DeeSpencer

Would like to know how his contract is going. Have they opened negotiations? Also how he's embraced different roles - wing, forward, back, on ball and even some ruck and if he sees himself settling in to one particular spot.

Don't mind this from Greeny. I'd certainly give Weids a go at CHB for Casey for a few weeks. I think he'd hold a lot of marks he gets his hands on up forward and his clean handballing and tackling would be useful. It would help his kicking under pressure and second efforts as well.

We could fit Wines in. Petracca plays forward, Brayshaw - if he's not traded to create the room - rotates in from the wing. But he's going to cost 2 first round picks we don't have, plus a mega contract. Gaff fits a need better, is cheaper - both contract and trade - and it's a question if we can even fit him in.

Alternating would actually work in our favour if we get a 2nd game against the Pies in the first 5 weeks. That way both teams can lock in a big pay day each year, and the QB'day game will grow. With Pies fans upset about not sitting in their regular seats and having a few losses the Collingwood portion of the crowd has shrunk more than the Melbourne portion has increased in the last few years. Alternating is the best way to grow it back up to maximise attendance.

They bought some pubs a few years ago that turned in to lemons, and then had a costly training base expansion to pay for. When AFL profit sharing came in under equalisation they felt the squeeze a bit. Personally I feel Eddie's main motivation is to keep Melbourne down, not in a vindictive way just in the spirit of a tough competition. You can tell when commentating he loves a Victorian underdog side because if you keep the bad Victorian sides exactly where you want them - ie. in the comp but treading water to survive - then Collingwood maintain their status as one of the best Vic sides. Since 2010 Hawthorn and Geelong are as strong as ever, the Dogs nabbed a flag and the Tigers are now a powerhouse. He'll be getting nervous about the Pies position in the food chain.

I'd love Wines, but with Viney, Oliver, Petracca and Brayshaw I think we're better off spending resources elsewhere. Sounds to me like he's stalling his contract because teams like Essendon surely and maybe Carl, Haw, North and St Kilda have all offered up big dollars.

Hogan doesn't tackle, doesn't apply great pressure, doesn't get 1%ers such as spoils when caught out of position and has a number of clanger turnover kicks per game. There's a number of stats that these rankings seem to really favour. They really like efficiency which is where Oliver stands out. They've always loved Tommy Mc's 1%ers and work rate. They reward explosive players like Petracca who turn contests in to clean possession. Hogan's up to 67th overall and right up with the best key forwards not named Lance this year but clearly his form in '16 and '17 left some room for improvement.

The thing that really need to change for Weideman to get in the team over Smith is for the other forwards to start laying some forward 50 tackles. Especially Hogan who is very poor defensively for a mobile guy but Hannan, Melksham and even Tommy Mc as well. If we had reliable forward pressure from those guys we would pick big Sam.

If Smith was injured then yeah, Stretch could come in and run the wing against Tom Phillips who's an in form player of the competition. Harmes and Fritsch would spend more time forward to cover Smith's 3rd tall role, with either Harmes or Tommy Mc doing the ruck minutes. My guess is the coaches might prefer that to bringing back Weeds. It could work, but the first option is to hope Smith is fine. Wasn't great against the Dogs but as long as he's solid more often than not he's an important role player.

I think there's weaker parts of every line to our team but I still like the 6 remaining defenders. Hibberd, Jetta elite as you said. Salem's made a couple of errors but is playing at a very high level since going to half back. Oscar looking solid. Lewis very good in the right role. Vince doing his job defensively even if his kicking runs hot and cold. Inexperienced outside run (can Fritsch and Harmes be consistent against good opponents), midfield kicking skills (Gus, Viney, Oliver, Tracc all better with their hands than feet) and lack of a good two way small forward (Spargo and ANB excellent up the ground but ideally we'd have a gun pressure player and goal kicker replace Hannan) are equally large gaps. Lever's injury has opened another one but it also creates an opportunity for a player with a different skill set. As good as Lever is when allowed to read the play and zone he's still only average one on one. Potentially we can now play a better lock down defender (maybe Frost) and shift Hibberd and Salem in to more attacking roles. Or we can play Hunt, which takes away some aerial ability and clean skills but doubles down on the ability to cover space quickly and rebound. The Lever injury costs us the ability to set up on our terms to play our very best footy, but the trade is being able to rotate a different 7th defender based on match ups and roles and that could work in our favour.

I've just had the tip his foot isn't in great condition and he had his boots off in record time out on the field yesterday. Purely speculation but they might use the week either before or after the bye as a chance to unload it if they are ultra cautious to avoid a Viney situation. After seems more likely.

Pedersen had to be a chance if they were to use the bye to give Tommy 2 weeks off to fix his foot properly instead of rolling the dice that it will come good.

I've been a strong supporter of the idea of Pedda playing back. He's a lovely kick and reliable mark. That said, I think he'd have to play the full back role Oscar McDonald is playing and there's probably not room for both of them. If things ever get to the really experimental stages I'd like to see Weids thrown back at Casey. He'd find it easier to take grabs at CHB and his clean hands at ground level would be very nice.

