DeeSpencer

Loz Pearce clearly wasn’t right, full credit to Harris rucking so much. Hopefully the week off sorts Loz out. Our mids who have been bullied by the Crows for years really got on top. Purcell and West super in tight. Hanks and Mitho getting inside and out and Paxy in the high half forward role. I liked the use of Hore on ball if she’s struggling forward and I think they even sent her to Marinoff to clamp her late. Plenty of improvement too, with missed chances in the first and third especially and some uncharacteristic mistakes by some of the defenders.

Should’ve been Hore’s free kick and not Randall’s. Hopefully nothing silly from the MRP on that

Credit where it’s due she’s only been half as stupid as she usually is in finals. Even done some good stuff too

One of the better turnaround wins I’ve seen from a Dees side. Love that they stuck to the game plan and ran the crows ragged

Slow start not a surprise given we haven’t played a good team in weeks but geez we’ve made awful mistakes and the umps have stitched us up

Philly Buffalo Miami

Many aflw facilities are getting renovations now that were timed to finish before the January season, then got caught out with the season moving to spring. I assume that’s the case for Casey, and the cost of moving timelines with construction at the moment is monumental. The grand final was unlikely to be at Casey even if we host it. Princes’ park is designed as the leagues showpiece venue. Might as well get used to that

I suspect part of the delay is that either or both could be redrafted as rookies rather than the main list if we need spots. Say we trade 13 for a pair of picks in the 20’s and then take Finn Emile whatever his name is after pick 40 we’ve suddenly used 4 list spots and would need the veterans on the rookie list.

Mark Neeld plays for Geelong alongside the late Paul Couch Mark Neeld drafts Tom Couch to the demons from the Coll VFL program Couch becomes North Launceston coach North Launceston’s best player Jay Lockhart comes to Casey Whitford replaces Couch as North Launceston coach then eventually finds his way to Casey Casey win the flag against Lockhart’s sharks Corrigan moves home to Geelong. Whitford gets the Casey job.

I’d put this down as more of a rumour than strong mail but the latest I’ve heard is: - We have identified a target early in the draft. We’d absolutely love them to fall to 13 but given thats unlikely we’ll attempt to trade up for them. - But, as it stands it’s more likely we can’t get them and then we’ll trade down the order as it’s a pretty even crop later in the first round. No mail on how much we’d be willing to trade to get up the order but I’d expect we’d pay market value to get to a pick 6-9 range. Have to imagine a future first is involved Not sure how far we’d go backwards either, I think we’d want to stay top 25.

He’s undoubtedly a defensive coach. Possibly to a fault, but possibly because it works very well and gets results. I don’t believe that means he can’t succeed now. St Kilda’s list is a far bigger impediment to success than his game plan.

Points for St Kilda ‘09 2197 St Kilda ‘10 1935 Freo ‘13 2035 Freo ‘14 2029 Freo ‘15 1857 Goodwin ‘21 1888 Goodwin ‘22 1936

1. GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY Aaron Cadman 2. BRISBANE (MATCH NORTH BID) Will Ashcroft 3. NORTH MELBOURNE Sheezel 4. NORTH MELBOURNE Wardlaw (watch for a trade up by Sydney for Humphrey) 5. ESSENDON Humphrey 6. GOLD COAST Reuben Ginbey 7. HAWTHORN Allan/Clark 8. GEELONG Clark/Allan 9. WEST COAST Mackenzie 10. ST KILDA Tsatas 11. CARLTON Oliver Hollands 12. WESTERN BULLDOGS Mattaes Phillipou 13. WEST COAST Busslinger Hayes, George, Weddle and Burgiel stand out from what’s left to me.

I don't think it will hurt Deebo, they don't want him in the backfield too much especially until the playoffs. What they can do is line up McCaffrey and Deebo both in the backfield or motioning to the backfield and come up with a heap of route combinations. I'm more surprised they were willing to give up so much draft capital for this last desperate Jimmy G year when you have to think they need picks to support Lance in future years.

Packers, Bucs, Chiefs

If we win 40 - 10 then we end up at 248% If Brisbane win 50-35 they end up 247% Collingwood kicking a decent score (win or lose) is the key to bridging the gap

50 is from the woman on the mark, which is 15 from the top of the square. Net result should be 74m from goal which at Casey is probably 5 or so from the middle.

There’s at least one totally deranged human sitting in the crowd

I actually like Rob Harvey, he’s a huge fan of the way the Dees play. Lucy McEvoy one of the better current player commentators too. Kel’s had a long season

Zanks did the right thing, but fantastic work from Daisy and Purcell

Birch is going to be unplayable come finals. Such a fraud of a leader

Essendon have been very willing. Always feels like kicking with the wind early isn’t an advantage in aflw because it’s hard to get value for inside 50’s. Goldy needs a couple of weeks of continuity before finals. Just hasn’t found the pace of the game this year

If they keep winning rising stars then I say keep drafting them. Especially given we sold Freo a lemon in Hogan and we’ve kept plenty of young players from other parts of the country. Freo’s cap and list needs have lined up with pinching our players. That won’t always be the case. His time line of leaving probably lines up better with West Coast in 3-5 years anyway. And his dad understands the benefits of playing for a winning club in Victoria. Lots of reasons to suggest he’d stay.

Bradtke played Nab League and maybe even VAFA, I’d hope they’d have something similar lined up for this kid. Plus our next VFL coach might actually focus on development rather than trying to go undefeated in a league no one cares about.

The afl made it 42 players and 2 cat B rookies. No reason it couldn’t be 44 players straight up. So whilst under the current rules they aren’t taking away spots from the open pool, in reality they are. That said, rucks are kind of a special position and there’s so few 206cm people who can move. Being tall will always get you places in footy.