DeeSpencer

His first half against Geelong was really bad in terms of missed tackles and coughing up the ball under pressure. Think he gave away a 50 for a late but not really unfair spoil just before the half and after that he lifted. He's rubbish when he's timid at the contest. Or timid with the ball. Whatever it takes to get him to the white line fever mode where he will hit contests hard and be aggressive with the ball needs to happen. Huge test this week up against some really crafty Hawks smalls who are as good as it gets in setting up their forward line to score and heaping on defensive pressure.

Reading a bit too much in to it. Any first picked draftee hit with a ban will get 'bid to debut delayed at least one week', doesn't mean he was or is in line for selection. I expect he'll play well at VFL level but will need to do so for a good period of time before being picked.

I too was critical of the price for that reason. Still am. I just think he can be a good player but not as some special fix all interceptor. Hibberd - who has a lot more MCG experience by the way - is an excellent all round football. Aside from an aversion to tackle and a wont to play off his man he does everything well. And that's the kind of player Lever has to be and the type of player you need at the MCG. The intercepts will come for Jake as he rounds out his game and also if we pick up our forward pressure and midfield spread. The Hawks and Tigers have mastered that and had huge wins in recent grand finals. Adelaide and West Coast - teams that play on skinny grounds - have been caught out on the wide spaces of the MCG wondering why they can't lock the ball in forward and can't get their intercept players working at half back. I also disagree with how much I've seen Hibberd use his right. He's good enough to go right and get back on his left, but Lever can go left and get back on his right! His left isn't terrible either. And yes, Lever needs to get better at using the ball deep in the backline because he will end up there. Hunt has lost his spot but Wagner and Vince as much as Lever has taken it. Hunt can and should get it back.

The MCG is a huge factor for Lever. He looked good in preseason in Tassie and at Casey and was playing well at the Gabba before the dew came up and he didn't adapt to slippery conditions and a struggling side. But back on the G - firstly it holds some mental demons for the Crows from grand final day, but it's also a ground they don't play at very often or play well at. It's very wide compared to Adelaide Oval and that means you have to go side to side as a defender much more than at Adelaide Oval. It's much harder to stay in a back 6 formation, you need to be more flexible. At the Crows - Brown, Talia/Hartigan (depending on match up) and Kelly played back pocket, full back, back pocket. Lever was allowed to sit on a flank and position himself to intercept. It's why I thought he'd replace Vince in our best team, turns out for now it's Hunt but anyway... We'll likely leave Jetta and Frost/Oscar closer to goal but the G is wider and the ball can move out and around and back in to the next wave of forwards or even a drifting in wingman, be squared up at CHF or be run straight through the lines. Unless you're Rance who can get up field pressure and dominate in the air and on the ground as the deepest defender I can't see the same level of intercepting at the G as at Adelaide Oval. The trade off is there's more space and scope to counter attack and be involved on the way out. Any talk of Lever somehow magically restructuring our backline was laughable. As if talk that our backline is now lacking structure because of him - that ignores just how out of shape we were throughout a lot of last year. The idea of structuring a backline around any one player is silly to begin with. What he has to be is a very good player who makes life easier for his team mates by getting himself and them in the right spots, working hard both ways, making the right level of aggressive decisions with the ball etc.

We did get pick 35 back in this draft. That's where I would've haggled for more but it was a mid first downgraded to a late 2nd. If you think you can find a good player with either of those picks and not miss a star at pick 10 then the deal is much better. Harry Petty was the pick and if he's a solid serviceable player and Lever gets it together the deal is looking good. I'd trade two mid first rounders for 1 gun and 1 serviceable player every year for sure.

We had a number of hit up leads not quite work out on the weekend. A ball bounced just in front of Bugg who tried to claim it. Hibbo lasered one in that just dropped short. Other examples where I remember the play but not the players. Buggy turned his man and had the free paid against. One thing we don't do - so far anyway - is get stuck going to the slow and wide leads that become even slower entries or bad shots on goal. Less bombing please but it's not at the top of my list of concerns.

Having watched the highlights I'm starting to think they beat no one but witches hats. The team work looked very good which is a good sign - although with such a strong AFL component that should be expected, there's not 10 AFL guys and 10 VFL guys who have rarely trained together. But really - any contest in the video is a big on a small or Casey player zooming past a tentative Coburg player. For instance King - still early in development for a ruck, Flip - a baby, a Weeds - a key forward who isn't really overly tall or high leaping combined for over 50 hit outs. All the mids got a heap of the ball and shared it around and the forwards walked in to goals.

