DeeSpencer

Irrespective of draft position he's a young player capable of some good footy with some nice attributes, really highly rated work ethic and only in his 3rd year. He's going to get a 2-3 year deal from some club and I'm sure Melbourne will be offering him a similar length of contract. He's got 11 games left to increase his negotiating power. Right now he's probably down in the dumps but overall I'd expect he'd be enjoying his footy at the moment (probably for the first time at Melbourne) and whilst my philosophy is all players are tradeable if you get a great offer I think he'd be keen to stay and other clubs wouldn't be overly interested just yet. Free agency is more likely than not to be lowered to 6 years IMO and probably within the next 3. So it wouldn't surprise me to see Toumpas sign for 3 years. If he holds his current form for the next 11 weeks I'd be comfortable with the club giving him a 3 year deal on reasonable money and getting him locked away.

Reading Michael Gleason's Age article about the apportion of blame and you see how many bad bounces we got but mainly the lack of leadership for several players to back themselves to win the ball and win the game. Gawn's hitout and the clearance aside after that we had 3 or 4 chances to make a match saving play. - Grimes sits back with his opponent instead of reading it early and (possibly) intercepting - Lumumba's spoil is back in to the corridor - Cross loses Lonie - Toumpas hesitates by half a step and doesn't crunch Lonie in a tackle - Tyson doesn't peal off his man for an intercept mark - McDonald does take front spot on Riewoldt but the ball bounces/he fumbles and it gets over the back We also had a bunch of strange matchups by the looks of things. No one on the near wing as Toumpas goes with Montagna towards a HBF Cross on Lonie (where were Jetta and Dunn?) Tyson deep back No sweeper from the centre bounce to cut Steven off and so shorten the inside 50 entry

I hope Fitzy is right to go because I think he'd be important as the 2nd ruck which isn't really Dawes' go. He can play on Josh Walker and follow him in to the ruck (or Clark if he's back in). Gawn's will have to be at his best to run around with Stanley (presuming he's fit) who destroyed Lobbe around the ground. Watts and Vince are probably going to be tasked with minding Blicavs at stoppages and stopping his 3rd man up.

There were a dozen just in that last 40 seconds. The hit out. The clearance. Not getting men back. Not spoiling/marking the kick forward. Not winning the ground ball. I certainly don't feel overall that Toump lost us the game it's just unfortunate (and indicative of his career to date) that he can't finish off a great game with a sealing moment and instead it's the opposite.

In: Fitzy, Dawes, Harmes Out: Riley, Pedersen, Michie FB: Fitzy Dunn Jetta HB: Grimes McDonald Lumumba C: Toumpas Jones Cross HF: Harmes Hogan Watts FF: Garlett Dawes Howe Foll: Gawn Viney Vince Int: Tyson Stretch Brayshaw S: ANB Our half forward line has suffered a pretty heavy injury toll with vanders, Kent, JKH, Petracca all out. But it's evident that the likes of Riley, Michie, Matt Jones and Bail just aren't right for that spot. So lets give Harmes a go. May as well keep ANB as sub for the same reasons. Sounds like Dawes has to come back. And Fitzy is probably needed against the cats tall forward line. He doesn't really help the skills of the backline but maybe Grimes and Lumumba can offer more up the ground with Fitzy providing deeper cover.

I call him the Greek Economy. Just when everythings looking better he finds a way to lose his man and cost us the game. But he's building. His willingness to run and vision have been evident since he started and it's a matter of slowing building his game. All reports from his juniors were that he was a hard worker and disciplined trainer and from watching him the last two preseasons his efforts to improve his body have been admirable. The expectations on a 4th round pick compared to a pick 4 are off the charts but we are all guilty of it.

My theory is he would've been on restricted minutes. With 4 bigs in the Seniors - King, Dawes, Spencer, Jamar - it wouldn't have been smart to have a guy sitting on the bench after using up his minutes. Playing JKH in the D League allows us to play King in the seniors as a [censored] for tat by doing the right thing by Casey.

