DeeSpencer

That was disgusting umpiring. And a few too many errors really - L Pearce an easy dropped mark with a couple of minutes to go and too many wide kicks. Disappointing because the pressure and work rate was excellent, backline were solid, some of the lead up play to goals was great. Probably the best game of AFLW ever until 3/4 time and then the heat and poor umpiring wrecked it. Lily Mithen's best ever game. The annoying thing is watching Paxman who is a super player but she takes on too many tackles and dishes out bad handballs under pressure because she's not been trained up her whole career how to be a smooth mover with dual sided skills. Then you've got little T Hanks who's a jet and can bob and weave, handball both sides, run with the ball or dish it backwards and you see the standard that is achievable in the future.

Of course they deserved to win and it was a great effort, doesn’t change my point that if Sheed misses they probably lose. In which case are we even talking about the Eagles and 2 rucks or are we talking about the Pies ruck and forward set up? If the Pies win are we saying Petracca should play full forward like De Goey? And talking about the way Cox palms the ball to his smalls and encouraging Tommy Mc and Weid to do the same?

Agree with you on Jolly. Although he wasn't understudy to Jamar he was understudy to White, a role he was competing with Jamar for back when the 2nd ruck played 10 minutes a quarter off the bench. We couldn't keep both Jolly and Jamar so we traded one for a fair price (even if draft picks had different values back then). There was certainly no doubt Jolly would make a very good ruck. I had doubts on the Russian but he came through. Martin was a different case. He was a tall guy with good athleticism but not really a fixed position. He was pretty soft and there wasn't a lot of evidence he could convincingly hold down the ruck even if Jamar was injured. Neeld and co pretty much swapped him out for Pedersen who was a better forward-ruck player. Brisbane took him on as a forward/ruck type and he was injured for a season and half. It was only because Leuenberger and Trent West were both injured that he even got a chance as first ruck. Here's Leppa pretty much saying they'll pick Martin because they have to but he thinks the young kid Archie Smith has a better future. https://www.lions.com.au/news/2014-05-31/leppa-martin-logical-choice Obviously there were some Stef Martin fans and if you were one of them then congratulations but the mainstream opinion at the time was that he was a tall bloke with some athleticism who was worth a try but that's about it. Hence why Brisbane got him for some late picks. He'd played 50 games because we were rubbish and we could try him back, forward and in the ruck (or all 3 at once). Anyway, back to the topic that matters, Josh Mahoney said a thousand times in trade week that Preuss was here for coaching and to train and learn from Gawn and stressed he wasn't an automatic inclusion in the side. How are people forgetting that?

Fair point, I believe they have to be at some point along the side of the centre square, all of which I'd class as the wing , so yes they can be right next to the corner and very quickly back as a spare. Still, if they do that they'll be manned up with equal number or the team will be conceding a loose wingman. A dominant ruck could then hit the ball to the spare wings side and drastically increase their chances of winning the clearance. Or instruct the midfielders and forwards to kick/lead towards the fat side away from the wing who is sagging back as the spare defender. No matter how you structure it I think the result will be: Clean centre clearances will become more valuable, messy centre clearances will still be of little value.

The thing I find funny: - Let's copy West Coast, they won the Grand Final. Seems to be the trend. Which blatantly ignores that West Coast didn't copy Richmond who won the flag the year before them, they also only won the grand final because Sheed nailed a goal he would probably kick at best 3/10 times and maybe 1 in 20. If the Pies won the flag with Grundy rucking 80% of the game, Cox only pinch hitting in the ruck and mostly being a big forward, Mihocek as an undersized 2nd key forward and De Goey in particular (plus Stephenson) as the most dangerous forwards then what would we be doing? Gawn was worked over in the West Coast prelim after a huge year, he has to be better managed this year. But our real problems were our shaky backline and our lack of classy kicking in to the forward line. They are the errors we should be focusing on in to round 1.

