DeeSpencer

Bont gets 4.5 more kicks and 200m gained more each week. Clearance dominance is nice but it doesn’t correlate with winning. All Bont has to do is stop missing easy goals and he’ll push Dusty for number 1. That said, if Cripps takes another step with his marking and kicking he’ll tighten the gap with Danger and Fyfe for 3 and 4.

Pretty much my exact thoughts. Although I also think if you stick with Lockhart through some up and downs he’d cut out some of those mistakes. Lockhart’s lack of tank might count against him as well. In the early rounds you want guys who will run all day.

Obviously heavily edited so you never know the full story but just a couple of things I would’ve preffered to see: Instead of Goodwin saying Viney needs your feedback I would’ve liked him to say Viney needs your love. He needs players to rally around him. And instead of Gawn being praised as an on field leader I’d like to see him praised for what he does off the field. One man can only do so much in the 2 hours on field. Building the culture off the field is far more important. The feedback after the North game was the best bit of the episode. Great positive reinforcement. I wasn’t too worried about that stuff with Kozzie. Good teams are always defensively organised and communicating. Get everyone in the right spots and it becomes second nature and guys can then still play on instinct.

Surgery he had in July...he doesn’t even have to jump at the center bounces, just be a follower around the ground to get some easy touches and have some marking contests where he doesn’t have a key defender all over him. The forward structure isn’t perfect but Melksham and Fritsch both took opportunities. Tom didn’t look as likely. If he’s barely touched it by half time against the Eagles then he’s pretty much asking for a run in the ruck.

9 intercept possessions is good. 7 clangers is bad. Think he has to play to his limitations with the ball more now that he's lost a yard of pace. No longer can he attempt to out run every opponent and launch a 60m dart. He'll have to be smarter with the ball.

Didn't touch it for a half against the Crows before some cheap goals late.

Really not sure if we go with 2 or 3 talls. Tom McDonald has to be in the side but he's looked very rusty. Does putting him the ruck help his game? I'm far from a Brown fan but he does at least lead up and draw the ball towards him. Doubt he can or will want to do anything in the ruck. Weideman doesn't get his hand on many hit outs but he can be useful at ground level and around the ground he's at least getting hands to the marks which means he's not being out marked! The biggest worry I have with Jackson is he doesn't look at all comfortable in around the ground marking contests. Sometimes he'll end up in the right spot and then will have a nice jump at it but far too often he's either way under the ball or unable to get to it - either caught behind or off to the side. We've been so spoilt having Gawn dominate the air but really competing in the air and not getting destroyed when you're at the long down the line contests is almost a rucks most important job these days. You can lose all the hit outs but still be of value at stoppages, but you can't let teams take advantage of you when you're under the long kicks.

Only the 3 score involvements and 1 goal assist but didn't have a clanger, had good pressure numbers and I thought he was getting to the right spots around half forward and using the ball very cleanly. Goals would be nice but I don't think that's what he's in the team for. It's more likely we have Pickett in the side if we want a dangerous crumber, but there's room for Pickett closer to goal and for someone like Spargo around half forward. ANB had better numbers but his fumbles and poor approach to tackling will always cost us, where as Spargo did the same kind of role in a more efficient way.

Signs of a game plan with the ball - use the wings and the diagonal switch to the half forward. Signs of a better game plan without the ball - those same wingers covering off and a nicely balanced zone. Signs of individual player improvement - Viney fit, Langdon/Tomlinson on the wings, Jones with more freedom, Petracca, Lockhart at half back, Spargo around half forward. That's about all you can hope for. There's a few personnel concerns I have but they are mostly the ones we know well. In terms of game plan concerns the biggest bug bear from last year that I'm not convinced we've fixed yet is the multiple demons flying at the same ball. At both ends of the ground but particularly in the forward line.

What game were you watching? Spargo's quick hands and smart position were one of the highlights of the night.

Who Hawthorn go with doesn’t really matter. The Eagles are likely to have Kennedy, Darling and a resting ruck (Vardy or Hickey). Unless we think Hibberd or Hore can go to a ruckman (and concede 10cm) or Darling we have to play 3 big talls in round 1.

The not kicking on his right probably makes a lot more sense now. Was dragging on too long to just be a the foot infection. They're really strict on kicking with quad injuries.

