DeeSpencer

Mitch has done well at Brisbane but speak to Rohan Bail about him

He’s taller than the 2 players we took with first round picks in the same draft! Poor kid has had an awful run in his first 2 years in the system, plus the 2020 season that they all missed. With a change of fortune he’ll work his way to being a good player, I’d say more like a Darcy Parish than a Swallow.

Breust’s forward pressure at his prime was excellent, and even now it’s still at least ok. Very good tackler due to his rugby background and a top 3 crumber of the last decade, his reading of the drop of the ball is a weapon both in kicking goals and for getting in position to tackle. But I don’t like the idea of expecting that next year at 32.

Godly might go and Cunnington as you said was out pretty much the whole year. Not sure Greenwood was the right cover. And Ziebell got moved forward because they had nothing up front. A decent half back organiser and a wing/half forward defensive player - 2 roles that young players can’t do - would go a long way. Their VFL team stinks too. By far the worst of any afl aligned side. Every good AFL side of the last 15 years or so that I can think of has built a strong VFL side and developed a winning culture. They don’t have to play a much older side, they just have to have options available to stop gifting games to kids who aren’t nearly ready.

In terms of experienced talent they might be as bad if not worse than we were. They’re crying out for a Vince and Cross injection of solid professionals. In terms of quality young players we had Hogan, Viney and not much else. They’ve got plenty. Any assistance should be geared towards experience and not youth.

They’re in a far better spot with young talent than we were when Roos took over and we won 10 games in year 3 of Roos and really should’ve played finals the next year. If they don’t make progress in the next 2 years he’ll leave, no player should go more than 8 years in the slop. But there’s no incentive to trade him as a pre agent next year, and absolutely no incentive to trade him this year with 2 years left. 2 or even 3 crappy first round picks aren’t worth more than a decent mature key forward for North. I’d only get interested as a North fan for 4.

Which part of Larkey’s remaining 2 year contract makes him potentially obtainable? This is a bit like someone in 2013 saying Nathan Jones is handy, surely he’ll move clubs. Outside of Oliver or Petracca there’s not a player on our list who North would trade for Larkey. Nor would they be interested in a package of mid to late first rounders.

Treloar AND picks 26, 32 and 44 were traded for pick 14, and a future 2nd (pick 38) The very flawed pick calculator values Treloar as a negative in that deal! Grundy on a 4 year 500k deal is an asset worth close to a late first or early second IMO. Preuss even got a 2nd. Grundy on a 5 year 700k deal is worth ‘thanks for taking him off our books, maybe chuck us a pick to save face’

Fair enough, but I’d take more notice of someone who’s worked with him personally than the documentary. The Giants were having a flop of a year after being destroyed in a grand final and Coniglio wasn’t a great fit as a new captain. Pretty easy to selectively edit that stuff. I’d imagine you’d find plenty on Goody from 2020 and even worse in 2019. The Tigers were premiers. Dew got pumped up. Sloane was Sloane. Someone had to be the bad guys and GWS were the obvious choice. I think Cameron did a great job at GWS but was probably at the end of his coaching tether by about 2018 and 2019 masked a lot. He’s keen to stay in Sydney for his kids schooling so I doubt he’ll join us next year anyway.

I’d see it as a triple swap from the current set up: 1. Gunston replaces Melksham, mixes between a deep forward and lead up role 2. Gawn/Grundy or other ruck replaces Jackson and becomes the primary long down the line target, giving us a more consistent contest than Jacko does 3. With a stronger but less mobile ruck presence we no longer have the need or mobility for Brown, so his CHF role reverts to T Mc until JVR is ready. Fritsch stays mostly as is, a 4th tall full forward, but takes time up the ground to allow Gunston some goals. At the same time Bowey, Laurie and Howes push for spots as skilled runners in a more spread out game plan. Plan A stays the same, but we get the complimentary ball use that worked so well last year. If we’re all in for the next 2 years then Gunston and Grundy make sense. The coaches will patch together combinations with T Mc, Gawn, Brown and JVR. The downside is their salaries will restrict the ability to find longer term solutions.

Is there a different Leon Cameron? By all reports an absolute gentleman. If anything he probably bought about his own downfall giving the players too much leg rope at the giants. Of course there were times he lost it as his job was slipping away but he’s a mild mannered family man. I’ve never been a fan of his tactics but he’d be an excellent skills and development coach.

May gambled off McKay because he read the kick that went to Curnow as going long and saw a chance to intercept. It was a brilliant Cripps kick from awful midfield defending that beat Petty. Once Curnow had the ball he would’ve had McKay 1 on 1 with massive amounts of space anyway, May or Petty would’ve been just about stuffed regardless. May gambled off McKay and got the gamble right about 5 times that led to easy intercept possessions. The one time he gambled incorrectly looked a lot worse than it was. Curnow does kick some crazy snaps but of his 4 behinds I think, 1 was a pass that sailed 60 and never threatened, 1 was a down field free, 2 were low percentage shots well defended. May is a power athlete so he took the powerful McKay. Curnow has great athleticism but he’s more of the endurance athlete and Petty matches up well there. May has the strength to work McKay off the drop, Petty has the height to negate Curnow’s leap. In general Petty gave up 1 goal, May gave up 2. You’d take that every day of the week.

