DeeSpencer

The form of Sparrow and Jackson over the last couple of weeks has changed the out look a bit! If Spargo can find some consistent form as well things will be looking very good. It’s interesting to review our history and see that we’ve pretty much given Taylor either early and late picks or a bunch of middle picks. Last year was the first year he got 3 in the top 30 ish and we didn’t give him any later picks to look at. We’re only a few good flankers away from having a very strong list and that’s without the benefits of multiple father sons, free agency, or priority picks.

Gets the vast majority of his kicks in uncontested situations - that’s not a knock. So his DE should be high. He just isn’t a good kick. Limited length and penetration. Kicks little flops. A good kicking wingmen would’ve had a goal a game given his opportunities. There’s an opportunity cost to his short kicking too, where a longer kick could get over a zone or hit a long switch. Not recruit of the year but he’s been as advertised - the good and the bad.

Jones came in to the side as the second winger when Vanders was out, then the last two weeks has played a bit wing and a bit half forward. Kind of a mix of Gus’ wing minutes and Harley’s half forward role. I think it’s about the best use of Jones’ tank and ability to get to good spots. They’ve been reluctant to entrust Bennell with any wing time (fitness and defensive efforts) but it’s nearing time to free him up from the pure forward flank and in to that kind of role. Otherwise Harmes and Sparrow should be used in this kind of role. Or If you want to keep Harmes back in the hope he settles down we could try Rivers. His tank would be the main issue, otherwise he has a lot of the attributes we’re desperately searching for on the wing.

1. Without the confidence of good practice match footy and the midfield using it better we might’ve killed Weid if we played him earlier. He earnt his spot, and played like he did. 2. Oscar was the answer 2 weeks ago, now he’s the problem again? 3. Oliver, Petracca and Viney are just better. So was Harmes last year. Until that changes the put Gus on ball fans are missing the obvious. Beating up on a weak North side doesn’t mean Gus is a great mid again. 4. Why? Wasn’t going to change that we were getting thumped. Leave things mostly the same and work on fighting back. He did move Fritsch to a wing and try to mix the forward line up. May was keeping Dixon quiet, which is more than most defenders have done this year. 5. Is that true? We were effective in 2018 and we’ve been effective in probably 7 of 10 games this year. Apart from Harmes, Brayshaw (due to oversupply of mids) and Tom McDonald who is Goodwin not getting the most out of?

Doesn’t tackle, can’t evade tackles, naturally isn’t strong in the air but he’s hardly winning it at ground level all that well either. Doesn’t break lines or burst out in space. He used it well enough and it’s always hard to value the importance of a guy who still knows pretty well where to run. But he’s an aging midfield playing wing/forward. If we’re a decent side we’ll have better options

McDonald’s always been a terrible forward pressure player and he has 3 tackles and is suddenly the answer? I don’t think so. One of those tackles was when McKay landed on the ball after a marking contest and Tom landed on top of him. Not sure what the other 2 were. It was nice to see Tom give defensive effort his best shot. But the effective forward pressure was mainly from 2 things: 1. Fresh Pickett, Spargo and Hannan in 2. North’s defenders being headless chooks

I’m not saying Tom is ahead of them just if either of those two medium guys came out we could think about 3 talls. Tom would play lead up CHF/cover Weid if he needs a rest and Jackson would play smaller in a flank role and ruck more than he has been with Gawn in. Tom has to clunk a lot of marks and do a power of running to really be useful as a forward given his limited mobility but credit where it’s due for his effort tonight. Gave it his best.

Fritsch and Melk are the other forwards that Tom can cover. Can’t play 3 talls and 2 mediums that don’t defend well. If one of those medium guys went out we could try the 3 talls again, especially if we lowered all their minutes and Gawn’s so only 2 were forward at any time.

Smith’s biggest mistakes were flying for contests he didn’t need to, defensively he gave McKay and Rohan a bath and kept Riewoldt relatively quiet given the chances Richmond had Hannan fumbles or turns it over on about 50% of touches, he’s far from clean. I want him in the side but chasing and tackling at full fitness. Vanders stays until we look at Harmes, Rivers (Or Bennell, Baker, Sparrow, JJ etc) on a wing and find a proper solution (non Jones, non Gus). His importance to the defensive structure overcomes most of his mistakes - outside of gifting goals from free kicks but that shouldn’t be a consistent thing.

