DeeSpencer

Salem was very good until he was smashed in to next week by the cheat. Shouldn't have played after that really. Garlett never should've been picked. Terrible game. Completely unwilling or unable to get to the front of the pack and put some pressure on.

First quarter was good but there's no way our young midfielders of Oliver, Trac and Salem could keep that pace for the game. Second quarter was hardly a surprise. Exploited for defensive running in the middle and the backline doesn't stack up one on one or under pressure. Second half we turn the tables with 7 in the backline. Good coaching change but how bad is the game plan that we need 7 back to make it work? Lewis goes from liability to weapon as a spare defender. The other defenders gather confidence to run and use the ball - Wagner a big turn around. Hunt gets in to the game. ANB and Harmes light it up when given a chance in the midfield and we get ball in to Tracc who makes a huge difference forward. But where does it leave us? Lever will get exposed by a good tall forward McDonald played well but still needs help Midfield gets blasted by speed without the ball. Predominantly inside players inside players in Jones and Lewis don't know how to defend a wing. Why is that a surprise to anyone. Forward line entries and pressure are a complete mess and actually get better with a man down up forward, why? How the hell do we line up next week? Do we just start with 7 back?

Weeds - born June 97 - 196cm Fritsch - born Dec 96 - 186cm Not really a fair comparison. Curnow had never kicked more than 2 goals in a game before tonight. So no different to Weeds. This is a year for Sam to develop a healthy, strong AFL body. Apparently with ankle surgery and a long preseason in rehab and not rushed in to AFL games that has hopefully been achieved. At VFL he has to find consistency with getting to and winning contests. If he's body is right he'll be able to rotate in as back up ruck and that will do him wonders.

1-2 weeks to deload, 1-2 weeks to rehab, 2 weeks to train/play. Think if it goes well Tom can be back under the 6 week mark. Just hoping for no further set backs for Jack.

Thanks for laying it out. The club aren't always completely transparent - why should they be if it doesn't help fans and hurts them - but in this case Misson has detailed the plan. I hope they can do more in terms of designing better boots or orthotics to overcome the problem as well as the rest and rehab plan. I think the only time line the club ever put on Viney was a round 1 return being possible if things go to plan. Which they then cancelled a couple of weeks ago and didn't put a set time from on after that.

My questions for Mr Misson are: If Tom McDonald is feeling so much better now after 10 days off legs then why wasn't he given 10 days off legs when he first felt sore 8 weeks ago? AND Why did he play in the AFLX shambles at on the Etihad car park if there was knowledge that he had any sort of niggle that could be exacerbated by a firm surface?

I think he carried a plantar fascia injury for a long time. Not unusual for an AFL player but certainly that alone would've taken some toll on his body even pre surgery. Then there were rumours of a toe injury before what became (or always was) a stress fractured metatarsal. Not an expert by any means but I can imagine that after the period of time off weight bearing they had to then make sure that not only was his metatarsal ok but that his plantar fascia had healed. Then there's the impact on ramping up training on the rest of his legs - soft tissues, knee etc. I'm willing to believe the club when they say that as of Monday there wasn't any set backs with the foot injury/injuries but some associated niggles to carefully monitor. I'm also thinking those associated niggles can carry on for a fair while yet.

Who are you taking out? I think it's pretty safe to assume that ANB and Melksham are locks on the forward flanks. I can't leave out Fritsch. I know we've only seen glimpses but he's a potential match up nightmare and his kicking inside 50 looks very valuable. I can't leave out Hannan. He can swap in to the midfield to replace Petracca so we keep a burst of speed in the guts and he has the knack of kicking clutch goals. He's stronger this year which should mean better tackling and hard to move from over or under the ball. I can leave out Bugg, but he's the fittest player on the list and when others are cramping late in round 1 he'll be gut running to provide an option or chase an opponent. I think I'm 55/45 on which one I'd pick and if Garlett is training at a high level and did all the right things at Casey on the weekend I'd pick him, but my inclination is he's not exactly busting the door down for his spot and fitness and effort matter in round 1.

FB: Hibberd Oscar Jetta HB: Hunt Lever Lewis C: Jones Oliver Harmes HF: ANB Hogan Melksham FF: Fritsch Pedersen Hannan Foll: Gawn Petracca Salem Int: Vince, Brayshaw, Tyson, Bugg E: Frost, Stretch, Garlett Backline: Think the preferred 7 is just about picked, although ideally I'd replace on of the fossils with a solid two way defender or slide Gus or Salem to half back and play an extra mid. Mids: Without Viney but hopefully with Clarry I think the best 8 pick themselves Forwards: Sounds more and more like Tom misses. Still could go any of 4 directions with the very last spot - Bugg/Fritsch/Hannan/Garlett but at the end of the day I think the game plan is built on contested ball and work rate and that's not Jeff's strengths

How many bigger companies are there sponsoring AFL clubs than Zurich? That's a big deal. And Infiniti might give us an in with Nissan. Either way, looks good.

Hope they found some of ours digging up the old Junction. A few bank bonds worth a billion would be nice.

President? CEO? Coach extension? Captain - god not Viney please Sponsors - we've got 2 main ones signed up Training base??? AFLW player did a Ben Cousin's style mad monday? On field or off field? I'm going to go with positive and say Bayley Fritsch will debut. Now anything other than that will make me sad.

