DeeSpencer

Has been a pretty open secret since about Monday last week. The media acted very responsibly (apart from one peanut on Perth radio) to let North release this on their own terms. The North board and administration need to review their actions in providing support in such tough circumstances. Not to say they did anything wrong but it seems so disappointing that a guy has ended up in this situation where there’s such doubt on if he’ll even coach again.

Oliver needs to play better. Either: 1. He doesn’t believe it. 2. He knows it and wants to be at another club that lets him do it. Both scenarios require a change. The best changes should be the coaching (assistant or senior) and the midfield mix. If the club doesn’t want to make those changes and instead wants to trade Oliver it would be one heck of a call.

The Cats probably just chimed in to make us go to 3 years. Doing a favour for Liam Pickering. Being the gutless club that we are we immediately went to 3 no doubt.

Might just looking for a cheap experienced player - the Pies will lose a few older guys this year. And if he doesn’t work out they can retire him and pay him outside any cap to work in their community department. Could have little to do with on field stuff and all about stealing a good person.

If Rebel paid for it then good luck to them. If the afl or mcc are picking up the cost then thats stupid

For Collingwood is it all about the off field or do they think they can do something with his body to turn back the clock? This year he looked too lean to me. Like they tried to get him really fit which isn’t his go. He’s a back pocket nugget full of explosive power, he’ll never be a good endurance player who runs both ways. Has Burgo tried to get him too fit at the expense of the way he plays the game?

I don’t want him playing for us next year yet alone 2022. But I want him at club in some capacity. Sadly if he gets a 2 year deal from Collingwood I have no idea how we balance those two factors. We have to give him our blessing.

Fritsch was good on the wing and I think very good at half back in 2018 (less so in 19). But finding half backs shouldn't be that hard. Half forwards who get as many shots on goal (even when played deep) as Fritsch are just too valuable - assuming he starts splitting the big sticks. The longer quarters should see Jackson having to ruck more. So I think we can add a 3rd tall, it just wouldn't be a guy with limited mobile like Ben Brown. I'm thinking Petty, or Mihocek or even a 190cm type from another list or the draft. At the moment it's Melksham, probably swapping with Petracca. Do we chance our arm at Caddy. That's all for another time I guess. Fritsch can crumb, he can chase, he can get up the ground and run the ball back and he can kick inside 50. He does pretty much everything you'd want in attack of a small. Plus I don't think he causes too many issues with flying for marks, not compared with some of the ways our other players crash in to teach other. It's really just the lack of defensive pressure and intensity. Once he's in defensive mode he can be clever and intercept/cut off leads. He's not so lazy as to just give up. How hard can it be to train him up to get in to defensive mode and lay a few tackles? He could well end up at half back, but to me that's the kind of cop out that we've allowed of so many of our players. Bayley knows what he needs to do to be a complete forward. The coaches know. Make it happen.

There's at least one *more spot for a pressure player even including using the rotating mids. Hannan at his best is perfect for it and his pressure was great at the start of this year, then it just disappeared. Hunt's never been a great tackler or pressure player that's for sure. We certainly need to find at least 180+ and ideally more flanker sized mid/forward types.

So why Phillips and not 1 of the other 15 or so well paid players they have?

I look at it and think - what truly does impact us in Australia and what is us getting on our high horse because we see a country failing and like to feel superior. Gun control, health care, education, racial injustice...there's a lot that should change but at the end of the day, not my circus, not my monkeys. For decades the most important thing for us has been our military alliance with the Americans and US foreign policy. Sure they've dragged us in to some wars that they (and us) had no place in, but largely it's worked in our favour. And Trump's one man plan of Mutually Assured Destruction seems to be working for him and so far for us. But it's now abundantly clear that Climate Change is our biggest threat. The world has to put the same effort and spending in to fighting climate change as it has Covid 19. The US is in prime position with it's tech industry and with just enough manufacturing still around to really make a huge difference. Biden's far from perfect but the world can't afford to have climate deniers in the White House.

Any decent wingmen would, but that's not really the question. The questions are: 1. Does his limited skills and contested ability see those B+F results start to slide over the new few years - he wouldn't be the only hard running type of player to have peaked by 23 (see T. Bugg or A.N-B). 2. Is Isaac Smith (for free) better for a couple of years for free whilst we work on a long term replacement who we can draft with the pick we won't have to give up for Phillips I'm not so sure the Pies would be so keen to move Phillips on if they thought he had 100 solid games left in him. Chris Mayne's their other wingmen and he's just about done, they could find a way to hold on to the salary if they really wanted to. 2 years of Isaac Smith and allocate the draft resources towards finding longer term solutions - in particular guys who can kick would be my preferred result.

