DeeSpencer

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.

Kent had a nice penetrating long kick when he got the ball in space he could clear a line or kick to space, but he wasn't a good kick in tight confines. Averages 1 goal assist a game, let's not pretend he's Jake Melksham. I think we've replaced Kent adequately with Hunt going forward. Hunt's a little shakier with his kicking but offers more in the air and defensively. Kent's also out for the season. 3 year deals for Kent or Vanders were both mistakes but we went with the guy who had got healthy and played very well in the run in to finals and is the better overall player. Hogan - 0.3 goal assists a game and 62.7% disposal efficiency, he's not a good kick at all. Rarely turns and plays on to create space and doesn't trust himself to hit long targets. Watts used to get the ball on 50 and hit up Hogan. Hogan used to get the ball on 50 and pause afraid to give Watts the same service. We're missing Melksham. We're missing Spargo's best footy last year which was very good. We're missing ANB just being a baseline competent ball user. And we're missing the ability to upgrade the wings. Fritsch and KK were looking great in summer but Bayley's barely had the chance to settle on the wing and KK's out all year.

Misson's injury update looked a lot more like Weid would miss the game against the Eagles and Tim Smith would play.

That's true, and a lot of them are just adding corporate mumbo jumbo on top of saying we need to stick to the game plan, fight the year out, encourage the good aspects of play etc etc which is spot on. I'm saying there's more he could elaborate with but there's little incentive to do so when it's only going to be negative. As boring as it is there's a good case for sticking on message.

I dislike it too but the reality is you have to spin some kind of BS at a post match press conference. Roos was very slick but occasionally he ran out of smart answers and we got the 'veil of negativity' or him blaming players. Honest answers at a press conference right now would involve criticising a lot of players for basic errors, reinforcing just how bad the injury run has been and how little there is at Casey, highlighting the ways they have moved players around to try to get a team going - which then lays out their plans to the opposition as well as focuses in on the players who are out of position or under performing. I think the real Goody gets along very well with his players, but we have to see more wins to get the real version at press conferences.

I can't find clearance differentials online but last year we were 3rd in the league with 39 clearances a game, this year we are 6th with 40 clearances a game average and 0.8 behind the 3rd place team. I'm not sure we've fallen all that badly in clearances. Last year we used 1 or 2 off the back of the square to help our lack of speed in centre clearances, we can't do that this year which I think is a big reason Brayshaw has fallen out of the centre square group. I still have confidence that Gawn, Oliver, Viney (who's looked better post bye), and Harmes (who has been shifted to the wing, I think to protect his body) make a very good clearance unit, but we're doing all sorts of different things to find the right midfield balance. Lewis as a tagger is the latest. Jones and Melksham as mids was tried. So many things have gone wrong this year that isolating individual problems gets away from the bigger picture which is that we are robbing peter to pay paul with so many decisions. It's summed up by our best wingman in Fritsch having to move positions during games as an intercept marking defender one week after Hore's injury and then as a full forward the next after Tommy Mc's absence.

No, on everything he's done so far in his career he looks like a key defender and one decent game up forward where he was in the right place at the right time doesn't convince me he's a forward. Nice that he made 3 regulation shots on goal, probably helped that he wasn't being relied on as a regular forward so didn't feel the pressure the rest of our forward line probably feels week to week.

I agree. From stoppages it's more on the coaches and forwards to create a structure that sees a bombed or hacked kick contested. One of the worst errors we make at the moment is we pass up simple short kicks on slow plays that would get an easy 15-20m of field position AND worst of all we go long down the line not to talls advantage. Whether it's boundary side or more corridor if we're going long to Gawn or Preuss (or other tall) they have to be in position for that kick. Nothing annoys me more than the bomb that lands 15m from Gawn for no good reason and Viney is one who does it a lot.

Firstly, if you've got a theory without a lot of evidence you should at least get the guys name right. It's Justin Plapp. Secondly, he's the midfield coach but Ben Matthews is the stoppage coach. He'd have far more say in what occurs at the stoppages where as Plapp's role would be based on how the midfielders move and use the ball in transition. Gawn has been excellent and the midfield has taken advantage in a number of games particularly in wins - v Syd, v Haw, v Freo. Max doesn't have Nic Nat's ability to leap over and hit it 360's though, so he's not a cheat code in the ruck. There's hitouts to advantage and there's hitouts that go clearly in to space and result in a beautiful clearance and Max can only get so many of them in a game. As for Gawn's clearance numbers they come about because after the hit out he's got some space to work, where as the other 3 mids have opponents on them. That we can't find little link up handballs to create clearer clearances is a bad mark on our coaches but in several games we have created a decent quality of clearance. Oliver turns the chance at a decent kick forward 50m in to a handball to Gawn who then hacks it 30m. For most of the Dogs game we did very well around the ground at stoppages and throw ins. But we also lack burst speed and dual sided ball use, we need a quicker/smarter ball user in the mix and we need a summer of the mids training together. They spent the first 2 months of the season trying to get fit and cover defensively.

