DeeSpencer

I think the entire balance of the backline has been off with Lever, Gus and Salem all came together. Thats 3 players who primarily ignore their opponents to intercept and/or distribute the ball. Which means the other 4 have a whole lot of defending to do. The best solution would be to drop Lever but we don’t have any fit 3rd talls available. So he has to stay. In which case I wonder if the balance comes back with Hunt or Rivers in, and we rely on Lever (and May and Petty) filling the intercepting void we lose with Gus in another role.

As a full time mid Gus gets his 30 but the opposition get 30 under far less pressure and use it better. There’s a good case to move him back to the wing and even rotate him in to the midfield from half forward. But there’s a good reason he doesn’t play in the centre square. He has more creativity by hand than JJ. Not sure his kicking is any better. He’s just as slow to move the ball and has twice the affinity for dumping it in the crowd

Boozy steak dinners and beefing up Jason Taylor’s recruiting team, with a particular focus on state league recruiting. We desperately need to find 3 or so ready made draft gems to reinforce the list.

Collingwood moved the ball quickly and found the corridor at times, but they also picked holes in the zone as they did last year. Knowing that our wingers both press too high at times (as instructed). And they found our biggest flaw which is getting the ball to the ground in our forward line quickly and getting on to it first. That's why I don't really understand why we took speed out of our back half by dropping Hunt and Rivers at the same time, even if Rivers is down a little due to his knee injury. We played 3 tall defenders, Brayshaw as the main interceptor and Hibbo as a back pocket. That means Salem and Bowey were left to cover a lot on the deck. Things look better with May back, but look at the Pies with Howe, Moore, Maynard, Qaynor, Daicos, Noble, Murphy... thats a back 7 that can seriously cover the ground. Going forward is certainly the main issue though and a lot of it is the same MCG problems that have haunted us for years. We can't get the fat side forwards across to the contest and we can't get the ball to them on the fat side once we've gone so wide to begin with. On skinnier grounds it's easier to get back involved in play from the fat side. Kickers can get to you or you can get to the next contest. We're simply playing too wide, too slow and subsequently too quick all at the same time. We showed a good desire to switch and use shorter targets from half back against Collingwood to open up the corridor. Next step is to straighten up across half forward, but without Tommy Mc that won't be easy. It's going to take more run from the backline, more midfield spread and ability to get the ball diagonally through the centre of the ground which is something that we just haven't been doing.

They’ll take 40 marks between them if we go tall as well! If we go smaller we’ll get more players leading to space which will then encourage kicking in to that space.

He was pushed around by Cameron and Cox. Taller, stronger men. But overall he’s very Brodie Grundy and I’m not sure anyones going to make the mistake of a huge contact for a guy like him again surely? To get the most out of him he has to play like a midfielder in the ruck which means less long down the line and more link up play. Given our side is awful at that right now it’s hardly a surprise he’s struggling. He was trying to find space to be a target whilst Cox had a field day down the line. When it comes to his forward line play it’s just hard to ask a lot from a young guy who wasn’t drafted for that role and has had so little experience. I see the medium term value of him leaving and us finding a proper key forward and a cheap back up ruck. But short term he pairs with Max and long term he takes over from Max. I’d hate to lose him unless we got incredible replacements.

He’s had good moments kicking the ball at Casey. But they play a similar style as the senior side with overall lower skill level, so playing half forward or on ball he doesn’t get a lot of it space. Doesn’t get a lot of it full stop. His handballs can be equally creative, he has clever vision and timing to release runners. And he seems to do that more than be the runner himself. At this stage he just looks like a similar player to Spargo, with a little less pace, less strength at the contest and a whole lot less defensive ability. I’d be very surprised if he got a call up.

Lever’s cooked and the backline has battled injuries and in game injuries, overall just hasn’t covered the ground at half back as they did last year. Salem hopefully finds some continuity now and May comes back in. Tom McDonald’s a clear missing piece across half forward. He makes a 2 way effort as well. Brown clearly battling - as he did for most of last year to be fair before a strong finals. Are the mids as fit? Well… I’d say Viney, JJ and Sparrow are putting in work. Langdon maybe not 100% since injury but before that was looking his usual self. Harmes maybe the same. Oliver has been tagged or faded a little in second halves but he’s clearly racking it up. Petracca is the big one. He took his game to incredible levels under Burgo. And his game style and body shape are both very rare. Hopefully the bye can tune him back up.

That I can agree on. If there’s a player who deserves a HS back page about his poor treatment by the umpires it’s not the Collingwood kid

One goal, plenty of nice short kicks, the number of times he’s run through the centre and hit a leading forward for the year is still under 5. He might be the best player in the comp but there’s still a major limit to his game.

They have to take 4 days. Every club. CBA mandated. The short bye likely explains why our players had a nice dinner during the week. Sensibly getting in some festivities so they don’t overdo it this week.

Out: Turner, M Brown In: May, Hunt Time to mix up the forward line and midfield mix. We don’t have quality talls so there’s no point playing 2 of them. We’re slow down back, we’re slow up forward and we lack midfield rotations. Hunt for some much needed pace across half back (rather than deep), Harmes permanent CHF, Brayshaw in to the midfield/forward rotations.

Still hasn’t learned how to kick, but at least he hasn’t mastered kicking to the opposition like Petracca

Gawn’s the biggest hypocrite though. His podcast is/was so full of put downs to team mates. The Burgo episode last year he literally asked Burgo who’s the worst runner out of May, Hibbo and some Port blokes. He and Gus rubbished Declase last year and we drafted him again a few days later. Max has to own his own behaviour and the role it’s played in this.

