DeeSpencer

We just won a flag for them and gave them huge incentives to sign on. It seems a trend across the comp that sponsors logos are getting more obtrusive and it’s really disappointing.

FB: Turner Corr Walker HB: Ziebell McKay Young C: Polec Greenwood Powell HF: JHF Larkey Stephenson FF: Zurhaar CCJ Mahoney Foll: Goldstein Thomas Phillips Bench: Taylor, Scott, Atu, Curtis, Bergman, Goater, Edwards, Walker, Archer, Lazzaro, Hayden, Ford Pretty handy North side given they are without 5 of their best 10 mids. Backline should keep us honest and their forward line is very underrated with some tricky match ups. Would like to see Simpkin, LDU and Cunnington really test us but I still think it's nice to play against a young and hungry side rather than a mature side that isn't that keen on giving much away in preseason.

A little tricky to rate given he came on fresh at 3/4 time which is a huge advantage but Tex Wanganeen looks really talented. Jamarra on the other hand looks a mess. Dogs moved the ball crisply in the first half with their big guns in and Naughton looked incredibly hard to stop. Essendon are handy and well drilled. Looked like 2 finals teams who have had good summers.

Might see something like this. With some of our best players getting pulled out at half or 3/4 time. FB: Hibberd May Rivers HB: Salem Tomlinson Bowey C: Langdon Petracca Brayshaw HF: ANB McDonald Spargo FF: Pickett B Brown Weid Foll: Gawn Oliver Harmes Int: Jackson, Hunt, Sparrow, JJ, Chandler Emeg: Smith, Turner, M Brown, Baker, Bedford

And breaching quarantine orders

I think part of that is the size disparity between players more than teams. Some of our stronger girls push around other teams smaller opponents too. Although, we are a fit running side more than a big body team. Which makes the desire to play straight up the middle even more baffling. Spread it out Mick! And we look more balanced with Paxy on the wing using her run now that she gets beat up by younger players who she used to evade and fend. We’re then a bit short in the midfield with Hanks, Mithen and West but neither of those women take a backwards step. As Purcell gets more midfield time along with Zanker we’ll have some strength to go with the little zippier mids. Our two bigger body half forwards not getting much of it in Parry and Scott has hurt the forward line. If they can get the ball at CHF we’ll put opponents on the back foot.

The economic benefits the same from all those people coming now as it would be if the stand is new. The grand final has never not sold out because the seats aren’t as comfy as they could be. So we spend a billion for a new stand just to fend off the AFL selling their soul for a huge cheque from WA or SA? Governments could stop undercutting each other on events and spend the cash developing their own sports, music, arts, culture scene. Plus invest in transport, housing, health and education so people have the ability and desire to get out and explore and travel. Invest in jobs and fair work so they have the means to travel too. Instead we have this situation where to maybe make back 1 billion over 30-40 years we have to spend a billion first. It’s a con.

I don't understand why Parry is rucking. Zanker should be doing it, especially now that Purcell is in the team for more midfield depth. It gets Zanker in to the game and gives us an extra midfielder around the ground, provides a different look when Pearce is resting. Getting more from Zanks is one of our big question marks right now. The other one is how to use Daisy. The forward pocket stuff has kind of run it's race. I don't think she's got the speed and run to take an opponent down back anymore, that's why she went forward to begin with, but could she just play as a spare back and then drift wherever she needs? That would be fairly defensive and different to the usual plan but given we can't seem to hold teams with forward pressure anyway and are a risk of leaking goals maybe we need to get funky?

I’m not sure why there’s a rush on the southern stand either. Should be good for 20 years more. But I can understand they’ll eventually want to do it and do it properly. 1. New stand 2. New train station + covering over the train lines 3. Removing or Re-routing Brunton avenue, possibly fully enclosing it 4. Roof? Could chuck in some Dees facilities, but how do we get to the oval? E-scooters and the golf cart for all?

She definitely was over the mark. Usually they let that go. But sounds like the ump was calling her back and she didn’t move. Stiff but there if the ump was clear and loud

Excellent win. Although with a big rest advantage making a huge difference. Credit to Mick Stinear for good coaching adjustments, but a worry why we thought the existing plan would work. Nor do I think 6 behind the ball and way too much corridor kicking at half forward will work. But: Bannan FF - tick Paxy wing - tick Daisy spare back - tick Gillard as Harris Andrews will work long term too. Reads the ball very well in the air. Liv Purcell is the solid built mid we’ve been crying out for too. Needs time to get back to full fitness but she’ll be huge for our midfield.

Of course many took less but a huge reason everyone stayed was because they had 1.2M per season free. If we trade Petracca we’ll find it far easier to pay the rest. I don’t suggest we will do I expect we’ll lose a number of our top 30. Pick the right ones and we’ll be fine

Libby Birch can’t handball. Less writing in the paper, more basic skills please

Fritsch put it all together last year which clearly gave us a huge boost, he's a match up nightmare. As well as Pickett really improving in a hurry. Spargo, ANB and our midfield options are good too. We could do with a bit more depth/class/size in the back up mids though so we've got some overhead ability if needed. Clearly we're talented but I think number 1 is a bit of a leap given our talls. Weid's can't make the leap up to the level and Brown and McDonald probably are going to battle to be consistently at full fitness and in their best form Brisbane with 3 talls in their prime once Hipwood recovers, plus Cameron, McCarthy and with the likes of Bailey, Zorko and Rayner rotating through are the number 1 forward line. Geelong should be number 2 if their coach moves the ball. If Bruce was fit and/or JUH came on quickly the Dogs would be up there as they were last year. Something like 3-5th would be a very good result but really are aim should be to have the big boys fit and firing at the right time.

