DeeSpencer

It's not meant to be a shot at his character, in my initial post I mentioned there was coercive factors. The reality is he's had a chance to commit to the admin of the club, had a chance to go down a coaching route and is an unexceptional media performer. If he wants to be upset with the club that's fine but I don't particularly care for his opinion as anything more than a fan and past player. Thankfully he isn't at the Tim Watson stage of rocking the boat from a distance.

I agree. On the Couch has potential and moments of quality but so much of it is awful. Healy absolutely nailed the Weagles Web a few years ago but most of the time craps on about the same rule changes and his favourite players, he doesn't have great hosting skills to get the most out of his colleagues. I warm to Jono Brown but he's a waste, even his good ideas get served up in mangled English. Roos is underutilised when it comes to his expertise in leadership and coaching, he's allowed to skate by without really producing an opinion. I've already said what I've said on Lyon who's probably the best of the guys on that show but doesn't offer a whole lot.

Strong rebuttal. Did he or did he not play a role in selecting coaches without being a long term commitment? Did he or did he not coach international rules and some junior teams, tease interest in AFL coaching and then not pursue it? It's his life, he can do what he wants, I don't blame him or wish him ill will but his media credentials are as a former champion player and as a good tv personality from his footy show days. He doesn't have a coaching background, doesn't have an administration background to give him some analytical skills or even a recent playing career. He hasn't actively been involved with an AFL club in anything more than a brief capacity for a long time now. When he commentates games he'll have some decent ideas - man up on good player X, stop kicking it to player Y, run harder, tackle better - and he's usually correct. He's also a professional at knowing when to talk, when to shut up etc. That alone puts him comfortably in the better AFL media personalities, but you rarely watch On the Couch or a Lyon commentated game and come away with greater understanding about the game. Derm talks crap 90% of the time but he has 10% commentary gold where you can learn something about a player. David King is 95% hyperbole and rubbish stats but every now and then Champion Data slip him a stat that matters. Gaz is perfectly decent but entirely unremarkable.

Maybe 2 boomer harvey's standing on top of each other? Sign them up.

Salem has been ultra consistent with his mop up work and wins contests at an excellent rate for a flanker, but as reliable as he is with the ball he doesn't break the game open with line breaking or penetrating kicks. His best kicks come when he gets the ball in tight and can then find a disposal that opens the game up. In uncontested play he doesn't break it open like a Whitfield or even a Saad/McKenna type. He'd be a very good player in any team in the comp but to be a great player he might have to be moved to the midfield. Unfortunately without a reliable replacement we can't really risk moving him. Although there's really no better time to try it than now when the results don't matter all that much. I'd give Jack Viney the week off, move Salem in to the midfield, Josh Wagner to half back alongside Hibberd and Jones and bring in Baker on a wing.

The criticism of Lyon comes from the fact he (either voluntarily or through coercion) wandered in to the club to have a bit of a dip at selecting coaches without joining the board and doing it properly. He had the same thing in his coaching career where he dipped the toes in but never put it on the line. He has nice TV skills but is a relatively lazy caller and panellist. There's little quality to his analysis. Whilst not actively bad like many in the industry he doesn't really seek out anything of interest. No advance stats. No tactical breakdown. There's a bunch of reasons we are where we are: 1. Injuries - losing May, Lever and Jetta for half a year screwed the backline and when they come back the best 2 forwards are out. 2. Lack of fitness after going all in for last year 3. A number of traded in players - Lewis, Hibberd, Garlett starting to trail off. By the way, the alternative to bringing in mature players in the Roos years was for the rebuild to take longer and slower and less chance of working. Can't have your cake and eat it too. 4. Recruiting failures in finding outside runners and small forwards - by the way we aren't the only club in that situation 5. Game plan - the advantages we had in 2017 and 2018, maybe even 2016 as well, have been found out. I truly believe our coaches got a lot out of the group in terms of tactics in previous years. Some worked, some didn't but we weren't boring and had a plan. 6. Coaching structure - there's something up with the McCartney situation, the Rawlings back to the forwards from Casey, Rooke etc. Acting overly emotional doesn't help. We won 10 games in 2016, 12 games in 2017 and plenty of games last year. That's largely without Lever and May, with a very young Oliver, Harmes, Brayshaw, Salem and Petracca, with Jack Viney missing a lot of footy. The President seems like he's not just an empty figurehead and is dipping in to support the footy department with some leadership. We have an experienced CEO. Mahoney's been in the job a while now, if he's up for it he'll get some things done and work with Goodwin to fix some of the gaps in the list, in the coaching structure and in the fitness area. It's not easy to express all of that on a TV show so I'm hardly surprised the claim is 2018 was an aberration.

