DeeSpencer

A combination of talent, leadership, coaching moves and having the versatility in players to be able to make those moves. Probably in that order.

Aside from picking Lewis Taylor over Bont when do you think they've got it wrong? I certainly can't think of a player who wasn't nominated and missed out that way. I'm not sure on the exact description of the award - ie. is it best player on output or best player on future, but they do seem to get the balance right most of the time. It's highly unlikely anyone would've been the best player all year if they weren't able to play a great game early in the year, that's why a late nominee doesn't win it. It's not that they are overlooked. Mills will go very close to winning it this year after his nomination tonight.

You do know who Talia is right? And what type of player? He won the award because he was a super key defender who was probably the best shut down defender in a good side. Disposals mean nothing to his game. I'm sure Rivers had similar stats when he played CHB in a good dees side in 2004 and won the award.

Hunt along with a couple of others in Menadue, Fantasia, Maynard and Hewett are guys who have been performing well for a while and just need to time a good game with a win and an absence of a standout performer and they'll get the nod.

I disagree. Very open year and if Mills keeps playing as he has the last few weeks then I think he could jump ahead of the favourite in Caleb Daniel to win it. Petracca, Parish and Weitering are next in line and the clear top 5 winning chances.

There's a few things I don't like about the backline: 1. The lack of foot skills - but that's clearly a personnel and experience thing 2. Lack of either communication, trust or discipline when it comes to spoiling or staying down. Tom Mc and Jetta are probably 2 of our biggest offenders here. For so long they've had to do more than their share and probably don't trust the young players now. But when they aren't in good position and there's already 2 or more team mates contesting with a good run and jump at the ball they have to learn to stay down. It was a huge problem last time we played the Saints so hopefully they've improved. When another team is kicking in this can be a big problem if the ball gets over the back. 3. The super observance on getting the players in their spots in the zone at the detriment of match ups. Hunt plays as the highest flanker, Tom McDonald as the tall down the line etc. Which can lead to mismatches against smart teams. If I were coaching against Melbourne I'd be getting forwards in all sorts of size and speed match ups. An example of this on the weekend was Ballantyne ran around White to kick a goal when they were one on one deep, whilst Harmes was up the ground on White's opponent. Against Adelaide Tex took a mark on Hunt for the same reasons. And Lynch ran off Harmes because they were matched up as well. I'd just adjust the focus to make sure defenders are in starting positions to defend the player they match up well against and can zone from there, instead of creating mismatches in the desire to always win the ball back and rebound.

Shame to have Oscar injured after what was clearly looking like his best game. He won several important contests against Pav and even the incident that saw him injured had him spoiling the ball over the line aggressively.

Any kick that goes 40m to a 50/50 or better is called efficient. The 90% efficiency is a positive because it means he didn't turn it over frequently, but I still didn't see any line breaking run, creative kicking or handballing or speed that looked like an AFL player.

1- Viney. not sure why I stuffed that up.

His bullet pass to Hogan that bounced off his chest and his 70m bomb around the corner to set Garlett free running inside 50 were both examples of what should've been goal assists. Then there's the miss chances he has himself, including the biggest weakness of his game so far which is set shot kicking. I won't predict too far ahead for him just yet but the way he can create and score already is amazing. Viney would've been a top 5 pick, which is a big achievement for a small fella with a wonky kick, but he's worth it. Leadership is a strange term, you never really know who the best are at it and there's so many different facets involved. The thing I love about Viney is knowing that almost every week he'll be giving his best fiercely attacking the ball and that kind of attack has to be infectious.

I think it's part of the financial deal because it guarantees a crowd. Pretty much the NT government will only pay what they pay to host a game at Alice if the crowd will be decent and the only way to achieve that is to have it against Port. Plus we don't want to play the Crows there because we usually draw a decent crowd against Adelaide in Melbourne - see last week.

What is form? VFL form. The same form that ANB, Michie, Spencer and others have had all year? AFL form - 1 game, plenty of touches - as did the rest of our midfield and half back line, no real influence. I don't see it as form. I could talk about his trade value but I don't think he has any. There's plenty of players in every club who dominate in the state leagues each week and don't get traded.

Am I not meant to be consistent?

Desert not tropical conditions in Alice. Not much humidity at all. And they only do a light training run pre game. It's probably less physically fatiguing than a trip to Brisbane or the Gold Coast and certainly Perth can be hotter in the early rounds of the year.

