DeeSpencer

I get the desire to play him but he’s had 2 good weeks, he still has to show week to week, contest to contest that he’s too good for vfl. Then we have to decide who comes out. JVR needs a consistent run now that he’s come back to the team. He didn’t put it on the scoreboard but he showed he was too good for VFL. Can’t drop Melk. Don’t need an extra tall in for Fritsch. No one loves Petty form but he’s more reliable long down the line than anyone else we’ve got. Given our midfield doesn’t kick to leads we’ve probably got the best combination of talls available right now.

Do we have a senior player with any composure? Tracc’s a mess. Oliver’s worse. Pickett’s doing too much dumb stuff. Don’t get me started on Fritsch. Rivers is getting dumber by the minute. Maybe Melk? But he’s as prone as anyone to play on to a miracle kick. Gawn didn’t deserve a bake for his last minute kick but the one earlier in the game was horrendous. Hes a freaking ruckman, why won’t he play like it! We can rely on McVee, Salem and Bowey chipping it across half back when we need a goal to win

Insane inside 50’s and stupidity like the Fritsch play on were the issues not set shots. Going nowhere until we find some mids who pick out targets and give them a fighting chance to mark. Which also includes more forwards who actually do provide options. Goal kicking just a symptom of a bigger disease

its really not the goal kicking. Kozz no score and a Sharp snap aside we just take way too many low quality shots from wide and outside 40.

Thankyou. And I’m not suggesting May is the reason we lost but we used to be able to win playing like this because May and Lever would keep the opposition to low scores. Without our backline dominating nor our midfield dominating in tight we have to get our skills and decision making going forward of centre somewhere more like our ball movement from the backline which is generally pretty good. Yes we could’ve won just with some better goal kicking, but we didn’t play well enough elsewhere to set up goals to really deserve to win.

A few shockers no doubt. Pickett, Gawn (hardly a surprise), Melk didn’t have the kicking boots on. But the second half especially was a parade of bombing it in then taking awful shot after awful shot. The more we miss the more pressure builds on the next guy

We didn’t kick goals because we so rarely get quality set shots in good positions. How many of our misses were inside 30 in the corridor? A few, but not too many. How often do we take the ball from one wing or flank to get chances in the fat side pocket? Almost never - because our mids and half forwards don’t have the skills to move the ball under pressure. They had 140 marks!!! And anytime we did get a stronger hold on the game we let them go coast to coast with a backline that couldn’t defend the game in space. They didn’t score all that much because the game was played locked in to kicking points. We saw what happened in the first quarter when both teams had the ball in space. We should’ve kicked 4, but they walked into 6.

May’s first quarter was genuinely disgusting, along with Pickett’s rubbish play on he set the tone for the Saints getting in the game and a match winning lead with his complete disregard for Keeler. Watch the relays of several goals and it’s clear May is the one who’s either sagging off or sitting forward in no man’s land. He played a very good 3/4s after that but his work rate at times is just abysmal and he then blames everyone else.

We’re dead. This midfield has a ceiling of a low end mid table side. Sometimes it works but too often it just doesn’t use the ball well enough or dominate inside to cover it May and Lever don’t run well enough to produce an elite backline. Key forwards get the blame but our half forwards are just as plod as plod gets.

2 Casey players drafted. Hope they do well but also hope we didn’t miss picking them!

He hasn’t played since round 1 and given we had 2 rucks and 3 tall forwards in I doubt he would’ve been in line to play. Perhaps down back but I doubt it. Archer May (pick 6) took himself out of wafl on the weekend, by all reports Pies promised him he’d done enough

The young talls (Jeffo, Adams, Verrall) are all progressing in the right direction. JVR can play at the level, hopefully this is just a blip. Howes plays excellent vfl footy, just got to keep the pressure on him to get the next level. Sestan is improving. I wouldn’t worry about Kolt, he was strong at the contest and clean, just missed a lot of summer and didn’t get a lot of midfield opportunity. The depth mids aren’t hammering the door down but they’re also being moved around a lot. I think they used about 8 guys on ball and there’s probably 10 or more who could’ve had a go. I’d love to see Woey and Kynan Brown smash the door down but its probably more important they they’re ready to step up if needed rather than spoon fed 30 touches. McAdam and AMW come back on to the main list and we can replace cheap depth like for like if need be.

