DeeSpencer

Cancer, cancer and now MND. Seriously this isn't the curse of Norm Smith this just plain ridiculous. Hopefully Neale can battle as hard to stop the progression and have quite a few years of good quality of life. Whilst his mind is healthy and body can function I'm sure he'll get the most out of himself. Testament to the guy that he's willing to keep working.

Yes, he was a great servant. No, he didn't nearly win a flag and no, I struggle to see how he was treated poorly. He coached for a decade and had some good results and his time ran out.

Jack Watts - 1 game against rubbish opponents. 0 tackles. He's a long long way from elite. He'll have to take his game to the next level just to back up his saints game against West Coast. So are Vince and Jones unless we are kidding ourselves. But North have won a lot of games the last few years with their best midfielders being Wells/Ziebell/Swallow. Hawthorn got the job done last night with no Mitchell and largely without Hodge. No reason we can't win games with Jones and Vince as our best 2. And I'm excited about Viney, Tyson, Watts and Trengove playing games together as a midfield unit. I don't think the Crows will lose sleep over Vince. They have Dangerfield, Sloane, Douglas, Van Berlo, Brad Couch, Mackay, Brodie Smith, Thompson, Kerridge, Grigg. Vince paid the price for their Tippett punishment. They made the deal knowing full well that Vince was likely to be a better player with the responsibility and opportunity at Melbourne than as a peripheral midfielder in a good side.

14 goals would be a massive result. I'd be pretty happy with 12. My advice in this game is use Howe up the ground as well as Fitzy/Pedo plus Watts for short periods when he's not in the midfield and focus on attacking the game and getting the ball as quickly as we can to half forward. If we then stall and go sideways or bomb it in to no one then so be it. But my aim for the day is quick ball movement to half forward and maybe if we do that we might find some open little guys in the forward 50. Using the width of the MCG would be my game plan to try and break the Eagles press. Lots of wide switches then kicks back in to the corridor. Exciting times for Vince, Michie, Cross, Tyson, JKH and Georgiou to wear the red and blue for the first time at the G.

Evans with the MFC team or Casey and vice versa for Blease/Kent? I would have thought with doubt still on Fitzy and Tommy Mc that all the emergencies would be kept fresh. Sounds to me like they have a bit more confidence with the big guys and it might be either no change or just Evans in once final teams are named. I wonder about the actual protocol for concussions. There's the cognitive test and things like head aches but if Fitzy was fine after the game he might be right to play already, let's hope so. I feel for Tommy Mc, it's amazing once you get one corkie how it seems that you keep getting hit in the same spot.

Give it a rest old man. Every positive comment doesn't have to be jumped on

Anyway back on topic. No Gawn!!! WTF Really hope Fitzy and McDonald play. As for the bench - Matt Jones, Evans, Blease, Kent, JHK, Michie and Byrnes it's take your pic. Really would like Byrnes not to play but if they pick him I'm really over it too much to care. Think Matt Jones did enough to keep his spot and whilst he wasn't great I'd be keen for Michie to stay in the side. Blease was apparently the best at Casey. And I'd probably like to see Kent play as the sub but wouldn't mind Evans or JKH either.

Wasn't a chest mark Was a reaching overhead mark because Bail's looping left foot kick let the ball hang in the air so to avoid to spoiler Petterd extended to reach for it.

Carlton were awful and they nearly won. Which means what of Richmond? Maybe both sides are on par with North on the road leading nowhere near the top 4.

Cheney actually gets more games for Hawthorn because they can keep him in the team and play to his positives. I doubt we could. He's a similar player to Georgiou anyway and you'd only want one of them. If we could get the luxury of playing guys like Cheney without fear we'd be a great team like Hawthorn are. Petterd's different because his positional flexibility has been really important just when the game changed like that. But he's also a liability with ball in hand. Still he's hard as nails. Glad he's having some success at Richmond.

Yeah lets go without current players. It only seems to jinx them.

I think Gysberts just didn't have AFL in him. That he has gone back to local footy instead of sticking it out in the VFL for another shot tells me he really didn't want it bad enough. Those who didn't like Neeld could still train hard and produce something even if it's in defiance to Neeld. Petterd is another limited footballer but still better than some of the slop on our list. He would be pretty handy this week as a running player capable of kicking a couple of goals. Much like MItch Morton becoming the grand final hero at the Swans I think Petterd would've been handy under Roos. If Roos can sort out Dunn (and it's early days) he can sort out Petterd who was capable of similar strange decisions in games.