Is the drinking whilst concussed really a thing though? He’s 8 days post concussion, he would’ve played on the Saturday a couple of years ago. Getting drunk enough to fight a team mate - even with a 8 day break between games - is the real issue. Our bye week being so short and possibly removing the chance for the boys to have a proper sess next week might be partly to blame here

Every player at the dinner had no problem with May drinking until he got caught. So…. They can’t exactly be emphasising the high standards. Given 2 of our older players were there I wouldn’t be surprised if many others in the leadership group were too.

Very disappointing actions from former captain Jake Melksham. He should receive a lifetime ban

I don’t think we’re loading, I just think we’re mentally and physically spent from training and playing hard every single week. The guys get a longer break this week and then the bye. Post bye it’s a 9 week sprint to finals and each week gets closer to crunch time. Easier to see the finish line once that happens

We could just embrace the idea that they’ll take 15 intercept marks whether we’ve got Brown or no Brown, and go with the best team to score on the other 30-40 inside 50’s. Intercept marks are deflating but not always a bad thing, especially if we’ve got smaller leading forwards open and quick ball movement. I’d rather 5 goals and 5 intercept marks than 10 bombed entries that result in 1 goal 4 behinds

Can you remember how the Weagles covered for Hunter down back? Some combination of Brett Jones, Waters or Chick slotting in at CHB? Or Hansen going back? The issues with Petty as a swing man are our flankers are undersized and/or not very strong defenders. Without Rivers and Hibbo in the team we can’t use flankers as de facto CHB. We don’t have a CHF who can go back, unless Tomlinson takes the forward role. And we don’t have midfielders or forward flankers who slot in nicely down back either. If we had last years team with Gus on a wing and Tommy at CHF then there’s 2 ways to engineer a Petty swing forward and give some cover. With the current set up I think Petty has to start forward with Tomlinson at CHB and swap if it’s not working.

It seems Mrs Brown’s boys just can’t compete, neither can the Weid. Weid never has. Mitch Brown should’ve retired years ago. And Ben can’t get out of a jog. Maybe Benny can come good with some longer breaks and the bye - he did last year, but there might be a time coming when his decline seems inevitable.

The banner squad and crowd in general seemed far more pumped on Saturday than the Freo game. My question is why is/was the old Redlegs section in the Olympic stand no longer packed full of demons. Was disgusting seeing Errol point to swans fans and celebrate. Even with 30k attendance their should be a continuous stretch of red and blue from behind the goals, through the club members and in to the MCC. Should the banner squad relocate to the Olympic stand to beef up their surroundings with fellow demons? I don’t particularly understand why the most passionate fans would be forced in to ordinary seats behind the goals? Sit them on the wing, the club and league can afford it!

There’s 3 things to blame for our scoring woes. 1. Key forwards that can’t clunk ‘em. 2. Midfield that can’t hit up short kicks 3. inability to pressure and create turnovers in dangerous spots, leading to turnover scores. Not much can be done about number 1 for now. Number 2 requires individual improvement but it also needs more corridor and quick ball movement. Hitting up short kicks with 30 players inside D50 is near impossible. Number 3 requires a rethink of our defensive plan IMO. Our drop off defensively zone is excellent once we hold a team up. But when we are attacking quickly we have to make sure we’ve got numbers to the drop of the ball inside 50 and the mids and half backs have covered exits. At the moment we seem scare of getting burnt on transition and so are folding back way too quickly. Thus forfeiting prime scoring chances that come from forward half turnovers. We’ll see how the 8 day break and bye help us but the glaring absence from our game right now looks like a lack of run.

Some of the defensive mistakes last night were baffling. 3rd quarter, Petty comes up to spoil Heeney on the wing. Aggressive move and the right call. Heeney takes a strong mark, good for him. Swans then chip it around, and Tomlinson's guarding the next kick 15m away from Petty! Swans bomb it deep and suddenly Bowey's playing full back defending one on one! Last quarter, game still in the balance, a goal the difference I think, Swans going slow play on the members wing. JJ gets caught forward too much (a common occurence). Gus rushes up from the backline. Salem follows his man up. Swans bomb long to CHF and we're short a defender. May will certainly help a lot of that, but really we had enough experience last night to be more organised and it looked like players were unsure whether to be up or dropping back. And I think a lot of it stems from a lack of confidence in the midfield covering off their opponents. For which the main culprits were definitely Oliver and Petracca. If those guys aren't running and doing the defensive work then we need to roll more numbers through the midfield and find guys who will. Focus on quality rather than quantity of minutes for the 2 big guns.

in: Rivers, May out: Brown, Brown FB: Hunt May Tugboat HB: Salem Lever Rivers C; Brayshaw Petracca Langdon HF: ANB Harmes Spargo FF: Pickett Petty Fritsch Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Jackson, Bowey, Jordon, Sparrow Gus and Lever are both too intercept happy, can’t have both in the same backline. JJ is playing well but he’s so slow to kick and at times looks for the structure too much rather than handing over an opponent or folding back. Use him as 3rd winger and on ball to give more run Time for a complete reset with the key forwards. Harmes can provide run at CHF, rotating with Petracca, Sparrow etc as a smaller line up. Petty forward as the main marking target. Leaves us vulnerable with the tugboat down back but he can’t be much worse than tonight and May should help him.