DeeSpencer

This is the biggest one I think. Forwards will have to be trained not to take rushed shots on goal. If you get the ball forward somewhat quickly then snap a behind you're going to get ripped apart on the counter. Similarly no bombed entries to the goal line, any long kicks in have to land outside the goal square so you've at least got a margin to work with. Kick out zones will have to be pulled back at least 5-10m. If Hunt gets back in form he could be a weapon. 11m goal square + 20m run (you usually get 5 extra) plus 60m kick. That's getting the ball close to the 50m arc on some grounds if he goes right down the middle. Similarly the rest of the defenders now have a chance to either go long or to hit up holes a spread out zone. We might send Gawn deep for a bomb as a decoy but have Salem hit up a short accurate kick up the middle 40m from goal who can then attack both sides of the ground. Fritsch, KK and Vanders on the wings now become vital defensive and attacking players I think. If the ball goes up and down quickly then position play becomes important and the wingers will be the guys getting the bombed kick out to their direction. I'm glad we've got 188cm+ wingmen with strength overhead. Same with big mids. The only concern is we might need some even bigger ones to deal with the 195cm mids a few teams have!

Follow this tweet and it’s thread for a brutal breakdown of the Rams Offense and their failure to adapt to beat Belichick. Note to all NFL coaches. Coach your players to play multiple styles. Without them you have no chance if you come up against a coach who can.

Pats 30 - Rams 27 MVP Trey Flowers

Not sure about those numbers Macca. https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-wild-card-round-ratings-12-percent-over-230609914--nfl.html https://deadline.com/2019/01/nfl-playoffs-ratings-viewership-skyrockets-for-espn- Looks more like 20-30 mil for the wild card games, and 44/50+ for the championship games.

As there was for the Grand Prix and as there invariably is for just about anything these days. It's the genius of the Tigers Indigenous centre. The people of East Melbourne/Richmond/wherever can't complain that they were widening their footprint on Yarra Park's anglo saxon so called sacred ground if the traditional owners have approved it on what they consider their own actual sacred ground. Checkmate greenies.

The State Government usually seems ready to tip in money for AFL club training bases given the relationship they have with the AFL. It might not be all that prudent but the Grand Final is massive for the state and big blockbuster games and other finals in September certainly don't hurt. Our crowds for the Cats and Hawks finals would look good on any proposal about why we should be invested in. What we need to secure a nice grant is a story to tell to make it politically safer, particularly if it's in East Melbourne. The Tigers built an Indigenous centre. Essendon apparently have Paralympian training facilities. The Dogs just got granted a stack of cash and land and are redeveloping the Whitten Oval as an AFLW hub. Brisbane are also talking up the importance of a home for their AFLW side as part of their funding. That might be an angle for us to work in, but whatever it is we need to find community benefits.

The Pats almost always defer to the other team in order to start the 2nd half. So I think they were doing what the Pats didn't want. Clearly they hadn't factored in letting the Pats run all over them for an easy score. Poor Big Red, today I'm thinking he's the best bad coach in the league for his handling of the last 3 minutes. You just can't give Brady the ball back with 2 minutes and 3 time outs. It's suicide. They had to find a way to kill clock and score with under a minute left. And no time out in overtime to at least give your D a brief rest and try to come up with a goal line stand? Masterful play caller and great culture guy but in an ideal world he's the offensive coordinator to a great head coach. That ideal world is New England I guess.

The face mask call was easy to miss and really it's the kind of call that the game is better to miss. QB's don't deserve extra protection when out running and copping incidental contact that is no risk of injury and doesn't impede them. If you can't even see it from the behind angle and he isn't hampered at all then it's probably not a big deal. The later non call is far worse because it was at least 2 penalties! Helmet to helmet as well as the interference. Plus it would've ended the game and that means the ref was probably afraid to make the call. Anyway, should be review-able as it would be an easy call.

Pats 35 Chiefs 30 Rams 20 Saints 30

Colts 30 Chiefs 31 Cowboys 20 Rams 17 Chargers 21 Patriots 23 Eagles 13 Saints 34

Colts 30 Houston 34 Seattle 24 Dallas 20 Chargers 25 Baltimore 23 Philadelphia 24 Chicago 20

Cheers @Macca I wouldn't have won without your generous weekly notifications. And to be honest working some Sunday evenings had me checking demonland late before bed and doing my tips as Shefty was announcing the injuries that worked in my favour. Loving the wild card match ups this year, seems a really strong group of teams. An early play off prediction - the AFC is underrated and the NFC is a bit overrated. An early hope - Colts win so they go play the Chiefs, and the Ravens win and get the Pats match up.

Eagles, Chargers, Colts

Yarra Park hosted a music festival on Saturday called Petting Zoo. Typical drugged up singlet wearing idiots dancing in a big heap of mud to EDM. The idea that it's always a public park full of peaceful trees and people walking dogs is pretty false. It's a public space best used for public activities. A sporting oval available for the public would help a lot of those activities.

