DeeSpencer

I'm done with this pretender being unable to stand any half decent forward with an ounce of leg speed or overhead ability. I'm done with him falling over or giving away free kicks because he knows he's physically incapable of even halving the contest. I'm done with his futile efforts to change direction. I'm done with the way he picks up the ball protecting himself and only on his left side so he can't move on to his right. I'm done with his handballs that go to grass. I'm done with him taking kick outs despite only being able to kick 45 metres. I'm done with his stupid fake hair. I'm just absolutely done with Jordan Lewis. Vote. Tell me where you stand. If you're sucked in by the stat padding that invariably occurs when he's a mile from his opponent or even playing 7 defenders then good for you. If you think some of his nice short kicks justify his ongoing selection then let me know. Personally, I can't have the team playing a guy who will get so badly found out by a good team. I don't see what that achieves? I think we've got 2 really nice rebounding defender options in Hibberd and Salem who whilst not perfect are tough, courageous, pacy and can beat good opponents. They are the guys who should be getting 20 cheap kicks a game and around them we should have defenders who have the ability to actually defend.

If there's a Freo player to target to get cheaply to play it role it might be Tom Sheridan on a wing. Former first round pick and a very good runner who hasn't kept a consistent spot in the team. He'd be a buy low candidate.

Up until this year he'd butcher the ball relentlessly. Now he's starting to hit his targets. Reminds me of Harmes, but a little smaller and faster. I think he'd play half forward or wing for us and add a hard runner. Freo aren't giving him up in contract though, he's one of their bright spots, so he's a target for the end of next year.

Agree. He's a natural reader of the play and should kick to space. When he tries to thread it in tight he gets in to trouble.

Harmes going back to cover Lever meant Gus was shifted to the wing a lot more. Think he shifts back inside more next week.

In a number of preseason training threads I said Gus keeps finding the ball but is sloppy with his kicking. Would've been nice if he started in the team from round 1 but I think reading between the lines Goody put the foot down and said he had to do the extras on his body and his skills at training. It's starting to pay off and should only get better if he keeps the focus on nailing the fundamentals. We got smashed at the clearances today so all the mids have a fair bit of work to do for next week.

His right foot isn't always any better! In space he should use his right, but I like the idea that he goes on his left to get out of trouble and hope he keeps using it. His dual sided ability has always been his stand out trait, especially out of congestion by hand and foot.

Gawn wins a lot of hit outs to advantage, so any midfielder playing with him is going to get the ball, but Viney and Harmes are the two I've noticed far more than others who nail the timing and get the ball straight from the tap on the run bursting to goal. Harmes kicked a goal earlier in the year from a hit out that was beautiful to watch. All of the mids have improved their work with Gawn massively since the Hawthorn and Richmond games which were disasters in that regard.

Played all last year with injuries. The plantar fasciitis was hurting him from the early rounds all the way through to the surgery, and then he came back underdone from that. He wasn't healthy at any stage last season. Hopefully he can get back to 2016 form and even more. He also seems to have the best combination with Gawn, somehow with Harmes the other midfielder who reads Gawn well.

At this stage, no I don't think so. The AFL approved a Saints ruckman to play for Frankston not Sandringham to get him more game time and help Frankston out, so they might be willing to consider a proposal.

I think a guy who hasn't played an organised game of footy in over 3 years is a bit of a gamble, but drafting any rucks at 18 is and this has cost nothing in draft picks, doesn't take a legitimate list spot and his pedigree is first class. My biggest issue with it is how do we get game time in to him without the VFL development league? Do we make him the 3rd ruck next year? If he's 4th in line and there's not injuries that's a hard ask to see game time. Might be a test case to take to the AFL and see if he can play for a VAFA team.

You don't turn down good players but wing/half back class and a gun small forward are probably still the priorities I'd think. Expect Carlton to put their first round pick on the table for Shiel or Kelly (or both), they are Sos' favourite players and they need to land a mature mid to kick start their rebuild before it massively flops. North will try the same as well. Anyway, unless ware linked to a player we don't need to be bringing up names. We have a team with a few weaknesses but also a few strengths as is right now.

A couple of long center clearances in to outnumbered forward 50's and strong defensive marks in those turnover stats I'd suggest. Kicks could be better but really it's part of the game plan. Bomb it forward and let the forwards do the rest.

Gus might have been best on today. Great game. But maybe his best moment was when he kept his head up and bumped a Saints player square in the side and kept after the loose ball. Hurt the guy too. Most importantly he kept that head of his well out of trouble and was safe to keep contesting.

The thing that stood out to me today with Gus was his defensive work rate. He was the midfielder fastest back to help the backline. I think that's the role which will make him most valuable in the short term. It should allow Oliver and Jones to hunt the ball, and Viney to hunt the man, ball and whatever else he likes to do. In terms of long term, finals are rarely won by match winners kicking 4+ these days but often won by a classy important big goal that caps off 2 or 3 or 3.5 quarters of sustained quality. Cotchin was the guy for Richmond last year who set the tone and kept them in or ahead in games. Martin then finished them off. Gus is far more like Cotchin and Tracc is more like Dusty. Both have a way to go but that's what I'd like to dream of.

I was saying yesterday to a friend that he has to be top 10 smartest footballers in the team already. Of course the challenge is for him to keep playing his natural game and not let the over coaching and criticism that all AFL players get, plus the oppositions attention get to him and start second guessing himself. Fritsch is another very crafty player and adding just a few more smart players really helps the team balance.

Far far better tonight playing a lot of half back. That's where he should play. Let the game come to him, win some contests, make smart decisions with the ball. Can move on to the wing in the second half. No idea why he wasn't given the half back spot to start the year after 3 promising games to finish last year but hopefully he stays there now. Some mistakes, but also a lot of really strong contests in the air and on the ground and some smart footy.

Sure but he has to play somewhere and contribute otherwise it may as well be back to Casey.

First quarter was great but after his legs got heavy and his kicking went off. I don't know what to make of him. He's not overly quick and I know the team was getting steam rolled but in wet weather as the game goes on the pace should go out of the game and he should come in to it more. He knows where to go to get the ball and he can do things to win the ball and make decent decisions, but apart from that he looks a long way off. This is pure speculation but maybe the concussions have impacted his ability to maintain focus and energy for 4 quarters. I'm struggling to see where he fits in the team and really the only spots that look likely to me are the high half back role that Vince is in where he comes up to the back of a stoppage and can play up the ground and zone from a man. Or as a tagger against the right type of opponent.

Reading a bit too much in to it. Any first picked draftee hit with a ban will get 'bid to debut delayed at least one week', doesn't mean he was or is in line for selection. I expect he'll play well at VFL level but will need to do so for a good period of time before being picked.

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.

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.

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.

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.