Not sure it's a golden age but switching to 1 ruckman and banning the 3rd man up has helped the good rucks. The good rucks now play 80% game time and don't have to deal with a 3rd player jumping all over them. And without teams carrying a 2nd ruck in the side we've seen an even distribution of the best players. Along time ago now but Stef Martin went to Brisbane. Witts to the Gold Coast. Port got Ryder and Bellchambers grew in to his spot. Nankervis to Richmond. Players moving for opportunity will spread the talent evenly so the position has depth across the clubs and then there's always the top quality guys and the in form guys and the trade off is they get to play head to head against the out of form guys

A 5.3 quarter after a 4 goal start isn't too bad. You can't really count both as negatives. We steadied with a couple of goals and kept the margin in control. We need to get it down to a 3 goal run or a 2 goal run against bad teams. The issue is we only defend and halt momentum by winning a heap of the footy ourselves. Aside from parking a spare defender the only way we defend and stop runs is by upping the ball winning and attack. The entire side has to build resilience all over the park - forwards, mids and backs to minimise the oppositions scoring when they are winning their share of the contest. Then there's the issue of the ugly wasted chances of the 3rd quarter. Some training needed during the week on how to recycle the ball in a crowded 50 to create betting scoring chances than guys randomly hacking at the ball in huge congestion.

Sure, but the issue is can Gawn do 80% in the ruck or 70-75% right? If Harmes can do 20% and they want to drop Gawn down 5% more then use Melksham/Balic to contest the centre square hit outs and then have Hogan or Petracca as the tall on baller to follow the ruck.

No reason we can't rotate other mids in to the ruck and spell Max slightly longer. I don't think his game time was impacted all that much by the change from Pedersen to Harmes. I'd be using Melksham in the ruck as well if he stays in the team and if he's replaced by Balic I'd use him. The function of the forward line and defensive pressure is more important than winning hit outs for the time Gawn is off the ground.

Yeah it's where we miss Viney and need the rotations of the inside mids to keep them fresh. On the outside though if we're going with Tyson and Lewis then top speed for those guys is a jog. Cunnington is a good clearance player and strong mark but offers little around the ground, kicking is poor and can't handball on his left side which is completely inexcusable for an inside midfielder. Somehow Jordan Lewis can't handball on his right though so it's hardly a unique fault. He often plays well against us but shouldn't have much hurt factor. With Ziebell forward, Higgins more of a receiving player and Jacobs tagging he does get a lot of opportunity to win clearances as well.

More than a few sling tackles this round, if the medical comes back clean it should only be a fine. Certainly didn't look like a big nasty tackle. Can't recall the Jetta incident but I can't remember a big bump.

The 2 big boys in Oscar and Frost have their limitations and Lever has made plenty of mistakes but it's the midfield pressure that still worries me the most. Oscar is not quick and especially a bit heavy footed when he has to make a few repeat efforts but he plays a huge time on ground so that will happen. He's still young enough to get stronger and a little fitter and that combination will mean less fatigue. Frost is going to make anywhere between 1 and 10 dumb mistakes a game but his effort is great and his pace fixes some of them up. Lever's kicking should be good not great. That's ok. His handballing should be very good and he can use his left and dance through defenders as well. His narrow base with his feet leaves him off balance one on one or over the ball and that's something I hope coaches have picked up on but didn't seem to have done in preseason. What he does have is really nice ability to close on the ball by reading the play and that should pick up. All of the positives and negatives of the talls can be exposed when the players up the field aren't slowing the opposition down and hemming them in to the boundary and slow long kicks. Viney is the big loss in midfield pressure. Oliver, Petracca and Salem are only young to the midfield and building tanks and those first 2 really hunt the ball. Salem is important because he can sit off and be attacking or defending. Jones will probably always be a ball player first, hard to change that and for that reason I hope he goes to half forward or an attacking half back rather than the wing but we aren't there in the midfield yet. My biggest concern is the wings where Lewis just doesn't have the pace any more or truly elite endurance to stick with outside runners. Neither does Tyson. The extra ball winners on the wing gives us an edge around the contest but it costs us in transition. Personally I think we can use Oliver, Petracca, Jones and Salem now and hopefully Viney to win more than our share of inside ball and get some great outside runners to take advantage of that inside wins by spreading hard in attack and defending. But right now the list isn't quite balanced and the midfield seems easy to expose. Billy Hartung running free led to North's clean inside 50's and goals in the first quarter on the weekend. If we don't find a match up for Isaac Smith and similar level players in the comp then we'll get chopped up in the midfield and the backline will get exposed.

