DeeSpencer

The delaying play rule could be called rhe Harry Petty rule. He quickly established himself as one of the best in the comp at holding play up. The holding the ball rule could prove tricky for someone like Petracca but in general as long as he keeps moving through a stoppage he won’t get pinged by tackles bouncing off him. Not unless the umps and rule makers have completely lost the plot. Good changes in general but as with all afl rules there’s plenty of grey areas and they require consistent and quality adjudication and fans understanding it won’t be perfect.

The AFLW gives a great opportunity for people like me too young to see these grounds in full swing. Hopefully they can be preserved and even bring back some local character without the depraved behaviour. AFL teams haven’t really worked out how to get more unique experiences in shared stadiums. Every now and then you get a Yze or a Kreuze to get cheer for, but that’s about it. Port have their never tear us apart! Unfortunately you can’t just invent traditions and the ‘fan engagements’ have been awful.

I think I get where you're coming from with development now. You can't assume it's some kind of passive process. Head down to Casey, do my development time isn't the right thinking. I certainly want all our young players thinking of themselves as AFL footballers and actively working to improve. But that can be true without such a clear goal of playing round 1 or early. I think we're more process driven these days. It's about ticking off the skills required to play team football and improve in that way. AFL history is filled with guys who played very early then didn't have great careers, whilst others came in a long way off and played 200+ games. I look at Bowey who I don't think once expressed any great desire to be picked in the side. He seemed very relaxed about it when he was interviewed. His focus was ticking off the things the coaches asked with his defensive game. Bowey had the advantage of having AFL ready skills and facets to his game, so it was pretty clear what he had to do. JVR as a young tall might have a lot more to work on, but a similar focus on the process of what he has to do to be an AFL standard team player is what I'd ask him to do. Pretty keen to see how he goes with competing in the air, getting contest to contest and with his defensive work/tackling. If he can impress in those areas he might be closer than I think to playing.

I don't agree with that part. Sparrow played round 1 of the AFL season but we had a stupid injury list and he was miles off AFL level, then his VFL form in year 1 before injury wasn't pushing his name back up at all. Petty had great VFL games in year 1 but he was patchy. Excellent at intercepting some weeks, a little lax defending in others. He wasn't ready when he got a game in year 1, and even in year 2 he was patchy down back. Then missed all of year 3 before a breakout year 4. James Jordon looked vanilla in year 1. Clearly he played well in some of the hidden practice matches of 2020 but he was a shock this year compared with when I last saw him. Bailey Laurie just had a year ruined by injury and the VFL shutdown but managed a few VFL games without threatening a debut, I very much hope that doesn't mean anything long term for him. Jason Taylor always says something along the lines of 'they develop at different rates'. I think year 1 is more about getting the mind and body conditioned to AFL footy life and being ready to attack years 2 and 3 than it is Casey performances. Obviously we've drafted some standout young players but it's the physical and mental application to improve that's impressed me with many of our young players. Particularly given that's an area we struggled in for so long.

I’d argue it’s absolutely a passion project and he’s hardly employed by ESPN. A monthly article in season and a few extra either side of the draft won’t be paying him enough to really study the draft pool. Even watching a few games a week doesn’t get close to what recruiters do in full time jobs. He’s a passionate amateur draft fan with a little insight and adds a small bit to a very limited conversation. Certainly not worth getting hung up on his opinions.

Numerous reports had the Giants desperate to take Jackson and therefore likely to pass on matching the bid if we had made it. I like Knightmare. Sure, he’s a bit ornery at times. And his writing and videos could do with major reformatting. Of course he makes mistakes and the occasional short cut. But when traditional media is ever declining at least he gives it a go.

Jackson is a remarkable athlete and also capable of playing a role for which he was the standout option very early on really. Being able to hold up in the ruck in year and even more so in year 2 meant he was just about a lock in the side and could play quiet games. Further to that if the draft is a Bell curve then JVR at pick 19 is really miles from Jackson at pick 3 and somewhere between Weid, Pickett and Bowey, Laurie, Spargo, Sparrow, Rivers, JJ and even Petty. Of all those players he might remind me most of a key forward version of Sparrow. Athletic, decent build, likely to have a crack, but with a fair amount of development work to really contribute and find a role behind a number of strong team mates. But there's a range of options from Bowey's flag in 7 games to someone like Spargo. Making a real difference in year 1 as a skinny kid but taking unitl year 4 to really put it together consistently.

