DeeSpencer

Their rules can be bent, stretched, and waived at any time. Adelaide just got permission to replace Strachan who easily could be back before the end of the year (not to undermine the difficultly of a navicular in to a heel stress fracture). And they got to hold the announcement from Friday to Monday for the vibes. But their favourite certainly is reviewing rules over a painstaking period of time until they get a good result and then either overreacting or creating further grey areas.

8th in the best and fairest in a team that won 11 games. LEARN BALL

He’s at Casey, hence why he’s been training with us all summer when we didn’t have a list spot until McAdam went down. The problem with stashing someone until mid year is it’s a draft so if Culley is as good as some seem to think he might need to tank his stock somehow. I also think we’ll look closely at defenders both now (if we get a pick which seems unlikely) and at mid year.

Chandler was 8th in the best and fairest last year. The rest of our small forwards are injured or suspended. Can people please learn about modern footy and the value of defensive pressure and positioning of small forwards.

Daniel is significantly shorter again than Bowey and lost speed. So whilst his prime was elite he was only ever half a yard from becoming a liability, he can’t win a one on one in the air against anyone. Where as I trust Bowser on most half forwards under 185cm unless they’re gun small foward types. Zorko is of a similar height, lesser one on one defender and just played a great part in a flag. He’s a brilliant kick of course, but he’s also had 300 games and 15 years to work on that kicking. I do agree Bowser’s kicking has never reached the heights I was hoping for. But he’s also played the last 3 years in our take no risks, have no flow or run game plan. Let’s see if adding some more guys who want the ball in transition encouragers our kickers to start kicking it to them! Maybe Bowser’s ceiling is a B+ zoning half back defender and B+ attacker and that’s ok. It does mean you need someone else to bring the elite kicking and someone else the run as well as the lock down backs but there’s 7 spots down back.

Sharp’s field kicking and decision making are both young Nibbla at best! He’s going to burn some chances and upset the same people currently arguing with you. Will be interesting to see if his finishing in front of goal remains stronger (if he can keep generating chances). The combination of the goals not moving and snaps being easier for guys with shaky kicking techniques are both in his favour.

Judd’s clearly the better back pocket but he was caught in no man’s land a million times as a flanker last year, especially early in the year. Bowey’s defensive strength is he reads the play very well for a young player and can come up and spoil but also drop back to fill gaps. Excellent for his height and overall solid in the air and knows how to use his body. Attacking wise neither get enough of the footy to be great. Judd currently gets the edge due to his ability to escape congestion and his very efficient ball use. But I do whilst not elite Bowser’s kicking has a different gear with distance and penetration. Last year was just about a write off for Bowser after a nasty injury. I’m very confident we’ll see a much improved player this year. The only thing holding him back is Windsor and Salem might be the go to rebounders.

I bet they’ll blame the clubs for the scheduling of unofficial practice matches.

I like how Cal calls it a quirk rather than complete and utter balls up

A strong grab, a beautiful pick up and dish off, numerous well timed leads. If it was year 1 for him we'd be ecstatic. If it was year 2 we'd be really happy. It's year 3 so I think the correct opinion is to be just a fraction underwhelmed but at the same time he did show things.

Reverse ladder order at the time of the draft. If we have a list spot and want to use it then no doubt Culley and Roy will both be in consideration but no guarantees.

He’s bouncing

He got better the longer the game went and does stick to his task. But mostly the 2 main competitors for his job got injured today (plus McVee is already out).

Confirmed Kynan Brown and assume AJ as they were subbed on for the first match. Jed Adams would’ve but he was subbed on for Hore early in the first game. The others named in the 29 man squad were Sestan, Mentha, Verrall and Fullarton so I’d expect they’d be playing

I’d say we sat fairly deep especially against the wind, but half backs were getting forward. Bowey narrowly missed a goal and AMW had at least one inside 50. Hore came off early for Adams so we were bigger than we wanted inside d50. With so many first choice backs out it probably hampered our ball movement but there was a plan to use corridor and we saw some targeted kick outs to Petty. Midfield seemed to focus on cutting off the corridor but weren’t exactly busting it both ways. That said, I expected LDU, Powell and especially Sheezel to get us in space more. Forward spacing (as much as it can be seen from tv) seemed drastically different. The wind incentivised long and strong but we did have plenty of kicks to JVR, Disco and Jeffo leading up. Rivers, Pickett and Clarry all looked to run the ball and especially as the game opened up they found space.

AJ came on fresh in the ruck against a teenager and looked great but that doesn’t mean we need him for the 15% of game time Max will rest. Jeffo was chosen because he replaced Fritsch which allowed Turner and JVR to play their roles as they will round 1. Im yet to see anything that changes my mind that we will just play the 2 talls, Fritsch, Tracc and Langford.

FB: Petty May Howes HB: Salem Lever Bowey C; Billings Rivers Lindsay/Woey HF: Sharp Turner Langford FF: Chandler JVR Fritsch Foll: Gawn Oliver Langdon Int: Windsor, Viney, Tracc, Sparrow S: Lindsay/Woey Smokies: AJ, Henderson, AMW (if healthy), Jeffo, T Mc, Brown, Laurie Out: T Mc In: May Out: AMW In: Windsor Out: Hore/Adams In: Salem Out: Pickett In: Langdon Out: Jeffo In: Fritsch Out: Woey/Lindsay In: Tracc Out: Laurie In: Viney Out: Campbell In: Gawn

That was my suspicion, often hurts more than acl. Hoping for the best

Looks like AJ and Kynan Brown running out to warm up, suspect they’ll sub a couple more off (perhaps JVR and Oliver)?

Nice ball movement they’re going side to side through the middle but the Laurie inside 50 kick was not great and the free kick was fortunate. Hope we use the last quarter to keep the ball rolling

I’m worried about Hore getting subbed off for Adams. Anyone got an update on Marty?

The class of el Jefe! (Nice finish from Sharp too)

North got the rub if the first half but wow that’s a decision. Save those for round 1

Picket fence said put it over the fence!

Adam just got out marked but he had first hands on the ball in a pack for the third time since he’s come on. Really good start