DeeSpencer

Even last year I wasn't a huge Brayshaw fan. Great hands around the contest and can rack the ball up but I'll forever be concerned he's slow and can't kick. Runs with the ball but can't break free and then kicks under pressure = turnover = struggling to transition. I'd absolutely weigh up off load him for line breaking speed and skill if it were on offer. Moving Gus to a wing last night was an indication they are concerned about his defensive running and/or defensive pressure at the contest and ball use. The Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw combination doesn't seem right for where the game is going with multiple midfielders who have elite endurance and speed. That said, I'd like to know just how fit Clarrie, Gus and Viney are, if they are all at 80% then the easier thing to do is get them fit.

I thought our forwards worked their backsides off defensively. Lockhart/ANB/Hunt/T Smith in particular. It's the quality of forward entries and the ease of the defenders to win the ball back that created very little at ground level. Bombs to 2 on 1's for easy intercepts for Grimes/Vlastuin, or lowering the eyes then kicking it straight to a Richmond player because our forwards are all leading back and in to each other instead of a mix that involves some of them presenting up and keeping their opponents honest. The few times we did have forwards coming up at the ball the mid/backs were then under pressure and hacked a kick to where their team mate had just led from. Of course a lot of that comes because our midfield has no forward momentum, we can't get the ball to someone in the clear from stoppages and we can't do it in general play because the backline offers no drive or rebound.

He sure did, dropped a few he should've taken but at least got separation and hands to it. Sam is jumping nowhere near it. It's time to give Keilty a go as well.

Fitness looks really poor and his confidence is shot, but for hecks sake at least last week he had a run and jump at some. Tonight was just ridiculous seeing him lead back, across and absolutely no where near leading up to the ball carrier. The only time he had a decent contest under a kick there were multiple team mates dragging their opponent to him. Awful game, and time for him to go back to the 2's, but probably can't judge everything on tonight or on any games this year given how bad we've been. He can't be getting good coaching or an efficient forward set up.

Exactly, at least give it a go. The only game our mids stuck with their opponents was against the Swans - and suddenly our forward line looked dangerous and our backline looked capable. In current form ANB isn't tackling, using the ball or running to the right spots to be of any use as a forward, but maybe using his legs we can get some value from him.

Would actually like to see ANB played in the centre square and given the freedom to run all over the ground. Test some of the Tigers mids for fitness. I know he'll be ineffective with the ball but it's not like we are dominating clearances as is. Then our actual mids can all spend more time resting forward and play at a higher work rate when in the middle. The wings have copped a lot of the blame for the lack of transition running but if you watch the games it's actually Oliver, Brayshaw and Viney who are even further behind play. Harmes is about the only one sticking with it.

Hard to get enthused about those ins but it's about the best we can do. If Lewis is going to play then it has to be down back as the 7th quickest defender. So Josh Wagner makes way. Unlucky for Josh but he'll have a chance to earn his spot back and whilst my mind is made up that Lewis is done the coaches probably think he's worth another look I guess. Hunt probably goes back to replace Jetta with more speed coming in to the forward line in Jeffy. Stretch comes in on a wing in the spot vacated by Lewis going back, that's obvious. Lockhart as fresh legs for C Wagner. ANB for Spargo probably the only choice I didn't love but if there was ever a game to pick the fittest player on the list it's when both teams are coming off a 4 day break. And I never liked Preuss and 2 big tall forwards who offer nothing defensively. Tim Smith makes a lot more sense as the 3rd option. Can chuck him in the ruck if needed or use Tom or Sam.

