DeeSpencer

There was a clear change in Vander's game when he moved to the wing and on ball in the 2nd half to replace Ploddlinson. He's not a forward, never has been, but if we commit to up tempo crash and bash as a poor mans Richmond like in 2018 then Vanders is a crucial part from the wing. Combine it with the right forwards and more inside mid skills and we might even start to score again. But yeah, he's not a forward, doesn't get to the right spots at all.

Wait Goodwin is now biased against ANB? Despite ANB playing nearly every game in 17 and 18 and then getting 3 different cracks at it last year despite never looking any good. Career score involvements: Melksham 4.9, ANB 4.8, Hannan 4.7, Fritsch 4.6...Pickett 3.7. If Picket played in 2018 he'd average a stack more, he'd have score or set up goals for fun in that side. Hunt kicked 3 goals against Carlton and has been quiet since, should we not drop him? Hunt deep and Melk as the second tall aren't working out so I'd make changes there, but I'd pick Fritsch, Hannan (if healthy as he appears to be) and Kossie over ANB until there's some indication ANB stops fumbling, attacks the ball with conviction and can use it. A good quarter against Carlton was hardly a strong case, he still spend most of that game looking utterly inept.

The time between Petracca grabbing the ball and getting tackled was a split second. Then Nankervis who's 105kg and strong as an Ox latches right on to the ball. Was Petracca giving it his full attempt to knock it out - probably not. But why should he? He's been set upon as soon as he's gathered it and has a big man holding it to him. If Nankervis wants the ball to come out then: 1. Win the hitout or contest himself. 2. Don't tackle Petracca or don't tackle him arms and ball in all. The rule is 'holding the ball'. It was designed to penalise players caught holding it when they had options to move it on. If you get tackled right away you aren't holding the ball at all. I remember when Davey really revolutionised forward pressure he would sweat on opponents and give them enough time to gather the ball and take a few steps so he could run them down. It was beautiful to watch him lure defenders in to a trap. Now there's so much congestion and tight checking that guys are getting tackled before they even have the ball. It's crazy to reward tackles when with 10 guys around the ball you can pretty much fall in to a tackle at any chance. The only good thing that came of this round of nonsense was the Hawks were the biggest victims of it. 10-1 holding the balls against the.

Yeah Smith is the problem. We definitely lost because he kept his man to 9 disposals and 1 goal and had 1 turnover after a team mate handballed to his feet. Absolutely the team will be saved by replacing him.

So you missed Tomlinson going forward for the second half yesterday? Fritsch coming up the ground. Vanders going wing/on ball and Oliver forward. Goodwin makes a couple of moves in most games that we are struggling in, but he's got limited options given how many guys just play one position.

Keep your door open and Don't Carry the Stress are the 2 you missed there and probably the 2 that apply to Goody the most right now. The hub might be the best thing that happens. Goody gets a chance to have dinner (and breakfast and lunch) with players every night now and should take full advantage of that to sit down and just dive right in to making sure he's as tight as ever with his players. Even if the players aren't sold on the game plan or coaching they should still love the coach as a person if he's the right guy. And then the stress. I said preseason we'll know this year will be better if we see a new Goodwin in press conferences. We haven't so far. He's getting more wooden and despondent. Relax, take a deep breath and be the Simon Goodwin the players get to see, the former player who played great footy and had a heap of fun doing it.

I guess the point is there isn't really a we, just the latest collection of brave souls who climb on board for a turn. When Eddie blows a giant hole in the Collingwood hull at least you know who they are.

It absolutely can hurt. May has flat hands, he's not a great mark, he is an elite defender at using his body to get position and spoiling. He's also a very good - not great - field kick with penetration. He can find the ball and link up. He's starting to get the balance right between coming up and sitting back and having the ball come to him. In a zoning defence cohesion and experience matter. Tommy has started to turn the corner with his marking and his movement over the last two weeks. At least some of our players were looking for him across half forward today. Why unsettle that and move him back where we've got years of evidence that his field kicking will give up goals and some signs in 2016-2017 down back and since up forward that his movement will see him struggle to turn and chase opponents. Elite tank, clean sets of hands, good shot for goal, turns like the queen mary. He is a CHF these days. Oscar - no. Unless he's suddenly found a whole lot of fitness to move at CHB the man is a witches hat who trails opponents over and over and provides little in rebound or at ground level. Unless we want to take Lever out and move Smith and May up the ground we can't get slower and safer just to be different. Smith is spoiling and using the ball to the same level Oscar did and he has a heap of upside, we've had years of Oscar without improvement. Unless his body was completely broken last year and he's now a whole new athlete with a whole new mental composition - faster, meaner, more aggressive - there's no reason to go back to him.

