DeeSpencer

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.

It was the right option but she took way too long then had a half back flanker run by and get in her way. Absolutely burn the tapes of the last 5 minutes. It was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong trying to ice the clock did. But they played incredible footy in the 3rd and start of the 4th to get that buffer

Had a couple of good patches, but they also only had about 30 inside 50’s and he snagged 5 of them. When May stuck to him he beat him almost every time, as did our rucks chopping out. The issue was May was either injured or mentally off with the fairies and worried about covering space. Im hoping it’s the latter and the coaches can get it right. The message is simple, when your man is within scoring range and you’ve haven’t handed over the job to up field defenders to mind him make sure you stick on him. May tries to cover the entire back 50 and there’s time he has to back team mates in to do their job and stick with his.

If his partner or kids have it he's either got it by now or going to be one of those mysterious people who come in to contact with it but avoid contracting it. An extra day of isolation is probably preferable than dodging the inevitable and leaving his partner and kids alone unless they prefer that option.

I would've put May on to the deepest forward considering he sat so deep and seemed to constantly be worried about what was behind him rather than his opponent, put Tomlinson forward/bench (or sub) which is where Tom played a lot of the last quarter anyway, and had Tom closely checking Wright. May on Wright was a disaster. Otherwise May played ok but no one could've done any worse than May did on Wright because he let him run around and do whatever he wanted.

The issue isn't so much that May was beaten but that he completely lost track of Wright and didn't even try to chase him for 3 of his goals. He was out marked in a couple of contests which happens, but many of Wright's marks were with 10+m of separation. May often lets his opponent go outside 50 and sits back deep, that's the game plan, but there were times last night where Wright's leads were only ever going to take him 30-40 out and there was no reason to cover the back 20 where Hunt or Smith had pretty good match ups. I don't know if it was physical or mental or both but something went really haywire with May last night. Baffling baffling performance at crucial moments.

I'd put most of Petracca's game down to being tagged, sore and playing a lot of the second half forward. But I did notice when it got back to 2 goals the difference he immediately went back on ball and made sure they weren't losing it. Bowey's just playing that high defender role more to my eyes. But he does like the corridor as good players do and his clean hands through the middle are a weapon. Gus was probably best on ground but he had only 8 intercept possessions and 1 contested mark. Most of his 20 marks were from uncontested play, filling in clever little gaps in the bombers zone and providing easy options for his team mates. That's good footy, but he was more on clean up duty than the wall. There were some Lever like moments but it was more of a Salem game with composure which was impressive from Gus. I thought Smith, Bowey and even Hunt all did great jobs winning the ball back across half back along with Gus.

On a 6 day break we probably need midfield or small forward reinforcements for fresh legs. Petracca could play more forward. Any of Harmes, JJ, Sparrow, Spargs could freshen up. Not that they’ve been bad but ideally we play a squad to get through the year. Unfortunately I have little to no confidence in any of the available options.

How have we gone this far and no one mentioned that May couldn’t get out of a jog all night. Huge issue. Tomlinson couldn’t either but he was playing on nippy smalls and that’s never been his go. Maybe May was off with the fairies and trying to protect the deep entries but he’s my first worry. Only if he’s fit would I then worry about Tomlinson who was fine against the dogs and good enough against the Suns when tasked with an opponent. Tommo’s biggest issue tonight was a lack of confidence to launch and mark. He likes to work talls under the ball to spoil or mark, against smalls he has to back himself to out mark them. McDonald in big trouble forward. But I’m still not sure on the Weid Brown combo. Has all the hallmarks of going pear shaped quickly.

This wasn’t even as ugly as Essendon last year

I'm trying to stick to a resolution to be a bit nicer since the premiership but so far in this thread there's 2 posts that strike me as being based in actual reality and then a whole lot of over the top praise.

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!