DeeSpencer

I think he's soft as butter but he kicked a stack of goals in his first year in the VFL then hasn't got any better. A speedy 2nd ruck ala Josh Jenkins would really suit us as we could play that player alongside Hogan, Weid and Watts, but I don't think McBean is AFL quick nor does he have much by the way of defensive pressure. Don't think he's up to it.

I'd want to know what Lennon's endurance is like. If he has (or can build) a big tank he could play like Adelaide's Tom Lynch and follow a similar development path. If he can't run then I'm not convinced he has the physicality, speed or strength to be all that special a player and even if Richmond's a basket case I'm not a huge fan of players who sign 2 year deals only to them do a dummy spit a year later. If I were Richmond and the best he's worth now is a mid to late 2nd rounder and he'll be worth a 3rd rounder next year then I'm taking the gamble on keeping him for a year.

And a truckload more goals. If goal kicking was Butcher's only problem he'd play regularly. He doesn't have a lot of smarts, skills, defensive pressure or speed to be useful aside from taking grabs and having shots on goal. The only way I'd be interested in him would be if there was a belief that he could be above average as a back up ruck and bring physicality and impact in that role to counter his ordinary conversion as a forward.

Starting inside mids: Jones, Viney, Tyson, Oliver, Brayshaw Depth: ANB, Trengove Rotation mids: Petracca, Salem, Kennedy, Vandenberg, Harmes If Melksham and Hibberd do the job at half back then Vince can also go back in the midfield as a tagger/experienced big body accumulator Do we take Barlow or Scott Thompson for experienced depth if they are free to a good home? I wouldn't say no, but I wouldn't rush out and do it either. Wait and see how the rest of the list is shaping before adding one of these guys.

Meh, not all that worried about the game style. Defensively: We are covering off and zoning well, most of our goals come after horrible turnovers, or poor defensive contests when a defender was there and couldn't make the spoil In attack: The play out of the backline and through the middle of the ground is showing a method, unfortunately the class isn't there at half back and the midfield work rate isn't top level yet. The forward line entries are our biggest weaknesses and the Clarko style zone defending can catch us out but I think a lack of class across half forward and a lack of confidence in our forwards is the biggest issue. Forward pressure is probably the area that drives both phases of the game plan that needs the most improvement. If we can force more turnovers we will score more and the positive feedback loop there means we will be more confident to attack. We've just held back on that in order to make sure the backline doesn't leak goals.

Agree, the 2nd had the right intensity and was on our terms. 2.6 to 3.3. The loose back in the 3rd was staggering. Just meant the game was played there and we couldn't score, but maybe the plan was to wait until the 4th? We clearly didn't adapt to wet weather in the 3rd and the backline could've been torn open. Last quarter had some better moments but the continual overuse really undid the forward line. They couldn't get in the right spots when they never knew if the ball was coming or not.

Whether it's Roos or Goodwin our coaches aren't perfect, they make mistakes. Errors at selections and some strange in game decisions. I can live with it. Everyone's an expert in hindsight. Cartlon have played well more weeks than not this year. They aren't very young at all, far older than us, and well coaches by a coach schooled in the number 1 system that the league has right now. I'm not all that angry about lack of effort - after the first quarter there was plenty. Or even the lack of skills. Or game plan. When your teams best players don't play very well and the other teams best players do AFL footy is a hard game to win. Gawn's our best player right now and he was nullified. Viney and Jones couldn't lift the team early. Oliver and Tyson tried hard. The backs and forwards are super young an inexperienced. A champion player could've got us right back in it and take the game away from Carlton. Even Petracca tried in the last quarter with 3 shots on goal for 0.2 and an out on the full. A bad way to effectively end the season but I'm not going to go in to full melt down mode after it.

