DeeSpencer

Well things went quickly south under Neeld but improvement every year from 2014 to 2018 will keep the incumbents in place. Mahoney has generally shown an ability to fix problems. It might take a while and isn't always pretty but things usually get dealt with. The Misson era ended poorly but remember the days when we ended young players careers with injuries and the team clearly weren't fit enough, those days started to end once Misson was at the club for a while. Then when it was time for Misson to go Mahoney got Burgess. When it was time for McCartney to go we added Richo. And tonight was a testament to the coaches getting a far better structure. When it was time to trade out a bunch of players who weren't up to the professional standard we did that and our players hopefully keep doing the right things. The reasons to keep Mahoney are pretty simple. He's surely better at his job now than he was 10 years ago and if you look around the league for people with football and management experience - especially at a time where the league is cutting a huge chunk of footy department spending - you'll find there's very few good candidates.

The last time we had Brayshaw and co in the centre clearances was 2018 and we covered them with loose men off half back for that reason. Gawn won't face too many ruck combinations like Ryder and Marshall and will be better for the run but yeah we were belted in the middle. I'd like to have Harmes back in the side purely to play at some centre bounces and give a bit of speed and tackling in that area. After the bounce he can swap forward, the wing, the bench, whatever!

Average includes a bunch of guys including Bedford and ANB who have barely played. So it's a good to consider both the average and total. If I could filter average with a minimum of 5 games played I'd do that. Either way, Kossie is a pressure king! The stats ignore a lot of his crucial tap ons and spoils as well. Hopefully he settles down and just hits the crumbing spot a little slower, that's all he needs to do to get his disposals way up

IN: Fritsch, Lockhart, Baker, ANB, Hunt, Harmes OUT: Melksham, Hibberd (injured), Oscar, Pickett (rested), Hannan, Jones FB: J. Wagner May Lever HB: Rivers Tomlinson Salem C; Vanders Brayshaw Langdon HF: Petracca Brown ANB FF: Fritsch Weideman Spargo Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Lockhart, Baker, Harmes, Hunt

The wing defending was awful last week but overall Langdon and Vanders have been our best combination and the wing defending went up a level when Tomlison was out of there. He knows how to play the position so was rightfully moved back there when a spot opened up this week but I'm still very doubtful that he's quick enough mentally or physically to cover off well in that position. He seems to do a good job at half back but there's a question whether we need him there or if he's a long term answer.

Despite missing 2 games Kossie is 11th in the entire league from small forwards. https://www.afl.com.au/stats/stats-pro#/?state=NobwRA1glgdgJmAXGAgmANGADgQwC4AWSwYAZlADZ4CmATgEI60CSNAtgM5gC6msc1AB5IADH3ZJw0eEjAA5DGFoEuicAGMC1dRGpwA0tQCeqkgFkAogBFmAVTMB9AGIB5AEoB1FG6s9Muo1ksChwjOgAFAHsOKDwoSJgwAF8U9Cl%2BWQtFXEJiMA5qCm0aOABlPHwAGRwAI0K-MAoVWTd8WABzAAIo2DwuTGVVMHDaag4OAFdRzpR1PuS0yAzkLMwcokQSAqK5vXL8Q0DeRubkWjaYdp6YeYHT7FHxqepZ%2BaTF6QRkBTX8Da3CsU9gRIgB3ap1CgNQayAAqkQqUKS3CAA Take away 9 guys who aren't regulars in their side he's 6th on average pressure acts per game. He doesn't have to do much with the ball to have a huge impact on games.

Harmes isn't in the side. Oliver lifted in the second half but still is a bit iffy in making smart decisions. Petracca was really struggling in the midfield and Gus had a bad night. But those guys along with Langdon give us a core group of midfielders to keep us in games even if it's not their best days. May, Gawn and Lever played like leaders and Tracc played like a top line talent. We've lost a lot of games to teams like Geelong when we've been the better overall team but they've had a handful of leaders and a superstar step up and beat us.

