DeeSpencer

Has too many slip but he's excellent at picking the right opponent and the right moment to pressure and he has the speed and agility to get on guys quickly. Doesn't hold his tackles when bigger guys come straight at him but will chase down pretty well. I also think if Vanders is going to be the in I wouldn't bring him in straight after he's had a bye. Another game of match fitness and a chance to shake off the bye week rust could be important.

Think his best cracked in to the top 20 mids that I'd call A grade, as Jones probably was in 2014. Not convinced it was a long peak of quality though. His marking, and ability to get to and influence contests was as good as any midfielder not named Fyfe. A little surprised we put Harmes on to Sloane and not Gibbs but I guess it was to shut do Slaone befre he got started and go head to head with the rest

The most frustrating player on our list because he does so much that is very important with his huge work rate, but he's not quite fast or strong enough in the tackle to be a stand out defensive player. A yard quicker and a big stronger and he'd get a game every week purely on defensive chase downs and everyone would love him and excuse the errors with the ball. But his work rate is equally impressive in attack as it is defending and that means he's getting a heap of the footy in space across half forward. No left foot, not even a left side really, slow to process the play, wonky kicking. His best move is the big 270 spin and kick that can be a huge weapon but is also totally unpredictable. And he holds the ball low ready to kick so when he's tackled he can only drop if for a kick. Doesn't power through contract to give a handball. Useful but infuriating

How many times can I say given Hogan a rest? He's had knee, ankle and last week a hip and now another knee. Isn't jumping, isn't playing with any speed. Get him right. Play Weids or Tim Smith for the week. The fringe midfield/half forward brigade: Tyson, JKH, Spargo, ANB, Jeffy all did enough to keep their spots. Can't see how Vanders comes in there unless he plays a blinder. Joel Smith - horrible first half, but not so terrible to the extent that I'd be removing him for Josh Wagner or another fringe defender.

No arguments for me on the final play but for the rest of the game, the Darwin game (both on TV which never shows you the full picture) and for the Dogs game which I saw live I had no great issues with his positioning. The same dumb rushing up for tackles at times and the fake tough guy go the bump after the contest has been lost that Vince and several others of our backline/team love but all in all I think he's improved since with his time in the VFL. Anyway, we need Lever back and Hibberd and Joel Smith to keep improving and a healthy in form Hunt wouldn't hurt either, but barring that we need Oscar to find his legs and attack the game again. Maybe it's an issue of game time? Last time I checked Oscar had played more minutes than anyone in the comp. Jenkins going off to ruck could help him see more bench time and split the minutes more evenly through 7 defenders. That alone could get him running with more intensity.

I meant that Oscar is usually the deepest defender - that's his spot in the zone - and was caught trying to cover the back because that has been his role for most of the year. With pressure up the ground he's often stayed deep and let the forward come back to him. He holds his ground well and that's how he was taking his marks. He clearly had to get in front and stay there but it wasn't natural for him and so he was turned around by Hawkins multiple times and once Hawkins had a lead he had no pace to close. I'm not buying that every single kick to Hawkins - who had a stack of the footy including winning the ball off the ground - came from great delivery. Certainly the off the ground goal where he beat Oscar for speed/anticipation wasn't and a number of others weren't either. I'm not a huge Keilty fan, I'd give him a go if we needed a CHB against the right match up, but I'm not huge on him or Pedersen playing next week, the match ups don't look right. But if they did I'd gladly send Oscar back to the 2's, he's been off the pace for 6 weeks. Frost is in far better form since he had a good spell in the 2's. He's not a superstar but he's positioning himself much better, at least using the ball well by hand and holding some marks. Oscar is losing the confidence to aggressively attack contests and hold his marks that he had in the first 10 weeks of the year.