For all the talk of the game speeding up and 2 ruckman going out of fashion off the top of my head the only team to win a premiership without 2 rucks has been Collingwood in 2010 with Leigh Brown. The Hawks have always had 2, as did Geelong, as did Sydney. Watts as 2nd ruck has been a nice way to get him in to the game and give us more skill around the ground but I don't see it as sustainable. I think we need a player around the 200cm mark who can ruck more effectively than Watts and can really spell Gawn and even rotate with Gawn more frequently depending on the match up. I don't really care if that player is more of a forward who can ruck or a ruck who can play forward, but it's still a need position. Watts could keep doing it and Weideman might have to but I think that's asking for trouble. I'm yet to see any evidence that Spencer is capable at AFL level. Mitch King won't be ready for another few years. There's a gap in between there. And there's a gap in team to fill the Dawes/Pedersen role as a big body up forward. I'd be inquiry in to what Toby Nankervis would cost. He reminds me of a young Mumford with his physicality and I think he can play forward.

Nothing about Mitch King is ready to go next year. He's a kid coming off a knee. Shouldn't even be counted in any way as a viable AFL option. We need a 3rd option to compete with Spencer and ideally replace him.

Merrett is completely finished as a player, if he had anything left he'd be staying on and Brisbane should be looking for an experienced defender. For most of this year they have had Merrett and a bunch of kids under 50 games and have given up record scores. In my mind Brisbane would be crazy not to get at least 1 experienced defender in. When our midfield stocks were bare we went and got Vince and Cross and that was the best thing for our development. I also think that's unfair on both of them, and wrong. Dunn's been pretty important to Tom McDonald's development, he's a vocal on field player who prior to this year was well regarded for his ability to set up a backline. Garland is a good off field leader, a popular team mate who's helped keep the group together. Neither would top my list of mature recruits but Brisbane aren't landing an A grader and probably will struggle to land even a decent depth player in their prime. So Dunn and Garland might be the best they can do. Josh Walker was the best they could do when they needed a forward to do the same thing. Trent West for when they needed a ruck. What we'll both agree on is we aren't getting pick 20 for them, but to move one on and maybe get a slight pick upgrade or a pick for points could be a good deal.

I like him, but not convinced he's clearly better than Kennedy or Kennedy-Harris. Agree with Chaser, in that if someone went out he could come in. Otherwise for the price to get him - mid to late 2nd or early 3rd I think we'll have other priorities.

24 has been playing college basketball, NBL and in Finland, stopped playing in year 10, kick 14 goals in a school match.

As well as working for the HS and MMM he does some work at Collingwood in some of their in house media. Aside from that he seems a hard working and smart journo. Not saying it's easy but it's hardly rocket science. Get sources and contacts in places, listen out for things, ring around and write fair articles that result in sources and contacts being willing to give you more info. If at least 5 clubs were in to Maynard and he was training with Casey and Crossy then it's not like this was a top secret mission.

The last few years I've been disappointed we haven't been able to use our Category B rookie spots but now with Smith and Maynard we will be using them and using them pretty well I think. To get 2 father sons, both high level sportsmen who grew up playing the game and have basketball movement skills is really good recruiting I think. At the least it helps Casey and gives us extra depth.

I thought he signed a 3 year deal from GWS but there hasn't been any speculation about his contract status so maybe he signed a 4 year deal or maybe they are just working quietly behind the scenes. The good thing about Tyson is we've been able to develop him without all the fuss of being the big name/big money recruit. Hogan draws a lot of attention but with our young midfielders they all share the load on field and off which is really beneficial.

Very good build in form as the season went on from Dom. Given his delayed start to the preseason it's probably not a surprise, and he's still yet to have a full preseason. I think he's a better player now than in 2014 which is good progress, he tackles and defends more now and is hopefully about to recapture his knack for putting it on the scoreboard. A full preseason working on his speed and fitness, with a bit more work on his kicking (and right foot) and he can hopefully go to another level again.

