DeeSpencer

If you watch the first half especially against the Suns we didn’t move it fast but we did move it from the backline with width and skill. Very similar to the Brisbane game plan. Make the ground big. Effectively spread all 18 players in to 18 positions. It wasn’t our usual lament of slowly bombing up the boundary and the other team having 3 on 1 or 4 on 2 and us bombing it to an impossible match up. Our mids would often have the ball in space with 6 on 6 ahead of them and plenty of room to work with. Unfortunately unlike Brisbane who know how to find the short or kick long with penetration to a 1 on 1 we panicked and turned it over often with extra handballs as much as kicks. The good news is our players are actively trying to not blindly bomb it. The bad news is that’s actually a worse result short term and I wonder if Viney, Oliver, Sparrow in particular will ever have any vision and poise in their kicking.

No idea if it’s true but there has been talk of Olympic park being keen for us to go for more space for Storm, Victory etc.

Yep, and whilst a future first for pick 9 (which became 11) will draw the headlines especially if we give Essendon a top 5 pick that won’t be the bit that bothers me too much. Especially if XL can become an on baller and not just a flanker/wing. Worthy dice roll. But the extra cost for pick 28 (which became 32 from the ANB trade) and 40 (roughly 46) in the trade (not so worried about 54 and 65) in a really deep draft hurts. We have to take more useful draft picks and develop them up. Constantly trading up rather than letting the draft fall to you is a way to end up with stuff all depth as we have now.

If we hadn’t signed him already I’d offer him a 1 year deal now. Heck, get back in form and I’d give him 2 more. Just madness that we gave him 3 more when not out of contract. And didn’t just do it, but made a big song and dance about how amazing it was.

Serious and correct!

Please. Look at the key forwards, flanker depth and skill level those teams had that we never did. We maximised our best year, chased the same thing in 22 (no team has gone back to back after their first flag since Brisbane) then had some stiff luck in 23. Plenty of other stuff went wrong since of which coaching is a big factor but it’s just mad to suggest any coach would’ve done better. Especially with the way our list has dropped off year on year. The reason we won a flag to begin with was we designed a game plan around our inside mids bullying sides. The reason we stink now is because that same midfield just can’t play this new style.

So for at least the first half our half back movement was hardly rapid but actually pretty solid. But every time we got it to midfield one of our horrendous mids would either bomb it, stop for no reason or do a meaningless sideways handball back in to traffic. The only guy playing with freedom was Langford. He’s hardly a great kick but he makes easy natural decisions and actual looks who he is kicking too. When he got the ball I had confidence he’d give a forward a chance. With anyone else - pure yuck. Gawn, Viney, Oliver, Tracc and Sparrow only know one way and they’re now so scared to bomb it long they aren’t even doing that when we’ve got numbers goal side. Maybe they’ll start to get the hang of it soon but until they get the balance right between the game plan and just natural smart footy they’ll be nowhere and we’ll have constant turnovers.

If Howes doesn’t get dropped the club isn’t serious. Play him whatever position you like just make sure it’s at Casey. You can’t concede 2 goals from throwing the ball because you’re afraid to get tackled and stay in the team. Honestly, the most embarrassing display I’ve ever seen from a Melbourne player.

Out: Howes, Lindsay, AJ, JVR In: Windsor, Pickett, Disco, Lever One last chance for Oliver and Fritsch FB: T MC May Rivers HB: Bowey Lever Salem C: Langdon Tracc Billings HF: Viney Petty Pickett FF: Fritsch Turner Chandler Foll: Gawn Oliver Langford Int: Windsor, Henderson, Sharp, Melk S: Sparrow Laurie in, Sparrow down back if Windsor isn’t ready

Not sure I’ll watch the replay on this one but great bounce back from Disco. Hopefully he returns to the afl side with some confidence that he’s too good for VFL

No mail but I’d be suspecting acl until proven otherwise

That’s not the equivalent deal tho. Casey is fine for its purpose. Our choice is Caulfield. I’m not in love with Caulfield as it’s a rental without extra revenue generation. But it’s also a chance to build something of our own and with 2 ovals One interesting option could be to rent Waverley if there’s a period between now and Caulfield and the Waverley buyers/owners are agreeable. Waverley does have advantages over Gosch’s.

Petty might’ve fetched 2 firsts but the crows could’ve asked for something back and they were late firsts in a really shallow first, personally still rather Petty given the state of the rest of our talls. If we move him this year or next we can get a better pick in a better draft that the stuff the Crows offered. Oliver was flat out untradeable after 2023 and last year Geelong offered us nothing. No picks and we paid plenty of the contract. If we can get his decision making somewhere from the current terrible to ok he’ll have value after this year. The only player who we really missed the window to sell for picks was Fritsch. Top 30 pick in last years draft and see you later.

As for tackling, it looked from the beginning that North had fresh legs and were comfortable in the surface. We looked heavy legged and without any confidence in the Marvel sand pit. Too many players without the power in the legs to finish tackles.

A veteran player just loping along aimlessly in the backline isn’t talk. AFL stadiums are loud, it’s mostly shambolic decision making and lack of cohesion. New game plan and new players are a factor, as is talk. but we have to be more predictable to the other players to get flow in the ball movement. A big problem with our team is our best and most experienced players all love being the heroes.

