DeeSpencer

Dunny was in terrible shape in 2016. He recovered his spot in round 3, then didn't play again after round 6 with Frost, Oscar and Tom all preferred. Spargo didn't get an automatic debut and was clearly best 22 when picked. Sparrow we ran out of players at the start of 2019. It was either Sparrow or C Wagner, no great options. Kossie, best 22 the day he walked in to the club. Bedford had the standout preseason and get rewarded. Harmes is back as a mid because he stunk as a defender, a role that was well worth trying. Bowey missed all of last year, but he's also a tiny fella learning the game at half back. If we had drafted Max Holmes, Sam Berry or Errol Gulden they might've played games by now and we might still have been 8-0. Plenty of great coaches give kids a taste early and win lots of games. The new rules were likely a catalyst for Hunt going down, and the reality that the more they tried him forward the more clear it became it just wouldn't work. He's been good down back, but we haven't had a lot of other options with injuries to a lot of the depth defenders. I don't think it's a tick or a cross to the coaches, sometimes players just have to go through a journey. ANB had 9 touches and 1 tackle against Carlton. He went unsighted for the second half of the game as Carlton came back. His 2019 was awful too. He looked like a guy who needed a long stint back in the 2's to get his hands on the ball 30 times a game not 9 times a game. He was a different player when he came back and he came straight back in to the side after suspension. A suspension that went to the tribunal and didn't give us any ground to appeal. Nibbler gets talked about as a coaches pet and a forgotten man. They can't both be true. Watch this space on Harmes, as I said earlier, after his backline moved failure he had no where else to go. If we were losing the same praise for Harmes would be criticism of Brayshaw's wing role. The forward line is a work in progress. Only the Geelong game last year did we go with just 1 tall. 2 and Fritsch has been our default. 3 is new. Tomlinson over Joel Smith as the 2nd tall worked well, but we worked out after about his first 5 games that Lever wasn't going to be the 2nd tall. The most important thing for Lever is pressure up the ground. Gawn - yes, the coaches went Viney too soon with Jones. Then left Jones too long because they didn't have faith in Viney. Gawny's the right call, but I don't think his leadership on field has been a factor this year. Off field, how can we really know?

It’s a major concern, but the thing is Weid isn’t any better. There’s room for 1 big guy who can clunk a mark and doesn’t get out marked, but otherwise coaches will favour mobile tall options who can do more. Ie. Jackson, T Mc, Fritsch. The advantage Brown has over Weideman is he has much more advanced leading patterns. Sam took a step forward in doing that last year but to be a consistent AFL player and overcome his lack of athleticism he has to be even sharper. And at peak fitness, and consistently brave in the air and with his agility at the best it can be. As good as his Casey form has been I still think he’s got improvement in him.

If the Eagles delist Willie I hope they do it quickly and we can get him in the mid season draft. He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he’s a heck of a player

Prohibited in competition as far as I can tell. Not an issue out of competition.

I just love the way he does the basics well. He tracks guys hips to stay on them to tackle. He gets down low and hard to pick the ball up. He gives quick accurate handballs to team mates in better position. And he runs, runs and then runs some more. He was a strange draft pick at the time because he had so little exposure at the elite junior level and about the only stand out trait was he had some penetration in his kicking - which hasn't really been a huge feature in his game at AFL level so far. But either the recruiters picked up on some finer details or maybe they just really liked the kid.

Players have different styles and routines, the most important things are they stick to their routines, they make smart choices about what type of kick they need (ie. no point snapping on the opposite foot from 30 out, or snapping at all from 45 out) and that their technique gets enough of the basics right. Good rhythm, good solid kick (having to kick it 50 each time is rubbish, but don't kick it 25 from 20 out), as straight toward the target as possible and ideally as low a ball drop as possible.

You can look up his shots from round 1-6 on https://www.statsinsider.com.au/afl/shot-charting He's 66% for the year which is very decent. Above 70% inside 50 on 21 shots, but 50% from outside 50 on 8 shots.

“I will be cherry ripe for the Big Freeze, that’s for sure, but in terms of when I come back, (I’m) not 100 per cent sure, but it is tracking really well,” Viney said at the Big Freeze launch on Monday. Important context that he was asked at the launch of the big freeze. The clubs initial time frame was round 10. Viney says for sure by round 13 he’ll be back. My guess is round 11 or 12.

Umps let the play go in the wet on Saturday night. That’s what a lot of fans want. I thought it wasn’t ideal, but the players knew where they stood. Better than paying everything. MRP is a mess but there’s no simple solution. ‘Stick with the oringial umps call’ isn’t a good process, the umps miss a heap of on field stuff. They can’t see everything. Every little incident is different so I don’t believe in the desire for consistency. One little change can make the difference between 2 weeks and nothing. It’s fine lines.

Geelong wear white shorts at home to avoid teams changing jumpers. If Sydney want to wear red shorts and their home kit I’m ok with accomodating them by changing socks. Why the Swans don’t wear their predominantly white jumper and white shorts more often I don’t know, but I guess they want to look as much as Sydney as possible.