I'd probably go no change. And I'd swap Harmes to a wing and Stretch to half back for more of the game. I'd love to get a good defensive forward in to clamp down on Carlton's half backs but the form that Kent, Vanders, Brayshaw and Petracca are in makes dropping one of them very hard. Pittard got away from Kent, he'll have to lift his defensive smarts to stop Simpson. Hopefully they can drag Docherty deep and away from goal. Jeffy needs to watch Touhy as well.

All 3 are amazing ball winners for kids. This preseason will be interesting to see which of them is able to do the work on their fitness and kicking and push towards being consistent performers. Brayshaw and Petracca are both very good forwards as well. Clarry isn't as natural forward but he seems to have a nose for a goal like his off the ground effort on the weekend.

Forgot to mention Vanders who's clean hands around the contest was another reason why we controlled the fist half so well. His kicking was pretty decent as well. Looks to be finding some kind of consistency which is good.

Bugg made crucial tackles, smothers, spoils, contested ball wins etc just when we wanted and bobbed up with goals and decent play with the ball. He's not always great with the ball and can be very one sided but he's a vital player in this side. Just makes us better.

6 - T Mc 5 - Brayshaw 4 - Tyson 3 - Hunt 2 - Gawn 1 - Bugg Apologies to Jones, Jetta, Oscar, Vince, Clarry.

First half was good but not the great half the score may look like. Port were pretty insipid. They botched a heap of chances and we did too. Garlett and Pedda both ran in to open points.The ball movement through the middle of the half was great though and for the backline to keep structure against a potentially slick moving Port was impressive. Disappointed with the 3rd quarter. A solid 10 minute patch after half time would've iced the game, instead we were flat after half time for about the 80th time in a row. A major weakness we haven't fixed. Also we let Robbie Gray and Pittard get on top and they are the 2 damaging Port players. Viney should've thrown off his tag by going to Gray and someone needed to put some time defensively in to Pittard. I love Dean Kent and the way his aggressive leading and run has massively improved our forward line but he's still shaky defensively on clever quick types who can turn him or break his tackles. Vanders or Brayshaw had to be moved on to Pittard and the whole team had to sort out the poor kicking in the 3rd. The 4th was a pleasant turn around and it was only bad kicking for goal that stopped a nice blow out quarter. An important win to keep finals alive, get 3 in a row and notch an away win, but just a so so performance overall if we are fair dinkum and there's a lot to work on to make sure we are focused defensively for full games and to get our skills up to a decent standard. If Carlton bounce back hard next week we'll need to play better to get the win we want.

With a bit more confidence and balance he could've kicked 4 tonight. What a weapon.

Ross Lyon doesn't take crap from anybody. It's why he's a great coach but also a potential weakness. Players take after their coaches. So Mundy is the captain as he's the senior player and leader. Fyfe is the superstar with a superstar attitude and wasn't the right choice for captain. Who knows if that's upset him, I doubt it. Plenty of time for him to captain the side later. Freo right now are rubbish. Freo next year will likely be far better. But they still need a tactical improvement and a lot more talent. Fyfe, Bennell, Johnson, McCarthy, pick 3, Sandilands (for 1 more year), that's an improvement but to rebuild it's going to take some sustained drafts and trades. I'm about 90% sure Freo will improve to at least an 7-10 win team next year and Fyfe will sign on and probably captain them in 2018. The 10% chance is that Fyfe gets injured again or Freo get a lot of injuries or Ross Lyon can't adapt at all and Freo struggle along to 5 or 6 wins and Fyfe says stuff this I'm off to join a contender.

I've thought about him. If we can get someone either with above average speed and/or endurance to play as the 2nd ruck role we could leave Hogan, Watts and Weideman in place. Blicavs playing the atypical wing/half forward/midfield to ruck role would certainly be that! Otherwise a Stanley style 200cm crumbing forward would be handy - the speed to get out of the way of the other big blokes and pressure/chase is what I'm looking for there. We had one like that in Fitzy but his injuries and shonky skills saw him let go. Blicavs is struggling this year but won Geelong's B+F last year and I get the feeling Chris Scott really rates him. Just one to monitor for now.