DeeSpencer

PuT hIM baCK In hIs PrefeRred poSiTIOn Ignores the reality that he was absolutely butchering the ball AND was a defensive liability. He played a mix of wing, forward and on ball against the Dockers and did mostly pretty well. The foss Lewis is tagging. Harmes is on the wing saving his legs and shoulders for next year. Viney is on ball. Oliver is on ball and forward. Fritsch is on the wing or forward if we have no forward options, Hunt vice versa. Petracca is forward and on ball. That leaves Gus playing a mix of forward, on ball and wing. He’s perfectly capable of doing all of that. He did it as a 19 year old in year 1. Put his game on the weekend down to copping a corky. Otherwise he just has to play better.

Petty took a barely contested mark and drew a couple of free kicks. I’ve always been a fan but pump the breaks. He doesn’t have an athletic advantage as a forward - fitness is ok, speed is below par, agility is good but not great. I still think his future is as a CHB. Lockhart and Hore are both useful. Preuss probably has use as a back up. 2 of the baby draft picks have missed most of the year, the other 3 have had decent development seasons. Bradtke doing enough I guess, this year was about getting him used to footy. Fritsch tick, Baker probably a tick given no preseason, Spargo an awful year. In terms of young talent time it’s not great but not a disaster. Fritsch is the only guy who looks like a top 10 in the side player any time soon, but if the rest of these guys are 18-28 on the list it’s not too bad. Theres a bias to the new toys but overall they’ve had a better year than the likes of Oscar, ANB, Stretch, the Wagner’s, JKH none of which seem salvageable.

Petracca's field kicking has improved a lot in the last two months and his set shots now come with a routine. Not a particularly good one - he loses momentum and comes in too slowly, probably working on getting a good ball drop too much. His best kicks come when he has good momentum as well as balance and a nice ball drop. They worked on Petracca's ball drop over summer. They are clearly working on his goal kicking routine. Hopefully a goal kicking coach is on the way and I like many others want a dedicated kicking coach or a dedicated kicking program at least, which they may have. Finally I leave you with this: Marcus Bontempelli is the best field kick in the game with a wonderful action. He's also a terrible kick for goal. It's not easy!

Singling out one of the better players is an odd choice. Continues to run and put his body on the line as much as anyone, and is carrying a decent shoulder knock - mainly because his team mates keep giving him hospital handballs and kicks. I'd like his skills to be better but there's not much difference between Harmes last year and this year, in fact he's probably been as good in a lot of games.

Because even underdone they are better than the scrubs at Casey? Because we keep getting injuries to other players creating a gap in the side. Lever had done enough training and games, just have to get him back in and live with some mistakes and lack of footy. Jetta was rushed in to play limited game time out of the back pocket, at the end of the day he probably wasn't any worse than playing Josh Wagner. Wasn't any better either, but if he's made it through without injuries he'll be better next week for the run at AFL level.

Baker easily the most talented Casey player but also you can see some of the flaws with defensive work rate and getting lost at the contest. Still, he works to get the ball, had multiple hospital kicks on his head, can break and line and deliver accurately. Jordon, Chandler, Bedford developing. Jordon really lifted in the last, with a smooth kick through the middle that should've got the ball back to him for an easy set shot and he blasted a goal from 45 off half a step from a stoppage that was all pure timing. Chandler didn't have a great game but I still like the look of him. Bedford had some ok moments, nice crumbed goal and I like the way he moves around a pack up the ground, unusual player. Corey Wagner played well, but still every 2nd or so thing he does well is something that will work at VFL but probably not at AFL. He just isn't a smooth mover or smart at creating space for himself. The broken tackles and fends that work for him at VFL level probably end up not working at AFL level. I'd give him another run at AFL level but I'm not expecting he'll do anything more than provide some ok role playing efforts. JKH - pretty meh game. McDonald and Maynard both look like guys who still have hip injuries. Every now and then Maynard will do something really good but other times he doesn't pick up the play quick enough or move with the top line agility and power that he did at his best, and his skills are poor. Oscar the same, he's still lacking power and oomph even at VFL level.

I reckon the game was going to have one goal scoring chance left. We had Gawn in the middle, win the clearance and it's game on. The Dogs didn't need to score and clearly we would've had to convert our chance so in that case less than 50/50. Either way, it's not all negative because it really should've come down to the last minute or so and most probably wouldn't have predicted that to start the day given the Dogs form. There were at least a few things to build on.

First half was very good. Executed to the game plan. Did about the best we had with the talent available. 3rd quarter was rubbish, we were belted around the ball and couldn't clear the 50 despite having 2 7 foot long bomb options. Awful stuff. Last quarter we were the dominant side. Leaked a few easy goals and kicked a stack of points ourselves. Fritsch misses an easy goal to bring it under a goal and almost a 50/50 next goal wins game.

No other ruck ever has this paid against. Gawn rucking against a 6 foot tall player has every right use his arm to hold space, he can't sit there and have a small man jump on to him. I get he can't extent the arm to push off but that's not what he was doing at all. Contrived rubbish.

Thinking about it instead of dropping Petty at some stage they have to at least consider dropping Hibberd don't they? He's been really bad for most of this year. Butchering the ball, letting opponents slip out of tackles or contests and not providing any leadership or composure. Obviously he's had some injuries as well and he's still capable of some very good efforts including a clutch spoil last week late in the game but it wouldn't shock me if he made way.

If Jetta comes back in he'll play deep back and it will push Hibberd and/or Frost higher up the ground to the role Petty or Hore were playing and Fritsch on a wing. That means more speed where it counts. It looks like it's either Jetta or Petty, it's not like there's a quick back flanker on the list ready to play. Preuss and Weid will play on Trengove and Cordy, it's not like they're up against smalls. Hannan and Hunt are really the deep smaller forwards and have plenty of pace, they just don't provide consistent results. ANB has the right physical tools to play as a hard running half forward, he just often fails at the skills. I'm far more worried about what we'll do with Lewis who won't have the speed or physicality to mix it with the Dogs mids. I guess he'll sit out on a wing opposed to guys like Lipinski and Hunter, but I'm sure the Dogs will send speed his way.

Jordon's put up some high disposal games since shifting from the backline to the midfeld/forward rotation at Casey, but I'm not sure that means he's anywhere near a debut. With a late December birth date, skinny frame and limited TAC exposure he'll probably be better off just playing the year out at Casey. He's not going to get midfield time in the AFL team and we might have enough backline options for the rest of the year. Maybe if they give Dunkley a couple more games and if he then goes back to the VFL you could give Jordon a go but too many young guys at once if they haven't really bashed the door down at VFL level is a recipe for failure.

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.