DeeSpencer

I'm absolutely all for the Weid getting a run at CHB. He has a nice field kick, excellent handballer, has proven to be a good tackler when his legs get him to the contest and it would build his toughness. The forward would take him to the contest where he has the leap to spoil and marking is always easier as a defender than a forward. If we're 8 goals down to the Swans at 3/4 time (and assuming he's in the side) I'd chuck him on Buddy for a quarter. What's to lose? Play a 7th defender back if we are worried about the game blowing out. How many games did we watch Nev Jetta battle as a half forward or Tommy McDonald butcher the ball at half back until they were flipped to the other end? Hands up who thought Melksham would make an excellent marking forward? Sometimes you have to move guys around.

We won 2 finals last year after some very poor early season games. May coming in and the midfield returning to form isn't exactly a huge leap.

How many games did Salem, Lewis, Hibberd, Jetta, Oscar, Frost play together last year? I think it was the majority of the 2nd half of the season. Hore had a go, wasn't up to it. May came in, went out. Wagner got a chance. Hunt went forward because the forward line has been as bad as the backline and we needed speed to be any chance of holding the Bombers quick flankers. Fritsch moved to half back, C Wagner to the wing. I can live with that. The other 5 spots have been a constant. Absolutely agree with that, but we can bounce back towards league average if the midfield gets it going and May comes back in. Frost is also a good match up on a select number of players - lumbering talls who only lead in straight lines - ie. Tex Walker. Oscar had a limited preseason. Just maybe they both improve from dreadful to somewhat not terrible. Stranger things have happened I guess.

Right now we are below Carlton on the ladder so we'd effectively have given them pick 19 and moved backwards from pick 1 to pick 3. Obviously I really hope we move ahead of Carlton but giving up pick 19 for a swap a year later might not be a good result for us. It's silly to include that Carlton trade in the cost of Lever. He cost us picks 10 and 19, for him and later draft picks, leave it there. That's a good deal. I think the swap from 19 down in the 30's wasn't ideal and it required us doing well last year, but we took a risk and it has paid off. If we wanted a high draft pick we could've kept the pick 6 we dealt Hogan for.

And one final factor that I think is important - we train all summer on a small ground that we further rope in for the rehab group, then we are immediately thrown on to the MCG. Last year we didn't play the MCG well until round 23. We are pretty rubbish on any ground at the moment but I wish we'd get a go on our favourite ground at Docklands!

Maybe not run down but at least pressure the kick, he wasn't going to get more than about 10m further before having to have the shot on the run from distance when tiring. Frost has to position between the players and create doubt but he moved more than a little early, it was an age early.

I lost my mind at that one. It's painful enough when Frost makes a bad decision and sprints widely to a contest but when Oscar does it he waddles out at no miles an hour, drifting in to no mans land instead of manning up the 200cm opponent who he was right on. Unbelievable stuff.

I think he means the time Frost went sprinting out 30m away from Zac Clarke to confront the kicker even though Fritsch was about 2 steps from closing him down. Clarke then missed the goal at the City end from 25 out directly in front. If it's coaching to always leave your man then the coaches have to get the sack, but I don't think it is because I've seen Jetta keep tracking an opponent and wait for the chase down in a similar situation.

Brisbane are still pretty bad defensively. At times in the last 2 years they were a basket case. Aggressive up the field zone defending took the league by storm - Hawthorn 3 flags, Dogs a flag - and the Eagles still intercept and peel off as much as anyone. I've got no issues that Goodwin implemented that system for us in 2016. Yes Lewis is occasionally used as a 7th defender but so is Hodge, and even when he's not a 7th Hodge isn't sticking on a man the whole game, he's dictating to his opponent as much as anyone. The main differences between us and Brisbane - going back to the JLT game - are: 1. They have been far more fluent with the ball and not giving it away in bad areas 2. Their midfield and forward lines are defending at a decent (but not brilliant) level 3. Harris Andrews is a gun and Josh Walker is doing a job, they don't have Froscar.

Spot on. If I had a major concern about our training - apart from the injuries - it would be that we did far less ball movement / decision making drills this year from what I saw. It was a lot of skill development ‘craft’ stuff, plus running, plus match simulation. I think we missed a step that we used to do a lot of under Roos which is drills that emphasise 2 way pressure and pressure release. Drills that teach players how to cover off opponents as a team and at the same time teach guys to release team mates in to space.