Sam Collins a realistic alternative! The cats are a well coached team. They dragged the flankers away to create space. Oscar was caught up in his zoning mentality and didn't take the dangerous space in front of Hawkins. Same thing happened with Lever in round 1 where every other cat forward dragged away and left Sav Rat on Lever with room in front. At some stage defenders have to defend. No one was expecting Oscar to keep Hawkins goal less but 6 on him and plenty of other handy pick ups and dish offs when clearly first to the ball killed us. Chris Scott might be a fool but he's a smart one.

Now I've had time to be a little less emotional I think Oscar might stay in the side. Only because he's had a decent record on Jenkins in the past, and Frost can take Walker. I'd like to see Pedersen at FB but he's too slow for Jenkins, and Keilty coming in at CHB to take Walker on debut doesn't seem fair. Hogan should definitely have a week off and it might be Tim Smith who replaces him. He can ruck against Jenkins and then Tommy Mc can play 90% game time as the main key forward. Use Smith as a decoy/pressure player and Melksham/Petracca FF/CHF as the secondary targets. Maybe Tyson stays and JKH goes, I'm really over caring about the depth mids. Give Baker a run on the wing though. ANB? Has to go. Had more fumbles than disposals for about the 8th week in a row. Kills momentum. Someone at Casey surely can provide 90% of his pressure without the glaring errors? Hannan? Bugg? Kent? JKH as a forward? Anyone???

Oscar simply couldn't get near Hawkins though. It wasn't being over powered or even out sprinted by a speedy player. He had decent position, but would get turned around or led to the ball and was floundering. Same thing happened against Schache, same thing happened against McCartin at times. Up field pressure sure helps but at some stage a defender has to read the kick, attack the contest and do their best. If Hawkins was clunking strong marks under pressure or shoving Oscar off with strength I could cop it. In the same lack of team defending Frost won 3 contests against Hawkins by using his speed to close on the contest and get a fist in. Oscar doesn't have the speed, so he has to be switched on and reading the play and right up on his opponent. Yet so many times he was trailing in miles behind. The signs were there against the Dogs when Schache - who has no discernible athleticism - left Oscar in his wake last week. Never said anything about the quality of opponent, was simply saying Frost was doing a decent job on the guy he was playing on most of the night. There was an opportunity to move Oscar on to Henry but they took far too long to do it.

I'm far from a Frost fan - he'll always make errors like rushing up for crazy tackles and letting his man over the back - but he looks in decent form right now and I'll admit he wasn't perfect at the end but he made some big plays on Hawkins after Oscar let him have free reign all night. Frost was mainly on Jack Henry who had 11 disposals and 1 mark for the game.

Great overhead, reads the play, lovely safe kick. There's a lot to like about Fritsch as that loose man so I get why he does it, but it's just too defensive and ineffectual to have a deep goalie and a big hole of space 30m out.

Frost in 5 minutes on Hawkins - 2 big spoils and a great intercept mark from front position. Oscar on Hawkins - caught 5m behind and unable to close any ground, getting turned around trying to wrestle and being 2nd to the ball. Oscar looks like a player who needs to go back to the 2's and work on how to watch the ball and impact contests and not get caught reaching for body contact.

Excellent first 6 weeks or so, not bad for the next 5 games, but he's been very ordinary for the last 6 weeks.

Cox kicked 5 on him v Coll Better on Dixon but beaten by Westhoff a couple of times v Port McCartin 2 goals 3 Played on no one v Freo Schache takes him for 8 marks and 2.2 Hawkins kicks 7 A very ordinary 6 weeks and if that's enough for a walk up start next week then I feel bad for the VFL defenders who have won 10 games in a row.

