DeeSpencer

Brereton didn't need to pick apart every move he made. Some of which were reasonable. How about we pick apart a GWS youngster for an entire game one week Derm you [censored]. In fact not a youngster lets pick Phil Davis who is a millionaire who spuds up everything and is meant to be a leader.

I think you are letting him off. He made both Kosi and Grimley from the hawks look dangerous at times. He also gets the ball but his kicking isn't up to standard. Dunn makes bad decisions by foot but technically is a much better kick.I'm not sure where the development potential is in Pedersen either. The advantage he has over Dunn is height but he's also slow and can't play small. Dunn is more flexible. Long term we have our 3 tall defenders in Frawley, McDonald and Garland as the third tall. We just need to find another reliable shut down small/ mid sized defender so Garland can be the third tall who also intercepts

The machinations and factions and so on of our previous boards particularly in the late 90's and early to mid 2000's are so convoluted that it's unfair to tar everyone as particularly bad due to their presence. But in the same way it would also be wise to move on from anyone involved with those boards. Just like how the A-League was created with whole new clubs in an attempt to remove the race related differences in our soccer clubs in the NSL. On another separate but linked issue it's wise to remember that Jimmy actually led a very united board and one that had plenty of good people on board and made some achievements - mainly debt demolition and a stable period. It also failed to bring in a suitable CEO to fix that revolving carousel and therefore the problems continued - no doubt made worse by Jimmy's passing. So the AFL have advised us that our best route is for them to administer the club and that means placing their man in as CEO and then assembling a board that satisfies them. With traditional means of business of course Peter Jackson's way of operating is out of whack with corporate governance. But we have lost our right to govern ourselves if we wish to get the AFL's rescue funds. If Stockdale wants to be a team player he should submit himself and his ticket to review by the AFL and look long term as part of a succession plan when the board and running of the club is on solid ground. He can do all that without being destabilizing. I still am yet to be convinced Jackson will hang around for much longer than 18-24 months if the ship becomes righted and steady so he will get his traditional CEO appointed by the board in time.

The 29.5 line for $1.90 might have been a smarter choice. As I said above I don't think we can win but certainly Darwin and the heat and slippery nature of the game lends it self to a close result a bit like wet weather and also with the fact that if a team tires due to working hard early the other team will come back hard. In fact Sportsbet are offering a generous $7.20 about a Melbourne/Brisbane Half time/full time double. Considering we'll be keen to start the game well as a home game and have some familiarity with conditions I wouldn't be surprised to see us lead at half time only for Brisbane to come over the top and beat us just like they did to Geelong and North recently. That's the value bet if I was splashing some cash.

You expect way too much. Brisbane aren't world beaters but the absolute top limit of their play is to beat Geelong. We play a half reasonable game against Geelong and concede a world record I50 differentiation. Of course Geelong at the Gabba and mentally cruising is much different to a fired up Geelong in the wet at home but it's still a big leap. Brisbane definitely have their limitations but they have some forwards who can hit the score board - Brown, Zorko, Merrett (if forward), McGrath, some defenders who know how to get the job done - Patfull, Adcock etc and most importantly when it comes to beating Melbourne they have an even spread in the midfield even without Moloney and Black. The Rockliff, Redden, Rich, Hanley combinations are too strong for us. I'm not sure of the stats but I think Raines has a decent record of subduing Jones as well. If there is one glaring advantage they have over us on the ground it's also in the ruck. Leuenberger is knocking on the edge of elite where as big Gawny plays with a good spirit but I think will find Leuenberger too crafty and athletic. I'm hoping Fitzy helps out in that regard because it wont be a day for big forwards in the slippery conditions but big Fitzy could use his speed around the ground to help mop up balls on the deck and get involved when in the ruck. I'm hoping the slipping and sliding nature of a Darwin game can help Watts get involved as he did very well in a Darwin game a few years ago. Besides from that we will need Blease, Kent and Davey to actually find space and do something. But it will be all for nothing if we can't get some clearances out of the middle. If we are any chance to win we will need some of the Vintage Sylvia from that 3 game stretch in 2010 or whenever it was where he actually looked like a semi decent midfielder!

Before we beat the dogs and they lost to the dogs I would've agreed. They were only 1 game and a touch of percentage behind and had games against the dogs and us to come. But not now. They really only have one more game they can win - the one against us! Besides us they have Ess, Coll, Fre, Rich and then trips North to play Bris and GC. That's 4 top 7 teams and the two queensland teams who will be pretty hungry to beat them. They are certainly managing their list and developing players in different roles and doing a lot of things to take the focus off the score board though. Yet you'll find when they play us they (like us) will develop the game like a grand final and play all their best players available in their best positions.

