DeeSpencer

We've lost and nearly lost the last two weeks due to overusing the ball without getting momentum to the build up. The Hawks almost always are going backwards or sideways to then go forwards. And a lot of that is because of the movement off the ball which DE can't factor in. Zac Dawson has one of the best DE in the league. That's how you know it's a bogus stat. The guy couldn't kick a drop punt if his life depended on it. Then we get the issue that Champion Data might not even code each play properly. If a >40m kick has to go to a 50/50 then this is wrong:

The best question was when I think King it was asked him if he was worth the money. That got Roosy thinking. He was quite diplomatic of course and pretty much said he was hired to do a job and he's done it. He didn't want to heap too much pressure on Goodwin for next year, that's what the youth comment was about. He said the 1st half was better than he thought. 2nd half terrible. I agree. 1st quarter was super sloppy but it was all our mistakes, 2nd quarter we dominated and should've put more on the scoreboard. Second half we held on. I think Roos has done a fantastic job. He's taken a lot of the heat, promoted the club and hopefully helped put the entire football department and club on the right track. That said, I'm looking forward to having a coach who's all in, doesn't have a brand to protect and isn't some form of consultant. 4 more weeks to really have a free swing at getting a couple of wins to send Roosy out on a high.

He's so strong in the air, I just wish he'd stop colliding with team mates. If he's going up others should stay down, and if others have a clear run and jump then sometimes he should realise that as the little guy he can stay down. Especially now with Tom, Frost, Wagner, Hunt we have some other defenders who can win the ball in the air. Except Oscar. Always go up if he's up, the bloke can't spoil to save himself.

Running with the bulls, sailing in Croatia. Hibberd should be mentally fresh and physically it can be good too as long as he can get in shape before round 1. New start as well. I'm more worried about them adapting to changes in the game and to a new team than where they are at mentally or physically. Although I'd like both of them to have complete resolution of the matter with the courts and with Essendon, including any law suits.

Jones, Viney, Gawn are the locks from this years group. Watts is a big chance. If Tom McDonald signs on he'll stay in. He's a bit of an unusual leader but he's a hard worker and he's earned it. Garland, Vince might not stay in it, but it's important to have senior players. Vince probably stays and Jetta might be a chance. If Garland is on the list next year (which is a near certainty) I'd have no problem with him being a leader even if he was set to play the year in the VFL. As long as he's comfortable leading from that situation there's nothing wrong with having a leadership group player as a depth player, as long as other leaders are making a difference in AFL games.

The experience will help and the zone system suits him. We might be able to use Hibberd, Wagner and Melksham as 3 mid sized decent in the air defenders and do away with the 3rd tall. Add Jetta, Hunt, T Mc and Frost and that could be a solid back 7. Or if we want to play another tall and/or Vince down back it means decent competition for defensive spots which has obviously been a weakness this year.

Pro: powerful running (but not super quick), long kicking midsized defender, strong in the air and solid one on one Cons: Probably struggles with his weight at the best of times, will be interesting to see if he's in shape. 27 in Jan. At 186cm he probably doesn't solve our 3rd tall issues

Since he's come back in the last 3 weeks Brayshaw has been averaging 21 disposals, 10 kicks, 7 tackles, 73 supercoach points and getting better by the game. Oliver averaged 18 disposals including 5 kicks, 4.5 tackles, 65 supercoach points. I love Clarry, and I think he'll probably end up a better player than Brayshaw, but right now Brayshaw is contributing pretty well and holding his spot and I don't want to see Oliver having 2nd year blues like Brayshaw did this year because he was too tired by the time preseason started to build on next year.

Patience everybody. For now Jones, Tyson, Viney and Brayshaw are the first picked inside mids. Vince, M Jones and Stretch play on the wings. Harmes is doing a job at half back. Anyone else has to play predominantly half forward. Kent, Petracca and Vanders are better at that. That's 11 of 22. The other 11 are 1 ruck, 4 forwards, 6 defenders. Now you can shuffle Vanders to a tall forward spot meaning we are undersized, Vince to half back and maybe Brayshaw to a wing and create room for Oliver to play on ball, but he still has to run out 60 or 70% of the game and make sure he's covering the ground. And yeah his clearance work and ball use in traffic is fantastic, but he wasn't getting many kicks at AFL level so it's hard to see if his kicking was developing. He also struggled to use his left hand handball. That was early in the year when he was fresh and was carrying a decent amount of muscle. He needs to improve his running and build muscle to last him through the year next year. Flogging him in to the ground now won't help that. We've seen that with Brayshaw.

Petracca is the one for that play, we have to get the ball hit down to him I think, he'll make things happen. Ben Ken is another who can do it. Kent's really a half forward who can crash and bash a bit but most of his good work comes from his hard leading and run. Jeffy just seems off and a bit scared of contact at the moment. He dropped a chest mark with a minute to go, missed a snap earlier, tried to slide/fall on the ball several times instead of backing his speed, step and strength. It was there for him against Collingwood, has been largely missing since.

