DeeSpencer

Melbourne played Hawthorn in round 4, got belted, Jones tagged Mitchell and limited him away from the stoppages. We played Cripps a few weeks after that and he got a few kicks but we won by 100. For the rest of the season our players didn't have to study either of those guys or watch their games. There's not necessarily a lot to base their decision on. I'm sure most players watch some footy. Some watch none, some watch a fair bit including most Friday nights. I have no issue with the MVP as an award but it certainly isn't one that holds a lot of weight. 1. Coaches award 2. Brownlow - due to tradition 3. A combination of media awards - if the same player is winning Age, Herald Sun, 3AW, ABC etc then they've had a great year 4. MVP

Surely has the skills to play regular games. Which usually means it's a question of work rate. Liked him as a forward when he first started but he looked good down back as well but couldn't consistently perform. He's certainly worth asking the question. Right age where he could get it together quickly if you sorted him out.

Gawn coached Flip in juniors and liked him which is a natural reaction to coaching any kid with a bit of talent. But I think that's different to actually having come up against a guy at AFL level and seen his talent. Preuss has a lot of talent, but I'm not sure why he'd leave being stuck behind Goldy to be stuck behind Gawn. We could play both but not if Weeds is playing like he is now. We certainly aren't in a position to promise games.

I wonder if current sponsorship contracts have clauses that pay x amount of money based on Friday night games, channel 7 games or wins. I doubt it because the trade off would be that we wouldn't make much in the lean years! I expect PJ and his team sold our newest sponsors - especially the big ones in Zurich and iSelect - on a strong chance of more success and more exposure in the future. Pretty much it was get in now and get good value or the price will go up. So I'm not sure if we'll make more money on current deals purely on the back of a better fixture right away, but if we keep the same fixture due to success then we can charge more for the same sponsorship's we have now. And we can add more sponsors I'm sure. I'm sure instead of chasing sponsors in the lean years it would be very nice to have companies competing for us.

2 open list spots now with Bernie retiring. High quality free agent signings looking unlikely, but at the same time trade outs of guys like Frost and Tyson don't seem so popular all of a sudden. Not sure what Garlett will do, probably a chance that he stays on the list for salary reasons even if he doesn't play on. 12 more to decide on. Oscar - stays unless we do a Steve May trade Vanders - stays JKH - leaning towards stays, he surely has more faith he can play at the level now than 10 weeks ago Bugg - goes Filipovic - probably goes Kent - leaves if someone else wants him, otherwise could stay Pedersen, Keilty, T Smith, King - got to keep some combination of at least 2 of these guys for tall depth. If we delist them we'll need state league or delisted player back up replacements in the ruck, key defender and forward. McKenna and Johnstone - wait and see based on other list changes

A necessary strict liability and harsh punishment for the Olympics, which happens every 4 years and has global implications. Olympians sign up and sacrifice for that to be the best in the world. Sam Murray is a 20 year old kid who's about the 30th best player on the Pies list. Maybe the 400th best player in a sport that is played by just over half of one small country. He's worked hard to get drafted and get to a second club and get some opportunities to play. He's well rewarded for that in terms of money, but he's not representing his country and isn't on the global stage. The AFL has had one major PED scandal in Essendon. They caught the club and instigators. And despite hardly overwhelming evidence and seemingly little intent they punished the players. Otherwise there's only been a handful of others who have flirted with PEDs. There's no intent from Murray. There's no real damage done to results. There's no gold medal falsely awarded. He rightly suffers deep shame. Giving him any more than about 6 months is just using the harshness of the WADA code where it doesn't need to apply. Some people on here seem to think that's good because they've seemingly never made a mistake. Some think drugs are the devil, probably the same people who drink 3 cups of coffee in the morning and a bottle of wine at night. Some are jealous of the money AFL Players make. Some just want to punish him for his stupidity. Not me. I'd give him 6 weeks just to [censored] of those on their high horses.

He looked ok, but not all that fit and not impressively big, skilled or quick. Add in the likelihood he does a hammy at any time and it's probably a risk we don't bother with. Taylor has shown an interest in getting in guys they liked in their draft years though. He's clearly a guy you'd try to get to train with the ground in October/Nov and see how he's going if you were at all interested.

He could kick and run to find the ball and Hawthorn's kick - mark style was what everyone was chasing at the time. It's a reminder not to be caught up with the hype of the times. No idea how much the club ruined his body and mind. Some players you only get one chance at getting right, others can bounce back from disappointment and retool their body and spirit. Toump played a couple of decent games at Port but then faded out. Certainly clubs have to be careful with 18 year olds and get their bodies right. There's no excuse to not do that. And to not over tax them or over expose them to AFL level. And the best way to avoid draft busts - don't have a lot of top picks!!! And draft well with all your picks. Keep adding talent in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds and you can miss the occasionall first rounder.

Sure why not. And Toumpas as well. One on each wing.

I was always a big fan, no idea if he could get back to this level this year and it's still a bit early to say what level he'll reach consistently but I was hoping he had this in him. He injured his ankle in 2015 and should never have been playing in the games he did play in 2016. But I did believe his 2015 run of games was legit. He was predominantly playing half forward in a struggling side which isn't easy and he made us far better with his aggression and pace. 5-9 in 14 games with him. 2-6 without him that year. I think it was more than just 4 good games, injury and one stinker against the Saints aside I thought he was about as consistently good as you could hope for a first year player across half forward.

Spot on! Players now routinely use most of the shot clock. An obvious reaction to its introduction. Given the umpires go and mark the spot, often with their boots, spraying a line of shaving cream would either be quicker or take no longer. No idea why it hasn't come in yet.

