DeeSpencer

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.

Had a look for an hour between 10:30-11:30. No: Dawes, Mitch King, Spencer, Viney from what I saw. Vanders walked off just as I got there. Newton came out to do boxing with Jetta. Giving the pads a serious work out. Rehab: Kent doing sprints. Salem on light duties. Weideman as well. Matt Jones and Garland on light duties. Almost everyone else was doing everything including Dunn, Lumumba and Brayshaw. Clarry came off after one drill and had a tight right hip. Physios got in to him pretty strongly. Then he did some boxing. Hopefully just some tightness that is all fine and a week off will have him feeling better before round 1. Usual drills all about quick ball movement. McCartney barking out orders when mids were going 5 v 3 from a stoppage and kicking to a 4 v 2 forward line. Dunn and Hunt managed to intercept a few and Macca was cracking that the forwards would trip over their pulled down pants. The attacking players then started to work it out. A definite focus on the player forward of the stoppage to run forward away from the stoppage as soon as the ball is won and then make his defender choose whether to run with him or attack the ball carrier. Similarly the focus for the outnumbered defenders was to go hard at the ball carrier to force a mistake. Hogan, Dunn, Frost, Gawn and Pedersen all did contested marking practice. Harmes, JKH, Garlett and Max King all were practising snapping goals. Hogan had plenty of shots at goal during various drills. Throws in one or two shuffle steps but otherwise very fluent run up and kicking wasn't an issue.

2 rucks: Hawthorn (McEvoy, Ceglar), Freo (Sandi, Griffen/Clarke) Maybe: WC ( NicNat, Lycett/McGovern), Geel (Smith/Stanley, Vardy), Saints (Longer/Hickey/Holmes, Bruce), Carlton (Kreuzer, Phillips/Casboult), GWS (Mumford, Lobb), Ess (Leuenberger, Jamar/Grimley/Michael), Coll (Grundy, Witts/Moore/Gault) No: Rich (Maric, Vickery/Griffiths), Gold Coast (Nicholls, Wright/Day), Sydney (Tippett, Sinclair), Dogs (Minson/Campbell, Boyd/Redpath/Roughead), Brisbane (Martin, Walker), Port (Lobbe, Dixon/Westhoff/Trengove), Adel (Jacobs, Jenkins), North (Goldstein, Brown) Seems a big mix, hard to predict where a lot of the maybe's will go. The main difference between years past is that the 2nd ruck/forward types are getting bigger and are ofter around the 200cm mark. Not all are necessarily better in the ruck than Pedersen but most are and some can play against number 1 rucks. It's still very early days for him but it's not ludicrously early for Max King to start showing more consistent form at VFL level and to push his case.

It's hard to argue with a beautiful safe clearing handball. Just a matter of how risky we want to be. You're probably right, in that area of the ground the clearing handball is a wise decision. But in general Melbourne need to handball forward more and break out of packs, not go back behind them. Again, so many positives with him, I just think if he develops a bit of smoothness around the rough edges he'll get better and better. That's my main point.

He's not tall for his position but the bulk of Lynden Dunn will come in handy to counter his opponent coming third man up. McDonald is tall and strong enough as well. We are in a bit more trouble if teams have a 195cm + midfielder, we'll have to keep Watts/Vince/Tyson/Lumumba etc whoever is available at the stoppage on the lookout. Or we start to rove the 3rd man ups, which when done well can really stuff with another side as they are sending an extra jumper and still losing.

A very sweet handball, but the Salem kick is just as good if not better. Although next step for Clarry is probably to hold the ball in a bit more and get the exit out the front of the stoppage where Vince and Viney are or even sneak a tight handball to Jetta and run it out the open side. But that's nit picking. A bit more work on his left hand handball should be part of his development as well. I'm sure he's seeing both sides of the stoppage and has the vision. A good left will see him able to really open up the field. Even his right hand I think he holds the ball up and punches it a bit much. I think he can smooth it out a bit and make sure he's hitting team mates spot on. I find it exciting knowing that Oliver has a lot of traits that are really hard to teach - hardness, vision, agility, presence and still lots to work on with his body and skills (which are at a solid baseline as well, it's not like he's a mile off).

Just strange they haven't done likewise with Buddy Franklin, even though he lined up someone last year and has done it for years. I think it's on the harsh side and I think they take the injury in to account too much. Add 1 extra week for the injury but if not injured I think this would've been 1 or 2 with the guilty plea. He's a good player and mainly a ball player. Players across the comp need to get the message that deliberate acts highly likely to cause concussion must be outlawed, but this seems just a bit too much. Sustained strong penalties for everyone will do that better than random targeted decisions that the tribunal/MRP often produce.