Interesting. Can see why Tommy is keen for some good pressure smalls in the side and Bedford's worked super hard and surely improved and Spargo's had 2 decent games to start. Judging by social media Max is very good mates with Corey Wagner. Josh was excellent against North but his lack of speed and errors under pressure have hindered his career so far, he'd be the most unlikely break out candidate since either Jetta or Pedersen if he became a valuable member of the side this year.

Jetta played 66% game time and whilst the ball movement was quick there didn't seem to be a lot of two way running, I doubt he was overly taxed. I'd play 8 defenders and give them all a good rotation but I think the more interesting selection drama is at the other end of the ground. In round 1 we can probably only play at most 3 of T Mc, Weid, Brown or Jackson and can probably only play 3 or 4 of Vanders, Jones (unless half back), ANB, Spargo, Pickett and possibly C Wags or Bedford. There's going to be a battle for spots on Friday.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/82786/facing-fear-dees-take-scary-challenge-in-the-pool Visser worked with the players on the camp last year. Hendy did a fair bit of work with Buckley as the Pies. I'd imagine there's some Pert influence there.

AFL media reporter assigned to cover the Demons (and several other clubs). Certainly the club should be doing it. The logos on the gear is one thing but I reckon a quick Zurich or Jaguar logo flashing up before or watermarked on the footage probably wouldn't hurt. But my main point was more around the lack of journos being able to cover sports in Australia now with AAP announcing they'll close up today. Mens AFL will always have decent coverage but smaller sports - including AFLW - are going to need to find more revenue for the journos to turn up and cover them. At a minimum McGowan should slip the AFL Media logo on his vision, but if clubs allow it might even have to get his tweets sponsored.

On point 1: Given more job losses in journalism today the reporter should splash a big AFL Media watermark on them and start the clip with a sponsors message. Or to be more cynical maybe the club should ban filming of training by AFL reporters without a sponsors message.

That Lockhart report has me worried about a torn pec. Hope it’s nothing. With Hannan I just want to see him running smoothly rather than so stiff and awkwardly. Is he starting to move better?

A healthy Jack Viney isn't slow. He'll have to do the occasional tagging role and even take a rotation through half forward at times but if he can play some consecutive games at full health no one will be saying he's slow.

Last year the difference between 7th and 14th was 3 wins (12 v 9). 2018 there was 1 win between 7th and 12th (13 v12). 2017 the gap from 7th to 12th was 2 wins (12 v 10). Positions are more than likely going to be very close in that middle range of the ladder, possibly all the way from 4th to about 14th. Keep that in mind if you get too caught up in predictions. Or do you own and try to work out where to put teams like Hawthorn, Essendon, Port Adelaide, North Melbourne and Fremantle.

Doesn’t fix our lack of skill from the backline but could be a huge boost to our two way run and has the ability to win contests against a range of forwards. You can’t play the aggressive zone defensive system we like if you don’t have versatile match up guys. If Jetta, May, Lever (can be up and down) and an improved Hibberd can help the skills then we maintain a good balance. As for the midfield: Petracca increases the skills and hopefully Viney, Oliver and Gus are all fitter and cover the run that Harmes bought. Viney and Oliver should hopefully add line breaking to their game. Gus, Viney or possibly Vanders get the tagging jobs. I think it’s a sensible move to try.

Apart from caring about his health there’s probably injury payments and salary cap consequences that make these things difficult. We added Lockhart and Dunkley last year and Richo was at the Saints when they put McCartin on the long term list. I question Josh Mahoney as much as most on here but give the guy some credit, they’ll be considering the best options.

KK was at the Arden St game, wearing sunnies but so were most of his team mates. He wandered over to Harmes, ANB and a few others and shook hands like he was just meeting them. Asked Harmes how half back was going. I got the sense he hasn’t been at the club in weeks if not months.

Honestly if I were a North supporter I'd be pretty dirty with the effort they served up with more senior players and on their home turf. That said, it all means so little. And rewatching the game we were very solid defensively but it was pretty easy to get the ball back as long as we stayed with a decent structure and pressure they'd cough it up. When it was our turn with the ball we had some nice Melksham moments, a couple of lovely Trent Rivers kicks, a bit of class from Brayshaw, some clean hands around the contest from Spargo, a couple of AFL forwards in Fritsch and Brown making space and that one nice team goal capped off by Bedford. But watching Coll v Richmond today it was clear that even though our young boys cracked in very hard and worked well they'd be about 15 goals off the Collingwood side that played today even without Grundy, Pendles, Sidebottom, Moore and Howe. Or about the same margin vs our team that played Marsh1 v Adelaide. The game is just completely different when the best players are out there.