DeeSpencer

I actually loved that decision. The new holding the ball rule calls for players to be deemed holding it earlier when they are caught. He was caught dead to rights and the ball fell from his hands. I really don't care that he got a fraction of toe on the ball as it hit the deck. If we are to prevent sling tackles we need to call holding the ball faster rather than wait for players to get extremely suspect disposals away. We've been rewarding players who get little toe pokes on the ball after clearly been caught and dropping it for a long time now.

Better than the one with the light blue. Ideally we’d honour the Anzac’s without a nonsense jumper

You can tell by the immediate reaction he hasn’t meant to get him high. Very similar to Gaff on Brayshaw, thankfully without the damage. Pretty clear what the Willy defender is doing too. Bump in to Brown, keep him outside 50, give his team mate a chop out and even better if you can draw a free kick too.

Don't think Benny meant to flush him and unfortunately he'll have to cop the week, but the Willy defender deserved every bit of it. It's completely dodgy off the ball blocking and it's coming in to Brown's space to create contact way off the ball. The defender leaves his direct opponent to block Brown and comes in right at him with his arms up to block him. The kind of motion that's seen Ryder in trouble this week. Doesn't justify flushing him on the chin but Brown was well within his rights to strike at him because he's flat out cheating and making completely unnecessary contact. Cut out the off ball cheating and you cut out the contact entirely.

People need to check the B+F from last year to see Spargo’s result before looking to replace him on a couple of quiet games. As I said earlier I’m down on Laurie but I’ve seen reports he’s high character and a hard worker. Sparrow and JJ absolutely underwhelmed me through 2 years before breaking out on the back of huge work rates. Did we need to keep both Bedford and Chandler? Maybe not. But there’s other clear choices where we could’ve moved guys out and looked for more medium sized forward/midfield players. 2 young but ready to go depth players covering 3 starters makes sense.

Bedford: seems to have taken a step forward this year. Has genuine pace which is handy both in attack and to defend. But he’s slight, fumbly, lacks a fluent kicking action so struggles to weight kicks and lacks smarts IMO. The kind of depth that can help win you games but not the kind of depth you want to end up playing consistently. Chandler: stronger and smarter, with a cleaner boot. But still short and so far his VFL trick bag hasn’t worked at afl level where he can’t take marks or break out of traffic. Lacks top end pace to be a weapon both in attack and defensively. Think he’d be better suited at a spread them out and use the ball team like the Crows. Our afl game plan just doesn’t play to his strengths currently. If he finds a yard of pace or his tricks start coming off at afl level he could be handy, but he hasn’t had that consistent run to find out. Laurie: had a luckless year last year but frankly he’s looking a bit like the dangers of drafting for need and drafting in a compromised draft. Had a great under 17 year as a flanker in a dominant side but the gamble was he would be faster, stronger and a good mid in his under 18 year. He’s looked slow and unable to win consistent ball as a midfielder. The skills and tricks are there but if you’re small and slow you’ll battle as a forward, and you can’t play mid if you can’t win the ball. I’m sure the hope is for some kind of mix of at least a Spargo type forward and ideally a Shuey type midfielder, but that seems a mile away. 10 touch games playing decent midfield minutes are a big worry.

Crows are a state side, whilst we have to split Vic talent between 8 teams. They have so many tall powerful players in their prime years. We really fought it out against the odds and just couldn’t get that 3rd goal to get within a kick. If that happened I really think the Crows could’ve got nervous and we could’ve pinched it. Great coaching effort to get the game back in our style with run and carry. And the players run, commitment to the contest and pressure lifted to levels I didn’t think they had in them.

I’ve talked all year about Birch’s reckless behaviour and lack of leadership and there it is. Trade her away this winter

Far different to Weid, in that he is good. A very solid role player. But I said over summer and got hammered for it that those expecting his finals form to result in a breakout will likely be disappointed. He has plenty of potential improvement but the work on his disposal, contested ball and uncontested possessions is all going to take time. Plus he’ll keep being asked and doing a lot of dirty work and defensive running, he’s not going to be put in positions to dominate.

