DeeSpencer

Out: Tomlinson, Smith In: Hore, Lockhart We have to go small down back and live with the idea that they'll get us a few times in the air. Tomlinson is just ridiculously plodding, let Stringer do as he wanted, managed 0 intercepts. Smith could be a decent player at a club with a backline coach who knew how to coach. But Troy Chaplin has no idea how to use him. He has to be instructed to play back shoulder with an arm across and given 100 spoils with both hands every training session. Near impossible to beat one on one when he picks up the play, nearly useless when he doesn't. Hibberd to slide deeper where he's still useful rather than attempt to chase smalls. Out: Baker, Melksham, Brown In: Harmes, Sparrow, Jackson Baker's shown a bit but he's still iffy at the contest and unsure how to pressure. Would rather Harmes. Sparrow in to give us a defensive mid who might actually get involved in the game, bugger Melk off. Brown had a nice game chasing marks on the wing but if Jackson is right he needs to play.

Too heavy. Whether it's fat or muscle only the club would know. Petracca is an almost unique powerful player. Only him, Dusty and Danger can roll around as 90kg+ mids apart from the 190cm+ guys like Bont and Cripps of course. Oliver is far leaner than he used to be. Gus isn't.

Had the crucial involvement in at least 2 goals - the left foot kick to Hunt - a handball out to space for another of the running goals Don't worry about the stats, when we get a midfield with vision and reliable contested forwards he'll be right as rain.

Hopefully they get it right the first time. So many of our recurrent issues have been when they've deferred surgery and then rushed players back. At least Gus has time on his side to rehab from surgery, get it right and then get back to fitness. And honestly it could be a blessing in disguise because he's been slow and overweight for years now IMO. Might be a chance to fully rebuild his body and mind. If he returns with a frame like his younger brother he'll start playing better footy.

I can't imagine the financial gain would be a huge motivation unless he's made poor financial decisions along the way. There was that unfortunate negotiation in the media last year but I'm sure he eventually did settle for a contract in line with his ability and that would only be further reduced in 2021. He's along way from 306 games as well so I can't imagine that would be a huge driver and even 300 isn't guaranteed. He was far from good this year but also a fair way from terrible. More meh that anything else. If he wants to play on that's absolutely his right to express that. I don't think he should, but we're also very uncertain with the number of list spots and the amount of experience in or out of the list between now and the deadline. There is a possibility that we make a series of trades and delistings of other players that sees Jones more worthy of a list spot.

1. Eastern seaboard afl reserves 2. The VFA 3. A select group of NSW/ACT/Queensland teams too big for their state leagues Thats a very interesting way to create a competition. And the kicker is amalgamating the nab league teams in with all the teams in Victoria in a mess of a way. Personally I would’ve continued the NEAFL and VFL. The savings can’t be all that substantial. Otherwise go to Reserves and VFA and send the Southports and Sydney Uni’s back where they belong.

I don't care what the media say, we've worked on dropping our backline deeper to prevent easy goals. Apart from getting smashed by Port we've stopped teams scoring for most of the year. The inside 50 kicking in the first few rounds after the restart was really bad but that's improved since then. There's still a huge room for improvement but that's for the coaches. In terms of Mahoney's job as an administrator his role was more to bring in Richo to help get things on track and I think that's happened. Champion Data....please. Langdon was a good pick up and we've had a very nice draft class. Assuming we aren't afraid to make some more aggressive moves we should be far more balanced and capable of pushing and staying up the ladder. Pickett and Spargo was a very minor breach early in the process by young players, almost every club has had one. The Cairns stuff isn't a story, if anything we should've complained more about an absolute stitch up of a fixture. The other clubs based up there have been gifted a home ground advantage and it seems priority access to train on the oval that we weren't. Injuries were a massive factor and I would've liked to have bounced back better than we have but remember the 2007 injuries and the decade without finals? At least we're back in the hunt. Who is this highly rated person to come in? There's not many good football administrators out there and how many are keen to jump on board with Goodwin or with a huge 700k+ hole in their budget. The mid season assistant changes Mahoney made were proactive, something had to change. I understand that concern but bad clubs make more mistakes with too many changes than too little. I'd rather just see one last year of Mahoney and Goodwin than turfing one or the other.

