DeeSpencer

Probably even in terms of best 22, hard to get a read on the value of our outs

Harmes had a couple of stinkers but also made a few important spoils. Overall I’d still have him ahead of Baker who looks gassed after 5 minutes and can’t defend in the air at all.

Usual suspects making mistakes but the same can be said for Richmond. The promise is the structure has looked good. The only easy goals for the Tigers have been from some really good crumbing on the back of some poor spoiling. We’ve moved it between the arcs reasonably well and the shape around the clearances in particular is better. Why we didn’t add some mature defensive depth is beyond me. Not sure Jetta and Hunt are the answers. The coaches are spinning the forward and midfield magnets and something should shake out.

The Premium option as far as I know just gives you 3 visitor passes to the MCC for 3 low drawing games. Instead of paying $153 for 3 x 51 dollar visitor tickets you get them for $136. Now in some way it should guarantee that your guest can get in to those 3 games considering you've paid for them and it would be nice to know you'll also get priority to getting in to those games, but I don't think that's the case. If the crowds are heavily restricted and each game goes to a ballot system then it might be luck of the draw. EDIT: I didn't factor the 'general admission access to all games all Melbourne home games at the MCG'. If that means you get to dip in to the MFC members allowance for tickets as well then that does increase your odds. Not sure if that's the case, the wording seems unclear.

The cap is for footy departments not club spending

We leaked a fair portion of our stories through Clark, so hardly a surprise he likes the guy. That said, we’ve managed the media well I’ve thought. Mostly kept things in house until they were ready to go, made sure we got a fair hearing on our side of the story and also got our fair share of press. Good luck to whoever takes over in a year that will likely be chaotic again, could see a coach firing and possibly even the board under pressure

If we are reliant on young players to be the cake then we are in trouble, but a number of successful teams have had plenty of young players as the cream. Rivers, Pickett, Laurie and Bowey are flankers, almost by definition if they are picked it's not in roles that require brilliance or to be the most physical players. More will be expected of Jackson especially to start the year but his upside is that he doesn't have to do any one thing amazingly to play well because he's versatile. If Rosman gets a game then obviously he's in a physically demanding position but he seems physically ready There's also plenty of examples of young players stepping in and helping change the feeling of a side even if they don't make it through the full season.

It's disappointing but they've shortened the AAMI Community series to just the one week and now confirmed the interstate sides will play their neighbours to cut down on travel. Without the organisation of proper games, in decent time slots, with a sponsor and tv broadcasts I can see why they've called these effectively training sessions. In hindsight I think they could've quickly organised each club to distribute even a low number like 500 tickets per club with a simple covid and security plan and had a few loyal members at the games. It could've eased the disappointment on fans who miss out on games at times this year.

If the cap is at 50k then it’s likely they’ll be room for everyone in round 1 but the issue is if it’s broken down in to set divisions people might have to change categories to get in. There could be more than 11k MCC members at a Melbourne game, but not the full quota of regular MFC members, AFL members or Freo members. Each game might need waves of ticket releases to give people more chances to go.

He's always kicked to the left of the mark, but the man on the mark has always had the chance to at least smother it if it's low. This change means he won't even have to physically kick over the man on the mark. Players capable of jutting out late - see Petracca - can start their kicks lower and/or closer to goal. This rule stops players blocking the corridor. We're yet to know if the umps will still allow players to run 3m over the mark and then reluctantly take 1-2 small steps back when asked. That's the Hawthorn/Sydney tactic for the last decade. Ask for forgiveness not permission. The shambolic nature will be good if we use it win. Bad if it costs us. Hopefully for once our coaches and players are prepared.

Players will have to be disciplined and play to the whistle (or more accurately the play on signal), but it’s also going to take the umpires being very vigilant. Obviously coaches have manipulated the man on the mark by moving them inwards (and for years forwards). But there was a natural understanding that as the attacker moves sideways the defender can too. It seems particularly unfair to me that Buddy Franklin won’t ever have to kick over the mark again. He’ll always get to swing out before the defender moves to cover it.

At the contest - yes. But his draft highlights and times in his career have shown he loves playing on and running the ball.