Sestan was the standout in the first half, then in the 3rd Casey dominated and the ball barely went behind play, then the ball dropped off in the last. He still has to add a bit more defensively I think. Either as an aerial player or a ground level tackler and ball winner. Howes did more defensively but doesn’t have the same boot. Jeffo’s first half was top notch, sticky hands and clean. Missed some gettable set shots. JVR played with power and confidence throughout, just still a question if he can find the space and leap up at the footy more, but he hit the contest and lead with more belief. Adams looks really good when he’s got a read on the ball, still a bit iffy when he’s uncertain in positions. Kentfield ran out of puff and mucked up in the second half but his combination of skills and movement are worth persevering with. The mids and half forwards were all a bit meh. Laurie the best of them but still doesn’t inspire confidence that he’s grown his game. Same with Billings. Henderson had a stinker which is a shame because he has a touch of class and good pressure. Woey better on the wing. Culley just played the half on the wing (potentially so he got through unscathed as the carry over emergency), he was fine, but I’d like to see him string some dominant midfield games together.

I'd only pick Lever if he's absolutely cherry ripe and able to move like healthy Jake not hobbly Jake. And I'd also have a very short leash to sending May or even McDonald forward and Disco back if things aren't working.

I think it will be either Windsor to the wing and Rivers back or we move Chin to the wing and Sharp stays in. Sestan is probably waiting on Bowey or Salem missing time. At least until later in the year when we may as well have a look at him

Spargo’s put together an excellent month before yesterday. I don’t think he’ll even be mentioned in match committee. Goal kicking hasn’t been good but if that was a criteria to play for Melbourne we’d have no players

Yeah he’s starting to find his confidence in his marking around the ground. For just a few minutes a quarter whilst one of the talls are on the bench he could be the extra marking option.

Nice goal, but it wasn’t express pace taking him away from defenders, he just had a good angle and the Hawks missed some tackles.

He really provides neither. His pace is a myth. He can sustain a run at good pace but he doesn’t burst away from a contest. Spargo’s as quick if not quicker over 5. And then he’s too slow to read the play to consistently pressure.

What game did you watch?

But there’s lots of little things with positioning at front and centres, leading to create space, not fumbling, halving a contest, tackling of which plenty don’t show up in the stats sheet and Spargo does that way better. Spargo has to nail a good percentage of inside 50 kicks and set shots and he did neither of those today but since the Freo game he’s been a positive. Sharp has made no progress

Not another larynx! (although potentially better than concussion if he recovers quickly)

If Disco can add some pressure to his game forward (has been surprisingly bad at it) then along with Petty we’ve got some mobile talls. Suddenly we can get Fritsch in the side as a medium not a tall if he can do the bare minimum pressuring and tackling without frees too. Spargo is doing a lot right, he just makes the saddest of errors when he misses targets or shots. But he’s still a cut above the other options like Sharp. I wouldn’t worry about what the afl side is doing with JVR. I’d just get him in form, if that’s forward back or ruck either works. (He should back up ruck at Casey and give Verrall a full game forward). Long term tho I think his weaknesses (undersized, flat footed, double grabber) would be worse back than they are forward. What he needs is belief to crash and bash. His one strength is literally that, he’s such a big boy, just needs to find a way to harness it.

Lever if he’s 100% right for AJ. Disco forward. Don’t love Viney for Sharp but that’s probably the move. Ideally we’d have a genuine half forward to come in but Casey is petty thin. With Viney back I’d like to see Rivers take some rotations as the 3rd wing. Chandler more forward to keep that pressure and forward craft. Wouldn’t be against a bit of shuffling the magnets with Langford deep forward in bursts and Lindsay high half forward. Just for development would be nice to give them some different looks Fritsch must stay as sub.

You’d have to take Windsor out and despite his poor game today his pace has proven so valuable when he’s able to sweep. And you’d have to move him to the wing and swap other things around.