May will stick in his deep spot, probably on Reid. Unless we go Oscar in on the talls and May on a Stephenson or Ruscoe. Hibberd’s got the job on Stephenson before if he’s deep, Joel wasn’t smart enough. I think with Rivers in providing skill and Lockhart hopefully run and skill the mix of the backline is favouring more another defensive player like Smith or Oscar. Tomlinson was a nice change to look at more composure and skill but I just can’t see it working against legitimate teams.

Out: T Mc.. In: Gawn (if fit). Sorry Tom but that’s no debate. Out: Jones. In: Lockhart. (Harmes goes to the 3rd wing/forward). Harmes is too good to leave out, just got to find the right role. If everything else fails we have a utility to move around. Out: Hannan. In: Viney. I like Mitch in the side but we can rotate the 5 mids through the half forward line. Vanders, Sparrow and Spargo stay for now. Out: Tomlinson. In: Joel Smith. Tomlinson is not a key defender, let’s stop with that right now. Smith might not be popular but we need someone to play on Mihocek who plays as a traditional lead up and back key forward. He’s too strong for Lever, too quick for Oscar or Tomlinson.

Also Derm said many times throughout the call that a player pinning one arm and driving a player in to the turf was ‘the perfect tackle’. Commentators need to be educated about the dangers of the Cyril arm grab tackle and how it is not perfect, it’s very dangerous.

People will see this as victim blaming but Nibbler had Hamill by the wrist and by a stretched piece of jumper. Hamill had an arm, both legs and his core free. It was Hamill’s decision to spin with the tackle and get a kick off and his slight build that saw him go flying. Not to say Nibbler isn’t responsible for part of it but the idea that he’s all of a sudden some kind of destroyer is really misrepresentation of what occurred

May has been penalised harshly for his poor unforced turnovers in the first quarter and probably for not taking enough intercept marks. Take marks, don't turn the ball over and you get high scores as he did in a lot of the rest of the game. I think we set Oscar up to fail playing him on a short break and without a suitable opponent, not to mention the way the team played. They'll likely stick with Tomlinson so I hope I'm wrong. He does have a better tank and more experience to deal with the quick turnaround, but I could also see someone like big Majak getting hold of him and next week we're sitting back saying why didn't we just play a fresh and trained up Oscar who suits the match up.

Cox was probably equal to Gawn as a tap ruckman (Max is good but he's not Nic Nat), 80% as good as a marking option around the ground (better forward) and twice as good as a midfielder with the ball in motion. As good as Max is and as strong as his influence on games is he won't have the career Cox had.

I see what you're saying about him being contradictory but I think you can play 2 different styles without being overly reliant on one or the other. The Saints are the outside team, the Suns are the contest team. But the Saints still have Steele, Jones and others hunting the contest, just as the Suns have Weller, Lukosius and Ellis with some skilled outside game. To compare to super teams the Hawks loved to get it on the outside and use their skills, whilst the Cats sure didn't lack for skills but their game plan was to run through sides and hit up Mooney at CHF and bring the contest in to the game. The Suns best footy still uses lots of skill and spread but they make sure they have numbers at the ball and play directly so it stays in the contest. The Saints prefer to get it out to guys like Billings, Hill and Butler and get running.

He hasn't been getting those chances and he has been playing confused because he was so hopeless last year he had to make changes. 2018 isn't coming back, see ball get ball with 2 guys covering and a high pressed backline won't cut it, it's a new game now and he has to adjust in other areas first. Petracca's got fitter, Viney's started to adjust his ball use, Clarry has started to use his legs to run. Gus hasn't had as much opportunity but if he adapts he'll get more of a go. Tagging that gives him a simple defensive task to build his game around is a very good idea to make the game easier for him and let him find some rhythm.

I liked seeing Goody speak his mind freely and defend his captain. Stuff like this is just not on.

