DeeSpencer

Oh yay, 4 road faves, let me tip against 2 of them and lose this week. But for now: I love Josh Allen. That's my QB of the new guys. He's so damn big and dopey yet somehow gracefully athletic and fires the ball off. I'm all in. (I also love Mahomes and Baker, and Darnold is ok too but Josh is my guy).

1. His tank is great, on a long lead that's fine but I don't see him get space on a short lead or sprint away from opponents when the ball hits the ground. Often he'll gather the ball and try to turn back away from goal rather than take them on. I don't know exactly how Hoges would go in a 20m or 40m sprint but I think most gun key forwards would have him covered. 2. This one is the most glaring. I'm surprised you don't see it. He never connects with the midfielders when deep forward. I know our mids burn the ball but good forwards make it easy for them. Hogan is often just pleading for a long bombed kick. 3. Willing to agree to disagree but the way he kicks the ball so across his body means he only has a stab kick, no variation, he'll never be able to weight the ball over a defender 4. One on one body work he's great. But in terms of actually leaping at a pack mark I haven't seen it since year 1 or 2. I'm not sure if it's a lack of confidence in his knees or back or a lack of explosiveness but he's a wrestler not a leaper. McDonald and Weideman are both far better at really jumping for the ball. 5. Josh Kennedy defends, J Riewoldt defends, when he's fit and healthy Buddy defends. It's not the be all and end all but it's a knock. Tommy McDonald's ankles don't work so he doesn't do a great job of it and Melksham likes to stand and watch. It's easy to get to a critical mass of forwards who don't launch in and lay tackles if Hogan is in that group as well. Ben Brown is a more limited footballer than Hogan but he's exceptional and at leading, marking and being a big bugger. Jack Riewoldt is the best and most well rounded forward in the game, if the stats don't show that then chuck them out. Fair point about Tom Mitchell but he is the games best ball winner, that's his remarkable skill to go with doing enough in other areas. I don't know if Hogan's best traits are truly exceptional.

Premierships are won by the best defensive side. That's the saying. May would give us a rock at FB. Big body, quick enough to take a small if needed, strong marker, good left foot roost. Lever roaming around intercepting at CHB and can groom Harry Petty in a similar mold. Jetta back pocket. Hibberd flexible rebound and intercept player. Salem on a flank. Locked in. 3 way battle for the other tall spot based on needs out of Oscar, Frost and Joel Smith. Plenty of competition to see who plays on the other flank. He's exactly what we need. Much easier to add wings and small forwards in the draft and that could pretty much be our focus if we land May.

I think you're overrating Hogan. And I think the club agrees with me because if he was really a super dooper superstar we wouldn't even entertain the idea of a trade. My issues with Hogan are: 1. Pace - he's not super quick and so struggles to burn an opponent either on the lead or when the ball is on the ground 2. Leading patterns - repeatedly he gets out of position as a deep forward. Far better leading up the ground, but the way footy is played right now doesn't favour the lead up CHF. Similarly Tom McDonald is excellent in that role 3. Kicking skills - whilst his goal kicking has improved and is very good inside 45m the way he hooks the ball around his body means he struggles for distance and struggles to weight the ball inside 50. If he gets the ball 60m out it often ends with a turnover or dumped kick. 4. Lack of a leap - how often does he take the big pack grabs out reaching opponents - very rarely 5. Defensive effort - it's just not there. He tried much harder this year but it clearly doesn't come naturally to him. Poor tackler and again the lack of speed comes in here I think Hogan is an excellent player - runs all day, clean hands on both sides of his body, mobile like a midfielder around the packs, kicks his goals at a good rate, but I don't think he's the special kind of player that will get the whole farm in a trade. I don't want draft picks for him, I think most are in agreement there, but if the trade is Hogan for May and another best 22 player with upside then I'd do that. May and Ed Langdon is my suggestion.

Straight swap for Jack Lonie? (I just made that up). Would rather Kent stay than lose him for nothing but he's out of contract and probably wants a fresh start.

Petty's debut was more of a failure from the entire side than from him. Near impossible to play as an intercepting CHB when the rest of the side couldn't defend anywhere on the ground. He dropped a few marks he got his hands on, that's nerves, then was beaten for pace and tired out. We just have high standards for debuts after not having many young talls thrown in of late. The Weid got a couple of easy goals on debut but otherwise did nothing. Hogan was ready to play. Frosty, Max and Tom debut years ago. Joel Smith busted his shoulder on debut. Oscar was pretty trash on debut. And Petty really wasn't much different to Jake Lever's debut for us! After a good preseason or two and picked in a game where the rest of the side do their job I could see Petty playing an excellent 2nd AFL game.

Thought Mitch King showed enough early to do better in the VFL this year and kick on but once he was dropped from the VFL side that wasn't happening. Flip and athletic type but lacked any real AFL qualities and did nothing at Casey. Feel for Pat McKenna, had a terrible run with injuries and couldn't get anything going at Casey but even without the fitness if you've got an AFL future you should show something in the 2's. By all reports all pretty good guys and good team mates so we'll need to reload and go again at the drafts.

