DeeSpencer

Grimes only had Dangerfield when he went forward in the last 5 minutes. Vince had him the rest of the time. Grimes is not a good run with player. He gets easily lost around stoppages and isn't a strong tackler. He needs to keep playing half back which is his best position. McKenzie or Michie are better options. Toumpas in a tagging role would be a great development opportunity as well. Although Sloane or Danger might be too much to ask.

Possibly. Just doesn't help our speed at all and if Spencer can't hold up in the ruck for at least 60% of the first 3/4's (after which I'd sub him off) then Jamar has to ruck more and Spencer spends a lot of time playing forward. It also relies on no one getting injured so we can sub one of the rucks when the game opens up. I'm just very worried about what happens if we start getting smashed in the midfield against Adel. GWS got nasty enough. Adelaide could be many times worse with their fire power.

I'm feeling like Jamar forward to stretch the Crows and Spencer in the team. I realise that's a move that looks good on Thursday and is a disaster by Saturday but we can't afford to be uncompetitive in the clearances again and if we play a slow lumbering game plan kicking it long to big forwards maybe that will help our defensive set ups. It's not the exciting change that will produce the footy we displayed in round 1. But sometimes you have to go a step backwards for a step forward and back to fundamentals and winning the stoppages might be a start. Plus hey, the Russian kicked 5 once. He's due to do it again.

I think it's the way of modern footy that you have to be winning the ball out of the middle/transitioning it quickly through the middle to get any of those type of plays. We got a couple to Watts and Garlett in the first round. But unless a team is slack defending they should force the last kick in to the forward line to go over a man on a mark or over a player defending. It's very hard to get the forwards in the forward half and the ball coming in easily. To counter this at the other end you suck all your forwards and midfielders back so the other team doesn't get simple forward entries. Even Hawthorn as probably the best team in the comp and delivering to their forwards score plenty of goals with the forwards running back inside 50 or team goals instead of the old fashion lead and mark. Unfortunately I can't see the MFC reverting to 90's and early 2000's footy just to suit Chris Dawes. So it's more he'll have to just take a couple more of what he's getting. But if we have 2 big forwards in Hogan and Dawes taking enough strong marks plus a couple of good crumbers that will go along way to improving the teams confidence in the forward line. They'll then move it faster and kick it in to more one on ones (hopefully to advantage!) and good things might come of it. With the possibility of Hogan, Watts, Garlett etc in behind him deep I'm hoping we see more of Dawes as a lead up CHF than the kick it long to a contest player. That's one thing I want to see more from his this week. Just breaking in to space and demanding the footy on a lead not worrying about who is next in the chain.

Saty - did Howe get through most of the session? And did Jetta train fully despite the head knocks gag?

Unlikely

Great times. Keep them coming. Hopefully similar to Crossy last year and he'll be back without trouble, but not a good result for our midfield considering he's been our most consistent across the first 2 games. McKenzie or Michie in to tag now I'd think.

The difference between Dawes being disappointing and a really solid player is his dropped marks. Don't get me wrong I still think he can do a job for us whilst putting a few down as my post earlier said, but if he could only hold a couple more each week he'd be really valuable. The frustrating thing is he's not incapable of holding them nor is he incapable of winning front position and getting his hands to the ball. The common thread to his drops is he hasn't timed his leap to get to the ball. I'm still hoping after a full preseason and with a healthy body he can hold more this year.

Relax. It was a throw away line. My main point is I don't want him getting beat up playing against Adelaide when we've got a huge opportunity the next week in a game that we are every chance in. I don't think Bontempelli or Macrea played close to every game in year 1 and had time as the sub. Heeney is playing half forward in maybe the best team in the comp. I'd have Brayshaw in the team for sure.

They saw so much of his talent in preseason they decided to move him down back at Casey. Pedersen and Gawn are next in line for the key forward and 2nd ruck roles respectively. Although Jamar forward and Spencer in as the number 1 ruck might happen before either of those options. It might work for a week or two before ending in disaster and we'll be scratching our heads saying play Frost/Pedo/Gawn whoever again.

