DeeSpencer

As for Charlie Cameron, I’d try to rotate McVee, Bowey and Rivers through him. Don’t ask one player to go it alone the full game

Laurie played a fairly defensive half forward game and I think he did a solid job of what was asked from him. But he would’ve know it was pretty much a 1 game contract. He can go back to the VFL now knowing he’s got the tank and discipline to do a job and he had a couple of skilful touches too. He’s not 23 and fighting for his last chance, he’s still a kid and 1 game in to a 2 year contract extension. Viney and Fritsch replacing Pickett and Laurie just means rejigging Harmes, Chandler and Sparrow’s roles a little bit. It’s not a big deal in terms of structure. They want Viney to do some stints at half forward and from what I saw at training they want Fritsch to do more on a flank too. So it’s not too drastic.

Have you seen any of his AFL games? No disrespect to Josh who I hope is ready to go if needed but I actually don't want to see him play. JVR will get his chance, there's no need to rush it. McDonald did little more than hit up and create space but look at the Dogs forward line and Lever being best on ground and realise there's a lot of value in a lead up CHF who covers a stack of ground.

He'll stir up as much controversy as he can this year about Pickett to try to make him unsettled and move to Port. He was relentless with North and JHF last year.

King wants every player who does something wrong hanged, drawn and quartered because he thinks it will somehow magically stop all incidents. Funnily enough he doesn’t apply the same logic to himself and numerous fellow North team mates who have had run ins with the law. Cornes is just a troll with a sinister motive.

I believe KC said we had 16 demons out there and no Woey who was getting a broken finger repaired. So the line up would be something like this. FF: Sestan Scache Jeffo HF: AMW JVR C; Howes JJ HB: D. Smith D. Turner Hibberd FB: J. Smith Adams? K. Turner Foll: KFW Dunstan? Int: Verrell That's a lot of young talls and an incredibly light on midfield if there's none of the better Casey mids in Munro, White or Grey. Whilst I hope they can win games which needs a bit more Casey and Melbourne experience in the middle I do like the idea of our young talls and mids actually getting a chance to be important structural players. Now he's had a taste of AFL footy I'd love to see Laurie in the midfield at Casey and getting 25 touches a week.

If it was high impact to the head then Bailey Smith would still be waking up. Medium impact at most. Kossie isn’t responsible for the afl hiring a fraud as their concussion doctor and various other mistakes over the years.

I’m happy sauce got a second chance. His kicking did improve from a low base. His endurance took a big step forward with the Burgo years and training with Langdon. He probably couldn’t had a chance last year but the coaches didn’t rate his contest work. The dogs flick the ball around more and he might do fine there. Laurie is an interesting player. There’s a lot against him making it but he has smarts and great character. I just see him as a project player which you don’t expect from an early pick mid/forward but sometimes that’s what you get. I thought he worked really hard tonight to do his role. McVee, still a list of talented opponents for him to play to frank his defensive capabilities. But he’s clearly got class and balance and his jump from year 1 to year 2 has been an incredible surprise.

And playing half forward. With Nibbler take a big stretch of wing minutes. We won’t be able to go with 2 (or 3) small wingers against certain sides in big games, I love that they’re working on versatility now

Most of the contact is shoulder but it won’t save him

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.