DeeSpencer

I think 70% game time on a back flank is about the limit of Riv's tank as is, I don't think we'll be seeing him move to the midfield this year. Long term I agree though, if he can build his tank he has a lot of attributes that would be handy in the midfield.

Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Jordon = 1-4. Ideally Sparrow would've played but I think they took the opportunity to get him game time on Thursday. He'll be in I'm sure. Harmes is next in line. That's 6 for 4 or 5 spots. Brayshaw was bad today but I think if you had a real absence of onballers they'd sharpen him back up with more game time. He's 7. Vanders after that. Then probably Bailey Laurie who should be playing good VFL footy if not injured. The issue isn't so much our primary on ballers but they lack of talent of the rotational pieces. Melksham, Jones and ANB just can't be trusted to rotate on ball. Baker isn't a reliable wingman. Bowey - developing in a different role, and Laurie - injured, are 2 of the right kind of players we need to mix through but that's about all we've got developing. Utility running players who can rotate on ball or do a role forward, back or on the wing are a big priority.

A half against a tiring young side is not enough to determine if Tom has made significant inroads in to his skills and decision making. Because the last time Tom played down back he killed us more than he killed any other side with his rebound. Tomlinson's steady skills - and all round steady play - is what made him suited to the job. Tom's skills aren't the only worry for him down back, he also has to keep track of smaller opponents at times when teams switch over and his mobility just hasn't been at that level for a few years now since he's had knee and ankle problems. He's moving better this year but I'm still not sure it's enough. With May, Lever and Gawn floating back a key job for the other key defender is to play within themselves and not spoil team mates.

Will take him several decades to invent time travel, fix his knee and learn how to chase and tackle. He's in the same boat as Melksham - will our coach fall in love with his upside or be honest about his glaring weaknesses?

Fritsch. Pickett and forget the rest. (Or 4,3,2,1 Langdon, Jackson, Oliver Jordon)

I’d rather it be 4-6 than have it flare again. We have 2 Viney replacements in Sparrow and Harmes in the VFL. We’ll have at least one of them in the side from next week. Viney’s really a player that we need available at the right times than one we should need every week at this stage.

If McDonald and Brown didn’t work there’s no way we’re playing Weid and Brown. Even if Fritsch is out.

And Viney was named in the team. Doesn’t mean either were fit. I saw Chandler as the travelling emergency, likely to be the sub if needed. I didn’t see anyone else in the rooms post game.

McDonald was good down back when the pressure was off. Against speed and pressure he’s a worry to give up goals. The positive is he should be protected if we play better. The most important thing is what happens in the midfield and forward line. Todays mid and forward set up didn’t cut it at all. Sparrow for the mids and one less tall forward are both more important than a Petty/McDonald debate, either can do the job.

He was dreadful for the first 3/4’s. Just runs to all the wrong spots around the contest. Won’t put the body on the line. Even in the last he let Cunnington walk through him. Brayshaw was also awful on ball. We’ve all seen why he doesn’t get more centre square time. He should move back to the wing. Jones, Melk, JJ as the 3rd option.

Petty didn’t play at any level this week. He’s the mystery injury. My guess is he won’t be ready. Tom stays back which makes me nervous but we don’t have a lot of other options. Fritsch would get off if Chrisso has any idea. Let’s hope so. Harmes didn’t look fully right in the VFL. He’ll need another week at least. Melksham was Melksham but he still does some good with the bad. Brown was ordinary. We can try other options. He has to be trained to keep his feet, contest and contribute at ground level rather than gifted games. In: Chandler, Sparrow, Weideman Out: Tomlinson, Baker, Brown

It did happen to us with May and Hawkins and most of us realised that accidents happen. Fritsch had half a step to avoid being crunched and out an elbow out to protect himself. Not his fault the North player ran in to it.

Surely the forward line factor played a big role. He seemed convinced he was a forward. I thought it was a failing from the club that they didn’t convince him he was a defender and reward his attacking style of defending. He really left us at the exact moment his role became super valuable. Otherwise I agree with you and I wouldn’t get overly worked up about anything he’s said. Just as I’d hope he’d let the past be the past too. I’m not at all saying Howe should come back but I think of Croad to the Hawks, Tarrant to the Pies and even Gaz Jnr to the Cats. Good clubs are always open to reunions.