The May, Tomlinson, Lever trio seems to work better than going smaller with Smith, but I just feel Tomlinson is a long way off his best and Smith has a chance right now to finally string games. We need depth in case Hunt or Rivers go down or if Gus has to go to the midfield. Assuming he’s healthy and gets through some trainings I’d get Smith back in

I wanted to reach through the tv and slap the big Neanderthal for once again throwing his team mates under the bus in public. By far his worst trait as captain.

Gus kicked 3 goals for the year last year.

Consecutive 6 day breaks. Hard to put the foot down on that. Weid is Weid. Will always struggle to make position and create space against good opponents. That said, the times he was wide open the kick went nowhere near him. Mids couldn’t chain handballs to get free of pressure and hit him up. Handball, handball, handball, run in to pressure, bang it on the boot. Tom is also Tom. He bought a lot of balls to the ground tonight. Not pretty but hardly the worst. Did his job and secured his spot.

Burn the tapes of that one. Backline very good. Midfield patchy, credit the fringe guys who cleaned up after the big names consistently. Forward line very messy.

As with the senior side Casey seem to be playing a faster ball movement and less possession game than a few years ago. It was also swirly breeze but dry from what I saw of the game. That lends itself to low possessions. As the season progress especially if it’s wet the ball will stick around stoppages for long, I’d still imagine Dunstan will average 25 plus. And hopefully the young guys who get on ball minutes will start to push consistently above 20.

I agree, but we might have to lower both Weid and Brown's usual game time, possibly even throw Weid in to the ruck for a brief stint in order to use Jackson at CHF if we need mobility.

Our forwards rarely share the ball that well, it’s a bug bear of mine. Fritsch a repeat offender, who doesn’t like to give goals away with the extra handball. Tom’s similar too. I’d like to see more sharing on the run it in to goal kind of scenarios. That said, messing around with set shots often ends in disaster as well. The wind was so swirly on Friday a 15m chip kick was rarely a sure thing. Especially if it’s to a stationary midfielder and sometimes wider too. Plenty of teams will mark 40 out and chip it wider 30 out and have only achieved passing the buck.

No change in personnel. But maybe some role shifts. I reckon Zanker could do a quick 2-3 minute job on ball at the start of quarters just to hit some bodies and be physical. Before a break then her ruck minutes. The Crows have big bodies and we might need to just match fire with fire especially early. Maddy Gay might be needed down back earlier in the match too, Zanks on ball could free her up just for a short rotation maybe to settle the backline early. If she takes some backline minutes they could throw Sherriff forward to provide another speedy runner, allowing Banno to sit deeper and hopefully snag a few out the back. And they just aren’t getting enough from a talented player in Hore who could have a go on ball if they take a risk. That’s a lot of moves. But I think it’s paramount that we’re flexible and organised for a really strong crows start. We played the Brisbane game just about perfectly by keeping it tight early until our running game got a chance. Adelaide are stronger and at home, we have to be even better to keep it tight.

I like the short, medium, long, If we are to get reporting it should be on the training players are doing. - Full training - modified full training - rehab - off legs if you get that info you can generally gather when a player will return.

They’ll never make it enforceable because the bookies get more knowledge than the punters. And if you’re a punter, deal with it

At a minimum the Walla fan club.

Just watched a patch and he seems to have good smarts and a nice bit of dash. Any idea how old he is?

Lever’s only had the 1 preseason game weeks ago. Are we sure he shouldn’t have a run at Casey for touch? We need the good Lever back. Not sure we need a rusty version that drops marks and isn’t in good touch at ground level Especially when the structure gets a little thrown out as the rest of the backline isn’t set in roles as much as last year

Real pity it’s not played in spring in clear air but that’s hopefully getting fixed soon. Also we have to wonder if the Casey crowd won’t go to the G and the G crowd never get to Casey so we don’t build a following. But again, that’s another more complex issue It was disappointing no matter the excuses

Colvin was exception. Heath unreal. Goldy just got stronger as the game went on. Paxy found space, Bannan found the paddock and off she went. Loved Zanker’s work as a back up ruck. Daisy was involved in everything good. Just so strong at the fundamentals. And Megan Fitzsimon was really important too. There’s some simple stuff they can do with Kate Hore and especially Tayla to get them going I think. If those two can find their best form we can go to another level.