DeeSpencer

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.

6. Tommy 5. Salem 4. May 3. Langdon 2. Oliver 1. Nibbler Too much love for the inside mids. They had a poor game.

Harmes’ worse was dreadful and overall it wasn’t a good game. I agree it’s staggering he was picked ahead of Sparrow. But....his work rate is good, his tackling is strong and in the second half he put away the desire to break 7 tackles and gave a few more first options. We need midfield fitness and experience with Viney out. And the ability to swap mids and forwards on ball remains a key part of our game. Now that Harmes is in I’d stick with him for another week. Bring Sparrow in for Melksham and rotate Harmes and Petracca through the forward line more to keep the legs fresh.

Sparrow for Melksham. Petracca could do with a light week playing forward. The extra predominant mid will help. Plus it’s clear we need more pressure and run if we’re sticking with the tall forward line.

They said 2 weeks after last week. So at least 1 week to go. My guess is they’ll be cautious and give it another again. Why would you rush Viney with a foot injury. That’s never worked well for us

Drop Melksham for being a pea heart. You don’t get to play if you don’t respect the jumper. Start a go fund me for Nasher’s blindness.

Second week in a row Lever has been tagged - by athletic mid sized forwards in Zuhaar and Hayward. Petty’s lack of speed means we can’t swap him over as easily as Tomlinson, which means Lever can’t rotate on to the bad tall. Just something to watch in the way teams are targeting the guy who might’ve been our best player through 6 weeks.

Sydney drop a number back and often concede stoppage clearances, plus they’re a lot easier to win in your backline. The +11 stoppage clearances pretty much balance the -13 centre clearances. Where as when we play well we win in the centre and lose the stoppages because we have a lot inside 50

His best was brilliant, but it was a 2020 game of sublime and awful. A lot of the centre clearances were on him failing to capitalise on getting the hit to him. And his kicking simply needs to be better too.

Took an amazing mark that wasn’t paid but I still think his body isn’t right. If he doesn’t add strength he needs to quicken up . At the moment he’s neither quick, strong nor probably fit enough to have a huge impact.

Does she have a rather harsh voice and isn’t afraid to use it? And bickers with her husband. If so I sat near her last week and couldn’t stop laughing

Our midfield got an absolute bath. Ben Matthews will be smiling I reckon. Credit to the forwards for getting a score, and very much credit to our backline for a huge job. But the mids need a kick in the backside. Harmes - zero first options Clarry - flat footed Gawn - awful. Petracca - going for too much. JJ - effort good but execution lacking Brayshaw - diabolical Tom Sparrow in please.

Jones is the best example given we’ve had no one else. Maybe I should’ve gone Scott Pendlebury or even Buddy Franklin. Theres a distinct possibility we’re paying Tracc more than his output in the latter years. Anyone confidently predicting he plays at a high level in to his 30’s is very optimistic. Don’t get me wrong I support this deal and think if things go to plan with the cap rising and a window for success right now it’s absolutely the right thing to do. It’s just a reality of free agency and the competitive market for players. There’s no way we were ever getting the perfect deal.

It’s really an 8 year deal because he already has a year to go, and it takes him well in to his 30’s. Imagine paying Nathan Jones 900k a year now, it wouldn’t be a great look. The other downside is we lose flexibility. If he signed on one year at a time we could dump all our spare cap space in any individual year in to his contract. Say we unexpectedly traded a couple of players, all of a sudden we pay Tracc 1.5 for a couple of years to get extra space. But that flexibility is only useful if plans change. Still, it’s footy, plans do change! A recent article about Bont’s contract said they’re looking at triggers and other options to put in his deal. I sense they know he’s a dog for life so they’ve got more freedom on how they structure his deal. A five year deal really would’ve been optimal, but if your choices are 5 years at 1.2 or 7 years at 900k then it’s a no brainer.

If we offered Tracc a 5 year deal the only way he probably signs it is if it’s at 1.2 a season. That’s how he gets his 6 million minus a hefty tax bill. By going to 7 years at 900k he gets his 6+ million, loses less in tax and we get 300k per season more in cap space. The entire strategy with Gawn, Lever, Viney, Harmes, May, Salem, Langdon, Tomlinson is to have all those guys signed up on long deals so each takes less per year. Oliver’s done a short term re up then probably gets a long deal when he’s at free agency age. Fritsch the same. If we save anywhere between 100-300k a season by going longer deals on 8 or so of our big names we can then bank 1M to put towards the next generation and any recruits. Kane has this idea that the short deal would save us cap space. It’s nonsense. That only works if Petracca plays poorly or we trade him. The long term deal is how we save cap space.

Even with the new rules providing some relief it's really hard to be an unathletic key forward. We already had 2, and for some reason decided to add a 3rd. There's some hope with Tom McDonald recapturing his leap and ability to find space on the lead, but he still can't turn or change direction quickly. Jackson and Fritsch don't really provide any solutions because Fritsch is still meh defensively (if somewhat improved) and Jackson does his best work up the ground as a forward or in the ruck. More ruck minutes for Jackson = more Gawn forward = another even less mobile tall forward target. The best combination with Jackson and Fritsch is just 1 genuine tall in a CHF role. That's what Tom's provided and why it has worked well. Can Tom keep it up? Who knows. But he's more likely to do so when given more responsibility in that role than trying to share it. Can Brown do the same job - yes, although he has to embrace doing more dirty work and realise he's not the 60 goal full forward. Can Weid do it? Well, maybe if his tank is at full capacity, and he did it last year before he ran out of juice late. Brown, Weideman, Jackson, Fritsch. It just isn't going to work. The quicker we stop pretending the better for everyone. I've maintained all along that Brown will cost us Weid, and maybe that's ok and we just accept it. Brown could be the better player for the next couple of years and Weid could maintain his level of just marginal AFL talent. So it might be the opportunity to actually find a long term replacement.