Impact is hard to judge. But Brayshaw's tackling, hardness and direct style of footy was instrumental is us scoring against better teams I think. His impact was greater than his stats or talent. He lit us up at Geel, QB'day, North game, Tigers game. Even round 1 he made a big difference. Clarry has shown me some special abilities but Gus set the bar pretty high. I'd drop a footy in front of Clarry in a pack situation and he'd do some great things. Playing on him I wouldn't lay a finger on him. I'd roll a footy out in front of Brayshaw in space and I expect similar. He's such a natural tackler I wouldn't want to pick up the ball, and if he gets the ball he's so determined to get it on to a team mate in a good spot.

That's true. But then again he was back off the mark by a step or two and handball sideways, yet it was smothered. Would like to know how that happens. Then he picked up and drilled a pass what I thought was a good 15m easily. But the ump didn't like that one either. So multiple efforts it was!

I always saw talent with Gawn but he was a mile off. Tommy showed his endurance and energy early that was about it. Dunn was a first round pick medium forward, you'd hope he'd offer something. I'm not overly convinced by Oscar but the longer the game went the better he got on Sunday and he was much better than the Port game. I think his disposal and vision have been a step up from ordinary, certainly something to work with for a tall defender. Certainly he lacks strength and aggression but he does have endurance. I'm not going to hold it against him for not being strong or aggressive when he's 10kg lighter than his opponents. I'd like to see more speed and skills from him but I think he has adequate amounts of both. Tom Lonergan and Ted Richards have been two of the better key defenders for the last 5+ years. Both started as nothing forward types and were thrown back and developed by good clubs. Neither have been aggressive, both started with very average skills and Lonergan developed a lot of strength over time. Due to Dunn's injury Oscar got a run against a capable forward in Bruce and spent time on Riewoldt. The saints didn't find room for their young key defender in Goddard even though he was pick 20 or whatever he was.

Any successful team (dynasty is stupid, I'll take a top 4 finishes first thanks) will probably be on the back of multiple years of recruiting, particularly: 12 - Hogan and Viney (Kent, Ben Kennedy) 13 - Salem and Tyson (JKH, Hunt, Harmes) 14 - Petracca and Brayshaw (Stretch, ANB, Frost, O Mc, Vanders, White) 15 - Oliver and Weideman (etc) Plus Gawn, McDonald, one of the King boys providing the tall structure and some slightly older guys like Bugg, Melksham, Watts, Jetta, Trengove being up to finals level. If we don't nail a couple of really classy outside runners with kicking skills I'm not sure we will get anywhere. We need to draft or trade for them over the next few years. I'm comfortable with where our list is at but it's going to take more good recruiting as well as fantastic development to get anywhere. The top picks are the easy ones for recruiters. We've made a bold move last year and we'll need to nail this years draft to keep the momentum building. Plus it's time we get involved with free agency, up our delisted free agency game possibly and keep finding trades especially if we have players who want to leave.

Trengove's missed 2 years and more time before that. I wouldn't mind at all if we don't see him for 7 weeks or even 17 weeks if that's what it takes. Presuming he is good enough to get in the team. I'd be a little annoyed if Petracca gets held back that long but who knows how long he'll take. It's not easy getting a kick in the Casey forward line.

They are always used and the doctors have some responsibility to get them right. I don't hate the medical report, I hate how much they count the impact. Anyway, in this case the medical report was obviously all clear so it's worked for us.

I really like the way he got the ball moving in to space and then delivered out in front this week. Took away a lot of the bad errors. I think that's the team and his responsibility. He needs to go get the ball when it's a fast play, but when it's a kick out or slow play he shouldn't be chasing kicks. Let Salem, Vince, Jetta etc work for those kicks, which of course means they have to work hard! The main criticism I'd have this week is he still gave away a goal kicking the ball when he could've handballed (the one to Grimes, which wasn't his fault but he didn't make it easy) and trying a one handed mark instead of punching. But he played really well within the zone defending which is something I was looking for him to do. I hope he brings his A game against Stewart/Lobb/Tomlinson/Patton now that won't be up against Jeremy Cameron.

They are a serious football side. Don't be fooled by a practice game in wet weather. They were ready for round 1 after dismantling Sydney. We'll need our forward pressure up super high to stop their run and carry, in particular someone to mind Heath Shaw. Hopefully Dunn and Lumumba help our ball movement down back, get that wrong and it's game over. Do both of the above and we are in with a shot.

I've said the same thing the whole time and if Vanders and Brayshaw are good to go then it might come down to Harmes, Matt Jones or Oliver. Oliver is the obvious choice but Matt Jones has impressed and Harmes does a lot of good as well. Less rotations means it's harder to even out the spread of game time but 70% is reasonable, the question might be for how long can he run out his stints on the ground. 70% is fine as long as he's not tiring whilst he's on. I get the feeling he's still much more suited to being on the ball than forward, yet he'll have to rest forward a fair bit.

Might be hard to fit both he and Frost in anyway and whilst both offered something I doubt either nailed a spot today. Might save the coaches from a tricky decision.