Brown and Tomlinson were both ordinary until the last 10 minutes or so. Tomlinson was better down back when Hibberd went off. Brown hit the wings for a few crucial impacts late in the game, and yeah was better than his predecessor. Rivers and Wagner at half backs were both very solid.

Melksham has to go if Goodwin is fair dinkum about setting a culture of professionalism. Hunt's the best of a bunch of suboptimal choices. I'd play him as the 3rd wingman as well as forward. Harmes to play forward/mid.

It was probably Tomlinson's best game but he still only had 6 kicks for 168 metres gained and mostly just hit short easy ones. His best value today was being very good getting handballs under decent pressure and giving them off nicely. The early days of GWS really trained players well in fundamentals. Someone should hire Mark Williams purely as a skills coach. If Lever is starting to play well as a genuine CHB then we should look for more ball winning or skill from our 3rd tall spot. Unless we think Lever's the match up for Membrey and Tomlinson can take the resting rucks. It's not our biggest issue so I'm a bit ambivalent about change their but certainly the backline - whilst probably our most consistent unit - still isn't firing on full cylinders. By keeping May and Hibbo deeper we need guys who can genuinely run to cover the space infront of them. That's what Harmes is appearing to do. He's involved a lot, he's just got no idea what he's doing!

Out: Preuss In: Gawn Out: Sparrow In: Rivers Out: Melksham In: Hunt FB: Hibberd May Tomlinson HB: Rivers Lever Salem C; Vanders Oliver Langdon HF: Spargo McDonald Pickett FF: Hannan Weid Fritsch Foll: Gawn Petracca Viney Int: Lockhart Brayshaw Harmes Hunt

Goodwin's made changes to get a sustainable game style. The first half against the Dogs we looked the far better structured side. Keeping defenders deep this year has drastically cut down the over the back goals. There's been signs of life at various times of finding more marks and bringing in more switching. Today clearly wasn't the day for it. There's been signs of being smarter going forward - we use the boundary rather than going for the miracle corridor play at all times and we're kicking to Weid in a contest. We lack versatile players, we lack smart players and we have too many forwards and mids who are poor defensively. It's hard to think of any game plan that stands up when your can't get pressure on. The only method that would work is the Roos method of packing the backline and I'll be damned if we go back to that rubbish.

What's the evidence for that? A few games at the start of 2018? The way Salem wins loose ball contests at half back is exactly as good midfielders do. He has fast hands, vision and a smart step. He covered the most ground last week and the 2nd most this week. So tank can't be an issue. We have too many midfielders and not enough skilled half backs is the clearest reason he plays half back. Shaun Higgins was one of the best midfielders in the comp since he moved to North after being a career half back or half forward flanker. Players can keep developing well in to their 20's. It's unlikely we draft a skilled midfielder who pushes out Oliver/Viney/Gus/Petracca because they are nearly impossible to find. The best chance of adding in some skill to that group is biting the bullet and giving Salem a go. The best way to do that is to get some skilled back flankers in to the side so we can try it.

Today was the worst. Round 1: West Coast first goal Round 2: Carlton first goal Round 4: Geelong - 2 in the first 5 minutes Round 5: Richmond - first goal Round 6: We got the first one! Suns the next 2 Round 7: Hawks get the first 2 goals Round 8: Lions first goal Round 9: Port kick 3 in quick succession Round 10: 1 goal for us, 0 for Adelaide Round 11: Neither team score for half the quarter Round 12: Collingwood kick 2 points from easy chances in the first 5 minutes, look the better side Round 13: Dogs go bang bang bang We've looked really flat after half time for most of the season. Oliver was getting a blister dressed just before play started. Why didn't he do that in the 20 or however many minutes he had? Something in the routine needs changing because it's completely unacceptable and should be preventable. And it's not game plan related either, it's all mental.