Everything Stockdale said made sense.....except why did he have to say it!! Although in some ways it's good to see he's not running from issues or sweeping them under the rug, and in other ways it's nice to see if he does get on the board he actually has interest in running the club not just turning up to a few meetings!

Did you watch last week? Stats don't mean much but he kicked 2 of our 4 goals! 50% of our major scores! I think give the Byrnes out a rest this week. Unless you call for Davey out as well? We already have Kent and Blease in the team in the same role as Byrnes so we are developing some and it's not like Tapscott or Taggert are knocking the door down in the VFL.

Strauss in Dunn out. Garland to play 3rd tall role instead of on a dangerous small/mid sized player. At the moment Dunn gets the third tall/worst forward close to goal and Garland gets the more dangerous player. This is because they have doubts on Terlich, Clisby and Strauss to play on dangerous forwards particularly guys who can beat you in the air and on the ground. Dunn went ok last week. I really hope for his sake he can get some damn consistency but I'm not convinced. If not it's high time we ask Terlich and Strauss to do defending and take kick outs etc and back them in over Dunn. The other option is Grimes back to the backline and a midfielder in. If we had Evans I'd do that right away. Unfortunately the best midfielders we have available are Nicholson and a back from injury McKenzie. Dunn out, McKenzie in to tag and Grimes to the backline could very well be on the cards next week.

I presume we need a bunch of players to fill the ambassador duties so it makes sense for injured players like Jamar and Bail to do it instead of those needed at Casey. I like the team and lack of changes. I do wonder if we need to tag Rich and who will be assigned this duty but I think it will be good for one of/or combination of Viney, Toumpas, Matt Jones or Trengove to do some tagging. Tagging helped Nathan Jones develop as a player. From now on I expect us to build for our grand final against GWS in round 19 then use the last month to have a look at a variety of players in different roles.

Does Worsfold want to coach next year is the other question. It's a massive job especially in the fishbowl in Perth. He shouldn't need the money. They've got Glass, Cox, Embley and Kerr about to finish up and a promising group coming through that isn't quite good enough yet but seems to be on the right track. Seems the perfect time to hand over the reigns and if I was them I'd go with Scotty Burns and not even worry about Roos.

Yeah and for mine Dunn lifted his level from complete spud to intermediate spud last week so I'd say he's safe for now. Although the players always lose a few kg's in Darwin so it might be the perfect match for Pedo.

I can't back it up with evidence. Only someone who has intimate knowledge of sports science/fitness or has access to the records of both Melbourne and Geelong could. Except for quotes from Rivers where he compared the intensity of trainings but said Geelong get more running in drills than we do but I can't even find the quotes yet along know how reliable it is. I get what you mean about the eyes deceiving. Blease could easily have done what Murdoch did against the Hawks where he ran into space over the back and kicked a couple of goals to be the hero yet he plays in a hugely struggling side. At the moment my thoughts with my eyes though are that we have done too much running laps and walking in Darwin and not enough high intensity training or getting the running done in drills.

Why because he carved us up there one year for Port? I'm not convinced.

No I'm asking why some of our players aren't the same size as Josh Caddy, Mitch Duncan, Steven Motlop, George HS, Jordan Murdoch, Billie Smedts - guys who are in the same age bracket. Now from the guys who played on the weekend we had a few mature age guys in Matt Jones, Terlich and Clisby who I get it the first year of them in the AFL you'd focus a lot on fitness and making sure they can get through the season. Same for Toumpas and Kent as well as talls like Gawn, Tom McDonald and Fitzpatrick who both have decent frames and you don't want to overload them. I suppose my criticism comes for players like Trengove, Nicholson, Grimes, Watts and Blease. None of which you'd label anything close to AFL top quality well rounded athletes in strength, size endurance and speed. You can add Jetta, McKenzie, Bail, Tapscott and Strauss. My concern isn't so much that they have physical weaknesses because almost all AFL players do. That's part of what makes the game good. But my concern is that they seem to lack power. With those Geelong guys I mentioned some are quick, some are slow, some are strong some not so much but they all seem to bring a power attribute that helps them play AFL.

I don't like a mini draft idea. I think it should just be a pick at the start of the second round. That way it acknowledges the list is the problem but doesn't set a bad precedent. I don't want other clubs going down the path we are because it would be a bad sign for St Kilda and Bulldogs.

So if Franklin is worth a first round pick then Sylvia is worth a second round pick? I can't agree with that. Especially when Franklin will be on 5+ years on 1 mil+ and Sylvia would be lucky to get 3 years at 500k.

