DeeSpencer

Head says no point contesting the Syvlia one, heart says do it.

Dunn is the answer. Oh [censored] me dead. You can't have a forward line set up with a whole bunch of midsized talls. Sometimes it works beautifully and you get a good mismatch, but what you really need is a set up the complements each other. You may have noticed Sylvia got a tonne of footy and kicked 5 goals mainly because he got the right spots today and did some clever crumbing work. We need another small forward to do the same, and then need our talls to get to the right spots as well. In simple, we need structure.

Disposal by foot, in particular disposal by foot out of the backline is the least of our worries. Especially as Strauss, Grimes, Tapscott, Blease, Bennell mature together and join the key defenders (Garland, Rivers, Frawley) who kick very well for talls. The midfield (mainly in terms of numbers and class) and forward line (in terms of set up and defensive work) are our biggest problems.

Laid a good tackle in the third quarter on King, his defensive work isn't terrible. His accountability is no worse than Tapscott at this stage. If you look at the difference between him and Bennell in terms of accountability you understand the benefit of real preseasons and 30 odd more games. He could be the sub again next week, followed by a full game against Port.

I'm seriously seeing the potential now. Great speed and kicks those fast bullet passes that can slice through an opposition, combined well with Watts and Jurrah off half forward a couple of times. Needs to work on his accountability but that should come. Big preseason is a must!

Green, Davey, Morton when will these guys ever show something. Well done to Sylvia, but lets hope he can back it up at least against average opponents in the next 2 weeks. The experience our young running defenders are gathering - Blease, Bennell, Tapscott, Strauss, Nicholson should really be useful, but we need to stick with these guys. We now need some young small forwards and to increase the midfield. McKenzie and Trengove can't do it all going forward. I think Scully was very worried about his knee today. Sneaky suspicion we might not see him in the red and blue again.

Akermanis at the bulldogs - signed on for a cheap deal so decided to do other media work, ended in one hell of a disaster which ruined their season and effectively closed their premiership window.We won't go near Fev. There is only one club who should remotely entertain the prospect and as crazy as it sounds that is Carlton.

I put that bit in just for you, and because I'd never heard of other giants of League one like Yeovil Town and Stevenage.

So the pea hearts come back in, I sense because the club thinks they can win this game. Great. Todd Viney's tough stance didn't last long. If Morton is the sub it will be an epic failure again. Will Davey really play off half back? Can Rivers play tight on Vickery, he was close to been destroyed by him last time we played. Can Stef Martin play forward (and long term he needs to play forward) and make an impact?

Why not Melbourne City United Sheffield Wednesday MK Dons Demons Football Club. Now if that doesn't get the boys together and get the crowds in then what will.

He's led 2 grand finals in time on in the last 2 years. He made changes last year in the grand final that got his team back in a game that was slipping away. As far as I'm concerned he was the dominant coach from 2009-2010 and after an inevitable drop off this year all of a sudden he can't coach now. Look at the errors Michael Voss made, look at how Matthew Knights ended up, what exactly are Mark Harvey and Brad Scott doing, they certainly don't seem to be threatening anything. Look at how Dean Bailey ended up. We are practically in the same situation as West Coast last year, and (as he was contracted) they backed Worsfold (who apparently had no gameplan and the game had gone past) in and will now finish top 4 this year. We didn't back Bailey in, but maybe going for an experienced coach will get us up the ladder in the quickest time. Eade would have learnt a tonne from this year and I'm sure would love to implement it.

This is laughable. The whole idea of development senior coaches and teaching senior coaches and finishing senior coaches is crap. You are the senior coach, your roll is to develop players individually, to develop the side and finish it off with a flag. If you can't teach the players yourself then you have to negotiate with your football department to make sure you have the right people doing it and that you are overseeing it well.Matthews is now an old man who isn't up to speed with modern tactics or physical preparation. Roos I agree on, but he's got no desire to do it, same goes for Clarkson. If Malthouse really was so arrogant and smug then he wouldn't have the relationship that he does with his players, nor would he have the best team in the comp. As for Garry Lyon, I couldn't imagine anyone who would rev me up less. Ross Lyon has never coached a premiership either, but I'd have him any day of the week and I extend that theory that you don't have to win a premiership to be a great coach to Eade. In a lot of ways appointing him would be gutsier than just picking a Sanderson, Neeld or McCartney. You can defend assistant coaches records all day long, Eade's record is there to be knocked down, but I think it's actually pretty good.

