DeeSpencer

Bowey’s defensive work has been the best I’ve seen from him. That’s been what’s holding him back. But it’s hard to see him getting a gig in the back 7 as is. Do we need to move him to half forward at Casey to see if he can push for a game in that role?

Oskar Baker has come in to it in the last 10 minutes. He’s been the driving force of the momentum changing back

30 out, 30 degree angle. Then doubles back and crumbs one in the square after a Rosman long kick sailed over all the players.

Brown had a dreadful first half and is playing on Bomber Thompson’s fat son who hasn’t played a VFL game since 2013. Pump the brakes on his return

Rosman is handy in space but a deer in the headlights with anything contested. Can’t give off quick handballs. Doesn’t know how to win the ball on the deck. He’s going to need a whole lot of coaching and time

Melksham, I’d delist him tomorrow.

Jones, Bowey, Weid and Turner the highlights of the first half. A lot of guys look like they haven’t played in a month and rightly so. Would like to see Chandler, Bedford and Laurie on ball rather than so much of Munro and the 3 experienced guys.

Would like a bag but it needs to come with 3+ tackles and a few crashed packs as well.

Played just 50%, went at 100%, had 5 tackles and kicked a clutch goal. Until Viney gets fully match fit and unless the pressure across the ground lifts he stays. Eventually his spot is vulnerable but it requires someone putting their hand up and until we see Casey tomorrow it’s hard to say anyone is.

Pickett’s main issue was he’s not stupid and doesn’t blast long to no one, so he’s tried to engineer some more creative ball use and bring team mates in to it but they don’t run with him. He has to run to space more first but the idea is fine. I doubt we’re dropping Viney. Madness that he played tho, was a mile off it. Zero chance ANB gets dropped, as poor as he was with the ball Hind had no impact the other way. Ben Brown’s clearly a watch and see but he has to be dominant at Casey in all facets of the game for me to be keen on bringing him back. The 3 players I’m most interested in are the 3 who play mid/forward and can kick: - Melksham - Laurie - Declase Take Sparrow out, shuffle JJ around and bring one of those 3 in to get some skill, especially if it comes with some overhead marking in Declase or Melk, is what we need. But that means our pressure has to lift and the ins have to be up to the grade.

Got spoiled by his own team mates a couple of times. Dropped that one crucial mark in the late 3rd but it was beautiful body work to get front position. His primary opponent in Jones barely touched it. Roved that one freakish goal then got his other when not on Petty when Petty dropped the aforementioned mark. Otherwise Wright got him for size once. Overall I though he held space to allow May and Lever free run without giving away free kicks. A solid game for mine.

Round 1 last year against the Eagles- uncompetitive Round 15 v Sydney last year - uncompetitive The first 3 quarters the week before against St Kilda before a strong last quarter - as above The first 3 quarters against Hawthorn before we opened it up late - the same He's a good lead up player with nice skills, but he offers very little in the contest - he doesn't jump or extent his arms, and almost nothing defensively. He can be a back up for Fritsch or Tommy Mc but either we get one of the big boys up and going or we go smaller I think.

The first choice Richmond mids have our guys covered easily. Dusty alone does, but Cotchin, Prestia, Edwards might not be perfect but they can find targets. The intensity and work rate was a long way down but Goodwin mentioned skill execution for a reason, because when you keep giving up easy intercepts against an organised defence you start panicking in to bad choices rather than sticking to the plan. We knew Collingwood are highly organised and drilled, the aim had to be to move them around more than just ram in to a wall. We need to study the tape of how the Pies got so many uncontested marks and the errors made by our defensive press. But then we really need to study the tempo footy of Geelong and West Coast and the way Richmond use short kicks from their backline before getting a favourable match up for more attacking run or longer kicks. We can't rely on the long bomb to Gawn every single time.

He’s often behind because he’s still running back to make sure we have a deep target when a midfielder plays on for no reason. It’s certainly a weakness of his game but a big problem is he team mates just don’t time it up with any of our forwards. Nor do they kick with the right weight to drop a ball for a forward. It’s either bomb it high or try to lace it through 4 defenders.

Neither Oliver nor Petracca have any kind of left foot. Nor do we have a left footer at the moment in the centre bounce set up or the entire midfield. That's certainly one thing that hurts us. Similarly our lack of forward marking ability hurts the way we want to play because the mids lose confidence in getting it in quick. The centre square should prioritise quick entry rather than lace out entry when the other side is putting on great pressure. If you can't get a good clear handball then bang it forward and deep. But we also couldn't get our mids on the move and attacking because Gawn was getting nullified by a young kid and Jackson sadly doesn't seem to have enough of a leap to get over the top. He's a brilliant athlete but he just isn't Nic Nat. He's 198cm and with a limited jump off 3 steps, he doesn't have the big turbo leap that only Nic Nat really has. As he matures he'll add more bulk and be able to jump in to guys to win the hit outs but he can't do that yet. It's also a cricket pitch so our big body mids that need steady footing to change direction and our lumbering ruck aren't favoured on that kind of surface. Not an excuse but it wasn't ideal.

