DeeSpencer

smarter than he looks Beamer

No we are ranked last because the ball never goes in! I bet we are last for inside 50's and if we aren't the stats are skewed by the GWS game!Our forward line are as bad as any other line in our side but does have potential. In fairness none of our line coaches should be judged on performance. What I'd judge them on is who is developing players. At the moment the forward line has Tapscott. The midfield the joneses and the backline Terlich in terms of players who have improved under the leadership of the assistants. Lets see what we get by the end of the year

McGuane is 6'3 at least the same size as Riewoldt and probably plays like a target more than Vickery who gets lost at times. He does good defensive with his background as a defender. I don't think Riewoldt is playing as a defensive forward but trying to play more up the ground as a CHF and getting blanketed by good defenders and therefore is scoring more goals on the ground than from lead and mark. I think we'd miss Garlands run if he actually was giving any. Despite his disposal being shaky I'd like to see what Frawley can do run wise when playing on a lesser player.

Garland looked like a mess on Monday saying how poor the players were and to blame them and not Neeld for the failure. This week we will have Sellar, Frawley and Garland to take on Riewoldt, McGuane and Vickery/Edwards (don't think we'll play Davis and I can't see Tigers playing both Edwards and Vickery). As McGuane has been Richmond number 1 forward target I'd send Frawley to blanket him at the same time it's high time Garland shows his leadership early in a game at a crutial time. He did a good job on Franklin way back in the day as a 19 year old, it's time now as a matured footballer for him to not sit in the back pocket. Time to give him Riewoldt. Similarly if he fails I'd lean to Sellar for a go just to see what he can do as a defender on one of the better forwards in the comp. Am I tanking or am I taking an opportunity to see what some players can do when we are rolling out one of the worst midfields or all time. Thoughts?

Tigers play a fast hard running footy. I don't think they are massive hard bodies. Especially with a few outs like tuck and maric! Toumpas should be ok. I just don't get nicholson. Turn over machine who doesn't man up and also dogged a contest. I know he runs but everything else he stuffed up! I doubt Trenners will play that will likely save Bail. I don't see a need for Spencer (unless Jamar out) or Davis.

Thanks for writing all that for no reason. Thomas is a free agent and trading Hogan would send the message that we are [censored]. How about securing Thomas as a free agent and trading Watts for Prestia or even better a second round pick for Prestia

DemonWA you just agreed with everything in my post! I love it! Some sensibility! Except for what you said at the end. I think you are wrong to see us fitting 3 talls and 2 rucks. Cox, niknat and darling are all freaks for there size athletically. The other 2 forwards aren't slow either. I think we will have one ruck and one of Dawes, Hogan or Clark will ruck as well. Which should be Clark. If there's an injury that's where a Fitzy or Pedersen come in. I'd leave Sellar in the backline group. I think the only reason he snuck forward was due to injuries to Dawes, Clark, Gawn and Fitzpatrick at the start of the year. And of course Hogans lack of availability

Why on earth would Spencer have yet another year on contract? Surely he's up at the end of this year? Fitzpatrick is an interesting one but for me offers more going forward than Spencer. I quite like the sound of Jamar as our first ruck for now with Gawn developing and in all likelyhood Clarke becoming our second ruck/forward with Fitzpatrick also learning that role. Pedersen provides cover for that role as well. Plus replace Spencer with another developing ruck either on the main or preferably rookie list. As for why Spencer is playing and Fitzy isn't I think that's a simple thing. Fitzy hasn't had a lot of footy after missing some matches and whilst he's been good at Casey so has Spencer. At the same time whilst Jamar is out they are trying to evaluate whether Spencer has made any improvement. I don't think he has. Also they are careful to not over expose Gawn in the ruck at AFL level (or Fitzy as well). A Gawn and Fitzpatrick combination looks good for the long term but coming up against big body AFL rucks I think could hurt them with the speed of the game as well. When Jamar comes back I think what you will see is a lot of pressure on Gawn from Fitzpatrick for that second ruck /forward spot. Concurrently Gawn will hopefully prove he can withstand time in the ruck and attempt to force Jamar out. As for Fitzpatrick down back we could try him if we were out of options but to me Frawley, McDonald and Sellar provide 3 options for 2 spots with Garland/Dunn competing for 3rd tall (but both can play in one team). I think Sellar and McDonald offer enough as big body defenders and the extra height is really only a luxury if the player is good enough as Carlisle is and Thompson might be. Frawley is contracted for next year and we should focus on fixing our club and getting him reinvested over listening to rumours that are most like BS.

