DeeSpencer

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.

Depends on the role and the game style I guess. The perfect game of footy would have 0 tackles because you'd always have the ball. And if Spencer is winning the hit outs then just win the clearance and stuff tackling! But I agree on the sentiment I guess. We seem to laud the guy who gets 30 disposals in the VFL when the guy who had 20 might've done a lot more for the team.

7 marks is nice for Weideman. I'd like him to get 20 touches and kick 5 goals every week but if he's just building his fitness and body then I'm happy if he does the job that separates good key forwards from bad ones which is take marks.

Fair point. I think we signalled our intentions with the leadership group of Jones, Vince, Viney, T Mc and Gawn (and Garland). The culture and leadership is focused on players who perform now, not just those who work hard. The young players have to follow Viney and Gawn now and fortunately those 2 guys have the performance on the board to demand respect. The Bailey days culture of hoping young kids would learn from flawed leaders wasn't any good, but the Neeld idea that the club would somehow improve on the basis of training hard without any leaders who could show the way on field was just as bad. The performance of the first 5 picked probably influences the club more than performance of the last 5 picked each week as long as the fringe guys at Casey feel valued and if they're winning each week they probably aren't too upset. Grimes is the only one who has a case to feel upset.

I don't see those goals as mutually exclusive. I also think our best forward line and midfield have played almost every week. We haven't tossed out older guys to fit younger ones in, we just have very few experienced players in those parts of the ground. We've certainly sidelined a few older defenders, but I see that as a response to the drastic change in game style and also injuries. Had Dunn and Lumumba been fit and playing the entire preseason and on to now then they might be in the side. They were both in the side in round 3 and since then have both had injuries.

I'm not fully convinced of that. Garlett was a bit of special exemption, but it was right. Who else do we have on our list who's ever kicked 4 goals in a game? Watts, Hogan, Kent is that it? Hogan the only one who's kicked 40 goals in a season. Grimes has been unlucky, but when Matt Jones is coming in ahead of you I don't think that's a choice for the future. The next 8 weeks will tell the story with Grimes but when he gets his chance I expect the coaches to be vindicated. Michie, ANB and Newton all got limited chances but Harmes, Vanders and Kennedy are in their spots and we aren't exactly welded on to those guys. Harmes and Kennedy in particularly received outstanding reviews for the games they were dropped for. Oscar's mistake prone games have also featured some very good positioning and the willingness to work off the ball. Dunn didn't do that and has had injuries. Garland, was just as bad as Oscar and last week was his only good VFL game, he even came back in after just some ordinary performances.

Frost makes mistakes. But keeping Jenkins to 2 goals and limited impact when he had kicked 38 goals in 13 games before yesterday is a solid job. His speed and agility make him a possible defensive weapon as his gets more experience and it also means he has the ability to get out of trouble if he can just find a bit more composure. Unlike Tom McDonald who needs space to out run an opponent Frost has the speed and strength to break the lines. I'm not going to say he'll be a star or make it long term but what's the point of being a 6 win 8 loss team and not playing a guy with Frost's potential?

Roos has been playing the kids since his very first game at Melbourne - JKH. He's been faced with the reality that so many of the senior players he inherited just haven't been up to it. And already this year we've seen guys who were regulars in previous years in Garland and Dunn make way, just as Grimes did last year. Dawes might be next. I'd go without him this week, but probably have him favourite to be back in against the Saints. From then on it's 6 weeks left and if he's not performing it's the right time of the year to trial Weeds and Hulett. The only other consideration is probably Casey finals and working out who qualifies and who we'd like to have down there.

There's no right answer with the tall forwards. Hasn't been all season. So in the slippery Darwin conditions why play any of them? Time for Michie to have a run in the midfield. He's been the best clearance player all season at Casey. He'd still know a bit about Freo players from his time there and he's usually good with a slippery pill. Petracca to spend more time closer to goal. Vanders to play at half forward. Out: Dawes In: Michie Dawes, Hulett and Pedersen (if fit) can all play at Casey and compete to come back in next week.

His stats and times in the best this year suggest he's more consistent and doing well playing as a half forward sacrificing his game to allow Casey to play 3 or 4 other talls in the forward line. 18 goals, 6 times in the best from 10 games. http://www.foxsportspulse.com/team_info.cgi?action=PSTATS&pID=194472567&client=1-118-10449-392693-8069487&ocompID=392693 Sam Lloyd kicked 38 goals from 17 games at Frankston before he was drafted. I'd say given he's a bit older that Smith would want to build on his form for the rest of the year but it's a shame there's not mid season drafts and we couldn't give him a run instead of the current options of Dawes/Pedda or the kids who aren't ready.

