DeeSpencer

A) Tom's kicking. B) Tom's limited lateral mobility. C) Tom's marking runs very hot and cold. D-Z) Tom's kicking. He's a forward and will stay in the side until Brown and/or Weid have earned their spots. After that we might try him on a wing where his tank creates mismatches, but not the backline.

I don’t always love the shoulder dip move, it can abandon you if you the umps catch on. Spargo’s positioning is what makes his game. Watch as we turn the ball over he’ll always be the first to move to get out to space. He understands how to stretch backlines. He gets front and centre. Add in the strength at the contest and with tackling and that’s a proper AFL player.

Probably his best game for the club today. Passed one off. Dropped one just outside the square too. The mark and goal in the last was all class

They used Jordon on a wing against Blicavs after Gus went down back, but ended up preferring Jones and then had a full midfield rotation with Sparrow. Melksham wasn’t good but I still think until Brown or Weid come in we need a proper forward more than extra mids. I think it will be 2 out of 3 of Melk, Sparrow and Jordon with the 3rd the sub. Petty or Hibberd depending on conditions and opponents to replace May.

6. Viney 5. Petracca 4. Gawn 3. Fitsch 2. Lever 1. Oliver Last week was a team effort with almost everyone being solid. This week was about our best players being the best on the ground. Any of the 6 could’ve got the votes in any order. I thought Viney had the most vital moments.

From previous years when a player at my club was a VFL player they’d do all their training at Casey apart from the occasional captains run type session on Thursday night at the local club if they were playing with us. But it might depend what grade their local club is in and how much VFL footy they’re actually playing

I think it was either going to happen for him 2-3 years ago or not at all. He’s off to a super star line up at St Kilda City

Pretty much all of those issues you mentioned were tackled with COVID changes last year. Majak played a scratch match with us last year! If the player agrees to go and the club agrees to let another side manage them for a period of time the benefits outweigh the negatives. State league call ups are probably the safer choice but you’re then impacting a state league club and you’re also having a mid season draft type exercise that could be harder to police. Purely for rucks I think the loan makes sense.

There’s no reason for clubs to carry more than 3 rucks and a forward/ruck. All 4 of those are out for the Suns. There absolutely has to be a system to allow them to add a ruck until the mid season draft. If a loan is the best way for that to happen then so be it. Id happily send Austin Bradtke up there for a chance to play for 7 weeks or so.

The second tier doesn’t interest me, but grass roots footy does. I’d invest in regional areas and work place laws so that people still have weekends and still live in the country. So many fewer young blokes play footy these days because they don’t have the time, money or inclination. Eddie’s plan on spending probably close to a billion dollars in the next decade for a Tasmanian AFL team is crazy. Imagine if that money was spent on country schools, country hospitals, country jobs in Tasmania. And a few bucks directly on ovals and change rooms. I get they need a team but the team should grow from the grassroots up, not from monumental investment.

20 round season - ok, whatever Final 12 - terrible Nt / FNQ team - unfeasible ‘Breakthrough team’ - a joke 40 million combined funding annually - ridiculous Brand new stadium in Hobart for 7 games a year - lol Brand new stadium having a roof because its cold outside - jump in the Derwent

Could be a 6 month post surgery scan

Petracca and Viney missed training according to the news, but Gawn said it was just precautionary normal stuff. Petracca can always play more forward, but if Viney isn't right that could be the change to get Melksham in, run him and the young mids on ball more. Jack played very well on the weekend but he's still probably a bit underdone from his minor break in training and we need him to find his absolute best form. Otherwise I'm still think Jones makes more sense as the change for Melksham if everyone is 100% ready to go. We need to keep that defensive heat to force mistakes from Geelong and get the game on our terms. Otherwise they'll just settle in to their kick-mark game with the backline staying deep and we'll struggle to score.

Would you light money on fire if you were him? That's pretty much what committing to staying does. It also probably becomes more of a story than the cliches. The cliches are useful because they really mean nothing. Until the club puts an offer on the table and rival clubs do the same there's no point worrying about any comments.

I have no issue with Petracca not saying anything, nor should he. He's contracted for the rest of this season which is has just begun and next. He'll be looking at his true big pay day and his manager will be telling him there's no point rushing in to anything now. We need to get Oliver, Salem and potentially Weideman locked away and then the club can go to Petracca's management. I don't think he's the kind of player where you'd even do a Wingard/May style pre agency trade either, you're going to keep him for as long as possible then work it out. I doubt Cripps is going anywhere but he and Carlton are still negotiating and he's the captain! With such a tight cap and star players keen on big deals it's a really tricky process.

Any break down on what those 1%ers actually are though? Because we had 18 more inside 50's and 12 more intercept possessions. I'm happy for a team to have 35 more spoils if it means we are dominating the inside 50's and marking everything at the other end.

Are you sure you aren't confusing Russell Jackson with Saints historian Russell Holmesby. Russell Jackson isn't old enough to be have been doing anything forever, plus he's been a little busy being a cricket writer and publisher.

2 of the umps through no fault of their own aren't within a mile of the play and the 3rd ump is still a fair way off the ball and partially obscured by Giants players running back. The speed with which players move these days probably does require a 4th umpire for this type of scenario.

Not sure we should be celebrating an injury. Weller took Viney on, that's what made that fun. Coniglio is just trying to evade Sparrow. Still it was a great chase and effort. Sparrow made Derm cry after he stood up for James Jordon getting a late whack in the head. I liked that. It was completely different to the push and shove after a player makes a mistake which I don't like

He’s played well at Hawthorn. I’d still like to have him, he could take Nev’s role and give us a tall and super quick defensive group. We’ve been lucky at this stage Tomlinson is more suited to key back than I expected. Hopefully it lasts. The super restrictive AFL rules on future picks meant we had to trade out a player to get a pick in to do the Kozzie deal. That and salary cap management that probably wasn’t ideal. Spending too much on certain players that could’ve been banked. Jason Taylor’s not perfect - he seems to struggle to get depth talls and outside mids but he’s clearly very good. The new question is whether Tim Lamb can keep shaping the list. Need to resign some big names and then manage some tricky trade ins and outs to keep building.

Really? Injured now but played well against us and pretty much every game he’s played in. Young and Serong were the safe picks in that draft but sometimes you need to take risks.

Both teams lost because they gave up the chance at Bont! But really I liked the move of 2 down to 9, we needed a more mature player to help immediately and we had to stop putting all our faith in 1 early pick. I always thought we gave up way too much adding pick 20 for only a late 40’s pick in return. For 2 we should’ve got 9 and Tyson out right. As for Kelly - he’d kill it playing for us on ball and on the wing. Maybe we’ll grab him if he can give up on his 8 year 8 million extension!

Underwood isn’t my cup of tea but she’s not the worst. Also it’s a more difficult job calling when watching on tv at a studio. Derm’s team is clearly the Giants. He knows all about them but what shocked to discover Ed Langdon is a good runner. Healy wasn’t too bad by comparison but hopefully he can return to his main hobbies of watching West Coast and complaining about teams not working hard enough.

Jones does some good by knowing where the ball is going and can link up well. But he mixes in refusing to take the first option and he does things that do my head in like standing and watching a May kick roll out of bounds for a deliberate where if he jogged over we get the benefit of the doubt. The unchanged team has also been nice but squad depth is important too. If injuries hit we can’t be needing a raft of guys without recent top level exposure. So I’d go Jones for Melksham this week, with Jones the sub and guaranteed his spot back the following week. Then it’s on Melksham, Sparrow etc to compete to stay in the side.

6. Langdon 5. Pickett 4. Gawn 3. Salem 2. Jackson 1. Viney