DeeSpencer

What game did you watch?

But there’s lots of little things with positioning at front and centres, leading to create space, not fumbling, halving a contest, tackling of which plenty don’t show up in the stats sheet and Spargo does that way better. Spargo has to nail a good percentage of inside 50 kicks and set shots and he did neither of those today but since the Freo game he’s been a positive. Sharp has made no progress

Not another larynx! (although potentially better than concussion if he recovers quickly)

If Disco can add some pressure to his game forward (has been surprisingly bad at it) then along with Petty we’ve got some mobile talls. Suddenly we can get Fritsch in the side as a medium not a tall if he can do the bare minimum pressuring and tackling without frees too. Spargo is doing a lot right, he just makes the saddest of errors when he misses targets or shots. But he’s still a cut above the other options like Sharp. I wouldn’t worry about what the afl side is doing with JVR. I’d just get him in form, if that’s forward back or ruck either works. (He should back up ruck at Casey and give Verrall a full game forward). Long term tho I think his weaknesses (undersized, flat footed, double grabber) would be worse back than they are forward. What he needs is belief to crash and bash. His one strength is literally that, he’s such a big boy, just needs to find a way to harness it.

Lever if he’s 100% right for AJ. Disco forward. Don’t love Viney for Sharp but that’s probably the move. Ideally we’d have a genuine half forward to come in but Casey is petty thin. With Viney back I’d like to see Rivers take some rotations as the 3rd wing. Chandler more forward to keep that pressure and forward craft. Wouldn’t be against a bit of shuffling the magnets with Langford deep forward in bursts and Lindsay high half forward. Just for development would be nice to give them some different looks Fritsch must stay as sub.

You’d have to take Windsor out and despite his poor game today his pace has proven so valuable when he’s able to sweep. And you’d have to move him to the wing and swap other things around.

6, MelK 5 Bowser 4 Gawn 3 T Mc Langdon Tracc Oliver contributed. But I’m not seeing where the votes are coming from. Neale clearly got the points.

Sparrow first in sprints, first in repeat sprints, first in distance at high speed. Routinely makes position across half forward both in defending and attacking. He hasn’t made it as a mid. Just doesn’t make decisions in tight quick enough. But he’s a solid worker across half forward and right now he’s well clear of Sharp who is very unreliable at the contest, no better with the ball and doesn’t have good defensive awareness despite his work rate. And Kolt who has the scope for more but isn’t in good touch. Kynan Brown is working his way towards another go and I’d like to give Jack Henderson another shot now he’s starting to get some VFL form. Back it’s pretty slim pickings.

We’ve seen him forward in practice games and early in the year and he’s not quite big or strong enough to compete as a tall against key backs, doesn’t create a lot of space on the lead and gets burnt defensively. He’ll develop all of that with more time but his best attribute right now is the smartness of his midfield running. Wing lets him show that without the heat of being on ball.

One big positive today was getting to see Langford’s overhead marking. Was a huge part of his junior game and one of the reasons I was a fan on him on the wing. If he keeps developing it now he’s got a taste of what he can do he’s going to be a match up problem for mids. Hopefully he keeps it up.

Every time he’s been tagged he’s been absolutely slaughtered. Clarry tag helped him provide a defensive midfield balance that we needed around the stoppage and Rivers, Pickett, Tracc feasted. Good coaching.

Today was still a fair bit of long down the line but it came with some switching and prodding and creativity at times too. We were also playing the best outside running side, why would you try to take Hawthorn on at their own game? Adapting back to a more contest and skinnier style was logical. And we created enough scoring chances that we could’ve been up 75-50 at 3/4. The plan was good. The ball movement around the back and middle fine. The ball movement inside 50 was ugiy. The finishing diabolical.

I’d go a triple change of key forwards: JVR, Fritsch, Jeffo all out. AJ, Melk, Petty in. Don’t think either Sharp or Kolt are up for it right now. Maybe Kynan Brown as sub.

None of our permanent mids are hard fit, Oliver, Tracc, 2 kids on the wings. Combine that with a few old boys (May, McDonald, Gawn) and some young talls and there’s no secret why it drops away. Combine that with such a labour intensive style (not necessarily game plan but such lack of flow in our forward ball movement) and once there’s a little heaviness in the legs it gets very hard.