We did use our first pick on an inside midfielder with Sparrow as well as adding Corey Wagner for some mature depth and KK was set to come in and play on the wing/mid. I'm sure the plan was for Vanders to be fit and for Corey Maynard to be a depth option as well. Plus JKH who missed the first 10 weeks. And Stretch. The drop off between our first choice mids and our depth is too great but it's not like we don't have options. Unfortunately: Injured: Sparrow, Stretch, Vanders, KK and even young Nietschke Returning from injury within the last month: JKH, Maynard And by the way, also injured: Dom Tyson (calf TBC)

We were killed for pace by Essendon early in the season and by Neale and Zorko against Brisbane. Oliver, Harmes and Viney aren't slow but they need to get even sharper in two way efforts from stoppages as well as across the ground. As good as Gawn is he's also a bit of a liability at centre bounces compared with some rucks who can chase down opposition mids and can also be used as effective clearance players. So often a Clarry handball goes to a stationary Gawn who then struggles to get a kick away. Then there's Brayshaw who's too slow entirely to be in the centre clearances if he can't pick up his defensive transition and Petracca who's lazy in swapping to defensive work and lazy around the ground. At stoppages teams hold Oliver and rove to Gawn. Our best clearances have all come with Viney who actually has the pace and smarts to read a tap and get moving forward with the ball. Unfortunately it then means he has to kick it. Outside mid has been spoken about in depth. I still have a decent amount of faith in Fritsch and I like Baker as a developmental player who needs a huge summer. Otherwise the cupboard is bare.

Small forwards 1. Dan Butler - Out of contract Pros: quick, kicked 30 goals in flag season, good pressure Cons: small/light frame and lots of recent injuries, 1 hit wonder? 2. Anthony McDonald-Tippa - OOC Pros: Great pressure, accurate kick Cons: Likely to cost a lot in a trade and contract, likely keen to stay 3.Jamie Elliott - FA Pros: gun goal kicker at his best, free agent Cons: expensive contract with lots of risk given injuries, has he missed too much footy? 4. James Rose - OOC Pros: kicks a lot of neafl goals but can't stick a regular spot Cons: probably not very good! 5. Lewis Taylor - OOC Pros: knows how to get the ball and has some creativity Cons: is Lewis Taylor

Outside Runners 1. Ed Langdon - out of contract Pros: Excellent runner and ball winner Cons: Ball use, likely to cost a 2nd round pick 2. Brad Hill - IN contract Pros: elite runner, solid enough ball user/winner Cons: Likely to cost a big contract and a big trade package (pick 10-15) 3. Brandon Ellis - RFA Pros: Excellent runner and penetrating kick Cons: Shaky at the contest and ball use can be unpredictable 4. Harry Cunningham - FA Pros: Good speed and endurance, could be cheap Cons: Shaky ball users and winner 5. Tom Cutler - out of contract Pros: Good size, long kick Cons: Best suited at half back, ball winner but maybe not the smartest player 6. Karl Amon - out of contract Pros: Good runner, neat kick Cons: Small, inconsistent 7. Stephen Hill - FA Pros: Classy user Cons: Ageing, expensive contract, recent injuries 8. Adam Tomlinson - out of contract Pros: Good runner, big body who can play 2nd ruck Cons: Not the most natural ball user or creative player 9. Jack Newnes - FA Pros: Good runner, long kick Cons: Average decision making and inconsistent at the contest, seems to have peaked a while ago

It might not be ideal value for a top pick but if you get a really good player I wouldn't worry about that. Worst case scenario we have 2 good really good back flankers, but best case is Salem finally goes in to the midfield and gives us the gun ball user we need in there. Every summer Salem trains with the mids before being put to half back because we just don't have good options. Unless we draft or trade for a ready made classy mid I think this is the summer to just leave Salem with the mids in to the season and hope we fix the backline in other ways.