DeeSpencer

Had time to watch the replay and agree with others that it was a solid but unspectacular Casey performance. Probably more of a win for their system than individual player performances. The midfield was probably about even on the day. Dunstan and Munro were certainly prolific but didn't exactly break the game open. Laurie had a bit of time on ball in the first half and had some quality moments, seemed to play forward in the 3rd then leave at 3/4 time. A lot of baldy the Baldi after that. And George Gray was solid all day and I'm convinced there's lesser talents on AFL lists. Buntine, Steele and McRae the wing rotation. Buntine might be a very good coach if he's as smart as he plays. Backline were excellent. Really liked the Casey duo of Shep and Gregory. Jed Adams was tested early by Aaron Francis but battled in to it. Tomlinson wasn't perfect on McLean but he won his share of direct contests and then did very well as the sweeper. K Turner had some good moments. Whilst most of Howes' marks came from team mates I did think he looked strong in some ground ball contests especially early and he positioned well to receive the ball. His kicking was safe but quick. It wasn't quite a demand to be picked game like Hibbo's last week but it was certainly well worth taking notice of. Up forward, Sestan - classy and smart if not involved a heap. Jefferson - the 3 of the 4 goals we could actually see were as soft as they come. No idea about the 4th that occurred with the screen offline. But he had one strong inside 50 mark pinched by AMW, one mark taken by the umps for what I thought was a push in the side and a couple of nearly grabs. Speaking of AMW I thought he displayed the most talent of anyone on the ground. His ability to win a contest on the ground or in the air was excellent and he just needed to tidy it up a touch. Tommy Mc dominated Gould in the air as he should and led up well, but unfortunately his disposal was largely junk. He never takes the quick handball option and loves the big U turn or the fend and his field kicking radar was mostly absent. Good to get him some touches but probably needs at least another week to start doing something with them because he should've been dominant.

We have a habit of making Reid look very good, and he has a habit of kicking his set shots against us when he often can't hit the side of the barn. Amartey got to play the Reid role of getting some easy touches but luckily his radar wasn't on. The Swans talls - whilst capable - have often beat us because our midfield drops away. Some times at the contest against a strong and consistent Swans midfield, but more often and more dangerously when they get their running game rolling with their deep collection of skilled mids and flankers. Apart from some short periods in the 2nd and 3rd when they found space we did a good job of keeping them contained. The likes of Warner, Gulden, Florent, Mills and so on will run and gun through a lot of sides

And thinking about the gather round are we going to Perth, coming home, then flying to Adelaide? Would be a good opportunity to stay in Perth or Adelaide from Monday-Friday next week and save a flight. Anyone know if the Joondalup resort has vacancies?

Has nothing to do with the opponent for me. I don’t care if we’re playing the best or worst side in the comp I wouldn’t be taking BBB on a Perth trip with a bad back. Especially with a 6 day back up to the Dons game in Adelaide. Managing the veteran forwards will prevent them getting longer injuries which then puts too much of a load on the younger guys

Oliver wasn’t in the best 3 for me in round 1 and was busy but diabolical in round 2. I thought he was best on yesterday but Petracca was the most prolific so there’s every chance he gets the 3 votes. It’s very hard to win the Brownlow when you aren’t the clear number 1 player on a team. Tracc, a healthy Gawn and hopefully Pickett and others will chip away at his votes. But if he can win the coaches award again that will be just fine for me.

Petty and Tomlison, replaced today with Hibbo and May. We've had 7 defenders in every game, we can't pick 6 and just go with she'll be right.

Who's going to play half back? Can't be Petty unless there's another tall forward come in. Don't say JJ, nothing about his game is suited to half back apart from his fitness and discipline. Would probably have to be Hunter from the 22 named and that's asking a lot of old legs and suspect aerial work. If Hibbo is out we need to pick another defender.

Oliver might be in trouble for his sling tackle. Suspensions handed out galore today from the previous games. Might be Oliver for Pickett. If not, it gets a bit harder. T Mc or Melksham for Ben Brown, let's not put a dodgy back on long flights. I still think we need that 3rd tallish option rather than going completely small. I also think Tomlinson for Hibbo (rested) is fairly possible. If they don't miss with the height structure of Petty, JvR, one of T mc/Melk and want to bring Pickett in then it comes down to one of ANB, Spargo, JJ, Sparrow, Chandler even Fritsch making way. It won't be Fritsch. I doubt it will be Spargo or ANB, they love their roles. Chandler would be really tough and it's not really the role Pickett has been used in so far. JJ or Sparrow seem the most likely as forward/mids.

I don’t know if Juddy will cut it in the midfield, still plenty of water to go under the bridge there. But he has incredible balance, I find it hard to describe just how smooth he is.

6- Oliver 5 - Grundy 4 - Langdon 3- Petracca 2 - JJ 1 - McVee Honourable mention to Rivers who was fantastic and easily could’ve got votes but I loved McVee’s game and I don’t really mind if Papley kicked a few.

With a pair of key forwards practically on debut and our veterans with big question marks. But I’ve always thought our mids and backline play a monumental role in our scoring. Only have to look at the patch in the 3rd when we kept bombing it to Grundy from kick outs compared with the rest of the game where we took aggressive options.

