DeeSpencer

Smith’s biggest mistakes were flying for contests he didn’t need to, defensively he gave McKay and Rohan a bath and kept Riewoldt relatively quiet given the chances Richmond had Hannan fumbles or turns it over on about 50% of touches, he’s far from clean. I want him in the side but chasing and tackling at full fitness. Vanders stays until we look at Harmes, Rivers (Or Bennell, Baker, Sparrow, JJ etc) on a wing and find a proper solution (non Jones, non Gus). His importance to the defensive structure overcomes most of his mistakes - outside of gifting goals from free kicks but that shouldn’t be a consistent thing.

May will stick in his deep spot, probably on Reid. Unless we go Oscar in on the talls and May on a Stephenson or Ruscoe. Hibberd’s got the job on Stephenson before if he’s deep, Joel wasn’t smart enough. I think with Rivers in providing skill and Lockhart hopefully run and skill the mix of the backline is favouring more another defensive player like Smith or Oscar. Tomlinson was a nice change to look at more composure and skill but I just can’t see it working against legitimate teams.

Out: T Mc.. In: Gawn (if fit). Sorry Tom but that’s no debate. Out: Jones. In: Lockhart. (Harmes goes to the 3rd wing/forward). Harmes is too good to leave out, just got to find the right role. If everything else fails we have a utility to move around. Out: Hannan. In: Viney. I like Mitch in the side but we can rotate the 5 mids through the half forward line. Vanders, Sparrow and Spargo stay for now. Out: Tomlinson. In: Joel Smith. Tomlinson is not a key defender, let’s stop with that right now. Smith might not be popular but we need someone to play on Mihocek who plays as a traditional lead up and back key forward. He’s too strong for Lever, too quick for Oscar or Tomlinson.

Also Derm said many times throughout the call that a player pinning one arm and driving a player in to the turf was ‘the perfect tackle’. Commentators need to be educated about the dangers of the Cyril arm grab tackle and how it is not perfect, it’s very dangerous.

People will see this as victim blaming but Nibbler had Hamill by the wrist and by a stretched piece of jumper. Hamill had an arm, both legs and his core free. It was Hamill’s decision to spin with the tackle and get a kick off and his slight build that saw him go flying. Not to say Nibbler isn’t responsible for part of it but the idea that he’s all of a sudden some kind of destroyer is really misrepresentation of what occurred

May has been penalised harshly for his poor unforced turnovers in the first quarter and probably for not taking enough intercept marks. Take marks, don't turn the ball over and you get high scores as he did in a lot of the rest of the game. I think we set Oscar up to fail playing him on a short break and without a suitable opponent, not to mention the way the team played. They'll likely stick with Tomlinson so I hope I'm wrong. He does have a better tank and more experience to deal with the quick turnaround, but I could also see someone like big Majak getting hold of him and next week we're sitting back saying why didn't we just play a fresh and trained up Oscar who suits the match up.

Cox was probably equal to Gawn as a tap ruckman (Max is good but he's not Nic Nat), 80% as good as a marking option around the ground (better forward) and twice as good as a midfielder with the ball in motion. As good as Max is and as strong as his influence on games is he won't have the career Cox had.

I see what you're saying about him being contradictory but I think you can play 2 different styles without being overly reliant on one or the other. The Saints are the outside team, the Suns are the contest team. But the Saints still have Steele, Jones and others hunting the contest, just as the Suns have Weller, Lukosius and Ellis with some skilled outside game. To compare to super teams the Hawks loved to get it on the outside and use their skills, whilst the Cats sure didn't lack for skills but their game plan was to run through sides and hit up Mooney at CHF and bring the contest in to the game. The Suns best footy still uses lots of skill and spread but they make sure they have numbers at the ball and play directly so it stays in the contest. The Saints prefer to get it out to guys like Billings, Hill and Butler and get running.

