DeeSpencer

I would too. But I can't see Jay Clark saying Oscar was a chance if it wasn't somewhat true. Then Roos leaving the window open. And if we want to play more zone defending and intercept marking then Oscar could well be a chance. He has height and endurance as an advantage over Dunn, even if he also has several weaknesses. I can't see it, but I expect the footy department will be keen on him during the year. We can't repeat the mistakes of the past by throwing out experience for youth that aren't ready, but at the same time if we want to win a flag we are going to need to develop some development time put in to quality youth. We've got the gun young midfielders who will get chances, we have to afford those same chances to other high ceiling types, particularly young talls and you speedy or skillful outsiders.

Coincidental? Not at all. It's how News have cleverly diversified their business. A fox commentator will say something, a HS print journo will follow it up. I mean the Roos PR piece was probably planned ahead of time, but the questioning is set up. Roos' whole mantra is team based. He'll be keen this year to spread credit to Macca, Rawlings, Matthews and himself as well as Goodwin. He needs those other coaches on board to stay with Goodwin to help him out, and he doesn't want Goodwin getting overexposed now. It's the same thing he says about our young players, but with regard to coaches. Team work, high standards, continuity etc.

Both. King Goodwin sounds nice to me.

By the way, Jack Viney did a handstand and walk today. Did a back flip the other week. I get the feeling he enjoys the gymnastics that the boys did.

Dunn and Lumumba were off the track by this stage. I think one of them, or even Oscar McDonald, will take his spot. His 2nd half was very solid against the Saints, but his first half was simply bad. Soccer term. Left footer on the right side and vice versa. Possibly signals an attempt to play more corridor football, or could be just a coincidence.

FB: Jetta Dunn Garland HB: Salem McDonald Vince C: Bugg Jones ???? HF: Kent Watts Kennedy FF: Garlett Hogan ????? Foll: Gawn Tyson Viney Int: Vanders Brayshaw Oliver ???? Still can't decide the last 3 spots. Has to be either Frost OR Pedersen. Then pick 2 out of 3 from Lumumba, Harmes and Matt Jones. Brayshaw to half back is the wildcard move I think. If he can play 50% of game time there it frees up Bugg to stay on a wing and removes the need for Lumumba. Then take your pick of the talls and can probably fit both of Harmes and Matt Jones in. Big question will be if they feel comfortable with Brayshaw at half back without him doing any preseason game time there. The other option is Bugg rotates to half back and Harmes plays time on the wing. Again, have they seen enough of him in that spot? Does he have the endurance to go up against Scully, Whitfield etc?

A bit of that. A bit of he'll be gone by that time anyway. And a lot of let's get some bums on seats for round 1 and get the players making this a rivalry. No idea of we will win on Saturday, but I bet there will be some fierceness at the contest.

Swung past at about 10:30 for an hour. The Casey group were just milling around having a bit of a laugh whilst the rest trained. Looks like they had done some light stuff and a few of them did goal kicking before heading off. Someone else will know more I'm sure. Dunn, Brayshaw, Weideman etc. Not sure if I saw Lumumba. Dawes was doing running with Crossy and other support staff. Sprints and jogs. Ben Newton was wearing the training jumper not singlet which usually means participation at some stage with the main group. Can't recall see Spencer, ANB or Trenners. Anyway, the main group were broken up in to smaller groups including Macca taking Salem, Wagner, Tyson, Matt Jones and Oliver for a kicking drill. Forwards practising some goal kicking. Other mids working on ground balls and so on. All pretty standard stuff. Of note to me was towards the end of the session Goodwin assembled 18 players to form a team and run through some game scenarios to make sure they had positioning and game plan set up. That team was Forwards: Hogan, Frost, Watts, Kent, Garlett, Ben Kennedy Mids: Gawn Tyson Viney Jones, Wings; Matt Jones, Bugg Backs: Garland, T Mc, Wagner, Jetta, Salem, Vince By this stage of course the Casey guys had left and Pedersen had left as well. Harmes and Grimes grabbed green bibs to be token defenders. Vanders, Oliver, Petracca and a couple of others watched from the sidelines. Might only be of interest to me and/or a coincidence but Matt Jones and Bugg were both playing as inverted wingers. They did a few around the ground stoppages and then set up a 3 points up with 30 seconds scenario. Hogan went as the 7th defender to CHB. Watts came up as an extra midfielder covering the far side of the ground. Gawn was very defensive with his taps. The kicks all stayed boundary side and after Frost marked in a pocket then centred the ball Gawn was vocally saying "should just take the shot Frosty". Vanders did some contested marking with Rawlings and handballing after the training finished. He appeared good to go. Jones did fast hands work with Macca. Ben Kennedy did extra ground balls. Salem and Viney had shots for goal. And Hogan and Kent took turns kicking to each other on the lead. Jesse still dropped one or two and wasn't happy but otherwise most stuck. Kent's kicking was mostly great but he just slices them every now and then. Just has to keep being balanced over the ball. Hogan kicking to a lead is a thing of beauty.