Not just Duigan but Puopolo and Lower as well. They might well be the best 3 mature age pick ups from last years draft (besides Jeremy Howe!). I'm very surprised one of the top clubs hasn't convinced him to sign on as a development coach already, but maybe Bassett prefers being in charge. I'd probably prefer the safer option of either Malthouse, Eade or one of the top line assistants like Neeld, but if the panel thought Bassett was the man then I'd embrace that decision.

On footy classified Selwood pretty much admitted that the drama of Ablett and Thompson's relationship with Ablett +/- his lack of desire coach the next year affected them. And I agree that the Scully drama and the Bailey/Schwab/Connolly drama has hurt us this year. If we can fix our problems then I certainly agree we will improve. But that would be good if it was a spot in the 8.

The third one was the killer, that's a soda for any AFL player and he missed by a huge margin. The pressure of the other 2 misses combined with his substandard kicking clearly weighed on him. The other 2 in isolation where shocking kicks, but probably forgivable if he pushed them or scraped them. Still better than Morton's effort in the first quarter. That was pure tripe. Let's celebrate Blease. Who showed good pace, solid kicking (with a good technique) and most importantly a will to compete I wasn't convinced he had. If he can get his fitness up there should be no reason he can't do a solid tagging job. Big preseason for Sam!

Delist Warnock, Maric and Wona and trade Morton if the value is right. Then also see if we can unload Bate regardless of what we get for him. He's not worth keeping and I'm sure he'll be happy to move on. We don't want too many picks in this draft. Keep Evans, Nicholson and Lawrence. If Scully goes, then it might be worth keeping Maric, because by the latter picks in the national draft their might not be much left.

His kicking for goal is usually straighter than his field kicking I agree, and none of his misses were as bad as Morton's!!! They crazy thing is, I think after last year Bartram got a 2 year deal, as he was threatening to walk if he didn't get 2 years. I'm not sure what exactly has led to our players all having over hyped opinions of themselves, but in the future I say we just let them go.

So the title of the thread is about footskills. Then you talk about the next coach. Then you talk about delistings. Then you talk about players out of contract. Great thread. The next coach should teach our players how to play football, and naturally part of that is how to kick. But how to win the ball and how to use the ball by hand to get out of trouble (and not in trouble) is just as important.

Nicholson was probably an option today, but Kerr would have racked up 30 touches. The others I'm not so sure about. Dunn doesn't look fit enough at the moment, Bail is injured and McKenzie I think is better served just trying to win the ball instead of tagging every week.Really what is highlighted here is that we are short on athletically gifted midfield types (and might get shorter if we lose Scully). I'm hoping in the rookie draft (or main draft this year if the players are good enough) we pick up a few experienced gun running state league midfielders as it will help put pressure on others to get a game.

In case you were wondering about Aaron Davey.... Really Sylvia played pretty deep today, and his second half wasn't horrible. I'd still rather Sylvia at FF than the skipper. It's beyond me why he hasn't taken a turn at half back yet, especially considering Stef Martin plays most a game in the back pocket.

Doesn't sound like too many Demons played this week. I'd also like to know who of the Emergencies played. I'm happy for Fev, if he's playing he may as well play well. Sounds like Bater played well, but I think his papers are marked at AFL level for the dees. Bennell and Jetta make any inroads to getting back in the side?

This has probably been done to death in other threads so don't reply if you don't have to, but personally I think he had a very valid point.

His preseason showed he can play as a forward pocked, but he hasn't been up to it regularly in the real stuff. I think if he played in a top side he could be good enough to be in and out of the team in his best position which is FP, but thats about it.

I say we get a new coach to bring the players back together, and make some players really decide if they will fix big wholes in their game. Under Bailey we had players with a few good strengths but way too many weaknesses. But after that we will have quite a few rookie pics - I'd keep Nicholson and Evans, but at this stage Lawrence is 50/50 and McNamara, Campbell, Johnston and Newton appear gone - so I'd look to take a couple of strong state league mature midfielders just to increase the competition for midfield spots. I'd get some Valenti/Curnow/Barlow/Lower etc types in to boost the general competition for spots, leadership and fitness levels. If they turn out any good then that's great, but if they don't we've only used up our last couple of pics in the rookie draft.

Garland is mixing good with horrible. He needs to get his hands out in front to get a handball off and wear a bit more contact. But I wouldn't drop him yet. I hate Bate (see him as a waste of time) and Strauss is out. Bartram served up a lot of rubbish footy. Jamar walks in if fit. Besides that I'd just pick the top 2 or 3 in the VFL. Dropping the experience players might just lead to bigger loses.