DeeSpencer

Good 3rd string back up for one more year. Can now draft a young 4th option with no pressure on them to play. Did he ever get suspended for belting Cox?

The good thing about having such a young best 22 is our depth players can all be pretty cheap. Any depth veterans like Daw and Brown don't have to be paid much. Even Hibbo. And Weid. Then the rest of our depth can be younger guys who are unproven. We're actually very shallow on the list which is the only trade off I guess. We'll need to keep drafting viable depth. Oliver, Fritsch, Jackson, Petty then Rivers and Kossie will get their pay days. Bowey in time. Spargo, Sparrow and JJ might not break the bank, good solid role players. If guys like that become big money types then ok, we trade them away if we have to and draft a replacement. But Gawn, Viney, Lever, May, Langdon, McDonald, Tomlinson will be coming off their big years and we've already negotiated a lot of them down. Even Petracca and Salem went for extra years over extra cash as far as I can tell. I can imagine we have a budget for rucks and key forwards. Gawn - on a lot but not crazy money. McDonald - spread over 3 years. Brown - not silly money. M Brown - stuff all. Weid - pretty cheap deal you'd think. So there's room in that piece of the pie for Jacko to get a decent increase. Same goes for the midfield with Clarry. Harmes, Langdon, Gus, Viney all had a good taste. Petracca didn't take crazy money. Oliver can now do the same.

Just watched the replay. Petracca, Oliver and Salem had a pact to celebrate together in the middle. They were jumping all over each other. But Viney went to JJ and probably went over to the coach and some of the other players. I get the feeling our backline are really close. Particularly May and Hibberd, but with Lever, Tomlinson and the whole unit gel together. And Tommy Mc and Max have the shared bond of being the only guys left in the best 22 (and now the team with Jones and Jetta gone) who were there for the darkest times. Petracca, Oliver and Salo have their own little club. Riv and Jackson. Sparrow and JJ (and Bedford and Chandler). Benny Brown is his own man but probably in the same age group as Max and Tommy Mc. Eddie Langdon's in the wingers club with Gus but probably does his own thing away from footy quite a bit. Viney's close with Petracca but has always been that touch older not to be in his little group I think. And Viney's definitely close to the coach. It also might've meant more for Jack who's been striving for this moment for his entire life to celebrate with a sense of relief more than a sense of outright joy like some of the others. I'm rambling but I think the point I'm trying to make is there's probably lots of on field and off field relationships and we've got a whole bunch of guys including Viney who are now dads so have plenty more to worry about outside of work than who's mates with who. The young guys when they come in and get drafted especially from interstate they have to be best mates. They're going to do everything together as they build a career. Viney might be thinking of face timing his wife more than jumping around like a mad man. Either is fine by me.

Mitch Brown survives for one more year. He must have great photos of someone. An ageing often injured 5th string key forward is a very strange one to keep. Might make more sense if Melksham moves on but I'm not sure how we'd achieve that.

Reading between the tea leaves here the Eagles didn't want to give him away, but he also wasn't prepared to keep pushing his case at AFL standard there. Sounds like he'll get a physical and mental freshen up in the WAFL. From what I've seen his goals were very flukey and he was a long way from being a consistent AFL performer anyway. If his surnamed wasn't Cameron he'd be just another delisting. Every club will get a look at him in the WAFL next year, hopefully he has a good season.

Did he? We we’re 3-5 with losses to the Eagles in Perth, Geel, Rich, Brisbane by under a goal in Queensland in a heartbreaker and got smashed by Port off a 4 day break. We’d lost to the top 5 teams in the comp all in neutral or away locations. The Port game was very disappointing but grandstanding about it changed nothing. We won the next 2 games which we were always going to do against the cellar dwellers, then had an up and down finish to the year. We needed another summer of Burgo, better assistant coaches, maturing players to take ownership, a few more pieces of the puzzle in Brown and Bowey and the coach to hold his nerve. Kennett style internal drama only works if you really want a footy department to ignore the President and go through a Dunstall type figure. It’s better to have everyone working together which is why the Board saw a chance to make a change after the fast start this year.

No it’s not. They said ‘if’. If the best person for ceo is a woman that would be great. If the best person isn’t a woman then that’s fine too

Casey was huge for improving our defensive zone and spread. I also think there was something for the players to be a bit uncomfortable and on a mission to training every day during covid times. Long term if it was our only place I’d be worried but we got the best out of it over summer. The oval at Gosch’s has now won 2 flags at 2 different clubs. It’s perfectly fine. As are the AAMI park facilities. We caught up to the rest of the league. Improving the oval and building stand alone facilities, as well as using Casey appropriately over summer are both required for us to stay with the pack over the next few years. Plus something to call our own is important for the club if not for the team so much.

