DeeSpencer

3 fines = a week off I believe

To simplify the system impact means both the result and the physical force (which they somehow use video to determine). So if I walked up and slapped you with an open hand and you were knocked out that would be high (or severe) impact. And if I king hit you Barry Hall style and you were ok that would probably still be high impact based on the force. Certainly though I think low impact is fair in this case. The only way to argue this one is to say it wasn't a reportable offense as Young contributed most of the sling. Which if it was the deciding factor of him missing a week I'd have a go at contesting.

I want both, the arms pinned and a player taken to ground. But I want the player taken to ground on their side and with their weight going through their hips. The grounds won't be so hard as to have many broken hips! It's the dangerous motions of getting a player to ground that causes the head injuries. So if the arms are pinned don't drive the player through the ground. Don't lift them and put them over horizontal and don't sling. Particularly don't do all 3 which Gibbs did to Robbie Gray last year! I still don't think the AFL have gone in to enough explanation about what tackling techniques they are banning. The definition on slinging and driving players in to the ground seems very much based on how it looks and not on technical points. If they explained it more everyone would get a reference point for what is a good hard tackle that can still result in injury but is legal and what is deemed dangerous.

It's not just what he does with the ball that annoys me but his defending just isn't that good. It's plateaued, which I think is on Jade Rawlings (and Tom). I really want to see more aerial dominance in his game. By that I mean strong marking when the situation is right and strong definitive punching of the ball when it's called for. Too often he runs in to contests with his first extended instead of making a strong leap and punch of the ball. Garland is the same. And he flies for marks when the situation calls for a safe punch. Robbie Gray got a goal on the weekend where he tried to mark instead of just clearing the ball with a strong punch. I'm not sure he can punch with his left fist either, which might be injury related. I can handle a few stuff ups with the ball in hand if he's owning CHB as he was in the first half of the year last year when he was like a wall.

You can't have tackling without bringing players to ground. The only way to stop someone like Ablett or Fyfe is to hit them hard enough with initial force to get them to ground, otherwise they'll get their arms free and get the ball out eventually. Not brining the player to the ground is cuddling not tackling. The AFL should focus on dangerous lifting tackles and dangerous pile driving tackles when a player has their arms locked up. Slinging is dangerous as well, but they'd want to be very careful when pinging someone like Oliver for a sling where the player with the ball really initiated the slinging motion, had his arms free and wasn't lifted. Having watched it yet again I can concede it wasn't the perfect tackle, but there were enough contributing factors that even if Young was injured I'd be angry if it came with a suspension. The focus shouldn't only be on the tackler, the player getting tackler has to know how to look after themselves as well and that goes for AFL players and kids. I'd tell Clarry to try and cut down the rotational slinging motion in his tackle, but to keep using his weight and the players own body weight to bring guys to ground.

I was impressed by the way he spread at speed, used the ball much more creatively by hand and mostly didn't waste it by foot. Not exactly shocked he got a lot of the footy with Gawn dominating so much. He'll definitely be in the leadership group and hopefully keeps elevating his game. The question for the coaches will be whether Bugg plays as a tagger or if they use Vince and Viney in that role for the right match ups at the right time again. Viney would be a good match up for Dylan Shiel who is one of the most damaging midfielders in the comp, but then again so would Bugg.

I think he's right in the picture to play wing. Probably battling for 2 spots with Stretch, Lumumba and Matt Jones. In congestion he's rubbish, hence the out on the fulls and holding the ball. He just can't escape pressure at all. But his work rate still gives us something that we need and there's not a lot of alternatives. Polec had 14 touches, Ebert had 15, after a fast start opposed to Matt Jones from what I could tell, Toumpas finished with 17 touches. Grimes will do the work to restrict those players been used as outlets and his run should create space for others as well.

Win games. The rest will sort itself out. We won't be winning many games without utilising his skill set and if we aren't winning games then it probably won't matter. Hogan seemed to sit pretty deep on the weekend. No doubt the club not trying to over tax him in the first hit out. He'll come up the ground and get involved more. He's going to have to deal with some poor delivery and I don't think that will bother him all that much as long as he gets his chances. He's always grinning when his mates Kent or Harmes get a goal and I think he has no problem with dishing the ball off when needed.

Just watched the replay. Yeah there's a bit of a slinging motion but Young attempts to stop and spin around Oliver who doesn't pin the arms, doesn't lift him and doesn't pile drive him. We're in trouble if that's a dangerous tackle because you're mostly penalising a bloke for being harder and stronger not for dangerous technique.

Would love to sign Cale Hooker as a free agent then trade McDonald out. That's a very unlikely result but we can dream.