Haha harsh but not necessarily wrong. Although Oscar is young, that can't be denied. He had another bad but almost good day today, in that there were several occasions when he moved to the right position with the right intent and still botched it. Still wasn't the worst young tall defender on the ground, that was Lever. Your comment about what cuts it in an aspiring team is interesting. Replacing a guy willing to do the hard yards with one who can't doesn't really sound like a plan to me. At the very least Matt Jones and Bugg are part of setting the standards on the work rate required and letting everyone know what's needed come preseason. If young players want his spot then they can show during preseason and in the GPS data that they deserve it!

Fair point. I'm just sick of seeing people who don't understand the importance of elite runners in a team, particularly when it comes to the outside mids. So when I saw the sooner the better I probably unfairly lumped you in with that group. Seems to be a fair bit of it around, even from AFL coaches who don't grasp it. Clarko led the way with Hill and Smith torching the wings and it's taken years for other clubs to adapt. The Giants use Scully, Whitfield and Kelly to great benefit. Sydney have Hannebery as a weapon inside but have focused on getting more run in their side. Matt Jones is a bit of a necessary evil right now. And I will defend Buggy. He won some crucial contests today and has done it most of the year. To have a guy who's going to always be running to provide an option and you can trust that if you kick it his way he'll give his all to win it is very handy. I don't mind the idea of him being the 22nd picked each week and in the side because he'll work his backside off covering others and put his body on the line. We'll have a good team if we can start leaving him out. Or if we can get him to use his right side he could probably stick in the team as a quality player. That would be a nice option!

Salem and Kelly (who will be the best) likely played a lot of TAC. But Robert Shaw was probably pleased he didn't have to give up Hunt, even if he was stick thin and unpolished. Kelly, Salem, Freeman, Zac Merrett, Karl Amon and a bottom aged Angus Brayshaw would've made a pretty handy TAC midfield at Sandringham Dragons that year.

I thought his first quarter was good. Bit of both in the middle half of the game. Had chances to go forward with the ball and passed them up. Then the error in the last term that's classic Matt Jones. 0 tackles as well is poor. Maybe one of Bugg, M Jones and Stretch can make way but our run will suffer. If you want to take 2 of them out then prepare for Grimes or inside midfielder on the wing. Please explain how that will help us? Stretch is young. Harmes is young and learning about the wing role (and half back today). Melksham might be an option next year. Hunt could easily go to a wing but we need him at half back. Salem needs a heap of fitness once healthy so he can do the hard running. We are short on wing options. Just like Dawes at CHF sometimes a high work rate player with limited skills offers more than an exciting young player who doesn't have the physical ability to do the job.

Spoils - including several that came after long hard runs to cut off possession, chases, hard ball gets, bursts from congestion and a fantastic goal. He tired a bit in the 2nd half but his 2nd quarter was brilliant. He changed the game.

We had Kent, Petracca and Garlett from half back ALL DAY. They had Cameron, Betts and Douglas do the same. They started with 7 back on our 5 forwards. We had 5 defenders and the rolling in half forward set up in the diamond against their 5 forwards. We then placed the spare half back flanker (usually Hunt) out near a wing, and therefore had 2 on 1 on that wing. Our plan was for Gawn to hit it out towards the wing with the spare and then get clearances that way. Obviously for the first quarter and at the start of the 3rd it was awful. Watts went back in the 3rd to give us an extra number deep back. Both teams were happy to roll the dice at centre clearances with a forward coming through. With Adelaide's extra down back and ours on a wing. It was an interesting tactical battle. 16-15 centre clearances a piece and most of the early 3rd quarter stuff came from the team being asleep. Maybe we didn't capitalise on Gawn enough, but then again Sloane/Thompson/Crouch bro's is probably a stronger midfield than what we had out there today in Jones/Viney/Tyson/Vanders

A couple of underdone inside mids playing on the wing isn't going to solve anything. Vanders and Ben Kennedy might make way for those 2 in the next few weeks, but we played as well as we have all year today due to having a fit team capable of running with a top opponent. There's a reason for that. I wonder if the footy department will consider Brayshaw for half back. Harmes was good there today but could go back on a wing. Half back might be the best thing for Brayshaw's develop in the next 8 weeks, I'd love to see it.