DeeSpencer

It's 3rd tall v 3rd tall, we did (at least in 2021) have 2 key forwards to match against Hawkins and Cameron. A reason for a drop off from our smalls in the drop off from the talls. But I'm happy to exclude Frtisch from the conversation, either way, it's not like the Cats have 3 elite goal kicking smalls. Much fairer to match ANB up against guys like Close and Miers who do a heap of up the ground running than it is for Stengle who spends a lot of the game camping at the forwards feet.

Stengle - 53 (25) Pickett - 41 (23) Close - 26 (25) Spargo - 10 (24) Miers - 13 (22) ANB - 9 (23) Rohan - 14 (12) Fritsch - 55 (24) ANB and Spargo both have work to do, that's for sure, but they are also pretty pure half forwards given how often we use Fritsch as both a marking target but also the out the back player and a crumber. If ANB kicked 17 goals 9 rather than 9 goals 17 then his goal total would actually be fine.

Had we beat Sydney - and plenty of things didn’t go our way that night - we could’ve rested guys up to go again the prelim. I’m only upset about the management of players in the first half of the season. Particularly the Gawn and Lever Eagles trip and North game and bringing Max back really quickly. Going for it in the last 2 months of the season doesn’t bother me. If they can have a crack and get through the game you take your chances with your best players.

Hawkins kicked 2 goals grabbing it from the ruck and I didn’t really know if Cameron was playing in the first half. Blicavs is the Cats most important structural player and it’s tragic that the closest player to doing what he does is leaving us this year. The Cats ability to create a spare defender by dropping a ruckman or mid to half back whilst not losing clearances is their brilliance. They do this by 2 ways. One, keeping shape around the contest which means if they win the ball they can work it through the hands. At the same time they don’t overcommit numbers at the contest and pressure incredibly well to force disposals that lead to turnovers. We need to find the right balance forward but we need to recommit to pressure with our mids and work on our clean ball use on the outside. Nothing special with kicking skills, far more about run, spread, overlap to create easy ball use. Key forwards will be important but not as important as the above stuff.

There’s a Goldie to Paxy to Sherrif to Banno out the back goal on offer after half time

Want to see the Duff woman get a genuine one on one inside 50. Feels like snags

Strong effort there at a ground ball. Come on Dees, couple of quick ones here to put this out of range

Kate Hore’s a little soft, got to sort that out

The female commentator is not a fan of us. Some of our fringe mids seem to be getting a run on the ball and probably need the experience. Good coaching, but making for a messy game so far

I can’t argue that he’s not tall but I’ll argue the rest. Runs in straight lines, can’t play wing, can’t play forward, don’t think he’s any stronger than Brown, McDonald and JVR.

Reckon we got lucky there. Mac might be the better player in a few years time but for now I’d rather JVR

The next step down from a token pick is us having to give one, and I think that's genuinely in play if Tomlinson has signficant money attached to him. I don't want Bruce either. But I do want a key forward. And as we search the entire country looking for one I'm not sure we'd do any better than Bruce. Yes he looked absolutely cooked, but he was good in 2021.

I still don’t see how Tomlinson has any positive trade value. He was that bad this year and even his Casey play looked so limited (output was good but it didn’t look good) that I think it will cost a pick to move him. Just thinking out loud here but does a Tomlinson for Josh Bruce straight swap make sense? We don’t need Tomlinson. Dogs don’t need Bruce. Neither of them recovered well from ACL’s last year. Both might turn it around with a fresh start.

There’s no elite tap work with Grundy. He’s as predictable as Max. Although with fresher legs for centre bounces. Just an example but the ‘19 semi final they lost to GWS was the most mind numbing display of tap work I’ve ever seen, as Mumford continually bodied Grundy in to the same hit outs over and over again. Getting Gawn out of centre bounces will be a positive, if he doesn’t pluck it from the ruck or slot it down a midfielders throat Max becomes a liability in there. Otherwise there’s not much from the ruck contests I’m actually excited about. The ruck is the ruck, unless you’re Nic Nat or terrible it doesn’t matter.

I agree. Eddie Langdon’s bounce totals took a massive dive this year, he clearly wasn’t running it nearly as much either. Theres 2 big factors: 1. No bounce off half back. The winger should get the ball via hands or in so much space they have to take it on. 2. No Tom McDonald at chf hitting up. Not to say that JJ doesn’t have to improve. You can’t be as risk adverse as he was this year. But he was a product of a slow system. JJ’s run and link by hand was very strong in 2021. He’d often be involved multiple times in the same chain.

