back pocket spot. With the Dogs having 4 talls I think Hibbo comes right in to the frame 2. Who comes out if Viney and Fritsch are right to go. Laurie is one spot. I understand people will want to go smaller without Ben Brown but I doubt we will do that. Nor do I think JVR comes in unless he was truly excellent in the VFL. It comes down to Harmes v Chandler and I don’t have a strong opinion one way or another on that. My guess is Chandler in with Harmes as sub