Game plan - ups and downs but overall improved List - improved Covid breaches, sooking about hubs etc all seem to be doing better than a lot of clubs. Ladder position - 17th to 9th. It’s too late now to make a change that impacts the trade and draft period for this year. I can’t imagine the assistant coach situation being positively influenced by changing head of footy now either. If things go poorly next year then the Board and CEO will have to organise a more thorough review no matter who is in charge

As for the football department staff: Goodwin - give him 2021, too expensive to pay out and I'm not entirely convinced he doesn't deserve a fair chance in a proper season. Mahoney - Outside a contract reason or a standout candidate may as well link him to the coach and do the same. Assistant coaches - Further turnover seems a reality. Widely available candidates and Richo's had a year to work with Goody and provide an opinion on what is and isn't working.

Peter Jackson was great because he was an outsider to the MFC, but an insider to the AFL and completely aware of the way football clubs operate. You think we are restless? Go check out Essendon. Sadly he didn't end on great terms with Bartlett it appears but did seem to understand the brand and direction for the MFC. He knew how to tie us in with the MCC and to promote the history of the club whilst turning a new leaf. We didn't try to be a smaller cheaper version of a big club. Bartlett's come to the club via the coterie, but then is really new to the club and the industry. It's a difficult position. Hiring Pert seemed to be a nod to Bartlett's relationship with Eddie, which could be a smart alliance but could be troubling. Attempting to make us in to Collingwood-lite is not something anyone wants. Anyway, it's a lot of conjecture. If the books are balanced and rash decisions are avoided how much does it really matter?

Obviously there's confirmation bias at play but the top 13 in the betting market have all been nominated. The first without one is Bailey Scott at $81 which really should be $8001. Very rarely is there a Rankine like performance and especially later in a season when most of the standouts have been nominated. The impact of betting alone means the AFL won't let a genuine contender go without a nomination as the season rolls towards the 20 week mark. The most likely case is a chronically underrated key defender who doesn't get a lot of stats but these days key defenders are racking up intercept marks and possessions so it really won't be an issue. It's not the worlds best design award by any means but that doesn't mean the best player from those eligible won't get a nomination at some stage. The far greater concern is the impact the media and group think has on the award and the judges. Serong $1.50 and Anderson $4 despite nearly identical seasons is a great example of it.

