DeeSpencer

Yeah they were all absolutely spent. Probably could’ve taken a short to Langdon but that’s about it. If he went short to Langdon then Gawn would’ve had more time to get down the line, can potentially force a throw in. But at the same time we scrapped and won that contest and Viney somewhat picked a decent option to move it on quickly on his right and short in to space along the boundary. Unfortunately it came off his boot at exactly the wrong speed and went straight to Weitering. There’s a lesson in the value of dual sided skills that I hope our kids are being trained up in. Viney came to the club when good development was not completely ruining a player within 3 years.

And she does!

Hope Banno has avoided serious injury. Running game hasn’t clicked today in to the wind. And a slack period with it. Backline needs some fresh legs I think. Godly has lost a yard and Birch continues to decline.

Pretty sure this started because some Crows nuff on Twitter thought McAdam for Petty and a pick is a good deal. Adelaide being such a small town it then bounces around and comes back as some form of valid rumour.

Hoping we get big Stuey Dew in for the mids or forwards. Always played us tough and plays a no nonsense long kicking style (that didn’t work but was fun). Not sure if he’ll move from NSW but Mark McVeigh did a good job as caretaker of the Giants and is now coaching the Swans academy and Allies under 18’s. He’d bring some fresh ideas.

My understanding is he’s made improvements but isn’t there yet, I don’t think he’ll ever have the tank for a wingman, could have the tank for a mid who rests forward. Or a back who takes on ball spurts. I just think he’s very valuable down back and the rush to get him in to the middle is a bit misconceived. But it also depends on who we draft this year, if we take a mid or a forward mid who’s somewhat ready to play then keep Riv back. If we go tall, a back or a small forward we might be looking at Riv in to the midfield mix sooner

Retire: Hibbo, BBB, McDonald Delist: Dunstan, D Smith, ?K Turner Trade: Grundy, JJ (FA), Harmes, Tomlinson 9 or 10 out. Trade for: 1 x ruck (replacing Grundy) 1 x forward/ruck (T Mc) 1 x quality tall or barring that a swing man tall (BBB) 1 x McAdam 1 x midfield depth Take 4-5 picks in the drafts including at least 2 quality picks (ie. 1/20, 6/7, 6/15/20)

Tom started the last quarter on the pine, played 5 minutes in the ruck during which he was fine, then one quick stint forward before back to the pine. The opportunity was to go small up forward and we stuck with that. Schache on would’ve meant one of Smith or Fritsch comes off or we go taller and lose defensive pressure and shape. Should’ve they have picked Grundy over Tom or as sub? Maybe, because you’d trust him to ruck for 5 minutes a quarter better than Tom, but they had no faith in Grundy up forward. Should they have gone with a small sub? Hibbo, Laurie or Woey. Again, maybe. But Hibbo isn’t helping our backline coming on fresh and is no use if we have an early injury to a non defender. Laurie clearly no use for an early injury. They went the tall as sub because that was the most use if we copped an early injury. After last week it was perfectly understandable why they chose the sub for insurance rather than a last quarter impact. And the only player they could’ve subbed off was T Mc who they stuck with for 2 short stints.

Not sure they correlate. Bedford was flighty at the contest and butchered it. He needed more time developing before a chance came. Not a different position. If Rivers runs like a mid and we have half backs he’ll play mid, but I suspect he’s actually a half back. Sparrow might’ve got too much midfield time. Not idea what happened with Kosi mid year, maybe off field stuff, but he bounced back well. Can’t wait to see him in rounds 2-3 next year. The biggest issue is how half forward is nearly purely a defensive spot for us because we don’t use it fast enough to get them in space. Half back and midfield bounce opens attacking space for the half forwards. We could have Tracc, Fritsch, Pickett and Petty across half forward next year, one of the most dynamic half forward lines in the comp and the plan all summer should be send it to them.

I doubt we’re getting even a high 2nd given his injuries and in that case we’d only be doing it for cap relief/list turnover. Salo had a really nasty knee injury (thanks to a sliding in Tarryn Thomas), got OP when he came back, had his health issue and then copped injuries this year. Awful 2 year stint. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a change of luck. We are at our best when he’s getting 30 touches and controlling things from half back. I wouldn’t change that unless we have a plan on how the cap space can be better spent.

A big worry going forward is if Gawn can’t grab it from the middle he’s basically a traffic cone in their. Clarry lost his chemistry with the other mids and was rusty. Whoever the back up ruck next year is needs to do more centre bounces for Max before pushing forward. And we need pace in there, have to commit to Pickett. I’d love to see Chandler who’s underrated at stoppages. And some fresh talent.