All 3 of those teams abruptly lost a top 2 playing in Ablett, Franklin and Rance. Richmond did bring in Lynch and the Hawks Frawley and others though. In terms of losing players the clearest comparison might be Richmond letting Ellis walk as a starting wingman. They’ve lost some others along the way like Markov, CCJ/Chol, Butler, Higgins. If the gap between staying and going becomes a difference between 3x450 and 4x650 then it’s significant no matter the tax rate. I’m not an accountant but I believe players can set aside 10% of their wage for image rights, chuck in a bunch of other deductions and that tax bill can come right down.

JJ played as the second main winger alongside Langdon against Port too. After Brayshaw got reassigned to predominantly half forward with some on ball minutes after his and the teams stinky effort against the Giants. I think the coaches would’ve had a pretty serious discussion about sticking with JJ in that spot. But Gus’s style does seem reasonably effective at messing with the Dogs game plan. And his experience and a bit more strength in finals type footy probably gave him the nod.

I’m not comparing them either. I think the coaches desperately want running machines with overhead marking ability. Hence Howes and Rosman. And Tomlinson. And even Fritsch in 2018. They’re searching for that complete winger. And so I think the plan would’ve been to add Smith’s running capacity for some percentage of the game on the wing and to use someone like Gus or Harmes with a bit more overhead game at other times. With match ups, ground shape, opponents etc a factor. The whole ‘defensive winger’ thing is very overrated. Langdon is a defensive winger too, he just attacks more as well. And there’s times Gus holds back attacking or sucks far too deep defensively because he knows he can’t sprint both ways not purely as a role. Its nice to have variety opposite Langdon but I see it more as Gus playing the wing in a way that suits his game and works for team rather than a defined role. If he could run like Langdon I can’t imagine the coaches would tell him just to hang back and play it safe, we’d use him as a dynamite two way runner if he could do it.

I think it’s a little of both. We needed the winger and Gus wasn’t going to be in the top 4/5 on ball options. He’s still too flat footed defensively in congestion to demand midfield time. But Smith has also played a whole lot of half forward for both the Hawks and Geelong. It’s often more important to stretch the ground vertically than it is horizontally these days. And ANB was certainly out of favour too - more so than Gus. Had we got Smith he might’ve started 50:50 half forward and wing, with Gus doing the same with possibly some versatility based on match ups.

Colvin has been very solid in her role, she’s just injured. The question with Gillard is whether they’re really going to throw her in down back, or if they’ll move a midfielder to half back and have her ruck. Or maybe both? Brown has been decent defensive depth so it’s a fairly big call to go with a teenager out of position over a solid veteran. The counter is a lot of teams have gun intercepting tall backs and we could do with one. Birch gets it done with positioning. A genuine tall marking player would be a weapon.

Cerra was signing a great value deal at Carlton due to the other Victorian clubs either having no interest, no cap room or no draft capital. We would’ve had to give a player up just to get the picks needed for Cerra. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if our interest in Cerra involved trading Gus (and picks) for him. Or at least knowing we bring Cerra in then have flexibility about players leaving at the end of the year

Played one heck of a grand final but let’s be honest he’s a role player with strengths and significant weaknesses. We can’t be paying the top market rate for him. Doesn’t mean he won’t stay but it makes sense for both sides to get a look at what’s on offer from other clubs before committing.

The Ox at CHF is the standout to me. But for one that hasn’t been mentioned we rarely got to see the best of Col Sylvia RIP. Have him play forward and swap on ball with Tracc, he’d be good for 20 touches and 2 goals easily.

Does stay there hidden under the seats or can it be dismantled and assembled elsewhere? I'd love them to use one of the asphalt velodromes around a country footy oval. The one at Wangaratta would be perfect. Something tells me that won't be happening.

Looking at the list of sports for 2018 and 2022 there's plenty of events that are held without stadiums or can be set up in any decent multi purpose venue. I'd imagine athletics gets held in Geelong as the centre piece. Any investments for netball and basketball are good for the communities as long as they don't build far too much seating. The big ones are probably Aquatics and track Cycling. I'm not sure we even have a permanent velodrome in Victoria, I guess the one for the 2006 is packed away somewhere and might be used elsewhere? And it sounds like a country town (or Geelong) is going to end up with a 50m swimming pool with a big grand stand.

The thing to remember is Champion Data is 49% owned by the afl and have seemingly no desire to open the stats up for wider use. They drip feed some stuff to the herald sun or fox footy as required. Making sure it’s often provocative enough to sell some papers. Clubs get access to far more of the data. And have data scientists to interpret it. But it’s qualitative, it’s not just counting. Their kicking rating stuff was really interesting. And I’m sure they’re tracking all sorts of things with players running patterns. They just decide they’ll keep the good stuff to paying customers and release silly stuff to the public.