DeeSpencer

If he can consistently keep his legs moving, if he can stop mouthing off at the umps so he gets umpired correctly (should get 5 free kicks a game) and if he can kick at a decent level he’ll be the best midfielder in the game. I think he’s made improvements in all 3 areas, with the kicking still needing the most work. Last night was his best game ever, but there’s still room for improvement.

Either the umps should publish a consistent report of performance which includes a break down of multiple free kicks or they should stay quiet. Press conferences post game aren’t required. Leak to the media that it was an error and move on.

Lever was worse. Sprinted away from McAdam for no reason that made May roll up and leave Rivers on Tex early. Panicked with the ball all night - conceded 2 goals from dodgy handballs, went sprinting off Fogarty to concede the second to last goal. Failed to tackle Tex on a clearly play on ball inside 50. Tex and the crowd were in his head all night and that’s a huge mental issue for Lever. Overall our defenders were too keen on guarding space or generating extra numbers and not consistently on their men. That’s the game plan but they have to adapt to the opposition and the way the game is being played. They have to trust each other to stick on their men and then peel off when needed. May in particular gets nervous if he’s not the deepest defender. He gets caught on the back foot rather than staying up on his guy. I’d rather Petty have 5 kicked on him and May and Lever stick to their guys than each of them getting beaten by being neither here nor there. Petty is going to have goals kicked on him over the next 2 weeks. May and Lever have to trust him to halve some contests and fight through it.

Jetta has been excellent in the VFL where as Lockhart had one game back from a calf after missing time with his ‘groin’ injury. I can see why they went with Jetta. But it wasn’t just Nev who was disappointing. Hibberd, Rivers and Hunt all weren’t as good in slightly reshuffled roles. That’s as much on them. I think in the future Bowey could cover Salem. Lockhart can cover Hunt or Rivers and Jetta only gets used to cover Hibberd. But that relies on Bowey and Lockhart being fully healthy.

Needs to axe the podcast. Anyone who’s listened knows his brain is addled. As is Brayshaw’s.

The biggest frustration to me is seeing players go in to hero mode rather than take easy options. Gawn's match losing effort. Fritsch snapping on his right rather than handballing Pickett trying to spear it to Fritsch (great intercept by Doedee) when Langdon was free running Hibberd completely missing a Tommy Mc lead. Harmes' multiple times taking the tricky option Refusing to give good wide handballs from the backline to clear pressure and instead trying to weave through. Nibbler doing his Nibbler rather than making clear easy decisions. We're still a poor kicking side, especially in the midfield. So we have to play the percentages. We have to get the ball clear with fast clean hands and then find runners in space.

The Wagner brothers were literally on our list last year. Mitch Brown and Majak Daw are both on the list currently. There's very little established about them. This isn't the thread for suggesting retirements/delistings but there's going to be plenty of changes at the end of the season and we don't have a first round pick nor do we probably have all that much salary cap space. I reckon we'll be adding a few mature players, be they late pick trades or delistings. Somehow we don't even have any half back flank depth, nor any wing depth. I'm willing to listen to suggestions about anyone who can run and kick.

IN: B. Brown, Salem, Sparrow Out: Weid, Jetta, Melksham Bit harsh on Weid who had some ok moments but he doesn't clunk marks and doesn't find any easy ball. Brown is a Docklands specialist. Sparrow should've been picked over Melksham for weeks. We can't carry a taller forward line and a forward/midfielder like Melksham who doesn't tackle and doesn't crack in.

Spargo played his role as usual and was one of the few to hit a target, absolutely no chance he gets dropped. Same goes for Petty and Hunt. If we had to reheat the ancient Jetta to find a 7th defender we aren't going to suddenly find 2 more in the next 6 days.

Gawn and Lever are the biggest leaders of this football club and they were both very poor today. Really throughout. Gawn was the awful holding the ball rather than just flicking a handball. Lever with the decision to leave Fogarty for the 2nd last goal for a contest he was never going to get to. That's blatantly ignoring the game plan. But all through the match they made errors under pressure that a teams most experienced senior players shouldn't make. The same goes for Petracca. How often does he wander off the mark for no good reason? Constantly putting himself under pressure. It has to stop and has to stop now. Selection wasn't ideal. Jetta is cooked and it's been clear for a long time now he can't play in the same side as Hibberd. Melksham somehow snuck right back in to the team, tried hard for a quarter then gave it up. I really feel for Tom Sparrow who is having his development ruined by so many trips as the sub. We simply don't have the skills to play teams in a fast paced game. We have to pressure them and create errors. Instead of being the hunters we let ourselves become the hunted.

Removing prior means removing that allowance. Hardwick is saying anyone caught with the ball has to dispose of it cleanly or they’ll be penalised.

Clear headlocks - sure. But a tackle from over the top with arms around the body isn’t high contact, and as long as they aren’t ridding in to the ground you can lie on a guy without it being a push in the back. There’s all sorts of contact after pack marks that aren’t free kicks if there was a clean mark or spoil, as the bodies collide. I see it similar to that

Or limited fitness guys like Hibberd, Rivers, Petracca will be replaced by ANB x 3. No coach is going to just accept players spreading out all over the field.

