DeeSpencer

Don't sell Dean Cox short because he's slowed up in the last 24 months as well. And a few others move well like Ryder. Leuenberger moves well but can't kick to the standard of White. I think the centre circle rule and importance of stoppages has meant that each team now requires 1 big ruck who can at least break even in the contest. You get killed if you lose hit outs and particularly lose hit outs to advantage all game. So in that regard the focus has gone away from skilled rucks. If he was 18 and entering the system now White would probably be developed as a centre half back, failing that as a forward/ruck like Fitzy and probably only tried as a first ruck if their were injuries.

Hogan, Viney, Terlich, Clisby, Kent have all showed a bit of mongrel and also hardness at the ball so far. Matt Jones and Toumpas are more run and carry outside types for balance so that's ok. Getting Jason Taylor and putting Todd Viney in around him in the recruiting department may have been the best move we've made since about 2004. If you read the Burgan articles about our draft profile I believe competitiveness is one of their 4 main criteria. It's one that was badly overlooked by Barry Prendergast.

Could start a why are 60% of the worst small forwards in the league - Byrnes, Blease, Davey, Tapscott etc play for Melbourne. Why do 60% of the best key forwards in the comp are injured/ineligible to play for us (Dawes, Clark, Hogan) or why are 60% of the worst coaches in the league employed by Melbourne (that one I could believe)

I'd argue that Warnock, Hannath, Jacobs, Bailey, Goldstein, Vickery, Minson and Cordy all aren't great kicks around ground. I'd also point out besides Mike Pyke I'm not sure if there are many rucks in the league who have substantially improved their kicking. It's more what they came in with they went out with. Spencer can not hit the side of the barn. We know that. He's a hand ball or long bomb kind of guy. We put up with that. Fitzpatrick isn't much better. That's how they both came into the system and they've both made a lot of ground but I'm not sure how much more they can make. Fitzpatrick joins a category with a lot of those guys in that his mechanics are awful but from a certain range/angle he's not the worst in front of goal. As he will never be a first ruck he has a lot of ground to make up but he has already improved a lot. Spencer's kicking (and marking) will limit him in the game which is why I think he'll only ever be depth. Luckily Gawn is the one on track to be our started and he's the one I care more about. Some days his goal kicking is good other days average. His field kicking is certainly not the worst on that list above. All in all our recruiting of Gawn and Spencer (the only true rucks we've picked in the last 5 or 6 years) has focused on very tall competitive types instead of shorter and more skilled ruckman. Personally I think that's probably the right approach but I'd be on the lookout in the next 1-2 years for another ruck in one of the drafts and I'd look for a more versatile player who can be a first or second ruck if possible. I'd say the only way it's part of a bigger picture is by saying that we haven't invested much in rucks at all these last few years (Spencer - rookie, Fitz - late pick up, Gawn - mid round pick up) and yet we've still got bugger all to show in other players on our list. Imagine if we went with Naitanui, Vardy, Billy Longer instead of some of the picks we did take. Could we be even worse?

They had a crisis of injuries to ruckmen and so he played the entire year in the ruck and was a top 5 ruckman. When he left Brisbane he announced a desire to play mainly one position. I don't think he stipulated whether it was ruck or forward but I also think he didn't care which one it was. He said (and I'm sure lots of guys agreed) that playing 1 position for an entire game is much easier than switching between them. Personally I'm not convinced rucking places too much more of an injury toll on a player than playing CHF. Particularly if they are only doing it in spurts against fellow non first choice rucks. I'd say next year we avoid Clark rucking for the first month or so if he is fit and use Fitzpatrick in that role or even sacrifice Dawes for short periods despite his total desire not to ruck. And then as the year progresses we use Clark as back up ruck with Hogan and Dawes as forwards. If either get injured then Fitzy comes in and Clark doesn't ruck. Pretty straight forward. The way I see it is we protect Clark a bit and Dawes and Hogan are the guys who cover huge distance and big contests and Clark is the cream on the cake initially.