He hasn't been getting those chances and he has been playing confused because he was so hopeless last year he had to make changes. 2018 isn't coming back, see ball get ball with 2 guys covering and a high pressed backline won't cut it, it's a new game now and he has to adjust in other areas first. Petracca's got fitter, Viney's started to adjust his ball use, Clarry has started to use his legs to run. Gus hasn't had as much opportunity but if he adapts he'll get more of a go. Tagging that gives him a simple defensive task to build his game around is a very good idea to make the game easier for him and let him find some rhythm.

I liked seeing Goody speak his mind freely and defend his captain. Stuff like this is just not on.

I thought Gus played on M Crouch for most of the game and it just took him a half to find his balance between tackling and hunting the ball at the contest and more than anything finding his balance between sticking to Crouch and his recent style of transition defending which is just sprinting back to the backline and hoping that's useful. It's his defensive work around the contest and around the ground that's been the big detractor of his midfield play. Teams are too quick and skill through the middle now and we can't just plug 2 extras off the back of centre bounces to cover. So Gus has to adapt. A promising second half, hopefully he can keep going with it.

Was he good? He didn’t win the ball back, he mostly just existed against Adelaide’s crappy forwards and got a few uncontested touches. AFL player ratings had him worst on ground for us. I don’t have any faith in Tomlinson as a key defender, it’s just not his go. Where as Oscar has done the job on Day and Mitch Lewis. When Oscar has the right match up and is running on top of the ground he looks and plays like a proper tall defender. I’d be proactive and put him back in rather than waiting for Tomlinson to fail.

Whether it's the coach, recruiter or list manager something has to change to get Goodwin to rate wingers and proper flankers because we are woefully thin there. Salem's not using the ball well this year but to say he's been soft is very wrong. Probably since about round 4 he's been putting up huge kms, excellent possession numbers and charging on to loose balls. There was this last week: And similar against Crouch tonight and several times in the Brisbane and Richmond games. Bennell was a gamble that so far is somewhat paying off but in no way should be relied upon to be the answer. Tomlinson was a huge waste of cash. But my bigger concern with list management is the lack of turnover. The Wagners, Jones, KK (contracted), Mitch Brown and maybe even Dunkley shouldn't be on the list and if anyone offered anything at all Gus should've been traded. 7 spots that should be the up and coming wingers and flankers we need.

They should know what they'll get with Tomlinson back there as well. He's fractionally quicker and he's definitely fitter and more willing to get involved in attacking play. But against absolutely no one in the Crows forward line he had 1 intercept possession so he didn't win the ball back and he did very little with the ball either. The reasons for moving him - to get more uncontested possessions and kicking from the backline didn't really pan out. North will likely go in with 2 of Larkey, Walker and Daw. The kind of big aerial threats that Oscar usually does ok on and who will probably prove too big and too strong for Tomlinson.

Vanders has been playing on the wing since half time in the Richmond game. He's not a forward pressure player he can't find the ball or the man when forward, what he does do is seal the edges on the wings and make teams think twice about going quick to their wingers. Langdon struggles to do that on taller wingers for obvious reasons. Tomlinson (when on the wing) struggles to do it on anyone with pace. Jones just flat out struggles. Vanders also seals the stoppages in a similar way. Teams don't want to take it out the front when he's waiting there. Defenders close so quickly on ball carriers these days there's no way Oliver could've just strolled to 50 and bombed it home and an equal chance the guy he handballed too would cop the same fate. He had a clear lead coming to him and just duffed the kick. It was the right decision, just the next step in his development. The most important thing is he got the ball running forward and bursting out of stoppages like we all hoped he could do.

Goldstein then Grundy is a terrible duo to have for Max, there's not a good option to rest him for either game. I think if he's right to go we have to keep playing him and try to get the win against North. I have my doubts over the following players: ANB - suspended Bennell, Jones - off the pace Vanders - ?injury Tomlinson at CHB And that's before I get to Gus and Sparrow making us one mid too heavy, Harmes at half back, Melksham's efforts and so on. I'd probably go Out: ANB, Jones, Tomlinson In: Pickett, Hannan, Oscar

