DeeSpencer

The 3 most common deep forward targets that I noticed were T Mc, Melksham and Fritsch. They are also our 3 most dangerous one on one forwards. If Jackson gets a game at this stage I can't imagine he'd be any kind of target. He looks best when allowed to move around in space. Whilst the main group was doing match sim he did ruck training with Preuss, Gawn and Bradtke and held his own.

3/4 ground match sim now. Mids deliberately mixing handballs and throwing the ball at each other’s feet under pressure to similate a stoppage. Then break in to match sim. Vanders, Fritsch, Nibbler involved

Next one: Weid on the flank, handballs up to Chandler who’s surveying options and RUN DOWN by Bedford.

Max gets the short kick in the corridor and goes long to Melk who nicely bodies Oscar out of the way on this one. Next one up. Chandler crumbs back to Vanders in the wing spot, in to Dunkley, out to Weid who hits Jackson on a nice lead.

Hitting the fat side flanker - has been Melksham and Fritsch - seems to be the aim of the kicking half ground match sim

No

At the other end it’s 4 on 3 running the ball from the backline

Rivers laces 40m pass to Sparrow who kicks long to set up the drill. Wagner centers, Kossie plays on, shakes the man on the mark, puts the handball in front of Viney who sets it up to T Mc. (Who spills the contested mark over Rivers). Match sim. 10 on 8. Bibs moving it out. Blues moving it back in.

Small group drills designed to kick to forwards one on one now. The kicking is gross. LJ on a lead is nicer.

No KK, no Bennell, no Neita and as far as I can see so far no Joel Smith. May walked back to AAMI as training started. A rather rusty kick to kick to start with in blustery conditions. Kossie P struggling to hit a target so far.

Given they were all in their bralettes and not jumpers I have a suspicion the main group have come from the tan

Jones, Hannan, Baker, Tomlinson, Spargo in to some kick to kick. Viney, May, Jetta, Vanders floating around waiting. Not sure what they are up to. Main group looks to be arriving now

So we play 6 days prior (Crows at Casey) and 1 week after (Hawks in Launceston). Our players picked to play in this - which is probably only going to be 2 in Gawn and Oliver - might skip or play a half in first preseason game and then be fine to play in our final hit out. Gawn gets some work in against Grundy at a lesser intensity. Oliver and any other mids gets a look at the best. Preuss, Jackson, key forwards get to push their case for round 1 and more game time for the young mids too. Don’t mind it from a football perspective. Whether it will be a game worth watching and good for charity is another discussion.

Dusty Martin wasn't anywhere near fit and Tom Lynch looked like he just picked up a footy for the first time when they played early in the season and then ended up dominating finals. Guys can and do start the year underdone and improve if they are well managed and surrounded by fit and capable players. Petracca and Oliver were examples of that. I'm not saying they were 100% ready but they'd done enough to play and if surrounded by a fit side and well managed they'd improve through the year. Who knows the absolute minimum percentage but someone like Oliver is probably good enough to get a game on 50% assuming he's safely ticked the boxes in returning to training and playing practice games which he had. Limit game time, move him forward, have a fit side around him and he'd be fine. Roos loves hard and fast rules that suit his agenda, it's never that easy. Every great side is going to have preseason and midseason injuries and these days even mid season draft picks. There's going to be guys coming in with no AFL preseason at all. The performances of a few underdone guys was just one of so many problems that included guys who shouldn't even have been playing (Viney, Jones, Oscar), losing more players on the eve of the season and as it went on, lack of depth in the outside runners, insufficient training numbers for high intensity drills etc.

Mainly trying to give myself cover unless I was overly optimistic in my reports and someone drags them up! But there were positives. May looked great before injury. KK and Fritsch looked good on the wings. Some rehab group guys were coming back in to the main group. Some of what they were doing looked good. It’s hard to see what they weren’t doing - which was not nearly enough high intensity two way drills with good players.

