DeeSpencer

You can be as competitive as you want but are you turning down double the money? Because that’s the kind of offers guys got at GWS and GC. The best argument might be he’s from Launceston so it’s not like he’d really be home if he’s off to Hobart. Driving is far more convenient than flying but the actual commute for hopping on a plane isn’t much different. I’d almost always go with the talent as long as they’re happy to come (and he would be because he’s not sitting out 4 years), but it’s a factor.

He looks a serious talent but even without the Tassie go home factor I’m not absolutely sold. Prolific, tenacious and great burst speed but decision making doesn’t look great. I got hammered for saying last year that I’m far from convinced this year will be a super draft and I think it’s shaping up weaker than last years top end crop. The talls apart from Walter aren’t blowing me away, the medium forwards haven’t come on and Harley Reid’s the only consensus top 10 mid from Vic, WA or SA which is bizarre.

Chandler has a bit more physical pressure in tight, but Spargo is one of if not our most organised in getting the zone set. They bring different attributes defensively. We won’t get much from BBB and Melk, but I wonder how much defensive cohesion can improve as those guys as well as Tracc, Sparrow and Woey settle in together We’re also one paced in the middle with Gus and JJ both full time mids. We miss Clarry’s defensive speed.

I was hyperbolic saying we got nothing. We had the slight edge as we should’ve winning the contested ball. I was upset with JVR got a monster shove out square in the back and not long after Daniher takes a huge dive when May rested his hands on either side of his hips for balance. The ump was 40m away. I’m convinced 4 umpires haven’t done a better job officiating inside 50’s, if anything they get caught out worse now than ever as the middle umps assume the inside 50 ump has an angle on every contest rather than trying to cover each other. That’s a structural issue. I also think we’ve been playing Brisbane for years and had them scrag our mids and forwards with early tackles, force turnovers and take the ball away. Every side does it but for Brisbane it’s a clear tactic against us. It’s at the stage where I’m shocked Goodwin hasn’t gone public with it. Brisbane’s mids are smaller and lighter than ours and have a plan to tackle, which is legal, but starting those tackles before the player gets the ball is not. After about the 5th consecutive incident of Starcevich tackling Petracca at forward 50 stoppages we got the free. The crowd caught on to it before the umps and made some noise. Rare and impressive work from the demon fans.

I really want Laurie to succeed and there’s no doubt he’s got skills and vision but I can’t see how his lack of speed and physicality doesn’t get exploited. Apart from still needing another summer in the gym I really think he has to at least rotate on ball to succeed at afl level. And with a packed midfield rotation as is that’s not going to happen.

So just completely copy Collingwood despite far different personnel, why haven't 17 other teams thought of that? Mindset, easy done, should all be fixed now. Mindset 1 v Mindset 2 in the grand final, should be a great match.

How do we get it to the corridor? 1. Force turnovers in the corridor? Unlikely, given teams don't use it much against us when our pressure is on, and when they do we aren't exactly known as a quick inside midfield brigade likely to cut teams down in the middle. 2. Run it to the corridor? We absolutely need to do this more, but we aren't exactly full of half backs with blistering pace or midfielders with creativity. Tracc and Clarry are masters of getting the ball on the rebound and running the corridor, but without them in the midfield it's less likely to happen. 3. Kick it to the corridor. I'd like to see this more, but the reality is we don't have a lead up CHF so it's generally reliant on overloading the corridor with sneaky little ANB leads or some such thing. Tracc likes a short little lead in to the corridor but it's really hard kick to master. The big thing we need to do to either run or kick in to the corridor is for our backs to stop having their first reaction being handballing or kicking as wide and skinny side as possible. I'm happy to risk a few chase down tackles to encourage our defenders to run and link towards the space. 'In one side, out the other' is a very basic rule for defensive rebounding and would serve us so much better than our usual habit of immediately seeking the boundary in the backline.

Shout out to the crowd for actually getting fired up in the last quarter. Didn't exactly help us with the umps as we got stuff all for most of the night but I'm sure it helped the players and put some doubt in to the Lions players mind. Far from the biggest but certainly one of the more passionate demons crowds I've witness at least since covid. Maybe tonight we didn't have as many of the bandwagoners from after 2021 and had more of the crazy nutters who sat through the lean years.

Petty was on Hipwood as much as Lever early, and that’s a pretty normal Hipwood stat line. 5 intercepts is a bad day for Jake. 80% efficiency isn’t a surprise when you don’t take any risks or provide any drive with the footy. 189m gained, that’s very ordinary.

Certainly, we were hacking high balls to CHF rather than moving it with any intent. Easy Harris punches fell to Lions mids who were lining up. But other times the Lions would switch and then hit a lead up forward before streaming through. When we pressed up rather than leaving an easy outlet we got the ball back to our mids to charge the other way

Far bigger stronger more experienced defenders get themselves in big trouble when Charlie Cameron gets them in that bench press position, he usually works them up the ball then escapes out the back. Judd has so much composure just to stay in the contest, read the drop, get a fist in.

Yep our defenders were sucking back and the lions were rolling forwards up and then running through us. Plus we had no attacking drive at all. Once we had no choice but to take it on we saw Rivers and Bowey make key intercepts, we had ANB getting involved back though the corridor and the forwards at least had a chance to compete

The question is can Gawn do the same thing rucking 70-80% and resting forward 10%. And can Grundy ruck 20-30%, to stay in the game, whilst making an impact in 50-60% forward time? And what forwards do we need around them. That’s roughly the balance of the Gawn-Jackson combination of 2021, where Jacko was good enough forward and then obviously he got the call to do more ruck work in the granny. The other consideration is the forwards. Probably has to be BBB OR JVR, plus Melk and Fritsch and Tracc to make it work.

