DeeSpencer

Jones should be right to play shouldn't he? FB: Hibberd Frost Jetta HB: Lever Oscar Hunt C: Stretch Oliver Jones HF: ANB Hogan Melksham FF: Hannan T Mc Fritsch Foll: Gawn Petracca Salem Int: Pedersen, Harmes, Brayshaw, Maynard, Wagner, Lewis, Bugg Emerg: Vince, JKH, Balic, Keilty, M King etc.

Base wage this year is 80k for players drafted 40+, 90k for players drafted 1-20. With $4000 match payments and $3000 bonus for ever 5 games played. So pretty much it's close to 200k if you play every game. 3rd, 4th and pretty much until a player establishes themselves are probably the hardest players to know what kind of deal they are on. Minimum is 105k with 4,300 match payment but you'd think clubs would go well above minimum for anyone who's played a few games in the first 2 years. Salary cap is 12.5 million. Which fits with the average wage of just over 300k. Given there's a lot of depth and youth at most clubs who make less than the average I think teams can squeeze in a few big contracts ie. 750k+ and can have a lot of solid players making 400-500. I think where the media reporting and guess work goes wrong is for the players who are allegedly signing deals worth 550, 600, 700 etc. My guess is a lot of those deals are very incentive based and they work out a lot lower than reported.

The games he went missing in were the ones he played alongside 2 other tall forwards. I just can't see him playing with Hogan and Tommy Mc. Unless the make Hogan a midfielder for half the game or get really funky and play Tom on a wing for part of the game.

I like the idea of getting Tom as much match practice as possible and the format will be good for a forward who needs to work on leading patterns. My theory on Pertracca and Jetta is that they are 2 guys who aren't natural runners but are very competitive and so get more of a fitness benefit from playing a game.

I'm not as negative on this as others. I think it's a bit of fun to see some of the guys have a hit out and I think we've named the right kind of squad. I'm keen to see Petracca playing midfield in a shorten version of the game and Tom McDonald up forward. Otherwise I'd like to see the 3 draftees and DJ. It's a televised competitive training exercise before the shortened preseason of 2 games which is the right number.

Squad to be named soon but this is how I'd go in to it: Unavailable: Viney, Vanders, J Smith, T Smith, Weeds, McKenna, Garlett, Kent Rested/clear best 22: Gawn, Jones, Oliver, Tyson, Frost, Oscar, Petracca, Hogan, T McDonald, Lever, Hibberd, Hunt, Salem, Lewis, Vince Unsuitable: King, Filipovic Leaves us with: ANB (capt), Stretch (vice), Harmes, Brayshaw, Melksham, Hannan, Johnstone, Spargo, Baker, Fritsch, JKH, Balic, Bugg, Wagner, Petty, Maynard, Keilty, Pedersen

If he's fitter I'm still not sure why he isn't right in contention for the CHB spot. He's an excellent mark, lovely kick and reads the play well.

Top 10 1. Matt Crouch 315 2. Rory Sloane 253 3. Rory Laird 226 4. Sam Jacobs 224 5. Richard Douglas 219 6. Taylor Walker 211 7. Tom Lynch 203 8. Brad Crouch 194 9. Brodie Smith 194 10. Eddie Betts 187 10 handy players who beat him. I have my concerns that we paid too much at the trade table and that we'll also have to temper expectations because he played in a very good team with a lot of support - a excellent CHB in Talia, a decent other tall in Hartigan and 2 excellent flankers to move the ball in Laird and Smith helped him play his role. He also plays a fairly risky game backing himself to zone off and be the interceptor. All of that said when he's having a good game he's an exceptional interceptor and can control a game. Plus is young enough to keep improving and the right kind of leader.

I enjoy his instagram videos, but surely Misson and the rest of his team have a handle on the various aspects of the job. Represents an opportunity to retain most of his knowledge and then bring in some fresh ideas. It is disappointing that the AFL would open what surely must be an attractive position on the verge of the season starting at a busy time for strength and conditioning. Is it only with the introduction of a new head of umpiring recently that they worked out they needed new strength and conditioning programmes? You'd think it would be better for everyone if the hiring and firing in these positions occurs over the October break time.

I haven't seen a running session since he did a time trial with Maynard where he was clearly beaten but not embarrassed. From early match simulation drills he showed an ability to find the ball and use it creatively. He had to get fitter and hopefully that's happened just by doing a good chunk main training and his kicking needed to be more consistent so I was glad to see him working on that today.

Anyway, back on topic. Watched a bit of training this morning from about 10:30 until they finished after 11. A couple of new entrants in to the rehab group. 1. The coach. Goody had a knee bandaged up and was on crutches before getting carted back to AAMI park at the end of the session. 2. Death, taxes and Dom Tyson getting injured in preseason. Dom had compression on his right calf. Rehab group: Viney, Kent, T Smith, J Smith, Vanders, Mckenna, Weed, JeffyG, Tyson. They were doing a little version of slips catching with footies then a decent boxing hit out. Main group were split in to multiple groups. Seemed to be a lot of small drills. Didn't really notice any particular themes of interest. So really just some tidbits: - Salem and Jetta sat out a drill at one stage, Hogan the last drill and wandered back to AAMI - Frost's set shot for goal remain the scariest thing you'll ever see, but at the end of training him launcher a torp from the goal square to near midfield - Harry Petty kicks with a very flat and penetrating trajectory - Flippers looks fitter in the legs since late last year, starting to look more like an athlete - Balic did extra kicking at the end of the session with Crossy. - Melksham seems a bit more built than last season, not major, just less sinewy.