Agree. He's a natural reader of the play and should kick to space. When he tries to thread it in tight he gets in to trouble.

Harmes going back to cover Lever meant Gus was shifted to the wing a lot more. Think he shifts back inside more next week.

In a number of preseason training threads I said Gus keeps finding the ball but is sloppy with his kicking. Would've been nice if he started in the team from round 1 but I think reading between the lines Goody put the foot down and said he had to do the extras on his body and his skills at training. It's starting to pay off and should only get better if he keeps the focus on nailing the fundamentals. We got smashed at the clearances today so all the mids have a fair bit of work to do for next week.

His right foot isn't always any better! In space he should use his right, but I like the idea that he goes on his left to get out of trouble and hope he keeps using it. His dual sided ability has always been his stand out trait, especially out of congestion by hand and foot.

Lever is what, 194 and 90 or so? He's not a strong big body, he's mobile and good overhead. And fit. Joel Smith is far more like for like as a roaming CHB than Frost. Big Frost has size and speed but is more suited deep one on one. His endurance and positioning gets found out up the ground.

Depends on Collingwood's structure. Oscar is the logical match up for Mason Cox at FB. Jetta to DeGoey. Lewis, Salem on the flanks. Frost seems unlikely. Could be an option for Stephenson if they are worried about his pace. Could play CHB but it isn't his strength. Joel Smith makes sense to play CHB on a tall if the Pies play another one. Hunt if they want to play another runner and use Hibberd/Vince as the talls. Harry Petty is the smokey if they want height and want to give him a run at CHB.

Terrible news for Jake. I saw it live and the change in direction on a shifting surface is classic ACL. Unfortunately a risk of signing Jake was that he did another ACL. Hopefully he rehabs like the professional he is and ads some size and comes back bigger and better. Might be able to coach up his replacement as well.

He won't walk out on us a year after coming back from Freo. AFL footy doesn't work like that. I could see him signing a contract extension sometime before the VFL finals once we get some big names signed.

Half back - really sitting off the back - of a good midfield group is really the role he should've been playing all along. It's the role he trained for all summer but injuries to Viney and Gus needing to come through the VFL opened up the wing spot so they used Lewis there for the first half of round 1 and rounds 3, 4. He's just not suited for the wing any more, in fact probably never was. Half back is a far easier position to see the game and zone off his opponent. Along with Salem we now have a couple of smart ball users and guys who naturally get in the right positions. They are predictable to their team mates which allows Hibberd to play his full throttle style. Bernie can also take a man and simplify his game. The other benefit is Lewis is out of the midfield so he can communicate and position those guys from behind the play and he can bark instructions at them. The big test for Lewis will come against a side like West Coast that has 7 dangerous forwards and can move the ball quickly. He'll have to show he can defend but I'd still rather that than having him floundering on the wing.

Some interesting points. Personally I think round 1 is round 1, don't read too much in to a round 1 performance. Brisbane and North games were good besides terrible patches. Hawthorn game had a great first quarter but terrible once the rain started Richmond game we played very well for 3/4's and just didn't have the fire power up forward, eventually not scoring enough leads to a break down in motivation when the game becomes out of reach A lot of 'what's changed' really needs to be in context of what happened in the first 5 weeks. The foundation of a good side was still there in those 5 weeks.

6 goals, 1 goal. 1 month injury lay off. 1 goal, 1 goal, 3 goals. Wouldn't exactly call him a goal kicking machine. Can find a mark and find the ball, which I think puts him in line for backing up Melksham or Petracca's spot. I doubt his lack of fitness will allow him to really excel as a pressure small/mid sized forward to take Spargo or Hannan's spot. This year for Balic was really about adjusting to life back at home and as an AFL player. Signs were good in December but he's had some injury niggles after the first couple of VFL games.

Cross' last game - he gets concussed putting his body on the line for the team. It was the breaking of the Etihad curse, stuff all crowd there but the standing ovation he got at the end of the game was as big as any I've seen. 4 young guys came in to that team that day and there was a distinct feeling Goody was handed the keys to start implementing a zone defence. The Giants were down on players as well as pretty much done for the year but it was important to go out there and get the win after we'd tailed off as the year went on. Even looking back now so much of the team has changes, pretty much a new forward line and a lot of new parts down back since 2014/2015 but so much of our development started with having a midfield that kept us in games. You can't develop players if you're getting smashed in the midfield and you can't throw young guys in the middle and expect them to perform every week. I think Jamar and Spencer should get credit for making Gawn fight to play games until it clicked for him in mid 2015. But mostly the work Jones, Vince and Cross did along with Viney and Tyson was so important. We couldn't beat the top teams and we often lost with terrible errors against the bottom teams as well! But we had a good shot against any side from 6th down and whilst 2014 wasn't pretty we turned the corner in 2015.