1. Players: a) Forward: Tom Mc was one of the best CHF's in the comp, that made it easy for Hogan to flat track 50 goals at FF, or even better when Weid came in and delivered at the end of the year. Petracca, ANB, Spargo, Hannan, Melksham had a very nice balance in the forward line around 2 big talls. Melksham isn't the same player, Petracca is needed in the midfield and hasn't found the forward/mid balance yet, ANB hasn't found that form. Spargo is just getting back to it. The additions since then in Pickett, Fritsch and Jackson are really just finding their way. Weid has taken a while to get back to the same form and belief. b) Mids: Tyson, Jones, Vanders gave us a wing rotation that worked against most sides. Gus was in career best form. Harmes was great. Gawn, Viney, Oliver doing their thing. I'll talk about the midfield more later. The additions since then: Langdon and Petracca. Handy, but not enough to cover other weaknesses. c)Backs: Frost and Oscar weren't asked to do much. Jetta and Hibberd were in All Aus form. Lewis was in the best role to get the most out of him. Fritsch was handy as an intercepting flanker. Salem was Salem. The additions since then: At the moment it's Tomlinson for Frost, May for Oscar, Lever for Fritsch. May's a huge upgrade but the others not so much. Hibberd isn't the same. Jetta and Lewis are been replaced by Lockhart/Rivers/Smith etc. We just don't have a settled backline yet. 2. Game plan: The 2018 game plan was incredibly simple. Go hard to win the ball in the middle, often with coverage with 2 extra off the back flank for bounces. Push up really hard to lock the ball in forward. Pray other teams don't get out the back. Use the corridor to counter because with so much open space back we always had room to counter. It wasn't the worst plan. Port are still doing a version of it now. But I think our coaches rightfully looked at teams like Richmond defending with a spare dropping back to get easy intercepts and stop quick over the top goals as well as full ground pressure and said we need to set up more like that. And other teams like West Coast had had success (especially against us) sitting deeper, kicking the ball around and adding a lot more midfield run and speed to power that game plan and counter teams like Richmond. The Eagles got rid of Mitchell and Priddis pre 2018, meanwhile our midfield was still young and lazy defensively and our wings were slow. The change of defensive gameplan also meant a change in ball movement because you can't just aggressively flood numbers forward if you're trying to defend the full ground and keep a drop back defender. So the bomb it in approach of 2018 - which was never pretty - got very ugly in 2019/2020 when our forwards had to think more than just converging on the top of the goalsquare and seeing what happened from there. In summary we've had to take a step back with the game plan to hopefully take a few steps forward. And whilst the overall list is probably in a similar situation we've lost experience. Other players who excelled in the simplicity of the 2018 plan have struggled. We aren't too far off 2018's results and we're yet to see exactly the changes to the game plan in person, although our best footy this year has looked promising. At some stage next year we'll know if the game plan looks up to the level, we'll know if the recruiters have found some of the missing depth and we'll know if our players can start to show some onfield leadership.

Lewis aggressive? At Melbourne or South Warrnambool? He played well against the Cats from memory. Went to ground and water against the Hawks. Barely fronted up against the Eagles. We miss his on field organisation. Or more correctly we miss a coach who can get all senior players to bring on field organisation. Jones wasn't exactly great on a wing back then but he did his job and that's certainly the level of player that we need a few more of, especially hard runners with decent enough kicking skills.

A lot of that is we ask our deepest forward to lead back towards goal to open up space in front of them for the other forwards to duck in to or for the deep guy to cut back and lead in to. Too often we bomb the ball to the deep forward too late for them to get it over the top - because we don't run, handball and kick over the top - and too early for them to double back. Plus ignore the guys filling the space created. It's far from the worst plan, it just needs the deep guy to realise on occasion the get deep game plan is not the right option and he has to keep front position. That said, front position without the momentum of a lead or the ability to hold space to one side or another isn't a great way to win a contest either. Defenders are too good for that. Melksham and Petracca can kick the 60m darts that get the ball to the deep guy over the top. Others like Spargo and Koz can hit up the short leads filling space created - and can also be the short leads in that spot. If we cut out the players who love to get the ball 70m out, ignore the quick option but be too impatient for the right option we'll see a lot less of our forwards playing from behind.

No sling, but still pretty poor given the ball was out ages ago. Should've been holding the ball, clear prior. Blakey's a little bigger but it's another skinny kid mixing it with the big boys and not doing a good job of protecting himself either. Tacklers, players and umpires all have to do better to prevent nasty tackles.

A weekly award is nice. Gives recognition to a lot of players and is something for fans - especially of rebuilding clubs to care about. There's 23 (or 18 this year) chances to nominate the overall best player, the odds of the winner not having a standout game are astronomically low. Unlike similar awards that run on the back of 'player of the month' like the A league version. Quaynor didn't get the nomination because he's going to win the thing.

Quaynor hardly has a string of notable games to fall back on. I think what they've done here is recognise Quaynor for 2 reasons: 1. Sholl and Rivers were impossible to split and both are likely to be eligible next year, whilst Quaynor is not. 2. The AFL stuffed up, didn't check studs on boots and Quaynor missed 3 weeks as well as suffered a fair bit of pain because of it. I don't mind Trent being made to wait until next year given this funny season we are having. He can build his tank and come out next year and light it up.

