DeeSpencer

Forwards: Hunt, McDonald, Jones, Beford, ANB, C Wagner Backs: May, Oscar, Harmes, Salem, Hore, Hibberd, Lockhart, KK Mids; Gawn, Preuss, Dunkley, Oliver (inj), Petracca, Sparrow, Brayshaw, Jordon, Langdon

KK also with the backs but in a red non contact hat. Should buy a bunch of hats for his team mates

Harmes and Lockhart with the backs. Jones forward. Jordon mids

Didn’t want a lot of medical attention. Managed to walk off and take his jumper off without an issue but clearly isn’t right. Hopefully a stinger or minor ac sprain

Oliver’s just busted his left shoulder in a live tackling drill. you can’t fix stupid.

Not sure I entirely agree, I think we came up with a ball movement and forward plan that peaked in about 2017 or even maybe 2016 where we chopped teams up through the corridor and then got the ball deep over zone backlines. It even worked late in 2018 against some good teams and in finals. But teams started to copy the way Collingwood, West Coast and to an extent Richmond (with Rance/Grimes) would leave their backlines deep. So we were just bombing it in to out numbered situations. We didn't have outside runners so we couldn't stretch the game with width. We didn't have quick speed on the back flanks with Hibberd declining or playing deeper, Lewis etc so we weren't counter attacking as quickly as the days of Hibberd or Hunt. And our inside mids weren't fit either so we weren't exactly getting that overlap and run through the corridor that powered us at our best. I've got a fair bit of confidence that Fritsch, Melksham and T Mc can structure a decent forward line and the coaches certainly have to improve but it's not all awful. The other big factor is we were great at Docklands because we were great at training bombing it deep to numbers in good positions, then we'd fall apart at the MCG. Training at Casey was a big part to why our forward line mostly looked decent enough in the 2nd half of the season - especially given the personnel was a long way from our best.

I'd answered this above but the best thing for us is to take the best kid that we identify and let the Giants be the Giants. Our job isn't to take a slightly lesser kid just to thwart them.

Very good player Cripps. Clearance machine, best in the league. Averaged 8.4 a game last year. But at the Giants: Hopper 6.2 Taranto 5.3 Coniglio 5.1 Kelly 4.6 Greene 3.7 De Boer 3.5 Mumford 3.5 Whitfield 3.3 Compared with the Blues: Cripps 8.4 Kreuzer 5.5 Ed Curnow 4.7 Sam Walsh 3.4 Marc Murphy 3.4 There's one player on that GWS list who's old and about to retire and every other player is either in their prime or still young and improving. Hopper finally got inside midfield time and was a top 10 clearance mid in the game when given the chance, he could go up a level again if he keeps getting more centre square time. The only other older guy is Cal Ward who's coming back after missing the whole year and of course Coniglio's coming in as well. The Giants aren't thinking they really need the next Cripps. They know they are absolutely loaded with mids. They want a 2 for 1 deal but what they would really like is Jackson or Young.

If in the recruiters opinion he’s not as good as Jackson then by comparison our side is worse. We should focus on doing what’s best for us to beat 16 other teams. If we lose a knockout final to a dominant GWS team then so be it, that’s better than where we are right now.

Making your own side worse to prevent GWS - who have never won a flag - getting better. Sound strategy that one. Besides 'everything' for GWS might not be another big body midfielder, it might be a gun ruck who can compliment their already elite midfield.

Personally I still believe in a smaller, faster and better two way working forward line with guys like Melksham, Fritsch and Petracca as marking options hitting the space and then only a couple of genuine talls. Mitch Brown has never struck me as a hard enough two way worker to really demand selection as a 3rd option. But this tweet (the second one) about the game plan from the members forum has me thinking the coaches very much value more mobile marking power in the forward line. Petty might be in line for first crack, but Brown might be bought in so we have the depth required.

Anything sub 10 minutes is very good, getting down towards 9:30 is elite. If your mids can do around 10:30 and bigger guys at around 11 then that’s handy. Im surprised we haven’t followed the draft combine and most clubs in doing 2kms but really I doubt it matters much. The repeat 200m runs and repeat sprints that they do at the end of sessions are probably a better guide for how a guy might play.

Smart move to have him train on especially whilst Petty and Weideman aren't at full fitness and whilst the odds of Bennell are still heavily against Harley getting through preseason yet alone playing games. I'd invite a bunch of players to train and see who demands a list spot.

They've also given up pick 12 (received from Shiel), pick 18, a future first and will wipe out all of their remaining picks from this year and next year to do it. The academy system is a farce but any other team who traded out a player like Shiel and then combined a bunch of picks to work up the draft board would end up with 2 very high picks too.

There's 4 games of highlights on the Nab League app. He's an imposing unit with an off the charts ability to clear his hands and then fire off excellent handballs on both sides of his body. But I watched 2 full games and I didn't see him even once make a difficult 20-50m attacking kick, it was either long or rushed from a contest or short safe hit ups. Similarly I don't see him once run the ball and attack, it was all handballs. He certainly does some things exceptionally well but it's almost all at or around stoppages/contests and so in many ways the same questions that apply for Jackson apply to Green as well.

