DeeSpencer

Hore was added to cover Joel Smith. Howes can’t defend, Adams is a baby. It’s either Disco or the Tomplods, I’m happy to have Hore to cover our 2nd and 3rd talls. We need to add forwards/rucks as the list spots come available. Some finality on the Smith ban should open a spot

Ravens 7-12 Niners 1-6

And the other 30 or so who did the full session would’ve got the loads needed to get through matches so they don’t all ping them in round 1

They might go taller with Hore as a 4th taller option, depending on match ups and with McVee adding more run and rebound to his game, but I generally expect Hore to compete with the talls. He’s always played above his height. My answer on who’s ahead hasn’t change tho. Marty doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat. Howes is still developing and unless it comes quickly (which it might) his lack of contested game would drive Steve May mad.

His build is great, he looks fit and athletic, and he found the ball a couple of times in match sim, but he’s coming from a mile back that’s all. I hope he’s improved enough to get some touches at VFL level or they can find him a lower level

Verrall does a few promising things, a tackle, a mark, a ground ball get, KFW is still a mile off.

He always finds space well at training but I didn’t seem him win a contest all day and he was spoiled easily by Bowey, same old Schache in case anyone expected anything different

It’s a deep backline group but it’s not as well rounded as 2021. May took a bit of a step back the last 2 years, Lever still battling niggles. Tom and Tommo are fringe talls without the mobility or height to stop elite forwards. Disco isn’t quite there. Hore might be the best player out of that group. McVee is great but isn’t prime Hibberd. And we lack true top end pace in the flankers and truly elite kicking of Salo goes on ball and Gus back. Bowser is ready for more tho. Still a strong backline group but not as good as they once were. The midfield needs to come back together to near 2021 levels and the forward line needs to get back to that and even beyond, which is can if we get Fritsch, JVR and Petty all firing.

Very different roles but I’d pick Hore as the 3rd tall over Howes as a flanker right now.

I was looking for him in the first period but I think if he was involved it was on the far wing to where I was. He was on the wing in the later periods when Hunter was rested and he got involved a bit, showed some pace but seemed to miss his kicks.

Team impressions: More focus on run and carry and forward handball More full ground spread and switching in the match sim which was great to see McQualter vocal in drills and in revving up his blue side. Tracc and Viney are both rolling, but with Clarry sidelined, Gus smartly being held back (and down back) and Salo and Sparrow out for now it's hard to judge the 2 way impact of the midfield Individual impressions: Howes: I'm not quite there yet, can nail quick penetrating kicks but still very thin and has too many contests where he doesn't impact the ball or the body Kolt: very busy half forward, marks cleanly over head, puts in the work rate, moves the ball well by hand, not perfect by foot but there's some good decisions mixed in and bobs up in dangerous places Windsor: He found a really good chunk of the footy in the match sim. Kicking wasn't quite in sync and even missed some handballs as he gets up to the pace of AFL level but I was impressed by how he was getting the ball and the number of defensive efforts he produces. He'll lay a tackle or get a hand in to cut off a kick or handball a fair bit. Jed Adams: Didn't see a heap of contests with him involved but there were times he linked up or swooped on to loose balls and used it really well. Marty Hore: looks really comfortable JVR: Last year he bashed and crashed with Petty and Hibbo most of the summer and he held his own against quality defenders, where others and the media were hyping him up I was more cautious as to his early season prospects. He wasn't up against that same quality today but what I saw was a real presence with the way he draws the ball. Billings: I reported above that he underwhelmed me in the handball drills, a little fumbly, didn't hold his tackles, didn't dish it cleanly. The match sim was an entirely different thing. Time and time again he found pockets of space to receive the ball and then quickly and accurately moved it on. Kind of left feeling conflicted that he might be our best ball user and not by a small margin. As someone skeptical of his recruitment and aware of his injury history it feels every uneasy to witness just how important the was.

I asked Chatgpt for 500 words of Star Trek fan fiction to honour Pickett Fence but what it produced was too magical to share. Melk looks just about ready to go! I'm sure they'll hold him back but he's doing a lot of moving around and kicking. Lever on the bike. BBB in the tent. Jeffo doing a bunch of whatever. AMW with a really solid running sessions, had Ricky Korda Mentha with him for a bit. Sparrow in and out of some running. Totally agree that Salo looks fitter than he has in a long time. Not sure if he's lost weight or if he's just added a lot of core strength. He did a huge session of sprints and longer runs. Petty was in full drills early then taken out. Hunter in full stuff until about half way through the match sim when he went for some run throughs. After some warm up drills the first competitive one they went in to was a 2 way handball drill, split in 2 different groups. A middle group with an extra mid going both ways and then a group out on the wing that had 3 different back flankers taking turns to run off the back off the drill for overlap. It was Rivers, Bowey and McVee. I was impressed by Laurie's quick skills at times but he's a guy who takes it on and will make the occasional error. Petty was in the drill and looked strong and agile. Riv and McVee have great moments of burst off the line. McAdam's a bit iffy at times but there's other moments where he just plants the foot and is gone, he has incredible acceleration. Billings struggled a little in this, he found the contest a bit hot. Then it was time for a couple of periods of 14 a side match sim. Starting midfields of Viney, Pickett, Spargo in white and Tracc, Laurie and Billings in blue. With Windsor and Brown on one wing and the starting wings on the other. The first period was high class. Howes hit up Fritsch with a couple of beautiful kicks. A Seston dart in to corridor found Fullarton and on to Billings then Chandler close to goal. Spargo hit up Viney charging through the middle, who spread it wide to Windsor on a forward flank, he rolled inside and actually missed Koltyn who picked it up on the bounce and dished a handball to ANB for the snap. The second period was a bit messier as teams stepped up their pressure. Verrall nailed Spargo in a tackle. JVR out marked Adams and T Mc with relative ease. After about 4 errors in a row Tracc swooped on a contest and cleanly set up a goal. Melk was on the boundary with plenty of advice for the guys coming off and had a long chat to McAdam. Then it was more 2 way handball. This time it was Howes, Gus and Bowey in the orange bibs. I noticed Laurie in pink going both ways in the other group. And then handed over to Viney. I mostly watched the close group but I did look up to see JVR just destroy a Viney fend off and eat him up in a tackle. Fritter also sling tackled Bowser in to next week but let go before any damage done. I saw more tackling from Fritsch today than I've ever seen his career. Might've been one more match sim period in there somewhere then I left as they were moving in to more craft stuff with the talls working doing some lead up contest work, wingers and new guys some ground balls and the rest kicking goals on the run from 40.