The wings have to be on the wings. The forwards and backs have to be forward or back. So a clean centre clearance can give a midfielder more time to steady up and deliver inside 50 to an even number of forwards and backs. With a designated full forward out of the goal square who - if a team plays man to man - could have a decent amount of space in front of them and therefore a one on one contest in space. The reality is more times than not teams will defend the centre clearance well enough to pressure the kick and there will still be a pack situation inside 50 or on the flank where the ball is bombed to. That said, there's a chance for someone with some class like Brayshaw to get the ball on the run and deliver long (helps if you can do it on both feet) to a forward in space. Or an explosive player like Viney, Petracca or Vanders to burst through the square in to some clear room. 2 rucks may be important because you don't want to allow a team to get a clean break from the middle now you can't stack a spare back. I still think a good athletic key forward is a worthwhile option but using someone like Grigg wouldn't be because you can't be non competitive and let the opposition just feed the hit out straight to their best mids.

FB: Jetta May Hibberd HB: Hunt Oscar Lewis C; Vanders Oliver Fritsch HF: Petracca T Mc ANB FF: Spargo Weid Melksham Foll: Gawn Brayshaw Viney Int: Salem, Harmes, wing/back, forward/wing Of those 20 you can mount a small case against Oscar (for Frost on a speedy tall), Lewis (for Hore), and Weid (if Preuss is preferred) although I think they are all pretty established in the side. Hunt is probably the only one who's a little iffy and I'd back him in. Yet to prove fitness: May, Oliver, Viney, Melksham, McDonald, Jones In contention: Hore, Frost, JKH, Jones, J. Smith, T. Smith, C. Wagner, Stretch, Preuss Smokie: Baker - a small chance he follows the pathway that Hannan and Brayshaw have done in recent years in blitzing a Casey practice game and coming in to the side for round 1. If they play Salem on a wing then Hore is the standout choice to come in to the back 7. If Salem plays half back then the other wing options come in to play - JKH, Stretch or a healthy Jones. KK an option but seems very unlikely he'll be fit. The 7th forward is the discussion for Preuss v J/T Smith v C Wagner v going the extra midfielder and using Fritsch and Vanders forward. If I were betting right now it would be Hore and J Smith for the last 2 spots with Jones declared not ready

A lovely crumb and some nice defensive work but otherwise he butchered the ball. Still think he looked scared of contact so wanted the ball out of his hands.

It might come down to this: If Preuss plays round 1 then the Weid doesn’t. As much as I liked the impact big Preuss gave hitting contests hard as a forward and spelling Maxy I still don’t think a Weid/T Mc/Preuss forward line is defensively sound.

Joel Smith's positives where his work rate to space up the ground and his defensive work. Inside 50 he did nothing.

Seemingly little. Although the small ground and congested play made fast breaks tricky, watch and see with the kick outs. Push in the backs and grabs out of the ruck might be iffy. Hard for umps. 6-6-6 does nothing good or bad. If they want to trial last touch and 16 a side I'd be all for it. They are some real rules.

Wouldn't hate if he didn't keep making the same mistakes. He wasn't alone, Harmes didn't start well and Vanders was pretty fumbly at times, but I thought Corey Wagner and JKH probably used it better than ANB today.

Hore took a couple of nice grabs intercepting and used the ball pretty well, a couple of shanks under pressure but a lovely kick to get us started. Didn't look all that great when playing from behind or side to side though, not sure he's got a lot of power and the step up in pace might catch him out at times so it will be interesting to see where he fits. Looked more like a guy who can do a job than a threat to really break out.

