DeeSpencer

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He's 23. I think we say to him come to us for 2-3 years when we really need a solid back up as we develop 18 year olds. You'll play at Casey but even if Max is healthy we'll at least give you a couple of games when we rest Max and maybe a couple of games together if we have key forward injuries. Plus you'll get taught by Max and Greg Stafford. By the end of the 2-3 years you'll know everything Max does. And we'll let you go to whatever club you want if you're playing like an AFL level starting ruck and have offers on the table. I don't think there's a big money contract on the table for him from any club. He's not quite good enough to get the Nankervis/Jolly/Mumford back up ruck to starting deal straight up from a team. NFL fans will be familiar with Jimmy Garoppolo who spent 3.5 years behind Tom Brady as his back up and played in all of about 2 games. He was traded to the 49ers, looked like a star and got the biggest contract extension of all time from them after 7 starts. Things are different over there but Jimmy G learnt from great coaches as the back up to the goat. Not saying Gawn is Tom Brady but he'd still be pretty handy to train against every day.

I can make it appear faster than that!

Part 2 was released at the same time as Part 1 (or close enough to), it's just over on Sal's Against All Odds Podcast and not on BS'.

Very happy with that Mack trade. Getting back a 2nd round pick makes it not much more than giving up a 1st round pick. Done. Bears D just went from solid but unspectacular to very exciting and capable of really shutting down other teams. Week 1 in GB might be too early for that but should be able to cause some trouble as the season goes on. The NFC is loaded.

Gawn coached Flip in juniors and liked him which is a natural reaction to coaching any kid with a bit of talent. But I think that's different to actually having come up against a guy at AFL level and seen his talent. Preuss has a lot of talent, but I'm not sure why he'd leave being stuck behind Goldy to be stuck behind Gawn. We could play both but not if Weeds is playing like he is now. We certainly aren't in a position to promise games.

His ability to pick it up off the deck and handball accurately on either side might be his best skill. It's top draw. Combined with a nice leap it's made him an effective ruck option. Playing him in the ruck at Casey has really improved him. I can really see him being used in the ruck a lot next year with Max playing forward. Leap for the ball is good and can clunk them, should only get better there. Goal kicking looked good at Casey, bad at AFL level, so that means confidence. Technique is solid. Watching the post game interview his arms look well defined but you can see there's really not all that much of them and he doesn't really fill out the jumper. Got to get him training with Tommy Mc over preseason because if he had Tom's strength and anything like his endurance he'd be a force!

Rioli and Ryan are good players close to goal and Cripps is a very decent defensive forward, but they do need some upgrades through half forward - replacing LeCras - depending on how confident they are with the likes of Waterman and Venables. More than anything I would've thought they need Gaff's outside run to compliment Shuey, Redden and Yeo. Sheed and Masten as the outside ball winners is no better than us using Jones and Tyson in those roles. I've always thought Kent's best footy is played as an attacking link player, not close to goal, so maybe the Eagles have belief he can do that for them. Either way, he'd only be a very small trade, he has little value as is. It's hard to see a player we'd give up who has enough trade value to really entice the Eagles in to keeping the compensation and not matching the deal. Our best chance there is that the Eagles are fearful that we'd call their bluff if they matched the deal and to be honest I think that's not unreasonable. Their salary cap probably can't afford a huge Gaff contract and they know we have limited draft capital to trade.

Held his marks and nailed his goal early, then started dropping them and missing chances. If it's just fatigue he can get better and better. That said, they did move McGovern forward for a fair bit so he was on a flanker. Easier to get the ball but even more chasing required. Would like to see Sam build for next week especially when he's not playing in the Perth heat. The more he can ruck the more we can rest Max effectively.

Fingers crossed but he's done enough at Casey and is worth another go. His only game this season as 1 of 2 tall forwards was against Richmond where he did a lot of really nice things. He has to ruck well to give Max a decent chop out and he has to dig his knees in to McGovern's back as often as possible. Tom McDonald now gets relieved of the rucking duties and the title of the main man up forward (if he wasn't already). Tom has to kick the goals. Sam just has to compete.