His success last year came on the back of a number of games in 15 a side footy where he had to get involved in play a lot. His VFL from should've set him up well this year but he had a few easy kills against Last year his best games were also as the main target alongside Jackson and without Tom. He came up the ground to get involved in contests on the wing at times. And at other times he was used as the deepest forward and got some genuine leading chances. One of the issues I see right now is he's not getting those wing contests and he's not getting deep enough to be used as the full forward. He's not even getting the run in the ruck which is where his best ever games came from. In the current set up he's little more than a decoy and that's where he seems to be getting caught out.

Should the Weid dye his hair big bright peroxide blond so his team mates can identify him and actually wait until he's in position? Worth a try I reckon. That might be something that's helped Brown and helps Gawn.

Jordan Roughead's a very good defender and Darcy Moore is a freak interceptor. There's not a lot of shame in getting beaten by them in one on ones. The issue for Weid is the lack of easy ball. None. He's often running back to stretch the defenders when the kick comes in, so he has to turn back around and he doesn't have the agility or reach to then contest yet alone win. There's some big midfield problems there as well. Brown does have a natural leading ability but if the game plan says get deep to force ground balls in dangerous positions and the mids don't kick it to him that doesn't help us. The one thing Brown did particularly against the Swans was to come up and find a few easy kicks just to get involved including a nice mark outside fifty late to help seal the win. Not to mention his defensive ability is even below Weid's and down right awful. Overall I think we should go small. Long term.... is Petty the answer forward? He has the reach to contest and enough athleticism to find some free space. If we had Tomlison available then I'd be trying that. But alas we don't.

We might be better off with one of Brown or Weid come finals, but I think it's clear Weid needs a spell and Brown can't come back in on no form or games. Let's get our pressure game back on track then work out if we need the extra tall. There's still a long way left in the season

Tom McDonald was no better than Weid. What's his excuse? Neither was Fritsch. Our forward line function was off and that means it was a team issue as much as it was any individual. The thing that continues to worry me is we don't have a single quality kick in our midfield. Petracca can hit the occasional lace out 60m beauty but his short and medium kicking is far too hit and miss. The rest - Oliver, Sparrow, Jordon, Harmes, Langdon, Brayshaw are long odds to ever pick out a 30m target and weight it to them. On a wide dump of a ground like the SCG you have to hit up forwards around the top of the 50 and on short repeat leads. Same thing goes for the backline. Collingwood just went chip chip chip down the ground because they finally had a ground wide enough to suit their style of play. We couldn't hold them up or force switches. Meanwhile even though our defenders are allegedly good kicks they gave up chances to take on short kicks time and time again. They just burnt one and another and it's totally brainless. Maybe they know one of those short kicks will end up with the midfield butcher brigade and that will end the chance of the attack? I love how good we are at the long down the line player and then running it out of their. That's a great weapon to have. But we can't make that the only plan. The size of the SCG meant once we burst from those packs we generally ran straight in to the next Collingwood defender pushing up or they still had numbers back.

In: Viney Out: Weid Under consideration: Brayshaw for Chandler or Jones. Our forward line was better with the 1 tall forward and Jackson/Fritsch. Viney back means more Harmes and Petracca forward as well. Brayshaw is so pitiful. Just miles off his man all game. Don't tell me it's structure either because JJ and Langdon manage to get on theirs (less so this week). If a half back got caught up the ground he made no effort to cover back for them. His ball use is awful.

Welcome to demonland, but please read the injury updates. Viney isn’t back until after the bye. Also there’s no way Harmes would be left out even if he was. I doubt this is the week they give up on Weid with Brown lacking serious match practice, but that’s a different issue.

FB: Heath Birch HB: Lampard Colvin Goldy C: LizMc Paxy Sherriff HF:Scott Parry Bannan FF: Harris Hore Foll: L Pearce Gay Hanks Int:Zanker Mithen Purcell D Pearce Magee Emer: Tarrant, Caris, Simmons, Fitzsimons, Petrevski They've locked in their list of 26 which looks something like this I guess. The addition of Purcell and the emergence of Zanker as a midfielder gives the midfield a lot more depth than it started with last year. They can rotate them forward and use Daisy as that smart crumber and veteran forward line organiser. I think the game plan will again focus on lots of quick run and attack, which should give Harris one on ones.

I don’t think we’d be getting full value from Rivers having him in the back pocket. Nor do I think he’d be that keen on that job. He spends half the game arguing with May and Hibbo. From the current back 7 I’d imagine Hunt is first in line to move to a more defensive role.

As important as a good lock down medium defender is I don’t think we can put more expensive resources in to a backline with May, Lever, Salem, Tomlinson and needing to keep Rivers and eventually Petty. Probably have to target some cheap additions as well as look at Joel Smith/Deakyn Smith and an expanded defensive role for Hunt. If we spend up on the backline it costs us either keeping or bringing in forward and midfield additions.