As long as they’re still best 22 it won’t hurt but I just didn’t like the messaging of it. In general though teams are all paying veterans a lot longer than they used to. North’s desperation for experience and overall shortage of talent seems to have changed the market.

We seem to have lost our ruthlessness of trimming young guys who don’t seem up to it. Verrall, Sestan, 2 years for Laurie after last preseason, sticking with Hore. Hang it on to guys who clearly aren’t up to it. Jack Henderson could be our best (only?) state league pick up in years. And even he’s probably a fairly limited depth player. AJ might be ok too. But we couldn’t find anyone in the last few drafts when we needed depth? Even now we need a good back pocket to free up our talls and flankers.

Salem’s on his original prime years longer deal signed at his peak and is back in decent form now he’s healthy again. Can’t really fault that one. It’s the extensions to the guys in their back in years which are more questionable. The justication for someone like Lever is to smooth out the money. I think that’s reasonable but if he keeps getting injured it could hurt. Langdon was out of contract last year, given our lack of run and pace it’s a big gamble to say we should’ve let him go. I was critical of the Max and Viney length of deals. Apparently the justification was they were a sign the club wasn’t falling apart. Personally I think our leaders should’ve trusted the club to go 1-2 years at a time. I guess it’s up to the players to show good faith and retire if they can’t play. The bigger issue is if we are rebuilding you are wise to give guys up when they have value. Unfortunately Tracc and Clarry had no value last year. And others we could’ve explored (Salem, Langdon) probably weren’t fetching much at all. I’m still of the belief that last year was the time to move on from Fritsch. His value certainly wouldn’t have improved through 2 weeks.

That Richmond side were freakishly good at forward handballing and running for each other. Kicking is one thing, but the big difference between us and most of our opponents is our midfield and most of our forwards have so little balance and team coordination. Jack Henderson comes in from 1 week of training and immediately looks a naturally balanced footballer. He gets himself out of congestion and disposes with a purpose. Lindsay the same. Oliver, Tracc, Sparrow and Viney only know one way and it results in a heap of handball turnovers or handballs to flat footed players who then chuck in on the boot. Chandler’s prone to it to. And Spargo does one good thing then decides he’s god gift to football searching for the perfect pass, although he deserves a bit more leeway after not playing for a year. With LDU, Powell, Sheezel, Simpkin North were balanced in and out of the contest and only Sheezel and perhaps Powell at times are good kicks.

I’m a Goodwin defender, we came out playing the right style of footy that will leak goals as you learn to master it. Made the right changes to take away North’s run. But didn’t have enough the quality to create good scoring chances especially as the legs got heavy in the 3rd. For 3/4s we stayed in the fight but lacked class and forward punch. Last quarter was diabolical but that happens when the damn wall breaks at times. Everyone’s thrown the toys out of the cot because North arent meant to be good (news flash 800 first round picks and some senior players will work it out eventually). The press conference comment was a mistake but a well intentioned one. Highlights that we still haven’t got good people around the coach. No CEO, a dud of a head of footy who fell in to the job and a poor media team. But Goody has to own it and try to take the heat off Max now. Hopefully Max is supportive, he should be, there was no ill will. Back to on field tho - it’s a work in progress trying to mold square pegs (Oliver, Tracc, Viney, Sparrow) in to round holes. Unfortunately we’ve been unwilling or unable to trade any of those out for value and are trying to win and stay up whilst we move to a new generation of midfielders. Madness to blame the coach when it’s a tricky situation that no coach would be able to get perfect.

Backline: probably keep the same 7, desperately need May, Windsor and McVee. Sestan? Hore? Adams? These are not afl footballers any more than Howes isn’t. Midfield: How do you fix the lack of run and skill??? Langdon midfield failed its first test, guess he goes back on the wing. Want to see Chandler and Henderson on ball more rather than Sparrow. Forward line: Don’t love the 3 bigs and Fritsch but what else can we do? Seen more than enough of Sharp. Out: Jeffo, Sharp, Woey In: AJ, Laurie, Langford We desperately need skilled hard runners and 3 of our best in Pickett, Windsor and Judd are unavailable. (And Kolt)

He was coughing it up by foot and hand a lot last year and it was terrible to watch but then he took one good tackle and his ribs were stuffed. So I'm going to assume he was playing with the bad ribs all year and knew he couldn't get tackled. He looked really sharp kicking the footy in the All Star game and wasn't bad against Freo. If his kicking and general ball use is as chaotic as last year it adds to the argument to give him a run up forward.

He's become predictable as the team has, and was also dead scared of getting tackled last year so was getting the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. I still think there's a good ball user in there, just got to encourage him and more runners in the backline and more midfield spread makes it easier to do that.

I don’t mind it, but I also think Tommy Mc is going to have bad days by foot (he was looking shaky late against GWS) and have days beaten for agility. So the first thing I’d do is get May in down back and have Tom as depth. That said, if May’s up forward you can always make the swing. Hopefully the young key forwards can hold their own and the backline keeps playing up tempo aggressive footy to get more supply to those talls. May’s kicking (at his best) is a vital part of that attacking backline play, if we can bring it back out of him.

Langford could come in to the side if they keep Langdon on a wing and Rivers moves back but I suspect we'll see the 3 small forwards unchanged, unless they do a like for like swap with Spargo or K Brown for instance. It's just too important to not have as many hard 2 way runners as you can get in the forward line these days.