DeeSpencer

I wonder if things like cost savings are part of the decisions. I hope not. But I imagine draft picks are on a base wage where as experienced girls get more? FB: Birch Downie HB: Kemp Lampard D. Pearce C; Heath Paxman Emonson HF: Hore Zanker Mithen FF: Cunningham/Perkins? Scott Foll: L. Pearce Gay Hanks Int: Colvin, Sherrif, Tarrant, Petrevski, Parry, Sloane, the Irish? Out: O'Dea, Cordner, Newman, Guerin, Smith, Jakobsson O'Dea going is disappointing, but Gay and Hore have probably gone past her as midfielders and Hanks is quality. So I can somewhat understand that one. Regenerate the list whilst Pax and Daisy are around. Newman was brilliant at her best but just fluffed good chances too often, I can see the need to move on there but again it's a bit unfortunate. Jakobsson wasn't really my kind of player even before she took a year off. Guerin never got it together. Cordner's disappointing given the name but I guess they feel Birch is a gun key defender so it might be best to cash out on Cordner. Her ability to ruck as well we'll be missed. Hopefully Downie has some good footy left in here whilst they train up the next tall defenders. Maybe the biggest disappointment to me is Kat Smith.She's such a honest goer and seems a good personality. Best mates with big Tex Perkins as well, not sure what her status is, would love to see her have a big preseason and dominate, the talent is there.

If you bring in Brown and Bennell for Hannan and Pickett then you haven't seen anything yet when it comes to poor forward pressure. Kossie had a bad night against Port, but his pressure has been consistently very good. His skills and decision making has been up and down - moments of brilliance with tap ons and clever hands mixed with some hungry kicks, but his pressure has been consistently strong. The talented player most in need of a rocket is Fritsch, although being moored deep forward is not all his fault. Same goes for Hannan who's had the best month of his career then put in a stinker, the difference is Hannan has also been a very good pressure player for most of the year. Pressure really is the key to our game plan and especially our forward line. Petracca, Melksham/Bennell a couple of Weid clunks and weight of numbers gives us a chance against most sides once we are in the game and playing with confidence. But if we can't hold teams up and let them run free we're a mess.

Good post. Agree entirely on Viney and Oliver. The thing is Harmes has moved out of the midfield. First and also most recently to half back, we'll see how that goes. But also to half forward where he's been effective in his role but used the ball poorly - which isn't a huge surprise, half forward is the hardest spot to use it. He isn't tagging because Viney and Oliver are so good with pressure around the packs and then Petracca and those 2 all win so much of the ball we don't need to pay special attention to the vast majority mids. Harmes will either settle at half back and help fill a pretty big void there, or he'll eventually go back to forward/mid in some combination and I expect him to play well whilst still being up and down with his skills. That's the nature of a hard working half forward. Sparrow and Jordon are nice enough on ball prospects. The issue is having very little developing in the wing and flanker spots. Rivers (tick), Spargo (hmmm not entirely ready to give up), Baker (worth a shot given the upside), Dunkley, C Wagner even J Wagner. Our list is very light on for proper versatile flanker types.

At least 3 issues with that plan: 1. Viney isn't getting us first round compo, plus you'd have to add another first to pick 5 just to get the Suns remotely interested 2. Ben King is happy at the Suns - he wants to be his own man out of Max's shadow - and if he isn't why would he choose us? 3. If you believe the strong rumours last year the Suns already backed up the cash truck big time and signed King on 700+, he'll make more than Viney next year.

Richmond model: 6 mids who can rotate on ball. 3 of which can comfortably play forward, 2 of which can go on to the wing if needed. Martin - Petracca. 60% mids, 30% forward. The superstar. Hunts the ball and dominates. Cotchin - Viney. 55% mid, 25% forward. The captain. Sets the tone with pressure and physicality. Prestia - Oliver. 70% mid +/- 10% forward. The pure ball winner. Edwards - ????? Bennell??? Pickett??? Salem? Rivers? Melksham?. 45% ball, 10% wing, 20% forward. The class. Lambert - Harmes. 40% mid, 30% forward. The runner. Contest to contest never stops motoring. Graham/Pickett --- ??Brayshaw (Sparrow/Jordon options here as well) 30% ball, 40% wing. The depth. Viney is crucial on ball, he has a burst of speed to hunt down opposition and also the ability to get the ball out the front of the contest. I don't believe we are better off without him, we just need to get the balance right around him that sees him play a bigger role with less of the ball and less time on ball too! Oliver has to adjust his game as well. Or to put it simply he just has to play better! The biggest change though is to get another classy creative player in the mix for when Petracca comes out. Someone with speed, creativity and smarts. As soon as Edwards went out of the Tigers team they moved Shai Bolton on ball to make sure they still had that skill element. I can see the case for an expanded role for Brayshaw instead of Viney based on 2018. However, whilst I appreciate Gus' hands and ability to get the handball receives he butchers his kicks too much and is also a liability defensively. I still believe in Oliver, Petracca, Viney as a great starting point if we could just add one classy user to compliment them and then get small but steady improvements from Jack and Clarry. Viney's already made huge leaps in the last month and is largely looking up and picking targets rather than panicking.

