DeeSpencer

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?

I thought Sparrow did well in the midfield and could make it there, but he’s not what we need there. I also didn’t hate the plan of fresh legs on to Boak whilst Harmes as the more experience player took half back. Harmes just doesn’t look comfortable, so get him back doing what he does best and train either Sparrow or Rivers up for half back.

We’ll have to pay 600 of his 700k to move him I’d imagine. Could still be ok for a team that can move the ball but his lack of movement is awful. Always tries to take tacklers on and has this belief that he can go on his right foot and hit a target when there’s 4 tacklers in his way. His best attribute of endurance is useless in shorter games and we so rarely switch it’s not like he’s getting the fat side leads anyway. Ahhhh Melbourne, where a bloke can kick 50+ goals, look like a top 5 key forwards in the comp, sign a big deal as never play well again

FB: Smith May Hibberd HB: Sparrow Lever Salem C; Vanders Petracca Langdon HF: Bennell Melksham ANB FF: Hannan Weid Pickett Foll: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Lockhart, Harmes, Fritsch, Jackson Out: Jones, T Mc, Oscar, Gus In: Vanders, ANB, Smith, Bennell Tom Sparrow can play so let’s play the kid at half back. Harmes on ball. Vanders for Jones. Fritsch to play wing/forward, Gus out. Oscar - useful against slow moving sides but just badly exposed against teams that move it, go back to Smith.

A lot of threads complaining about the umpiring yesterday but I thought this really deserves its own one as it's a huge issue and was a big reason why we lost the game. And it happens week in and week out. It's the 'pre-tackle' where a player second to the ball starts his tackle early and isn't penalised. Gawn's ruck dominance is completely squandered. 4 out of the 5 centre bounces in the first quarter involved Brisbane players grabbing hold of us before we were first to the ball. (The 5th was won by Harmes who was caught fair and square). Petracca, Viney, Viney, Oliver all just grabbed before they get hands on the ball which makes it very difficult to get off a clean disposal. In the 2nd quarter it's Petracca with the saddle on and Oliver completely wrapped up. Carlton have put the word in to the AFL about the treatment of Cripps. I think we have to ask the question about why Gawn dominated and our mids got first hands on the ball but we were smashed in the clearances. Part of it is our fault but we're also getting no reward for being first to the ball.

Nev gets his head over the ball brilliantly but has always been prone to keeping it down and charging through, if the legs work he can turn his body at the same time and ride the bumps. That's the issue with the current bump stuff. The best position to get yourself in is head down low and hard, get over the ball and then once you've got it make an evasive manoeuvre with your hips, either up, side to side or even just going down through an opponent (now banned due to slide rule). Nev's spine works fine, but he isn't hitting the contest with enough speed to make a move so is getting stuck with the head down. It's really dangerous. Doesn't excuse McStay being very poor but a younger Nev would've turned and bounce off or through McStay.

Westhoff will get a reprieve from being dropped and go forward and bag some stupid amount of goals as per usual

The old rule of never kick the ball off the ground in the backline is still a good one. Unless you're running out over the 50 and there's a mountain of space out on the wing to get the ball to. Langdon was pushing back hard and it was a 3 on 2, Jetta just had to trust his legs to get to the ball first and fire off a handball to space and we would've been fine. We all love Nev but the legs just haven't looked strong this year or last and he's a player that relies upon tremendous agility and courage to win contests he shouldn't even be in. With Hibbo being at the stage of his career to move back to a deeper role it really is time to get fresh legs up on the back flanks. Be it Rivers, J Smith or even Chandler or Josh Wagner.

Disagree, short kicks through zones are an important part of opening space to then get long kicks to hit targets. A lot of our best play comes from hitting a couple of short options before taking a more risky kick through the corridor or long to a target. And teams deserve to be able to hit up the little 15m kick inside 50, if you've got the ball to half forward and the other team have 10 men back (or 75,000 in Rich v Syd) you should be rewarded if you hit up a good short lead. The worst thing we need is more of anything that's down the line.

I understand the theory of it but I think given we have the 3 talls I wonder if we need to do it. The Lions 3rd tall defender right now is Lester who played 91% and they had Rich off for the second half. Their key forwards played a full game because they didn't trust Archie Smith to do more than short stints in the ruck. I reckon we could just give each of the big boys a little less time.

The second tackle Kossie was called for is a tackle they should try to prevent but it happens 10 times a game including one almost identical on us about 5 minutes before. The first tackle - spearing is specifically outlawed. But surely it’s not a spear if you hit in hard and fair with a shoulder but then let the player go. Was a panicked decision from the umpire who saw the start of the action he didn’t like but didn’t process the rest of it.

Try to find a team crying out for an inside mid and that pretty much answers the question. I think we're going to have to be willing to pay a decent chunk of his contract so it reflects his true output over the last two years just to get a team interested. Freo might want to take the load off Fyfe and Walters with Mundy nearly done. Sydney could be keen on a mature body to pair with Parker once Kennedy is done. Geelong need to replace Selwood and seem keen to stay up the ladder. The two South Australian sides if Crouch and Wines go. I can't see anyone crying out for a player like Gus tho. Almost the entire league has shifted to inside mids who can run and use the ball, instead of midfields with 4 players like Gus most teams are playing 1 or 2.

I know you're joking but Oliver's second halves have been noticeably better than his firsts, do we start him forward and roll him in to the middle when he's had a bit of time to get in to the game? The pressure of trying to clean up his ball use seems to be making it worse.

