DeeSpencer

Disagree with some of that, half forward and half back are often the quickest part of the ground. If you're defending well the ground shrinks up in to lots of stoppages and little space on the wing. Selwood is playing wing for the Cats. Isaac Smith is spending a lot of time at half forward to get in to more space for the Hawks. For the quarter and a bit that we defended reasonably well Jones and Lewis weren't caught out for pace all that often. As soon as the forwards and mids dropped off they were torched, but so were our slow half backs. The thing I do agree with you on is don't play him if he can't play HB. I don't think he can, not alongside Josh Wagner and without a lot of pace with the other defenders. I think we can have 1 slower wing and still be a decent side: Jones or Lewis. And one slower half back: Lewis or Josh Wagner. If that player moves to the right spaces and gets a lot of uncontested ball then they are useful without speed. And even then just as much of the mistake was playing Lewis without a warm up in the VFL. There was no chance for him to get some touch and prove he can bend down and get the ball, chase opponents and go in to tackle.

Because the Saints half forwards - Kent, Parker, Long, Lonie all would've killed Lewis at half back and the backline - which was already slow with one plodding flanker in Josh Wagner - did the job against the Swans. The plan was he'd mostly be on Sinclair or Newnes on the wing, less speedy and more running accumulators. As long as we provided good forward pressure he only had to run with them not sprint with them. Lewis and Jones were to run hard backwards and provide the backs with numbers and easy outlet options, then we'd play tempo footy. Stretch and Jones both did that against the Swans and Lewis only had to do similar to Stretch with better kicking (theoretically). Clearly it failed, mainly because the MCG is far bigger and the Saints far quicker than the Swans, but if he played at half back in place of (?J Wagner ?Hibberd ?Fritsch) he still would've been found wanting speed and agility against the Saints quick forwards. Unless the forward and midfield pressure is top shelf and he has a slow and harmless opponent he's going to struggle.

Chad Wingard looks is awful shape and is only just going for the Hawks. Rockliff and others didn't do much for Port last year. Stringer took half a season to get going at the Dons. Point is it's not always easy to get senior players from other sides and have them up and running. Anyone who's an NFL fan will know that free agents are often available for a reason and it's the same in the AFL when it comes to trading players. I'll maintain that May was stiff to be suspended, which meant he missed round 1 and then was underdone in round 2. We stuff that up. And yeah a lot feeds back to his preseason conditioning, but at some stage you can't put it all on him.

Watching his game against the Under 18 kids I'd say he's currently behind Stretch, Lockhart, Garlett, Tim Smith and probably Sparrow (who didn't play against the kids), maybe even Chandler. Add in changes with taller players - Keilty, Oscar - and there's 7 or more in line to come in ahead of him. Things are bad - we almost have to bring Oscar back in, we'll have to stick with Jones, the forward line is a mess. But not so bad that we need ANB back.

Baker is a long way off it based on today. Stretch isn't much good but at least he runs hard and generally to decent spots.

I'd say serviceable not brilliant for Hore today. He's still off the pace when it comes to using the ball. Instead of taking the easy first option he puts himself at risk of turning it over and then often telegraphs his decision. The little stutter steps then loop on his kicks in uncontested situations aren't helpful at all. Killed a few contests and is a nice interceptor when given the chance but I was hoping for more attacking drive and better defensive ability on the deck, he's very easy to get around.

Back to the 2's but I"ll stick with him long term. Has the smarts and the vision, just needs to be playing in a side that isn't a complete mess. A little worrying that in year 1 he'd throw himself at the contest and get to a lot of good spots and this year he's all at sea but that happens some times.

Out: Jetta (inj), T Mc (?inj), Weideman, Lewis, C. Wagner, Spargo In: Stretch, Keilty, T Smith, Sparrow, Lockhart, Garlett (shudders) FB: Hore Hibberd C. Wagner HB: Brayshaw Frost Salem C: Lockhart Viney Stretch HF: Petracca Keilty Melksham FF: T. Smith Preuss Garlett Foll: Gawn Oliver Harmes Int: Jones, Sparrow, Fritsch, Hunt Badly need some fresh legs. Try Gus at half back, he's getting exploited in the midfield anyway. Fresh runners through the middle. Try something different up forward. Keilty to hit the packs, Tim Smith as the 3rd tall who gives more at ground level than most in our side.

