DeeSpencer

Gawn hasn’t jumped in the ruck since about 2016 and it’s not a surprise it’s getting more and more difficult for him to chase quick mids (or even quick rucks). Grundy’s not a great jumper either and his tap work is haphazard, but hopefully he builds that cohesion. His follow up is certainly excellent. Still some work with defensive positioning and with his decision making with the pill. Hint for Brodie; none of our mids can kick, don’t be afraid to pull the trigger yourself! 80% TOG against 2 rucks found him out, but rucking 50-60% and some short stints forward is about right. The bit I really like is when the rucks can call their own change based on a big effort or match up. That way we aren’t wasting rotations and can get fresher legs on the long down the line and at stoppages.

We put the 3 firsts on the table for Essendon, my mail said Phillipou, with an Essendon second rounder back, which really means it’s the equivalent of 2. Clubs have put similar big deals together for Petracca, JHF, Dusty and probably others. The problem is if you get a consensus superstar number 1 pick it’s very hard to see a team giving that away. Best case scenario is our pick is the last one of the first round. Freo’s pick we’ll likely try to upgrade but hey, let’s just get an Oliver and pick 4, that will do.

I’m not sure the AFL’s elite concussion protocols are available but you’d think they’d match pretty closely to the community ones. It’s pretty much rest for 1-2 days, light exercise, rest, skill session, rest, non contact team drills, rest, full training. Even if he had a few days of symptoms early last week he could’ve progressed to a skills session by Sunday. https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2021/05/02/2b197edf-0f6f-4004-a3ee-0e0de4425de9/Return-to-Play-Following-Concussion-Checklist-Form.pdf

Our wingers are excellent at rolling back, so are our mids. If anything our mids we’re caught too deep against Richmond as they squared the ball outside 50 multiple times which worked early. Our half are generally very good although we missed Spargo whos one of the best at getting the spacing set up across the ground. The issues come on fast transition after clear turnovers or bad inside 50’s where our mids and Hunter all aren’t great on speedy transition. The first line of defending that is better inside 50’s with proper pressure, once that happened after quarter time against Richmond we drastically cut down those problems. I agree there’s probably a degree of confidence with May’s kicking, but the other thing is just a lack of run from all the backline and mids. Interspersed with guys like Lever and Viney trying to do the team thing and get rid of the ball within 3 seconds offen to their own detriment. Hibbo mainly, with some occasional McVee and Riv stand out for their desire to run and get overlap handballs, the rest of the backline are keen for chip kicks or handballs wide to the pocket. And often to the thin side pocket which is congested and makes 20-30m kicks near on impossible. Get the handballs going and the kicks will follow.

May had 11 intercept possessions against Richmond and for a fair part of the game I thought he played very well. Our zone system asks May to stay back inside 50 and let his man go up and mark outside 50. Largely that has served us well. By the time a forward marks around 60m out someone comes and takes the mark, others fill in the spaces and May nullifies the corridor meaning teams can’t get high quality shots on goal. The issue is teams have identified the 40-50m zone as an area where May will still drop back and surrender leads in to. This is still a low percentage shot on goal but it’s a bit higher than I’d like to give up! Personally I think May plays his best games where he’s given a dangerous one on one match up and told not worry about the zone. But when he’s not playing on Buddy or Naughton and especially when he doesn’t have full faith in the other defenders he will default to zoning. When the zone works with upfield pressure you end up with teams kicking long to May by himself inside d50. That doesn’t end well for them. I’m not buying the injury excuse. He looks fine when he’s coming up at contests with confidence. He’s always been a little iffy when forced to attack the ball on the ground and he’s 31 now. There’s a couple of tweaks I’d like in our zone, the first been for May to trust the deep defenders a touch more and see if he can win contests around the 50m arc. He had one such big win in the 3rd with an aggressive spoil that started a chain of possessions for a goal. The second one is just more communication with Brayshaw, Rivers, McVee etc when he’s going to let his man come free outside 50. I don’t necessarily think we have to go taller (short term) but the flankers have to be more aware of the handover. And especially for Grundy when he’s the ruck who often takes that handover.

I don't think this is our year either, and I could do a lengthy post about our lack of backline run and kicking skills, our midfield looking one paced and being unable to hit the side of a barn and how I'd like our forward line to have both another dangerous small as well as a pair of high quality talls. But I don't understand criticising the coaches for not sticking with the same ageing talls who haven't done much of anything since 2021 whilst also saying things are similar to last year. BBB and Tommy combined for 1.7 in the VFL. JVR kicked 3 in the last quarter to win the match. Gawn was instrumental in the 3rd quarter. And whilst Petty hasn't set the world on fire up forward he has got first hands on the footy a fair bit and his ability to change direction and chase is a mile better than Brown and T Mc.

I thought Sparrow was rock solid. Nibbler was Nibbler but he helped turn the game. And I’m not sure what more you could want from Langdon who was excellent.

Koz has great attack on the man but his attack on the ball goes wanting, really poor dropped chest mark last night when he was worried about what was coming. Often puts up low disposal numbers in big high pressure games. He was also used exclusively as a pressure small because without Spargs and with incohesive talls we definitely needed all the pressure he could give. Still should’ve kicked a couple. Hopefully they can find a way to get him some easier touches. Even if he’s starting forward I’d like him to be the guy charging in to the square at centre bounces and to be given a role at forward half stoppages.

Tom re-signed in 2018 when he was just about All Australian at CHF. No issues with that deal even if it aged like milk. We did have Lever though, and May was on the way in for Hogan out. The issue was the 2 year extension given in 2021 to spread out his 2022 money over this year and next. Unless that gave us incredible cap savings in 2022 it’s likely been a mistake as it’s hurt us this year and next. We might’ve been better just taking the hit last year and then having him at his real value now and if he goes on. Personally I still think he has the physical gifts to be a strong lead up CHF but he refuses to jump at the ball. Maybe that’s injuries but it might be mental trying to avoid further injury. I’d play him down back at Casey and let him play with freedom.

I thought it was Petty, but yes Vlastuin about 5m behind the contest copped a minor block. Completely inconsequential to the actual marking contest

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.