Even then it’s not a huge issue as long as the ruck is physical or big enough to make sure the opponent can’t hit it 360 degrees. Pedersen was great at that, he’d crash in at make the taps very predictable so our mids could either shark the taps or just crunch the receiver. Brown doesn’t have the bulk but he has the height and long limbs to try to mess with an opponents taps. He’s been generally fine to my eye when he takes boundary thrown ins inside 50. Yep I’d never enter a game with the plan for Ben to be the second ruck, just more an option if the game goes a certain way. Brown’s now at the stage where I see little need to protect him unless his form is far better and he’s our main goal kicker. So if he’s in the side and JVR is on fire I’d just throw Ben in after the centre bounces to have a run around.

I really hope he’s up to it because for the sake of Max and JVR getting through the year we need the extra tall body. The training highlight clips have shown glimpses of his mobility and skills, but if he’s a mobile, skilled tall he’s not getting a game because we can substitute that with Fritsch and McAdam. He has to either be good enough as a ruck to be worth spelling Max for significant chunks of the game and/or do enough genuine tall forward things up front Ie. Win or halve marking contests. There’s been a few not so great marking efforts in some of the training clips too.

Hit outs don’t really matter and Brown’s a smart footballer who reads the play well. He plonked himself at CHB in very short patches in some games just to fill the zone. Defensive pressure out of centre bounces would be close to zero tho, so he’d have to stay down and just stay defensive side. I guess what I’m saying is for 5 minutes a quarter we could probably get away with it if JVR was on fire forward and BBB had to get in to the game. But otherwise it’s either 3 talls with JVR or Fullarton as the 3rd or we go with 2 talls.

Howes won’t be taking Judd’s spot, he’s our number 1 lockdown man and we don’t have a lot of other options. Blake will be pushing to replace whichever of Salem or Riv go on ball (assuming there’s an opening which their might not be if Gus is folding back). I expect Howes will leave a little to be desired defensively especially comparing with our strong standards, but if he’s ready I hope we give him a block of games because his run could be great. It wasn’t always great footy but the way ease with which he racked up disposals and covers the ground stood out at Casey. And he had an ability to get the ball back through the corridor. We need those fresh legs.

I’m not especially worried about midfield depth. I know Rivers hasn’t done it much but he’s fit, strong, aggressive, can win the ball in traffic, there’s a lot of reasons for confidence. Same with a fit Salem. There’s a lot to like about Pickett in bursts and I’m a believer in ANB offering something on ball too. And what I really like is the options all complement our midfield bulls which is a desperately needed breath of fresh air. I’m more concerned about covering the guys we move. Tracc forward is an easy one if we can spare him. Gus back in the right role. Are Howes, Laurie, Woey ready and will McAdam, Billings, Fullarton, Hore or any of the young kids prove upgrades and allow more experimentation? Apart from a little Laurie buzz we aren’t hearing too much yet.

Not worried about size for Salem assuming he’s healthy and can knee weight on, he’s always been a willing tackler and a smart contested player who uses his body well. Plus he’ll be the 3rd or 4th contested option rather than a main guy. He’s there to receive than handballs from the first possession players. Agree he needs his burst back but I think that’s easier to hide on ball than half back. Especially if we want to really run from the backline this year.

Wouldn’t be bad news if he was out for 38 weeks, yet alone back by Wednesday

Jewish members (many self described as Zionists hence Zion the fat Pelican’s for NBA fans) have merged the Cranbourne golf club with Huntingdale and will eventually sell Cranbourne and have a 100 million dollar war chest to put in to community sport. https://www.australianjewishnews.com/clubs-multi-million-dollar-plan/amp/ The rumour I’ve heard is they are eyeing off Caulfield as an area for community sport and to host a Maccabi games. A partnership with council management could be successful but 100 million and strong sway in the community could have them eyeing it off all for their own use.

No, no Yes Pretty much yes

Nope, I’m sure those people will exist especially with trees coming down for bike lanes on queens parade but not the rumour I’ve heard.

Nope Might not even be a rival at all, could be a partnership if they don’t overuse the ovals, it’s just a rumour to me of another group wanting the site

Not seeing many guesses!

Well I can’t just give it up easily now can I? A group of famous overweight pelicans have had a good Huntin’ and might make-a-bee line for their piece of the heartland to host some games