I don't think Taylor is the issue. Sounds like he would've grabbed Butters and Georgiades if available as well. List management is the issue. We have not been proactive about turning the list over and finding the talent we need to surround our core and that's why we have big gaps in the wings and pure flankers and not the tall depth we should really have either. If we traded out some surplus and delisted a few more then especially if we armed JT with some decent picks we'd have found the wingman and half forward flanker that would make a huge improvement to our skill level. We panicked in to some recruits - Preuss and Tomlinson - that have cost us a decent chunk of salary cap because we didn't have the answers on our list. Every year we go in to the season with about 5 delistings known ahead of time. And I reckon we can track back to 2014 and Nev Jetta being the only one who's come good. As much as I love Nev I'd rather have 29 other players turned over on the list than 1 out of 30 success stories.

I wonder if things like cost savings are part of the decisions. I hope not. But I imagine draft picks are on a base wage where as experienced girls get more? FB: Birch Downie HB: Kemp Lampard D. Pearce C; Heath Paxman Emonson HF: Hore Zanker Mithen FF: Cunningham/Perkins? Scott Foll: L. Pearce Gay Hanks Int: Colvin, Sherrif, Tarrant, Petrevski, Parry, Sloane, the Irish? Out: O'Dea, Cordner, Newman, Guerin, Smith, Jakobsson O'Dea going is disappointing, but Gay and Hore have probably gone past her as midfielders and Hanks is quality. So I can somewhat understand that one. Regenerate the list whilst Pax and Daisy are around. Newman was brilliant at her best but just fluffed good chances too often, I can see the need to move on there but again it's a bit unfortunate. Jakobsson wasn't really my kind of player even before she took a year off. Guerin never got it together. Cordner's disappointing given the name but I guess they feel Birch is a gun key defender so it might be best to cash out on Cordner. Her ability to ruck as well we'll be missed. Hopefully Downie has some good footy left in here whilst they train up the next tall defenders. Maybe the biggest disappointment to me is Kat Smith.She's such a honest goer and seems a good personality. Best mates with big Tex Perkins as well, not sure what her status is, would love to see her have a big preseason and dominate, the talent is there.

If you bring in Brown and Bennell for Hannan and Pickett then you haven't seen anything yet when it comes to poor forward pressure. Kossie had a bad night against Port, but his pressure has been consistently very good. His skills and decision making has been up and down - moments of brilliance with tap ons and clever hands mixed with some hungry kicks, but his pressure has been consistently strong. The talented player most in need of a rocket is Fritsch, although being moored deep forward is not all his fault. Same goes for Hannan who's had the best month of his career then put in a stinker, the difference is Hannan has also been a very good pressure player for most of the year. Pressure really is the key to our game plan and especially our forward line. Petracca, Melksham/Bennell a couple of Weid clunks and weight of numbers gives us a chance against most sides once we are in the game and playing with confidence. But if we can't hold teams up and let them run free we're a mess.

Good post. Agree entirely on Viney and Oliver. The thing is Harmes has moved out of the midfield. First and also most recently to half back, we'll see how that goes. But also to half forward where he's been effective in his role but used the ball poorly - which isn't a huge surprise, half forward is the hardest spot to use it. He isn't tagging because Viney and Oliver are so good with pressure around the packs and then Petracca and those 2 all win so much of the ball we don't need to pay special attention to the vast majority mids. Harmes will either settle at half back and help fill a pretty big void there, or he'll eventually go back to forward/mid in some combination and I expect him to play well whilst still being up and down with his skills. That's the nature of a hard working half forward. Sparrow and Jordon are nice enough on ball prospects. The issue is having very little developing in the wing and flanker spots. Rivers (tick), Spargo (hmmm not entirely ready to give up), Baker (worth a shot given the upside), Dunkley, C Wagner even J Wagner. Our list is very light on for proper versatile flanker types.

At least 3 issues with that plan: 1. Viney isn't getting us first round compo, plus you'd have to add another first to pick 5 just to get the Suns remotely interested 2. Ben King is happy at the Suns - he wants to be his own man out of Max's shadow - and if he isn't why would he choose us? 3. If you believe the strong rumours last year the Suns already backed up the cash truck big time and signed King on 700+, he'll make more than Viney next year.

