DeeSpencer

DJ nails another tackle but didn't capitalize. Blue with a lot of play

Gus just doing skill work with the boxing coach JHK work rate stands out. Garlett fumbles. These Casey blokes are ordinary

Dion J nails some Casey bloke with a ripping tackle to force a turnover

Dom arrives in street clothes. Some nice work from White going end to end again but Hunt rides the contact and spoils Track deep one on one. Oliver heavily involved. Lewis and Salem all class

Spencer gets behind Gawn. Hulett crumbs and the Blues have a snag. Smart ball use from the Whites from deep. Salem long from middle. Weed strong chest mark, plays on, goals

Hogan, Watts, Weed, Traxk, Jeff, Vanders in white forwards Macs, Hunt, Melky, Wags, Vince the starting blue backs. Mids split. Back ups and Casey at the freeway end (my end)!

Hibberd, Hannan Jetta going off to do skills

No Tyson, Kent. King in a singlet. Not sure who else isn't there. Not sure if I've seen Mitch white or Joel Smith. Blues v Whites with the Casey guys mixed in and proper umps coming up I assume

The former. Couldn't tell who was kicking in, bit of a worry as Tom, Oscar, Jetta, Hibberd, Hunt are down there.

Blues picking off kickouts - Oliver and Gus and resulting in goals. And now some quality ball movement by the blue mids and Gawn grabs a strong mark inside 50

Smooth paddling from Oliver but blue gets it back, Salem shows some class and Hoges marks on a flank and spots up Spencer deep who kicks the set shot

Oliver, Hogan, Garland [censored] around with at half back before it finally gets switched wide then goes inside 50 to Garlett. Hunts turned it over a couple of times trying to do too much. A lot of play on the AAMI wing unfortunately because most of the crowd are using the shade

Flippers spills a chesty. Green attack, Brayshaw gets in and out of trouble, bomb goes to the square and Hannan crumbs and scores

Trenners everywhere for the blues

Green is first choice defenders and 2nd line forwards from what I can tell. Blue vice versa. Numbers coming off the bench rotating mids between the teams

Lovely inside 50 kick from McKenna. Green team very scratchy so far

If not for missing a string of games through injury Viney would be a back to back best and fairest winner. Talent shouldn't have a huge bearing on leadership, but I think performance is an important factor and I think it's fair to say Viney is our best performed player over the last 2 years. That's worthwhile considering.

Similar criticisms were given to Jones when he took over. They might even still apply now. It's just one guy but I've heard Viney has been great for Petracca, whom the Saints labelled as difficult when the passed on him in the draft. Similarly Jones has been really good for Brayshaw, even if he was probably the easier one to mentor. I don't think Viney's perfect, but if he's ready to take on the responsibility and be accountable for his mistakes sharing the job might just be perfect.

Because I just can't see how that can be true. Not a chance we have 22 players better than Jones. And if it was he probably wouldn't be captain and maybe not even in the LG. Roos made it clear to be in the LG you'd have to be capable of leading on field.

Sydney have done co-captains for years. Had no problems. Clarko turfed Mitchell when he had done nothing wrong and put Hodge in the job. Now he's turfed Hodge and replaced him with a guy who just missed a year with cancer. Ward and Davis work really well together on field and off for GWS. The easy call would've been to keep Jones and skipper and Viney as VC. So Goodwin hasn't done this because it was easy. He's done this because he thinks it's right. Jones has been a great warrior but you can't get extra points because the club has been a basketcase in the past. Otherwise you don't ever raise the standard. He's still captain, as he deserves to be. Sharing the job doesn't have to diminish it.

I don't know about that. I think they match up really well against us. That's why Roos + Goodwin couldn't make the tactical moves because they simply had match up advantages. At the same time we've been trying to develop a team and a game style so we haven't exactly made a whole heap of tactical changes week to week. It's hard to do that with a young side - look at Terry Wallace who was a great tactician but couldn't put together a side properly. What I will admit is that for round 1 we need to at least pick the right players to match up against the Saints and to play well at Etihad.