SeaHawks Saints Packers

Kupp is a massive loss and Cook never got the chance to stretch the field. That means it's also going to be tight throws or short stuff. More than anything though it seemed like the Rams O line just had a stinker, that can happen on the road. Fix the O line, the run gets going, Cook becomes a factor and things open up for Goff. Handing off to Gurley when he's going nowhere isn't necessarily smart given the Bears defensive line were monstering, but I was shocked he couldn't get the ball in space. Roquan Smith is a good rookie linebacker but Gurley is even faster than he is and way more powerful. Gurley only 3 completions on 7 targets but a 10 yard average. I'd be dropping it off to him on tosses, screens and short passes all day if he's not getting the yards up the middle. The shock of the game that tilted it in the Bears favour was the Bears being able to run the ball after failing to do so all year. I don't know what Wade is doing with Suh and Donald there shouldn't be anywhere to go!

Pats, Saints, Rams

It's certainly more than the average that we've had. Playing deep in to September and a lot of surgeries will do that. Players consistently in the rehab group last preseason (from what I can recall): Hannan, Weed, T Smith, J Smith, Garlett, Kent, one or both of the young rucks at times, McKenna + Vanders (both rarely sighted outside running), Viney.

Oskar Baker - did 2 hammies in the back end of last year, probably just a slow build up Angus Brayshaw - was in the main group last week but called for the physios a couple of times Mitch Hannan - think he's had knee problems in both years, had an op James Harmes - had a shoulder op, seems to be fine Marty Hore - unsure, but is doing a fair bit in rehab, paired up with Melk Jayden Hunt - had shoulder surgery, doing a fair bit on the track Neville Jetta - had knee and shoulder procedures Jake Lever - knee taking it's time according to Stevo's tweet Oscar McDonald - unsure? Jake Melksham - probably just the ankle he carried in the back end of last year, doing plenty Clayton Oliver - legs look good, obviously hasn't done upper body weights for a while Christian Petracca - had a knee op Tim Smith - unsure Billy Stretch - coming back from stress fracture Aaron vandenBerg - had a shoulder op, out running Jack Viney - had an ankle procedure, doing laps, I expect they'll take him slowly It's a long list and it's way too talented! Lever due to it being a long term injury and Vanders and Viney with their injury histories are the guys I'm worried about. Just a rough guess but I think Baker, Brayshaw, Hore, Hunt, Melksham should be good to go soon based on them doing more ball work from what I saw. Clarry seems fine, will just be a matter of when he can resume contact drills. Jetta and Petracca seem paired up and looked ok. It's not panic stations now but I think we need to have the list back in single figures asap after Christmas and have as many of these guys right to go for the preseason games. If they haven't done enough training to play in the preseason then they're likely playing catch up during the regular season which is a risk of further injuries.

Last report for the day. Tom McDonald had some beautiful salmon coloured boots on.

Tossing or turning whether to go with this in a report because I don't want to be premature, nor do I want to get others overly excited. But I guess it's December so even I can be positive. I'll also say that Josh Wagner is one of the best 5 kicks at training and even the worst kicks hit their targets more times than not in simple drills. That said, here's my big call - James Jordon might be the best kick on the list. He's balanced, has a simple action and has lovely penetration and shape on his kicks. The guys did a drill that required a kick from the wing to land up in front of a forward who was positioned 10m or so inside the boundary. The gusty wind took apart the guys with suspect techniques - Maynard and Tommy Mc kicked floaters and Frost was sending them everywhere, even some of the better kicks were missing short or long. Jordon's kicks were cutting through the breeze and landing in front of the eyes of the forwards.

I think I saw all but Lever, Vanders, Oscar do ball work. Melk and Hore who seem teamed up, as well as Hunt did kick to kick in a triangle. Others with some kick to kick and handball stuff.

They did some longer running. Then boots on to split in to 3 groups for some in tight ground ball and handball drills, then some kicking. A full squad longer kicking drill sorted out the good and bad kicks in swirly conditions. Sparrow kicks it low and hard, more hits than misses. Nietschke is just solid, gets it to where it needs to be. now it’s some gentle match sim. 3 of Weid, Keilty, J Smith/C Wag and T Mc as the forward vs 2 of May, Frost, Petty and Josh Wag. Zoning and leading patterns the aim of the game

Oskar Baker has given the day weights a fair go during his time off. Hasn’t found a good hairdresser yet

Line drills have finished for now and it’s in to some repeat sprints the new players split from the main group, a couple of academy kids joining in, both solid sized lads Bedford and Chandler have gone hat free. Sparrow the backwards visor. Jordon the regular visor. The rest with the white caps, Bradkte the only one going backwards . From the main group Spargo, Fritsch, Wagner, Hibberd and JoelSmith are backwards cap guys