DeeSpencer

Have to give credit to the AFL for concocting a round where almost none of the results are enjoyable. I’ll probably take Dogs over Lions and Saints over Pies, but there’s little to cheer for in the other 3 matches.

Fritsch - test Culley - test Mihocek - test Henderson - 2 weeks (source - Ghosty) Kentfield - 6 weeks Viney - 8 weeks Bowser - 3 months Now for the complete guesses AMW - 1-3 weeks McAdam - 2-4 weeks White - 1 months? Campbell 4-6 weeks Johnson 8-10 (hammy surgery generally 3 months) Jefferson 8-10

Tom Sparrow wins our B+F Harvey Langford gets dropped for at least one game at Casey Paddy Cross debuts in March

There's certainly a fan communication aspect to it, it's nice to know roughly when guys will be back. AFL fantasy as well, Supercoach and the other leagues people play are a valid way to follow the game. And yes, gambling probably trumps all. When the league takes so much money from gambling partners and players can be suspended or fined heavily for as little as telling their family that they'll be playing forward it does seem like the league should enforce some standards on injury reporting.

Hiring a coach from Geelong isn’t much good for people who want injury updates. Get used to seeing a lot of TBC this year. Will be funny if we get penalised for doing this before the Cats do.

It likely will, but that’s the system. Most clubs seemingly only have a choice between overpaying guys with extra years and losing them. The good side of the deal is the going rate for a superstar has already jumped from Pickett’s 1.5 to 2M and will likely jump further. So every year we are banking 500k below market rate from him that you can justify as effectively paying off the last 2-3 years. I see the Pickett deal as similar to Tracc. And a better deal than not putting any protections for concussion in a Brayshaw deal and firing off 18 months early with Clarry

Wasn't in March. Was reported in March, actual extension was some time in the 2024 season to prevent him running off to Carlton, despite being contracted for 2025. Which isn't all that much better.

Brayshaw situation is what it is, not much point rehashing that one. And if we haven’t brought the money forward we’re effectively front loaded others to make sure it’s accounted for. Similar kind of thing for Clarry. Although if it’s 650k against a 18.44 cap it’s 3.5%, it’s not a killer. Unfortunately our lowly status is likely to hurt us more than lack of cap room. Very hard for a club that’s naturally well down the order to land players until you’ve really built something from the draft up that makes it worth joining.

9th in the B+F and clearly started to slip but got an unnecessary contract extension (as everyone seemingly did) to hold off the exodus of a bunch of players who have all since exited anyway!

The dogs names were Maysie and Melkie.

He’ll have to put some runs on the board at Talent League level to get a Casey call up, especially if Ah-Mu can hold his spot and Kalani White can hopefully rejoin the mix soon (MFC media I’d love an update if available). Stanley will help, although it’s interesting the 4 healthy former AFL players on Casey’s list all play half back. Stanley, Lual, Bergman and Bonner. And Deak Smith is a defender too. I’m sure they’ll move them around to the wing and maybe half forward but it leaves a big opportunity for our young on ballers and we don’t really have any!

Runs at 2.88 second 20m sprint at 201cm, probably is a mid season draft candidate for a lot of clubs if he goes back and takes a step up at Eastern. We’d have the advantage of giving him a run at Casey to have a look at how he goes against mature bodies

Think it’s a grade 2 MCL. Grade 1 is usually just a bit of rest and get back out there. Grade 3 is when they lean towards surgery to get it healed quicker. But he’ll definitely need a period of rehab, usually at least equal to how long he’s off legs in a brace. Maybe he can tick these steps off within a week each but with a big body young tall I’d suspect they’ll lean conservatively.

Happy to be proven wrong but I don’t think that’s an issue after the list lodgements after the draft. Senior list player goes on the Inactive List, you get an extra rookie spot regardless of the main/rookie split.

Jamie Elliott with a few extra cm in height and a few hundred less AFL goals. Kick mark forward is his bread and butter but has rotated on to a wing at Casey and hopefully can play more half forward too. https://central.rookieme.com/afl/player/paddy-cross/

Hopefully as part of his rehab they teach Luker how to get that knee up and angled right at anyone who dares come in to his space and can then land a bit safer too. If he can be back straight line running sooner than later he can keep a good chunk of his fitness.