It was warmer against Brisbane at the G than our game at Alice this year. The thing that annoys me about Alice is that we have to play Port there every year. Given they have a large fan base it's pretty much an away game.

6 - Jones 5 - T Mac 4 - Tyson 3 - Hogan 2 - Watts 1 - Hogan

There's no excuse needed from Alice. It's only warm there. But for the Darwin game we need a bye after it and we need to demand it from the AFL. For whatever reason we don't.

Missed a chance in the 2nd and 3rd to put them away and then rest key players in the last. Especially with Vince and Oscar injured. Good effort from Vince to stay out there and then go back when required. A quarter of great footy was followed by doing enough to win. The last time we played like that was against the Pies early in the year wasn't it? Then we got smashed by the saints. Hopefully we are better this time.

Hawthorn wanted O'Keefe, Sydney said no. Kept him against his will. Hall and Jolly were about rebuilding and off field issues. Hall had lost the plot. Jolly had to move to Melbourne for family reasons. Spangher and TDL were depth players. The 2013 trades were obviously Buddy related. There are similarities with Veszpremi and Johnston. But both had work ethic concerns and had shown nothing similar (besides a couple of ok games from Veszpremi) to what Salem has shown. I'd put those 2 in a similar bracket to Toumpas. I'd have Salem more like Gary Rohan, who the Swans have always stuck with. Just as Sydney always need Rohan's pace, we are crying out for a utility with Salem's skills right now. We've found lots of players who can run and win the ball, we badly need someone with a bit of class who can play forward, back or in the midfield.

Out: Garland, Oliver, Bugg In: Oscar (inj), White (unlucky), Grimes FB: Jetta Frost Garland HB: Vince T Mc Hunt C: Stretch Tyson M Jones HF: Kent Petracca Ben Ken FF: Garlett Hogan Watts Foll: Gawn Jones Viney Int: Vanders Oliver Bugg Harmes I'd rather White or Wagner than Garland but against the Saints you have to see who the best match up for Membrey (as well as Bruce and Riewoldt) will be and I think it's Garland. Similarly White is unlucky to miss out but the saints have so many quick and hard pressure small forwards so we need smaller quicker defenders like Vince and Harmes back there instead of the slower Wagner or White who have a lot to offer against slower teams. With Vince to half back I'd pick Oliver to give us another midfielder. Bugg for some fresh legs and he's fiery which we need. If Ben Ken, Vanders or Petracca need a rest I'd throw Hulett in and go tall. Not sure ANB, Newton, Trengove or Michie have much to offer at this stage as half forwards.

Whenever he had any pressure on he didn't look like it winning the footy and he didn't do anything with the ball. Made a terrible error by not manning the mark that led to a Pavlich goal in the 3rd quarter when the Dockers were coming. Baffling from a senior player. The only positive compared to Bugg is that he has an opposite foot, but it's shaky. I'm almost certain he won't play well against the Saints and therefore I wouldn't pick him. A 100th and farewell game against Carlton or Gold Coast would be fine by me. I'm sorry if this upsets people or they find it cruel and out of spirit from this thread but too bad.

Petracca was a freak injury. Maybe with his size and power they could've done more prehab strengthening of his knee but he's a big muscly lad. I can't blame that. Brayshaw might've been overplayed last year and underdone in preseason, but contact media injury in to contact concussion injuries largely suffered in the VFL. A lot of bad luck there. Salem a freak illness, should get better. Hogan, enough said about that. As I've said a number of times the best way to stop messing up/getting injuries to and anything else with top picks is for us to stop having top picks!

Bulldogs: Clay Smith (ACL, ACL, ACL), Libba (ACL) Gold Coast: O'Meara, Prestia, Swallow, Bennell, Dixon, Martin - you name it, they've had it GWS: Cam McCarthy, Dev Smith, WHE, Buntine, Marchbank St Kilda: Paddy (Obesity, diabetes, concussion), Billings (knee/hammy), Freeman (again) Freo: Morabito Coll: Scharenberg, Freeman

It's not personal, just the truth. Both premiership heroes and will be remember as such. Both seemingly don't have much more to offer us.

Shame we don't play Collingwood late in the year. Would be nice to farewell Dawes and Lumumba in front of someone who would cheer for them.