Seems harsh to leave up to 8 fit guys behind given after the 5 games in the hub we'll only have 8 games (possibly in 7 weeks) left. And now they don't get to play any matches unless...could other clubs combine left overs and create a scratch match schedule in Melbourne? And if lists are due to shrink we've almost declared time on some guys careers?

I think Hunt is at the end of his lead. Had Viney played on right away Hunt was probably open, he's now creating space for the next guy coming across behind him. The deep blokes in the goal line are holding space and pointing to the open men - something smart, as is Max as you said. Langdon was open all day today. The Brayshaw shank after the long kick out to Max - Langdon is on the members wing in a paddock of space. We finally have a proper outside runner who gets to all the right spots and our players don't even look for him

Hot take: Brisbane don't really play like Clarkson's best teams did at all. They play like Daniher teams. Fagan was a great Melbourne find who then went out with the bath water when Daniher reached the end. How did Brisbane end up with Fagan - they first had the AFL give them David Noble, the best administrator in the game. We chased after Roos, sure a good idea, but surely better is to get someone like Noble who will be there for the long haul. Roos says he'll appoint a senior footy administrator knowing it's importance. Then he and the club decide Mahoney is up to it - based on what? Neil Balme - failed Melbourne coach, successful administrator at 3 other clubs. Brett Ratten, wow what a great job he did with our mids for a season before Carlton snapped him up, why didn't we store that information away and get him back at any time since? Sean Wellman developed our backline under Bailey. Ran back to Essendon then left footy. Peter Jackson - a great hire. Yet there never seemed to be a long term commitment to him and a plan to have him stay or at least develop or pick his successor. Pert, I still feel unwell about. Some of that's waffling, but the point is we don't seem to ever have any continuity. New board comes in, new CEO, new people in the footy department. Plenty of first time coaches do a great job - it's really hard to get experienced guys back in for another go in their prime. I've got no issue if we think the best man for the job is a first timer. I'm sick of the club being a first timer. There's just no institutional knowledge in the place.

Backline: One more chance for Lever. Hopefully Hibbo has developed match fitness and keeps hitting his targets, slide him up to half back Out: Rivers In: Jetta Mids: Tomlinson is a turnip. Just far too slow and ineffectual. Won't ever have the mobility or contested ability to keep up with Richmond or any other quick moving side. He's ok at the stoppages with the ball but can't pressure without it and he provides no drive and no aerial ability despite his size. Why don't we try Baker again? The shorter quarters should mean he only has to play in short bursts, he and Vanders can pretty much share a wing. Out: Tomlison In: Baker Out: Hunt In: Bennell Forwards: Melk has to go, that opens a spot for a 2nd tall. May as well try Brown as he's more likely to hit the scoreboard from deep and Tom is actually doing ok across half forward the last two weeks. At least has some movement back. Time to try Viney at half forward coming up for stoppages and plenty of rotations from the mids and forwards. Out: Melksham In: Brown (vom) FB: Jetta May Smith HB: Hibberd Lever Salem C; Langdon Brayshaw Baker HF: Viney McDonald Petracca FF: Fritsch Brown Pickett Foll: Gawn Oliver Bennell Int: Lockhart Vanders Harmes Hannan

Agree on Bennell. But he was dropped because of the 2nd half against Carlton where our forwards didn't move or defend. Combined with the Eagles game and preseason we needed changes to get some defensive effort. Defensive effort was obvious against the Cats even if the structured leaked. Defensive effort was very good for most of today, just the ball use was abysmal. I don't really agree on the need for a 2nd tall. Tigers intercept marks: Balta - 6 Higgins - 3 Vlastuin - 2 Caddy, Chol, Nank, Broad, Grimes - 1. We didn't lose because we couldn't bring the ball to ground due to talls outmarking smalls. Tom McDonald's direct opponent was the one who took all the intercept marks! No other defender took more than 2. We lost because we keep kicking it where our forward aren't! A second tall could give another reference point to kick to, but right now it's not a reference point that our mids need but a new set of eyes and a compass. The good news is we should get a 2nd tall anyway because Melksham has to go and a 2nd tall will come in for him.