I may have got personal and if I did I regret it. I've owned up to that. Big difference to the petty hate on Dawes when another forward is going well. It's freaking stupid. It's the equivalent of saying yay Nathan Jones had 34 and kicked 2 goals, well Jordie McKenzie is [censored] isn't he. Just doesn't make any sense.

Typical Melbourne supporter stupid attitude. What's not to say that Dawes hasn't given the goal assist to King for each of his goals? Or that Dawes hasn't done a truckload of running and drawn the best defender. In fact Dawes and Jamar could have the best 2 defenders and King could be playing on some 3rd string VFL defender who's 188cm and 90kg. I can guarantee that we will see Dawes in a Melbourne jumper again before we see King.

ANB had 1 great game in the guts. Stretch has had 5 or so super competent games on a wing. He's not going to get 30 touches out there if they are asking him to cover ground and keep space. Not unless Casey are moving the ball with sublime confidence. It's not about throwing Stretch in for the entire rest of the season. It's recognising that after a couple of weeks off he played another competent game on the wing at VFL level and that we are lacking run and composure there. 15 clean possessions with defensive work rate and a competitive attitude would be as good as anyone has delivered for us on a wing this year at AFL level. Most of us are happy that the Toump has managed that for 2 of the last 3 weeks.

I think we've seen enough of Roos now to know that he'd rather keep the pressure off the younger guys by leaving them at Casey but with JKH, Salem, Brayshaw, Stretch and now ANB all debuting in their first year he's understanding that if they play well at VFL even if it's a short number of games and if there's no one else pushing up stronger then he'll pick them. I think it's managing guys after they are first picked in the way that you drop them/rest them/get them to work on certain aspects of their game that is the important thing with young players.

Rubbish. What do you base that on? A poor disposal count against Hawthorn in a 100 point loss I'm guessing. He did very well against Sydney. In 3 quarters he only had 7 touches but he scored a goal, didn't waste any of them and had 4 tackles. There's no reason to not give him another shot against lesser opposition and/or as the sub.

His endurance is a worry. Stops him playing 2 way football when playing on resting midfielders. Jetta our small lock down defender. McDonald and Dunn the starting talls but Frost and Fitzy other options there. Salem a start for a skilled defender. Lumumba and Grimes back up options. But I'd be keen to keep Garland because of his versatility in playing pretty much any type of defensive role and on most opponents. There's no rush for his spot in the side so why not keep him around so we can develop players properly. Plus you never know when he might make that leap back to his 2013 form with a bit more confidence and a good preseason. I hope the club were hoping to see a return to fitness and form before offering a decent offer instead of putting a sub par first offer forward that could've upset him and derailed further negotiations.

Stretch and ANB are 2 of the fittest guys at the club if there pre draft time trials stack up. Stretch in particular has had an uninterrupted run. I think he really needs to play this week given Matt Jones and Newton are out so we are clearly looking for new options as outside runners. Hate to have a kid sub on debut but ANB might have to do it. FB: Jetta Dunn Fitzy HB: Grimes McDonald Cross C: Lumumba Jones Toumpas HF: Watts Hogan Brayshaw FF: Garlett Pedersen Howe Foll: Gawn Vince Viney Int: Tyson Stretch ANB Riley Absolutely vital that we get Watts, Brayshaw, Toumpas and hopefully Stretch involved in the play early and moving the ball quickly at Etihad to our forwards. If we don't move the ball quickly then the saints will sit back and defend the smaller ground well and they have enough scoring power with Riewoldt and Bruce. They play a similar pressuring game style to Collingwood (except hopefully inferior) so we need to stay calm under pressure and play with confidence.

Probably some time for him at CHF as well given Dawes will likely be on restricted minutes. Rucks can be found pretty easily, I think capable forward/2nd ruck types who can function as part of a proper forward line and give ruck relief are much harder to find and more valuable, so I agree if King can be a good forward then at 200cm we can train him to battle in the ruck.

I'm not sure on the rules of what salary you can pay rookies. Presumably you can still pay them a decent wage. Ben Hudson did a couple of years on Collingwood's list as a veteran to have if needed. Schneider is doing it this year at the saints. Asking him to stick around for another year on 50k would be an insult. Offering him a rookie list spot as back up to 2 younger players and paying him a fair wage wouldn't be insulting, it's where the game is heading. If he's stuck behind Gawn and Spencer for the rest of the year but still enjoying his footy at Casey then he could be very happy to take a rookie spot.