Bugg had plenty of chances to make it back after the punch. Kicking was unreliable Decision making was slow Lacked a yard of speed or agility to really be a good pressure forward And he never ever turned and looked to his left. I was a little surprised we never used him as a wing tagger like we did in 2016, he was very handy that year for us. But there's far better midfielders out there, and as a half forward ANB, Melksham and Spargo bring much more, yet alone looking for really talented forwards.

They're effectively getting 2 second round picks! It's just disguised. They might get a Tim Kelly and a Bayley Fritsch. Or a Mitch Hannan and Tom Stewart. This isn't progress at all.

Max can play forward. I'd be playing Preuss about 10 games a year against the taller sides and non finalists and having him ruck 50% of the game whilst Gawn plays forward. Then come the business end you go smaller and ruck Max 80% game time.

If we can turn Hogan in to: - May - Preuss - Ed Langdon Then we've filled 3 needs (full back, back up ruck, wing) with 1 player leaving. I'd do that for sure. It would be brutal but it's a brutal competition

Note the Barrett story specifically stating that these priority access picks are tradeable. Why would they include that stipulation if it wasn't going to happen? I have it on strong mail that Carlton will use that first choice to select Shane McAdam from Sturt. They'll then trade his rights to Adelaide for Mitch McGovern, with possibly some late pick swaps. He's this years Tim Kelly and valued at around 15-20. Gold Coast and several other clubs not happy they are missing him. I think all these players should be free agents and bottom clubs should just use spare salary to sign them, or if not let them pick guys to get for free but not until after pick 30 or 40. As mentioned above we've given up draft picks for Hannan, Fritsch, Vanders, Wagner etc. I don't want to lose a chance at Jay Lockhart. Wouldn't mind Corey Wagner either as a rookie.

Nice kick, uses both hands to get out of trouble well, good agility and excellent intercept marker who can read the flight and jump at the ball very nicely. He doesn't seem to have a lot of straight line speed and I'm not convinced about his one on one defensive skills, so there's plenty of room to improve but at least he has the standout traits. I wonder if he will be suited to where the game is going if he can plonk at CHB and be an interceptor, he looked like McGovern in the first half yesterday. I think he had at least 1 if not 2 clean grabs not paid and took a number of others. My concern is the game only gets quicker and the intercept markers get found out a bit if they can't close one on one. There also has to be a bit of question mark on whether Petty and Lever have similar skill sets and somewhat fight each other for the CHB spot or interceptor role. Who knows though, a couple of preseasons working on his speed and strength and he might cover the ground really well and become a valuable player. I'm certainly excited to see him develop.

Forget the glory days of drafting spuds, but even when Roos was at the club we picked up JKH, Hunt and Stretch looking for forward/back/wing players. Harmes as well. Picked up Garlett. Picked up Hibberd. This is while we also built up the midfield and talls. Two years ago we took 2 picks in the draft and used them on Hannan - quick forward flanker - and DJ (who was a pressure forward turned backman). Then last year Spargo - nippy half forward type, Fritsch - outside flanker/wing, Baker - speedy wing. I'm pretty sure the club knows exactly where the weaknesses lie. I'm sure they wanted more out of Garlett and Kent this year and more consistency from Hannan. Bedford looks an option. Otherwise we keep searching. We aren't the only team on the lookout. There's only so many Rioli's to go around! We need to look out for the Tom Papley and Ben Ronke types as well.

Salem only had 1 good game in the midfield - against the Roos, and he played on ball not wing. He's not an elite runner, the wing isn't the spot for him. He was much more consistent when moved to half back against Essendon and I think he'll feature really high in our B+F with a number of games where he did his job perfectly at half back. Fritsch is the most natural winger on the list IMO. It's just a matter of building his tank and teaching him some stoppage craft. Considering he wasn't in the TAC system or even playing regular at Casey (senior or development) he's come a long way this year and just got tired when asked to play backline late. If he can get his tank to AFL midfield standard whilst building some core strength this summer he could not only back up but go to another level next year.

Whilst I agree you have to judge teams against the best sides I think it's fair to count the finals wins against Geelong and Hawthorn and not just the games we lost. Switching or no switching we moved the ball very well against the Eagles and Giants late in the year, and against the Cats (first quarter and all game out of the backline) and the Hawks. Our ball movement was good when the midfield held up. The 3 biggest losses for the year (Hawks, Pies, Eagles) were all midfield beltings. We have to improve the outside personnel, I'm in agreement there, but that can be true and it can also be true that we did about as well as we could've done this year trying to maximise our inside midfield power and midfield running. Also look across the competition at the wingers in the best sides: Eagles - Masten, Sheed, Redden Coll - Mayne, Phillips Rich - Grigg, McIntosh, Graham Hawks - Smith, Henderson It's big body endurance runners, only one of which is Smith is super quick and not many who are very skilled. And even Smith would rotate to half forward or half back to find more space.

