DeeSpencer

I'd probably give Jackson a bit more time unless he's undeniably right. I don't want the 3 key forwards in the same side but another week of Weid at least lets him play with a bit less pressure I guess. Keeps the heat on Benny Brown too. Sparrow for Chandler probably has to happen. Going with 4 mids leaves too much to too few. Harmes, JJ and Petracca should all spend more time forward and give us fresher legs on ball. Our mids weren't amazing defensively and played well within themselves with attacking play too. Wasn't ideal conditions for Chandler. I'd like to see him get more of a go in better weather and with a more mobile forward line around him. We rarely moved the ball with any fluency today, which made it hard for the small forwards to find any easy touches.

Tom McDonald spent a few minutes rotating through the wing in games where we played 3 tall forwards in 2018 in rounds 6-8. Otherwise he played CHF. I doubt it was more than about 100 minutes of total game time. As well as he's playing now he's also still a suspect field kick at times - see that kick to Fritsch that was a straight helicopter today. Plus he can try to do too much in traffic. The other issue is Gus on ball hasn't been a solution to clearance problems pretty much ever in his career and certainly not lately. He's really slow to react defensively. Pretty much exactly the opposite of what we need. All of that said though, I'd look at Tom having a short stint on the wing now because just like 2018 in times we are playing the 3 key forwards. Worth a look now, but not if it messes with Tom's consistency at CHF.

Now he just needs to fix the massive glaring weakness in his game: No left foot.

His disposal average is quite a bit inflated by taking most of the kick outs. He's an interesting player, a lot of smarts and class with the ball. But in the 2 VFL games I've seen I've barely seen him in a defensive contest. Barely a spoil, a one on one ground ball or a marking contest. Obviously they were both big wins and he plays the high half back role that's more about closing space than standing a man, but it's just hard to get any read on what he'd bring defensively at AFL level. I like that he's started at half back because that's where we'd get the most value out of his kicking but I think they might have to move him around a bit just to get a read on his attributes. Throw him in the midfield to at least see how he goes with contested ball on the ground, then have him play some back pocket to take on some better forwards.

I don’t expect any sudden changes. I expect El Pres will guide the process. The last thing we heard publicly was there was a task force to pick the best site with Government involvement. I don’t know how long we’ve been seriously working on a new base. We didn’t move to AAMI until recently. If my memory is correct it’s only the last few years that we’ve got serious about the next base. And after the Yarra Park stuff leaked it’s all been Gosch’s. As long as it’s on track I don’t care if it’s slow going.

No to Weideman. McDonald back up rucks. Brown comes up the ground more at times. Fritsch resumes his taller role. Melksham and Petracca play more forward. Sparrow comes in. Pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure people. And more pressure.

Assuming they aren't totally braindead they'll run footy special Cranbourne/Pakenham trains that go from Richmond to South Yarra, then express to Caulfield and onwards. Or even just express to Caulfield then change to the regular service. Probably to more interesting question is whether they run footy specials on the way to the footy that go via Richmond. Absolutely no reason why they can't. Otherwise it will be very packed Frankston trains from Caulfield or a walk/tram/train from whatever the new Flinders St metro station is called. Why they aren't building a metro stop at South Yarra and mixing up the trains that go City Loop vs Metro is beyond me but I guess they have their reasons.

Have a look at the centre square and members wing once we get to July and August. It turns very slick and dead. The home vs tenant arrangement won’t stand up, 3 other teams will riot. We deserve one training run before round 1. Interstate teams get to and I believe we don’t. After that it’s keep off for the sake of the turf

We have a President largely appointed to get this done. The club have said the planning is underway and there’s a number of spots around Gosch’s. Can we just relax and trust the club to do what they’ve said they will do?

Some were, some weren't. He seems good for a couple of absolute brain fade skill errors a week, plus some strange decision making where his tempo doesn't match what the team is doing. He's strong one on one in the air or on the ground and is a smart player. I'm glad he seems to be doing a role but overall feel he's still nowhere near getting close to maximising his talent.

It's not an ASADA/WADA issue as far as I can tell. And the legal issue isn't a huge problem, seems a silly thing to even be going to court but that's for the people of NT to decide. He does have a couple of problems though: 1. Trust: He didn't tell the Eagles that he was busted, and they've stuck by him for a long time now. Trust is vital. We've seen that at Melbourne with someone like Harley Bennell, but also at a lot of clubs. 2. Drugs: The Eagles probably have a lower threshold for this stuff after their big issues with Cousins et al. Willie already tested positive to cannabis with his initial suspension. There were rumours he was trying to avoid a positive test by switching the samples.

Impossible to tell from the outside but I get the sense Richo might be far more valuable than most on here think. He was one of the most valuable assistant coaches for a long time. Then gets served the worst coaching job you can get at St Kilda. Neeld at Melbourne levels of bad, and he fought it out the best he could. Had he waited and taken any other coaching job he might still be a senior coach. That said, perhaps Richo's best decision so far was to hire his old mate in Mark Williams, which happened late in the piece and possibly only because Matty Egan got a job offer elsewhere. I like what Yze has been doing but the most important thing for our mids were a fresh voice and maturity. Yze could be a great coach or could be a middle of the pack coach for all I know.

