DeeSpencer

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

I don't actually mind the idea of just going hard after everyone available and seeing who you can get. North have to get out of their first round pick somehow so they're chasing hard. The thing I wouldn't want to do is have it go public every time. What does that say to prospective recruits or to their own players? But that's where North are different to most teams. They don't really care about looking desperate. They are the shinboners and their club is founded on just giving it a red hot go. It's very admirable.

Hibberd hasn't been at his best but it's still a big loss. The ideal backline is 7 defenders who can all kick, intercept (mark or punch), run and defend. Hibberd's our most well rounded defender at being able to do all 4 of those thing. Lever might be closest, he can kick, intercept and to an extent defend (the right opponent) and run but he's out as well. Hunt can defend, intercept and run when at his best and he's out too. Vince does a bit of everything but isn't the same player he once was. Lewis can kick and gets in position to help others intercept and run the ball but can't defend. Jetta a great defender and can intercept and kick but doesn't run the ball out. A lot really falls on Salem now because he can do a bit of everything but the opposition is going to clamp down on him. Chris Scott will be right on to him. So do we bring in Joel Smith who can replace Hibberd's athleticism or do we bring in Wagner who has better skills and can find the footy more. That decision probably then alters what we think Vince can do. The other options: - Harmes who can probably do a decent poor mans Hibberd replacement but then the midfield is light on for defensive effort and given the loss of Viney that's a bad result - Fritsch who is a nice intercept, run and skill option across half back but then robs the midfield of some much needed class on the outside

The Judd trade wasn't great long term but the real harm it caused was it papered over the huge cracks in their draft and developing of players. With Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer and a handful of other good players - Scotland, Walker, the guys they gave away - they made finals with a decent team (and probably a decent coach in Ratten) but their list was disintegrating under them. 2 best 22 players in 8 years. That's almost hard to do.

Sos has mainly done a good job, I think more than anything injuries have killed them this year. This was meant to be their last down year before improving and you have to start building some cohesion for that to occur. He shouldn't be fired by questions should be asked to Bolton why opening up their game plan has seen such disastrous skills. He came from a teaching and Hawthorn background - he should be able to develop skills. Of course kicking relies on the running - both effort and smarts - to make it look good but just basic skill wise the Blues haven't looked good. Sos made the point about their trades out bringing good draft picks and therefore good players in and that's fair enough: Touhey - Marchbank Yarran - Cunningham Henderson - McKay Gibbs for 2 firsts FB: Plowman Weitering HB: Docherty Marchbank C; O'Brien Cripps Murphy HF: SPS C. Curnow Fisher FF: Pickett McKay Foll: Kreuzer Kennedy Dow There's still plenty there to work with but it's amazing Carlton haven't had many late round success stories, nor have they found any hidden gems on the list. I guess Jones to some extent. But Roos found Jetta, Dunn and Pedersen off the scrap heap amongst others I guess and they were useful parts in getting us back in to games. Then the same thing with getting Cross, Vince, Garlett etc. Fisher might have had the most impact as a young midfielder as well. Dow, SPS, Kennedy, O'Brien, Cunnigham haven't delivered consistently which is ok, it just hurts the rebuild. We got a huge kick out of Tyson, then Brayshaw as a half forward in his first year, and then Oliver and Petracca the next year were impact players.

Until the end of 2019 injury cover for Hogan/Tommy Mc and possibly for Gawn (I think a combination of Weideman and McDonald would be surprisingly effective as a ruck duo) as well as the occasional game where 3 talls is worth the risk. Then see where the rule changes and Sam's development, possibly even Hogan's contract is at by the end of 2019 and make a decision then about his future. I can understand at some stage Weideman might get frustrated but I actually think he's had plenty of AFL footy so far for a young tall. Casey should play VFL finals as well which can be a nice intermediate step between VFL and AFL.

They may be mobile but they are both poor pressure players. Tom is overzealous and gets out of position, then doesn't have great lateral mobility and tackling skills. Jesse is slowly getting better but is not a natural tackler either. No one can be certain but with new rules to ease congestion my guess is that a CHF and FF go up in a value but otherwise the game will either keep the current preference for speed and mobility with forwards if not go even more towards it.

I heard he was late to training the other week. Has talent, but missing VFL games for whatever reason and not getting VFL midfield time are both concerns to me. Things like Vanders staying healthy and JKH just maybe making a case for his career to stay alive aren't probably in Balic's favour. Still, plenty of games left.

He made strides against Freo as well. Still a bit tentative to really run and jump at the footy and open himself up to contact which is a concern but it's much better than the few weeks before that.

Small forward: Tyson Stengle kicked 6 for Tigers VFL on the weekend. But there's not a heap going around. Draft might be the option here Wing: Gaff, Polec the big names. Tom Sheridan is a guy from Freo who's going ok and might be cheap and available Those 2 positions are the ones I think are the biggest needs. We simply have to add something at those spots. The wing has been patch work all year and Garlett is the only genuine small forward on the list and is nearly done. Medium backmen: Think we need to add at least one ready to play general purpose defender to take over the Vince role. This won't be popular but if gets cut from the bombers I'm actually a fan of Matty Dea Back up ruck: Hard to convince a back up to come play behind Gawn. The current guys, in particular Mitch King might be worth giving one more year to see if he improves Midfield depth: It might be keeping Tyson, getting Maynard back healthy and not bringing in ready made help but if we make some trades we'll want a mature body. The idea of trading Tyson for a top 40 pick and adding Mitch Wallis as a free agent appeals to me