DeeSpencer

OUTS Most of the outs speak for themselves with the older guys but in terms of strategy: Sparrow - doubt he goes anywhere, he's purely a defensive half forward with some occasional mid and maybe wing based on the last few weeks but no one will want him and he's a hard worker, good culture guy. Petty - no point trading him at an all time low value wise unless we sign a ready to go key forward AND key back. He's either going to be CHF or CHB next year unless we do that and it's better to hope for free agent compo for what will still be a valued tall rather than selling him away now. McDonald - required depth, the challenge is the contract here, does he stay for 1 when a side like North might offer 2+ We need to give someone of value to get someone of value if we wish to really turn the list over. Oliver - if the deal is right and we get off 80% or so of his contract it probably has to happen. Fritsch - he's cream on a list with no cake. Would be a great fit for a side like Freo who have a stack of first round picks. Sure, it would be trading our best goal kicker but the reality is when you're forward line is Fritsch then daylight and you don't have a midfield you're nowhere. Maybe McAdam has a preseason, maybe Sestan comes on, maybe we go out and get Zurhaar as a free agent. There's ways to cover a medium forward who's a non structural player and a defensive liability.

INS: We have 6 really vital needs that if we don't address we won't be going anywhere and funnily enough they aren't even our biggest problem. 1. A genuine 2nd ruck, even if they are at Casey most of the time. Can it be Verrall or Fullarton next year - I doubt it. 2. A key forward 3. A key back 4. A winger. Hunter's surely gone, Billings hasn't worked. We need someone capable of filling that role so we have the options to move Langdon and Windsor around. Woey? Maybe? 5. A back pocket. McVee needs to move up a role and Howes isn't it. Can try AMW but I doubt he's it either. 6. A genuine express pace small forward so we can keep pressure on with Kozzie on ball Aside from the ruck which is a bit of a take what you can get we need guys under 27 with genuine athleticism and hunger for the contest. Whilst it would be nice they don't have to be skilled but we need to get proper competitors in not recruiting guys we know don't like the contest and don't have appetite for it. That's 6 changes without addressing the number 1 failing which is the on ball brigade. Tracc, Oliver, Viney, Pickett, ANB, Sparrow. It needs reinforcement with numbers and quality. Tholstrup has to be considered as a genuine option from next year (should be playing from next week). Rivers and Salem if we can find more than 1 backline reinforcement - possibly. Our first round pick will most likely be a mid in this draft given the way it's shaping. Let's hope JT nails it and ideally they're ready to go.

Kreuger and Frampton aren’t much although they do have real size and athleticism. Hill and WHE were a big point of difference in genuine pace and Schulz, McCreery and Harrison are very solid role players. But you’re right the far bigger gap in performance was their VFL midfield smacking around our so called A graders and just their overall run, spread and skill level. You could tell in the warm up that they are much faster and sharper than we were. If you measured the speed of the kicks in a simple warm up drill there’s were faster than ours by a good 50%.

It’s what they’re doing they just can’t execute the skills. Obviously after last week they slowed it up a touch but generally we are going full tilt more often than not

It’s not all they have to go on. They have the vision and medical examination. But there’s probably no way to diagnose small spleen lacs or a small lung puncture without imaging, in a guy who’s very sore and not breathing comfortably due to you know, the broken ribs! And whilst they sound bad now it’s not necessarily all that worrying. So really, it’s a guy with very painful ribs and you’re trying to examine if they’re fractured or not, how badly and quantify risk of further injury. In hindsight you can say Tracc stayed down for so long and was so sore when he came back on that it was likely more than just damaged rib cartilage. But it’s easy in hindsight. And it’s not like he played out the game, they gave it a go then got him out of there.

I hope he can get a few kicks in the Bermuda Triangle but I suspect you’re right. There’s only so much he’ll be able to do in at most 9 VFL games.

He was dropped because he went from playing on Mason Cox to be potentially lined up against Jeremy Cameron against Geelong which would’ve been a blood bath. It’s the same reason why he’s repeatedly been left out over the last few years. He doesn’t do enough consistently unless he’s matched up against a plodder

He hasn’t been able to pick up a ground ball for nearly 3 years now, it’s not injury. It’s mental softness. He knows a tackle is coming and panics. He’s become a panic merchant when he has the ball in traffic and no clear left foot target. The speed he still displays defensively isn’t there to get him running with the ball and he has no handball game. I thought they’d be able to fix it over summer with some basic coaching but sadly it’s got worse.