No way. Gorringe will be a player but he isn't what we need right now. If he was going to be a star as a ruck/forward you'd think he'd push ahead of Lynch or May or Dixon for at least a game. He's a ruckman and we've got a good one coming through in Gawn. We need to keep pick 2 and get the best midfielder in the draft. We need to look at Prestia with our second round pick or players who aren't vital to our future like flankers like Watts.

Frawley has plenty of speed and is still blanketing his direct opponent weekly but is down on confidence and care factor to try and fix all the other players problems. We don't need to trade him we just need to get the other defenders and mids up to scratch and he'll look like a star again. People were writing off Darren Glass a couple of years back when the Eagles were struggling. Personally I'm not sure there would be a better available player at our second round pick than Prestia. Prestia has obviously shown a bit and was pick 9 so that's the bench mark for what Gold Coast would want. A second round pick and a swap of third rounders might get the deal done. That said I don't want to overspend on a guy just to fill a need position. I'm also at the end of my tether with Watts. I don't see the point of keeping him as a forward unless he gets physical and can put on a tonne of pressure. Mid sized forwards are dying unless they run and rotate like midfielders. We have Clark, Hogan and Dawes for the forward line. Down back he has been a failure this season. Can't defend so really is a lose flanker and just hasn't impacted the contests. If I was replacing Neeld I'd trade Watts for Prestia in a heart beat and get the Watts problem somewhere else. I'd be totally comfortable giving up what others see as the more talented player to get someone who can make a direct impact.

It's damned if you do damned if you don't regarding getting involved. Look at Essendon where the CEO might (and according to the media heavyweights should) be fired for not knowing about the biochemistry research lab in his footy department. If I could say one area that Schwab erred almost undoubtedly it is that the football department has no real leader (unless you count Neeld) and that it has a gaping lack of experience. Craig is fine and Misson and the physio from Collingwood come with high regard but in particular Schwab's reign has been overshadowed by poor player development and poor recruiting and the people in those roles lack experience.

I think the comment about the club being in a state of paralysis after Jimmy's death is a good one. Clearly McLardy was a reluctant leader who took over from Jim and would've hoped things worked out more than actually got in there and monitored things. What we have to realise is that the one group of management/executive that we get to control is the board and it's also the group we can run for. So this years board elections will be a time to put up or shut up. Hopefully we can refine the current board and keep aspects that have made it a commercial success and delivered reasonable facilities for our players. So for all those angry at the board who are you supporting? I know as far as the President goes I'll be supporting whoever is passionate and reasonable. As well I'll be looking for increased football knowledge.

I don't think ideas per se. They are more the senior coaches domain to structure the game plan. He needs to be an effective communicator and be able to explain and teach. As such an experienced stoppage player you'd think he'd have some of that down pat. As much as Brisbane have done wrong of late they've also got Rich, Redden and Rockliff playing pretty good footy as young midfielder. How we'd love 3 like that to bring through with Jones.

I'm all in favour of getting some more champion players around the club. Of course you have to work out if they have passion for coaching and talent in the form of communication and ideas but they also must have a real benefit to the players in terms of confidence. I can't see how Matty Scarlett and Cam Mooney doing some part time mentoring of the bulldogs talls can be anything but a good thing. So as our particular area of need is the midfield I'd be looking for a champion ex midfield to come in as midfield development coach. Two who will likely retire this year are Black and Jude Bolton and both would be perfect to replace one of Royal/Greaves and have some star power impact. Both are super hard working and diligent as well.

