DeeSpencer

May’s never played a full 22 game season (got pretty close last year). He isn’t a dominant intercept marker and also drops the occasional mark going back with the flight. Plus our conservative play from the backline doesn’t maximise his run and kicking which is one his advantages over most key defenders. I’m ok with him being viewed as a rung belong the very best key defenders for this season, with the aim to have him cherry ripe for September.

I have no issues with Max being excluded. Jackson should take time from him, and Darcy is a beast. The biggest problem with King’s team is he’s named 5 defenders, a ruck and 2 forwards and flooded the rest of the side with on ballers. Even Amon isn’t a full time winger anymore. If you wanted to pick the best 14 midfielders just write a list of them. Don’t hide it in a team.

Wasn’t it more that he’s signed to Casey but will play at Bundoora. I don’t think we’ll see him at Casey unless we start getting towards the 30 player limit. I think we’ll see a number of these types of deals as clubs create their back up lists.

I’m not sure any of those causes are getting us to 300 million. But there’s also the chance we can build a standalone section in what is somewhat a shared facility. Doesn’t have to be one or the other. I’m not sure every team will be included either. We’ll vacate the current stadium facilities and open up room for the teams there. It might be pretty much our facility but we share the gym, pool and indoor training space.

Bevo’s a bit of a dreamer, I wouldn’t read much in to it. I think everything had been going the dogs was for 45 minutes. Bounces of the ball, umpiring decisions, kicks for goal. It’s natural that when things switch quickly you get caught flat footed. It took us a large chunk of the 2nd and 3rd quarter to really slow the dogs and then get it our way. Hardly a surprise they couldn’t get it fixed when they were smashed out of the centre in the 3rd. The real indictment might’ve been at the start of the last quarter. If they change the tempo of the game and get 2 of the first 3 goals it’s a 3 goal ballgame with half a quarter left. You’ve got a shot.

There’s no evidence of significant improvement in his tackling and pressure. A little better, sure, but not a lot. Im also rating him belong 3 defenders who have had AA level seasons over the last 2 years. I’m not saying he’s behind Jayden Hunt. He finished 11th in our B+F. So I’m happy to be in the camp with the premiership coaches rather than Robbo and a bunch of other forum members.

Purely a cash grab. A lot of teams really battle to play out 22 games. 23 would be an even greater stretch. We often play our best team in practice games but we do it to prepare their fitness for the real season and we always make a couple of in game changes and get key players some rest. Teams aren’t going to just roll in to round 1 either, they’re going to increase match play and contact earlier in the summer to prepare. The fixture will never be fair. Even if it was play every team once there’d still be inequalities with breaks, suspensions, injuries, teams packing it in for the year etc. If we wanted a fairer comp we’d got to 18 rounds not for playing every team once but to make the season shorter so every game has more riding on it and healthier players. 22 home and away, with the potential for finals teams to play 25/26 is more than enough.

I like when he has a few throws at the stumps. Marshall is fit this year, was completely stuffed with injuries last year. And will get a lot of ruck minutes. It’s not unreasonable to suggest he’ll be the 2nd best ruck in the comp. I love Zak Butters too, but he belongs in the 40’s with Bailey Smith and Zac Bailey, not in the 20’s with McCluggage. That said, if you’re going to gamble on young players on the up then I think going Gawn at 5, Fyfe at 6, Buddy and Hawkins at 11, 12. Mitchell 40 and Grimes 41 is also going with a heap of veterans. I’d shift all of those back a few rungs. Fritsch is also way too high. May, Lever, Salem are all comfortably better players than him.

All it was is this little whisper at the end from Cleary

300 million is a monster bill. Going to need the Storm, Rebels etc to chip in (both cash and for the funding case). I can see why it’s taking so long when it’s gone from far more than just facilities for us.

Sadly it was another thing that seems to be covid impacted. Digging out the file footage and interviewing a select number of former players was easier to do. I love the rewatching the game aspect, but it’s best done with a group or groups of players, rather than individuals. Fritsch and Gawn joking about spoiling that mark. Petracca, Oliver and May recounting their interaction in person. Harmes and Viney taking us through the spillage and kick that turned the tide. Pickett and Spargo on the pressure to create first term goals etc etc. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll ever see that kind of documentary made for this flag.

It’s a fun yearly story but the captains strike rate of 1 from 68 shows it’s either very hard to predict these things and/or they aren’t very good at it.