Pressure really good from both sides. Apart from the first 10 minutes our pressure was good and structures seemed sound. Pies were missing their 3 most dangerous forwards in De Goey, Stephenson and WHE, although Elliott makes up for one of those. So the low score from them isn't a huge surprise. That was pretty much 2017 Collingwood we played when they couldn't score. I was a little disappointed we didn't switch the ball more around half back, we seemed comfortable to bomb it out. Backline: Frost and Oscar both started very poorly missing chances to kill contests with intercepts or strong punches. Frosty clean missed a few chances to mark and Oscar looked slow. But they got going as the game spread out a bit more and our pressure came up. Jetta excellent. Hibberd solid. Lewis did enough defensively and apart from his trade mark dumb free kicks he played well. Hunt good. Mids: Gus had it on a string early and his clean hands and tackle pressure was excellent. Tracc then took over. Vanders cracked in. Young Sparrow tagged Treloar in the second half, nice goal and won some ball, probably wasn't as clean with his tackles as I expected. Max dominated, hardly a surprise there. Salem showed his class at times. Forwards: Pressure was really good. Joel Smith a nice addition in that regard and C Wagner worked hard. Tim Smith did ok. Preussy hit some contests very hard but I wasn't impressed by his positioning, did get on the end of it a few times though. One nice grab and a solid but not spectacular game from Weids. Nice goal from Garlett and good pressure but he made some dreadful errors kicking the ball along the ground and making bad decisions, didn't do enough to convince me he was in any way back. Stock up: JKH - really got us going in the first term and was dangerous all game, strong enough at the contest, high work rate Hunt - no huge runs but opened the game up and used it nicely at times Petracca - midfield oomph Stock down: ANB - very scratchy ball use and decision making Stretch - didn't take the game on enough or deliver well

Gee God Boy Wow

Maybe the most AFL part of this is instead of letting teams come up with their own symbols they are going to have a choice of 40 AFL approved emojis (but don't call them emojis). A shame because there has been some great ones in college football.

Bench rotation numbers make a lot of sense. I'm surprised it's not already a thing. Runners are still allowed on to the field after a goal and the 3 or 4 oncoming players can deliver messages to their line groups. Seems crazy to me to flash up signs. If it's going to happen I hope we have someone smart enough to work out the best possible messages to send and how to disguise them.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/demons-battle-of-the-giants/news-story/e0b5bae12803940174eb6fb87b7443b9

I'd go with the body! But I want him to have both!

Maybe, maybe not. The photos are consecutive in the album and have the same background so they are likely doing the same drill. Doesn't really matter, I've seen enough of Petracca's kicking to know his action is always imperfect.

I find it funny that there was a heated debate over Petracca's body a few weeks ago when I think these pictures (well done Eleanor) show a far greater problem for him. This can't be a good kicking technique. Plant foot isn't planted. Balancing arm is swirling around in the breeze. Hips and torso aren't aligned. Compare with Spargo who's very aligned and balanced and you can see why Spargo is a nice accurate quick kick where as Petracca is capable of blasting a superb kick but just as likely to spray it.

Imagine the outrage if Tommy Mc played AFLX then had an operation after it. What the hell were they thinking? Why was he even training today and not in for surgery right now? This is a weird one.

Mostly split in to 3 diffferent groups and doing light craft work. I tried to watch a bit of Corey Wagner but nothing stood out. Sparrow’s size and acceleration stand out, no idea what it means in game terms yet but he’s an athlete. In a drill where Rawlings kicked a high ball then Chaplin whacked defenders with pads it was clear Hore picks up the flight and marks well overhead. I like Chandlers energy. Salem was in with the mids when they did a little bit of center clearance work near the end. Hunt has a few random barrels that made it to half way from the goal square.

I got there at about 10:15 and stayed for 50 minutes or so. Tommy Mc walking off with a staff member. Lever was finishing up, Jones doing ball work, Hannan boxing. Didn’t see Viney or KK. Nor Walker or Neitscke. None of the 5 Indigenous players were there, assume they’re still on their camp. As far as I could tell everyone else was in full training.

Bummer, he looked ready made enough to make an impact at Casey. The silver lining for him is he’s got a long time until next season and maybe the extra rehab and sidelines time can be used to work on his strength and some extra coaching time. For the team: we’re now have 2 list spots open, do we add a player before the March deadline?