We move the ball so quickly it’s hard for midfielders to kick goals. Sometimes that’s great, sometimes it’s bad. Midfielders kick goals when instead of all out attack you run and overlap, take the space the other team gives you and either kick on the run or hit up short kicks to mids pushing inside 50. When our mids get the ball they’re looking long. Even our half forwards. Melksham is always keen for the laced out kick deep, often he’s good enough to make it work. Hannan has been the chief culprit the last two weeks. He’s had marked across half forward and played on for the miracle kick under pressure. If he simply got back off the mark he’d have handball, short kick and long kick options.

My problem with Oscar is if the game plan works and we get up the ground pressure he'll sit back and make a few easy spoils and take some uncontested marks and look like a decent player. But if the game plan breaks down and he's trapped on a quick forward he'll offer nothing. So if plan A works he pretty much does an ok job. If plan A fails he's stuffed. It's the same problem with Lever. Being a tall defender in modern footy shouldn't be that hard. There's not many good forwards and most teams will provide pretty good defensive cover. Heck I just saw Harry Taylor and Lachie Henderson dominate a game the other night and they are 100 years old combined. Oscar simply has to believe in himself and offer more. When the pressure is on and the forward entries are poor he has to go grabs some intercept marks. And when the ball is coming in hot he has to find that yard of pace or smarts to get a spoil in. And he can use the ball so bloody get it and take game on with some proper kicks as well!

Surely we can find an old man someone to suggest to players they have a crack and win the pill. But I don't think that's our problem. The game got so much faster last year. Teams cut all the one paced midfield plodders in response to Richmond leading the way in 2017 and West Coast in 2018 realising they were far better without Priddis and Mitchell. Brayshaw is one of those plodders. Harmes was once a quick linebreaking mid, now teams have plenty of mids who can run with him. That said, they can both play well on ball. Gus has lovely quick hands and the ability to win the ball going forward and move on to either foot for a kick from a stoppage. Harmes isn't Dusty but he is one of the rare guys in the comp who has that speed, size and power to negate someone like Dusty. The issue is how do you get them in a midfield with Viney, Oliver and Petracca. So far the best we've done is Gus playing 50;50 wing and Harmes playing 50;50 forward. Maybe we just live with that?

I thought Sparrow did well in the midfield and could make it there, but he’s not what we need there. I also didn’t hate the plan of fresh legs on to Boak whilst Harmes as the more experience player took half back. Harmes just doesn’t look comfortable, so get him back doing what he does best and train either Sparrow or Rivers up for half back.

We’ll have to pay 600 of his 700k to move him I’d imagine. Could still be ok for a team that can move the ball but his lack of movement is awful. Always tries to take tacklers on and has this belief that he can go on his right foot and hit a target when there’s 4 tacklers in his way. His best attribute of endurance is useless in shorter games and we so rarely switch it’s not like he’s getting the fat side leads anyway. Ahhhh Melbourne, where a bloke can kick 50+ goals, look like a top 5 key forwards in the comp, sign a big deal as never play well again

FB: Smith May Hibberd HB: Sparrow Lever Salem C; Vanders Petracca Langdon HF: Bennell Melksham ANB FF: Hannan Weid Pickett Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Lockhart, Harmes, Fritsch, Jackson Out: Jones, T Mc, Oscar, Gus In: Vanders, ANB, Smith, Bennell Tom Sparrow can play so let’s play the kid at half back. Harmes on ball. Vanders for Jones. Fritsch to play wing/forward, Gus out. Oscar - useful against slow moving sides but just badly exposed against teams that move it, go back to Smith.

A lot of threads complaining about the umpiring yesterday but I thought this really deserves its own one as it's a huge issue and was a big reason why we lost the game. And it happens week in and week out. It's the 'pre-tackle' where a player second to the ball starts his tackle early and isn't penalised. Gawn's ruck dominance is completely squandered. 4 out of the 5 centre bounces in the first quarter involved Brisbane players grabbing hold of us before we were first to the ball. (The 5th was won by Harmes who was caught fair and square). Petracca, Viney, Viney, Oliver all just grabbed before they get hands on the ball which makes it very difficult to get off a clean disposal. In the 2nd quarter it's Petracca with the saddle on and Oliver completely wrapped up. Carlton have put the word in to the AFL about the treatment of Cripps. I think we have to ask the question about why Gawn dominated and our mids got first hands on the ball but we were smashed in the clearances. Part of it is our fault but we're also getting no reward for being first to the ball.