If I were Simon Goodwin/Josh Mahoney/Gary Pert or Glenn Bartlett it would be clean out your locker on Monday, thanks for the 2 years and good luck in the media. Bruise free, treacle slow, mentally soft and physically weak players don't get to go around talking up their leadership and importance, not if I had anything to say about it.

Whilst not exactly good I thought in the periods of the game where the midfield and forward line gave the backline any kind of up the ground pressure they did pretty well. The first half really consisted of decent backline play for large chunks with awful midfield pressure at times creating easy St Kilda goals. The 3rd quarter when we played a loose man behind the ball was probably worse than the first half.

The Preuss lacerated Jye Caldwell's kidney last year in the same fixture. I would've thought it would make more sense to distribute each of these kids in to different VFL games so they could play as the 22nd/23rd men in flanker type roles that kept them away from the hot stuff, but this is a good test for them.

Read the age article guys. He'll be 33 to start next season with 3 years and 4 million dollars worth of contract to go. Even if the Swans agree to give him up for no cost in a trade and pay 500k a season so they've got salary cap room you're looking at 2.5M/3 so over 800k a year. I know it's a different sport but LeBron James is a different level of superstar even from the Buddy level and he's 34 and can't do what he used to do and the Lakers are paying for it. Ageing superstars are very difficult to fit in to a side in a way that works for everyone. Geelong suffered by being too accommodating to Ablett last year and now he's back in a limited half forward role he and the team are vastly improved. To get a similar result out of Buddy is even harder given he's more of a structural player as a tall. You could do it but to make it value for money you'd need the money to be massively less than it is.

One thing we have to be careful not to do here is upset him based on a low ball offer. The rumour is that's what got Lever really thinking about moving home and there's been lots of other cases of that. It's a good situation to wait and see until mid year and then maybe make a decent counter offer that is fair for both sides.

His work rate looked exceptional, the left foot goal and the sense to draw the free and kick a clutch goal both commendable, otherwise yeah he butchered it consistently. The only question I have is who was better? Clearly Gawn, otherwise it was a game with a lot of lousy players. Plenty of hard running and a little bit of class in front of goal was worth recognising by the coaches.

Likes the fake tough stuff more than the real stuff and often uses the ball like he's drunk. Rushes in to contests and rushes his disposal, both traits that aren't particularly suited to the wing or half back. I can't see him being worth the price. The Swans or Saints can have him. It won't be easy to find a perfect outside runner, they aren't easy to come by, but I still think we can do better than Zak. Ed Langdon would be nice, skills aren't great but he's a more natural outside runner, unfortunately he's started the year in good form and might become costly.

Which ones? KK sure. Lever had 1 major injury before in his career. May had a couple of small soft tissues but had played a lot more than he missed the last few years. A lot of our recent recruits - Melksham, Hibberd, Lewis, Garlett, Preuss aren't guys who had bad injury histories. Same goes for our draft picks. I may be wrong but as far as I can remember in the last 5 years the only guy we've drafted who had a big injury concern on him was Weideman.

You recruit players because you think they have the right traits to play the game not especially one position but yes he spent the whole summer training with the mids to play wing and looked pretty good in uncontested drills at training. The groin injury was a set back and he had 2 pretty awful games. Plus the concussion issue raising its head again (pardon the pun). Need to sort that out and get him playing consistent footy in the VFL, anything more than that would be a bonus for this year.