Here's the problem. We had a whole bunch of issues last year (half of above) and had all preseason and some agressive list management and come off worse. How can you say with any confidence that Neeld will make us win next year. He's won 1 game so far that I count which was against a poor kicking Essendon. We sucked before the two Jacks and Clark were injured (yes I know they came off interrupted preseasons) but injuries are part of the game. Freo had no Pav, no Sandilands, no Fyfe and embarrased Gold Coast on the road. No doubt Freo are a good side but then Gold Coast destroy us. So not only are we worse than bad we are a whole new category. Say we get a proper CEO and restructure the footy department at the end of the day Neeld is still teaching these guys how to play and he's doing it horribly. The bulldogs aren't winning games but they are playing a consistent style and having a go. Are we so terrible that we can't stand for anything as a team. Neeld wanted us to be the hardest to play against so where is any reflection of that? If we won the tackle count each week or the contested ball or anything I'd understand. Or if we played the kids and said goodbye to those who weren't ever going to make it I'd understand. But right now Neeld hasn't done a thing to save his job.

We need star midfielders. If by some miracle we can get the best out of Toumpas and Viney that helps. Evans looks a likely player. Besides from that we've got Jones and lesser guys like Matt Jones and McKenzie. Sylvia is a proper forward/midfielder but not a real midfielder. Guys like Byrnes, Bail, Tapscott, Blease have to get better. Same with our small defenders. If we did get a priority pick (or even if we dont we could do it with our second round pick) we could consider trading down picks for multiple higher picks. Ie. pick 20 for picks 30 + 40 and get some more players in with reasonable picks. At the same time turnover the list and remove some junk.

pretty sure they all extended their contracts including Greene.

Well the Richmond guys eventually rolled round to Terry Wallace to tell him they were sick of him didn't they? Led by their fearless leader Jake King? And didn't the players try and sack Schwab before Geelong? Let's wait and see but I'd rather the players take ownership for their own performance first. Garland can't blame a coach for the way he played especially in the first half on the weekend. He was insipid.

Fb: Terlich frawley garland Hb: Strauss Sellar Clisby C: Evans jones jones Hf: Byrnes Dawes Howe Ff: Blease Gawn. Tapscott Foll: jamar viney mckenzie Int: Dunn Rodan Toumpas s: kent In: Jamar. Blease Rodan Toumpas Clisby Out: Spencer Bail. Sylvia Nicholson Davey

Has a go, goes in hard after the ball. Needs to work on his kicking and his tackling to make it long term.

Nope we had him all set up for our next pick when we took Maric somewhere between 19 and 22 I don't know exactly what number. That's the way the draft works sometimes guys don't get through. You can't say Grimes was a bad choice and most rated Morton top 5 and didn't have Taylor anywhere near the first dozen picks. It's hardly a decision to chastise ourselves over.

He could play CHB or CHF or the swing man role but we have Frawley, McDonald, Sellar, Dawes, Clarke, Hogan etc One player can't fix anything but particularly one key position player. So even if we could attract him I think it would be a waste of money. I'm not saying our key position stocks are full of stars but they are good enough to win games or at least not see us smashed by Gold Coast. Let's invest in youth also look for some hidden gem quality running players in the 22-25 year old range from inside or outside the AFL system like Terlich and Matt Jones. Thats our best chance of getting better quickly

I was going to propose that but at the same time I think that coaching might almost be a third structure. Like admin, football department and then the hands on coaching. Most football clubs have the coach as the head of the department. I do agree with the gm of footy as head of the department idea. Lets the coach do his job and teach fundamentals.

of course. But one of the first signs I didn't like about Neeld was him being so involved in recruiting. He should've just listed his priorities and left it to the experts.And I'm thinking where our list is at we really need a teaching and hands on 110% instructing coach. There isn't time or energy for someone to control the footy department and be the big boss.

Loved hearing from Jackson. It was the highlight of the week. Everyone should listen to his interview on MMM where he outlays the problems and what he calls simply but not quick solutions. I've represented it in image form. The first image is the problem. The second is the solution. None of this will make us play better this week. That's up to the players. It won't even make us better this year, thats on the players and coaches, but if we have to solve our long term problems the first steps will be changing the flow of the footy department. The second step will be employing people who can fulfill the jobs.