I'd agree with this. Adelaide are another team who have focused on getting outside run. GWS have been blessed with being able to draft a bunch of everything then keep the ones they want. 2 number 1 picks in Scully and Whitfield who haven't done all that much the last 3 years but came on this year as the team started to feed the ball to them. I'd say this year there's been a focus on making sure there's run in the team. 3 of Matt Jones, Stretch, Grimes, Harmes, Vince and Bugg have played nearly every week so that we have rotations through the wings of hard runners. Newton was trialled but his tank and speed was found wanting which is a shame as his skills are very good. Harmes has been moved to half back, so that along with Hunt we have guys who can run with the ball from the backline. I don't mind the focus on talls and ball winning mids first and outside players are often up for trade as they can really struggle in bad sides. I'm hoping increased fitness for Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw and Tyson + a healthy Salem can improve outside speed and skills as well. I'd even include Hogan in that. Salem's the clear classy kick from that bunch, but they are all classy footballers who can get the ball in good spots and move it forward. With more run in their legs I think they'll use the ball better. Tracc especially has so much power that he can turn a contested ball in to free running in just a few steps. Brayshaw has the ability to kick on both sides that should be encouraged as it can lead to fast ball movement. Kent's improved a lot and is working hard on his ball use. I haven't given up on JKH just yet as he can run and kick. We still struggle when teams play a man behind the ball as we can't play our sling shot brand and have to be more patient or creative with it. It's also why we struggle at Etihad. The trade off is when Gold Coast did it to us we stopped them scoring for most of the game as well. Unfortunately we will cough up at least 1 or 2 goals a quarter from dumb mistakes due to the inexperience of our backline/Bernie Vince having a shocker/Tom McDonald. Despite the 2 ugly games I haven't been all that disappointed with the Gold Coast and Eagles games as they are very good learning in how to attack teams that sit back and our backline has had a chance to compose themselves. We didn't need to work on forward structure in the first half of the year when we were getting over the back of teams consistently. Had we continued like that we wouldn't have learnt anything that we are hopefully learning now.

He was labouring under the knee injury, think he's better now but I agree he's a bit out of steam. Isn't intercepting the ball as much or breaking the lines like he did. Still doing some good things but I'm sure the year is wearing him down. The problem is it's hard to find a replacement. White's a bit slow to play as a running defender but getting up the ground might help him. Michie is slow and has never consistently won or used the ball well at AFL level. We could send Nath Jones to half back and give the young mids the run of it in the middle but that's a lot to ask late in the year and against the Hawks.

I can understand the urge to bring Weid in and play him close to goal and stick with the Watts, Dawes, Vanders trio across half forward and in the ruck. Dawes did his role to some extent and moved and marked better than he has been but still does very little. I'd have no problems with him staying in, but equally no problems with him out. I've seen enough of him to know if fully fit he might still be ok depth. He's not completely useless, but no more than that. So maybe it's Pedo's turn to show if he's better than Dawes or to put another midfielder in. Matt Jones was Matt Jones, there's moments of good clear running and moments of nothing. Probably time to go back to Bugg. If Vince is injured then I'd give Grimes another shot. Either Bugg or Vince should tag Isaac Smith. Jeff can't keep putting in such stinkers even if his defensive efforts were ok I'd go back to Kennedy here. Rotate Kennedy and Petracca from deep to half forward. Ideally we'd upgrade all of Wagner, Harmes and Oscar. Wagner is consistently ok but struggling to impact. Harmes is doing some great things with run and getting the ball but can't use it well enough, but his speed is vital against the Hawks. Oscar played his best half but faded badly and still has such little commitment to the contest in the air and will struggle under the Hawks pressure. He's getting better with the ball, but his lack of intent to body spoil is an indictment on himself, Rawling's and the club. I'm far from convinced with any of the Casey defenders though so I'll await the VFL report. Hawthorn have lighter shorter mobile talls in Gunston, Sicily and O'Brien and then a ruckman. At this stage: Out: Hogan (inj), Matt Jones, Garlett. Potentially: Oscar Mc, Vince (inj), Dawes In: Weideman, Bugg, Kennedy. Potentially: Garland/White, Grimes, Oliver/ANB (with Tracc and Brayshaw staying forward)

I was thinking the same, but then I remembered: 1. Defence wins big games, getting a star CHB can't be that bad an idea right? 2. She started playing at 24, no reason why she couldn't play to 35+, maybe even 40+ given female athletes in a number of sports have proven to be very resilient. Experience also wins big games. 3. The marquee system wasn't necessarily created on a first come first served basis. If we got the best player with 1 of our marquees we probably weren't getting the best with the other. 4. Culture is vital, especially with a new league and new teams. Hickey seems really smart. Having possibly the 2 best leaders could be vital. We don't have the advantage of a coach, facilities or money. Our one advantage over other sides is we already have a winning culture and a team that's use to success. If Hickey is a vital part of that - and experienced key defenders usually are - then she's worth keeping. 5. Who really knows how teams will fill out the rest of their teams? Who really knows just how good the best players are now and whether in 5 years the development going in to all the teenagers right now will make the current group of 22 year olds look dreadful when they are in their prime?