Disagree on that. Rucks have to be extra mids around the ground and at stoppages. The Tigers used Nankervis and Grigg as ruck rovers as much as rucks to use the old terminology. Dogs the same with Boyd and Roughead when they won the flag. The way teams link from handball at stoppages requires rucks to stay involved. Pedersen and McDonald did it very well last year and we were better with them than with Gawn! But we need Max at his best back in. For us to win in round 1 he has to dominate the taps but he’ll also have to chase Danger, Selwood and Ablett at the stoppages as well!

He’s 7 foot tall and white! There’s only so much agility the man can have. Of course he’s working at it but he can’t chase down mobile defenders. I’d be annoyed if we were playing against him and he consistently pressured the likes of Jetta, Hibberd, Frost, Lever or Hunt! That’s not to say he’s not working on it, improving or a viable forward option it’s just a reality.

The obvious answer is because he's 7 foot tall. Gawn would chase and pressure to the best of his ability but his agility to change directions to tackle or to gather the ball at ground level is still going to be worse than most key forwards yet alone smalls. Playing off him as a predictable target to at least bring the ball to ground isn't a bad idea and I like the mobility of Tom McDonald/Pedersen in the ruck so I expect to see Max forward a fair bit but more a rest or change up than regular tactic.

Is there training tomorrow at Gosch's @satyricon

Back in training in a month. Probably needs another month after that to play an AFL game. Looks like round 2-4 to me. That's ok. Get him right for the full season.

He's contracted to the Eagles for next year and they'd want a good backup for Wentz. The logical move might be for the Eagles to keep him until the trade deadline then sell him if Wentz is back at his best. What can they get for him now? A 2nd or 3rd round pick? Pretty handy to have that come draft time. Alex Smith already traded. Cousins and Foles available. Keenum/Bradford/Bridgewater situation in Minnesota. It's looking like a very interesting QB offseason.

Belichick made one great adjustment moving Gilmore on to Jeffery. But should he have started on him? Otherwise I was surprised he couldn't match up the rest of the Defense. That said, it was a lot of Ertz and the big plays from Clement. Possibly the problem was the Eagles had the weapons and run game. If they played Dime defense to get all the match ups right the Eagles could run the ball on them. Kansas City did it in week 1. Panthers with Newton's ability to run or throw caused them issues. Pittsburgh kind of did it later and should've scored at least 7 points more! The Dolphins even did it in December. Very easy to say after the fact but the reality might've been that the Pats just didn't play a very good schedule of teams this year. The Belichick theory of take away your strengths and beat you because you 'can't play left handed' works very well against teams with more weaknesses than his defense has. Doesn't work as well when you're playing a team with an excellent spread of attacking options up against your own weaknesses in the front 7.

It's an American cultural thing. But not really in a good way. A lot of it has a racial background that black athletes can't be trusted to be sporting. If not that there's also a huge paternalistic view that any athletes need discipline. The issue the AFL has is that you now can't do anything to square up or shut up an opponent who is taunting you. Back in the good old days you crunch them at the next contest and even in recent years you could give them a jumper punch. And if you don't focus on the physical square up it's also harder to win a one on one given the team and pressure nature of the game these days. Still, it's not impossible to just play better and win the game, and that would still be my advice to encourage that rather than bring in overbearing rules. As for the kids, I don't believe in making rules for adults sports purely on the desire for how kids should act. It's not up to AFL footballers to parent your child. Fair enough to outlaw violence and draw the line with sledging and obscene behaviour but it's still adults playing the game.

I was thinking if the Eagles couldn't get a stop before they got to half way and/or 1 minute of game time left they'd may as well let Brady score a TD as quick as possible and then get the ball back themselves for a tying or winning FG. Shows how good the Pats are that I was ready to skip the 'they will score and win' stage and go straight to 'the Eagles need to go outside the box here' stage.

A fantastic coaching performance. Credit to Pederson but also it seems like their OC and QB coach are all fantastic as well. I think it takes all those minds to come up and defeat the greatest coach and particularly the greatest defensive coach of all time with a back up QB. After watch the 2 Bill's last night the game reminds me of Parcells/Belichick Giant's team beating the heavily favoured Buffalo team in the 90's but in reverse. Belichick came up with the game plan to beat the Bills explosive offense. Today, the Eagles came up with the game plan to beat the Pats defense. Frank Reich was the back up QB for Buffalo back then and was the OC for the Eagles today. That Pats front 7 is pretty light on for talent but the Eagles had to throw and challenge a very good secondary. I really thought Philly's only chance was to run the ball and shorten the game and get sacks and take aways on defense. The missed FG is in many ways a take away and obviously they had the huge sack and fumble recovery, but you're right, the Pats win almost any time with the numbers they put up on offense.

Man of little faith Dappa. Always certainties to win the Division! Now if you told me they won an epic shootout with the Pats in the Superbowl I'd never have believed you! I still can't believe it happened.

Isn't the AFLW grand final during round 1 of the men's season proper? Might be an early celebration there!

Just as concerned by Tom going one hand and getting under the ball as I am with Oscar still being a pushover. Oh well, I did enjoy Nev's trip.

Back makes more sense than forward, but I still think he's got plenty of time left in the midfield, first by moving on to the wing and away from the crash and bash. A high half forward role wouldn't be unreasonable but in reality there's not much difference between that role and playing on a wing/rotating in to the guts.