Some of it truly is awful though. I'm with our esteemed posters who I think have better taste than footballers, most in their early to mid 20's. If I were the coach I'd have to have a skip button or the ability to mix in a few oldies just for my own sanity. Of course it's mostly for the players though so if you're going to create a player driven culture you have to deal with some of it!

Introduced in 2008 as a borrowed tradition. https://www.afl.com.au/news/103916/golden-reminder Fine for the club to stick it on jumpers for sale to make a few bucks. But lets not wear it. It's ugly. It's pointless. And it's looking backwards to 2021 rather than the new season ahead. Sorry AFL, keep it for yourself.

6.5% of Victorians aged 20-29 have had covid in the last 14 days. And with the shortage of tests that’s probably closer or more than 10% in that age range.

Heath’s the best small defender in the side and one of the best in the comp, she’s a lock. Its Tarrant and Brown who will make way if the other tall defenders are right to go. I can’t remember if Mithen came back on. And I also think if it gets to the pointy end of the comp they’ll probably drop Caris and find someone else to do 5 minutes a quarter in the ruck. They’ll want to play her now though to take the load off Pearce and get some experience in to her. There’s likely to be multiple changes a week unfortunately. The backline held up without 2 of their best 5, hopefully the other lines can do the same if tested.

I don’t fully agree. A lot of teams have bigger bodies in the midfield than us, and we’ve got quick forwards as well as talls. I like that we try to move the ball quickly. Which means handballs as well as kicks. But it’s one handball until you’re out and then run and kick. Certainly too much handballing tonight, mostly because many of them were ineffective. Better handballs should mean less of them.

That wasn’t pretty. But take the points. Paxy rested a bit and down back. Hanks forward a lot. So we didn’t overdo our prime movers and gave Zanker, West and some others a good run. Fitzsimon was busy. Bannan on the wing is good for her development. Backline definitely missed Goldy and Colvin too. The back up talls aren’t much chop. And my opinion on Birch probably doesn’t line up with most of the forums. Forward line was far too Harris conscious in the 2nd quarter. Should’ve gone to other options and iced the game. Kicking was mostly good. Handball game was sloppy. Missed a lot of chances to put team mates in to space. Defensive work rate and tackling were both strong. Thought the attack on ground balls was probably just a bit off. A few players just trying to spin out with the ball compared to bodying it. But that’s not unusual early on.

The speed at which covid is spreading in Victoria - at least 30k cases per day being registered, most likely far more - would have just about everyone exposed within 100 days and then a wind down. A number of our players will have had it by now with more exposed as they resume training. Players who are double to triple vaxxed and then tested positive will likely have incredible protection over the season. So much so that you’d make a good case not to repeat test and quarantine them. But we are in the time of variants. Which means you can’t make a bold declaration on the best course of action for covid. My guess is we’ll see ongoing testing and quarantining well in to the season and a fair bit of disruption.

The year in which he played almost exclusively on the wing? Gus had a very good year but there were still plenty of examples of him getting caught flat footed in congestion. The wingers role off the back of stoppages and then on the outside/defensive side of play allowed him to see the game unfold and react. Nothing about his 2021 season suggested he should be moving back on ball any time soon.

I'm not a Dunstan fan at all, similarly I wasn't a huge Ben Brown fan either. I was worried about his body and I thought it was going to be very difficult to change his game. For half a season I felt I was right, but with a top up mini preseason and maybe a bit of a humbling effect of going to Casey Brown came back in a far better player. I don't think it was getting up the ground that was the big thing for him, it was more making big improvements in his contesting work - particularly when out of position - and sharpening up his defensive efforts. It's a good point that Dunstan has surely been recruited to be a different player than he was. He was also chopped from a non finalist and there wasn't a single team that wanted him enough to promise a starting role. So much so that he chose the games best on ball brigade rather than a lowly side. That tells me he's more than willing to make significant improvements to his game.