That means a lot of players holding the ball in and a lot of ball ups. Boring. As long as the player is legitimately trying then it’s play on, the game keeps moving. Im more suss on what happens when a player attempts to dispose once they’ve had prior. Those ‘disposals’ should be policed a lot more. There’s so little jumping in the players back or high contact that’s in any way dangerous which is why the free kicks exist. There’s a lot more players drawing those free kicks than there are on the tacklers. It’s a physical contact sport, with rules to protect dangerous actions, it’s not a non contact sport policing every instance of contact. Teams getting 2, 3, 4 in on the tackle is good footy I think. I think of Jack Watts getting mauled and it wasn’t fun for us but it’s good stuff. It’s physical and intimidating but no one gets hurt.

As far as I can remember (the 90's) I think you're correct. But it's also worth remembering that pressure and tackling have only come in to the game since the mid/late 2000's. The question becomes chicken and egg. In Hardwick's scenario the ball moves faster as players will gather and dispose in to space and therefore the constant pressure and tackling is removed, but I think that's trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube a little. If you up the reward for laying tackles you only further incentivise tackling. So even if the theory is every player will become super quick and quick to dispose, with the ball bouncing out of backlines at the rate of knots, you'll also be rewarding the opposite. Teams will do all they can to flood forward again, trap the ball in and stick a tackle to get the free kick.

Without prior opportunity situation number 2 would be holding the ball, no? Isn't that what Hardwick is calling for? If you're caught and you don't dispose it's holding the ball?

I don't agree with no prior. Might work fine in the midfield or forward line but are defenders really meant to paddle the ball around when they can't rush behinds outside the 9 and can't rush it over the boundary? I think the Melb - Carl game even in the wet was nice and hot and about right for holding the ball. The Saints - Geel game was just poorly officiated. The rule itself is a conundrum and a difficulty but it's also just what it is. That's the sport. If you want clear cut rules go play chess.

Sydney have been doing this for a decade. They know where and when to let it out. It's making life very very difficult for umpires. Hayward here is a classic example

Not sure you need 'perceived' there Macca. Out on the full is out on the full. We usually target quite an inboard kick at CHF these days, but yes he could've been going more boundary. It's certainly far from the worst result but it's still an unforced error. There was a little bit of a breeze but the kicks were shanks. Maybe Gus is working on some technique changes and might come through the other side kicking much better, but so far it doesn't seem that way. Otherwise he's playing pretty well.

No thanks. If Jackson is the back up ruck that means we have 3 big forwards who aren't great defenders on the field at all times (Brown, Weid, T Mc, Fritsch). That combination would almost be better if Weid back up rucked and Jackson spent time on the wing or on ball. Which seems very unlikely. Possibly we could borrow one of the Eagles moves and rotate a key forward like they do Oscar Allen where he's suddenly filling in at half back but why mess with the back 7 that are settled.

Entirely likely they were waiting on the clearance to run and now can progress that, but it has taken a fair bit of time. I've never got hung up on the weeks because they're always a rough guide line with time frames often determined by so many factors, I'm just hoping Laurie can get back quickly. He missed all of last year as all the Victorians did so it would be nice for him to get a block of games in to build from.

Some mildly interesting things happening: Viney goes from ready to play earlier this week to now probably 2 weeks away. Bailey Laurie gets cleared to run but is bumped back to 5 weeks away. That's a long lay off with a facial fracture. Bowey doesn't even make the graphic. He's got to be a test at best if they had to get scans and he couldn't play out the game. Vanders is stuck at 2 weeks. Nathan Jones is 100 years old but somehow does a hammy that doesn't stop him training and has him right to go with just 1 game off. And finally Marty Hore has snuck away from the 'season' and to 10-12 weeks. If things go well he could be a chance of being available for finals. One to watch anyway.

Woewodin didn't play 100 games for the Pies. The issue of father-son is in many ways separate from the issue of a past player's relationship with the club. Brad Green with Neitz and others seem to be lifting the game on past player relations, and like a lot of things winning helps. Obviously there's a link but whether or not Shane has any great relationship isn't a huge factor on whether he thinks the club will be a good fit for his son. Especially if he's a marginal prospect and doesn't have a lot of interest from the WA clubs (that's not my opinion, just a hypothetical). I'd imagine as long as the relationship isn't actively bad Shane would want him to come to the club where he won a Brownlow and a club that seems to be doing well with development, especially with a couple of East Freo boys.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_AFL_draft#Mid-season_rookie_draft Pickett and John Noble have been the biggest success stories from 2019. With Snelling handy too. Gardner was looking improved this year as well. I don't know how many picks the club plans on using but I'd be seriously interested in a mature key defender for some depth for the rest of the season, and using at least 1 pick on the best 19 year old we can find too.

Ben Brown did a nice job as both a step ladder for Tom who dropped it and a space blocker for Tom to fly in front of. Shame he was spoiled by Max who didn’t return the favour. Otherwise I reckon Max played the kick behind perfectly and floated forward only when there’s a need or opportunity. One thing I’d like to improve on is our kick out zones. If we’ve got the 3 tall forwards at least one of them should take the spot in the zone opposite what ever spot Max takes up. Other teams should be forced to pick their poison for long kicks out of the backline. It’s either long to Max or long to Sam/Brown/T Mc.