ANZAC day and BCNA are really variants of the traditional jumper and for a good cause, so I support them. I'd try to combine the clash jumpers - red and retro blue - with any Indigenous or Heritage efforts. But at the same time I understand these heritage jumpers were $300 a pop to get your names on them. Even if there's only 50 people who paid up that's 15,000. Not a bad little earner.

His ability to pick it up off the deck and handball accurately on either side might be his best skill. It's top draw. Combined with a nice leap it's made him an effective ruck option. Playing him in the ruck at Casey has really improved him. I can really see him being used in the ruck a lot next year with Max playing forward. Leap for the ball is good and can clunk them, should only get better there. Goal kicking looked good at Casey, bad at AFL level, so that means confidence. Technique is solid. Watching the post game interview his arms look well defined but you can see there's really not all that much of them and he doesn't really fill out the jumper. Got to get him training with Tommy Mc over preseason because if he had Tom's strength and anything like his endurance he'd be a force!

It was red, it was blue, and we won by plenty. Combine those 3 things and it's hard for me to dislike. I thought the red contrasted very nicely off the darker blue. But I only saw them on the ground. Might be a jumper that looks messy on TV.

Tyson is likely 3 weeks minimum. Hard to get back even with a plate in your wrist in 2 weeks. Kent is a decent AC joint. Can play in 2 weeks if everything goes well but I doubt it. Tackling and marking is vital to how he plays. You don't want to do that with a sore shoulder.

Thought it looked great. With 2 different clashes, Anzac jumper, BCNA jumper and Indigenous jumper I understand the concerns we have too many but I'm a fan of this one. The blue with the red stripes coming together would make a nice template for an Indigenous jumper

I will say the way the Giants ran off the ball to create space in the first 45 minutes was frightening. They have so many players who are exceptional athletes and were really using that run smartly. I was impressed we stayed with them and started to force contests. Then once the game became more contested they started planning for next week. Somehow by 10 minutes in to the 3rd we had a comfortable lead and they were dropping a man behind the ball to slow the tempo despite us being 2 down.

I actually don't mind at all where Petracca is at. I hope he gets it all together for a final but the way he's going about things is really good. He's deliberately trying to share the ball instead of being the hero. That's good. One day he'll be the hero and that will be great but he's doing the team thing to get there. He's been very careful on his set shots. Routine. Not blasting. It will come. He's working very hard on his defensive running which we all know isn't a strong suit. What is a strong suit in his the way he can impact defensively when he does get to a contest and he's very good there. He closes distance so easily it forces mistakes and panic and he's very good at teasing distance when zoning off a player. We could play him in the midfield and ask him to hunt the ball and he'd have 25 a week but we've got others to do that. Gus and Clarry get free reign to do go after the ball and are inconsistently defensively. We could play him as a designated full forward or even as the go to guy at CHF and he'd get more of the glory doing that as well, but we've got a forward line with a lot of variety. It's not always pretty but I see a player being developed, through the ups an downs.

FB: Hibberd Oscar Nev HB: Lewis Frost Salem C; Fritsch Oliver Vanders HF: ANB T Mc Melk FF: Petracca Weed Spargo Foll: Gawn Harmes Brayshaw Int: J. Smith, Hannan, Jones (wing), Viney (guts)

Viney in. VFL games to determine if Hannan and/or Joel Smith is the right replacement for the other injury +/- JKH. Very keen for Joel Smith to come back in and give us more speed and defensive strength down back. We lose a bit of skill but I think we can cover that. If Lewis, Salem, Hibberd and Jetta aren't too tied down they can use the ball. Fritsch then slides back up to a wing, he's been very good at half back but I think he can be even more damaging on a wing. Hannan, hmmm, often battling a knee, often good first up. I'd like him in as he's something a little different but he'd have to be fully fit. By the way, noticed today with the jumper presentations on field that Spargo's wasn't signed. I get a sneaky feeling that JKH was actually in for Spargo if it wasn't for Hannan's injury but they knew by Thursday both were going to play. After today though I think Spargo is back ahead of JKH.

St Kilda pushed him, they needed to rebuild as their list was falling off a cliff. Most Saints fans don't hold a grudge and would welcome him back for next year.

Probably kicks and marks it better than Lewis and does a better job completely avoiding his man so he doesn't have to fall over or lamely pretend to tackle. But I'd rather just stick to the veteran we already have, given we're already on the hook for his money next year. Adding a couple of young zippy skilled defenders is what our backline needs. Goddard is the last thing we need.

Rioli and Ryan are good players close to goal and Cripps is a very decent defensive forward, but they do need some upgrades through half forward - replacing LeCras - depending on how confident they are with the likes of Waterman and Venables. More than anything I would've thought they need Gaff's outside run to compliment Shuey, Redden and Yeo. Sheed and Masten as the outside ball winners is no better than us using Jones and Tyson in those roles. I've always thought Kent's best footy is played as an attacking link player, not close to goal, so maybe the Eagles have belief he can do that for them. Either way, he'd only be a very small trade, he has little value as is. It's hard to see a player we'd give up who has enough trade value to really entice the Eagles in to keeping the compensation and not matching the deal. Our best chance there is that the Eagles are fearful that we'd call their bluff if they matched the deal and to be honest I think that's not unreasonable. Their salary cap probably can't afford a huge Gaff contract and they know we have limited draft capital to trade.

Bernie Vince was let off for something very similar. The worst decisions all year have been the nasty bumps that don't cause much damage and only get 1 week. Steve May and Tex Walker both should've gone for 2-3 weeks. The other flaw was the removal of the reprimand or some form of suspended sentence for borderline incidents. Plenty of players deserve to be on a warning that repeated actions will see them be suspended. That's exactly the kind of punishment Dev Smith deserves, not just a fine.

We'd need the players up the ground to use the ball very effectively to engineer that match up though. Otherwise as soon as Melksham heads deep the Giants will swap the match up.