Dunny was in terrible shape in 2016. He recovered his spot in round 3, then didn't play again after round 6 with Frost, Oscar and Tom all preferred. Spargo didn't get an automatic debut and was clearly best 22 when picked. Sparrow we ran out of players at the start of 2019. It was either Sparrow or C Wagner, no great options. Kossie, best 22 the day he walked in to the club. Bedford had the standout preseason and get rewarded. Harmes is back as a mid because he stunk as a defender, a role that was well worth trying. Bowey missed all of last year, but he's also a tiny fella learning the game at half back. If we had drafted Max Holmes, Sam Berry or Errol Gulden they might've played games by now and we might still have been 8-0. Plenty of great coaches give kids a taste early and win lots of games. The new rules were likely a catalyst for Hunt going down, and the reality that the more they tried him forward the more clear it became it just wouldn't work. He's been good down back, but we haven't had a lot of other options with injuries to a lot of the depth defenders. I don't think it's a tick or a cross to the coaches, sometimes players just have to go through a journey. ANB had 9 touches and 1 tackle against Carlton. He went unsighted for the second half of the game as Carlton came back. His 2019 was awful too. He looked like a guy who needed a long stint back in the 2's to get his hands on the ball 30 times a game not 9 times a game. He was a different player when he came back and he came straight back in to the side after suspension. A suspension that went to the tribunal and didn't give us any ground to appeal. Nibbler gets talked about as a coaches pet and a forgotten man. They can't both be true. Watch this space on Harmes, as I said earlier, after his backline moved failure he had no where else to go. If we were losing the same praise for Harmes would be criticism of Brayshaw's wing role. The forward line is a work in progress. Only the Geelong game last year did we go with just 1 tall. 2 and Fritsch has been our default. 3 is new. Tomlinson over Joel Smith as the 2nd tall worked well, but we worked out after about his first 5 games that Lever wasn't going to be the 2nd tall. The most important thing for Lever is pressure up the ground. Gawn - yes, the coaches went Viney too soon with Jones. Then left Jones too long because they didn't have faith in Viney. Gawny's the right call, but I don't think his leadership on field has been a factor this year. Off field, how can we really know?

It’s a major concern, but the thing is Weid isn’t any better. There’s room for 1 big guy who can clunk a mark and doesn’t get out marked, but otherwise coaches will favour mobile tall options who can do more. Ie. Jackson, T Mc, Fritsch. The advantage Brown has over Weideman is he has much more advanced leading patterns. Sam took a step forward in doing that last year but to be a consistent AFL player and overcome his lack of athleticism he has to be even sharper. And at peak fitness, and consistently brave in the air and with his agility at the best it can be. As good as his Casey form has been I still think he’s got improvement in him.

If the Eagles delist Willie I hope they do it quickly and we can get him in the mid season draft. He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he’s a heck of a player

Prohibited in competition as far as I can tell. Not an issue out of competition.

I just love the way he does the basics well. He tracks guys hips to stay on them to tackle. He gets down low and hard to pick the ball up. He gives quick accurate handballs to team mates in better position. And he runs, runs and then runs some more. He was a strange draft pick at the time because he had so little exposure at the elite junior level and about the only stand out trait was he had some penetration in his kicking - which hasn't really been a huge feature in his game at AFL level so far. But either the recruiters picked up on some finer details or maybe they just really liked the kid.

Players have different styles and routines, the most important things are they stick to their routines, they make smart choices about what type of kick they need (ie. no point snapping on the opposite foot from 30 out, or snapping at all from 45 out) and that their technique gets enough of the basics right. Good rhythm, good solid kick (having to kick it 50 each time is rubbish, but don't kick it 25 from 20 out), as straight toward the target as possible and ideally as low a ball drop as possible.

You can look up his shots from round 1-6 on https://www.statsinsider.com.au/afl/shot-charting He's 66% for the year which is very decent. Above 70% inside 50 on 21 shots, but 50% from outside 50 on 8 shots.

“I will be cherry ripe for the Big Freeze, that’s for sure, but in terms of when I come back, (I’m) not 100 per cent sure, but it is tracking really well,” Viney said at the Big Freeze launch on Monday. Important context that he was asked at the launch of the big freeze. The clubs initial time frame was round 10. Viney says for sure by round 13 he’ll be back. My guess is round 11 or 12.

Umps let the play go in the wet on Saturday night. That’s what a lot of fans want. I thought it wasn’t ideal, but the players knew where they stood. Better than paying everything. MRP is a mess but there’s no simple solution. ‘Stick with the oringial umps call’ isn’t a good process, the umps miss a heap of on field stuff. They can’t see everything. Every little incident is different so I don’t believe in the desire for consistency. One little change can make the difference between 2 weeks and nothing. It’s fine lines.

Geelong wear white shorts at home to avoid teams changing jumpers. If Sydney want to wear red shorts and their home kit I’m ok with accomodating them by changing socks. Why the Swans don’t wear their predominantly white jumper and white shorts more often I don’t know, but I guess they want to look as much as Sydney as possible.

Lemmens picks Butler up and just drops him on his backside, players get far more physical than that in their grappling training. There's no chance of him injuring his neck. The Rampe one is different. I'd love an explanation of that.

Absolutely nothing in that with Lemmens. He just lifted him up and dropped him. The May one does look a bit nasty but I agree he should’ve got some benefit for doing his best to not bump high or cause any damage. And players have to be able to pressure.

If we played 22 key forwards then we'd have lots of fire power! We'd never lose.