Sometimes Bugg will hit the figurative scoreboard and sometimes he'll miss the goals by so much he'll hit the literal scoreboard on the half forward flank. The thing I like about him being in the team is it sends a message to the forwards that the coaches aren't messing around when it comes to work rate, pressure and contesting. If Spargo is to make it he'll play good VFL footy from day 1. Might be a while until he plays AFL but he should be a good VFL player and pressing his case early. I don't see JKH as the right replacement for Bugg. Harley Balic could be an option, no where near the same fitness but he has agility to tackle and good size. Really Pedersen could come back if he's leading up and bashing and crashing like he does when he's at his best. Gus Brayshaw was pretty much doing the Bugg role in his first season, I wonder if they'll give him a go forward again.

As you know I'm very pro Bugg being in the team right now but also very pro the team moving on without him asap. His desire to run and lead creates space with the other forwards and he's willing to pressure. Skills and decision making are a complete mess, all goals are a bonus and his hands look painted on. Keen to see VFL reports on Charlie Spargo, if we're replacing Bugg I don't think it can be with a flighty player like Hannan, think it has to be a player that brings that competitive edge.

Some awful decisions - leaving Waite out the back despite being nowhere near the contest, tackling a guy ages after he had disposed it give a down field free. They cost 2 goals. And some other moments where he would needlessly commit to one player or the other or not position himself to help his team mates. But he was strong in the air when able to run at the ball, took some nice marks, used his pace to get back and mop up and his run and ball use was good. After a slow start he did make a positive impact but he has to show some improved smarts very quickly or he'll have bad days or moments and be out of the team.

Backline did very well after the first 15 minutes. Barring injury I wouldn't expect a change there. Mids were very good. Lewis is Lewis and Tyson is Tyson and we'll be the slowest team on the wings in the comp by far and short of midfield defensive pressure inside but I guess we live with it. Who's going to play on Isaac Smith? ANB the tag? Forwards did the job and the smaller line up worked well. That said: Melksham did a lot of laps of the boundary and looked sore. Hasn't really chased hard nor has he found the goals. Think we need his height if we are going small but he's one to watch with injury. Hannan and Pedersen both options.

I don't mind the old Bernie roost and Jetta should take more and use his agility and accurate short kick to open the game up. Agree about Lever, he can kick decently but whilst he settles in and finds form I wouldn't add kick outs.

I'd love to see Weids and Petty come in and dominate and Hogan sign an extension allowing us to let Tom go, although I'd also like to keep him as the new Pedersen and capable of playing forward, back and in the ruck. One complication is if we let him go as a free agent we'd lose compensation if we signed any free agents and I'd think we'd have interest in Sloane, Gaff and Dahlhaus. He's a restricted free agent so we could match an offer then trade him either right away or down the track. Anyway, much too early in the season for list management stuff. I'm expecting Tom to be back closer to a month, he did a fair bit of running on Wednesday. I'd also like to see Weids start taking marks week in week out at Casey. Bit of an old fashioned metric but if he's not taking 6+ marks a game at Casey he won't be getting a lot of touches or impacting contests at AFL level.

Pedersen has been serviceable when thrown in to the ruck and has done enough up forward in really what is a bit of a decoy role standing under high kicks. Both games he's done the proverbial 'play his role'. Weeds needs more than 2 practice matches to take his spot. Big Sam's been picked out of necessity for a large part of his young career and he needs to really blow the house down for his next selection. That knowledge that he's far better than VFL will give him confidence to play well at AFL level.

The guys have covered most of what I've seen. There was a little something about the Weid today. He dived for a mark that ended up trapped between his legs and it looked athletic. He just seems a bit stronger without being bulky or slow. Keen to see him string consistent games in the VFL and then push for an AFL return. Also liked the look of Balic leading and marking. Quick off the mark and jumps at the ball. He has upside. Frost did a lot of things well, including some nice kicks in the match simulation. Gus was using his left and I hope he's encouraged to do so. Becoming a reliable dual sided player is the weapon he needs in his game.

What day do you expect them to train on? I would've thought a light run on Monday to stretch the legs, main session on Wednesday followed by a short sharp skills or touch session on Friday would be the way to structure a week with games on the Saturday's. The Tuesday/Thursday nights doesn't really apply these days.

No because he played his first good game in about his last 10 and looked mentally switched on and up for the contest. Got to the front of packs and tackled. Still made some odd decisions with the ball and skipped over a couple of ground balls but a big step in the right direction against the worst defensive team of 2017. Hearing Jones talk about Jeffy it sounded to me like they really put it on him to lift against the Lions.

7.13 in a flood against the Suns wasn't a good result but it's looking like the Suns are a competitive team. They were very good against the Saints although bad kicking for goal cost the Saints several goals. They have a mostly experienced backline, in fact their whole team isn't that young. It will take good entries and good forward play to score, but I'm more concerned about their ability to run forward and score out the back which they did very well in the 2nd half against the Saints.