DeeSpencer

FB: Bartram Frawley Garland HB: Grimes Rivers Tapscott C: Jones Moloney Scully HF: Davey Watts Howe FF: Jurrah Green Sylvia Foll: Jamar Trengove Bail INT: Martin, McKenzie Gysberts Bennell EMER: Petterd, Morton, Macdonald The bolds are locks, the others are pretty interchangable. I've gone for Bartram and Tapscott in the backline, but Macdonald might offer more defensively. Strauss, Morton and Nicholson aren't too far off. Bennell I've put on the bench due to his ability to play multiple positions, but I haven't locked in Bartram down back. He could take that spot. Im pretty keen on having a tagger, or at least a defensive midfield with the capacity to tag and physical attributes for it so for that reason I like Bail in the side. Were short a gun small forward, and I could have named Bennell or Jetta there, but I think it's better to play the extra midfielder and have them rest forward - particularly Sylvia and Davey who should start forward and do bursts in the middle.

What I love about Trengove is its no fuss. Everything is just clean and simple, even his big hangers. Martin is sensational to watch he plays an unreal power game. But Trengove just plays pure football, like how it was meant to be played. You think no matter what decade it was he'd be just class. He reminds so much of Jimmy Bartel, just the way he can seem to do anything. The one knock on his game is goal kicking, not sure why he can't find the middle. Probably needs a tweak to his routine and to use the full 30 seconds to get his breath back.

People only remember the old, full forward, mark it (usually via hanger in case of very old Robbo) and goal Robbo.He best year (maybe 02 or 03) was when he played at CHF and was just a work horse. That's what I saw from Howe. Strong leads, backs himself to jump for a mark and then just as importantly can recover very well, get a bit of space and deliver well. It's early days, but I just imagine him and Watts been a CHF combo. Still room for Jurrah and a Petterd/Dunn deep if they play with the same commitment and energy as Howe.

6 Rivers 5 Macdonald 4 McKenzie 3 Gysberts 2 Moloney 1 Trengove Thought the win was set up by the defence returning to 2010 form (even without half their numbers). Rivers and Macdonald were kings in that area. In some ways I was disappointed with our midfield, but they kicked ass. Still a lot of work for the forwards to do I think, but if I had one more vote it would be for Howe, he gave us structure!

Good A young side giving their all Bad The OP's comment about Howe. Should not be a bad word spoken about the man after tonight Sylvia injured Ugly Gawn's shot for goal. Classic, still love the big fella though Jurrah early - come on Liam, get physical. The forward line probably needs an enforcer to go with Green, Watts, Howe, Jetta and co. Dunn could be this man if he got back in 2010 form and I'd love it to be Sylvia if he could be played in his best position.

Tall man is tall. You can tell he is a natural footballer!!! Still heaps to work on, but he gets it. Mark handball, short safe kick or long kick if under pressure, punch from behind. When your 7 feet whatever its best to play a simple game and he does that. Not sure I'd play him for the rest of the season, but he gives you hope for the future and we're gaining something from Jamar's absence.

The specialized type who when they line up on the premier wingman of the game (Dale Thomas, Hill for example) get slaughtered! Bate's a damn good VFL player who just isn't up to AFL any more. See Brock McLean.

My main problem is that he plays a lot of a game on a wing. Now put him in the middle and he should get more tackles, clearances and contested possession I agree. But from the wing they aren't so easy to get (but he does need to work on it).So are we continuing with a B grade wingman, who isn't really suited to that position and should be there in the long term? Or is his hardness an advantage over most wingman? He's better than Morton, but probably less talented in that position in the long term. Or do we put him in the middle and find out maybe he's not as good as Moloney, Syliva, Trengove and co? Either way credit to Jones for upping his game, but I still think he's a bit of a way off being a good play in a good side.

And by good decision making you meant excellent stopping skills, courage, tackling and pace didn't you.

At the moment though he looks like a bigger, stronger version of Blease. But he's hardly a player I'm disappointed that we let go off. Collingwood you would think would get the best out of someone and he's been handy. He'll probably play in a flag now.