I don't think Frost wanted too much money, but paying him what he was worth would've put a lot of salary cap in to 3 key defenders and most importantly cost us the 2nd round pick we needed to do the future pick trade for Pickett. So it's either keep Frost and maybe not have the salary cap for Tomlinson - intended to fix the wing role, and then keep our first round pick instead of Pickett. Tomlinson is now playing as the 3rd key back and I'd rather Frost, but I'd also rather Pickett than this years first round pick. Whether it was Oscar, Petty, Tomlinson Smith or Hore good teams should be able to find a 3rd tall defender who does a capable job. For that reason moving on from Frost was probably still the right call. In this day and age I think you have to be prepared to move guys out who you aren't going to get maximum value for even if you don't have the perfect replacement.

Important to remember the likes of Cripps, Bont and De Goey also rose up draft boards a long way between the media group think and when the recruiters had their say. Bont and De Goey were a bit like Oliver, a fair way back at the start of the draft process but very highly regarded by the time the event occurred and Bont was seen as a risk. Cripps finished last in the 3km time trial and one of their recruiters quit when they picked him. So there's plenty of room for JT to have nailed the early picks without having followed the narrow consensus. I actually want to see him have more success with late round and rookie picks. His early claim to fame was taking Harmes and Vanders and we haven't really followed up with rookies like that since.

Fill out is the wrong word, but most add some bulk and the more rangy guys usually end up very strong in the core. I'm not at all against drafting skinny players like some on here occasionally suggest not to do, but skinny guys without desire for the contest is another thing altogether. Morts didn't seem to have the desire for the contest nor the professionalism to strengthen his body.

I think we were all over Sturt and remember we tried to trade our future first for Butters. I really liked Hamill but one tackle from ANB had him in a bad way. I'm all for drafting skinny kids because they do fill out, it's nonsense to think otherwise, but they have to have the ability to withstand contact. I think teams had Sparrow higher than that 45+ range, the Suns had him next on their board at 23. The JJ pick was more of a reach and he hasn't had his chance to show us what he can do unfortunately. Not convinced by Bailey Williams. Has a nice leap but looks a depth type so far. Vandermeer and McInerny the outside mids we could've taken if we had our time again.

People need to stop thinking the Brownlow finish meant anything. Brayshaw stole all of Gawn and Oliver's votes because he's nice to the umpires where as the other two talk back to them. We had an unsustainable game plan built around mids racking up stupid numbers of possessions and not doing any defensive work. We flooded numbers forwards and prayed the ball didn't get out the back. It's disappointing how much Gus has dropped off but the Brownlow finish wasn't close to a fair representation of his actual output. In the 2018 draft class Taylor focused on hard working good character guys because the list needed an injection of professionalism from the ground up. When you've been a basketcase for over a decade it's not just as simple as the coach for reasons players form drops off. The list isn't close to ready to consistently play in multiple finals. We've seen that with the reliance of 3 first year kids being best 22. We still have big holes on the wing, half back/half forward hard running flankers, a solid key back and probably and inside mid with pace and skill.

We couldn't have got the first rounder to select Pickett if we didn't first give up the 2nd rounder to North first before getting it back. It's Serong vs Pickett and Rivers vs Rivers and a first rounder this year. Unless you include all sorts of other factors like taking Jackson and not recruiting Langdon there's no way we could've got Serong and Rivers.

Spargo played back in round 23 last year. Wasn't terrible, but it's not his go. Playing a tiny defender is asking to give up a couple of goals just through a mismatch. It's a miracle Daniel avoids this at the Dogs and it's because he's off the charts smart and their other members of their back 6 all have size and overhead ability. Spargo is playing well at half forward. If we want to get him in to games more we should start pushing him up higher to attend stoppages and then even in to the middle for short rotations, but he's probably not at that stage yet. They might have to move one to the midfield but if we get Rivers and Salem going we might have a solution for a lot of the backline skills problem. All we need is competently skilled players to support them.

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