They tagged Oliver with Setterfield and then used Docherty as their 3rd mid. Whilst Petracca was relegated to our 4th mid due to his awful defensive running and our desire for more forward line talent. Walsh was used the same way for them but to open space. With Oliver heavily restricted and undoing most of his good work with poor discipline it became a midfield game of Cripps v Gus and Docherty v Viney/Sparrow. Just breaking even in that situation isn’t a surprise. And to make it worse Gus kicked it like he was playing for Carlton. We don’t ever switch or run the ball out the fat side which means we get no benefit from Salem, Hunt and Rivers being on top. We rarely used Langdon or JJ in space with quick movement and we don’t get much from Pickett, Spargo, ANB or the medium forwards ability to spread and kick the ball either.

Willing to agree to disagree on May. There’s definitely times where the risk/reward of him playing up contact just isn’t worth it. And he doesn’t want a reputation. But he’s hardly Joe Daniher out there. Gawn I very much disagree. He’s the most under rewarded player in the comp. The games best pack mark and gets treated like crap. Look at the 2:40 mark here. Pitten Mitten has him in a full arm lock. How’s Gawn meant to jump or use more than 1 arm in that situation? He’s well within his rights to highlight that awful contact. Yet alone the blocking he cops. And a whole lot of high contact too. The idea that the guy playing the ball fairly is the bad guy and the opponent wildly breaking the rule shouldn’t be punished is a very strange afl phenomenon

Maybe below par, I thought really about par, but definitely not very very poor.

Nah the defenders all set up and it was a deliberate snap. He wanted it to go longer and not right to Motlop but it was a really smart play

Harmes wasn’t good and Brown wasn’t bad. That’s just not true

It’s crap but we aren’t dropping him for the Lions unless he’s further injured. He had the guts and smarts to kick to the corridor to set up the winning goal though, so it’s not all bad

Running, sharing the ball and intensity at the contest to win the ball and to force errors from the opposition is the key to our best football. Tracc and Clarry have been waiting for finals all year I think. Whether they’ve got another gear or not we’ll soon find out. Otherwise we drafted Laurie, Bowey, Howes and JVR all for a reason and they’ll get their chances in coming years. Everyone knows what the team needs, the kids just can’t get a game over 19 premiership players even if our style and skills are a bit off

Not sure where you think I said we didn’t need to improve those things? My replies are all in the suggestions to change the forwards. Given this is the changes thread. Our midfield and half backs are responsible for those issues as much as the forwards. We’ve tried to improve all 3 lines with the change of Hunt in, Brayshaw on ball, Petracca forward. It’s helped marginally. Harmes didn’t look like the answer from his Casey form today. Not sure we’ve got anyone who is the answer.

Efficiency and pressure both poor, but pure scoring ok. The method of getting it in and how predictable it is to defend are both things we can massively upgrade with form, fitness, focus. The forward personnel I really don’t think we can do much about.

McDonald chased and covered the ground far better than Brown and Weid do. If Weid is going to play as a lead up CHF he needs afl abilities to do so. If he’s going to be stand and deliver under high balls we’ve all see enough of that this year. Our first halves in the 5 games since Melk has come in have produced scoring. And in total it’s been 83, 100, 85, 89, 79. All could’ve been winning scores. The lack of efficiency is partly the leading patterns, partly Brown and the rucks being no good, a good chunk due to our midfield and backline lack of skills and change of direction and partly due to Melk being 187cm not 195. Weid in only fixes 1 of those issues and hurts all the rest.

Spargo played all of 5 minutes on the wing because Brayshaw was needed on Cripps. Sure, give me Bowey for those 5 minutes. For the rest of the game Spargo, Bedford and Chandler are all ahead of a massive dice role on Bowey. Spargo was good against Freo, very good against Port. He’s had a couple of tough weeks against good sides in really tough conditions, that’s the life of a small forward.

Bowey’s never played half forward flank at afl level. The idea of just dropping him in to a new position with no development in it really doesn’t make sense. He won’t know the structures, he won’t make space for team mates. If the coaches had any desire to try Bowey at half forward they would’ve played him there today.

We would then have 2 non chasing talls and often a ruck. Plus Weid was all big body work on small opponents today. At afl level he doesn’t have the tank, speed or clunking hands to get out on the lead at CHF. He’d be a sitting duck for a good key defender. He doesn’t kick it well enough to be a weapon with the ball either. Not sure why we have such desire to change the Brown, Melk, Fritsch and rucks combo. Scoring really hasn’t been the problem since Melk came in to the side.