DeeSpencer

McKenzie and Riley both hit the post from 30 out small angle and 20 out 50degrees in the first term. Frawley from outside 50 but straight got nowhere near it and from 40 out 45 degrees put it out on the full. Kent missed a snap from 10 out bit of angle after a poor kick in to the forward line that should've found a loose man but instead found contests. The umps were read hot on us for a couple of holding the balls when not making an attempt despite the ball never coming out or for diving on the footy when we probably didn't. But for both teams they mainly let incorrect disposals and prior opportunity stretch forever. After that is was just the inside 50 shots for goal. Viney defended Westhoff fairly and was paid a free 20m out directly in front. Westhoff missed but Howe turned over the kick out. Without the free we were clearing the ball and there was space everywhere. The other one was the Wingard free right on the siren. Poor defense from a stoppage with 12 seconds or so to go hacked kick forward, Watts comes across with the flight of the ball in front of Wingard and spoils the ball clearly but contacts Wingard on the follow through of his spoil. Not body contact just punching arm in to Wingard's head. I don't know the rule, but I would've thought if you've spoiled the ball then you should get some leniency with your follow through. Much like in soccer if a defender wins the ball then any contact coming the other way isn't a foul.

He was under pressure, had to avoid a man coming at him and sneak it around the boundary by kicking across his body to an extent. It wasn't a hugely difficult kick for an AFL player especially a half back flanker who's meant to be in one of the spots that skilled players play but it wasn't an easy kick either. The thing is that Roos always talks about playing your role. But particularly half back flankers will need to make attacking kicks as part of their roles. Grimes as a half back flanker isn't able to fulfil the kicking needs. Then again Dawes can't take big grabs or kick goals and he plays CHF.

Yep and Dawes, Jones and Grimes. Our 3 most senior players making critical errors in the last 5 minutes. That hurts.

Positives: - We didn't drop our bundle - Riley, whilst not as prolific as last week again showed something. Very keen to see him with a preseason - Same said for a potential combination with Tyson and Viney - The ball movement overall was positive - Jack Watts responded from an ordinary half to show something - Tom McDonald, Garland and Bail both played much better Negatives - We lost - Port are currently playing closer to bottom 4 footy than top 4 As an aside I reckon Tapscott and Blease were both played for the sake of it more than anything. And they delivered what they deliver if that makes sense. Despite Blease's long running goal and speed I probably think Tapscott (if not injured) remains slightly more promising but both are likely on the way out. Kent when he came on looked a class above these 2. Salem just needs fitness and JKH didn't have a great day but showed his class and smarts as well. For a few years now I've felt, well just one more preseason and we will be back. But surely we are now close to that moment. Injuries will hurt, but overall I think we are close to having a 22 made of the right stuff to play Roos' style and get results.

He's ordinary. And a noted out on the full kicker. Decent but not outstanding defensively and poor with the ball. He's only good enough to get a game in a bottom 8 side. But at the same time we've got lots of other positions to worry about. Not much point pinning all our problems on Grimes. Still have to draft some quality kicks.

GWS and Gold Coast would be better teams with about 6 (3 in the team, 3 pushing for spots) mature depth players. In return each one of those sides could give 1 good young player to each of he bottom 12 teams. It's just 1 player but that could go a long way. Most teams have 6 or so young kids on their list not ready for AFL of which As long as every team has a couple of A graders, some mature players who are above average, some decent young players and enough role players to field most of a side each week the comp is at a healthy place. If the comp is healthy then the standard doesn't matter so much. If the bottom team goes 6-16 with a percentage of 70 and the top team goes 16-6 with a percentage no more than 140 then we have a reasonable comp. We aren't too far off that.

I wouldn't have thought so. His defending and kicking are issues but he's hard as a cats head, takes intercept marks and tackles well. I think he's had a few injury set backs as well this season. Being subbed off after some hard hits at times. I would've thought we some of the battlers we have on our list still that he's worth another year to see if he can learn the Roos game plan. I actually think he'd be a very good player for Port in their instinctive, hard running attacking style. He just hasn't fit so well in learning the Roos method of methodical ball use and strict defending. Don't get me wrong Bail's being very ordinary the last few weeks, and Kent can't seem to find the ball the last couple of weeks. But they are in the side for many reasons.

I can't read the full article. But I would think Malceski would be using us as a back up plan. I'm sure his preference is to stay in Sydney but if they don't offer him the coin or years then he'd go with us. I've got absolutely no doubt Roos would be keen on a player of his skill set it's just a matter of price. For a trade to work to avoid our free agency compensation being tarnished (presuming Frawley goes) then we'd have to offer Sydney as much as what they'd get in free agency compensation. I'd say Malceski might get similar to Sylvia in a 2nd round pick. Of course there second round pick might be almost equal to our third round pick. But then again we might need that for Billy Stretch. Just hypotheticals but plenty of water to go under the bridge.