Usually embargoed until tomorrow isn't it? Because it's obviously such huge news! But thanks for breaking the story _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

You would've thought a lawyer would know the difference between a k and g but anyway. Maybe you can take the full back from Perth out of Perth but you can take the Perth out of him. I also doubt his future as a stand up comic, not sure all the jokes hit the target. But I do like his straight forward approach and willingness to admit to failures. Let's see what specific plans the board can come up with next.

Strauss (inj) - Frawley - If Frawley available otherwise take your pick of Jetta or Nicholson or Pedersen depending on match ups Blease (inj) - Rodan or Nicholson Byrnes (inj) - Toumpas Watts (omit) - Taggert Howe (omit) - Magner Spencer (omit) - Gawn - Spencer hasn't been too bad but Gawn's VFL form demands a call up and don't want to drop Fitzy Davis (omit) - Dawes - Davis tries hard but if Dawes available he comes in FB: Dunn Frawley Garland HB: Terlich McDonald M. Jones C: Toumpas Viney Grimes HF: Taggert Dawes Trengove FF: Davey Fitzy Kent Foll: Gawn N. Jones McKenzie Int: Sylvia, Magner Tapscott S: Rodan/Nicholson

If Aaron honestly as a man thought he was up for it he wouldn't have been in such horrendous shape in 2012 that he wasn't up to being played for the entire year and then hardly doing much better in 2013 when he's looked ok but hasn't attacked the contest with anything near a high standard. I'm all for being open and honest but we also have to be much more ruthless. Players will respect that because we will win and that will inspire loyalty. AFL is a performance based industry and it's about time we realise that.

Old hack has beens who never played with strong leadership anyway (ie. Green and Bruce) weren't the answer though. This current Richmond side has climbed the ladder on the back of Brad Miller, Shane Tuck, Chris Newman and even now guys like Jake King and Dan Jackson. That's the kind of leader we needed to keep around. We all agree on Junior but I don't understand how letting Junior go when things were actually looking up necessarily makes Green and Bruce bad decisions. And I certainly disagree with anyone who thought Jeff White or Yze had time left.

It's funny because we always want our players to be traded and don't get me wrong it's not the worst idea. But why can't we ever give Sylvia or Watts a good spell in the 2's. For what it's worth I actually think Sylvia is having a dip at the moment. He's attacking the ball hard and tackling and probably running about as hard as he knows how given the culture has been ingrained into him. Personally from what I saw today I actually didn't think work ethic was the problem for most of our players. And 3 our blokes off and 2 of theirs off injured showed we tried physically. Today was about a team that has been coached up for 2 years on 110% attack at the contest and 120% work rate against a side that's got away with all too little for the best part of 5 years.

I'm not convinced he is or ever will be AFL level. Lacks speed and skills. Very much like a shorter version of Troy Davis. That said both seem to be good trainers and play hard footy. So that means they'd have the edge on a whole bunch who have had more opportunities.

I'd like to thank the MFC for over extending the career of Aaron Davey. For not been held hostage to Cameron Bruce. For finally stopping Adem Yze's consecutive game streak about 100 games too late.

Liam Jurrah could take marks like Howe. Where is he now? We need good players. Players who win games. The 1 hanger per game means nothing to me if we lose by 100. I'm not ready to trade Howe unless the offer is very good but he's far from untouchable. His defensive efforts today were crud. I hope for his sake he's been carrying an injury.

Yep Watts was atrocious. Midfield as we predicted got soundly beaten but their were patches in the the second and third quarter that looked ok. A revitalized McKenzie does make us better. Jones and Viney have each other for solace and that's at least a start against a very strong clearance team. Backline held up in the first 3 quarters pretty well. I know Freo don't often score a bunch but they could've scored at ease today but we didn't. We got another look at Spencer and I think we now know he'll compete but should be relegated back to depth. Fitzpatrick had a go. Davis wouldn't be the worst key forward to ever grace a football field Disappointed with the efforts of Watts, Blease and Howe. Disgruntled that Sylvia seems to be trying but butchers the ball Despondent that Grimes is struggling so much Down right sick of Dunn's shoddy decision making and kicking As far as 95 point losses go today was one that I at least thought well we have some hope and pieces of the puzzle.

Rubbish again today. Can't for the life of me work out when we are so desperate for midfielders why Howe plays deep forward unable to get a kick when he has the endurance to play on a wing. Back to Casey next week.