Tomlinson played 1 good game against an awful side, an ordinary opponent in Caminiti and great up field pressure. That’s the easiest gig in footy. As soon as it got a bit harder he wasn’t just poor he was dreadful. The head goes down, the turnovers come and he’s unwilling to put his body on the line. It’s probably well and truly time for Petty to go back to Casey but the forward options aren’t good. So I won’t be shocked if they stick with him. Down back we have other plausible choices, mostly going smaller against a Collingwood small line up.

Took the club a week to delete his very funny twitter bio, but hopefully he's settling in, had a smoke and is good to go.

Dunstan had a go year 1 then never really needed more of a go. Started slow last year I think he got injured right when he was in the frame for more of a go. Schache, we’ve all seen enough. Fullarton’s been in good form? He was building back towards something like good form and went down with painful ankle problems twice against Carlton then apparently missed last week sick. So it would’ve been the first time for him to play in 3 weeks too! Turner showed more in one quarter forward against Port Melbourne than than Fullarton did in about 5 weeks.

You mean the ball was at the other end and they just had 17 on 18? Did he man just sit with him or zone off? Could he run at all? This seems like bush league stuff. This kid should’ve played a full year of the best under 19’s footy he could find last year then be moved up grades this year. He played 8 vfl games last year! Why wasn’t he sent down and brought through the grades at an appropriate level for a Cat B rookie?

I think Freo’s pace bothered us, so our half backs were constantly confused as to whether to come up and congest/contest or hang goal side. Both games we’ve had Lever out, he so often makes the right choice on where to position and almost draws a forward back to him. But the biggest factor has to be the mids aren’t coordinated or working hard enough. And we are purposefully sagging one back a lot which should provide cover but in reality is only providing the other team room to work. The biggest thing against Freo that got them going tho was the awful turnovers that caught us way out in space. They are nearly undefendable.

Money, egos, relationships etc, we couldn’t keep Grundy in the 2’s and there was little willingness for either Max or Brodie to make it work up forward. Had Grundy phoned it in or got injured we’d be on the hook for a lot of dough. Unfortunately we’re been punished for a lot of poor recruiting in not having our own home grown back up ruck. Apart from Jackson we wasted chances on finding guys. Verrall is an important guy for the future in having someone as a half decent back up.

The thing to take in to account is we probably ended up with an extremely full cap. Our backline was insanely expensive. May, Lever, Salem, no doubt Petty got paid, Tomlinson was a dreadful free agent signing on big cash to play on the wing! Midfield we know about. Gawn, Clarry, Tracc, Viney, Gus, Langdon poached home. Then we had money tied up in BBB and T Mc, plus Fritsch, Pickett, ANB. We weren’t ever going to be shopping at the expensive section of the store! I still think we paid Gus when we probably didn’t want to, I hope for our salary cap space we get off that. Otherwise it’s a matter of getting rid of expensive deals before we bring money back in. Brown, McDonald, Tomlinson come off the books this year, that’s our tall shopping. Mids and flankers we might be able to spend a little but unless we give a player up it won’t be big dollars

What provision are you aware of where by a club can appeal the suspension of a rival player? That’s never been a thing. We’re missing Gus as a player but aside from that I’m wondering if a lot of our players are in self protection mode both when attacking the ball and even more so when attacking the man. Which is somewhat admirable but you never get anywhere in AFL footy if you’re playing with doubt. I don’t want to see our players cause injury or be suspended but our tackling has been way too safe and we are rarely hitting the contest with any kind of power. We have a lot of big bodies, they need to start playing like it

Adelaide have found one in Keane even if there’s rumours he might be looking back at the pies. Worrell’s a good young tall and they went hard for Curtin. I don’t think they’d want Petty any more, not until he’s a free agent anyway. I suspect we are either getting very little or are stuck with him. All we can do is get through the year, assess where he’s at and hopefully get a proper preseason in to him (and many others).

He’s been horrible, but not sure we need the opinion of someone who pays for Twitter and is straight up embellishing. Petty’s never “played in the goal square”. For one, no one does these days. Secondly the deepest forward job has been almost exclusively Fritsch, with some JVR and in recent weeks McAdam. Petty has been asked to play CHF and attempt to lead up at the ball, lead back to get it on the run, out body opponents to stop them intercepting and routinely take on 2 or more. All in a forward line that has never shown any indication of blocking for each other or any other form of team work. To a midfield that doesn’t know when they’re going to kick and when they’re going to cut back inside and try 6 more hand balls before a panicked kick. It’s not only the hardest role in footy, it might be completely impossible to play. We should’ve traded Petty if we had any half decent options to bring in. Or if we had the knowledge of just how mentally shot he’s been since whatever happened up at the Gabba. Otherwise he’s a tall in his prime with great swing man potential. Adelaide’s picks in a draft we already had covered are going to be massively overvalued. They ended up trading up anyway.