I could live with the injuries if the guys were super fit or had big strong bodies like the swans players or Freo players. Dan Nicholson is undoubtedly the fittest and one of the fastest on our list. It is also likely that he's one of the hardest workers so why hasn't he added some size to get some power into his game. He's not a young player anymore. Same for Watts - why is he still so easy to move around and at least 5kg off where he should be if he wants to be a serious AFL player. I could go on and on. In terms of game day fitness/agility etc the players that stand out for mine come game day are N. Jones, Dawes, Frawley, Garland (despite a thinner build) and Byrnes. Why don't we have more players who look and play like professionals in terms of their physical capacity regardless of their talent.

With the Darwin conditions some thought might be given to going smaller up forward but I think for the sake of development and not cooking big Maxy Gawn we'd go with Fitzy, Watts and Dawes all in the team. Just look for one of them to make way as a sub if we are injury free. If it sounds bad it's because it is - a soaking wet day in Geelong will always be a day that Davey struggles with. A nice slippery evening in Darwin might produce better results for him. Besides that I wonder if it's time to give Kent a spell. He's not impacting games at all and I think it's time he goes back and has some big games at Casey. OUT: Nicholson, Kent IN: Viney, Strauss Time for Strauss to be played. We all know about his limitations but his kicking is a weapon and especially in Darwin conditions to have a guy who doesn't turn it over and can actually hit targets from the backline will be crucial. We owe it to ourselves to fully make sure he's had chances to impress at AFL. We know Blease has had about 1million. I'd start Strauss and bring Clisby as the sub and play him on a wing when he comes on.

Thought I'd give this thread a bump. And not just because I like reading the old threads but also because I wonder if the title of David Misson not impressed could change to David Misson, we aren't impressed. What's everyones thought's on our fitness etc. Personally the Geelong game highlighted a major weakness in the way we develop our players. We seem to have too many who haven't put on enough size and more worrying lack the dynamic movement power required to play AFL. Grimes and Trengove are great examples of guys who can run all day but are way to rigid in the hips. They don't get up and down and move laterally etc. The Darwin game also represents a unique opportunity to put our top in fitness base gains to test. And to me these so called gains are a joke. I can't believe the hardest thing we did up there was a walk FFS! Every other club is out there doing footy related training and we are going for a walk in Kakadu because it's hot. Spare me. We also need to do much more of our preseason training in drills because as evidenced we need as much footy practice as possible. The other concern in the injury list whilst not out of control is not looking great this year. Viney, Evans, Trengove and Jamar all with foot/toe over use injuries - I won't count Clark because the initial injury came from contact and the re-injury is more a responsibility of the surgeon/physios. Frawley, Dawes and Clisby all with hamstrings.

The simple fact is that if you have the ball and have it uncontested the opposition can't score and it also takes away from the the time they have to get it back and score. Therefore if you can move the ball from one end of the field to another with uncontested possession and have a shot on goal you will do very well. It's the basis behind the Hawthorn style of attack. Neeld was focussed on very quick ball movement with playing on quickly and going wide to counter quick turnovers. Unfortunately he didn't have the cattle and even if he did that game plan is still very hard to perfect. Craig has told the players to play on instinct more and use the ball as the feel is right at the same time to not panic and rush. It's more sharing of the ball and less frantic. But runs the risk of over possession. Personally I like the idea of our players actually getting the ball and using it. And would encourage the play to speed up when we have a raft of key forwards operating well and also hopefully some added midfield run to both create space and work defensively. Playing in Darwin this week favours a direct approach without over using the ball but at the same time we can't just bomb the ball around we'll get smashed by the Lions defense.

Regardless of whether they go for Melbourne or not we need to vote down anyone who's keen on this Carlton idea. It's guaranteed to result in less games for us at the MCG if Carlton gets the majority of their home games there. Surely they can get together some Pratt millions and a few bucks from the pokies king and refurbish Princess Park. They only need to look at how well Geelong are going with their own stadium.

The fact that no one has played small forward for us this year and got more than about 15 touches or 2 goals in some way points that in a better team they'd look better. Can all of Byrnes, Davey, Kent, Tapscott, Blease be not up to AFL? And it sounds like he was a bit flat yesterday but before that he's done well at VFL. But I do worry about the lack of speed and his lack of impact/potential to play midfield. I'd love him to play centre square midfield for Casey for at least 3 weeks to see where he gets.

I know it was in a soft win against the bulldogs - ie. the standard is more akin to VFL than AFL but he kicked 6 earlier this year didn't he! I think there's no reason he can't make it but it's still going to take time. I think his fitness still has a huge way to go which will help him get to the right spots more often.

It appears that way but I'd argue it wasn't. He was already starting to head backwards at Freo. Sure he wasn't at the stage to get delisted but he took the cash because his Freo career wasn't heading to the heights he imagined.