DeeSpencer

AFL media reporter assigned to cover the Demons (and several other clubs). Certainly the club should be doing it. The logos on the gear is one thing but I reckon a quick Zurich or Jaguar logo flashing up before or watermarked on the footage probably wouldn't hurt. But my main point was more around the lack of journos being able to cover sports in Australia now with AAP announcing they'll close up today. Mens AFL will always have decent coverage but smaller sports - including AFLW - are going to need to find more revenue for the journos to turn up and cover them. At a minimum McGowan should slip the AFL Media logo on his vision, but if clubs allow it might even have to get his tweets sponsored.

On point 1: Given more job losses in journalism today the reporter should splash a big AFL Media watermark on them and start the clip with a sponsors message. Or to be more cynical maybe the club should ban filming of training by AFL reporters without a sponsors message.

That Lockhart report has me worried about a torn pec. Hope it’s nothing. With Hannan I just want to see him running smoothly rather than so stiff and awkwardly. Is he starting to move better?

A healthy Jack Viney isn't slow. He'll have to do the occasional tagging role and even take a rotation through half forward at times but if he can play some consecutive games at full health no one will be saying he's slow.

Last year the difference between 7th and 14th was 3 wins (12 v 9). 2018 there was 1 win between 7th and 12th (13 v12). 2017 the gap from 7th to 12th was 2 wins (12 v 10). Positions are more than likely going to be very close in that middle range of the ladder, possibly all the way from 4th to about 14th. Keep that in mind if you get too caught up in predictions. Or do you own and try to work out where to put teams like Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide, North Melbourne and Fremantle.

Doesn’t fix our lack of skill from the backline but could be a huge boost to our two way run and has the ability to win contests against a range of forwards. You can’t play the aggressive zone defensive system we like if you don’t have versatile match up guys. If Jetta, May, Lever (can be up and down) and an improved Hibberd can help the skills then we maintain a good balance. As for the midfield: Petracca increases the skills and hopefully Viney, Oliver and Gus are all fitter and cover the run that Harmes bought. Viney and Oliver should hopefully add line breaking to their game. Gus, Viney or possibly Vanders get the tagging jobs. I think it’s a sensible move to try.

Apart from caring about his health there’s probably injury payments and salary cap consequences that make these things difficult. We added Lockhart and Dunkley last year and Richo was at the Saints when they put McCartin on the long term list. I question Josh Mahoney as much as most on here but give the guy some credit, they’ll be considering the best options.

KK was at the Arden St game, wearing sunnies but so were most of his team mates. He wandered over to Harmes, ANB and a few others and shook hands like he was just meeting them. Asked Harmes how half back was going. I got the sense he hasn’t been at the club in weeks if not months.

Honestly if I were a North supporter I'd be pretty dirty with the effort they served up with more senior players and on their home turf. That said, it all means so little. And rewatching the game we were very solid defensively but it was pretty easy to get the ball back as long as we stayed with a decent structure and pressure they'd cough it up. When it was our turn with the ball we had some nice Melksham moments, a couple of lovely Trent Rivers kicks, a bit of class from Brayshaw, some clean hands around the contest from Spargo, a couple of AFL forwards in Fritsch and Brown making space and that one nice team goal capped off by Bedford. But watching Coll v Richmond today it was clear that even though our young boys cracked in very hard and worked well they'd be about 15 goals off the Collingwood side that played today even without Grundy, Pendles, Sidebottom, Moore and Howe. Or about the same margin vs our team that played Marsh1 v Adelaide. The game is just completely different when the best players are out there.

I was trying to think who number 3 or potentially 4 would be. Possibly Jones but I couldn't imagine he'd be keen on deputy vice captain these days, it would make some sense if he said that's really not required. Jetta, Lever, McDonald, Harmes? The boldest call could be Steve May and then his injury post camp making them rethink it.

They are heavily reliant on Goldstein, Cunnington, Higgins and Brown but most teams rely on their best players. They've drafted very well the last few years and Tarran Thomas (future star), Simpkin and Larkey are very good young players too. They just have a decent sized gap in their list in the mid 20's guys. I've heard a big reason Brad Scott walked away so early was that he wanted to go embark on a proper rebuild around their talented young guys but the powers that be said no. They will be death riding us all year for sure, but the good part of that trade is at least we have our destiny in our own hands. If we are rubbish then handing over a high pick will be just one of many problems!

There was a definite breeze towards the north west pocket which made set shots at the City end (no idea of Arden St's ends names btw) difficult especially from outside 30. At ground level you couldn't feel it too much but the modern balls are so light that any kind of breeze impacts kicks. The overall score line wasn't flash but I thought a fair bit of it was Bedford with some work to do on set shots and Brown just having a very off day in front of goal.