Viney’s finals in 2018 were amazing. I don’t think I ever lost confidence that he could do the same if we got him fit, healthy and playing with continuity. A lot of his ball use problems came from lack of cohesion with team mates and the balance of the midfield being off. Oliver dramatically improved his ability to use his legs this year. And Jackson in the ruck even if just for 30% provided another receiver at centre bounces. With Neal-Bullen, Pickett, Langdon, Sparrow all flashing in and out of stoppages around the ground it’s much less of a surprise that Jack started giving those handballs and trusting the receiver. Nibbler in particular went from a guy who should never have received a handball in traffic to someone who could dodge, baulk and hit a target

Tall backs: May, Petty, Tomlinson, Turner* Medium backs: Lever, J Smith, Hore* Small backs: Salem, Rivers, Bowey, Hibberd*, Hunt, D Smith Inside mids: Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Harmes, Sparrow Outside mids: Langdon, Brayshaw, Jordon, Declase*, Baker*, Rosman Rucks: Gawn, Jackson, Daw* Key forwards: B Brown, McDonald, Weid, M Brown* Medium: Fritsch, Melksham* Small: ANB, Pickett, Spargo, Laurie, Bedford*, Chandler* Mitch Brown, Baker and maybe Bedford are the 3 who might be the most under pressure.

Bont gets at least a fine in the regular season but who cares. Caleb is still 5 foot 7. On a good day.

Might've been Dunkley's bad shoulder but I reckon Koz has actually moved him sideways a lot. Like uncle Byron he has the sweet sweet timing. You can see he gets it spot on. Dunkley might've gone down more out of shock than looking for the free.

Mention the Bulldogs player so I can know if it was worth it.

As much as I despise them he was also a driving force in making GWS a serious footy club.. There were other differences as well but when you compare Port and GWS to the other clubs that came in at similar times in Freo and Gold Coast you see the huge impact. Winning flags are tremendous achievements but taking clubs that have either lost their way or are expansion clubs back to being competitive and beyond is half the battle.

The perfect kick to a lovely Fritsch lead changed the momentum of the game in an instant. Maybe it was always going to flick our way at some stage. We’d burned some chances (namely Harmes himself) and the Dogs had a run of things working out for them. There was something to the perceived pressure that caused the Smith fumble. Viney came through hard. We’d hit hard for most of the night and we had a lot of their options covered. We were the only side to chop down the Dogs midfield handball game for long periods all year. And we could exploit maximum damage when we did so.

The only time I’ve seen Petracca cry is when we won the minor premiership at Geelong, and it was tears for the fans and the club. Lever gets impacted more by the heat of the game I think. That’s his flaw, if his sorts that he’ll go up another level. Not to say he’s not a great candidate but he’s not perfect. Petracca’s been digging in and trying to win close games since very early in his career. His media work has improved leaps and bounds. If Gawn can go from class clown to premiership captain then Petracca can too.

Lever’s on field direction is amazing. If you didn’t see him live this year you missed one hell of a show. But Petracca has come so far with his footy, his preparation, his media work, his love for the club. He’s a worthy candidate. The good news is we can probably put together a serious leadership group now. Players on all lines, with a variety of personalities and play styles. Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Lever, May, Brown probably standout. With Harmes, Salem, Oliver, ANB, Brayshaw, Tomlinson, McDonald, Langdon all worthy candidates. Thats 14 guys! 13 premiership players. Whether we make a formal group of them or not doesn’t really matter.

Probably a better way to start by using the term wags, it’s only appropriate as a put down for influencers breaking covid restrictions.

Rarely has a big name recruit (on or off the field) worked as well as Burgo. But I was also very impressed with the way he gave credit at one stage to the guys who worked under him. Including getting Brisbane’s number 2 man and someone back from the US. I agree we could look at a flexible work arrangement but also if we need to let him go we’ve got a capable fitness team. There will be regression next year one way or another. I think we just witnessed the healthiest season in AFL history. The lessons on hard work paying off hopefully will be with this group for a while.

We've had multiple paths to goal (or to behinds) this year that's for sure and a nice mix between fast and controlled ball movement, ideally with some more kicking game to build on for years to come I hope. But certainly the best thing about our defensive structure is it doesn't rely on racing up to force turnovers, nor does it allow teams free reign if they switch. It's so nice to see teams switch and get nowhere! The intercepting is plan A, but in forcing teams to kick it to strange spots they risk more turnovers. And in forcing teams to play their talls defensively they suddenly aren't attacking by definition. If Schache is just trying to hold off Lever then he's not marking it himself. Apart from some quick clearance entries the only real weapon the Dogs had was using Bont as a marking forward.

Fritsch absolutely would've held that hanger if Maxy didn't spoil it.

Can we get one last best 23 for the year?