Lemmens picks Butler up and just drops him on his backside, players get far more physical than that in their grappling training. There's no chance of him injuring his neck. The Rampe one is different. I'd love an explanation of that.

Absolutely nothing in that with Lemmens. He just lifted him up and dropped him. The May one does look a bit nasty but I agree he should’ve got some benefit for doing his best to not bump high or cause any damage. And players have to be able to pressure.

If we played 22 key forwards then we'd have lots of fire power! We'd never lose.

Without looking at the stats it seems to be first quarter - not often right away, but sometimes, then particularly third and fourth quarters very quickly after the bounce. Apart from losing centre bounces there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason for it. It’s not one on one defending. It seems to be a balance of team defending and turnovers. James Jordon - sloppy handball out, and Brayshaw - fumble and Hollywood handball - were the main culprits in the 1st and last. Both mids did their job of getting back to support then stuffed it up.

Should we rest Hibberd and bring Jetta in to take Eddie Betts? Hibberd did a great job on Papley but he’s definitely in veteran territory. Where as Nev has been an Eddie specialist. Also thinking Petracca is going to be 50:50 at best. I’m not convinced that’s a corkie that will settle quickly.

No, I want Harmes to give the first option. He’s not a good kick and he’s not as good as escaping pressure as he thinks he is. He burnt half the team last night and end result was a lot of turnovers or hospital handballs.

There’s plenty of rucks who excel as the main man but don’t like to share. Gawn being a little down and Jackson coming on, when combined with the 2 big forwards means Gawn has to share more. It also means less game time for all 4 big guys + Fritsch, but especially Gawn who was playing nearly 100% and Jackson. With the interchange cap it means long spells on the bench too. 7 minutes at times out of the play. Just something to consider and monitor. I really think Fritsch or Jackson need to take some wing or half back rotations just to stay involved in the game. Plus it will give the mids a little extra rest too.

He had some brilliant moments that didn’t quite work out - weaving through traffic on the members wing - seemingly evading about 5 tackles before narrowly missing the kick out on the full. Overall he did go in to his shell a little last night, rather than keep backing himself for more. Sydney are so good defensively and lock in early with tackles well off the ball so it’s not easy. If it’s not on ball we should think about a little bit of wing or half back time for moments when he’s not in the game. Or just roll him up to midfield stoppages as an extra off the back of the stoppage. Oliver or Petracca feeding a handball to Kossie from a midfield stoppage could be very fun.

Looked every bit of 15+ to me, but is was worth penalising for burning the free running Jackson alone. Harmes needs to remember he’s a tagger not Dustin Martin.

Most of the second half was spent trying to defend and get it out of our backline. But one thing I didn’t like about Brown is his defensive game seems to be just dropping really deep rather than staying up and pressuring. Sydney had the ball on a slow play at their half back and Brown will be on the fat side all the way at the back of the centre square. He even pushed inside d50 when we had Max and the key defenders back. Aerial defending isn’t what we need from him, we need him marking the hacked kicks from the backline, or streaming forward once we counter. Goodwin countered in the last term by keeping 6 forwards which helped counter Sydney’s deep defensive drop. Brown took some important marks in transition in the last quarter.

Oliver’s clear throw called a throw? You can’t flick pass it 10m That said, Sydney have been clean dropping the ball in tackles for over a decade now. And the umps threw out most of the rule book last night. Paid next to nothing. Deliberate, holding the ball, protected area, stand, high contact and even marks not paid!

Tough competition in the Swans forward line with Hayward the other main contender and Wicks and McLean up and comers. McLean strutted around like he was Buddy when he’s had 1 decent game in his career and Wicks was belting Salem in the back all game

Sparrow in for Melk would provide 5 primary on ballers - Oliver, Petracca, JJ, Harmes and Sparrow. That way we can keep them all fresher with lots of forward rotations. Petracca brings a lot of pressure and spark to a forward line, he can do that whilst still having a week with less miles on the legs. I’m not suggesting anything drastic just taking 10-20% of his game time on ball, same as Harmes. That way you get a fraction more midfield minutes for Sparrow than would’ve been offered to Melk.

Melksham‘s mark for goal was a standing uncontested mark. His hanger was nice but he had the sit. Im talking about flying in contests where his body is genuinely on the line. He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t hit ground balls at pace or chase with intensity either. Fritsch had a poor game, not sure why he’s been bought in to this. He has to lift his defensive work too but overall he’s had a great season. I’ve been defensive of Melksham in other weeks. Pretty sure I didn’t want him dropped this week. But his intensity should be lifting and it’s not, and he spilled a simple chest mark that just can’t be tolerated. We’re playing blue collar team footy that relies on every player rolling up their sleeves. Melksham did that in 2018 but hasn’t since. A week off to set that standard isn’t a huge deal to me. Better to do that now than passively waiting for him to get to a level I believe he can.

Fritsch is poor defensively but he flies for his marks with rare courage. Melksham can’t take a chest mark in 20m of space. Not the first time and unless something is done about it, won’t be the last. We need his skills in the side but the coaches aren’t doing him or the team favours if they don’t set basics standards on intensity and courage.