He’s fitter this year than previous. Had a good summer running up a group not in the lesser group. But he looks like a guy who used to have pace to beat opponents and now doesn’t. And it’s a fair point to say he plays his best footy as an attacking back and has to defend deeper because we don’t have anyone other than Jetta who can win a one on one. He isn’t getting space to balance up so is bombing the ball. He isn’t getting put in to space either because we don’t clear it wide with kicks or handballs. Some more talent around him and proper midfield defensive work should help but yeah he’s a concern

We gave up a lot of picks for the Oliver swap, Vince, Melksham, Hibberd etc. Not to mention the May and Lever deals we really had to do (even if I’ve always been critical of the cost of those trades and suggested we bargain harder). Even the list spots and picks required for Bugg, Lewis, Garlett it all comes at a cost. I still have some faith in Jason Taylor but the reality is he didn’t have a lot of picks to work with for a while. I definitely think we have to turn over the rookies faster and use those spots on developing players. The future of this list is still very good with our best dozen or so players hopefully set up and some reasonable depth - our bottom 6 right now are bad but not the disaster many think. But a lot will depend on: Spargo, Petty, Baker, Bedford/Chandler, Jordon and Sparrow. We need 3 or 4 quality players from that lot but they might be 2 years away. 4 second round picks in that lot, they have to succeed more often than not and we have to find some quality from the later picks.

The only surprise to me was that Zac Clarke didn't kick 4 as well.

Oscar played on Jack Henry (a defender) and Ceglar (a ruck). You put him on forwards who do nothing and he'll do nothing wrong. Frost played on Hawkins and we gave him enough cover. Then Roughead who threatened to get us a few times. Then once they came up against good forwards in the Prelim both got scorched alive. But that's only half the story, the other half is the midfield and forward line. Against the Cats and Hawks we saw Viney and Harmes put on a pressure clinic. Harmes is trying, Viney is hopefully building. Plus Clarry won a stack of it and Gus was so good against the Cats he was tagged by the Hawks. Big Max dominated as well. All those guys aren't at the same level. Same thing on the wing where Vanders crashed and bashed especially the Cats, Jones was a preseason younger and fresher and Tyson did enough as a fit runner. Not to mention the forward line, the biggest change there is that T Mc has gone from a star to a hobbled mess. With the problems in our midfield a Rance and McGovern backline probably still gives up 14 goals last night but we win if they do. We probably win if we give up 16 goals with just capable efforts because our midfield was so bad we're giving up 100 to most teams. It's the couple of easy contests that Frost and Oscar give up here or there that turn it to 20 goals that killed us.

We haven't recovered from a long season going a month longer than the bottom sides and 3 tough finals, not just the one we lost. We haven't successfully implemented game plan changes but I don't think that means we didn't learn from the Eagles game. There has been a shift if more possession retention but the Cats are the form team of the comp playing far quicker and more aggressively than they did for most of 2018. They've got fresh legs in Rohan, Dahlhaus and Atkins up forward and added something new to their midfield in Constable and Parfitt and are vastly improved (for now). I just think the sample size is a bit too early to really get a read on what we are trying to do. The first quarter against Port looked great. Then we chased tail for 3/4's. Geelong is a narrow ground in the wet, so we bombed it in and tried to press up, that's a strategy that's worked for us before down there. Against the Bombers we had the excellent patch in the 2nd quarter that used the ball nicely to get some high percentage inside 50's. The rest of the game the midfield defensive work and backline were so bad there's nothing we could do. We made some clear list changes - May in, Kolodjashnij replacing Tyson, Fritsch in on a wing, Joel Smith as a mobile marking/spread the field forward, adding in 4 small forward/flank options in Lockhart, C Wagner, Bedford, Chandler. I think those moves were focused on a stronger backline, more outside run and spread. We are getting little to nothing from those additions so far as well as so many of our best players being down or out. I'm not a Lewis fan but he's spent the last 2 years as our backline organiser who controls the uncontested touches and has been missing. I agree on the need to use the wings from centre clearances but on way it goes to Jones who can't free space and the other way it goes to KK who can't do anything. And most of the time the mids could barely keep track of their opponents yet alone break in to space to hit up a forward on a lead (in our outside 50).