I think the Melkshake suffered a little in the first 3 weeks being used as a deep forward when that should be the change up, the pressure of being the goal kicker led to some ordinary efforts. He played for a free against Hurley, dropped the mark, then was hit high, held and shoved in the back and didn't get any of those 3 free kicks either! I've always said his defensive pressure is poor but I think his overall work rate and running is good to get the ball. Was nice to see him back to playing as a connecting half forward who can then take a spell deep rather than the other way around. He's always been the fake tough guy type who can fumble or go half hearted when he feels pressure from behind, at this stage that's probably who he is. If the mids and half backs can improve he'll keep getting better, especially if we can start to get the ball to him in space with angled kicks across half forward. A lot of teams would love a player like Melksham.

The transition period would surely be rough but the draft and free agency should keep competitive balance. Those older C+ guys who can do a job should spread around the comp. Opening up the ground would be a factor (if it works) but most teams right now are fielding a pretty ordinary bottom 6. Young sides might not get away with playing so many kids but they don’t right now anyway. As soon as a team is really full of babies they lose by 10 goals.

There's an easy way, which is also the most logical way to remove congestion. - Remove 2 players from the ground and make it 16 a side with 3 or 4 interchange. I'd love to see a serious trial involving a state league competition and AFL preseason. Giving the good players the ball more often (even just 5% more) and with more space to work with surely results in more open skilled play.

I think Essendon certainly took a step forward between weeks 2 and 3 but a lot of that was because they went from playing the Saints to playing us. We took a leap between weeks 3 and 4 not only because of fitness/coaching/effort but because we were playing the Swans instead of the quick bombers. So much of the confidence and run that Essendon had against us came from our lack of pressure. We showed in the second quarter that if we could stick with them a bit and hold them up they started making mistakes. The Saints deserve credit for doing that. Again, not saying they are anything special, just in agreement they have traits to challenge us and I think the results against Essendon one week apart should be put down to more than just the Bombers getting it together.

Had a few really good games to start his career, then got a bit ahead of himself and was ad libbing too much for the Swans liking and butchering the ball. Killed us last year when allowed to play as an intercepting half back but being stuck on Preuss deep and providing little intercepting or attacking drive largely took him out of the game. The Swans should've trusted young McCartin deep or flipped Ried to full back and McCartin forward and got Aliir up the ground, but Longmire isn't very creative. If we get May and Lever fit we will be well served for intercepting tall defenders, we just need a 3rd guy who can do a shut down job.

So the bombers just magically went from a shambles to good in the week before they played us? St Kilda aren't world beaters by any means but I share the OP's concern that they run hard and fast. They've also got a decent smattering of guys who will cause us trouble - Webster, Billings, Gresham, Bruce, Membrey and at least 1 or 2 of Lonie/Kent/Parker/Long. The Swans are slow and sluggish from half back and in the midfield. That's why we were allowed to play our style. We'll need to lift it up a level again to make we get the game on our terms against a side with more pace and innovation.

Lever will come back through the 2's probably for at least 2 games. May had some very good moments at training and wasn't too bad against Brisbane, I think even not at 100% he should be thrown in but given a bit of time to build fitness and form in terms of performance. In the Geelong game they tried to use him as the 3rd tall intercept player and something like that would be ideal - sit him on a resting ruckman and let him run off.

I think we should roll the dice of 1 tall defender against the Saints forward line. I'm a big Petty fan but last year against the Saints he was exploited for a lack of suitable match up and poor team defence and that has to be the focus again. Lewis and Jetta in to the backline means 2 defenders have to make way or be reassigned. I think it might be time to try Salem up the ground, can always swap him with Fritsch or Lewis if it isn't working. T. Smith for Preuss if we want to maintain a bigger forward line, or we could go small. Unsure who gets the last couple of forward spots. I like Spargo because despite the slipped tackles and limited ball winning you can see he's a smart footballer who gets to the right spots, which then makes it easier for everyone else. FB: Jetta Hibberd Hore HB: Lewis Frost Fritsch C: Salem Oliver Stretch HF: Melksham T Mc Petracca FF: Hunt Weid T. Smith/small Foll: Gawn Harmes Brayshaw Int: Viney, Jones, J. Wagner, C. Wagner/Spargo/Garlett/Lockhart