Smith got caught out by one of the smartest forwards in the game with an eternity of time and space to work with to double and triple lead in to space. Still kept Riewoldt to 1 goal and far less influence than he normally has against us. And his one bad mistake with the ball came after Oliver for no good reason handballed to his toes. Given the season we are having why would we go back to Oscar who we've seen for years now is incredibly limited by lack of physical capabilities and lack of desire at the contest? Going taller and moving May or Hibberd up the ground might be an option but are the Suns the right match up? Does Jetta have the run in the old legs to play on a back flank? Does Hibberd? It seems very much one or the other right now. Maybe Jetta comes in to the back pocket and Hibberd takes Lever's spot and we give Lever a week off. It's clear Lockhart and Rivers are struggling, but we also saw Hibberd struggle big time in round 1 and now he's staying deeper and getting more rest he's starting too look good. I'd say we try Jetta and Hibberd again but I'm very prepared for it not to work. I'd also note just how often Rivers and Lockhart are out running for the handballs and switches and not getting used but that's not going to change any time soon it seams. Chandler, Wagner (one last hurrah) and different mids through half back - Oliver, Gus, Vanders - have to be considered as well if the Jetta/Hibbo combination isn't up to it. Melksham has to go, but his direct replacement should be a key forward given that was his role. If he's doing the defensive work then Bennell is the first in for the mid/forwards. Jones in a role that doesn't involve midfield time is just asking for failure IMO, the guy just doesn't tackle, the old legs struggle to find space and he lacks aerial ability or forward craft.

He traps himself on his left side and from there can only see the long options and maybe Hunt - but can't get the ball to Hunt with the man on the mark and defender in the way. McDonald and Langdon may as well not exist. We have this refusal to go back over the mark and look up and hit targets. Constantly playing on yet rarely ever getting a chance to see the field in front of us. Everything is so rushed because we are desperate to get the ball forward quickly not trusting our forwards.

HE WAS!!! Smith took Riewoldt, May took Lynch and for the time that Nank or Chol were off - which was a lot pre injury and all of the time after Nank's injury - Lever didn't have a taller opponent at all. In fact that was part of the problem. He can't keep up with small guys and couldn't get in a position to intercept. Teams are not just letting intercept defenders sit down the line like they use to. Especially not with out pressure. If Lever wants to be at more contests then he should play on the best key forwards who draw the ball. Smith has taken the 2nd tall against Carlton and Richmond, it was only against Geelong that Rohan was deemed more suitable than Esava. And Lever got plenty of chances to intercept against the Cats in a much improved game, then was dreadful today.

Yep Lewis did a good job manning up Grimes and drew a couple of sneaky free kicks. The next step is to have a forward capable of getting away from him and team mates smart enough to know where he’ll be. At least on paper we can pick a team that can run with Richmond now - for shorter quarters anyway. We didn’t stand a chance last year.

Roos’ defensive plan was to chuck everyone in the backline, drag the other team down to our level and then beat them with experience. It was rubbish but enough to see us through 14/15. We weren’t even trying to lock the ball forward and defend the whole ground in those years. It’s pretty easy to keep the oppositions scores down if you have no attacking intent. Goodwin’s zone defending and change the angle corridor ball movement - with the basis of a fit decent group of veterans led to our best coached season in 2016. The same plan worked well enough until the end of 2018. 5 of our back 7 and the two wingers have played almost no football together. Our forward line had 2 guys who have barely played in years and Kozzie in his second game. There’s a lot of change from last year yet alone 2018. The forward press leaks like a sieve and we can’t hit the side of a barn going inside 50. The coach has to fix those problems. I can’t blame him if he’s using selection to fix problem A before turning to problem B.

Half this board still whips themselves in to a frenzy with any mention of Roos and defensive mantra. Yet Goodwin tries to get a defensive plan sorted so we have a base to build on and he’s an awful coach? Melksham is the only guy who I think is really disappointing with his defensive efforts right now and he’s playing as our second key forward.

Obviously it's unusual circumstances with so little team training so it's hard to judge too much right now, but I thought our mids and in particular Viney did a decent job knowing when and how to safely kick forward from a stoppage and when to take on a man and release a handball. (Apart from the times he slipped over which is probably due to wearing the softer boots on his feet which I fully endorse). It doesn't always look pretty but I like that Viney is willing to attack from the contest, I wish Oliver would do it more rather than the hot potato stuff. The most perplexing thing is our players don't know when they've got time and space away from the packs and free team mates to give easy handballs or short kicks too. I'm hoping it's a lack of talk and cohesion that can be quickly fixed and not all down to ingrained poor decision making. Unfortunately 9 haven't uploaded the grab from footy classified. It really was an eye opener on how our forwards and runners were finding space. It didn't look like last year when there was no options - until the kicks went exactly where they shouldn't have!

