DeeSpencer

1. Paying Oliver a mega deal would hurt the Suns, they have to pay every one of their current players 20% over to stay, they’d lose 4 to bring in one big money guy. Nice idea but it won’t happen. 2. Tom McDonald was the main man last year even with Hogan and we rarely played 3 talls together. We need Melsham back and a 3rd tall cover for Jake. Joel Smith was the plan. The draft is probably the long term answer. 3. Gibbs has lost pace and hunger for the ball, his future is probably as a half back and we’ve already got Jones for that. 4. Langdon is an obvious move and Butler is a nice proposition as well, he’s got that bit right.

Any concussion or even any thought of a concussion should result in a player not playing out the game. I'm in favour of a week off in most situations but if symptoms are all resolved early in the week then it might be fine to play the next week.

He's starting to look more balanced with the ball and hit up short kicks around half forward, trusting his technique to hit a target. If he can get his field kicking right - and I think he's on the right path - then I think the goal kicking will eventually flow. With his set shots he's so focused on a good ball drop he loses momentum in his run up, when he has momentum he'll either kick it straight or mess the drop and spray it. As long as he keeps going as is he should hopefully get the momentum and ball drop timed up together. It was so nice to see him use his speed and power to burn off Jones and kick that goal, really hoping to see more of that.

Not true. Adelaide lost draft picks for breaching the salary cap in the Tippett affair. Essendon lost draft picks for the Melbourne were fined for doing the exact same thing Carlton, Collingwood, Hawthorn, West Coast and probably others had done when the priority pick scheme was active. The fact the AFL's punishment was so light was reflective of how it was such a token effort. We then didn't get a priority pick when we were clearly far worse than any of the recent bad sides. We turned Frawley in to pick 3 which was overs but the Suns got the same for Tom Lynch and there's been a heap of teams receive similar overpays. Tyrone Vickery netting the Tigers a 2nd round pick one of the greatest swindles ever. Carlton stunningly managed to match Melbourne's 2013 2 win season and the Blues and Suns got state league access which we didn't. The Suns are already clear of the 2 win mark. It's impossible to say they are worse than Melbourne or Carlton's low mark.

The Giants got more but the Suns had Ablett, had first crack at offering experienced players huge contracts and had a decent start that they completely screwed up. Not content to lose Dixon, O'Meara, Prestia ruin and lose Bennell etc they then couldn't turn it around quick enough to keep Lynch and May. By the way they well compensated for every single one of those players. Pick 2 for Lynch, pick 6 for May, 2 top 10 picks for O'Meara, picks for Bennell who practically never played for Freo. They are on coach 3 and rebuild 3 and this one will work if they've got the off field stuff sorted, they don't need more draft picks they just to keep doing what they are doing.

Gerard Healy with fake tan seeping in to his brain has this idea that all teams that miss finals should get a 2nd round priority pick every year until they make finals again. Which sounds interesting until you realise teams will absolutely tank in to 9th-12th stock up on picks and come out stronger. Brisbane got a priority pick after their run of failures. Now that they've turned it around it's one more good player they don't really need as they have one of the most talented lists in the comp. The Gold Coast already got a couple of extra state league picks and used one on Sam Collins who was in great form before injury. They've simply run out of puff as the season went on and had 1 terrible loss. No reason they can't bounce back and win a couple more games before the end of the year. Backline: Weller, Ballard, Lukosius Midfield: Bowes, Fiorini, Martin, Swallow, Powell, Brodie, Ainsworth Forwards: B. King, Rankine, Day, Wright, Ah Chee This is a team stacked with young talent, all they need to do is either keep it together or find some decent mature players (like Hibberd's and Melksham's) to replace anyone that might leave.

Fair point. Ceglar's 28 and I'm not sure Preuss is enough of an upgrade for the Hawks to put a decent offer on the table, they've got enough other priorities to worry about.

Preuss was good in the ruck and took a few nice marks but Kreuzer snuck out the back and forward of him a fair bit and Preuss was slow to react and work defensively. The good news was his size and strength worried Kreuzer, but the lack of smarts and work rate around the ground was a worry to me. I was worried Kruezer was going to run him off his legs in the 2nd half but luckily a nicely timed Viney (I think) tackle sent Kreuzer off the ground for a while.

1. There are no ruck poor clubs. Every club has a starting ruck as good as Preuss with the exceptions probably being Dogs and Freo who have young rucks who are good enough to play and have a far higher ceiling. Preuss might push for game time at some clubs but not to the extent that they are trading a top 40 pick for him. Adel - O'Brien (or Jacobs) Bris - Martin Carl - Kreuzer Coll - Grundy* Ess - Bellchambers Freo - Lobb/Darcy GWS - Mumford Geel - Stanley GC - Witts Haw - big boy North - Goldy Port - Lycett Richmond - Nankervis Sydney - Sinclair* St Kilda - Marshall WBulldogs - English WC - Nic Nat * the only homes I can think about: If Grundy were to leave the Pies which I think is very unlikely or if the Swans had desires on Sinclair as a forward which I also think would be silly. 2. We got Preuss for a reason. To fill a very important role as back up to Max so we have someone to bring in so Max doesn't have to play 22 games a year at 85% game time. Preuss is also a back up for the tall forwards which we're hopefully about to see. 3. Whether he can or can't play alongside Max doesn't really matter, the back up ruck is just as important if you're planning to be in finals contention.

