DeeSpencer

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.

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.

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.

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.

That I certainly agree with. The issue being we had 7 wins and some of those sides last year or the year before for Port went well over 12 wins. If we close the gap it's much easier to jump over those teams.

It's not a crew. It's one man with a decent well founded opinion....who also spends a lot of his time as a cricket writer and researcher. He justified it easily with the statement that there are a lot of good teams, and it's a perfectly fair point. The top 12 were well clear of us last year and so many of them (Coll, GWS, Geel) had strong off seasons. Simply there are good teams with more experienced talent than we have. We need the 1st to 3rd year young players to come on, and they are good and I think they will. But even more we need Jones, Vince, Dunn, Garland, Garlett, Jetta, Lumumba, Dawes/Pedo, Matt Jones/Grimes to give us their best, which they likely will. We know what we'll get from that lot, both the good and the bad. But our season might rest upon the 22-25 year old types in Gawn, McDonald, Watts, Ben Ken, Vanders, Tyson and Viney. If the experienced guys do a job and those guys make the step up to regular performers then we have a backbone of the side. Fools gold to think kids without 50 games or fully grown bodies, no matter how talented, will be able to suddenly lift us much higher than last years ladder position and more than 1 or 2 more wins.

Need 3 more panellists so they can vote for Salem, Oliver and Brayshaw. Only fair.

Terlich, Spencer (replaced by another mature ruck), one of Pedo/Dawes is 3. Agree with the 4 above. Trengove might not make it back or could be downgraded for one last shot. That's 8. Could be anywhere between 0-3 rookie upgrades, but I'd set the line at 1.5. Watts and the club lose patience with each other. Unexpected trade requests. I really hope it's competitive as well, but there's a long way to go and no first round pick. JKH is another who lacks physicality at this stage but he's meant to be a good runner and he has good skills as well. It's not easy to build fitness and competitiveness, certainly much easier if you have it and there's not much you can do with pure athleticism or height, you're a bit stuck with what you've got. But it's probably even harder to turn back kicks in to good kicks. So I'm willing to have some patience with those who can kick the thing.

Suckling's an amazing kick but so high risk he turns over a few. But I agree it's not a perfect comparison, I was just thinking a similar role without the same brilliance of Suckling. I'm trying to think of a similar player in a good side. Either way I don't think our focus on hardness and effort should preclude him.

He'd be a big upgrade, but I always worry about players who are obviously talented but rough around the edges and maybe not a perfect fit for a premiership team. Can he ruck? Can he kick accurately? Is he smart enough when the ball hits the ground and reliable enough in the air? He'll be 28 next Feb and probably cost a 2nd round pick still given I presume he's not a free agent. Hopefully Max King comes on and we don't have to find out.

Nath Jones, Bernie Vince and Salem are probably the only 3 mids on our list who kick as well as Newton. He's still worth his value for that alone. Port let him leave for a 2 year deal because they didn't think he could run and wanted to give him just 1 shot at it. He's got injured again but apparently had built his tank. He's without a position at the moment as he doesn't get win the ball or apply defensive pressure enough for any one spot. But a weakness can be a strength, he can become solid at any position if he builds his fitness. He's not quite to the same level but he can play the same role Suckling has played at the Hawks and now Dogs. Float around from half forward, wing and half back, use the ball well and kick some goals. If we only pick hard at it defensive players we might put a limit on the teams growth. We have to set the standard with attack on the ball and work rate but we can't pick a team of scrubbers either.

Whinge, beg or supplement the costs if we have to. Convince a player to do it for half the rate the others are charging. Do whatever we can to make sure we aren't left behind.

Plus Stringer and Bontempelli are incredibly marketable and you'd mainly stock them in Western Suburbs supermarkets. Saves on the distribution costs. Same with the Melbourne ones. I'm not saying they mass produce thousands of them, but at least sign a player up and have them available in a few Coles stores in the heartland area.

I kind of feel it's solving a problem that isn't a problem. Trees, bins and all the other things shown have done the trick for years. But for the Northern states without footy ovals it's a good idea. Hopefully he can make a few bucks and get more kids involved in the game. Very keen for his son to keep kicking a footy round with Gazza though. White's height with a bit of Ablett skill training. Get him ready for father son.

Because I don't know. Well I thought I did but I was starting to reassess with his form. Now the coaches have a smaller sample size to decide if he's improved or not. If Vanders isn't right and they have doubts over Frost, plus maybe they don't want to play Harmes or Brayshaw on a wing then there's a spot for him. I wouldn't play him at this weekend at all. But he's still in contention for round 1 and I really would've liked to have seen 4 quarters of him against the Saints.

15 talking figurines http://aflfootymate.com/ 2 by hawks, pies and tigers. Bogans will love these, so no shame there. No dogs, no team North of the Murray and no demons. Jones? Vince? Max Gawn? Hogan? No. Oh but there's a Heppell one. Good to see he can make some profit whilst out of the game. Is that legal? Very poor from the AFL and Coles and poor from Melbourne as well. Takes a lot to win a kid back when he goes to the supermarket and can't find his colours anywhere.

I'm looking at the positives. A lot of time in the ruck at Casey for Max King. If (and it's a decent sized if) his own body can hold up to senior VFL footy then his match fitness and development should get a good kick along. It is a shame the Spencil is out but he's a pretty tough character, if we need him hopefully he's rested up enough that he can front up and play. I think that would be a situation where we'd play both Pedo and Frost as well and use a lot of 3rd man ups. Get creative with Frost playing as an extra on baller in a lot of ways.