I'm not sure the prelim is all that relevant, the best team in the comp ambushed us after a big couple of finals. There's some tactical things with teams hitting the 45 switch that the Eagles did very well and teams doubling up Gawn but really we were smashed in the midfield and not good enough elsewhere, which we knew all along. I hope Goodwin and Co are disappointed but I also think they'd be pretty understanding of where the issues are right now. A dominant midfield side has lost it's edge - none of Viney, Oliver or Brayshaw look fully up to speed with their work around the contest and particularly with their spread. Harmes looks like the only midfielder who is really covering the ground - both in close and when spread out. The wingers are struggling even more and the forward line is a mess, with one of our most likely goal kickers being a back flanker added to the list only a few weeks ago. All of that said I think the one big list improvement we made was Steve May and if he was fully fit and not suspended for rounds 1 and 3 we might be sitting at 2-1 on the ladder.

He's playing like a guy who's missed a heap of footy and has also missed the gym. Looked more effective forward than on a wing, and he sure as hell isn't playing down back with his lack of will for the contest. Right now I'm thinking the best case scenario is getting some VFL in to him and maybe he has another few cracks at games later in the year, he's not lightening which I said when we got him but I think he has enough pace and skill to be something, but he looks entirely like a player who needs another preseason training at a high level before he'll play well.

Yeah Petty makes me nervous, I really like him so don't want him burnt before he gets a fair run at it. If he were playing down back I'd give Keilty a go. In fact I'd send him down back at Casey whenever they next play. Tim Smith and Preuss might be the more likely forward options anyway.

As for ANB - it's the same thing. Had a good go at it as one of the fittest players in the comp and that's why he keeps getting picked. Our runners aren't fit enough so we pick the best runner, it's simple logic really. But as our game style has been worked out he's another guy who doesn't bring speed, doesn't bring ball winning ability and certainly doesn't have the skills required. He was a useful role player who out shone his talent but eventually those kind of guys fall back to the pack more often than not. The game evolves and unless they adapt they struggle.

Oscar had 1 intercept possession. 1. One. Uno. Imagining playing 120 minutes of football as a key defender and only once getting the ball from the opposition. That's laughable. Is Frost better or worse, I'm not sure, but the guy at least will get the ball back sometimes. Oscar was an ok talent - nice kick, works hard, seems like a good guy - but he never had the speed in the legs or speed in the mind and he's peaked. He had a good go of it the last two years but there just seems nothing left in terms of physical ability, physicality or picking up the game quicker.

Jetta and Salem are playing well enough, Hibberd up and down. The speed at which the ball is coming from the midfield is undefendable. There's plenty of bad stuff but it starts with key defenders incapable of influencing contests even semi reliably. Even Josh Wagner played ok tonight by getting to good spots and attacking the ball. I won't judge an assistant coach until they have some level of talent to work with.

Out: T Mc (rested) In: Preuss/Keilty take your pick Out: Weid In: T Smith Out: Oscar In: Petty Out: KK In: Stretch Out: ANB In: Spargo/Baker/Garlett/Sparrow whoever.

No it means we need to make sure Viney, T Mc, Gawn and Jetta are qualified and doing the job and then empower Lever, Oliver and Brayshaw to do the same with the younger players. If Goodwin is the coach we all expect him to be then leadership will flow through him to the playing group. Josh Mahoney as well. We really need to look at the process the Tigers put in place in 16/17 with Balme and fresh assistant coaches coming on board, filling a few gaps with smart trades, using their wasted year to get some good young talent some games and backing the coach. Not that this year is wasted just yet but there's a lot of sings pointing that way. The way the Tigers leaders all went to a new level in 2017 was something our senior players should look to. Our senior players could invest in some mindfulness to sort their heads out and that could help with a bit more belief and confidence for the younger guys. No more Jordan B Peterson either.

Did it for a second time in September trying to come back for finals. The 2 injuries in short succession mandated the long lay off. Was in the rehab group all summer until Feb/March as they slowly built him back up and has only played 2 or 3? Casey games. He also appears more of a speed athlete than a natural endurance runner so putting him in on a wing at anything less than peak fitness would be setting him up to fail. Kolodjashnij, who has a bigger natural tank and AFL experience was awful after an interrupted prep, I don’t want to see that for Baker.

Geelong 2006 and Hawthorn 2009 beg to differ.