The Fritsch interview was awful. Bayley was fine, for a young guy and inexperienced media performer he handled himself well. But the lack of preparation, intelligence or even interest from the hosts was on full display. I'm not at all surprised to see they spelt his name wrong in the audio grab.

Same. Assuming Gawn comes back in sooner rather than later and we can get Preuss and Gawn swapping in the ruck/long bomb role. Weid can then lead up and get some touches in space or if the long kick comes to the wing he can be inside 50. Tom and Sam struggled to get the right chemistry, it might be easier with a more predictable partner.

Today the delivery was mostly fine and if not very good for 3/4's, but for a lot of the year it hasn't been. There's still a huge disconnect with forwards leading far too early and running out of position or long bombs going to smalls when we've got 1, 2 or even 3 big targets. We've gone too fast or too slow for most of the year instead of getting the lead and kick timed well and giving the forward a run at it. We're also afraid to go to the pockets out in front of forwards which I don't understand. Keeping the inside 50 between the goals is nice if you can but sometimes you have to kick it out to pocket and let the forward take a wide leading mark. We almost seem allergic to that. Tom and Sam have also done a poor job of separating and it's on both of them but I have to blame Tom a fair bit as the experienced player he should be organising the forwards. Probably a case of missing Melksham in that role as well.

His best kick of the day was a lovely change of direction and hit up to Tommy Mc early in the 2nd who spilt a soda. I worry his legs aren't always getting him out of trouble, he doesn't spoil with any real technique and the lack of confidence to kick the penetrating kick to May on the switch just before half time was a worry. Overall though he looks capable enough to get another year as back flanker who might fall out of the side. He also had a crappy preseason, no reason with a better preseason with the team healthy around him he can't get better next year.

Not bad, not terrible. Just needed to slot the easy goal and hold a couple he got hands to. Searching for the body is a phase young forwards go through. I’d still love to play him down back for a while to get him some simple touches but he also gets that in the ruck. He isn’t as natural as we want but he has all the skills to be a good player. Stick with it

Gawn for Tommy and Lever for Hore the obvious ones. Not sure he had much of a game at Casey but I’d love to put Baker back in on the fast Etihad track and leave Fritsch at half back if Petty doesn’t get up. JKH?? If we have to I guess, but are we really expecting him to get another go next year?

I'd name Gawn with no intention of playing him, where's the harm in that? Preuss emergency, make the swap 90 minutes before the bounce. Carlton would be 90% sure Max won't play but why make it 100% for them? Kreuzer may as well have to prepare for both opponents. Thinking about it as the week has gone on I'd rather see Angus Brayshaw play half back than bringing in Lewis or Wagner again. Petty out, Gus back, Dunkley in. JKH in playing half forward/wing, Hunt stays in the forward line more. Take your pick of Hannan or ANB out. Drop both and give Corey Wagner another go if you like, doesn't really matter.

We got smashed by Brisbane but before that we beat Freo and had a real chance to give Collingwood a decent fright the week before. Garlett goes back and kicks a goal instead of passing inside 40 and it's game on. Clearly the Pies form has dropped off the last month or so but they were on for a big game at the MCG with JaidBet playing. Different circumstances to some of their form at Docklands against Docklands home tenants. I think the midfield should bounce back from last weeks debacle and then the backline stands a chance to show some improvement. The forwards are already on a path to hopefully revert towards the mean (you can only score from 16% of inside 50's for so long). I'm not a big believer in reading too much in to return matches against a side you've played once. Things change so quickly in this league. Just play out the season week by week in to August.

That's fair, but we've deliberately recruited good kicks for our backline. May, Salem, Jetta and with the right coaching I still believe Hibberd (and maybe even Oscar if in the side) are all very nice kicks and Lever and Hore aren't terrible. Jones if playing half back is a good kick in uncontested situations too. No reason Fritsch and Baker can't be developed as good ball users on the wing, if we get their running levels up. We couldn't try to reinvent Hawthorn 2013. In fact I think moving the ball with so much uncontested kick and mark is too slow for good backlines these days and doesn't even work. Clarko made a big tweak last year to try to move the ball more directly for that reason. But Geelong, Collingwood and West Coast are doing very well with backline kicking games to control possession safely until they reach the centre of the ground. We might not have a Hurn or Lewis Jetta but I'd say we have at least the same kicking skills of Collingwood and Geelong if not better. We just don't have the same midfield work rates or intercept marking (at this stage). I think we should continue with a lot of our aggressive change the angles, play on and rumble through the midfield with Harmes/Oliver then quick in to the forward line game plan but it can be supplemented by a more patient build up around the backline, controlled moving of the ball that allows the forward line to react whilst still keeping the opposition backline under the pump.