Saw this tweet for the first time today. Someone can upload the picture. It's heat maps of AFL teams kick ins. Notice the top 3 (Syd, Haw, Freo) all go shorter with the majority of kicks inside 50 whilst we are bombing it long https://twitter.com/championdata/status/469463218167885825/photo/1

I'd go with Blease, Gawn, JKH and Kent with either of those last 2 the sub. Not sure Matt Jones deserved to be dropped but at the same time he isn't really taking us anywhere so time for Blease or others to get a shot. Plus Jones is in his second year of AFL. It's not like going back and playing some dominant VFL is necessarily bad for him. He can get 30 or more touches pretty easily and work on how he uses them. And work on his tackling and contested ball winning.

Reminds me that despite some bad mismanagement we've also had some pretty bad luck. Freak knee injury to Bartram that leaves him with a truly degenerative knee and forced to retire. Clark the same, some bad injuries that no doubt affected his mental state. Jurrah, well we gave it our best shot with him and ok in hindsight you do more but you can't do it for him. Troy Broadbridge RIP. I know every club has some bad luck and has players retiring or unable to reach their potential due to injury. Maybe Bartram's kicking eventually lets him down too often and he doesn't make it. But he had the rare combination of speed, endurance and hardness. And if you have all 3 of those you almost don't have to worry about kicking as you can do so much else. You can be a shut down defender, a tagging mid, defensive forward or even if you have some class and work on your skills you can be a Rory Sloane type midfielder who uses the ball smartly enough without being a brilliant kick.

I don't care what he's eating but if he can't bring some more power to his game then he needs to change something. He isn't quick or skilled enough to play an outside role. So he better learn how to add some grunt to his game somehow. At the moment he's wasting a prime position at half back that needs to go to someone more skilled.

I mentioned him in another thread. I've only ever seen him play back flank. He's handy. Good pace. Attacks the game. Needs a lot of work on his defensive game and to tidy up his kicking. I'm not sure he'd be a significant upgrade over Grimes or Terlich. Not saying he's bad but he's probably not the Shaw or Malceski we need at half back either, but he would put pressure on those we currently have. Now if he can play wing then that's a different ball game entirely. Worth scouting and we can't replace all that we have on our list with draft picks. We need some high value trades as well. So I'd offer pick 45 onwards to Sydney and a 2 year deal on modest money to Biggs.

+1. Who is he and where has he been? http://www.scorpions.com.au/the-club/players/763-17-edward-morris.html Gippy Power B+F winner. Maybe a touch short but seems a goer based on your reports KC. Has he been battling away in the 2's or injured to start the year? Do you think he has AFL potential?

Yeah I wonder how many of Selwood's 24 odd first half touches came against Riley, but he's allowed to need to develop his fitness. He barely ran all preseason. If he can get fit this preseason then he can be an important player. As we showed today we still need plenty of mids.

I think he'll be the sub. Riley and Kent in the starting 22 ahead of him.

Barry is a great athlete. Speed and endurance is hard to find. Lousy footballer though. Doesn't read the play or get involved much at all. Worth persevering with because if he makes he could be really important. From what I've seen of him at training he's a bit shy and really didn't seem up to standards last year but he's obviously following instructions with his tagging role and trains hard fitness wise. Definitely worth another year but I would've gone 1 year at a time. Guess Roos and co are backing themselves in as well as the kid.

So Frawley the main one left for this year. Can probably start turning attention to the likes of Jones, Viney, Garland etc to avoid them being out of contract next year, particularly Jonesy although I'm sure he'll be staying.

Because I have reliable information that he's not 100% professional about his preparation. Nothing to do with anything he's studying, although are you sure he's studying law?

I think it's more because they are both good tacklers and pretty hard at it. If you taught Tapscott to defend closely then he'd have the toughness for is probably the point. But I've never seen him used in that role and with Jetta doing well I wouldn't really bother training him for it. His one year he did play half back he was pretty loose checking but it was also his first year of AFL and he was meant to be providing some attack as well. I think that was 2011. Then Neeld came and he was switched back to being a forward and patches of some good play were all he showed. Too slow, not fit enough, not as great overhead as imagined and even more worrying for a guy who was meant to be a great kick he torched the footy. I thought he'd make the defensive forward position his but he doesn't seem to have the tank or application to do so. Who knows maybe this year will be different.

Was emergency and presumably travelled to Darwin last week. I'd say he'd be in with some chance to play this week if not he'd be at Casey and close to selection. Slow start to the year gathering fitness from yet another injury and didn't exactly set the world on fire but who knows, at least he's hard and he can tackle.

Both. Pretty sure Evans signing for 2 more last year was one of the more positive signs of the year. He'll need to do a Pedersen or Jetta next year. Is far from 100% committed to his footy is Evans.

Mitchell isn't that fast nor does he have amazing skills. But I'm so not enamoured by any of the top picks in this draft that maybe besides Petracca and McCartin I'd trade for Mitchell. But if we gave up a pick 3 or 4 for him I'd want something else thrown in.

Considering we've copied so much else from them I like the Sydney way: http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/2014-07-08/neafl-wrap-round-14 Player of the week and notable performances. Let the omissions of others do the talking for you. Shane Biggs could be a handy back flanker/outside midfielder as well if we are looking for one.

I think the ability of kids and foreigners to grasp the concept pretty simply shows it's not that hard. Sure it's not soccer but it's more simple than a lot of sports.