Nev gets his head over the ball brilliantly but has always been prone to keeping it down and charging through, if the legs work he can turn his body at the same time and ride the bumps. That's the issue with the current bump stuff. The best position to get yourself in is head down low and hard, get over the ball and then once you've got it make an evasive manoeuvre with your hips, either up, side to side or even just going down through an opponent (now banned due to slide rule). Nev's spine works fine, but he isn't hitting the contest with enough speed to make a move so is getting stuck with the head down. It's really dangerous. Doesn't excuse McStay being very poor but a younger Nev would've turned and bounce off or through McStay.

Westhoff will get a reprieve from being dropped and go forward and bag some stupid amount of goals as per usual

The old rule of never kick the ball off the ground in the backline is still a good one. Unless you're running out over the 50 and there's a mountain of space out on the wing to get the ball to. Langdon was pushing back hard and it was a 3 on 2, Jetta just had to trust his legs to get to the ball first and fire off a handball to space and we would've been fine. We all love Nev but the legs just haven't looked strong this year or last and he's a player that relies upon tremendous agility and courage to win contests he shouldn't even be in. With Hibbo being at the stage of his career to move back to a deeper role it really is time to get fresh legs up on the back flanks. Be it Rivers, J Smith or even Chandler or Josh Wagner.

Disagree, short kicks through zones are an important part of opening space to then get long kicks to hit targets. A lot of our best play comes from hitting a couple of short options before taking a more risky kick through the corridor or long to a target. And teams deserve to be able to hit up the little 15m kick inside 50, if you've got the ball to half forward and the other team have 10 men back (or 75,000 in Rich v Syd) you should be rewarded if you hit up a good short lead. The worst thing we need is more of anything that's down the line.

I understand the theory of it but I think given we have the 3 talls I wonder if we need to do it. The Lions 3rd tall defender right now is Lester who played 91% and they had Rich off for the second half. Their key forwards played a full game because they didn't trust Archie Smith to do more than short stints in the ruck. I reckon we could just give each of the big boys a little less time.

The second tackle Kossie was called for is a tackle they should try to prevent but it happens 10 times a game including one almost identical on us about 5 minutes before. The first tackle - spearing is specifically outlawed. But surely it’s not a spear if you hit in hard and fair with a shoulder but then let the player go. Was a panicked decision from the umpire who saw the start of the action he didn’t like but didn’t process the rest of it.

Try to find a team crying out for an inside mid and that pretty much answers the question. I think we're going to have to be willing to pay a decent chunk of his contract so it reflects his true output over the last two years just to get a team interested. Freo might want to take the load off Fyfe and Walters with Mundy nearly done. Sydney could be keen on a mature body to pair with Parker once Kennedy is done. Geelong need to replace Selwood and seem keen to stay up the ladder. The two South Australian sides if Crouch and Wines go. I can't see anyone crying out for a player like Gus tho. Almost the entire league has shifted to inside mids who can run and use the ball, instead of midfields with 4 players like Gus most teams are playing 1 or 2.

I know you're joking but Oliver's second halves have been noticeably better than his firsts, do we start him forward and roll him in to the middle when he's had a bit of time to get in to the game? The pressure of trying to clean up his ball use seems to be making it worse.

After a very decent game in the last few minutes he looked slow and sluggish and not the confident player he's been the last two weeks. 2 errors and 1 lost opportunity - the piece of play on the wing was a genuine chance to get an intercept possession, give it to a team mate and counter attack. I feel like May is similar but different. When he fatigues he goes too gang ho instead of playing it safe, starts flying for big pack marks or going for high risk kicks. Both would benefit in my opinion from being kept fresher so they don't end up losing composure.

Well we tried the middle twice and that didn't work either. Tried short and linking handballs and that wasn't great. A lot of teams going the 2 short kicks around the boundary below the long kick but that creates 2 issues: 1. You have to defend a more open back 50 if it comes back in 2. The other side has even more time to roll numbers to the boundary, and to set up their zone deeper behind that. We try to go to Gawn quickly, knowing that if we lose it we're still got numbers in the backline and if we win it we've got room to hit the wings and run forward.

A match winning goal has hidden just how poorly Robbie Gray's been going too, although he might find form quickly. Same for Rozee. I think Hibbo's been better deeper anyway, then he can pick and choose when to run off. Too much Hibberd with the ball hasn't been a good result this year.

Attempted to break about 3 tackles despite not moving with any force and was caught holding the ball. Lucky not to be caught on the wing when he barged in to a tackle and spat out a tiny handball instead of going around, over or through a tackler. Gave up prime position to McStay at the last contest, searched for the body when a good run and jump would've seen him first to the ball. It's all there. Port Adelaide are an even higher tempo team than Brisbane. The last few weeks have made it clear Oscar can play but 2019 also showed when he's down on form and fitness it's not pretty. All I'm saying is maybe cut him down from 97% game time to 90% and a rest every quarter so that when he's out there he's assertive and not fatiguing.

Hard to find a good solution though. 3 ideas: 1. In one of the short breaks we play Petracca as a full time deep forward and Gus plays full minutes on ball. 2. Harmes plays wing/forward and Viney takes more minutes as a half forward. 3. Gus to half back.