Hogan reminds me a bit of a young Gawn. Except things have got a hell of a lot more professional so he's not having a dart on the way to training. But I expect Hogan, along with Petracca and others will learn and strive to be leaders over time, maybe after making a few mistakes. It's why we need the culture right and why we need guys like Viney and McDonald setting the way for the younger guys. I don't think I ever argued that Petracca was foolish for playing basketball and needed to be told off. Just that there's only so much the club can do to control players. That's the whole point of culture. It allows buy in so people make the right decisions automatically.

I'd prefer Brendan McCartney down on the bench given he works hands on at training with the players at every session. I'd prefer Roos up in the box overseeing the entire team of coaches as that's his role. Certainly horses for courses. But I do enjoy how Goodwin is assuming more of the duties but Roos still takes the responsibility. If this is the best coaching controversy that the media can create for us this year then I think that shows the plan is working.

But when we won the contested ball in the first half we were all over them. So it's a difficult one. Our defensive system this year should at least have been pushed more at training than in previous years. And I really hope our forward pressure has gone up a notch. I do expect all 4 of those guys to be in contention though. Maybe apart from Stertch. There's no way he was left at Casey due to lack of form at trainings or last year. It must be developmental and to save him for deeper in the season. I'd be staggered if we picked him for round 1 yet didn't give him a single look at a preseason game.

FB: Garland Dunn Jetta HB: Vince McDonald Salem C: M Jones Jones Bugg HF: Watts Hogan Kennedy FF: Kent Pedersen Garlett Foll: Gawn Tyson Viney Int: Brayshaw Vanders Oliver Lumumba E: Frost Harmes Grimes If Vanders is a true risk them leave him out, but otherwise he has to play. The last two spots are the hardest and I can see why they might go with Harmes and Frost. But I like Brayshaw and Vanders as defensive forwards who give us more in the midfield and then I've got room for a 7th defender in Lumumba who also provides a bit of speed on the wing and hopefully endurance, and then Matt Jones who give us outside run. He's got a lot of areas of his game to work on and show he's consistent at but at this stage after preseason games Matt Jones might be our most likely outside midfielder. Harmes (or Grimes) ahead of Matt Jones and Frost ahead of either Vanders (inj), Oliver or Lumumba wouldn't surprise me. Leaving out Pedersen wouldn't shock me either but at this stage I find it unlikely.

Really good second efforts from several players, the Salem smother, the scrap for the ball by multiple players. Jetta so clean and strong with the pick up. An underrated part of any footballers game turning contested ball in to clean possession. Fast hands from Bugg (he's great on his left hand handball and vision, needs to round it out on his right). Clarry moves it on safely as the midfield have numbers back, doesn't bomb away. Smarter handball than it looks originally from BK. Super hands from Gawn. Super running to space from Tom McDonald, which then allows him the safe option to kick to! It's almost impossible to miss that kick. Over kick it or spray it left or right and it's still safe. I know this is harsh, but I'm just not convinced Grimes made the very best option. He's kicked nicely to Garlett who has the speed to move it on to Kent which all worked well. Yet he could've just looped a weighted handball to Viney who could've then run freely through the corridor and had the same choice of Hogan v Garlett, plus really drawn out the defender to make the 2 on 1 even more pronounced. I know the game plan is to get it on quickly to open forwards, but I'd never give up a simple handball to an open runner in the corridor. Grimes did the same thing with a Harmes goal against the Dogs. Ignored the open short option. I'm just not convinced he has AFL level vision. Oh and Hogan should sit at CHF when the Garlett gets the ball so the man is dragged away from Kent instead of running towards him. Plus that way Jeff could center it to him (if needed) without having to kick over the mark.

Nathan Jones (180cm), Jack Viney (178cm) and Dom Tyson (186cm) will probably spend the most time up against Callan Ward (186cm), Toby Greene (183cm) and Dylan Shiel (181cm). They have the edge there in terms of players likely to play 75%+ of game time in the centre. I know we'll have some big boys in the rotation with some of Vanders, Harmes, Vince, Brayshaw and Oliver, but they can counter height wise with Steele, Kelly, Stevie J and some solid guys in Coniglio and Palmer. I doubt they'll be worried about being smashed.

