DeeSpencer

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.

Melksham has done that job for us before and seems suited to doing it particularly against taller opponents. I just worry he's too important to our attacking play to send to a defensive role on a running flanker. He's strangely effective as a tagging half forward given he's really a lazy chaser in general. ANB and Spargo are the incumbent defensive running forward flankers and they did a reasonable job on McVeigh and Lloyd against the Swans. Neither are in great form with the ball though. Will JKH replace one of them? Will Bugg be called in to do a specific job?

You ready @lachiewhitfield

It's far more look of the game than functional these days, but I don't really hate it. We have an interchange, players should go get cleaned up. That said, let them wipe with a towel first, if it clears then start the game, they'll go off eventually. The question should be why don't we have a concussion rule? It's silly seeing players clearly groggy take kicks for goal then jogging off or getting up, pushing off trainers and contesting for the ball. Just stop play and get them off the ground.

15-8 free kicks after 1/4 time even though we kept the balance of play and contested ball for most of that time Oscar was lucky, as was Dom Tyson (wtf Dom just rush it mate), but overall we still had the umpires against us, the commentators just don't say anything when there's not a rabid crowd yelling for the free kicks constantly. Off the top of my head: - Tom McDonald blocked in the ruck by Hutching's (1st term directly in front of goal). This was worse than Brayshaw/Danger. - Spargo head ripped off by L Jetta - Liam Ryan clear cheeky throw to set up an Eagles goal (commentators said - great handball). - Clear deliberate where an Eagles played picked up the ball and walked it over on the near wing - Clear advantage to Lewis in the middle of the ground that was called back despite being very continuous - Jetta clearly held in a marking contest moments before Oliver got pinged in a very dubious holding call And of course my personal favourite for the afternoon - The Vandenberg 'eyes off the ball' free kick to gift a goal. The Eagles bronx cheered a free kick in the 2nd quarter where it was 6-4 free kick count and they were completely outplayed for the first 20 minutes of the game. That pretty much sums up where they are at. If they aren't way ahead in free kicks they throw the toys out of the cot.

What a strange post. That graph seems to show that Jones is better now than he was in '15 and '16 and still better than he was to start 2017, or do we just ignore that? Also the majority of the drop off has been since Jones started playing more time on the wing thanks to the emergence of Harmes and Brayshaw. Jones' first 5-10 weeks this year playing on ball due to Viney's injury was probably about as well as he's ever played. He's not the player he once was but still is way better than an average player, even with some limitations on his ball use and decision making as he adapts to a new role on the wing. Poor leader? Well that comes down to how much you can rate a leader when for years they've had little to work with. Jones was doing his utmost against Sydney and a few bad decisions aside he gave it his all. He was doing the same against the Eagles and the team was resilient and smart. The notion that the captain has to be best player is incredibly outdated. The captain has to be strong, smart and give their all, but they need leaders and players to stand up in every part of the ground. Luke Hodge used to win all the awards as best captain yet in close games most of the time it was Mitchell, Lewis or in particular Burgoyne who made the clutch plays.

I think they've beat them 5 times in a row in Adelaide and beat them in extra time in a final and then with a kick after the siren. We've still got some work to do to catch that! I dislike West Coast and I also think Adam Simpson is a very good coach. There's something satisfying about beating them that's rare for a non Victorian team.

That's fair. Hannan made ground then lunged for the tackle. Definitely think there's work to be done on his running technique. Also still think he's got a lot of potential as a wingman. Hoping he gets a full preseason this year.

I knew I was forgetting someone. 2015 round 1 Viney monsters Ablett and Vanders adds some punch to the forward line. We started to look like a footy team.

Hannan probably had his career best game and his best game since his debut. And I reckon he hurt his knee in his second ever game and has struggled with it at times since. Hannan has a heap of speed, it's a matter of channelling his speed, less high step running and more charging at the ball and in to space. He's a mature age recruit but he's going through the first, second and third year blues kind of all at once and it's matter if he can come out the other side a better player. Nailing his set shots - with a lower ball drop - will help. Kent - still not sold whether he's clean enough in traffic and nails his tackles, always been a smart runner to space. Hoping he keeps building from here. So far this year his set shots have been far better. He would've been 10-1 to kick that goal last year. Still missed from the top of square earlier! Wait and see. Vanders - he doesn't mind a fumble or scrappy kick but he's a genuine warrior. Tackles, bumps, fends and he's so quick for his size. Time will tell if he can build on his fitness for next year and if he can clean up his skills but he's the type of player that every good team has at least 1 of. I really think he was a key component to our turn around at the start of 2015. The first Melbourne player since the Daniher years who has a mean streak.

We take Oliver for granted. He does some amazing things in the middle that he makes look easy. What we are looking for is a goal kicker close to goal. Oliver might become that, although I'm not sure he'll ever reach Dusty Martin levels as a deep forward, so he might often be the guy who sets up the goal not the one who kicks it. Petracca is the one who can turn an ounce of space in to a goal scoring opportunity. I'd love to see Petracca one out in the square more. And of course a revitalised Hogan playing at full confidence. Until then we use Melksham as a medium and Tommy Mc as the go to tall. We're probably looking for that small.

I blame Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Weideman, Vanders, Kent for not being fitter and consistent with their defensive running. And Melksham being one of the laziest chasers I've ever seen too. That's why Nibbler gets a game. I've come to accept that until we get more maturity in the midfield and half forward line we'll need a guy who runs all day. That said, I wish the coaches could fix his fumbling. Poor decision making is hard to fix and either happens or doesn't over time, but he is willing to bend down and pick up the ball so the fumbling should be somewhat correctable. A bunch of footies in soapy water and make him do ground balls would be a start. Getting him to hold the ball in a position to handball in traffic would help as well. He's always so keen to kick. You'll see him attempt to kick when tackled when he just needs to lift his arms and dish a handball.

Hannan and Kent both have plenty of pace. They just aren't very good natural crumbers. We've just got to keep getting them in the right positions. T Mc and ANB can beat their opponents with run. And Melksham on a tall or slower defender has a good combination of pace/endurance, as does Spargo and Vanders. We had a number of excellent forward entries to Melksham and Hannan today and some good leading from all the guys. The long kicks to Tommy Mc and Weids were bought to ground but not crumbed. If Kent and Hannan in particular can find a bit of chemistry with the talls as soon as possible that would be great. Doubt it will happen but we can hope.

Oh the team played fine back in thirty nine

Good move by the coaches to sub him on at 3/4 time.

I worry about: Vanders - huge first term then rarely sighted, just don't think he's got the run in the legs this year which is understandable. Small chance of suspension but unlikely, a fine if he's unlucky. If it wasn't for the bye after next week I'd be resting him coming back from Perth Spargo - still like a lot of what he does but isn't being clean with the ball, not overly worried about his lack of strength in tackles but his clean ball use was excellent and has gone missing to an extent. Still want him in the final because he's a long term player Oscar - think he's pretty likely to get suspended, even if undeserving, also had a bunch of yuck moments getting caught in tackles and letting Vardy sprint off him, before some strong spoils later in the game Pedersen (Oscar), JKH (Spargo/Vanders) both options. Bugg a chance if they want to tag a wingman and just want more running in the side. Tim Smith a small possibility.