Riewoldt last year would have kicked 100 if he started the season in the form he was in by mid year. Yet the Tigers didn't beat a good side all year. Same with Barry Hall at the dogs, kicked plenty of goals, but he was at FF and they didn't have a proper CHF nor were they playing a modern brand.The hawks won that flag due to an innovative defensive game plan and a gun midfield (Hodge, Sewell, Mitchell, Crawford, Bateman). Buddy hardly dominated in the grand final. It was Dew who did the damage and little things like Rioli's defensive pressure was instrumental in the win. The saints nearly won 2 flags with Kosi at FF, largely due to Riewoldt. Even though he was well held/beaten in both grand finals (Not talking about the replay) his work to contest set them up.

Jurrah, Green, Petterd, Dunn, Newton even - any of these guys should be able to kick a bag on their day. But it's not our problem. Our problem is having a big bodied CHF capable of taking a mark of at least forcing a contest. We have 2 potential players on our list: Cook and Watts. In the mean time we need someone a bit undersized like Howe or Bate or Dunn or Petterd to take some heat at CHF and use pure work rate to get some ball and help our forward movement. Watts is improving his game in other roles but should get a chance tonight at CHF, possibly with Howe next to him they might just be able to work something out. I won't be holding my breath but if they lead hard and attack the ball they'll give themselves a chance. Of course it's all reliant on winning the ball in the midfield/quick ball movement from the back half.

Often the depth players get a hard mark. If a kid played as well as Joel Macdonald did last week (despite the flaws) we'd be praising them, instead we are saying, oh he was ok he can have another week. The 24+ year olds are also better trainers, better leaders and have less injuries. In a perfect world your depth players would all be young and improving, but still good enough to get the job done.

Tapscott and Martin have been the two. They've been our two finds so far this year. Martin still needs to improve be a good number 1 and a worthwhile number 2, but he's at least proved to be a good backup number 1/not a useless second option. Probably a bit harsh on Gysberts, but I expected him to have the talent after watching him last year. Maric had an impressive preseason, which has made him more useful come match day, but he hasn't found any consistency to show he can make it long term. Gawn, Evans, Nicholson and Tom McDonald have impressed me at VFL level (although I'm going more on what I saw preseason combined with others reports). Wouldn't declare any of them as regular fixtures of the future yet, but by the end of the year we might be able to be confident on a few of them. Of the senior core I think after a slow start Jones stepped it up pretty well. Still makes a few errors but he seems willing to get the best out of himself regardless of the state of the match. Sylvia, Jamar, Garland, Watts, Trengove, Moloney I think are all playing well, but not outside the expectations each should have on themselves. Credit to Jamar for been such a work horse.

I'm not a doctor, a physio or an orthopedic surgeon, but to me it sounds like they thought it was a jarred knee with maybe some minor meniscal damage, kept him playing and got him to see the surgeon late last week. The club doctors probably thought it could settle down with a week or 2 rests. The surgeon probably reviewed the MRI and thought surgery was a better option. The problem here is delay in seeing the surgeon. Maybe if you were a US NFL team you would have you might have better access, but here is probably wiser to wait until you can get access to the expert.The change for a short rest and surgery is probably the expert surgeons opinion. The club doctors are very good, but at the end of the day they can only really say when things are very bad or perfectly fine. They can't always recommend surgery, due to the fact that they aren't surgeons. The other thing to take into account is that if it was a grand final you could probably get away with playing him if you could control the pain and take the risk of damage.

Bellchambers - Ruck Hille - Frawley Ryder - Tom McDonald Hurley - Rivers Crameri - Joel Macdonald If McDonald is really struggling, Martin can go down back when resting from the ruck (which will be quiet a bit due to Gawn's inclusion). There is no way Warnock deserves another game on last Fridays effort.

I'll give him a mighty send of if he's retiring. But right now he is a Vice Captain. Vice captains shouldn't hear footsteps. What example does that set to the young players?I'm pretty sure Aaron knows this himself. Would you want Dean Bailey going up to him and saying, bad luck about taking a few short steps and unlucky on those umpiring decisions, I'm not having a go at you because it's clear to me you had a sore knee. Have a look at the footage, if you are content that a sore knee stopped him going back on that ball then that's fair enough. To me it looked like he didn't want to put the body on the line.