It's really hard to arrest changes mid quarter guys. Preuss tapping the ball didn't work. So they switched to Preuss just dropping it dead. Remember Preuss and our mids haven't trained together since February. Brayshaw went loose back at some stage in the 3rd. Tom McDonald did the bulk of the ruck in the 4th to add more mobility and another marking target forward in Preuss. We have such a limited playing group it's really hard to make too many changes. Spinning the magnets is a bad idea when the magnets aren't good at moving and lack of team work was the problem to begin with.

I agree. We get little from Lockhart, Harmes, Tomlinson and Lever and then Hibberd starts to do far too much. Rivers is the most logical addition in Harmes' spot. But at some stage before the end of the year I'd look at Smith for Tomlinson and Chandler for Lockhart as well. Our backline has done a decent job as a unit for most of the year but we can't sit back and rest on them just being good. If we find some quality at half back we can actually unleash Salem in to the midfield as well.

The only benefit to playing him down back would be to have him see how other forwards are moving and attacking the ball. And the dropped marks, turning like a cruise ship and awful kicking would cost a few goals to find those answers.

Don't forget Goodwin dropped him for a first year ruck with the grand total of a few WAFL Colts games of key forward experience and probably would have him behind Petty as well. 4th string key forward is not a position many teams have good options in. The only viable alternatives are either shifting Tomlinson or going small. Or Mitch Brown I guess. The Dogs just gave us a good beating with Josh Bruce being probably twice as bad as Tom was.

A couple of poor moments - that was his worst - shouldn't overly detract from the fact he gave Bruce a cold bath. 12 intercept possessions is a very good game. But he didn't have a lot of metres gained so he didn't provide drive on the back of his intercepts.

Forwards and backs both had moments but the reality was especially in windy conditions where running the ball and breaking the game open is imperative we just don't have enough quality runners and ball users in the extended midfield group. And I mean wings/half forward/half back although the centre square is where it's most exposed. The Dogs backline has Daniel, Crozier, JJ and Bailey Williams who are all good ball users. We have May at times, what's left of Hibbo and then we ask Salem to do everything. We do have some quality forward but Kossie and Spargo spend all game chasing because Fritsch and Melksham don't and if those two aren't kicking or creating goals they aren't helping. Plus there's no midfield rotation in any of that. Then the midfield is obviously the biggest disaster where we just don't have the skill and run. And the total disaster today was the lack of transition defending. Completely inexcusable especially from kick outs.

Sparrow's injury opens the door for the return of Harmes to at least a wing/tag/half forward rotation. Rivers in at half back. But the question is does it really help him or us if he's not settled long term in a position?

Croad, Tarrant....Hogan? We could do with a CHB. No interest in him as a forward, he's exactly what we don't need.

Could probably still play a role pretty well if he learnt how to play to his limitations. Continually tries to turn opponents and cut back to get a kick away where if he just ran and gathered the ball and kept momentum going he'd be able to give a handball or snap a kick to space. If he embraced the idea that he turns like the titanic, has no left foot and isn't a good kick anyway he'd cut down about half the dreadful errors that plague his game. The other half is to stop dropping marks!

His best trait is that he’s a nice allrounder. Plays tall or small. Good mark. Good kick who never quite got enough confidence, time and space to become a very good kick. Worked really hard on his tackling. But I think he’s just a yard slow and an inch or two short. A bit more height and he’d be a good interceptor. A bit more speed and he’d play on quick forwards far more easily. If there’s a spot for him it’s probably in the role Hibberd is doing sitting back deeper with May and being sound defensively. Otherwise our half backs bring size or speed.

How little aggression would we have to have in the game for teenage boys not to copy something? Strip AFL right back to soccer and basketball with red cards and there’d still be kids getting in to it. And do the parents care? I coached junior footy and the parents had 2 concerns: their kid getting a kick and concussions. I never once had a parent concerned about push and shove and a bit of extra.