Might be hard with Petracca there. I think the Clarry blueprint is to see what Lachie Neale has done over the last two years. He’s turned from an accumulator to a very damaging midfielder and goal kicker. The man on the mark rule could help Clarry too. His agility and burst could see him running through the corridor

Aussie rules has always been an evolving game. And a lot of games are rubbish. My biggest concern about it is they are introducing new rules rather than cracking down on the existing ones. Paying more holding the man would do more to speed up and open up the game than any new rules.

Looks like the defender has moved before the attacker just, but in this case I’d rather a quick play on call than a 50. We’ll see if our players are more disciplined

I’m tempted but 25m from the boundary at a suboptimal angle, through a fence and surrounded by 2 different types of reptiles (the snakes and Richmond supporters) makes me think it’s best not to.

It’s his field kicking too. His team mates have to be aware of his limitations, but he also has to back himself to hit up some leads. Doesn’t have to be pretty but has to give the forward a chance. Especially if Ben Brown gets up and going. In an ideal world we’d have more wing options and could rotate him to half forward to play a pressure and spread role, especially on the long and thin grounds where there’s less space for the wings. I’d still like to see less joking around and promotion of brand Max and more talk about the team from Max off field. Less of the Hollywood stuff on field should be the main aim. Playing for frees and kicking when he should handball. Like most big guys his best footy is when he’s aggressive at the contest.

No it’s not. Decent handballer on both sides and can chip the ball in uncontested situations. But he struggles to hit targets kicking on the run

Tomlinson turns like a cruise ship, has no physicality or intensity in his game. He’s a lock. After that we have any number of frustrating players all the way from Gawn, Viney, Oliver, Lever to Brayshaw, T Mc, ANB, Smith and Fritsch. I wonder how long it will take for fans to be less impressed with Langdon’s great running and frustrated with his horrendous kicking.

Sounds like the best possible working solution. Defenders will have to quickly decide whether to sag off or man the mark. In fact they may have to decide if they are even going to compete in a contests because once you're jostling with a forward if they out mark you I'd imagine you're pretty much the man on the mark then. The high defensive line is pretty much dead too. Teams will still push up to lock the ball in the forward 50 but they'll have at least 1 sweeper back and once the ball gets to half way they'll drop everyone a long way back. Which will mean a lot of ping pong between the arcs and also a heap of lateral kicking around half back and the middle of the ground

Disagree, as soon as you ban 3rd man up you have to specify who the 2 rucks actually are to stop a decoy situation. If Gawn (ruck), Jackson (FF), Grundy (ruck) and Roughead (FB) were all at a ball up deep in our forward line we could hover Gawn around, have him pull out at the last second and then send Jackson up against Grundy with every chance Roughead bumps in to Jackson as he's defending him, triggering a 3rd man up or block in the ruck scenario. Teams would rort it as much as possible. The umps got really good last year of just identifying when both big men were at the stoppage and getting it going without delay. It just took about 3 years of umpires having conferences with the big boys first which wasn't needed. It's a necessary rule but can be streamlined as it was.

Relatively easy but then they have to add in covid marshals, security, keep the staff and players clear of the public and so on. And if a decent crowd turns up then they are taking away from the product they've sold which is the games in a fortnights time. I'd also imagine the interstate teams would ask why they are limited to 1 practice match if the Victorians roll out 2 full scale matches with crowds. It's not great for us as fans but I can see why they've made them closed sessions in line with the training policies.

Salem will never move to the wing. It’s a gut running position that doesn’t suit his game which is elite distribution out of traffic. The aim should be to move him on ball but we need 2 more additions to the half back kicking ranks before we move him not 1. And we need to clear some of the mids out. In the meantime we can hopefully get Salem and some combination of Bowey, Lockhart, Rivers and even Hunt providing rebound. Richmond use the trio of Houli, Short and Baker to constantly countering with pace and skill.

Remember when we played the kids early for years on end and never got any better? Let’s no repeat that as a philosophy. I expect Laurie will be. I’m not sure we’ll put a 175cm 70kg defender out in round 1 unless he impresses in the scratch games. Jetta and Hibberd are competing with others for a back pocket spot. Melksham was training with the mids. There’s others that they are competing with for spots anyway.