DeeSpencer

I agree with everything you’ve said about Tom. But Sam would be playing as our 3rd tall after Brown and a ruck and we just don’t need nor can we carry another tall. If Weid was to play I’d almost say we use Jacko at centre bounces and then play him CHF whilst Weid rolls up to ruck around the ground for the 30-40% Jacko usually does on ball. Weid’s spot on the list is to cover Brown and Jackson, not as a replacement for Tom. Weid, Ben Brown, Fritsch and a ruck - nope, no way. North tried something like that in round 1, it’s just no good.

Down back after half time. Couldn’t haven’t caught covid in the eagles change rooms as a forward

There’s no such thing as attacking and defensive sides of the ground, and Salem certainly doesn’t play on one or the other. Salem plays as the highest defender and depending on what his opponent does is often loose off the back of the stoppage. But he has no control which side of the ground the stoppage is or that the play comes from. If Salem goes to his left more it’s because he’s a left footer. But the very next quarter they’ve changed ends and Langdon is on Salem’s right. The suns played a great zone on their home ground on a slippery night and used very good wingers on Eddie. We didn’t get our usual bounce out of the backline due to inconsistent midfield pressure, good suns forwards pressure and a depleted backline.

Melk 2018? Membrey would be ideal, as would Will Hayward or another mid who can be genuinely dangerous forward. Honestly I’d take my chances with Mason Wood or Jake Waterman. Or even another Harmes or Sparrow who’s big and strong enough to provide some aerial contested work and has speed to pressure. With 2 rucks, Brown and Fritter it makes Tom a luxury. And when he’s on it’s a great luxury, but he’s now played a string of ordinary games as a forward really from about 2/3rds through of last year. And Tom’s always been a confidence player. I’d give him a reset week as the sub and a little rest of the body rather that continue with the ordinary results.

And Fritsch was worse, should Dunstan play full forward too? Hunt wasn’t good but he was part of a defensive unit that gave up 10 goals from 60 inside 50’s including only 4 goals after half time. Unless we have a defender to replace him with I can’t see him going anywhere. Particularly not replaced by a one paced midfielder who got chopped from the Saints

Going back to last year Tom's now up to about 8 ordinary games in a row. I wish we had a decent medium sized forward to provide extra pressure and some marking, but given we don't should we just give Bedford a run in the starting line up and maybe use Tom as sub.

If he was really struggling to that extent then he shouldn’t be coaching as normal this week. To me it was the look of someone strong minded who thought they were doing the right thing and suddenly had to come to grips with their actions. I also don’t think 5k or 10k would make much difference to Bevo’s bottom line, so I’m not too fussed about who paid the fine. He should’ve called Morris directly but Tom quickly had bigger issues and his phone off! What I’d actually like to see is the AFL and Coaches Association issue a league wide directive that they’re not happy with the state of coaches well-being across the league. In recent years 2 coaches have committed serious criminal acts since coaching. 3 have met premature deaths, whilst not directly related they can’t be entirely ignored. Plenty of broken marriages in not ideal circumstances. Many have flamed out of the industry entirely. Coaches have easy access to doctors and psychologists. They should all have mentors both inside and outside footy. They should all be given periods of time within the week to be completely uncontactable and unbothered. Plus generous holidays in the off season. It’s a stressful job with the media out to get them, but coaching should be seen as a long term profession, rather than the focus on afl head coaching jobs. It really shouldn’t be such an unstable and mentally draining profession.

I take everything Mark Williams says with a grain of salt but it’s promising for Taj. And if they think he’s ready to step straight in to the Casey engine room as well that’s good news. Hoping he has a strong debut this weekend.

I’m not suddenly going to claim I was a fan but Oscar could play a bit too, he looks set to do well at Carlton. He was a victim of being Tom’s brother and probably needed a fresh start and a kick in the backside. After a run of failures we’ve largely gone away from speculative talls late or on the rookie list. I’m not sure I fully agree with that tactic but one benefit might be we can focus development coaching on guys who are a chance to play rather than risky projects.

The injuries helped but I thought it was a reasonably high pressure game in tricky conditions and Brisbane rallied and turned it around. It was far from perfect footy but a comeback win against a prelim team is a solid effort. Daniher and Adams impressed at either end. In fairness to Port they probably deserve as much credit even with losing.

Carlton, Geel, Sydney and Brisbane the impressive sides of round 1. And it will be a question of whether they can back it up and keep it up but Collingwood looked a far better side too. Fast aggressive footy with good scoring.

He actually rushed a few set shots on the short run up, possibly impacted by the boundary line. Take the full 30 and the big run up Benny!

Salem is a backman but really he’s a midfielder who plays at half back. His ability to cover ground, receive and distribute the ball under pressure by hand as much as foot is a midfielders job as much as a defenders. Gus has the inside track on that role for a while I’d suggest. Possibly as the backline settles with Lever and others back we could use Bowey especially with more skilled users like Hibbo or Rivers. But to dumb it right down we need someone in Salem’s role who will get 20+ touches. It won’t be primarily stopping defenders who don’t find the ball.