If we had: - A realistic chance to get Tom Lynch as a free agent - Enough confidence that Sammy Weideman will make at least a solid back up ruck and contest/drop the ball down forward option - If we can get and rate Brennan Cox from Freo as part of a larger package Then yep I'll drive Jesse to the airport myself. In his defence he might be injured and playing week in week out through the trademark Melbourne Medical Mismanagement but he looks fine sprinting after the ball when he's going to get an easy goal. He's been such a flat track bully this year. Disgusting football. And for weeks many on here have wondered why he isn't rested or dropped. Today's performance was coming.

In my mind (and yours might be different) that is because I think he's fully deserving of a long stint on the sideline but not nearly as deserving of some of the media hounding and vitriol he has received. It should mostly die down now but it won't. It's why I think a fairer punishment would've been until the end of the season, not a number of weeks, which would allow him to start fresh next year. I'm not sure that helps him or Andy Brayshaw given I bet the incident is replayed repeatedly before his 'comeback'. Unfortunately the tribunal revolves around outcomes and the number of weeks. There's this focus that somehow 5, 8 or 12 weeks means something in particular and that it had to be 'x amount' of weeks. To me that isn't justice at all really. When you commit a crime the justice isn't only the sentence but the acknowledgement from the judge of the factors involved and a path to rehabilitation. It might just be the reporting but it would've been nice to see more focus from the Tribunal in a case like this that they'll punish Gaff with x amount of weeks, but also he has had a clean record for 174 games, it was a split second incident and he's welcome back in the game at the end of his suspension.

TBH I think a fairer penalty would've been to rule him out for the season, whether that be 5 or 7 weeks, missing finals with your team a live chance is very harsh. Tribunals should have the power to enforce a time sanction not just a week sanction. Oh well, 8 it is. Just think he'll now have to sit between 1-3 weeks next year when he would've served enough time this year. There's no need to overtly punish the individual. Gaff knows what he's done. There's no need to deter the rest of the comp. It's happened once in nearly 200 games this season.

I don't like it as a defence but I think it's reasonable to explain his actions. I can give a guy 6-7 weeks who didn't aim for the head and was trying to whack a player in the chest who was blocking him out of the play. I'd have to give someone 10+ who randomly walked up to any old opponent and aimed straight for the head. In my mind the vision is reasonably conclusive that it was the former not the latter but it's his job to explain it. If he's made an error it's asking for 3 weeks or half the 8-12 range. I would've stated that 6-8 with a discount for a good record and guilty plea back to 5-6 would most likely see a result of 6-8. Asking too low just insults the intelligence of the jury.

Copying soccer's red card rule and taking a team down to 17 a side would be stupid. Soccer invokes a send off with a red card because harsh punishments are needed for dangerous plays - to avoid leg and head injuries mainly - and for plays that kill scoring chances given how few there are in a game. Plus it's a game based on 3 substitutions and not rotations. Making the game 18 on 17 doesn't' make sense for AFL football. You can't defend and counter attack with 1 short in AFL footy like you can in a soccer game. I'm against red cards/send offs because these incidents are so rare (only about 3 in this whole season) so I don't see the point, but if you were to bring it in you'd start with sending the player off and allowing them to be replaced. That's enough retribution.

Punching receives a fine from the MRP. Or sometimes no fine at all if minor force. Unduly rough tackles receive suspensions as well. Players are constantly belting elbows in to each other, throwing swinging arms in to tackles and crunching don't argues in to the chest or head. Gaff's was worse than that but I don't agree it was a simple stand and deliver punch. It was a wild lashed out round arm. I'm not saying Gaff shouldn't get a lengthy suspension but I thought it was an in game incident and not a completely vicious one that had no context in the game. Barry Hall's was worthy of criminal charges. Bugg's wasn't and I don't think this is either. If you watch the replay you'll see that it wasn't 100m from play. Gaff was right near the play and you'll see the umpire calling play on to the player with the ball. That's what I mean by getting sucked in to Ross Lyon's emotions. Of course Ross is emotional, but that's why we have a tribunal and why courts have independent judges and juries and it's not people with close relationships who get to decide on the punishment of someone else. I criticised Goodwin last year for being too harsh on Bugg. I though he and the club should've done more to defend Bugg as a good guy who made a costly mistake. Instead we went down this line of Bugg having to earn trust back from other players.