Dawes is unlikely to get the better defender if teams have done their research. But he'll still help Hogan. For one it divides the contests each has to stand under and take big hits, because there will be plenty of up and under kicks. It also allows Hogan to go closer to goal if that's his best match up or go up the ground and get involved in play knowing we have another deeper target. Funny how everyone creamed themselves about Watts' tap down to Garlett last week but I didn't see much praise for the way Dawes not to mark but to tap it down to Kent for a beautiful crumbing goal in the first quarter. Don't get me wrong, Dawes is a limited player and I struggle to see him getting a game in a top side. I would love to have a dominant ruck/forward player out of the goal square, a mature Hogan playing traditional CHF and then Jack Watts fulfilling his talent as the 3rd option. A couple of crumbers and resting mid or half forwards who can take a grab and we've got a really good set up. But we don't have that really good 2nd ruck/forward. Hogan is 2 games in to his career. Watts looks improved this year but still has a lot of work to do to show he's a marking target not just an overly tall flanker.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/anzac-round-jumpers-to-be-renamed-for-weekly-discussion-thread.1092482/ Don't mind ours. Understated. Essendon's I get and I think it's good but at the same time I don't like it. GWS, Brisbane and St Kilda though. No thanks

Wouldn't mind if Brayshaw is sub again or even at Casey. I want to see him rip the Tigers apart on Friday night!! To beat Adelaide we need to flip the pressure they are putting other teams under and put it right back on them. Turn the hunters in to the hunted. Unfortunately the only players at Casey who like a good hunt are Riley (who's probably still underdone), McKenzie (who subtracts a lot of skill) and Spencer (ditto). It wouldn't at all surprise me to see the last two in though. Depends if Roos thinks the 22 we had in can lift and deserve a second chance or if he thinks it's time for a change up.

Firm MCG is firm. I love the place. Round 1 was great. But footy 4 days after the cricket world cup final was silly. They should've pushed the season back another week or as much as I hated it last year for the sake of the players a soft opening weekend at Etihad and interstate grounds might have been better. As for Petterd. I'm glad he got a good run at it at Richmond. But for the sake of Richmond it's kind of not that bad that he's injured because Hardwick has a fascination with experienced battler types that makes Neale Daniher look like a chuck in the kids coach. The number of recycled and ex state league players with limited potential that the Tigers played against the Dogs was out of control. Hardwick can't seem to find kids to give a chance to and therefore he hasn't developed the list over the last few years and he is getting similar results to Daniher 04-06. I wish Petterd wasn't injured and a chance for selection, but he still hasn't got to that level where he's reliable week in week out against good opposition and that's the same for so many of Richmond's players.

I kind of wish we had 1 super fit and 1 super crazy hard intense guy to drive it on field. Was hoping Lumumba brought us the first thing. Endless run that inspires team mates. It's the argument we've had time and again re: Campbell Brown or Mitch Robinson and getting an absolute battering ram. But not sure it works like that. Ideally they'd be a great player to be super hard and drive it that way. With Vince underdone, Viney tagging, Crossy seemingly a step off and Jones throwing a stinker it's not a surprise we lacked for intensity in the middle. Dawes doesn't really scare anyone forward. Jamar's too slow to be a high intensity guy. Really we have to bring it as a team.

Um? Our home ground, our home game. That's how it should be. There's a difference between biased, one sided etc and professional. I've never noticed Robbo be anything but professional. Sounds like at Canberra they might have been pretty amateur.

Bottom clubs shouldn't rise on the back of 18 year olds. The entire ladder is set up for regression to the mean. Top clubs should have to overspend on the pieces needed to win it all and be older, they should fall back as the Saints and Pies have. Scully and Trengove helped but the 2010 demons compared to the 2007-2009 demons were improved on the back of Jamar, Rivers, Moloney, Davey, Warnock reaching peak form after getting the responsibility as the Daniher year senior types were cleared out whilst guys like Grimes, Petterd, Frawley, Garland, Bate, Dunn who had been drafted earlier played a number of games together and matured as a team. The high picks were just cream that were then meant to stabilise the gains made and take the team further. The idea is the team finished last already has a jump up the ladder the next year by preplanning and being able to get games in to a side that will work together. Plus it should be noted that the sides who finish top 4 have had great injury runs and will likely drop back a bit if their luck changes and the bottom sides are hoping to be healthier the next year. Same thing goes with booking players in early for surgeries and starting preseason earlier. Not to mention if number 1 picks become the panacea then clubs will have more incentive to drop down and tank instead of fighting out the season. I don't see how changing the draft age at all will suddenly make top 5 picks infallible, picks 5-10 solid and so on down the line. It's not at all that way in the NBA or NFL. The idea that it will ever be is ridiculous.

Nope. How many of those goals came against GWS anyway. He's a defender. A damn good one as he showed last week. He was well tagged by Palmer and he wasn't at his best. Hardly a surprise 2nd up without any preseason games.