Getting trialled on the wing. I don't think he's had the endurance for that role before but if he's built his tank it could be where he fits in. Watching that highlights video from 2016 reminds me of a theory about Hunt I've had for a while in that he needs to get back to his junior tennis days and get his lateral movement back. Not only did he have brilliant burst speed he also had the ability to quickly turn and hit top gear. He seems to have lost that evasive ability the last couple of years.

75% game time in the middle for each of 4 is plenty of room for Gus. The threats to him not playing midfield are: 1. Vanders a better option on ball 2. Melksham playing regular minutes on ball 3. Sparrow as a tagger

Rivers might've been sent for a 20 minute concussion test and came back on late? I didn't remember seeing him in the last but he easily could've still been out there. On Fritsch - I think he should play to his match up. Obviously played a fair bit deep today as he was the 2nd tallest forward but when he's used as the 3rd or 4th tall option he should aim to exploit the match up. Dropped a few but struggled to get a lot of room against big key defenders today but if we can get him isolated deep on small/medium types he'll be very dangerous.

Got cleaned up on the 3/4 time siren, possibly sat out due to the head knock. Think the last quarter struggles were more about the wind and the mids slowing down. Thought we fought it out well given the number of Casey players on the ground in the last quarter.

His around the ground marking needs some work but add me to the chorus of those liking the work of big 35 in the ruck. Has a ripping leap and moves well. One to watch closely.

Backline: Lockhart the standout, too good for this inbetween VFL/AFL level. Josh Wagner was very solid and took a great mark. Rivers had his moments in the 3rd term, think he's got work to do to get a game but there's something there. Mids: Was nice to see Baker back and showing some of the upside with pace and some nice kicks. Sparrow and Jordon cracked in all game. Brayshaw a cut above when he got rolling. Forwards: Impressed by Brown up against some good opponents apart from his bad set shots. Fritsch dropped some easy ones, missed a few shots but always had signs to his class. Kossie had his moments and he clearly has the most class of the 4 smalls who played today. Spargo was very solid all game. Bedford had some awful shots on goal and field kicks but he very much outperformed what I expected with getting involved in the play and smart determined pressuring.

It's just a hole different game with all the missing players back in. If we were able to generate the same forward pressure and the same wins in the clearances then I think we win the game based on the very good field position and pressure game we played today. It was a tick for our system of play but maybe the Brown, Fritsch and 4 smalls that caused North a lot of trouble doesn't work against a proper AFL side. We won't even be playing such a small pressuring forward line come round 1. Too many variable to extrapolate overall results.

They were missing: Forward: Ben Brown, Larkey, T Thomas, Garner, Simpkin Mid: Higgins, Cunnington, Ziebell, Polec, Goldstein Back: Luke McDonald? We were missing: Forward: T McDonald, Weid/Jackson/Petty, ANB Mid: Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Langdon, Gawn Back: Hibberd, Jetta, May, Lever, Salem, Harmes Both teams missing their best 5 mids. I was impressed by our make shift backline doing a very good job but North didn't have much of a forward line in. And our forward line wasn't as depleted as our other units - given we don't know who is best 22 from that group - but apart from bad goal kicking they did well against a strong North backline.

Pert's banking on converting many of the supposed 10k+ MCC members who don't buy the MFC add one. An add on that I believe started at about $35 a decade ago, rose to 50, 70 and is now a ridiculous $89. How many people are part of the MCC, reasonably wealthy and as stupid as I am to pay $89 for a scarf and to say they've done their bit? Even if we are winning premierships I don't think it will be nearly as many as Pert thinks.

That's what I'm hoping for but there's no future planning right now. For some reason we keep the Wagner's on the list who no one wants to be in the team unless we have a dozen injuries but we aren't putting development time in to a young key defender who could replace Oscar in a couple of years.

The bigger surprise to me is that we've moved Petty forward (apparently once he's fit) and bought in Mitch Brown for key forward depth but we haven't added any key defensive depth. It's May, Oscar, Lever and then more third tall options in Smith and Hore. That might be enough for this year but who's up next if Oscar doesn't improve and guys continue to get injuries? State league key defenders have a decent success rate, I would've liked to add one for some depth and competition. We've still got the Nietschke spot open and I'd be looking for a young developing tall to put some time in to.

For hopefully the last time ....Frost was one of the poorest endurance athletes on the list and also has poor footy IQ. After about 2 minutes he would've been out on his feet and completely lost. Speed is important on a wing but the most important things of wing play are endurance and positioning. Frost is good at one thing and one thing only - when given a clear run at the footy he's very hard to beat. Given the limitations of some of our other defenders I would've liked to have kept him but the salary cap and draft means you can't keep them all.