Comparing us v them is pretty difficult because there's probably more differences than similarities. So if you just study St Kilda's trajectory without us they have a strong case for the 8. If you break down their best 22 you can see they have a really even side. Backline - 7 Talls - Carlisle fills a huge hole. Dempster (Or N Brown), Roberton Smalls - Geary, Savage, Webster, Montagna have played a lot together. That might not be a great backline but it's a reliable 7 without a weakness. Webster's the youngest of the lot and has played 50 games. They'll have to replace Montagna and Dempster but at the moment they play at a high level. Midfield - 8 Inside: Steven is a gun. Ross is underrated. Armitage, Dunstan will now get pressure from handy depth imports in Steele and Stevens. Again, solid. Freeman is a wildcard as well. Outside; Riewoldt on a wing is a beast. Newnes is handy. Ruck - Hickey is an above average ruck, Bruce does enough as a back up. Plus they have some ok depth options Utility - Gilbert is someone they probably have to pension off but he works really hard covering the ground Forward - 7 Talls - McCartin, Bruce, Membrey, with the option of Riewoldt chopping in. That's a strong trio. Smalls - Weller (handy role player), Billings (unfulfilled but still decent), Gresham - very classy. Acres is the player Saints fans rave about who tore us apart last year but otherwise has some good and bad days. So yeah they probably lack star power but they are filled with hard working players. Their backline has good skill and a lot of experience to set up. Their midfield and forward line has a lot of hard workers and hard runners which helps their game style. They main reason why I think they are strong chance for the 8 is their coaching. Richo has been building for 3 years with a similar plan and each year they add to it a bit but mainly they just manage to sustain it for longer and against better opposition. They also do things like kick outs really well which shows to me they have coaches with will executed plans and players who are on board with them. Carlisle is the big trade in but mainly they are a list that's been building with a coach. I think it's fair to expect they progress because so far every season under Richardson has followed a steady trajectory and they seem to be together as a club and not reliant on individuals.

Dreadful idea. The bottom 6 will become a tank off. You can't win a number 1 pick. It will simply be a complete write off for those teams. Fans won't be any more interested by playing poor quality games and those sides may as well pull up stumps after 17 weeks. The middle 6 will be competitive, but they are now limited to finishing 7th. They can't storm home in to a top 4 finish that (usually) is required to win the flag. The top 6 now have 5 really tough games in the lead up to finals and can't manage their build up to finals. If the AFL wants a 17 (or even better an 18) round season then they have to put the money aside from the 4 or 5 extra weeks revenue and do that. This is a plan worked up by TV Networks as a way of guaranteeing 6 meaningful - 3 quality and 3 decent - games a week for the back end of the year. It's a sham. Playing against the bad teams and effectively ending after 17 weeks will completely anchor the bottom sides and elongate the gap between top and bottom when what the league needs to get back to is pre tanking, pre youth policy, pre GWS + GC where teams were far more even and could bounce up and down the ladder between seasons. No team did that better than us under Daniher!

16 a side isn't a bad idea. You have to always have a few players forward or behind the ball. If a backline holds 3 back you need 2 to compete with them and same at the other end. So it will take players from around the ball. Players are too fit, too fast and kick too well for 18 on the ground. It's really a historical number and I'm glad they've changed it for AFLW. Incorrect disposal has to be looked at. Certainly I think the Dogs got away with so much throwing last year. It helped them win in congestion and therefore encouraged them to keep the ball in congestion around stoppages and forward of centre. In the back half they are actually a really nice ball movement team. Hawthorn beat congestion by raising the limits on what can be achieved in ball movement. They were so good at counter attacking from stoppages and turnovers that teams couldn't beat them by stacking numbers. The modern culture of Australian Rules demands we use the bench as an interchange not subs and I'm all for that. Certainly there should be a cap but it's an interchange and I think that's a fair thing. I want to see 22 play each week not 18 (or 16) plus a few spares. Overall I'd say why worry about this is Feb? Skills v congestion will be an endless battle at AFL level and it will ebb and flow.

That's a fair wrap. I'm not sure he's got that ceiling. I like him as a forward line pressure/enforcer type who also has the ability to crash through and create something on the ground or take a mark in the air. Against the Hawks in our signature win last year he made Gibson defend him which mean Pedersen and Weid could get one on ones. If he's fitter and healthier this year then he can go in to the midfield as a change up.