Started well and that clunk in the last was handy. Got away with some classic Petty make them earn it tackles which I love. Trying to get a kick on the Swans backs is really hard, especially with the amount of holding they get away with. He’ll have it far easier against other teams. The big question is do we need a 3rd tall down back or can Hibberd, Brayshaw, Rivers hold up. Can Lever defend consistently (I doubt it)

I don’t agree with you on the speed of Tracc, Viney and particularly Sparrow. All are plenty fast enough it’s just a matter of getting them in positions to run and use the ball and cover off defensively. I was in favour of 1 key forward when we had peak Gawn, peak LJ, peak T Mc and they could all play big minutes and I could live with Fritsch being outmaked at times. Nowadays we have Grundy who isn’t at 100% match fitness, JVR on debut and an ageing BBB who needs manageing. We have to play Tommy or go with a medium marking target like Melk or Joel Smith. If/when JVR settles in to afl level we can really consider a medium option, heck I’d even consider Smith this week. But it’s more like we give the kid a chance before we up the load he has to carry.

Many of the disposals and marks came in the ruck in junk time. Maybe Goody’s keeping his cards close to his chest but he didn’t mention JVR in the ruck. That will add a few more touches to my prediction

7 disposals, 2 marks, 1 behind. He’ll be a handy workhorse forward or a good key defender in a couple of years but he’s a still a fair way off. Schache would’ve played if he didn’t manage to get himself concussed in a very Schache way.

Petty was very good in preseason and I thought very solid against the Dogs and one of the best forwards in the game in Naughton. Everything went wrong last week, but it's 1 week. So I'm not buying the idea he's struggling. Nor do I suddenly have a great opinion on Tomlinson who did a great job v Rory Lobb but didn't set the world on fire last week IMO. That said, our key forwards didn't fill me with confidence even with Gawn/Grundy helping out. BBB is in decent nick but chances are he'll have rough patches through the year. Tommy Mc is battling away. JVR hopefully gets his chance this week but his Casey game wasn't all that flash. His best period was late in the game when he got an extended run in the ruck. We'll know more after Sundays game but I still think Petty forward has to be a genuine consideration if things don't stabilise over the next few weeks.

Goodwin did what he thought was the right thing by not faking a sub. Of course Geelong had no such issues a year later and now the rule has changed. But JJ was a valued member of that side, he has nothing to worry about.

Grand Prix crowd might be 130,000 people. Let’s say 50% of them are footy fans, and 10% of that number are Melb or Swans fans. Suddenly you’ve lost 6,500 from the Sunday crowd. Not to mention people will choose to stay home so they have 2 screens going. Its a stitch up of a fixture.

The impact on Gawn I’m most worried about is when he goes to CHF and provides a magnet for quick long kicks. We should be able to cover him in the ruck and it’s about time our backline stood up without him too. The point I’m making is I think it’s a ‘must play well’ and I want to see our system hold up. If we come up a few goals short but play the right well I won’t be too worried because we’re missing a couple and it’s April. If we play stodgy defensive [censored] and fall short I’ll be worried nothing has changed from last year.

I don’t 100% agree because I think Gawn and Pickett are 2 huge inclusions that both make us a lot better and help us play the way we want to play. That said, Sydney move it fast and spread teams out. If we look completely incapable of defending against that style of play as we did at times late last year it’s a bad sign. We also have to be able, or at least willing, to take the game on and move the ball. Funnily enough if we flame out playing the right way I’ll be more confident about our future than if we grind out a narrow loss.

Was emergency last week and took 8 marks and consistently hit up well at Casey. It’s unlikely but the point remains we need athleticism in the front half and JVR will have his plate full if he’s in the ruck even 5 mins a quarter

The little plane is a nice touch, the rest is gimmicky rubbish really.

I hope we slide this one in under the radar but geez he really is incredibly stupid. Exhausting all your demerits takes a decent run of bad driving, especially when you're an AFL player who only has to get to training on time and one game a week. Maybe this is a case against Casey! The silver lining is he can split the ubers with Lachie Hunter.

FB: Hibberd May McVee HB: Bowey Petty Lever C; Brayshaw Oliver Hunter HF: Langdon J. Smith ANB FF: Fritsch Brown Chandler Foll: Grundy Petracca Sparrow Int: Rivers, Viney, JVR, Spargo S: Harmes Do I except Tommy Mc to be dropped - no. But geez I’m sick of watching him and we need athleticism. Smith doesn’t have talent or forward craft but he hits up hard on a lead and chases with intensity. I’d love a look at him across half forward to see if he can be a viable option. I’d keep it simple for JVR, some ruck minutes, some time deep and not too much work as the down the line target up against a pair of McCartin’s. Midfield really need to crack in properly and just get the balance right between handballing and kicking to advantage. Don’t panic, find the runners and kick to advantage and things will look better. Gus back to wing/5th on baller, mostly to get him out of the backline but also to use his ability to find possessions between the arcs. Backline needs Hibbo’s defensive ability and his willingness to run to the fat side and take the game on. Our defenders don’t trust each other or themselves to actually run and take the game on. Hibbo has never had that problem.

2019: Jackson, Pickett, Rivers ✅✅✅ 2020 Bowey✅ Laurie❔Rosman❌ 2021: JVR - probably debuts this week. Howes - has the talent to put a run of good form together. Woey - showed a bit in preseason McVee - a genuine nomination chance AMW - debut not entirely out of the question. Without a lot of good picks I like this draft class. It might be 0 from 5 in rising star noms any time soon but all could be part of the side from next year or the year after. 2022: 4 developmental talls and Sestan We only took the 3 picks in 19 and 20 as list sizes shrunk, with no rookies. Then we’ve had both a good team and a pretty young team for a contender over the last 2 years. It’s time for Laurie and the second year kids to start pushing for games and they are. Drafting a pair of key forwards was an investment in the future more than present too.