Fitzpatrick is already better than Martin. Win. Dawes and Hogan for the Scully compo picks. Win. Losing vital experience even if they were flawed characters in Moloney and Rivers is a loss but Port haven't missed Chaplin and Pearce. Giving up on Petterd when we had plenty of other duds to chop was a bad call but he's really just a flanker. More than anything it's McLean that annoys me. We did get fair compensation but completely [censored] it away with Gysberts. Any half decent reliable midfielder drafted in place of Gysberts would've satisfied me but that was obviously outside our reach

Watch the footage and try to convince me. I think you'll struggle. And my opinion is good players get suspended every now and then, because good teams play on the edge. Ill discipline is never good but attacking the contest and man can sometimes lead to suspensions and we haven't done enough of that in recent years

You need outstanding people to drive excellence and belief. That's my view anyway. But I do understand that we can't be in the market for more untried and inexperienced types. So I'd be all for Hayes as midfield development coach, someone like a Voss or Adam Simpson as midfield coach/senior assistant and further well credentialed assistants for forward and back. Eade is 55 and I don't believe he's reached an age where he can't work his butt off and keep a fresh mind if coaching is his passion. So I'm all for him having a good run at it. But having a senior assistant and a plan for handover in 3-5 years makes sense. I'm not sure any one coach could take Melbourne all the way to the top by themselves.

Will play one more VFL match then hang them up. Came to us in 2010 to help provide some leadership. Formed part of a top quality half back line with Rivers, Bruce and Grimes in 2010 that help us climb the furthest up the ladder since 2006 but after that has really been a fringe player. His new business is - liquorun.com

I'm concerned he's not committed to leaving.

GWS won't touch him and he'll end up at StKilda, cop it!

I would've dropped Davey weeks ago but now is not the time. Let's give him a farewell game and see if he can produce. He has had his patches this year. Down back it's a question of bring Pedersen in and free up a Dunn or Garland for smaller opponents or not. I say we don't and we let Terlich and Strauss show what they can do against the best small forward pairing in the comp in Walters and Ballantyne. Midfield is just a question of how bad the damage will be but we were smashed last time and it's time to see if Jones, Viney, Trengove and co can at least gain some respectability back. Up forward it's obvious that Fitzpatrick, Davis and Watts isn't half the combination that we hope Clark, Dawes and Hogan will be but again if they work hard it will be a start. Although I would consider Watts for the roaming wing and half forward role again. In the ruck it will be a question of 3 rucks with Gawn in or not. Personally I'd expose Spencer to a full on battle against Sandilands and Clarke. He's got the speed to go with Clarke and to get away from Sandilands and it's the ultimate test of his rucking ability. Things I'd love to get out of this game: - A small forward - Kent, Tapscott or Blease to find a way to influence the game - Aaron Davey to go out on a high - Strauss and/or Terlich stand up as small defenders - Spencer and Fitzpatrick to match them in the ruck - Colin Sylvia actually pay an opponent some respect - One of Trengove or Grimes to have an impact in the middle - Watts to play like a man against a team of men And as always against Freo - Ballantyne and/or Crowley to get some of their own medicine.

Sporting Pulse Goalking Statistics 51 Ben Warren (Werribee Tigers), Michael Lourey (Frankston) 48 Dean Galea (Port Melbourne) 39 Jesse Hogan (Casey Scorpions) 37 Jackson Paine (Collingwood) 36 Liam McBean (Coburg Tigers) He's twelve goals behind the two leaders who are on 51. Who knows if he kicks a huge bag this week against Bendigo Gold he might be some sneaky chance but you'd think he'd need at least 8 this week to get within range going in to the final round.

Skill wise Davis was pretty rubbish. Clearly lacks the pace to get enough separation on the lead or the size/marking ability to hold the marks. Also can't kick when he did get it. But his work rate was so far higher than others who have played across CHF this year - I'm talking Watts, Howe and Pedersen etc. At this stage I'd much rather play Davis with him giving 110% than some of the others mentioned. Agree on Byrnes. His kicking was crud but in terms of getting the ball it was the best game so far this year by any small forward in the red and blue.