Fritsch still had some excellent marks, a lovely run down tackle and a handful of beautiful corridor kicks. That said, clearly his most error prone game. Fumbles, missed tackles, dropped marks. Given it was probably the highest intensity game he's played in, with a hostile crowd, skinny wings and some top quality mids on the other side that's not a huge surprise. Just a disappointment. I don't like him used as the spare back. It's a huge job for a young and inexperienced player. And the spare back as the goalie is just a bad move as well. Unfortunately not a lot of great options in the side. Fritsch can pinch hit on a half back flank and Hibberd or Lever free in the hole is the dream. Without them in the side, Vince? Melksham? Joel Smith loose? Lewis loose who will at least find the ball but won't offer much as an extra in a marking contest? He's also a kid who's played 1 year of VFL as a forward and is now clearly an above average AFL wingman. Arrgh, so frustrating because I want him to be great and he's already doing so well.

He passed the test in his early run of games, copped a bit of an injury, bought back in when he really wasn't needed as the third tall. And his recent run of VFL form has probably been as consistent as any patch of his career. He offers more than Tommy Mc in the ruck which has the added benefit of keeping Tom forward all game, he's clearly a better tackler than Hogan. Get him in as one of the 2 talls and I think he'll offer a fair bit. That said, it's not always about who comes in, sometimes you just have to break the cycle for a player and Hogan is in a cycle of poor games with bad habits.

Yes. Stack load of entries. How many of them go to Hogan? And what happens to them? Tom McDonald marks or brings the ball to ground for the smalls. Melksham will compete. Petracca played much better across half forward. I wouldn't drop Hogan for ever but he's down on confidence and I'm tired of waiting for him to find it. I'd rather give Weids a go and see if the week off freshens Hogan up.

1 good quarter v Freo, some much better patches against the Dogs. Not interested in how many goals he's kicked against bad teams earlier in the year, it's crunch time now and he looks uninterested. He doesn't demand the ball. Part of it is our team take a heap of bad options but a lot of it is the Watts problem. Once team mates know a player has lots belief they don't want to give it to them. If Garlett competes better at key moments and then calls for the ball, takes the game on and snaps some goals then he'll get the ball more. Agree he made some good positions, wheeling around to get on his right boot but he also did that a few times with the ball in dispute and didn't go and get it!

Didn't have the defensive impact of Frost, J Smith or Jetta. Similar game to Bernie who played a decent all around game, or Salem who started on fire and then make a few blues in the 2nd half. Uncontested possessions of various degrees of difficulty. Some nice kicks, a lot of handballs under pressure that are still landing too high or low. Not so many dumb free kicks against, just the one to start with, and a bit less falling over. No big attacking or defensive runs, no intercepts marks or 3rd man in spoils and certainly noblistering kicks to open up play. Are you letting the stats sheet blur your opinion. The player ratings stats certainly weren't overly impressed with the game.

Has need a week off for about 5 weeks. He's not competing right now and a knee in the back won't help that.

If Lever, Hibberd or Hunt were fit I'd have him out in a heart beat. A better game with the ball, although still managed to kick in to the mark and a number of other dumb kicks. When the Cats stacked the forward line and he had to be on Tim Kelly he was absolutely torched. Fortunately he played most of the game on Jarmaine Jones or so other no body who didn't hurt him the other way. There probably won't be anyone for him to hide on against the Crows.

Why? For wanting Tyson dropped who tries hard but has his man run by him time and time again? He's just too slow. We don't need a ball winner, we've got plenty, we need some pace.

Geelong go with a quick and mobile forward line. Hawkins proves far too agile and smart for McDonald. Change never came presumably because there was no one for Oscar to play on. Lewis and Vince minimised the times they were caught out for lack of speed but they did happen. Fristch used as the deep loose man behind Hawkins, why? Infuriating. Midfield dominates for 3/4's but doesn't have the outside class or pace to really damage the Cats. JKH misses the winning goal. Forward line just lacks smarts and that real toughness to win a big contest. ANB no smarts. Garlett not smart or tough enough. Hogan bruise free again. Melksham can't lay a big tackle. Spargo a lot of good but bounced off too many tackles. So many chances to win and we bottle it.

Oscar, Hogan, Tyson. All useless. Oscar - Pedersen or Kielty Hogan - Give Weeds another go. Tyson - Oskar Baker or even Bugg on a wing