If we aren't 18th in the league when it comes to efficient interchanges then I'd be shocked. Fitzpatrick trotting off when the ball was turned over on the far wing was a classic example of us volunteering to play with 17 men (and sometimes 16). It's amazing how frequently we stuff it up.

Completely off the top of my head: - Viney kick (Cloke goal?) - Lumumba stuff up at half back (Cloke goal?) - Watts dropped mark (Swan goal) - Dunn kick in (Blair goal) - The completely sloppy play in the middle of the field that ended in a vanders pressured kick then had the ball sail down to Cloke by himself That's 5 or so without watching.

Our biggest issue right now besides the basic skill errors is how to play more attacking footy without it being foolishly risky. Dunn's kick in turn over was a perfect example of a good decision just poor execution. Watts was by himself in plenty of space and had the ball got him he could've played on and probably started a very dangerous forward thrust. So you live with that decision by Dunn. It's certainly the poor decisions for where there's no obvious advantage that upset me the most.

Just watched the replay. Doubt the ball went in to the sun directly but it did go through the shade/sun contrasting area. Still think he needs to read it late and dive to mark it. He picked it up at some stage even if he lost it, so disappointing that he didn't hold it. Maybe more too casual than soft, but Jack never gives you the benefit of the doubt. A series of lucky bounces (off Brown's head next to the boundary line, from the scrubbed run down kick) really helps Coll get the ball free to Varcoe. Then probably poor communication from Jetta and Garland when Garland could've stayed down. Such a frustrating 2 goal swing that took a lot of effort in the 2nd quarter to recover from.

Let's stop with the excuses for Watts. He shat himself as usual and didn't want to dive and take it on the chest because he didn't know if someone could be behind him and clean him up. He played a very good game. But cost us a 2 goal swing by not putting his body on the line. The coaches have presumably tried everything by now and he's slowly improving his ground balls and tackles so maybe there's hope that one day he holds a higher percentage of marks when under physical pressure. The culture of the club is changing. Watts is probably performing as well as ever this year with most aspects of his game and the other players aren't treading with egg shells around him so much. He's part of the team and we've started to see Roos, Jones and McDonald be more honest with the media about Jack. Hopefully the media are seeing his good form as well as his bloopers and aren't so focussed on them but that's a lot to ask.

If Viney and Vanders are both out then we need inside mids so bring in both ANB and Tyson. But if it's just Vanders out then I'm actually leaning towards Harmes on a half forward flank, the reports from Casey have been encouraging and whilst ANB might be a better long term player I don't mind letting him produce consistently at Casey. Harmes might be better suited to half forward with a bit more pace and x factor. A bit taller as well so might be able to do more in the air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bazzajim

A couple of the hot potato handballs were poor, but most were good. He plays on a wing, his opponent is going to get some ball the other way. Sure he should've picked up Fasolo on the highlight shown on one of the TV shows but I significantly doubt Fasolo was his man. He needs more game awareness to make those decisions but the reality is he was likely working hard to get back and help the defenders and Fasolo was just as likely one of their men. First year Toump couldn't mark, couldn't tackle, wouldn't win a contested ground ball and was completely lost. He's now much stronger with contested ball and an acceptable tackler. Still can't really mark. But he is starting to think and work his way through scenarios and his work rate is a step above any other options we have in what's probably our weakest position. He's far from perfect but I think it's very myopic not to see the positives in his game today and not to recognise signs of improvement. To suggest he be dropped is massively undervaluing what he can bring and massively overrating what little we have at Casey by way of hard running wingmen.

The best 4 options - Petracca, vanders, Kent and JKH sure. Hence why it's probably time to try ANB and failing that Harmes and Stretch. Stretch didn't do much on a wing and he's not really built to be a robust marking half forward flanker but with his tank and zip he might do well in a more defensive forward role, he's at least indicated he's willing to think through and not waste possession when he gets it.