Its on Thursday so it can be on TV to cover the costs of the expanded VFL and lost money last year. It’s at Marvel because all the TV infrastructure is in place. I assume only a small section of level 1 will be open which will cut down the costs. I’m sure there’s some players put out by the schedule but assuming they’ve got understanding bosses who can do modified duties I’d rather play Thursday than the interstate trips. And certainly rather play Thursday at Marvel than Thursday interstate like the doggies did. As long as they are shared between all the clubs I actually like the Thursday VFL. Too much Thursday AFL is too much of a good thing. Mixing in a run of VFL games allows me to watch them if they’re good and ignore them if not!

He’s a lifetime free agent is he? Every time he comes out of contract he can choose where he goes, good luck to him! Obviously he has a big tank and is strong for a young player but I reckon there’s a fair bit more to work on building his power and explosiveness too. He might not be Tracc or Oliver but he’ll be a handful to tackle or go get tackled by. They’ve kept his game time low and just asked him to do his job. Moved him around with some wing and forward minutes and the centre square stuff. He’s made a great start.

Obviously he’s had his issues but I always thought Goober Crossley had a strong future as a ruck. Wouldn’t do much as a short term play but could be a bargain pick up. Id be looking at the key defenders and mid sized forwards but mostly I’d be on the hunt for talent. Get it right and it can be a bonus 2nd or 3rd round pick which makes the draft easier at the end of the year

The brilliance of Langdon is he can be dropping 30m behind his man then in a flash he's closed right up on them. The number of times he overtakes his opponent on a wing run is quite freakish. My main worry is a team has a big wing who can sit on the 50 and out mark him but they'll need to move the ball fast and wide to do so. Gus probably needs a bit more half forward cover to find his man when he drops back but that's ANB and Spargo's job. Collingwood have been the masters of dropping the wings. They've just struggled to get any attacking power from them.

Yeah we used to be either win the ball back right away or we were in trouble. I still think we've got a bit of work to do on what happens in the first 10 or so seconds after a quick forward entry if we don't get an intercept mark or a clean spoil - the Hawthorn goals in the first quarter and the start of the last were examples of that - but it's improving, the intercepting is better and the cavalry is arriving faster. Rivers and Hunt can probably track their men and tackle better and the talls still aren't at full cohesion on how to block and when to stay down but yeah it's certainly better than the days of praying we won the ball back immediately.

That's been the big change but I think the whole comp took note of Richmond in 2017 being very different to Hawthorn and especially the Dogs with how deep they sat Rance (and then Grimes) and everyone made that adjustment over the next few years. The only team that hasn't really is the Dogs who are still backing their full zone. It's amazing how assertive the dogs are in peeling off really early to make that zone work. Port were similar last year but I reckon they're sitting deeper this year too. Langdon's been huge, obviously we wanted him for a long time in that role. Gus I see as pretty similar to Tyson who was maligned for skills and speed but did all the right defensive running too. It's taken our inside mids until this year to cover the extra space left by leaving the backline deeper, they were always going to take time to grow in to that I think. It's still a bit of a watch and see. I'm not entirely sure of that. I reckon that was just a young player playing the percentages against a drilled and quality defensive side when they're on. From the stoppages Max was getting it over the back but we couldn't capitalise. Then Melksham and others broke the game open by finding the corridor. There's certainly been a degree of keeping it simple and we haven't tried for the glory kick up the corridor, but the one thing we have done is had Tommy and other targets at CHF do what Richmond have done which is lead back towards the point of the centre square at half forward rather than get sucked to the boundary. We've often gone wide to Gawn out of the backline, then worked it back in through CHF and got more space to enter both sides of the forward 50. We make the big aerial contest point as that forward flank, slam our mids in to the corridor and then force the opposition to go back down the line or sideways - unless they can run through us. There's definitely less russian roulette through the corridor than there was in 2018, we seem more comfortable playing percentages and knowing we don't have to score on every forward entry. But there's still plenty of that counter attack and quick ball movement, and when we do find space to get it to Petracca or Oliver in the middle running free they are taking the game on.

https://www.essendonfc.com.au/teams/jha https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/904336/blues-relaunch-carlton-academy You don't think a few training sessions here and there couldn't have helped sway Joel towards footy? Basketball might've been his first sporting endeavour - like it was for Petracca, LJ and many others - but he could've come back to footy at 17 not 20 something. All it takes is a few junior games and the lure of a professional contract to change a lot of hearts and minds. We've already got one Bayley/Bailey, so makes sense for Laurie to be Bill. If the players haven't nicknamed him that I'd be surprised.