Unless Rivers has a huge preseason I doubt we’ll see him on the wing any time soon. And Brayshaw’s lack of defensive pressure and change of direction has just about sealed his midfield fate unless that drastically changes. Without a heap of injuries you’d be releasing him to Casey

The premiership package: we know all about that one. The jumbo package: May plays the lockdown pocket, Petty full back, Tomlinson CHB/oversize flanker, Lever intercepts. We lose speed and run but can own the air The versatile zone package: 3 talls as last year, Rivers, Salem and 2 of Hunt, Hibberd, J Smith. By playing a lot of 187-190 flankers we can switch opponents at will. The speed package: 3 talls, Salem, Rivers, Bowey, Hunt/ D Smith. Plenty of run and pressure at ground level We’ll see how he adapts to year 2 but Bowey’s certainly a lock if he plays the same way. He’s good enough defensively to take a man but of course it’s the balance of his game that’s most impressive. Rivers probably played better when Bowey came in, he had more of a defensive responsibility and did the job. Long term I think he’ll want to come up the ground. I doubt he’ll want to be known as the lockdown guy. That leaves the one lockdown spot. It’s Hibbo from J Smith from D Smith currently. But Hunt could target this spot. It’s not his natural role. But it wasn’t Hibbo’s natural role until he adapted to it either.

Some combination of Coleman/Brownlows/hall of fame/captaincy and 250 games without winning a flag. Can’t quite get the exact thread.

If his demons career works out Taj will never be that tanned again in his life.

Hotel Quarantine was the state governments biggest stuff up. But it should be noted that quarantine was a federal responsibility until Scotty agreed to let the states take over because he had no plan and no interest in a plan. No plan for economic stimulus until Labor gave him one. No plan for stimulus in 2021. No plan for the vaccines. No plan for rapid tests. Every state also had leaks from hotel quarantine. It was a highly flawed system tackling a once in 100 year pandemic. And as bad as the leaks from quarantine were the states test and trace was awful too. Our leaks became an out break. And the deaths. They came because it got in to aged care and spread from nurses going from home to home. Why - because aged care nurses are causal employees with multiple jobs, because the feds like cheap foreign labour rather than paying professional full time jobs. The health minister got the lemonade and more ownership should’ve been taken from Andrew’s and other senior members. I don’t like Andrew’s. I have a moderate respect for him. I think most of his cabinet stink. Stink nearly as bad as the awful liberal state mps. I’ll still take the guy who’s actually made seriously difficult decisions and fought for Victorian lives and Victorian jobs/businesses with extra support packages rather than Scomo who forgot we existed until he needed a hair cut a few months ago.

Without Victoria bringing in harsh restrictions to contain the spread and drive numbers down it inevitably would’ve escaped at least to neighbouring states if not more. It did escape to a Sydney hotel, but in small enough numbers to be held up. NSW stuffed around with their lockdown and suddenly covid was in Victoria (multiple times), QLD, NT, SA and New Zealand. (Side note; It’s why other states were pleading with NSW to enforce a ring of steel around Sydney. Of course they refused but then sent an army of cops in to West Sydney, because they care about some people’s liberties more than others.) Until Delta covid zero was absolutely achievable because we achieved it. The smaller states achieved it the whole way through. And as a nation from October 2020 until June 2021 there was all but zero covid with no extended lockdowns. For 8 months the country was overwhelmingly covid free and prospering. If the Dees finish 17th in 2022 will you suddenly say the 2021 flag didn’t exist because we were bad either year before and after? I’m not saying the state government hasn’t made some howlers and the feds been even worse. But you have to evaluate each strategy in regards to the aims, the variants and the vaccine status. Bemoaning lockdowns for 5 cases and not 17k is very simplistic and ignores all the other changing factors.

Apart from the fact Australia held back the tide for over a year. With Victoria crushing an outbreak that allowed every other state to go about their lives as normal whilst the majority of the world suffered huge loss of life and far bigger economic impact. And that QLD, SA, NT and Tassie (and maybe one day WA) got all the way through to 80-90% vaccinated thus saving thousands of lives before opening up. Small minds will conveniently edit history in their favour. Covid zero was a fantastic policy for the original strain pre vaccination. Might've even worked for Delta too but NSW decided they'd mess around and enforce half measures.

We lost Vanders and Jones from our midfield depth and he's not better than anyone in the premiership 22. He's been recruited to fit somewhere between the 18-30 on the list and time will tell where that is. I remain somewhat skeptical of him as a pick up but with the covid situation as it is it looks very sensible.

Omicron might be our ticket out but it's going to be a very bumpy ride the next few months. We'll know in the next week or so whether 10,000+ cases a day in Sydney is going to mean our hospitals are ok or in big trouble. Todays announcement on close contacts and testing rules pretty much means they can no longer restrict Omicron on test/trace/isolate so they aren't going to try to do that nearly as much given the impact on the community is too great. The end result might be needing to bring in measures at various times to reduce the stress on the hospital system. Fair to say that won't go down very well.