Nothing to do with other sports. All to do with TV. TV audiences especially casual ones won't stand for jumper clashes in this day and age of trying to maximise audiences. Almost all AFL decisions are made with TV in mind. It's not an evil conspiracy it's just about maximizing profits. I don't blame the CEO, it's his job. I blame the commission for not giving extra guidance to the executive about keeping traditions and where to draw the line in not selling out for the dollar

If we wore a red jumper it would have to be with dark numbers as the saints like most teams have white numbers. Personally I don't see any problem with wearing the white away jumper. It's still red and blue just a large patch now has white over it like an extension of the white shorts. I think I prefer it to any overly creative red numbers. Only thing that can annoy me is when we wear it at away games that don't clash as an away jumper

By that I presume you mean the lazy party boy background that likely comes from an unstable home and issues in his background. I don't see it as an indigenous thing. JKH is probably the most professional kid we've drafted in years. The main thing that needs to happen is for state league clubs to develop these kids who aren't ready for AFL, they can then get drafted way down the line. 3 dominant years at WAFL level and sorting out all the other crap Garlett could still be worth another shot. I don't think there's any other team sport in the world who spits 19 and 20 year olds out so early without chances to make it back at lower levels.

Bennells first year he showed speed, poise with the ball and decent defensive attributes. A few bad games and we start trying to make him a forward and messing with him. I don't believe I was the only one who rated his talent. Sure we have Terlich and Clisby now who are similar talents but we could've been developing Bennell positively for years and used the picks of Terlich and Clisby on some other talents. How Nicholson was still contracted all this time when we let guys who can actually give something at AFL level go is anyone's guess

Feel sad for the bloke that whatever it is in him makes him feel he needs to be in Perth and can't manage the routine of AFL footy which I agree is strenuous for a 20 year old but not astronomical. Sucked in Hawthorn for thinking they could do what others couldn't. There will be one very happy WAFL club right now.

To put it simply not being able to kick is still compatible with being a tagger. It's not compatible with being an attacking half back flanker. If we need a tagger I'm happy with McKenzie to get more chances to show improvement in aspects of his game under Roos. If Nicholson is to play again I'd use him as a high work rate defensive forward if Bail, Blease, Byrnes, Tapscott or whatever resting midfielders are injured or out of form. Considering his defensive game one on one is prett weak I see absolutely no future for him at half back

As long as he isn't stupid he's unlikely to cop too many suspensions. I'd advise him to play his natural game if I was coach. Can always scale things back later but at least when he is playing he'd be doing well. 21 games left, plenty of time for him to make an impact this season. I hope Roos can develop players out at Casey as well as the 22 who play each week.

Dunn's pushing and shoving hasn't been effective when he didn't back it up by laying hard tackles or really attacking the ball. Of course it wasn't helped by his team mates not playing hard footy either. I, like most others, didn't think Dunn had done enough to go around trying to start fights when we are 10 goals down and he's had little influence on the game.

But did McKenzie play for Casey and is he fit? Also if we are tagging Priddis we are in a world of trouble. You have to win your own ball to beat Priddis, tagging him is a waste of a player. Shuey maybe, but he rotates forward and I'd rather have him chasing someone than the other way around. Michie has played half a game of footy, he's going to need time. I'd rather give him that time in the team now and whilst I want McKenzie in the team we might be better in attack. I'm a huge wrap for McKenzie but I feel like a few weeks at Casey getting 30+ touches could help him long term. Too many consecutive tagging efforts and you lose the ability to find your own ball. As we are never in front in games we never free McKenzie up to play offensively. I'm a fan of taggers but I like the Sydney model where O'Keefe would tag but if needed could go after the footy as well. McKenzie's kicking doesn't bother me as much as when he came in to the team he was a clearance player and good handballer as well as a lock down tagger. I'd rather see him do more of that before he is used as a pure tagger.

That's nice. Shame it goes against everything Roos has said he will do. Dropping 4 fit and experienced players for mainly kids. Matt Jones was good against the saints. Cross was serviceable, he laid a lot of tackles and did a heap of running both ways, his main mistake was not padding his stats like some other mids. Bail turned it over a bit but got a lot of ball in the right spots, if he had forward targets to work with he would've had a good game. Byrnes was Byrnes.

It's great to see we've maintained our record for players from other teams getting the rising star against us. Seemed like we had about 5 at least last year.