I'm starting to think Newton's slick ball use (high DE) and goal kicking is a luxury that we can't afford. Not if it doesn't come with proper inside ball winning or outside run. Maybe we use him on a half forward or half back flank. I still have images of preseason in my head: 1. Garland tanking in the running 2. Newton battling along with Riley in his first session. 3. Dom Tyson coming about 20th in the time trial 4. Jamar doing about 50% of the sessions. Our players are healthy (Howe and Vince aside). They are fit to play. But are they truly rock hard fit? There might be a culture of professionalism but I'm not sure some of our guys attacked the preseason hard enough. I hope I'm wrong

He got absolutely belted on the wing late in the Gold Coast game. Took a big hit. Maybe just soreness. If you're 5% off and the teams getting steam rolled them it can happen. We use Viney to tag to keep a good player around the contests. GWS use Coniglio tagging because they have so many bright young midfield prospects, most of whom now have the level of strength and fitness required, that they can spare him. I'm surprised Roos didn't do what worked for him last year in switching Jones on to a GWS player to lock down, but if he wasn't 100% then that makes sense. Misson and the physio team etc have a lot of work to do with Jones, Howe, Vince and probably some others. It's round 2, if they aren't fully fit then they might need the week off.

3rd quarter today we couldn't win a freaking clearance or contested ball and it's because of some trend in the game? Spare me. Yeah we looked slow. But we didn't look slower than the Giants in the first half when we controlled the contest. Our midfield was trash. The best players we could get in were Tyson, Cross, Vince, Michie, Riley then this year Lumumba and Newton. No one is giving up speedy, fit, silky mids. Brayshaw and Petracca were the best available. They might not be speed demons but they can provide outside run and they can win contests forward or back. I did worry that Neal-Bullen wasn't an ideal list fit at pick 40, but if he was the highest rated then you go with him. Remember of course we had Stretch as well. Geelong 2007. The fastest side there will ever be. Wojo aside they barely had a quick player if it came to a sprint race, but good luck if you were trying to catch them on a footy field. For all their run and pace Port are 0-2.

3rd rounder at best unless he shows a lot more form for the rest of the year. He's at Casey for a reason and any team would see his tapes and work it out. You can get a young player from any club for him, but it might not be a good one. It's a long season. Let's not worry about trading him due to a rumour. Roos stuck loyal through some terrible games from Grimes last year. No coaching manual dictates your half back turn it over by foot, dish off hospital passes and not win nearly enough intercept possessions. That said a more free flowing team might suit Grimes better than a regimented defensive team with controlled ball movement. I'm glad he found lots of it at Casey today. 30 chances to practice using it well under game pressure. Which is 2 or 3 weeks worth at AFL level. Probably plenty of chances for intercept marks, spoiling opponents etc. If Howe's still sore he'd be a chance to come back in, although for his sake I think a longer spell at Casey against some more competitive VFL teams would be better for him.

Day got Dunny for 2 goals, but not sure they were his fault too much. Jenkins will get him, but my point is more what will Frost do that Dunn can't. Frost isn't a lock down specialist and then you wonder where he first in the 6 backs. We go to 7 backs that doesn't help the midfield. Regardless of if Frost is in the team fwd/ruck or not I can't see him helping the backline. Agree totally on more drive needed from the backline. Particularly Howe and Garland. Howe probably shouldn't have played this week, but for all our magically so called depth we didn't have a defender worth a spot playing for Casey, not unless you wanted to badly interrupt whatever Grimes rebooting process is hopefully happening.

We need fast, skillful, hard, fit, ball winning, defensive working midfielders. Besides Brayshaw coming out of the vest we just don't have any. There's a reason we drafted Petracca, Neal-Bullen and Stretch. Toumpas can run and sometimes is skillful. He's not hard fast or ball winning. Bail, Matt Jones, Michie, McKenzie it's all the same. They aren't better players than Vince (who's lacking fitness), N Jones, Lumumba. Cross does ball winning and defensive still, yes he lacks skill and pace. Tyson has to be backed in, not the first player to stink against their old side. Newton might be dropped, but he would've had 30 and 3 at Casey today. I really don't think shuffling the back 6 or the forwards will achieve it. Salem could be released from the backline but we all know he's there for a very important reason. Come to think of it maybe JKH could come in as a sub and vandenBerg could go to Casey and be trained up as a midfielder again. He's very good at half forward but probably short of a run to be an AFL mid. A few weeks at Casey might have him ready to smash in back in the centre for the Dees. I'm keen to see him around the ball. If he was fitter I get the feeling he could've won a few clearances for us today in the 3rd quarter where so many others didn't get near it.

Until he holds his marks (or more realistically can at least break even contests with big defenders as Dawes does) then I couldn't care how big he is. His work rate seems really good. Agree about the tackling, it's the glaring weakness. He nailed one today, the one on Ward. Very pleasing. He's still a strange player as a 3rd tall forward who can't really hold a grab. I guess if the work rate is there it's about the other players doing enough to get it to him. 17 goals last week. 7 til the half today. The midfield is my big concern not the forwards.