He still has a burst of pace but otherwise I think the best player of the generation is a fair exception to the rule. Adam Goodes hung around for a while but he had key position size. As did Boomer Harvey but he kept his speed. They're all guys who played forward through long patches of their careers as well. The list of consistently good forwards in the 30+ range is pretty slim - Riewoldt, Hawkins, Franklin when not injured and maybe Betts - and there's no one the wrong side of 32 apart from Gaz.

I'm very confident there will be at least 30 players on our list who offer more than Lewis next year as well as 10 or so development kids. I see the argument for a bit of experience in those lost 5 spots but at that stage it's the back ups to the back ups and you're looking at guys who can perform set roles. Keilty is exactly that, he played earlier this year when we were so short on key forward/back up rucks that we needed him. Of course Lewis will almost always be a better player than the bottom 5 on the list who often get delisted without games but I'd take my chances making sure we can fill holes with guys who may even have upside.

Hodge sits in the back pocket and dictates to his opponent and importantly he still has the physicality required to go win a contest when needed. Melksham and Tom McDonald didn't play together when the midfield had any semblance of fitness and two way ability. I'm very confident that if they were playing now - or really any time after the bye - when our backline has got it together and our midfield are working hard that they would have success. Apart from getting those 2 back bringing in a Langdon on the wing should allow Fritsch more time forward. Spargo showed in year 1 he was crafty and smart, hopefully he gets back to that. Lockhart has had good moments. And the hope would be a top 5 pick gives us a player who can impact in the front half. A summer training together would surely help as well. Lewis couldn't play as a flanker who tags hard running defenders, they are going to be too quick for him, and he'd struggle as an attacking forward, any good defender will have no issues shutting him down. Cleverly minding an interceptor worked once, but will it really be a lasting move? Apart from speed he lacks the height and strength. I can't think of any other 30+ slow midfielder transitioning to a forward role and I think that's for good reason.

There's very little evidence for Gawn as a good forward. He can't offer defensive pressure, he shanks his kicks and he finds it harder to mark against a good key defender than when behind the ball against a ruck. Marshall is in excellent form. He does enough in the taps and is very good at following up and excellent at ground level. He'll lose the taps but win the battle against Preuss decisively. The Tigers are doing ok with Soldo and well with Chol as the extra midfielder type mobile ruck, same for McKernan as a ruck at Essendon. Preuss isn't like that, he's the opposite. He's competent in the ruck but offers little as an around the ground follower, he's more like Zac Clarke who the bombers struggled with. If Gawn's in the ruck he's odds on (but not entirely a guarantee) to win the ruck duel for the 80% of game time he and Marshall go head to head. The Saints aren't playing a second ruck so Tim Smith is actually perfect as a back up ruck against Acres or maybe Bruce. Especially on the quick track at Marvel it makes sense to get a forward in for the forward line and leave the best ruck in the ruck!