Lever had a stinker? Very few intercepts, turned around multiple times, no attacking drive. Luckily he did just enough to not get beaten on the siren

Umm because Grundy is not a good forward where as Jackson in 2021 at least was really underrated as a mobile forward and not ready to ruck big minutes.

There’s 3 factors with Grundy being Drested this week that haven’t been mentioned: 1. He went missing in the Cats game for a chunk of time that’s yet to be explained, he might’ve been carrying something since then and they’ve been eyeing an opportunity for a week off OR scared of being further damaged on 2 short breaks. 2. McInerney is very much a Gawn match up. Head to head its 2 bean pole marking type rucks. He also rucks 80% by himself and the remaining 20% is done by Daniher who can be very dangerous but kind of suits JVR (hopefully) as mostly a threat around the ground. 3. Grundy still makes a lot of odd positional decisions that don’t really show up on the stat sheet. Whilst I’m worried we’ll miss his follow up at stoppages and I’m worried Gawn’s about hacking of the ball I still have more confidence in Gawn getting to the right spots.

How’s he meant to drop back in defence if he’s playing forward? If he’s only rucking half as much as he used to then he can only be in the backline half as much too.

There’s not a pathway for both of them playing in the same side that doesn’t involve them being forwards. Geelong managed to achieve 2 rucks on ball because Blicavs can play as a genuine midfielder. There’s no level of freshness that will see Grundy playing as a midfielder in 2023. He’s too cumbersome, and he’s forgotten to kick the ball too. The best hope is that they cover the ground well so they call their own switches and appear to both be in the ruck. But one will be the designated forward. Gawn’s very good in the CHF long target role as long as we move it quick enough. And Grundy does move well on leads and create space, plus he’s a nice kick for goal, he can function as a forward. The issue is we need a pair of mobile and versatile key forwards to shuffle around them to make it work. Resting Grundy is as much about BBB’s limitations as it is the 2 rucks

Every week, there's 20-30 Rising Star candidates, one of them has to be best afield from that group. The player that is best afield gets the weekly nomination. Every week, 44 (or 46 but I've yet to see a sub get brownlow votes) run out and the best player gets 3 votes. You don't win the Brownlow if you aren't putting up good voting games early in the year is my point. There's flaws in both systems. But I don't understand your qualm. The best player out of any group is highly likely to announce themselves with strong performances early in the year. Most of the winners being nominated early in the season and a few defenders getting nominated later as their body of work starts to shine through is exactly what you'd expect for the award.

I'll get banned if I let my full thoughts be known on that article. Honestly it's absolutely nonsense. Trying to retroactively include a player in an NGA. A player who goes to Melbourne Grammar and plays for the Sandy Dragons at that too. Just taking the mickey. But the reality is North have a future midfield of LDU, Simpkin, Thomas, Phillips, Powell, Sheezel and Wardlaw. The idea that a side that stacked with young talent needs a priority pick is laughable. The best thing we ever did was stop asking for assistance and start trading out of high picks or future picks and let the competition know we aren't going to be rubbish any more. If North want more talent they can trade a future first and get it that way

His attack on the contest has been off since round 1 and the one thing he has been bringing is forward pressure. I’m not sure why we’d suddenly take away the one thing he does well and ask him to do more of the thing he hasn’t been doing (winning contested ball). We also can’t afford to weaken our forward pressure with BBB, 2 rucks and no Chandler.

Bowey and Rivers are good across half back although we do miss that aspect of Hunt’s game. The forward line could certainly do with someone express pace to help Kossie but the bigger issue is when we go with too many plodding talls. Chandler has some quick steps on him but overall isn’t fast over a distance for a small and same goes for Spargo. The midfield has definitely lacked pace at times this year and it’s highlighted without Oliver and when Tracc isn’t exploding from stoppages. Especially as Langdon has been contained. Langdon and Oliver are the only mids who I can consistently picture running and carrying the ball in space through the midfield. ANB at times too. There’s certainly a need for more players who can link up with hands through the middle. That’s how you mess up defensive set ups and get the ball through to the fat side or in to deep forward entries.

When you say a lot what you really mean is 2. Peter Wright - who no one thought was actually good, and Jarrod Lyons who they strangely gave away for nothing to the Lions.

How many players have won a Brownlow without getting a 3 voter in the first 9 rounds? How many players have won a Best and Fairest without getting full votes in the first 9 rounds? There's usually 20-30 eligible players in each round, of which at most 5 are genuine contenders for the award. Guys who play high level footy throughout the season. This year the genuine contenders are Sheezel, Ashcroft, Owens, Amiss and for me Michalanney. All 5 have been above average players for the majority of the season and played stand out games. It's no surprise they were nominated early. McVee hasn't been on that level. By the way, the 3 guys nominated later all played down back. You can build a resume by playing really good footy as a defender without stand out games to get the award. A forward or a mid is going to have the easy stats to get nominated. There's almost no way to kick 30-40 goals and win the award as a forward without grabbing an early nomination. Same for a mid who averages 20+ touches.

Hardwick's certainly been a great coach, there's just some doubt on whether he will be good yet alone great at the Suns if he goes there. Odd are he'll be at least good, but coaches do have mixed records second time around.