The draft picks have been fine, we know that’s what Jason Taylor does. Although he hasn’t quite batted 1000 on first and second round picks (which was unsustainable of course) but has covered it with McVee, could do with a couple more success stories soon tho. The recruiting of senior players has been something akin to the Neeld days at best. No plan, no targets, no creativity in finding undervalued players.

The coach is ultimately responsible but it’s up to the list team to be proactive. Hunter and Billings both came together late in trade periods when it was clear we had nothing else going for us. I can’t blame a coach for saying yes when he’s presented with something over nothing. Goody presided over incredible list management to build the premiership side including making tough calls on fan favourites. And even some of his personal favourites like Melksham. In hindsight I wish he gave JJ and Bedford more chances but aside from Hunter last year which I predicted at the time I thought the guys we were playing were better than those 2 at the time. And they’re role players, it shouldn’t be hard to identify hungry role guys from the stage leagues or other teams who’d rather play in a good side.

He played well on Cox, now there's no Cox. Yesterday showed just how badly he struggles without a dedicate big and ordinary opponent and upfield pressure. He plays well when our pressure is on and he gets his confidence up. He's the first to struggle as soon as the pressure goes and he's required to make decisions and attack the contest. The same thing happens at Casey, he'll dominate the game for 3/4's but if the other team get clear run on the ball he'll panic and get beat by VFL players. There was a passage in the second half where May needed support over the top and Tomlison gave up prime position and ran around the back of his opponent who then easily just held his ground and didn't let Tomlinson come over the top. He literally gave up best position to help May to run behind his own man so the goal wasn't kicked on him. It was as insipid an effort as you'll see from an experienced AFL player.

Bet all the Goodwin bashers also wanted Norm Smith sacked in 65. How did that work out? The issue is list management. Since the flag: Out: Hunt gone, Hibberd retired, Jackson gone, Bedford gone, JJ gone, Gus medically retired, JS on extended holiday, Grundy doing the Grandpa Simpson meme. In: ???? You got to give your coach proper footballers to work with. Professional, athletic, aggressive, ideally with some skills too. We have failed to do that and instead collected a bunch of 28 year olds that other teams didn't want. Goodwin's trying to evolve the game plan and list. Change isn't linear, these things take some time, especially when you're adding risk and asking players to use their skills when they didn't have to playing boundary ball. We have the skills across half back to take risks. Salem's a beautiful decision maker. Bowey's a lovely kick. Judd's very balance and calm. Rivers' run and penetration can both be assets. But unless they have a midfield and half forwards on the same page and running hard it won't work. Sure, the coach has to take some blame for the demise of the midfield and getting sucked in to dud recruits, but ultimately that's not his main responsibility and no coach can make wine out of water.

I don't want to pick him, the guy should be retired, but out of Brown, Fullarton, Petty, Verall? no one, we're running out of choices.

It’s almost all mental. Look at Tom McDonald forward in the second half. Jumped at the ball and nearly clunked a few, looked twice the player he was last year. Look at Disco in his first game as a forward. Led and jumped at everything. First month or so, Petty was tracking completely fine for a guy with no preseason, we get towelled by Brisbane who have him in a mind warp and he hasn’t been the same since (short of a cameo against Geelong). This forward line, the coaching, the midfield supply it’s killing careers.

JJ could somewhat fill in at half back, he did a job on the wing but he’s not a true winger and the Swans don’t let him remotely near CBA’s. Even when tagging he starts at half forward. They use more skilled and explosive players at centre bounces, something we’re trying too. He is a defensive running half forward/tagging mid. The same as Sparrow but with a bit more off ball discipline but without some of the power and overhead ability of Sparrow. The big difference between them is one is playing in a top of the ladder team with elite ball movement, the other is playing in a team with a shallow midfield. I was one of very few on here saying we should keep JJ for his elite running and not seeing the best of him yet as a big bodied mid who takes time to develop his craft. Sparrow no different. He’ll do a job for us for plenty of games to come if we want him to, we just need more quality and he needs a freshen up.