Mahoney always got too much credit and too much blame for decisions made by the people who’s job was talent evaluation. He was the spokesperson for trade week not the primary decision maker. He didn’t get enough credit for his primary job which was to get contracts signed, keep the cap organised, support the coach, go out and hire people like Burgo. Essendon look like they have a clear plan to rebuild and are supporting their coach with the right assistants and messaging. Mahoney’s influence is stability and organisation that Essendon haven’t had in a long time.

The backline turnover has been high, and we’ve swapped from young to experienced tall defenders and vice versa with the flankers (Hunt seems youthful even if he’s not). The midfield and forwards aren’t all that different, and we’ve replaced assistants but in a similar set up of an experienced development coach and a midfield coach on the rise. Watching our wins against the Cats, Hawks and the Tigers have felt incredibly similar to those finals in the style of play. The numbers on the jumpers have changed but it’s forward pressure, a marauding midfield and scoring in runs of goals. If you went away in October 2018 after we landed Steve May and came back 2 weeks ago you’d be asking who Kossie, LJ and Rivers are but otherwise you’d be thinking it looks pretty familiar.

The striking thing to me is that team wise we aren't all that different to the 2018 version that won 2 finals and beat GWS, West Coast etc to get in to finals. That was our line up then. FB: Jetta Oscar Hibberd HB: Lewis Frost Salem Int: Fritsch C: Tyson Oliver Jones HF: ANB Tommy Petracca FF: Spargo Weid Hannan Int: Melk Foll: Gawn Viney Brayshaw Int: Harmes Vanders Backs: Out: Jetta Lewis, Fritsch Oscar Frost In: Hunt, Rivers, Lever, Tomlinson, May Mids: Out: Tyson, Vanders, Harmes In: JJ, Petracca, Langdon (Gus to a wing) Forwards: Out: Weid, Hannan, Petracca (mid) In: Jackson, Kosi, Fritsch Coaches: Out: McCartney In: Williams Out: Jennings/Mathews In: Yze I feel like we spent 2 years in the wilderness but really we've kind of come full circle back to a lot of what we were doing late in 2018. The backline needed turnover and we've replaced young key defenders with more experienced options who have now settled in, then also replaced some older legs with fresh (and fast) legs on the flanks. Salem and Hibbo (in a modified role) are the only holdovers since 2018 so it's not a huge surprise that things took a while to get sorted. The shift from all out press to keeping a defensive anchor has been a big positive too. The midfield was crying out for a Langdon player who we got, but there the biggest change has been the young leaders stepping up and starting to own the way they wanted to play. We also had to adapt to Petracca coming in last year which helped him go to another level but threw out the balance of 2018. JJ has given us what Harmes did (and could do again) as a negating and receiving option. The forward line is really getting back to what we did very well at the end of 2018. The pressure is more consistent. The talls have paired well. Tom is back to being Tom and LJ is doing what Weid did - offering something in the ruck and a contest forward. Fritsch is a bit different but he's taken over what Melk/Petracca gave us in 2018, and obviously there's still options with a 3rd genuine tall and changing things around. Brendan McCartney was very good in setting a culture and standard of young mids to hunt the ball and compete. He was the development coach and mentor we needed to get that aspect of the game right. Choco is now providing a bigger focus on run, skills and decision making, no doubt still stressing the need to win the ball. Soccer has had that system for a while of the 'manager' who controls everything but a 'first team coach' or similar who's job is to drill the players, I think it's a great set up as long as there's trust and the roles are defined. The midfield set ups, coaching and leadership are huge factors in getting us playing well. A lot of it is that we've got maturing talent and one way or another they were probably going to start to click more but a fresh voice from outside the club has surely helped.

He lacks a point of difference or he wouldn't give us a point of difference? I reckon both of those aren't true. He can play inside, outside or forward and has a booming kick. I reckon his disposal can be a bit iffy but is definitely ok and I wonder if we thought he was benefitting a lot from Rowell getting the opposition attention.

Wow that draft board is interesting. Would love to know where Rivers, Serong, Day, Georgiades and some others are. Sparkes and Baldi at Casey for a good reason I'd imagine, there's 2 worth watching. I'd also be a bit cautious on any Anderson gloating. He's a star and he was a lock to go to the Suns. It's a pretty easy bias to have when someone is out of contention to start to downplay them. The difference between Anderson and Tom Green is that Tom Green was genuinely in play for us. And I reckon our recruiters would've loved to pick him, he was such a solid player. Jason Taylor seemed very sold on Jackson though. 2019 draft is looking very good. The first round has a bunch of special players. The second round has quality and even the 3rd and 4th rounds have some interesting young players.