He scrapped with Bernie at training early in the season, had to get a couple of players to calm him down. He seems to have an angry streak. Hopefully he finds out how to get the balance right.

The market for him might be stronger than people expect and the tigers can force a trade if the compensation isn't good enough. All up that could mean paying a lot for a C grader who might give us a few years before the game moves past him. I'd rather get a D grader (ie. Dawes, Pedersen or a delisted player) and go in a bit short at one position until fixing it properly with a quality player either via trade or draft.

He can be decent in space with his speed but I think his limited tank and contested style lends him more to half forward/on the ball. So I'd probably only give him a little time on the wings. Michie seems to be playing more half back at Casey to set him up to play the same role in the AFL. But for Ben Kennedy I like the idea of getting him around the ball and getting 30+ chances to dispose of the ball because I think long term that's his biggest weakness. Fitness is an issue but he'll either fix that or not with a couple more preseasons.

Garland has 2 more years on a deal and no one will want him. I expect if the FD have decided he's finally turned his form around in the VFL - and I expect he either has or is getting closer to that stage - then he'll come back in. Grimes is near certain to move on at the end of the year, so there's less reason to play him. Kennedy's height doesn't bother me, it rarely impacts his role as a high half forward. But bringing him in would achieve little given ANB played ok and had to do a good stint in the VFL. Now it's ANB's time to have 1 or 2 more chances and Kennedy's chance to play consistently well at VFL level.

The 2 main reasons for Hogan's 'poor form' which is really just 2 quiet games are: 1. A long season catching up with him Therefore I can't see how replacing Dawes - who for all his faults does work pretty hard - for Pedersen or a kid in Hulett helps things. 2. Being stuck deep in a role that isn't his natural game This is where replacing Dawes with the better marking Pedda might help, but if Hogan is tiring then asking him to keep carrying the load at CHF isn't wise. Especially if we lose forward pressure with Pedersen or Hulett over Dawes. I'd stick with Dawes for another week and just get the balance between who plays deeper better. If it becomes a lot of slow ball movement in to a crowded 50 then Dawes can be deep for the long contests and Hogan can have a run around. I also think we're marking him harshly for failing to take a bunch of grabs or lead where there was no space against the Eagles. The problem with clobbering them so well in the midfield was they always had numbers back, and on a wet day we didn't want to overuse the ball more than we already were. All the attacking we were doing made the counter attacking game we play well redundant. Unfortunately we aren't good at getting the ball in long and quickly in traffic to a forwards advantage. So many long bombs went to the wrong side of the contest. McGovern and McKenzie are very good aerial defenders as well.

I'd like to see Hulett play, but I'm not sure about throwing him in to take Oscar's spot down back after never playing there at Casey. So I'd really like to see him line up down back at Casey next week and show he can do it first. I'm not big on the need for blooding new talent either. The team is full of young kids - Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver, Stretch, ANB, Hunt etc. Oliver's had a good run and might come back in for a few games at the end of the season. Salem should get back in as well if he's healthy. The young talls and Joel Smith are the only players who are yet to debut on our list, and JKH and Terlich the only others who haven't had a game. I expect we might see more of the likes of Dawes, Newton, JKH, Trengove, Grimes, Michie as out of contract players needing to show their worth than throwing in more kids.

Garland (shudder) for Oscar. Based on Oscar struggling with injury and some of his really poor moments, mainly failing to chase down the Kennedy goal. That's inexcusable lack of attention to detail. I don't expect Garland to star but if he's done what the coaches asked at Casey then it's worth bringing him in and letting Oscar learn the lessons back at Casey.

I wasn't all that impressed by Weideman today but I wasn't that disappointed either. He's coming off nearly an entire missed season and we know he's not that fit. He started the year really well and the season is probably starting to wear him down. Not to mention the conditions he plays in are nearly impossible for key forwards. I still think he'll make a very nice mark and kick player at AFL level it's just going to be a slow build and he's not going to be the full package over night. He could possibly benefit from dropping back for a week or two in the VFL reserves to get a few goals on the board. It seems they did that with Max King this week.

Tom will play CHB, use his endurance to run around with Lynch. Frost will play fullback on Wright. They are both pretty well suited to their roles, with both needing to improve skills. The balance to that is if we can improve the other defenders around them so they take safer options. Hibberd's a good option. We've got other good small and medium defenders as well. Finding the 3rd tall will probably be the greatest challenge. What I'd give to have Josh Gibson in his prime alongside Frost and Tom McDonald, they'd look like stars.

Probably, but he's not exactly a regular. Had an injury and had to fight his way back in. Certainly agree that he's worth more to us than in any kind of trade.

Soon to be 29 journeyman who can't nail down a regular spot for Melbourne. He has absolutely no value. A really bad team - which is Brisbane and that's it, could take him for free but that's it. I think he'll stay as he's a handy fringe player on a wing in a position we don't have a lot of depth in. 1 more year probably ends a handy career for a bloke plucked from the VFL.