He’s a skillful kick in uncontested situations, any time he’s under pressure he goes to water and he sure isn’t breaking lines. He can’t play as a deep defender or on a wing, so forget those options. With a preseason and good coaching we’ve got taggers and center square options. It’s nice he held Bont and Murphy a little but he wasn’t exactly Cam Ling in the middle. I’m happy to look to the state leagues or delistings to find a back up mid if we turf the ones we have. Kids are the real future there and can come on quickly. Half back he can probably still play a bit but I genuinely think Jones and even Josh Wagner make sense as the depth options backing up Salem, Hibberd and Hore with Jetta, Lever, Frost and May as the deeper defenders. Add Petty and Oscar as tall depth and a couple of kids and you’ve got a backline group. Do I think the club will add forward depth and remodel the forward line - yes. Get Melksham and Tom McDonald back and there’s the remodeling. Melksham, Petracca and Fritsch are 3 mid sized attacking weapons who are miles ahead of Lewis. Hannan should be fitter and the small forward situation can’t get any worse. If we cut both the Smiths and couldn’t find just one midsized or tall forward then of course Lewis is better than no one but I find that hard to believe.

Thanks Mr Lewis. He's done. A few decent games in unusual roles doesn't change that. He's still struggling to play 4 quarters, falling over when attempting to tackle or win a contested ball and severely lacking pace. They've found some roles to give him a dignified exit and he's done them well but there's no way he's tagging in a serious game, we've got a more than handy tagger in Harmes and midfielders who will demand the centre square time. The tagging forward job worked but more times than not we can cover that with an actual forward like Melksham or Tim Smith.

More than anything I think the Eagles are well trained. They have a lot of zippy players who can draw holds and have mastered the drop and roll technique to get a holding call, plus some dangerous tall forwards who draw frees. Good players draw free kicks. Unfortunately our best 2 players - Gawn and Oliver - get crucified by the umps. Oliver is held repeatedly for nothing and Gawn is a victim of soft rubbish and a lot of off ball blocking.

So you'd go with the Wagners? Or Baker who runs out of puff at half time? With no KK, no Vanders, no Stretch we're desperately short on options.

He evaded an opponent, was half tackled, and ducked his head right at the last minute as an opponent was coming in. It was called as ducked and I see why the ump did that but the defender was rushing in to clean him up as he was tackled. It was a non free kick based on all the cheats who'd duck at will but I'm inclined to think it's a free kick when a player has been tackled right away and it still trying to evade. Tricky one.

A clear game high 12 intercept possessions and 2 contested marks. He's never been a great kick but he has had nice fast hands and is a reliable kick who moves quickly to take the options. Was a bit lazy/lacked confidence with some kicks that bounced out in front of team mates but still was keen to get involved and move the ball on. His best footy is getting 10 marks - a decent amount with intercepts, 20 touches, using it nicely and setting up the backline around him. Today he looked like a good player who was rusty which is a fair step forward from last week.

It's really not. Fritsch is a talented full forward on the right match up but they'll be games he'd go blanketed there and his defensive work as a forward is poor to non existent. At full strength like last year we rotated Tom McDonald, Petracca, Melksham and Hannan through the deepest forward spot who could all do what Fritsch did today. Tommy against bigger and better defenders, Hannan and Melk with more defensive efforts, Petracca more at ground level. Meanwhile we'd play Fritsch on a wing where his tank, ability to swoop on to a lose ball or handball receive and kicking could create goals. It was nice to see him play forward more and he should always get a look in that position, but the guy is a utility like Jack Gunston and his best value will be using him in multiple roles. If we land Brad Hill and Ed Langdon he'll probably be used forward a lot, but otherwise we'll need his class up the ground.

Even with turnovers he's still far and away our best outside player. I actually think his worst turnovers come from slow plays at half back, getting him the ball going forward - whether that's forward or on the wing and he can do some great damage. We got by today with the Wagner's on the wings but that's not a long term solution. They've been trying to draft wings and half forwards for a while now and it's yet to work out. The point is we'd ideally have about 4 Fritsch's in the side (and we'd clearly work on the turnovers) but we only have 1.