Logic says they wouldn't have done this trade now if they didn't either rate Jackson, Young or some other player ahead of Green OR if they are convinced we won't bid on Green. Otherwise they are mad to not wait until draft night and have flexibility to trade up or down as required.

Hannan might turn it around if he gets healthy, but Josh Wagner keeps adding to his game totals without ever really showing he's a good AFL player. A team has to pick 22 guys each week, someone has to play! Clearly that's different if a guy gets 100 games well he's probably been useful, but you can carve out 50 or so without being much chop.

Yep this tells me GWS are pretty certain we won't bid. Otherwise they'd at least wait until the draft so they have more options. If the Crows were high on Jackson (as sometimes reported) they might not have done this trade either if they still thought he was in play. Could be wrong, but it looks like 90% Jackson at pick 3 to me.

We haven't given JT a lot to work with but Fritsch is the only clear winner there. Apart from Oliver his best work has been Harmes, Hunt and Vanders. Plus whatever role he had in making sure they redrafted Jetta. That's when I thought we had a recruiting star on our hands, capable of finding diamonds in the rough. I still have my doubts of if ANB and Oscar were even JT picks, they seemed so Roos like. Ed Langdon one pick after Oscar McDonald..that would've saved a second rounder. Pretty much wipes after the first round in 2015 and all of 2016 and not having at least one of the young kids really pop so far from the last 2 drafts is concerning but maybe that means it's time he goes on a hot streak again!

Old man calf injury. Thankfully we didn’t give him a wildly long and expensive contract...

I don't buy that he'll be that kind of forward and not for years anyway. I can't find TAC stats for Tom McDonald but I feel like most forwards who kick that many goals have also dominated at junior level. Jackson clearly hasn't played a lot forward so there's an unknown factor but you want to kick more than the occasional goal if you're to become a star goal kicker. Jackson should have the fitness, agility and speed to contribute as a forward, that's far different to actually being a regular goal kicker. The absolute ceiling of his forward play might be someone like Josh Jenkins and that's when he's 24 not 18. Being a useful contributor up forward whilst he matures is the aim but drafting him will be based around him being a 20+ touch extra midfielder who can dominate at clearances and link up around the ground. Gawn works his absolute backside off to stay involved in stoppages and useful at ground level because at his height and mobility it's really hard. In basketball terms Gawn is like a traditional centre trying to chase around all the superstar smaller players. In recent years basketball teams are realising the value of a skilled centre who can shoot, pass and switch to defend guards. That's where Jackson comes in, he's got a midfielders mindset in a rucks body.

Could be helpful for a trade, could be unhelpful if we do the Cats deal for 17 and they take Kossie Pickett at 16!

I watched the NAB league highlights of his games in rounds 14/16/17 and honestly I was a bit underwhelmed. The first 2 he played a mix of half back and on ball, the 3rd one it was some forward and on ball. The kicking is legit. Even under pressure he has excellent vision and can nail a kick. And he has easy distance. The right foot is steady as well. But he's a long way from a midfielder as is and possibly ever - which overall is fine but points to some flaws in his game. Under any kind of pressure his handballs get smothered or intercepted (likes to attempt around the corner handballs) and he doesn't seem to create space by accelerating through a stoppage or drawing a tackle. It's either there is a quick handball option - which he'll take - or he's in a bit of trouble. He'll put his head over it and win the ball and he's a willing tackler but he doesn't look like a natural at either of those skills. Took a number of nice marks throughout the game but they were largely floating in or across uncontested, there was little that looked like a strong aerial game that would hold up at AFL level. At 188cm if he's going to be a true intercept mark or defender capable of playing on taller opponents then he has to get off the ground in contests and he rarely jumped more than what seemed like a foot off the ground. There wasn't one pack crashing spoil yet alone a pack crashing mark. Some nice intercepts floating in but against what quality coming the other way? The lack of top end pace and lack of strength both concern me. Without either of those how are you winning a stack of contests at AFL level? A freakish kick who can drill it anywhere up to 60m and under pressure, but not the all round package. A more technically correct and more well rounded Matt Suckling but not anything close to Luke Hodge.

He’s just back from a 2 week trip to America doing other things whilst the younger coaches took charge. So you aren’t entirely wrong. They have less than a month of training now until Christmas break. Monitoring every live second of it should be his job! The skills and ball movement drills are vital to get right now. When they run at Goschs he’s usually talking to coaches, injured players or support staff or setting up drills etc. Hardly pushing the stop watch. The time trial is a bit different. I think the coach wants to see times as well as who’s really pushing themselves. Plus be there for support and motivation.

Did not have an uninterrupted preseason. Was in rehab with Melksham for long parts of the summer after his 2 hamstring injuries in late 2018. Started the season very slowly once the vfl started. I thought his kicking was far better than expected. The penetration was there and decision making was solid. Just drifted out of games and they didn’t trust him defensively so moved him forward a lot. If he can run at afl level he’ll be a player. Unfortunately he’s currently MIA for preseason. Wheres he at @Satyriconhome