Typical Watts good game. Lots of positives - some really nice kicks to team mates. Some clever positioning. Underrated clean pick ups hitting the ball at speed. And a few decent marks as well. Mixed in with the usual negatives - the one late brain fade and a couple of other strange moments with the ball and at least a couple of marking attempts where he went up one handed and protected himself instead of winning the contest. I'm all for him being clever with tapping the ball to team mates etc but if it clearly doesn't come off then it's bad play to not back himself to stand under it. He's got to get the balance right and at this stage I'd say go up two handed and attacking the ball and once he's mastered that he can try fancier things.

Need to see a replay but at this stage I can't believe his tackle would be anything more than a free kick. He didn't pin the arms and there wasn't a double movement. Any slinging aspect should be blamed on the player with the ball as much as the tackler. If you can't keep your balance, evade or dispose of the ball without getting hurt then don't get the ball!

Height - similar Body shape - similar Hair colour - similar Skin complexion - similar Jumper number - similar Come on...

I liked the dominance. Half the teams in the comp are rubbish when the game goes against them as much as we are. The difference is they have the ability to right the ship and they have the ability to dominate when the game goes there way. I'm talking about North, Port, Rich, Adel, GWS and several other mid tier sides from last year.

Did a lot of good things as well yesterday Garland. He's very hard to rate, but when you see the difference between him and Oscar McDonald I think it stands out. I'd like a look at Frost as well but so far that won't happen. Garland's lazy missed kicks and long running floaters frustrate, as do some of his poor 3rd man up aerial efforts, but he was getting more involved in attacking play, was solid in a number of contests and mostly composed under pressure. If he was coming off the back of a good season I'd say it was a good performance from a senior player cruising in to the year but as he's coming off an up and down season I can see why you've been criticised.

Wouldn't give much weight to the website report. Brayshaw was walking a bit in the change rooms after the injury, just as soon as they decided he was done for the day they gave him crutches and the point is not to put weight on it so that it can rest up and start to heal. Nothing to do with whether he could put weight on it, more than for the next few days + he shouldn't.

Low grade medial and should be right for round 1 on current prognosis. Nothings for certain but if they are confident it's not the ACL or other damage then that's a good result, it was a nasty landing on what I assume was firm ground.

They only had 25 players so it was 25 v 25 really. But yeah I'm sure the plan for today was to give everyone a good run of game time and I hope they cut back next week maybe to around 100 and then for the final game go with the 90 cap.

I'm not quite convinced yet. If all of Jones, Vince, Tyson, Viney and Vanders (not to mention Bugg, Brayshaw, Kennedy and Harmes) are fit and planned to rotate through the midfield then Oliver might just get squeezed out. I was super impressed by Oliver around the stoppages, but positional flexibility and endurance have to be considered as well.

FB: Garland Dunn Jetta HB: Salem McDonald ????? C: ????? Viney ???? HF: Kent Vanders Watts FF: Garlett Hogan ????? Foll: Gawn Tyson Jones Int: Vince ????? ?????? ????? Half back: Wagner v Hunt. Both showed positives. Hunt's speed was on display, but his kicking certainly needs work. Wagner had a nice late spoil on Schulz and kicks well, but otherwise wasn't involved in much play Wing: Grimes was ok, positives and negatives. Stretch was good when he got it but not seen much. Matt Jones had a few classic Matt Jones moments but also had positives. Bugg played all over the shop but again, had good and bad patches. Lumumba might be available for wing or half back. Forward/mid rotation: Harmes and Kennedy were both very good. Oliver provided some really great moments. Brayshaw comes off the certainty list whilst we wait to see when he'll next play. 2nd ruck/tall: Pedo took a couple of nice grabs and kicked truly, Frost showed his speed and energy around the ball.

Watch the 2nd half, particularly the 3Q. Not a lot of change. Maybe a bit more zone and attacking defending. Faster ball use. Hard to tell without being at the ground. Hogan looked like he was in first or second gear, but still showed his class at times.

I don't think Watts can make the distance from a set shot outside 50. Not a lot of players can these days. Especially not with tide legs late in a preseason game.

Port only played 25, so it was even numbers. We rotated more. Good for us I say. 2 more weeks to drop those numbers back. Port only have 1 more game.

I agree with all of that. Harmes gave a spark with his intensity at the contest and straight running. Kennedy composed himself after half time and started finding space, he knows where the ball is going. The bursting clearance was very exciting. I hope we give him a chance to attack some contests roving Gawn, could be very exciting.

No idea if we are fit enough. And we all know we won't be the most skilled or best ball movement team out there. But plenty of positives and a lot left to come with Hogan going at half pace and Jones and Vince to come back. Plus Brayshaw is hopefully ok and Petracca is still to come.