Easy on Redleg guys, he just had a hunch. But I believe as Roger said after playing 3 games he wasn't illegible (or needing) to play today. By the way, I don't think he's that far from the best 22 even if he didn't do a lot in the first 2 games. He's got a lot to learn but he's still a speedy half back which isn't a position there's a lot of competition for. I think Goodwin rates him and has a good relationship with him. Let's see how he goes in his next game (which is likely to be at Casey)

Has little to do with the knee, more to do with missing so much footy and training. Any player coming off a long term injury usually has to do 4 weeks of full training before they play. It's been a constant of the Misson era. Without it they are a big risk of cramping early/not being fit, soft tissue injuries and other injuries from lack of game style training. Not to mention they need it for touch.

The fence itself had nothing to do with slowing people's entry. It was the lack of gates and lack of staff available to wand people. If they are still wanding people the busy gates will still be very slow moving. Personally I liked the thinking behind moving security away from the entries. It saved lives in Paris and it alone doesn't increase the invasiveness of the security. But the temporary fencing was a terrible eyesore and not well planned. Time will tell, I really hope it's always something we won't have to worry about.

He really isn't. Salem and even Lumumba are better defensively. Part of the reason Grimes was dropped so often last year was his defensive work was struggling. He doesn't read the play quick enough these days and he's easily out smarted. He had a few really good plays on the weekend, and in the other 2 games. Most posters on here have given him credit for that. Anyway, the main problem with Grimes is the errors that come from him looking like a dear in the headlights. Not attacking contests, not evading opponents, kicking in a hurry or taking too long to kick. The errors themselves are bad enough, but the lack of confidence and effect on the team I think is almost worse.

It is. But they haven't been too far off the mark. I think he has until 2017 for a top 4 finish otherwise he won't see that 2018 year. The extension was for stability for this year and next.

Both. His awareness is clearly shot. And he lost all touch on his kicks so they reverted to a very mechanical action to stop the shanks, he takes along time to balance up. The burden of leadership, injury set backs and poor training methods just ruined him unfortunately. Watch the video above and Nath Jones isn't half the player Grimes is but he developed really well.

Richmond are a tough one. They have so many really good players and a few handy ones and then not a lot else. If they sort out a proper game plan and back in some new faces to replace the list cloggers they'll have a very good team. If not they'll be up and down again, hopefully we catch them on a down day again. North are heading for a cliff for sure. But if Waite, Petrie, Harvey, Wells, Dal Santo, Thompson, Firrito etc keep playing well then they've got enough good players in their prime (Goldstein, Cunnington, Ziebell etc) to stay a good side. They play to their strengths as well. Dropping a man behind the ball, contesting hard, kicking long down the line to talls and using a bit of creativity from Harvey, Higgins etc to then create goals. I'm getting this strange respect for the way they are going against the grain and topping up and backing themselves. Conventional wisdom says it just won't work but 2 prelims sound good to me!

Damn he was good. WAS. Quick over the ground, fast decision making, smooth kicking action. But how many times did he get the ball in congestion and have to work his way out of it with smarts not just run out of it? The game has changed. He's not as quick as he used to be. His ball drop now takes an eternity and his kick far less reliable. He's just not the player he was in 2009 unfortunately. He can't play half back and anyone suggesting he should I think is a fool. He's had a good preseason and should be considered for a wing role. An important depth player for now.

And Howe spent most of the year at half back because of it. Bringing the ball to ground in the forward is important and not as easy as it sounds. Dawes, Howe and Spencer did that well against the Cats and we had players in position to capitalise. It would be part of Frost's role. But speed and defensive pressure are too and we've seen that. I think he'll have to take some more grabs and kick more goals to become a permanent fixture. I don't mind the role I just think Vanders can do it almost as well in terms of defensive work and bringing the ball down plus he'll add a lot more other skills.

Essendon 0-1. Carlton 0-1. St Kilda 0-2 Beat: Geelong, GWS, GC, Brisbane, Collingwood, Dogs and Richmond. The way for us to go up without getting spectacularly better but getting far more consistent is: Win 3 out of the first 4 teams, which were embarrassing losses. Win 4 out of the 7 we beat last year. Beat 2 of Sydney, North, Port and Adelaide. Beat 1 of Hawthorn, West Coast, Freo 10 wins, % around 90-95%.

He's a saints man. So he's also coming at us with a perspective that he's own struggling side beat us twice last year. Jetta is a beauty. But injury derailed him a bit last year so it's patchy form last year and 2014 and that's all we have to go off. His impact on games is also limited somewhat as he doesn't have huge involvement away from the ball coming to him and his opponent. I'm with you on Tyson, but I also think he's been building through the preseason after missing a lot last year. I'm hoping he and Viney can stand up and with Jones control games and let Vince go to half back. I rate Tyson and Viney about equally at this stage. Both very good but needing to keep improving their weaknesses and bringing their best. It's not easy to make the step up from promising young player to consistent performer with a well rounded game.