With Viney out we don't have 7 other midfielders better - Oliver, Petracca, Jones, Tyson, Salem, Harmes. A fit and healthy Gus is next ahead of Stretch and Maynard.

And hi to Ben if he's reading.

Just something to listen to in order to break up the monotony of training. They have music on in the gym, why not have it out on the track?

Paxman is great but doesn't ever use her team mates, is used to dominating without them and will quickly find as more athletes come in that she can't. Pearce and O'Dea aren't quick sure, but not exactly slow. They are a fit side and play to use the fitness and run but they aren't a quick side. Rocky and Newman are the only two who can run with the ball. Cat Phillips got injured and isn't really a footballer anyway, Emma Humphries became scared to crack in, Lampard was always injured - played 5 minutes tonight and could've been the difference if she played all game. And the forward line is all even contributors and we don't have a clutch goal kicker. Cunningham is a mismatch who can beat the bad teams but is too inexperienced against proper key defenders. Hore and Newman are new to the game. I think he does well with what he has. Has found more than a few good players and put them in a position to excel. Smart moves like Rocky in the ruck as back up, BJ CHB, young Kat Smith on to the ball in the last few games, Cordner from outside the best 22 to a future star key defender. His biggest error tonight was to not have one of the star mids starting the game at FF. But I get that he wanted to win in the midfield first and backed Cunningham to do her job and she just got beat by a better player every time tonight.

Very disappointing and in some ways not our night. Not our night with the umps, not our night with the bounce of the ball at times. Second half was excellent. First quarter had to be 2 or 3 up, burnt chances. But the problem with this side is the footy smarts are just below where they need to be due to so many athlete turn footballers. 2 soccer players, a life saver, a couple of netballers and a bunch of basketballers and they play an aggressive brand of footy but the Dogs had more players who do the things that make it easier for their team mates. So often the Melbourne girls go to certain spots on the ground and don't instinctively make space for each other which would then make it far easier to chip the ball down the field and use the space. Anyway, in some respects the difference was Newman - who gives her all - is a soccer player turned footballer and botched what was a simple run in goal because she got nervous. If she runs to the line it's a goal. If she slows up and balances up it's a goal. She did half of each. Then Conti - a basketballer turned footballer who had a bunch of junior development - goals from 5m out and sneaks it in by half a mm. The extra junior training makes that little difference. And even though regular posters know my contempt for Jordan Lewis and how I think leadership is overrated we saw tonight the Dees also lost because they didn't get their stoppage set up right. They had 2 loose in the back 50 which is fair with 90 seconds to go but left a loose Dog over the back of the throw in. Of course the wind blows it over the back (again, footy smarts lacking from several of the players not to read that), in to the loose dog who handballs to the goal kicker who fortunately for her is on her preferred left side and goals. Pick up the spare at the stoppage and we likely win the game. Here's a tweet that shows the stoppage set up and the loose dog. 2 loose dees inside 50 is fine but you have to keep bringing forwards in to the contest until you block it up. That's the ball game.

Meh, I reckon we lost as many games from fear of failure and not taking the game on as we did from overconfidence. Not to mention the fatigue factor with a lot of young players getting tired, some older guys slowing down and a lot of players returning from injuries. I hope we've built physical and mental resilience. That would be my focus, not some outdated concept of drinking your own bathwater.

We approach the dogs pregame and ask them to shake hands and play out a 1-1 draw. Dogs are automatically through to the final and as long as the Crows don't belt the Pies we will be too. Both teams don't have to worry about injuries and get a bit of rest to then play out an epic final in front of a big crowd. Simple.

Doubt this was a hands on decision from Gil. The problem is the AFL has a huge excess of staff who have to justify their jobs. Someone went to Gil and said they could digitally remaster the songs and make them better, that sounds smart, but it's not what they've done. Gil's problem is he trusts his massive inflated staff when he needs to confront a bunch of them and remove them and use the extra money and resources elsewhere.

Aside from making it faster, higher and generally weaker they've ruined my favourite part of the song. Excuse my lack of musical knowledge but about a minute in to the song during the instrumental section there's a really nice fluttering trumpets that matches up to 'we sing this song to you flutter flutter flutter' In the new version is just tapers off. It's we sing this song to you bleh bleh bleh It's lacking the character and sparkle of the original. Yuck

All she added was quotes from a Rugby League coach who couldn't comment on specifics and the price tag of the deposit. If that's the best she can do a few months later then that's fine by me.

This injury update was seemingly the first bit of positive news in a long time for both of them. With McKenna it's hard to imagine that they can't fix his hamstrings eventually. Foot problems are on a different level but it's nice to here they plan for Vanders to run outside, being in rehab for an entire year is bad enough without having to do most of it without even joining the group outside.

Interestingly no update on Jones. That probably tells me they expect him to play which is good, but they also don't want to go public with an update on his back. I think Lewis and ANB get through, always have. They were back running a few days after the injury and have had a lot of time. I'm not confident on Tom. There's a big step between not running and being ready to play and at best that step using takes 2 weeks no matter the injury.

I'm not big on unfair intrusions in to personal lives and reporting on rumours, especially when the sources are clearly vague. Otherwise do your best media.