Very difficult selection this week because the question marks are on Oliver (big unknown) and Fritsch so it's players the coaches clearly have a lot of time for. I'm going to assume Clarry is right to go, in which case Rivers stays back, Turner stays forward. I'd have Disco in the Fritsch role, who gets demoted to sub. Send Sharp back to Casey for a full game. Then for the Petty replacement it's a choice of AJ and JVR. I don't have a big preference but I probably lean AJ for his tackling and better mobility across half forward if Disco is the deeper target. Kolt certainly attempted to get himself dropped but I think his physicality and positioning is just a clear edge to Sharp even if he stuffed up most of what he did against the Eagles. Put that down to some nerves playing at home, trying to do too much.

The good news is at Chamber of commerce he’s been exposed to many of Melbourne’s big business people and has a media profile/connections. Gill Mc was also long rumoured to join the RV board as Chairman before pulling out. Might be a connection there.

Footy boss is running the core component of a business. The footy department soft cap and players salary cap both account for the biggest chunks of club expenses. And that job has shifted to a much more managerial role over the last two decades. And since then the people doing those jobs have progressed to CEOs. I don’t mind having a CEO with a different background. It just means Green has to have a big say as Footy Director at least during the transition. And whilst the coach gets the headlines I think we need to really evaluate the role of the GM of footy.

Richmond - Shane Dunne - internal promotion from 10 years at Richmond, worked for their gyms and pools business, previous experience with London Olympics Geelong - Steve Hocking, AFL Head of footy, Geelong head of footy Collingwood - Craig Kelly, AFL Player manager Essendon - Craig Vozzo - West Coast head of football Hawthorn - Ashley Klein - Hawthorn/Aus GP/Coll Carl - Brian Cook - Geelong CEO, West Coast CEO. (Graham Wright incoming CEO - Coll, Haw) St KIlda - Carl Dilena - North CEO/Board WB - Ameet Bains - St Kilda list manager/COO North - Jenn Watt, MCC/MFC Freo - Garlick, Eagles - Pyke, Adel - Silvers (Hawks), Port - Richardson (internal promotion). GWS - Matthews (AFL), Sydney - Harley, GC - Evans (Haw), Bris - Swann (Carl, Coll). It's actually quite amazing that 17 other clubs have people with AFL industry experience. The AFL is certainly an unusual industry but I struggle to see that's it's so unique that you have to be in it to run a club. The big thing will be having him reliant on the footy experts on the Board as well as ideally finding him a mentor.

I wonder if there’s any link between the Beer Awards they have at the Showgrounds (he was CEO of the Show) and David Neitz? I didn’t love all his media appearances but he at least does get on the front foot and has media connections. RV board provides sports and how to deal with racing knowledge. Even if RV haven’t been going great to put it mildly. Anyway, we’ll see. He has to grow our revenue, build Caulfield and oversee some big footy decisions. Tough gig

Most known for going on the news and yapping relentlessly about people coming back to the CBD post Covid Uninspiring

He didn’t look out of place training with the group in Feb. Ok height and frame, seemed to cover the ground well. Probably fits in the Woey, Kynan Brown level that if he performs consistently and can show a bit of something we’ll give him a good look for a late or rookie pick.

Yeah I’d like to get Disco in for that and just to get him in because he needs games too. But Riv has been very good down back and feels like our ball movement is starting to click with 5 good flankers back there. Tracc and Pickett look better on ball. Kolt has added some defensive grunt. Rivers goes on ball and suddenly the balance is off.

Out: Fullarton, Sharp In: AJ (probably JVR), Melk (sub) Have to think about Disco if he’s right, play him 3rd tall back, Rivers goes back in to the midfield, Tracc and Kosi forward? Kolt out? Maybe. maybe not? Does May need a rest?

Can’t play Oscar McDoanld every week. Back to big AJ or JVR next week please.

Sharp did one cool thing coming on completely fresh but otherwise looked like his usual not clever football. Spargo had great work rate consistently in the right spots defensively and in attack. Agree he probably did a bit too much and had one classic example of that with the kick to Pickett that went wrong. But thinking Sparp is better than Spargo is fundamentally not understanding what you’re watching.