He got dropped because he didn’t touch it for a half and hasn’t looked any good apart from when he played on Tomlinson and Lever. The Swans are developing him slowly and he’ll be ok, but he’s not really the answer. Reckon he might come in to the 22 still as well. Not sure Reid’s across the line either

When GC gave up pick 21 with Will Brodie they got Freo’s 2022 2nd round pick back. That will be mid 30’s now but Im sure the Suns were hoping it would be 25-32. They expected a small downgrade in a pick that they could shuffle back a year. Unless Bowes is on completely stupid money there’s no way he comes with a free pick 7 alone. GC are trying to spread their list talent out over a few years so they don’t have to pay the 3rd and 4th years overs for 2 guys they draft this year (will get a top pick for Rankine) whilst also paying King, Anderson etc. My guess is the Suns will say to Essendon pick 7 and Bowes, (possibly with a late pick thrown in) for your future first. That’s still a deal Essendon should take. Or Hawthorn. We’d probably offer our future first for pick 7 but the Suns wouldn’t be keen on that.

I don’t think lockdown is the best use of Hunt’s abilities though. His best defensive traits are his size and ability to cover a lot of ground to win the ball back both up the ground and covering off deep. When he came back in to the side in his best role he helped our backline start winning the ball back more aggressively up the ground. Goodwin talked about that with the Freo win. The question might be does he win and use the ball well enough to always hold his spot in the side in that role. Especially because he’s competing with Rivers, Bowey and Salem for a half back spot and our backline don’t move the ball to the open side to use Hunt’s pace. Apart from years and $$$, Hunt might be weighing up his role. If he stays with us the lockdown defender is likely to be his role. If he leaves he might walk in to a more suitable role at another club.

I'd like to know who you have in mind because I don't see it with any of our young defenders. Ie. Deakyn Smith and Judd McVee. McVee played some better games late in the year but he's very vanilla. With Hunt gone we'd be even more reliant on an ageing Hibbo and having very little to cover any injuries to the first picked 7 defenders. If we lose Hunt I think we'd have to spend a pick on a proper replacement (very much a good idea anyway) as well as sign someone short term Losing Hunt's only a good idea if we've got someone useful lined up and if he fetches a draft pick worth the risk of shedding depth.

We've seen Hunt in that role before and despite his excellent pace he doesn't read the play as a forward, doesn't change direction and doesn't have the tank. It's a different form of running. You can't just pick names out of a hat to replace what ANB brings no matter how much you dislike his deficiencies.

Tom McDonald and JVR both showed off their ability to win the ball in the ruck and snap. Strong key forwards doing a Hawkins seem more effective than rucks in that situation. Grundy has the ability to it but I can't remember it being a great part of his game. Same goes for Max. He grabs it just fine, but it's pretty easy to smother in the 7 seconds it takes for him to get boot to ball.

A lot depends on Tom McDonald, JVR and Turner. If the first 2 are ready to go then I doubt we move Petty, we'll have faith in Tom and Jacob. If Turner doesn't have a good summer then I doubt we'd risk it either, can't drastically weaken the backline just in hope. Here's an idea: What if we don't want to move Petty at the start of the year and instead we throw Turner forward? No idea what his forward craft is like but he seems willing and he looks a decent tackler. If the plan is less about finding top quality forwards and more about just needing fresh talent who can do the dirty work then he might not be too bad.

The report was for the Indigenous players stories. Hawthorn were then to investigate, but chose to hand over to the AFL. It's a little unfortunate it's public news now rather than giving that time but I'd expect the justification from the ABC is that Hawthorn had it for 2 weeks and didn't seem to be starting much of an investigation or getting on with supporting the ex players.

When they say assist in that context it means answer the questions, not be the one asking them.

I can’t find Spargo’s numbers but Chandler ran a 3.06 20m sprint which isn’t good. Spargo’s got good agility and a faster footy brain, his first few steps would be quicker. The big different between them is Spargo’s best attributes have translated to afl footy. Chandler hasn’t had the same opportunities but the stuff he does at VFL level - marking, kicking goals, bursting through tackles - hasn’t showed up.