After a very decent game in the last few minutes he looked slow and sluggish and not the confident player he's been the last two weeks. 2 errors and 1 lost opportunity - the piece of play on the wing was a genuine chance to get an intercept possession, give it to a team mate and counter attack. I feel like May is similar but different. When he fatigues he goes too gang ho instead of playing it safe, starts flying for big pack marks or going for high risk kicks. Both would benefit in my opinion from being kept fresher so they don't end up losing composure.

Well we tried the middle twice and that didn't work either. Tried short and linking handballs and that wasn't great. A lot of teams going the 2 short kicks around the boundary below the long kick but that creates 2 issues: 1. You have to defend a more open back 50 if it comes back in 2. The other side has even more time to roll numbers to the boundary, and to set up their zone deeper behind that. We try to go to Gawn quickly, knowing that if we lose it we're still got numbers in the backline and if we win it we've got room to hit the wings and run forward.

A match winning goal has hidden just how poorly Robbie Gray's been going too, although he might find form quickly. Same for Rozee. I think Hibbo's been better deeper anyway, then he can pick and choose when to run off. Too much Hibberd with the ball hasn't been a good result this year.

Attempted to break about 3 tackles despite not moving with any force and was caught holding the ball. Lucky not to be caught on the wing when he barged in to a tackle and spat out a tiny handball instead of going around, over or through a tackler. Gave up prime position to McStay at the last contest, searched for the body when a good run and jump would've seen him first to the ball. It's all there. Port Adelaide are an even higher tempo team than Brisbane. The last few weeks have made it clear Oscar can play but 2019 also showed when he's down on form and fitness it's not pretty. All I'm saying is maybe cut him down from 97% game time to 90% and a rest every quarter so that when he's out there he's assertive and not fatiguing.

Hard to find a good solution though. 3 ideas: 1. In one of the short breaks we play Petracca as a full time deep forward and Gus plays full minutes on ball. 2. Harmes plays wing/forward and Viney takes more minutes as a half forward. 3. Gus to half back.

Out: Jetta For his own safety as much as anything it's curtains for Nev. Send him home to the kids for a few weeks. In: Smith - our backline needs more ground level defensive ability and overall can do with someone who can cover the ground and be aggressive. Oscar, May and Hibbo are doing a great job deep. Poor Salem is having to cover a heap of ground higher up. As is Lockhart and Lever. Smith will make some errors but he won't be the 2nd tall now. Chuck him in at a back flank and tell him to go beat a man. Out: Harley or Kossie In: ANB - the forward line needs some fresh tackling legs and I think both of the above need a rest at some stage. Mental freshen up for both really. Kossie had his first game where he really played like a kid today. Not with the silly tackling free kicks but with rushing through packs and poor positioning. Harley - obvious concerns about his body but also just seems to need constant reminders to get some pressure on and stay involved in the game, he's kind of like a brand new AFL player given he's been out so long and the game has surely changed.

Langdon played 90%, Jones played 81%. So as Gus was the only other guy to play on the wing it's fair to assume he played 29% game time on a wing and 36% time on ball. Harmes played 65% game time and I'd imagine it was split 50/50 on ball and forward. Harmes was always a nearly player on ball and always a nearly player on the wing. Tagging - where he could use his physical gifts and hardness - then hurting opponents the other way is the one position he's excelled at. The backline didn't seem to work, but he is providing good forward pressure as a half forward and still having effective moments on ball. I thought he copped a couple of holding the balls tonight where he just didn't have a chance. No prior, tried his absolute best to get it out and was victim of this silly new rule and ripping tackles (the kind of tackles Kossie would get a free kick against). Harmes is a bullocking ball player and has to keep being that whilst adapting to tapping the ball on or doing what Brisbane excelled at tonight - the drop the ball as soon as the tackle comes. But otherwise yeah he had a crappy game. There's just no good solution to the Harmes and Gus problems when there's no replacements for them and Oliver, Petracca and Viney will get the lionshare of midfield minutes.

Clarry really came in to the game and started to find the balance in the second half, was a huge reason for the turn around, went from a negative to a positive. Gus and Harmes seem to be struggling from not being first choice mids. Not easy to go from wing to on ball (Gus) and forward to on ball (Harmes). Trading Gus seems likely but we could just as easily need him to step in to a bigger role. The big question is why he keeps making the same simple mistakes because if we cut a few errors out I feel he's actually doing a number of things right even if he's game isn't high possession or flashy.

Played an ok game but geez you could see him visible start to shrink towards the end there. Second guess himself with attack on the ball and get caught deer in the headlights with it. A big question I'd have is why did he play 97% of game time, with Lever playing 100% and May 95%. Surely we rotate these big boys a bit more and make sure they don't tire out come crunch time.

We've seen Nibbler on the wing before at it isn't pretty. We could try Harmes/Bennell or Fritsch on the wing and give Nibble a go at half forward again, but at the moment we've managed to get forward pressure out of Kossie, Hannan and Harmes/Petracca resting forward. I think he'll get a go during the shorter break times, that's where his endurance will be of most value especially against a team with tired legs.

I’ve long thought the obvious conclusion is to just rope the mcg wings in like they do in cricket. When it’s our home ground why can’t we set the boundary? Otherwise the extra training at Casey this year even before the covid changes seemed like a plan to correct this problem