They are well placed for the future. They are still a pretty ordinary team but a good ordinary team when their backline features: Jones/Weitering/Marchbank/Plowman/Daisy Thomas/Newman/Simpson. You'd want the young guys more experienced and the old guys younger but whenever they've had close to that line up out there - particularly Newman/Thomas/Simpson - they've been super competitive. Those older guys miss and they get flogged. And we brained them apart from kicking straight to be 30 up at 3/4 time (should've been close to 60). *Yeah but Carlton* and *they sacked their coach* ignores the reality they aren't all that bad.

Getting overly emotional for being second last is useless. Ladder position matters for finals teams, otherwise you've won x amount of games. We're 5-12 having a horrible season in a very even competition and only a 3 wins off 9th. After a dreadful 1-5 start we've gone 4-7 and been a real shot to win plenty of those games. The summer from hell played out in the first month of the year, and then we spent most of the first half of the season without important defenders. No May, no Lever, no Jetta and at times even Hibberd and Hore missing. Even Salem missed a game and Frost knocked himself out in one. We were bad kicking away from beating the Crows with May/Lever/Jetta/Hore/Salem. Then we spent the last few weeks without Melksham, Tom McDonald and a back up key forward in Smith or Weideman and a lot of the choices to play in the forward line - Hannan, Spargo, Joel Smith, Garlett have had significant interruptions as well. Our best outside midfielder in Fritsch has had to play forward and often back. There's very little a coach can do with constant shifting of players. In large patches of games we've made the Eagles (twice) and Crows look ordinary. We had a real opportunity to push the Pies and gave them a nice touch up in the midfield, just needed some composure down back and to take some chances up forward. It's easy to kick the coach and he's not blameless for some of the fundamental skill errors and poor set ups we've seen but really I think so much of what's gone wrong is out of his control and possible to turn around quickly.

Didn't Max hold that mark and it wasn't paid, or was the same position earlier in the quarter? What rule is there that says you can't take the ball on the ground? They are very clear you can't dive on it and you can't drag the ball in under your body but there's no rule that says you can't take it on the ground and move it towards you to give a handball. The Eagles players jumped on Gawn and created the stoppage. Ball it up.

Overall the game is what it was. Midfield were really solid. Viney good for a half. Oliver awesome. Gawn better than the commentators made out. Brayshaw did a solid job. Harmes good. Wagner brothers did ok on the wing all things considered. Backline started poorly then worked in to it. Frost always struggles with Darling who's too clever for him. Jetta and Lever better and have plenty more to go. Forward line was a complete rag tag bunch. Petty CHF - ok. Preuss FF - no thanks. Lewis as the 3rd tall stopper - worked amazingly for a half outside the goal kicking. Fritsch excellent, 4 goals and 2 posters. Hunt a great start, needed to go for goal in the last few minutes. There's a lot to work with. Add Tom McDonald, Melksham and even Weideman to that forward line, a bit of outside run and another classy user through the front half of the ground and we're on our way.

Yes and no, the risk reward at half forward says take the game on and try to evade some tacklers if the reward is a clear shot on goal or spot up kick. Every circumstance will be different but there's times to take it on and see if the opposition can get you. And a holding the ball is often a better result than spilling it out when surrounded by 3 opposition players. The main thing I'd be teach Lockhart is when to pick it up and when to tap it on, try to draw a holding free or work the ball towards team mates. He goes hard for the ball in tricky situations a lot. Still think it's easier for fix than ANB who will run over the ball, get worked off it or pick up and rush a disposal that goes nowhere.

Agree. Viney does a bit, the others don't seem to. For some reason we've trained or allowed Oliver to give hot potato handballs rather than drawing a man and dishing off. Gawn's not jumping as much because he knows follow up is so important so he stays down, hits it backwards and then we've got the ball but not the momentum. Last year we put 1 or 2 off the back of the square so we could be more aggressive with the hit outs and mids running forward. For some reason we can't execute one of the most basic centre square plays: Gawn taps forward to a strong bodied midfielder facing away from goal who then dishes a handball to a runner dashing through.