For what it’s worth Saty I think Oliver, Harmes, Petracca and Brayshaw were ready to play, if a touch underdone. They’d done enough training and match sim. You are correct there. Viney, Jones and to an extent Melksham were not and the first two probably shouldn’t have played. Thats the preseason component of fitness to play. There was also so many other issues impacting the type of team the players were coming back in to. Frost and Oscar weren’t ready to cover May and were unsure of their roles or place in the side. Sparrow wasn’t ready at all and was chucked in because Lewis was a late out and we needed a healthy body. KK and Vanders (and JKH) going down late suddenly meant we were short wing options and C Wagner was there. But the biggest failings of last summer wasn’t that individuals weren’t ready it was that the team was underprepared due to missing so many players. The team wasn’t training with the right intensity and whilst that’s easy to say in hindsight and hard to say at the time I think it’s clear now.

Really wanted to tip the Titans but NE at home. Belichick and Brady v Vrabel and Tannehill. Until proven otherwise I have to go with the champs.

Buffalo 16 @ Houston 27 Tennessee 20 @ New England 23 Minnesota 20 @ New Orleans 31 Seattle 27 @ Philadelphia 24

I agree, and whilst he's a good all round athlete he doesn't have the standout speed, size, strength or endurance to make up for it. If he really drilled the fundamental skills so he could move cleanly through traffic he could be a player but North clearly didn't think that was going to happen and I didn't see a lot of it last year. Nath Jones is still the only Melbourne player I've seen go from a sloppy mover - in Jones' case he was slow to react and cumbersome - to a smooth mover. Corey loves a fend off and scrambling kicks when caught in traffic. It works for him at VFL level but ends poorly against better opposition.

We also won two finals with him making a valuable contribution as a first year player so if he gets fit and healthy he could do that again. I hope he does. Before he became institutionalised with Melbourne stupidity he was a smart footballer.

The title said development but the OP asked who are the least likely to play games and KK is one of 3 who at this stage I’m expecting no games from due to injury. Everyone else has to be a chance.

1. Nietschke 2. Bradtke 3. KK After that we have 40+ players who should play well enough at VFL to have a chance. We don’t know much about the first and even second year kids but I’d expect most to impress at Casey. The gap on our list between 20th and 40th best player is very slim. Baker and Spargo seem to have done the least training so it’s unlilely we see them in the early rounds.

1. The only way is up - not really a reason, although you can point to 2018 as far better footy clearly 2/3. Tomlinson, Langdon - yep, sure can't hurt! 4/5. May/Lever. Tom Mc - clearly those guys at their best will help 6. The first round draft picks - bit early to say, not entirely convinced they'll help much in 2020 but the talent will be nice 7. The draw - overplayed as a factor, probably 1-2 wins max but you'll take it 8. Bennell - not until we see it.

2 players without a lot in common so there's no point comparing them. Bit of an odd choice of players to pick out. Haven't seen Rivers in match sim or do much testing running yet so it's hard to get a read on him but my feeling is he'll need time to build a fitness base being a big and powerful kid. According to AFL draft central he did a 6.57 2km time trial which needs some work. And he's an aggressive kick which is good long term but short term means he might take time to adapt to the speed of AFL footy and the tight kicking windows. Given the damage that turning the ball over at half back leads to I don't think they'll want him playing early. His best footy will come when he's using his power to win contests and that takes a while to do when you go from playing against 18 year olds to elite men. I agree with others that it's hard to see standout attributes with Dunkley that make you want him in the side. But he was very comfortable at VFL level for a 19 year old, winning the ball, using it well and hitting the scoreboard. I've got my concerns that he ends up getting games as a rotation wing player and fails to impress, but if he can play a mix of half forward and mid he might contribute. Along with Sparrow and Jordon he's a young mid who should play well at Casey and push for games. It's hard to single any of those 3 out, but Dunkley does have the advantage of the most AFL experience so far.