1. Brisbane. Most talented list in the afl, only a question of whether their best mids can get it done. But I expect McCluggage, Bailey and Rayner start to either take over or at least really bolster Neale and Zorko. 2. Dogs. 3. GWS standout from the pack with incredible midfield depth and enough forward/back talent to form a good side if they get it right 4. Geel, Port and Rich can’t be written off but the list of clubs that could ‘do a Melbourne’ range from: Sydney, St Kilda, Ess, Carlton and maybe even Freo. 5. West Coast, Adelaide, Hawks, North and Gold Coast would surprise me. As always, interstate clubs are much preferred than any other Victorian one!

Razor Ray paid a number of 50’s last year against players who swore at him (one Richmond I think) or aggressive came at him (Liam Ryan, eagles). I don’t love Razor, don’t love an umpire having too much of a personality in general, think it sets them up to fail. But he’s never been afraid to pay what he sees, and the players deal with it. Even at afl level so many of the umpires are young and don’t have have any presence. Really this rule should be about empowering the umpires to pay it when the know they’re experiencing it. The issue is asking them to look for it. Maybe in their wisdom that’s the best way to empower umps, but there’s risk you turn them in to parking inspectors handing out fines. The best umps are more like stern school teachers who aren’t afraid to hand out a punishment when needed but can then encourage discipline without being too sensitive.

Absolutely it could. Apart from adding the left foot he could do with more touch in the short/intermediate kicks and goal kicking. But to completely remodel his action to get that you’d possibly take away his ability to scorch the ball anywhere between 30-60m that he has now. There’s only a small number of players in the league (heck, the history of the game) who can tracer bullet the ball 55m in no time at all like Tracc.

Waiting for Mark Williams to develop Petacca’s left foot. It’s the biggest deficiency in his game and the thing stopping him going from superstar to whatever comes next above that. He relies on pace and power to get on to his right but there’s times where it’s just easier to go left and a semi reliable snap or gentle 20m chip would be a huge weapon.

Dissent then? You know it when you see it. The Tomlinson one is the trickier one because unless he’s called the umpire a nasty word he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Really shouldn’t be too hard. Petracca not looking at the umpire, not motioning towards the umpire, all ok. McDonald - gesticulating and walking towards the ump - abuse. But let’s be honest they’ll just pay a few in the first month of the season then relax it. They just want to send a message to community umpires and also make sure it’s not just Toby Greene carrying the can for poor behaviour. He was clearly the worst but there’s others who have pushed the line. Its crazy that they’ve publicised it and built it up to more than what should be just the occasional 50.

Good in a straight line, takes an eternity to turn and lacks agility. It’s a big reason why he’s well suited to CHB but struggled on the wing in our chaotic game style

That’s not entirely true. There’s always been some grey area with players offside being active players or not. And similarly handball, which has swung the other way and has become clearer but not at all fairer with VAR. Not to mention every time a player is obstructed then dives it becomes one heck of a judgment call. I agree with the sentiment though. Really there should be a lot more free kicks and initially a lot more quick ball ups rather than asking for throws or play ons in congestion. Then as a massive clamp down on holding occurs, the game opens up. If we can drastically decrease the amount of tackling, we’ll get a far better game.

He was very good and complimented Lever and May. His big tank covered a lot of ground to allow Lever and May to stay in position and his kicking gives some good rebound too. But the Hawkins game was the only one where he ended up on the best forward. I don’t trust those one on one stats at all. There’s plenty of 2 on 2 or more contests with the way the game is played where one defender is in prime position and it doesn’t count for that stat. And if you’re playing CHB with Lever alongside and May behind you’re not going to face many one on ones either, hence the 3 or so per game that is was. Anyway, he’s a lock. And there might be a few bumps as he gets match fitness back but otherwise he should be at least solid.

Were those people of mentally sound mind? He’ll be the CHB for sure until Petty makes it a conversation, and as long as he can play on rucks or ordinary talls he can do a very solid job. But he has limitations with a lack of speed and doesn’t dominate aerially. I’d be shocked if he was ever in AA contention

Weids is a fine depth tall. Melksham hasn’t played well since 2018. 3 years now. He doesn’t play our brand. Mitch Brown has never played our brand and got cut from Essendon years ago, waste of a spot. Baker has 4 years of not being anything like an afl footballer. Clear evidence Majak a nice depth piece. No idea why we didn’t have a ruck on the list until a few weeks from the 2021 season but so be it. I’ve got no issues with Turner and Deak Smith as developmental rookies. Doesn’t mean we couldn’t have tried a few 21-25 year olds.

We’re moving the ball too quick and playing pairs of talls (I count Fritsch as a tall) deep. We need to ease back the speed of ball movement just a bit, spread the ball more and get it in to the talls as the smalls come in. Plus starting a small deeper at times would help as well.

Don’t be childish. We have an exceptional best 22. We haven’t done enough to turn over the 24-32 spots on the list at a crucial time where a couple of good mature body role players could be vital.