FB: Jetta Garland O McDonald HB: Salem T Mc Vince C: M Jones Viney Grimes HF: Kent Hogan Kennedy FF: Watts Pedersen Garlett Foll: Gawn Tyson Jones Int: Oliver Bugg Frost Harmes Maybe nominal sub in case of injury/after half time: Michie, Wagner I hope we learn from Richmond and have all 24 available so we aren't overtaxing anyone in case of injury. Plus I'd love to see Wagner get a full run but the coaches might go with Oscar Mc. I'd probably make both available really, just a matter of how close to round 1 conditions of 22 only they want to go.

Teams are in:

Might derail the topic a bit but oh well. Backline: Brown's a better pure stopper but Dunn offers more rebound. Frost and McDonald are about equal both can be great or terrible. We need to upgrade Garland. Reid never plays so it's really Marsh, who was good today. The Pies small defenders are an achilles heal I think, they don't kick the ball well enough. They shut down ok but they lack rebound. They'd love Salem. But we need another as well. They have more options with a bit more game experience (Oxley, Ramsey, Sinclair, Langdon) but need one or two of those to emerge, just as we need another running defender. 12 months time and hopefully it's Melksham, Hunt, Wagner, White all showing AFL capabilities. Forward: Hogan over Moore. But Cloke is still way better than Pedo obviously. Watts needs to show he's a legit 3rd tall. Gault's an interesting prospect, but their best 3rd tall is probably Howe once he comes back. Or they do have the option of playing 2 rucks that we don't. If they get Elliott, Fasolo and Varcoe in the same forward line (with Swan playing 50/50) then that's amazing. Petracca and Garlett might be a great start for us, but Kent, Kennedy and Harmes have work to do to prove they are consistent AFL players. Rucks: Would rather Gawn and no back up than the Pies 3 to be honest, but we need the King's to come on fast. Mids: They have us for experienced ball winners. Pendles, Swan, Treloar, Adams, Greenwood, Crisp, De Goey we can counter with Vince, Jones, Viney, Tyson, Vanders, Brayshaw, Oliver but besides the Pendles superstar status it's just slight edges in experience I think. The pies fell away late last season, we fell away after we beat them. We have to find and then sustain that top level with youngsters. Their biggest advantage might be Sidebottom as a top quality outside midfielder, even if he's a bit slower than ideal. I hope Trengove can be that player for us. Aish might be their next best outside runner, which shows it's not their strongest depth spot. They might experiment with Howe on a wing, we are trying Grimes and Matt Jones. Neither team is blessed. In summary I think they have us for: Ruck depth (one good trade or state league find fixes that), midfield experience (time and development should fix), backline options (if not talent) and forward line potency (which Petracca, Kent and Watts could fix if they get it together). Otherwise both sides have similar gaps. If we develop our best kids in to a couple of A graders and can fill the gaps with a few more good draft picks and then a trade or two we can bounce straight by them. When they won in the middle, pressured their backs and rebounded quickly the Dogs tore them apart.

Tomorrow is a big test. Getting blown out by the saints won't end the season but it will almost certainly show we've still got massive gaps. I can't imagine a team winning 10 (or even 8) or more games with: - Slow starts - Periods of complete lack of ball movement from the backline with sub AFL standard turnovers and few attacking kicks - Terrible forward 50 entries - Inability to create forward pressure - Inability to keep up with teams on the spread - Only 2 main avenues to goal. The first half against Port and most of the Dogs game had a lot of that. The second half against Port had none of that. Time to show that against a good pressure team on their home ground that we can stand up against it and push back.

Ben Kennedy has a lot of similar traits to Sam Gray, albeit a high draft pick not a guy who had to fight through the system. Pedersen, Grimes and Matt Jones look like 3 guys who are fighting off the canvas to get in to the round 1 team. I'm not sure if they will last that way but we can hope they can all fill spots effectively. I think both Viv Michie and Ben Newton have skills to offer the team, just a matter of them getting the opportunity to show they've done the work over summer. Obviously harder for Newton giving the injury set back. And I'm still super keen to see Max King play some regular footy, impress in the VFL and get a chance. For us to improve we really need someone like him but it sounds like he hasn't made the leap over preseason yet which is unfortunate.

I think it was Goodwin who suggested it to Viney that instead of practising on his right he learns how to move the ball from right to left as a left footer. Salem didn't need any instructions, he nailed the first one. I doubt it's even a technique many forwards use these days but they still should. From deep in a forward pocket and too far out to attempt a checkside snap, you can curve a drop punt the more unnatural way by a combination of changing your ball drop and/or arc of your leg swing, just like a golfer hitting a fade or draw. Of course there are some players (Tom Hawkins these days, David Neitz) who kick best moving it left to right for a right footer. I don't expect Jack Viney or Nathan Jones to have mastered it, but it would be nice as experienced footballers if they at least had heard and understood the concept.

Stopped by at the very end, didn't see anything much that hasn't been reported. As a long time sufferer of MFCSS I found it disappointing that Goodwin and Salem had to instruct Viney, Harmes and a few others how to get a drop punt to move in the air. Still work for our development team to do on organisation to make sure that every little thing is covered in their instructions to players.