I'd say our pressure forwards rank: Pickett, Spargo (strong end to season), Hannan, ANB, Hunt, Bedford/Chandler. The aim should be to only have 2 of them in the side and get more pressure out of rotating mids, medium and talls but that hasn't been a strong point. Generally we've needed 3 strong pressure guys to play the game on our terms. Even though they are flaky the likes of Hannan and Hunt are important as they are the only two with any size. So Hannan probably is more important than some think and could easily be like Kent at St Kilda if not better where he gets a game any time he's fit and we wonder why we didn't keep him. But also like Kent I guess the issue isn't so much letting him go but failing to find a better and more consistent replacement.

The St Kilda runners can kick though. Paton, Clark, Billings, Sinclair, Hill, Butler can all hit targets. The Saints have his brother. Similar player. Elite tank and runs all day. He played 4 games for the year. We desperately needed a guy like Langdon to add some run, but given our inside mids aren't great kicks either do we really need to keep adding shoddy kickers for short term gain?

You don't remember when we recruited him to do just that and it was a disaster? Doesn't have the heart or desire to play down back. Or really anywhere I feel.

When he’s at his best he is super zippy and a good pressure player too. Unfortunately when he drops away he loses the defensive part of his game as well as the attack

Probably had the best month of his career when he came back in to the side this year but soon faded. Could he have one great summer and fix his body for good and find consistent form - maybe. But if the bulldogs are keener to find out than we are then we probably have to let him go.

If Hawkins, Lynch or Dixon were 24 I think those teams would be pretty happy going with them as the number 1 guy. And the Lions surely hope Daniher rediscovers the form he was in when he was 24! If we don’t bring in another tall forward I think plan A could easily be going small with just Jackson and Weid and hoping Melksham finds his form again. Plan B would be Petty, likely in Melksham’s spot, and I think there is a defensive upgrade there over Brown/Weid. Petty has very good agility, even without great pace he can make the quick changes of direction to cover an outlet. One of Brown or Weid up the ground just won’t cover off or make that crucial tackle

Some draft picks take a long time, others don't. That's all in the past, the question is the future. Ben Brown kicked 32 goals from 22 games when he was 22, then 41 goals the next year at 23. After that he was in his prime and reeled off three 60 goal seasons. The Weid turned 23 this season and kicked 19 goals from 13 shortened games, which works out to be 40 goals over 22 full length games. Who's to say he's not just about to enter his physical prime and start producing 50 goal seasons? His buildup has been slow and hardly linear, but there were a lot of good signs this year that his body is nearly ready and his confidence in his marking and goal kicking has progressed. I'd rather take a chance on Weid's prime years than Brown's twilight years.

The overall deal doesn't matter in terms of getting pick 9 from the Giants. We can't say to them we plan on further trading this pick so please give it to us for less now. Here's another one, in 2015 the Dogs and Blues traded Pick 11 and a future 3rd FOR Picks 20 and 21. Slice it and dice it any way you want I just don't see how pick 9 goes to pick 23 without something very juicy included. And I'm not counting big juicy Preussy.

You’re talking about the Freo deal that’s irrelevant. Im talking about the North deal that got pick 8 to begin with. To get that pick from North we had to offer a future first that easily could’ve been top 5 if things went badly and throw in a second and third. Now you’re saying GWS would part with 9 for pick 23 and a journeyman ruck. It doesn’t add up.

Last year: Pick 8 —— Future first, 26, 50 This year: Pick 9 —— 23, Preuss. You’re valuing Preuss as the same value as a future first, or at least an early second. That’s far too high.

Ahhhh the old load up a bunch of nothing and come out with a top 10 pick trade. Not going to happen in a million years.

NFL teams do sneaky things like change the ownership of parking and food and beverages at the stadiums to different companies. It’s useful to set a benchmark but big Nicho would have to be clever to make sure he put protections in. Not easy to do given the mess cricket fine themselves in.

Apart from the ‘wheel’ error is there any chance they could revise where Egan says ‘VFL’ to say scratch matches. There was no VFL and might never be again