Disagree with some of that, half forward and half back are often the quickest part of the ground. If you're defending well the ground shrinks up in to lots of stoppages and little space on the wing. Selwood is playing wing for the Cats. Isaac Smith is spending a lot of time at half forward to get in to more space for the Hawks. For the quarter and a bit that we defended reasonably well Jones and Lewis weren't caught out for pace all that often. As soon as the forwards and mids dropped off they were torched, but so were our slow half backs. The thing I do agree with you on is don't play him if he can't play HB. I don't think he can, not alongside Josh Wagner and without a lot of pace with the other defenders. I think we can have 1 slower wing and still be a decent side: Jones or Lewis. And one slower half back: Lewis or Josh Wagner. If that player moves to the right spaces and gets a lot of uncontested ball then they are useful without speed. And even then just as much of the mistake was playing Lewis without a warm up in the VFL. There was no chance for him to get some touch and prove he can bend down and get the ball, chase opponents and go in to tackle.

Because the Saints half forwards - Kent, Parker, Long, Lonie all would've killed Lewis at half back and the backline - which was already slow with one plodding flanker in Josh Wagner - did the job against the Swans. The plan was he'd mostly be on Sinclair or Newnes on the wing, less speedy and more running accumulators. As long as we provided good forward pressure he only had to run with them not sprint with them. Lewis and Jones were to run hard backwards and provide the backs with numbers and easy outlet options, then we'd play tempo footy. Stretch and Jones both did that against the Swans and Lewis only had to do similar to Stretch with better kicking (theoretically). Clearly it failed, mainly because the MCG is far bigger and the Saints far quicker than the Swans, but if he played at half back in place of (?J Wagner ?Hibberd ?Fritsch) he still would've been found wanting speed and agility against the Saints quick forwards. Unless the forward and midfield pressure is top shelf and he has a slow and harmless opponent he's going to struggle.

Chad Wingard looks is awful shape and is only just going for the Hawks. Rockliff and others didn't do much for Port last year. Stringer took half a season to get going at the Dons. Point is it's not always easy to get senior players from other sides and have them up and running. Anyone who's an NFL fan will know that free agents are often available for a reason and it's the same in the AFL when it comes to trading players. I'll maintain that May was stiff to be suspended, which meant he missed round 1 and then was underdone in round 2. We stuff that up. And yeah a lot feeds back to his preseason conditioning, but at some stage you can't put it all on him.

Watching his game against the Under 18 kids I'd say he's currently behind Stretch, Lockhart, Garlett, Tim Smith and probably Sparrow (who didn't play against the kids), maybe even Chandler. Add in changes with taller players - Keilty, Oscar - and there's 7 or more in line to come in ahead of him. Things are bad - we almost have to bring Oscar back in, we'll have to stick with Jones, the forward line is a mess. But not so bad that we need ANB back.

Baker is a long way off it based on today. Stretch isn't much good but at least he runs hard and generally to decent spots.

I'd say serviceable not brilliant for Hore today. He's still off the pace when it comes to using the ball. Instead of taking the easy first option he puts himself at risk of turning it over and then often telegraphs his decision. The little stutter steps then loop on his kicks in uncontested situations aren't helpful at all. Killed a few contests and is a nice interceptor when given the chance but I was hoping for more attacking drive and better defensive ability on the deck, he's very easy to get around.

Back to the 2's but I"ll stick with him long term. Has the smarts and the vision, just needs to be playing in a side that isn't a complete mess. A little worrying that in year 1 he'd throw himself at the contest and get to a lot of good spots and this year he's all at sea but that happens some times.

Out: Jetta (inj), T Mc (?inj), Weideman, Lewis, C. Wagner, Spargo In: Stretch, Keilty, T Smith, Sparrow, Lockhart, Garlett (shudders) FB: Hore Hibberd C. Wagner HB: Brayshaw Frost Salem C: Lockhart Viney Stretch HF: Petracca Keilty Melksham FF: T. Smith Preuss Garlett Foll: Gawn Oliver Harmes Int: Jones, Sparrow, Fritsch, Hunt Badly need some fresh legs. Try Gus at half back, he's getting exploited in the midfield anyway. Fresh runners through the middle. Try something different up forward. Keilty to hit the packs, Tim Smith as the 3rd tall who gives more at ground level than most in our side.