3 examples that had nothing to do with forward talent, structure or coaching and all to do with midfielders making awful decisions and skill errors. Unfortunate it’s 2 of our leaders burning easy handballs in Viney and Gawn. Sidenote: Funny that Ross didn’t know who Lockhart was. He had 21 disposals and 2 goals against Freo last year.

I think McDonald is likely to play CHF on whoever the Tigers bring in and Hannan/Hunt/Fritsch/Melk etc will be as much chance of beating Broad and Vlastuin as any of our leftover talls. So I'd stay small and mobile and attempt to spread the Tigers out and work them over like the Hawks did. Fritsch is dropping marks and missing goals but he's getting his hands to the ball, I'm not too worried about his form for now. He's getting to the right spots. Melksham has often played his best footy when given a significant defensive role or responsibility. I'd start him at full forward and tell him his job is to hit that half forward spot as Burgoyne did twice in the first quarter and more through the rest of the game. It's all about coordinating with team mates so they know if Grimes drops a kick behind then Melksham will be up in that pocket of space.

One of the most important things to do to beat Richmond in the last few years is to work out how to score against their defensive zone. It used to be Rance and then became Grimes who would almost always be the deepest defender and would read the play to drop back a good kick behind to stop teams getting out the back. They'd then rely on Broad, Astbury, Vlastuin etc to compete on the wings/half back. With excellent pressure up the ground they'd force long kicks to Grimes often standing by himself for easy marks or letting him come forward and have easy one on one wins due to better positioning. The Hawks did a great job of combating this when they played a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd present a few examples of how they worked him around. 1. Burgoyne was playing full forward and he positioned himself perfectly to play off Grimes and get used in the play. In this first instance from a stoppage just back of the wing he pushes up and wide away from Grimes whilst the rest of the Hawks forwards and up the ground and towards the corridor. Grimes attempts to stay deep a good kick from the play as he likes to be. Wingard takes the short kick and Burgoyne can then run the ball and kick long away from Grimes - with an assist from a hard charging Scully - to Gunston who draws a free and goals. 2. From a centre bounce that is hacked forward Burgoyne comes up to get involved in play, but as soon as he gets the ball he thinks Grimes will be back where he left him and looks boundary side. The Tigers defender makes a good spoil and surprisingly the Hawks actually had a good lead from the square as Grimes was caught in no mans land, but more often than not the smart play of instinctively ignoring the long bomb will be the right move. 3. In this next example after the Tigers win a centre clearance but turn it over the Hawks forwards push hard to the wing. The Hawks rebound breaks the lines so the Tigers defenders then leave their opponents to press up much like our defenders do. Burgoyne realises this and this time instead of coming up he drops back away from Grimes in to clear space (see second image), then it's an easy kick to the pocket for a shot on goal. The other thing the Hawks did very well was both Burgoyne and later in the quarter Gunston drag Grimes up to forward line stoppages leaving other Tigers as the deeper defenders. That helped create goals because other defenders were unable to intercept mark or clean spoil and the Hawks beat out Stack in a one on one and forced a holding the ball from him. Adjusting our game plan to take away Grimes' influence and beat the Tigers zone will be crucial to winning. I'd suggest Melksham with a dose of Fritsch as the right match ups. Clever forwards who can get to the right spaces and then use the ball once they get it. The other forwards need to be aware of how to position around the match ups and how to take advantage of how the Tigers play.

I thought he said could play finals. Which is probably true of 16 teams this year. Port are the standout good team so far, Freo (great effort, lack talent) and Adel the battlers. Everyone else is pretty even.

Backline: Easily gone from 4/10 to 7/10 Instant full back - Collins. Instant back pocket - Budarick. Hanley back. Lukosius - pick 2 in his second year. Ballard a very good kid becoming a man. Hanley fit. Harbrow. Bowes. midfield: Greenwood, Ellis, Rowell, Anderson. 4 very good players. Instant transformation from ordinary to at least competent when combined with Witts, Miller and Swallow forwards: Day finally healthy. Sexton, Ainsworth both quality. King ready enough early in the season before wear and tear to produce. 4 capable mids when you’ve got plenty of talent at either end will boost any side. The amazing thing is that not only did they get Anderson and Rowell but they conned they afl in to 4+ other priority picks. They’re going to be good for a long time