Blight is Tomlinson levels of slow and we've got plenty of options down back as is. We needed forwards. A tall would be nice, but Cross plays taller than he's listed and can fill a medium forward role and provide a bit more aerial presence if we're forced to just go 2 talls due to injuries.

Excellent mark for his size (low 180's), really nice set shot kick (26.14 in 28 games at Casey). Does he do enough as a ball winner or at ground level to make it at AFL level? I've never been sold but that can change once a guy develops a tank and confidence to do more, so perhaps that's been the case this preseason.

Tomorrow is the deadline. If not tomorrow we can carry a spot to the mid year draft. Which might be the option as it’s important we have a mid year draft pick given we’ll be high up the order. But finalising the May scenario today suggests we’re at least looking at someone.

I don't think you add an 18 year old as injury cover. We were overloaded with talls before the year so we're still ok for cover and can probably survive until mid year by which time AJ, Jeffo and hopefully Luker are all pushing to return or we get a mid season draft pick up. High half forward might be our weakest spot in the best 23 and with only Jack Henderson to come back to provide any support I'd look at Foot, Riding and Closehy (as well as other state league candidates).

Correlation doesn't equal causation.

With potential list spot opening up due to either a possible retirement or Luker's unfortunate injury (note: nothing confirmed yet) who are some of the possible candidates: Flynn Perez: Training at Hawthorn, former Roo who had a lot of injuries there, lovely user off half back. Averaged 20 touches for Sturt at half back last year Jack Riding: Training at Hawthorn, hard running flanker/winger from Werribee. His skills need some refinement but he's become a strong ball winner at VFL level in quick time and is a good athlete Zac Foot: Training at the Crows, former Swan, Casey Demon and Southport player. Pacy inside mid/half forward who built his ball winning up over the last year or so. Paddy Cross: Casey half forward with some tricks and a natural goal kicker. Possibly a bit small for that role at AFL level and doesn't have the most complete game, but when he's on he looks a class above. Ted Closehy: Former cat who missed out on a spot with Port. Is fairly vanilla but he'd come in and do a role across half forward and he'd know King's system. Tairon Ah-Mu: Former Dees NGA who missed out on last years draft. 198cm and can clunk them.

FB: Howes Petty Lever HB: Lindsay Turner Salem C: Langdon Steele Langford HF: Chandler Mihocek K. Pickett FF: L. Pickett JVR Fritsch Foll: Gawn Rivers Windsor Int: CJ, Sparrow, ????, ????, ???? From: Culley, Laurie, Sharp, Kolt, Melksham, ?Matthews Still not sure what the right mix of the bench players will be. Would like to see Culley play a half in a Casey scratch match next week. Logic says pick our fittest and hardest runners so go 2 of Kolt, Laurie and Sharp. But they aren’t inspiring choices.

I wouldn’t expect Heath to be picked. King comes from the Geelong school of one or even no specialist rucks. And usually no more than 2 tall forwards. Hawkins/Cameron or Neale/Cameron The game plan involves multiple talls behind the ball but a super open forward line with as much speed and space as possible. Based on that I suspect it will be Mihocek, JVR and Fritsch. Perhaps Melk if there’s no one better for the 5th bench spot but that depends on how well Melk is covering the ground. If Jeffo was healthy he’d be the 3rd tall because he’s so mobile he doesn’t clog the forward line. Luker was a chance too but he had to win his spot with a strong performance against the Tigers. Heath as a pure ruck is a completely different scenario.

Good news is no more potential for injury, bad news is we miss out on a bit of conditioning and practice and don’t get to see X Taylor or Matthews. Positives from what we did see: Game style was consistent and stacked up JVR and Windsor were excellent after quiet weeks last week More strong performances from the likes of Rivers, Lindsay, Salem, Howes, Fritsch, Sparrow Room for improvements: Still want to see more impact both with the ball and with defensive pressure out of small forwards in Trell, Sharp, Laurie, Kolt and Chandler. Jiath had a bit of a shocker! Both Petty and Lever had poor moments. But it’s a new system playing wide open footy but trying to keep one spare torwards the back. History says it takes most of a season to fix that kind of stuff. Petty had one howler turnover and got beat up a couple of times by Lynch, which happens to most key backs. But his mobility at ground level helped clean things up a few times too. The question will be how quickly can he stiffen defensively, he can do it and lock down the full back spot, but it’s up to him.