DeeSpencer

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.

Sure, but if he was playing for Sydney he’d probably be doing the job JJ was doing and everyone would say we need him back, he’s a damn hard worker and all 18 clubs would love to have him, he’s just not a true mid.

I thought Oliver shouldn’t have played round 0 but he was best on the next week against the Dogs and had played 2 practice vfl games. Sydney played all sorts of duds last year when injured including Ladhams straight in to their side. The continued poor list management has forced the coaches hand.

It was, but you have to have belief in the guys available. There’s far more available chances at the end of the year, we just have to be serious about the deficiencies and turning the list over

The fundamental problem is the number of players on our list who can reliably run (both speed and endurance), win contests and use the ball at the standard required has dwindled. Especially the number who can do it in multiple roles that gives the coaches flexibility and depth. Windsor and Kolt was a step to help things in coming years. They should start to really pay off in 2-3 years. But we need to get creative to find more fixes and fast. And we need to decide which parts of this new game make sense - both short and long term. Because right now, I have big questions.

That’s a bit harsh, he’s one of our hardest runners and crazy brave. He earns every one of his dollars. I was howled down after the flag for saying this is probably all he is. But the thing is I think he can still improve and can certainly get back in form, but he’ll do it with 30+ touches at Casey. That’s how you build a player back in to touch. Whether we can do it this week or not depends on the strength of the rest of the players available, but generally a freshen up at Casey to work on his skills would have him better for it.

You were certainly strongly against Fullarton. I thought he had enough athleticism to give something forward (and in fairness he almost has at Casey) and that his ruck craft, like a lot of big guys when they hit mid 20’s would develop out of necessity. Simply rucking against VFL big goobers should develop anyone of 200cm at Casey. The opposite has been true. He hasn’t improved basic ruck craft at all and was pushed around with ease by Coburg’s rucks. Our key forwards are so out of form that you’d almost consider picking him just for the sake of it now, but it would be purely forward with JVR in the ruck. And he was so bad in the ruck I’m not sure he deserves a game as a forward.

Our midfield can’t get even run with the ball to turn it over half the time and our backline could do with less turnovers. So I’m not sure why moving Rivers because his kicking is bad would be a ‘BIG NO’.

Tracc’s work rate as a mid and turnovers have made him somewhat a liability in a lot of games on ball. He’s a forward because we need run on the ball nearly as much as because we need a forward. We almost have to use Tracc and Kossie in centre bounces then swap them for around the ground mids, not that we really have any of those!

Still probably an improvement on 2022!

When Darren Burgess says you aren’t fit enough son - listen. I hope McAdam has more in him next year, the talent is clear. But we paid overs for a lemon right now

And next week JVR and Jefferson will be worst on and people will say bring back Turner and Petty We have to stop blaming our key forwards for not getting a kick. We’ve tried half the list and it’s abundantly clear no one can get a kick as a tall in this team.

He has size, speed, clean hands and the ability to kick even if he doesn’t hit targets as often as he should. I get the reluctance to rob from the backline but against this version of the Pies we have to try to own territory and live with the reality that they’ll get us on transition at times. Thats what the Dogs did

Persevered with Billings for as long as possible and BBB is just a shuffle with a lower ceiling than what Petty can actually do if he ever gets out of his own head fog, let’s not pretend there was some great option out there. All we can do is keep shuffling.

There’s no evidence that Oliver can get the ball yet alone do anything with it forward. We need to understand his limitations with ball in hand as a mid but recognise his legs and reading of the play still seem powerful - even if he’s not using them. In that respect, he should be given the responsibility of a team first tag on Daicos. Does he have the discipline and work ethic - I think he does if he’s coached how to do it.

Agree, but we have lost our edge. I hope we pick Kolt because he has some, and I’d love to see some of our players stop being scared to tackle or crunch a player in a contest.