His set shot kicking has been rubbish all year, of course he'll pass it off. It was excellent the year before. This year, he creates a routine, attempts to kick better drop punts and kicks like trash. Something to fix over summer. Have we hired a kicking coach yet?????????

The first shot was bad Bernie. Getting the ball in a worse position from a lovely kick. That's selfish football. Costly. The second shot was a lovely smart option and a beautiful kick but just went the wrong side of the post

Hunt wasn't terrible, I thought he made a number of good defensive plays and after a few bad kicks wasn't that bad with it. Had a number of repeat efforts to move the ball forward. The greater frustration must be that he isn't a cut above VFL, but with the season he's had that's not a surprise. I guess the greatest shame watching was there was no player who really was a cut above. Fritsch looked very good, but still had some poor defensive efforts. JKH started in amazing touch then faded. Petty looked a class above for a half then got turned around. Keilty was good all game but then would drop a chest mark or miss a handball. He can do a bit of everything but isn't really dominant in one area. I'm not sure what happened to Tim Smith. He went from covering the ground really well at Casey and being clean with the ball to fumbling. And his set shots went way off. No preseason so maybe he'd bounce back if given the chance. I remember the GF two years ago Oliver looked amazing and the rest didn't impress. This year was kind of similar that there just weren't many AFL listed players really on the up out there. Where was the young small forward or outside mid with some talent?

I'm not saying they are good, just they are (possibly) the better option than having guys who fatigue and are then completely useless. Vanders, Tyson and Jones got the job done because our inside mids won against the Hawks and Cats. The Eagles outside mids are Masten, Sheed and Redden. None of them are speedsters. Yeo, Shuey and Hutchings won it on the inside, that's what killed us. Plus the Eagles forwards got real pressure on when our forwards couldn't, and the Eagles half forwards kept bobbing up in to space where our half forwards ran in to each other. If we had proper wingmen we could've extended the game out more and worked away from the contest, so it's certainly a needs area, but we went with the midfield that was doing the job when play A - win the ball in tight worked.

New England, Green Bay, Dallas

I'm not convinced we never switch, I think we do ok in that regard but it comes when our backline is on top so are actually driving the ball out. If the backline are under the pump they lose their confidence. Fritsch and Vanders on the wings would actually be switching weapons. Both really good size and strong in the air. You'd look up at half back and back them in to win it if you kicked to advantage. Adding another wing is certainly a priority so we have depth and quality. Tyson and Jones are getting the games because they cover the ground in an endurance fashion. It's endurance that our mids need. Certainly pace is required too but we need that hard gut running. You can't just throw a fast guy on the wing, they need the tank. Viney, Oliver and Gus getting fitter to spread out for the switches would help. It's: 1. Wing 2. Proper small forwards - I like Spargo but he's a flanker, similarly ANB is a midfield connector type, not a forward. Hannan if anything is a flanker, he doesn't have the right speed/agility tackling mix 3. Key defensive upgrades if possible 4. A skilled back flanker to replace Lewis 5. Ruck depth to ease the load for Max

That was a pretty awful coaching performance by Rawlings' and co. Pedersen had to ruck most of the last quarter. Without winning it at the source they would never get it to him forward. Using Smith in the ruck for so long was a disaster. Fritsch was being dragged deep in the backline. Why not move him on to a wing? He'd help get the ball moving. Lockhart wasn't very effective mid/forward, he would've given some drive at half back. JKH didn't get thrown in to the midfield despite looking like the cleanest mid to get his hands on it. Munro, Bugg both can tackle and crack in but they could never get a clean possession. Not surprisingly Jeff was hopeless but where was the use of him off the back of the square to get him in the game? It was yet another victory for Clarko footy over the rubbish we like to play and can't seem to drag ourselves out of.

Whilst I agree the failures were in winning the contested ball I thought for the first 10 minutes or so of the game we weren't terrible around the ball and got it forward a few times but were unable to lock it in. Just locking it in our half for a while would've stalled the Eagles momentum. The Eagles nailed kick after kick across from the middle of the field to the fat side forward flanker, some of that is midfield related and bad defending but a lot of times we couldn't get them slowed at half back. The Eagles were nailing their skills at a really quick pace. The kind of pace only Richmond, Collingwood and the Eagles have been able to sustain this year. Smith looked like a guy who could disrupt that more than a lot of our forwards.

No but he'd help us get it back. The Eagles were pumping it inside 50 at times because not only do our key defenders get beaten, they just don't take marks, nor do they regularly sink the fist through the ball and clear the contest. So even if you win it back you're under pressure and not in control of the ball. Oscar wasn't entirely terrible today but missed a bunch of marks and had plenty of chances to really thump the ball through. Frost had a bad Frost game. Lever will help the marking and rebound but is best used as a third option, especially coming off a knee. Maybe Frost and Oscar can improve again, and they showed against the Cats and Hawks they can do the job with midfield support, but it's hard to win a flag without 1 gun key defender.