If I were Simon Goodwin/Josh Mahoney/Gary Pert or Glenn Bartlett it would be clean out your locker on Monday, thanks for the 2 years and good luck in the media. Bruise free, treacle slow, mentally soft and physically weak players don't get to go around talking up their leadership and importance, not if I had anything to say about it.

Whilst not exactly good I thought in the periods of the game where the midfield and forward line gave the backline any kind of up the ground pressure they did pretty well. The first half really consisted of decent backline play for large chunks with awful midfield pressure at times creating easy St Kilda goals. The 3rd quarter when we played a loose man behind the ball was probably worse than the first half.

The Preuss lacerated Jye Caldwell's kidney last year in the same fixture. I would've thought it would make more sense to distribute each of these kids in to different VFL games so they could play as the 22nd/23rd men in flanker type roles that kept them away from the hot stuff, but this is a good test for them.

Read the age article guys. He'll be 33 to start next season with 3 years and 4 million dollars worth of contract to go. Even if the Swans agree to give him up for no cost in a trade and pay 500k a season so they've got salary cap room you're looking at 2.5M/3 so over 800k a year. I know it's a different sport but LeBron James is a different level of superstar even from the Buddy level and he's 34 and can't do what he used to do and the Lakers are paying for it. Ageing superstars are very difficult to fit in to a side in a way that works for everyone. Geelong suffered by being too accommodating to Ablett last year and now he's back in a limited half forward role he and the team are vastly improved. To get a similar result out of Buddy is even harder given he's more of a structural player as a tall. You could do it but to make it value for money you'd need the money to be massively less than it is.

One thing we have to be careful not to do here is upset him based on a low ball offer. The rumour is that's what got Lever really thinking about moving home and there's been lots of other cases of that. It's a good situation to wait and see until mid year and then maybe make a decent counter offer that is fair for both sides.

His work rate looked exceptional, the left foot goal and the sense to draw the free and kick a clutch goal both commendable, otherwise yeah he butchered it consistently. The only question I have is who was better? Clearly Gawn, otherwise it was a game with a lot of lousy players. Plenty of hard running and a little bit of class in front of goal was worth recognising by the coaches.

Likes the fake tough stuff more than the real stuff and often uses the ball like he's drunk. Rushes in to contests and rushes his disposal, both traits that aren't particularly suited to the wing or half back. I can't see him being worth the price. The Swans or Saints can have him. It won't be easy to find a perfect outside runner, they aren't easy to come by, but I still think we can do better than Zak. Ed Langdon would be nice, skills aren't great but he's a more natural outside runner, unfortunately he's started the year in good form and might become costly.

Which ones? KK sure. Lever had 1 major injury before in his career. May had a couple of small soft tissues but had played a lot more than he missed the last few years. A lot of our recent recruits - Melksham, Hibberd, Lewis, Garlett, Preuss aren't guys who had bad injury histories. Same goes for our draft picks. I may be wrong but as far as I can remember in the last 5 years the only guy we've drafted who had a big injury concern on him was Weideman.

You recruit players because you think they have the right traits to play the game not especially one position but yes he spent the whole summer training with the mids to play wing and looked pretty good in uncontested drills at training. The groin injury was a set back and he had 2 pretty awful games. Plus the concussion issue raising its head again (pardon the pun). Need to sort that out and get him playing consistent footy in the VFL, anything more than that would be a bonus for this year.

I think the Melkshake suffered a little in the first 3 weeks being used as a deep forward when that should be the change up, the pressure of being the goal kicker led to some ordinary efforts. He played for a free against Hurley, dropped the mark, then was hit high, held and shoved in the back and didn't get any of those 3 free kicks either! I've always said his defensive pressure is poor but I think his overall work rate and running is good to get the ball. Was nice to see him back to playing as a connecting half forward who can then take a spell deep rather than the other way around. He's always been the fake tough guy type who can fumble or go half hearted when he feels pressure from behind, at this stage that's probably who he is. If the mids and half backs can improve he'll keep getting better, especially if we can start to get the ball to him in space with angled kicks across half forward. A lot of teams would love a player like Melksham.