DeeSpencer

Freo: good first half, our talls got smashed, mids and half backs tired. Hardly a surprise to lose after playing the 2 cellar dwellers back to back. Syd: key defenders got bathed, midfield looked tied. Almost did enough to pinch it too. Coll: more tall injuries and same ineffective attacking game with the talls. Tonight: physical freshen up, chance to train in some adjustments, huge mental and game plan shift with less reliance on Gawn and more desire to take the game on. Pressure right up and dare/dash back in the game style. Physical and mental freshen up would be the biggest factors. But the game plan switch and the mindset that was part of it surely played a role. We played like hunters rather than the hunted.

Not struggling, but he’s fumbling some tough ground balls and losing some winnable aerial contests. I think his speed and smarts still give him the edge, but down back there’s at least genuine pressure for spots.

The 5 day break in to the Geelong game should be the main factor when evaluating changes. There’s at least an argument for Hibberd and/or Bowey and Bedford coming out this week with a guarantee of coming back the next week. Maybe even Sparrow as well. Or Ben Brown if we want to be really cautious. Although the more likely thing is they play and we see how everyone is going in a weeks time.

Yep that’s what I’ve settled on too. Although rather than just Hunt trying to lock down CHF I’d get Fritsch doing his fair share with Hunt trying to get out the back. We don’t have a reliable tall option to replace Tommy Mc, so the logical conclusion is to go with the best medium option.

I’m sick of people taking about Brayshaw’s 3rd in the Brownlow like it means anything. He stole all of Clarry’s votes. Shouldn’t have been top 30. The move wasn’t made for concussions. It was made because he’s incredibly slow off the mark in transition running and the 6-6-6 meant we couldn’t cover that weakness with numbers off the back of the square. When you have Oliver and Petracca as ball hunters you need unselfish workers like Sparrow and Harmes to round out a midfield. The only way Gus goes back as a permanent mid is if Petracca plays permanent forward and that seems unlikely.

Auld didn’t exactly demonstrate a great knowledge of the game when he was the Gold Coasts inaugural CEO. They are still getting over the massive blunders they made setting up that shop. On the other hand Peggy O’Neal probably couldn’t have told you which way a snap spun when she first joined the Tigers board. I don’t think knowledge necessarily directly corresponds with respect for tradition. And even if it does I’m not sure the CEO has to wear all of that burden, that’s really the commissions job. Any and every CEO will to some extent try to sell fans and clubs up the river to increase revenues. That’s human nature. The right person for the job doesn’t go too far with that, makes smart deals and is innovative. Gill’s not always popular but he’s done far better than a lot of people think in those aspects.

Lever relies on up field pressure, confidence, team structure and having the mobility to match up and exploit either smaller or less mobile tall opponents. He’s down on confidence, he’s clearly down on mobility, the up field pressure has been dreadful and his role has changed especially with May out and key defenders going down. May back helps, as does Hibbo having the ability to swap on to talls who go deep. Hopefully the bye helps his body and helps the team sort out their pressure. I still think Gus and Lever in the same backline is a bad combination though. So, we’ll see if they can both find the right balance.

If either of Turner or Joel Smith were healthy and had established themselves in the side as a 3rd tall I’d very much consider giving Lever a physical and mental break. Gus is playing the intercepting role and May and Petty have the talls, we really only need baseline competent defending from the 3rd tall at this stage. We could give Lever a few weeks as we did at the start of the year. But with Turner and Smith probably still a month away from VFL footy that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Weid had to come out after the Freo game, he was diabolical. And the thing we needed against Sydney was someone to hit up in to space. Mitch was worth a gamble for that game at least. Not so much for last week. Time again for Weid now that Max is out. But also time for a different look up forward rather than 2 rucks, 2 talls and Fritsch. Absolutely agree it’s time for Jason Taylor and co to get to work and find some maturing state league talls or bargain basement pick ups who can develop in to proper depth.

I can understand why we stuck with Weid, if he was willing to stay it would’ve been hard for the club and coaches to move him on. Sticking with Daw and Mitch Brown both deep in to the twilight of their careers looks like hubris after the flag to me. Neither of them have the bodies for consistent AFL footy and it’s been years since they played proper stints. At a minimum it would’ve been nice to have a couple of guys train with the club over summer to push their cases.

Speed and X factor could be very handy at half forward. Apprently her older sister is one of if not the best players in the game but isn’t interested in AFLW at this stage. Could be potential to get both sisters if it goes well for Blaith

I think the entire balance of the backline has been off with Lever, Gus and Salem all came together. Thats 3 players who primarily ignore their opponents to intercept and/or distribute the ball. Which means the other 4 have a whole lot of defending to do. The best solution would be to drop Lever but we don’t have any fit 3rd talls available. So he has to stay. In which case I wonder if the balance comes back with Hunt or Rivers in, and we rely on Lever (and May and Petty) filling the intercepting void we lose with Gus in another role.