Our tactics weren't ballsy. They were drop a man behind, stay close enough and hope to steal a win late. Looking at Carlton though, they seem to be a top 4 contender based on Waite and a few clever smalls up forward, the guns in the middle and a backline that works together well. I think we certainly have the good backline and whilst we don't have a Judd but we have a whole crop of young midfielders coming through. So really all the we lack is a good structure, 20 odd of our better players fit and some targets up forward. That's the questions I'd be asking Bailey. 1. Can you get this group playing consistent football for you 2. Is there a structure in their somewhere 3. What's your answer up forward If he can demonstrate points 1 and 2 by the end of the year and provide a logical answer to question 3 then I'd reappoint him.

Anyone heard the story that on mad Monday Scully was at a pub and walked passed some smokers. He caught a bit of passive smoke so immediately went home and went for a 5km run to punish himself for copping second hand smoke. Not sure if its true or not. If it is it's a fanatical commitment to being the best, which is either very good or crazy.

The knee injury didn't prevent him going back with the flight or giving away stupid 50m penalties. I can't understand sub par performances, but won't excuse his complete lack of on field leadership displayed in that St Kilda game.

From Blease: productive day off, a bit of touch work and then a walk in the bay with the sculldog! Maybe he reads demonoland?

Martin has played time and time again as a forward. He can provide a bit at CHF, but you want a true CHF not a ruckman playing that position. And deep forward he hasn't been up to it, if he has he can't kick accurately at goal anyway.Why can't you rest him down back. Rivers, Frawley and Garland all need a rest during the game even if they are small rests. So put Martin down back when the opposition ruck is resting forward. This is only an issue when he is second ruck anyway. But this week has a logical solution. Use Martin in the ruck for half the game and both back and forward. Use Gawn in the ruck for the other half of the game and rest him forward. Play Tom McDonald primarily down back but Martin can swap with him if he's struggling and he can then go forward with the simple aim of making a contest.

In hindsight yes, but Warnock hadn't been that bad the previous weeks so probably deserved his spot over McDonald. Same goes for Newton who whilst full of his usual brain fades against the saints wasn't completely disastrous and Gawn only had one game of VFL seniors since been dropped. The VFL bye the week before hurt his chances. Get them both in this week. Gawn to ruck with a short stint up forward and McDonald to take one of Ryder, Hille or Hurley. If one of them gets hold of him then Martin can rest out of the ruck to full back and McDonald can provide a contest up forward.

They are fit, quick, work well as a team within a structure and are committed to doing the hard stuff. Who cares how good they actually are that's enough to beat us right there. The bye has helped them freshen up. If Watson and Hurley don't play then we might be competitive, but I doubt it.

The press is pretty simple, up to 18 players zoned in strategic locations crowding space with the aim of forcing you into a turnover. They use the advantage that deep in your back 50 you have to kick it forward. Much like defenders have it easier than forwards because they can go 360 degrees with their possession and don't have to put it between 2 sticks. So take a few defence measures: 1. Put a ruckman/key postion player leading to 60m out on a boundary. 2. Put a few backmen, generally those with speed and good skills deep in your defence (ie. man up the zone in close). These players are to be used in case of a quick turnover as well as to link up with the short targets. For us this should be Davey, Tapscott, Grimes, Garland, Strauss, Trengove etc. Not Warnock or Bartram. Then you have 2 options: 1. Load up one area of the ground with players and kick long to it. Generally 60m out on a flank but down the guts is another option. 2. Use the advantage you have, in that your players can run anywhere and in any direction. Make players lead hard into the spaces and kick to them. A couple of well placed kicks even if they are diagonal and you are out to your 50m arc. From there a big long kick might get you over the back of the zone. The other important way to beat the press is to kick out quickly when a quick behind is scored. Right now, due to our injuries, I'm more concerned about our lack of forward pressure (which stems from ONE simple thing which is work rate - of the forwards to be chase and tackle, and of the mids to pick up the men dropping back) than our ability to beat a good press.