Would love a coach to help with player development, teach Hawthorn style safe good tempo ball movement skills and add to the culture.....As long as we still have some additions to the foward half as well! Carlton couldn't score with Bolts in charge.

I'll put the Brisbane result down to the midfielders having a shocking off day, which happens, the contributing factors being: 1. The highs of recording a strong win against Freo (yeah I know). 2. An interstate trip up to nice weather in the middle of Melbourne winter 3. Brisbane's midfielders being quick and well drilled and just in the right spots - either rucking to Gawn or getting the easy taps once Gawn went down 4. A clear focus on ball movement and scoring taking their minds off the basics. I'd say the first 5 weeks was certainly about lack of fitness. And the whole season has now been overshadowed by injuries. Since the first 5 rounds we've beaten Hawthorn, Gold Coast and Freo, whilst losing in not entirely terrible shape to Richmond and Collingwood. We should've beat Adel and West Coast, whilst we've had shockers against GWS and Brisbane. It's 3-6 but with a bit of luck or avialable talent it could've been 4-4. If you factor in the lack of confidence, injuries and other things that just spiral when the losing starts I really think the preseason has cost us being closer to an even win/loss record. That's the kind of team we could've been with a fair run at it. That's still a long way off what we'd like to be but it's not the end of the world if that was the correction year after a run of improvements. 2 tackles is certainly a mental and physical awful effort and outside any justification from preseasons, but if it's not repeated again this week then it's something you can move on from.

We have a huge injury list but I'm not sure we have a huge list of injury prone players. I'd put Vanders, KK and even Joel Smith in that category, but a lot of teams have carried far more than that including the Pies with Reid, Elliott, Wells, Darcy Moore, Scharenberg etc. Elliott's a free agent and the level of talent that I'd fully support rolling the dice for at the right price. If he's available for 2 years at 300k/year you'd do it straight away, if it's 4 years at 600k pa you'd say no thanks. Depending on what happens between now and the end of the year I'd imagine his value is somewhere between those ranges.

That's not true. We traded up with the Saints for the Jordon pick, and given we had 2 picks in the 50's I was fine with swapping out a couple of picks in the 40's and trying to get up to the 30's to get a bit more quality. The Sparrow pick came to us in the Hogan deal. I get the feeling we were hoping Sturt, Duursma or even Bobby Hill fell to that pick or that we could move up a few spots - the Gold Coast and Giants both did in deals that cost them plenty - but we didn't move up to take him. The Suns had him next on their board and moved up because they wanted to get a particular player - Jez McClennan - otherwise they'd have taken him in the 20's. He's a strong athletic kid with some positives and negatives, probably wait until he's played some more footy at AFL or VFL level to judge that decision.

Involving pick 2 in any deal for Patton who's a big lump with a broken body when the Giants are probably keen to get his contract out the door isn't overrating or underrating him. It's just common sense to say let's not get a great draft pick involved in a deal for Patton. Didn't we learn from the Tyson trade? Patton's trade value should be in line with Scully's. Similarly I'm saying you aren't rating Hill enough! Pick 17 isn't the middle ground there. Especially if Freo lost Langdon they aren't about to say sure, you can have Hill for cheap. Weideman I agree his value is about pick 25, but finding a team willing to give that up (it won't be Sydney) and finding a replacement for him is the harder thing. Martin for Petracca I can see the equivalent value but I can't see how that helps us. We need more quality in the forward half. If we traded one for another we'd still need to draft more. Better to keep the guy we have and draft a Martin.

If we're looking for potential bargains to get some depth in the key forward group there's a couple of options who are out of contract. 1. Wylie Buzza (Geel) - 18 goals in 9 VFL games. Big forward/ruck type. 2. Zach Sproule (GWS) - 19 goals in 7 NEAFL games. 31 goals last year. Given both are well down the pecking order they might be available cheaply.

I saw him play a school game at the MCG and he looked like the best bits of Roughead and Franklin combined but I think the reality is he reads the play and competes better down back than as a forward. Plus we got him to finally sure up our backline, do we want to suddenly have that be the issue. I'm still a believer in the Collingwood, Richmond (pre this year), Geelong style model that you don't need 2 dominant big blokes. 1 quality tall is probably enough, as part of 2-3 guys who can win one on ones or create goals is a good start. Doesn't matter so much if they are big, medium or small and then get a group of 7 forwards who can work together in attack or defensively.