As a full time mid Gus gets his 30 but the opposition get 30 under far less pressure and use it better. There’s a good case to move him back to the wing and even rotate him in to the midfield from half forward. But there’s a good reason he doesn’t play in the centre square. He has more creativity by hand than JJ. Not sure his kicking is any better. He’s just as slow to move the ball and has twice the affinity for dumping it in the crowd

Boozy steak dinners and beefing up Jason Taylor’s recruiting team, with a particular focus on state league recruiting. We desperately need to find 3 or so ready made draft gems to reinforce the list.

Collingwood moved the ball quickly and found the corridor at times, but they also picked holes in the zone as they did last year. Knowing that our wingers both press too high at times (as instructed). And they found our biggest flaw which is getting the ball to the ground in our forward line quickly and getting on to it first. That's why I don't really understand why we took speed out of our back half by dropping Hunt and Rivers at the same time, even if Rivers is down a little due to his knee injury. We played 3 tall defenders, Brayshaw as the main interceptor and Hibbo as a back pocket. That means Salem and Bowey were left to cover a lot on the deck. Things look better with May back, but look at the Pies with Howe, Moore, Maynard, Qaynor, Daicos, Noble, Murphy... thats a back 7 that can seriously cover the ground. Going forward is certainly the main issue though and a lot of it is the same MCG problems that have haunted us for years. We can't get the fat side forwards across to the contest and we can't get the ball to them on the fat side once we've gone so wide to begin with. On skinnier grounds it's easier to get back involved in play from the fat side. Kickers can get to you or you can get to the next contest. We're simply playing too wide, too slow and subsequently too quick all at the same time. We showed a good desire to switch and use shorter targets from half back against Collingwood to open up the corridor. Next step is to straighten up across half forward, but without Tommy Mc that won't be easy. It's going to take more run from the backline, more midfield spread and ability to get the ball diagonally through the centre of the ground which is something that we just haven't been doing.

They’ll take 40 marks between them if we go tall as well! If we go smaller we’ll get more players leading to space which will then encourage kicking in to that space.

He was pushed around by Cameron and Cox. Taller, stronger men. But overall he’s very Brodie Grundy and I’m not sure anyones going to make the mistake of a huge contact for a guy like him again surely? To get the most out of him he has to play like a midfielder in the ruck which means less long down the line and more link up play. Given our side is awful at that right now it’s hardly a surprise he’s struggling. He was trying to find space to be a target whilst Cox had a field day down the line. When it comes to his forward line play it’s just hard to ask a lot from a young guy who wasn’t drafted for that role and has had so little experience. I see the medium term value of him leaving and us finding a proper key forward and a cheap back up ruck. But short term he pairs with Max and long term he takes over from Max. I’d hate to lose him unless we got incredible replacements.

He’s had good moments kicking the ball at Casey. But they play a similar style as the senior side with overall lower skill level, so playing half forward or on ball he doesn’t get a lot of it space. Doesn’t get a lot of it full stop. His handballs can be equally creative, he has clever vision and timing to release runners. And he seems to do that more than be the runner himself. At this stage he just looks like a similar player to Spargo, with a little less pace, less strength at the contest and a whole lot less defensive ability. I’d be very surprised if he got a call up.

Lever’s cooked and the backline has battled injuries and in game injuries, overall just hasn’t covered the ground at half back as they did last year. Salem hopefully finds some continuity now and May comes back in. Tom McDonald’s a clear missing piece across half forward. He makes a 2 way effort as well. Brown clearly battling - as he did for most of last year to be fair before a strong finals. Are the mids as fit? Well… I’d say Viney, JJ and Sparrow are putting in work. Langdon maybe not 100% since injury but before that was looking his usual self. Harmes maybe the same. Oliver has been tagged or faded a little in second halves but he’s clearly racking it up. Petracca is the big one. He took his game to incredible levels under Burgo. And his game style and body shape are both very rare. Hopefully the bye can tune him back up.

That I can agree on. If there’s a player who deserves a HS back page about his poor treatment by the umpires it’s not the Collingwood kid

One goal, plenty of nice short kicks, the number of times he’s run through the centre and hit a leading forward for the year is still under 5. He might be the best player in the comp but there’s still a major limit to his game.

They have to take 4 days. Every club. CBA mandated. The short bye likely explains why our players had a nice dinner during the week. Sensibly getting in some festivities so they don’t overdo it this week.

Out: Turner, M Brown In: May, Hunt Time to mix up the forward line and midfield mix. We don’t have quality talls so there’s no point playing 2 of them. We’re slow down back, we’re slow up forward and we lack midfield rotations. Hunt for some much needed pace across half back (rather than deep), Harmes permanent CHF, Brayshaw in to the midfield/forward rotations.

Still hasn’t learned how to kick, but at least he hasn’t mastered kicking to the opposition like Petracca

Gawn’s the biggest hypocrite though. His podcast is/was so full of put downs to team mates. The Burgo episode last year he literally asked Burgo who’s the worst runner out of May, Hibbo and some Port blokes. He and Gus rubbished Declase last year and we drafted him again a few days later. Max has to own his own behaviour and the role it’s played in this.