They desperately need to play him on a half back flank and teach him how to defend and contest. He’ll never learn the game on the wing or half forward.

Happy to be proven wrong but there’s no indication the former afl players we’ve added to our top up list will actually play for Casey. They’re all making more money with less work playing local footy. We can’t afford Zaharakis, Lonie, Reid, Moore! Buntine will play and Conca we might be able to talk in to some Casey footy given he’s around the group, most likely he plays local footy or has a rest. Not the others. They’re only signed in case we start having injuries and covid cases and get down towards the bare minimum.

7 guys who played in the flag. Tommo, Hunt, Smith. Brayshaw as a flanker/intercepting. Tom as swing man. After that it’s Turner, Deak Smith and Judd McVee as the developmental prospects. But if we’re getting down to the raw kids then I’d think we’d also consider Majak at CHB if needed and Mitch Brown as a 3rd tall/interceptor. JVR and Howes could get a run too but I’d imagine we’d swing any of those guys back at Casey to prepare to cover first.

Yeah that was after the reserves game at Carlton. But it’s hard to know if Riley watched the game carefully and confirmed with coaches or if he just saw a couple of nice passages of play and chucked it in his story. Need some more VFL games to see what our depth guys are up to.

Unless Dunstan suddenly finds a whole lot of pace to be able to play wing and half forward I don't think Harmes should be too worried. As bad as he was the cupboard is very empty in terms of flexible midfield options. I'm keen to see if the report on Taj playing well in the first VFL praccy game has more merit. Year 1 is likely too soon and he's not a tall mid but he has the pace and determination to be a role player through the flank, wing and on ball in spurts.

Bowey - fantastic 9 touches We're used to small forwards having low disposals and playing well, see Pickett in the grand final, or even last night. But I don't think many half back flankers play as well as Bowey did with just 9 touches last night. I thought his defensive positioning and contests were really strong. Along with Hunt, Smith, Tomlinson I thought he allowed McDonald and particularly Brayshaw to get in intercepting positions to provide what we usually get from Lever. I was shocked to see he had only 9 touches.

I disagree, even if we had other talls there’s times they get caught up the ground and the deep forward has to compete 3 on 1. Brown did that very well, but that’s a huge part of his job. We generally have at least one of Harmes, Sparrow and Petracca forward too to provide a touch more height. And forward pressure is everything. Unless we play champagne footy we’re better scrapping and forcing turnovers than playing a kick mark game. The last thing we need is Weid blocking it up in attack and not contributing the other way. Tom probably goes back forward. But ideally I’d replace Tom with a 187-192 forward who can compete in the air and be happy with Fritsch, Brown and the resting ruck. Then some good mid sized mids to complement the smalls. Unfortunately the only option on the list is Melksham so that won’t be happening any time soon.

Liked his work rate to get out in space to be an option. Made a crucial late spoil in the 3rd quarter rolling up from half forward. Fumbles are definitely a concern but he has the pace to keep running to get out of trouble. I like the way he burst through the middle in the last then re-evaluated and went sideways. His pressure numbers were good for 55% game time, but a bit of an advantage coming on at 1/4 time. All in all he looked more comfortable since we last saw him. Does he have the weapons, smarts and composure to excel long term in the trickiest spot on the ground - I’m not sure. But he did the team role and has earned more of a look. I hope if he does drop back to Casey he gets more midfield time to keep winning contested ball under pressure.

He has quick hands and is super reliable to crash in, win a ground ball and give it out. But… his kicking and decision making when kicking are still a huge work in progress. He doesn’t back himself to take quick kicks and then his long down the line execution is iffy too. I can see why some on here probably noticed some patchy kicks and have thought that was reflective of his overall game. Overall I thought he played Gus’ wing role comfortably as well as Gus did most games last year. Can’t see him coming under pressure unless Gus gets moved back to the wing, and even then I think we’d like 3 wingers so Harmes can rotate forward and on ball rather than fill wing minutes.

Bevo mentioned that Morris had previously reported Gardner being dropped for the grand final. I'm sure there might be more, but if the biggest 2 things you're willing to name publicly have been selection stories, both of which were correct then that's not nearly close to good reason to blow your stack.

I’m no fan of Morris or most of the industry. But the story was a player not named in a team leaking on Tuesday, one day before the team was named. Surely a storm in a tea cup compared with serious allegations like the Goodwin stuff.

Yes, but reporting on Hunter does generate news, hence why it was a story to begin with. Kade Chandler not getting a gig for the Dees for instance isn’t news. Hunter was reported as ‘dropped’ and became a topic of debate. Not helped by Bevo bristling at it in his pre match. Bevo’s certainly blown this up himself when they should’ve just copped that his team was named 1 day early. But I can see the link between creating news stories to fill a void, the scrutiny that brings and player welfare.