Richmond model: 6 mids who can rotate on ball. 3 of which can comfortably play forward, 2 of which can go on to the wing if needed. Martin - Petracca. 60% mids, 30% forward. The superstar. Hunts the ball and dominates. Cotchin - Viney. 55% mid, 25% forward. The captain. Sets the tone with pressure and physicality. Prestia - Oliver. 70% mid +/- 10% forward. The pure ball winner. Edwards - ????? Bennell??? Pickett??? Salem? Rivers? Melksham?. 45% ball, 10% wing, 20% forward. The class. Lambert - Harmes. 40% mid, 30% forward. The runner. Contest to contest never stops motoring. Graham/Pickett --- ??Brayshaw (Sparrow/Jordon options here as well) 30% ball, 40% wing. The depth. Viney is crucial on ball, he has a burst of speed to hunt down opposition and also the ability to get the ball out the front of the contest. I don't believe we are better off without him, we just need to get the balance right around him that sees him play a bigger role with less of the ball and less time on ball too! Oliver has to adjust his game as well. Or to put it simply he just has to play better! The biggest change though is to get another classy creative player in the mix for when Petracca comes out. Someone with speed, creativity and smarts. As soon as Edwards went out of the Tigers team they moved Shai Bolton on ball to make sure they still had that skill element. I can see the case for an expanded role for Brayshaw instead of Viney based on 2018. However, whilst I appreciate Gus' hands and ability to get the handball receives he butchers his kicks too much and is also a liability defensively. I still believe in Oliver, Petracca, Viney as a great starting point if we could just add one classy user to compliment them and then get small but steady improvements from Jack and Clarry. Viney's already made huge leaps in the last month and is largely looking up and picking targets rather than panicking.

We move the ball so quickly it’s hard for midfielders to kick goals. Sometimes that’s great, sometimes it’s bad. Midfielders kick goals when instead of all out attack you run and overlap, take the space the other team gives you and either kick on the run or hit up short kicks to mids pushing inside 50. When our mids get the ball they’re looking long. Even our half forwards. Melksham is always keen for the laced out kick deep, often he’s good enough to make it work. Hannan has been the chief culprit the last two weeks. He’s had marked across half forward and played on for the miracle kick under pressure. If he simply got back off the mark he’d have handball, short kick and long kick options.

My problem with Oscar is if the game plan works and we get up the ground pressure he'll sit back and make a few easy spoils and take some uncontested marks and look like a decent player. But if the game plan breaks down and he's trapped on a quick forward he'll offer nothing. So if plan A works he pretty much does an ok job. If plan A fails he's stuffed. It's the same problem with Lever. Being a tall defender in modern footy shouldn't be that hard. There's not many good forwards and most teams will provide pretty good defensive cover. Heck I just saw Harry Taylor and Lachie Henderson dominate a game the other night and they are 100 years old combined. Oscar simply has to believe in himself and offer more. When the pressure is on and the forward entries are poor he has to go grabs some intercept marks. And when the ball is coming in hot he has to find that yard of pace or smarts to get a spoil in. And he can use the ball so bloody get it and take game on with some proper kicks as well!

Surely we can find an old man someone to suggest to players they have a crack and win the pill. But I don't think that's our problem. The game got so much faster last year. Teams cut all the one paced midfield plodders in response to Richmond leading the way in 2017 and West Coast in 2018 realising they were far better without Priddis and Mitchell. Brayshaw is one of those plodders. Harmes was once a quick linebreaking mid, now teams have plenty of mids who can run with him. That said, they can both play well on ball. Gus has lovely quick hands and the ability to win the ball going forward and move on to either foot for a kick from a stoppage. Harmes isn't Dusty but he is one of the rare guys in the comp who has that speed, size and power to negate someone like Dusty. The issue is how do you get them in a midfield with Viney, Oliver and Petracca. So far the best we've done is Gus playing 50;50 wing and Harmes playing 50;50 forward. Maybe we just live with that?