Brayshaw was blocking Gaff from running. Under tribunal rules that's in play and it makes sense with how this occurred. If the ball was 1m away he wouldn't have been blocking and scrapping. Don't get fooled by Ross Lyon's emotions. 175 games for West Coast without incident and Adam Simpson clearly holds him in high regard. If he wants to stay there they won't change their offer to him one cent. Joel Smith was dumped in a crude and possibly illegal tackle and is currently having reconstructive collar bone surgery. Should that be a case of assault as well?

Kid? He's 18. He's a man. If he's not maybe he shouldn't have entered the draft or should be playing WAFL. It wasn't outside a night club though was it? It was on a footy field and context matters. He was blocking Gaff's run on the field. Gaff was barely looking at him. Brayshaw wasn't either and you can see him dip down to move away from Gaff. Gaff took a swing for his chest to whack him away and smashed his chin. Gaff has played 170 odd games and never hit someone in the head before. That, and the vision, counts for something with me. More so than a hypothetical.

Of course any mother would be distraught. I don't expect Gaff to be on her Christmas list but I imagine in time she'll come to forgive him. Especially once Andy is back healthy which I hope is sooner rather than later. As for Ross - well it's nice to find a distraction rather than talking about Freo's form. He's coached many players who have been suspended for some nasty things over the years I'm sure.

Angus and Andrew's brother Hamish plays for the Eagles. The Brayshaw's will get over it. Mr Brayshaw probably understands that these things happen in footy. Mrs Brayshaw has been through a lot but I doubt she'd hold a grudge. Smart sponsors will be happy a very good footballer has joined the Demons. They'll be fine.

Same as Bugg last year. A player getting blocked off the ball - (which is a free kick), the guy gets sick of it, swings a round arm and hits the jaw not chest. He'll get his 6 but he's unlucky. He's only trying to do what Steele did to Oliver but luckily for Steele, Clarry didn't change direction, lower his body and cop it on the chin.

Dogs B+F 2014. Libba, Macrae, Dahlhaus, Wallis. Bont was 2nd in the Rising Star. Stringer was sent to the backline, then the VFL, then kicked a stack of goals in the 2nd half of the year. McCartney had no game plan besides throwing numbers at the contest and he might've lost some of the lesser young guys. And hey, maybe these young guys were just good but Bevo took over with half a dozen of the best young guys in the comp at his disposal. 1. Tom Liberatore 235 2. Jack Macrae 168 3. Ryan Griffen 154 4. Luke Dahlhaus 138 5. Robert Murphy 133 6. Dale Morris 124 7. Matthew Boyd 118 8. Stewart Crameri 117 9. Liam Picken 112 10. Mitch Wallis 99

This is so heartbreaking. I hope the club can arrange some kind of appropriate gesture. The symbol or message on the banner is a good idea. Then his extremely brave wife and those little girls need all the support, love and fun they can get.

We could always reanimate the corpse of Harry Taylor. I've said for 18 months now there's a spot in Geelong's forward line that would be perfect for Cam Pedersen and we could certainly do with Harry Taylor at full back for the rest of the year. Unfortunately mid season trading didn't get up.

Oscar McDonald the only regular starter yet to sign on for next year. Gold Coast potentially shopping May. A future first rounder, Oscar and steak knives Tyson. Where do I sign? May at FB, Lever at CHB, Frost capable enough to play either role or as depth or taking an opponent to free one of those other two up, Joel Smith developing along, Hibberd, Hunt, Salem, Jetta. That sounds like a premiership backline. Would be a lot of resources tied up in the backline but hey if you keep the opposition to 70 points each week we can find the small forwards and outside mid depth in the bargain bin.