Certainly time for Max to step down, could be Viney/Lever or Lever/Tracc co captains rather than straight Lever. I’m just not fully on board with Lever if we are still experimenting with different backline set ups, which will probably will be. I expect it will be Disco Turner’s job to lose in which case it won’t be all smooth sailing for Lever

Salem gave it everything last night but his decision making was likely impacted by his own trust in his fitness, speed, penetration. He’s had a nightmare 2 years of injury. I hope and expect he’ll bounce back with a full preseason. We need to play a 3rd wingman next year and take the load off Hunter and Langdon in season and get them fresher for the big games if they’re still up for it. Have to experiment with asking them to be more creative rather than consistently wide and defensive side too. If you always know your wingers are out for the easy option you’ll always take it. But the trade off is you’re hemmed in at half back with no room to attack.

Lever should’ve got a 50m penalty, he was assaulted by Curnow not in the contest. Unfortunately the fix was well and truly in. The slow long play was about the only option after that but Max was gassed and didn’t make the drop of the ball. The painful thing is Viney didn’t straight out panic. If he did he’d have sent the ball 50m down the line. He actually took a pretty decent option and tried to punch a short kick along the boundary and unfortunately he got just the wrong amount of contact to get in to Weiterng’s arms. Any more or less contact with the ball and it’s perfect.

BBB - wouldn’t still be on a list of any other elite sport in the world Dunstan - 2’s player Woey - had a taste as a kid Laurie - can argue he could’ve had more chances but only would’ve proven he’s not up to it yet Hibbo - played plenty Melk - was awful the last few years in any role other than his tall disruptor role Tomlinson - how this guy has any fans is beyond me, just a very ordinary footballer Spargo - struggled to adapt to the new high contact rule, he’ll be back JJ - meh, it’s JJ. The idea we should make 3-4 changes week in week out isn’t selection integrity. It’s Luke Beveridge style nonsense that doesn’t help anyone

Salem goes to half forward where he can't run like an AFL standard half forward due to his injury and illness impacted prep, that opens us up defensively. For every nice set up kick (which there'd be about 3 for the game resulting in 1 extra goal) we'd leak without proper pressure. Not to mention we lose our best defensive sweeper and replace him with whom? Hibbo with no run left in the tank who was only used as a full back/back pocket all year? There has to be changes in to next year. Starting with trading and drafting some quality. Plus the development and opportunity given to someone like Howes especially who was consistently just a bit off AFL level in the contest this year but should be expected to bridge that gap over summer. We've made some list management mistakes sticking with the 2021 crew. But we've also been hard pressed by the cap, by losing Jackson and even Bedford and by some bad contracts we've had to carry. Watch the Goody presser. They've been transitioning the side bringing in some kids to have a go this year with JVR and McVee especially proving best 22. They're going to get some contracts off the books and have a strong draft hand this year. There's plenty of reason for optimism around personnel giving us more flexibility in where players play.

We shouldn't have given him another contract. We didn't trust him to be better than Tommy Mc. That's hardly a surprise. 3/4 time, you know you need 10 minutes out of a tall. 5 in the ruck. 5 forward. Do you stick with Tom McDonald or bring on Schache. I'm sticking with Tom McDonald.

He last quarter stint was no worse than the rest of his efforts and they didn’t trust Schache to do any better than that.

Bringing in Hunter (shame he was cooked, should’ve stuck with our poor kick plan and gone for Acres, the most Melbourne player to never play for melbourne). Drafting: Rivers, Bowey, Laurie, Howes, McVee. Attempting to move Harmes. Seemingly not been all that keen to keep JJ. Training 3 second or less ball movement all summer. Switching a lot more this year and even attempting more corridor kicks. I think they know exactly what’s wrong but there’s no point throwing the baby out with the bath water. Contested footy still dominates finals and neither side had more than moments with a fraction of space tonight. Last week was our big chance and we made too many errors when we had options to open space and convert. Tonight we gave absolutely everything and had a disgraceful amount go against us and did everything but win. Healthy key forwards, a sprinkling of class and some fresh legs in the running players and the balance of the game style will correct itself a lot, whilst keeping our strengths.

Tom did his spell in the ruck and a brief spell forward then rode the pine for most of the last. Max rucked the end of the game straight. Fritsch, Smith was the preferred forward line up. No need to sub Schache for Tom because the coaches had no interest in either of them up forward and that’s fine by me.

Wow the last time I sure a steaming pile of nonsense that big it was Marc Pittonet

Because he stank every time he didn’t have a match up and he was fairly stinky in patches tonight giving goals to TDK. The coaches went horses for courses down back all year and managed the best they could, still didn’t have enough run or skill tonight. Lever’s intercepting dropped off after a hot start and we needed more bounce from the backline.

Sure, tell me a team that won a premiership with Kossie Pickett, an underdone Fritsch and 5 VFL players in the forward line

Our ruck and only key forward (and best goal kicker) were likely to fall apart at any given moment. Hard to blame them for keeping tall insurance

Agree, picked absolutely the right team. Need a big summer of skill work but you can’t drastically improve skills of limited players with no key forwards to influence ball movement. Healthy forwards and a touch of class will change things. Just a matter of whether we can snag a couple of ready to play forward and mid options, plus develop the likes of Howes, Woey, Laurie, Chandler who can potentially all take us forward.