I thought Gus played on M Crouch for most of the game and it just took him a half to find his balance between tackling and hunting the ball at the contest and more than anything finding his balance between sticking to Crouch and his recent style of transition defending which is just sprinting back to the backline and hoping that's useful. It's his defensive work around the contest and around the ground that's been the big detractor of his midfield play. Teams are too quick and skill through the middle now and we can't just plug 2 extras off the back of centre bounces to cover. So Gus has to adapt. A promising second half, hopefully he can keep going with it.

Was he good? He didn’t win the ball back, he mostly just existed against Adelaide’s crappy forwards and got a few uncontested touches. AFL player ratings had him worst on ground for us. I don’t have any faith in Tomlinson as a key defender, it’s just not his go. Where as Oscar has done the job on Day and Mitch Lewis. When Oscar has the right match up and is running on top of the ground he looks and plays like a proper tall defender. I’d be proactive and put him back in rather than waiting for Tomlinson to fail.

Whether it's the coach, recruiter or list manager something has to change to get Goodwin to rate wingers and proper flankers because we are woefully thin there. Salem's not using the ball well this year but to say he's been soft is very wrong. Probably since about round 4 he's been putting up huge kms, excellent possession numbers and charging on to loose balls. There was this last week: And similar against Crouch tonight and several times in the Brisbane and Richmond games. Bennell was a gamble that so far is somewhat paying off but in no way should be relied upon to be the answer. Tomlinson was a huge waste of cash. But my bigger concern with list management is the lack of turnover. The Wagners, Jones, KK (contracted), Mitch Brown and maybe even Dunkley shouldn't be on the list and if anyone offered anything at all Gus should've been traded. 7 spots that should be the up and coming wingers and flankers we need.

They should know what they'll get with Tomlinson back there as well. He's fractionally quicker and he's definitely fitter and more willing to get involved in attacking play. But against absolutely no one in the Crows forward line he had 1 intercept possession so he didn't win the ball back and he did very little with the ball either. The reasons for moving him - to get more uncontested possessions and kicking from the backline didn't really pan out. North will likely go in with 2 of Larkey, Walker and Daw. The kind of big aerial threats that Oscar usually does ok on and who will probably prove too big and too strong for Tomlinson.

Vanders has been playing on the wing since half time in the Richmond game. He's not a forward pressure player he can't find the ball or the man when forward, what he does do is seal the edges on the wings and make teams think twice about going quick to their wingers. Langdon struggles to do that on taller wingers for obvious reasons. Tomlinson (when on the wing) struggles to do it on anyone with pace. Jones just flat out struggles. Vanders also seals the stoppages in a similar way. Teams don't want to take it out the front when he's waiting there. Defenders close so quickly on ball carriers these days there's no way Oliver could've just strolled to 50 and bombed it home and an equal chance the guy he handballed too would cop the same fate. He had a clear lead coming to him and just duffed the kick. It was the right decision, just the next step in his development. The most important thing is he got the ball running forward and bursting out of stoppages like we all hoped he could do.

Goldstein then Grundy is a terrible duo to have for Max, there's not a good option to rest him for either game. I think if he's right to go we have to keep playing him and try to get the win against North. I have my doubts over the following players: ANB - suspended Bennell, Jones - off the pace Vanders - ?injury Tomlinson at CHB And that's before I get to Gus and Sparrow making us one mid too heavy, Harmes at half back, Melksham's efforts and so on. I'd probably go Out: ANB, Jones, Tomlinson In: Pickett, Hannan, Oscar

I don't think Taylor is the issue. Sounds like he would've grabbed Butters and Georgiades if available as well. List management is the issue. We have not been proactive about turning the list over and finding the talent we need to surround our core and that's why we have big gaps in the wings and pure flankers and not the tall depth we should really have either. If we traded out some surplus and delisted a few more then especially if we armed JT with some decent picks we'd have found the wingman and half forward flanker that would make a huge improvement to our skill level. We panicked in to some recruits - Preuss and Tomlinson - that have cost us a decent chunk of salary cap because we didn't have the answers on our list. Every year we go in to the season with about 5 delistings known ahead of time. And I reckon we can track back to 2014 and Nev Jetta being the only one who's come good. As much as I love Nev I'd rather have 29 other players turned over on the list than 1 out of 30 success stories.