DeeSpencer

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.

Watch the tape. Fumbly under pressure and can’t play through contact. Any threat of being tackled and he’s hot potato-ing the ball away. Stiff as a board, doesn’t bend his knees and looks like his spine is in traction Incredibly left sided. Not sure he’s turned on to his right once in 40+ touches. Limited athlete, no penetration in his kicking, no power, not tall, average speed. Aside from a lovely 15-25m hit up kick there’s not much that’s conducive to afl footy. They’ll have to completely retrain his approach to the contest and that’s very hard with a guy who’s been playing footy all his life in the top juniors. Work rate, professionalism and ability to find the pill gives him a chance but as a defensive runner (forward or mid) more than anything. He’s coming in to the system as a role player and a top 40 pick for that is unlikely.

Add Buku Khamis to the slim list of available tall forwards. More of a mid sizer at 190cm but can go back and is even willing to have a dip in the ruck. I’ve liked glimpses of the way he gets on the lead and jumps at the ball. Would fit in the category of - surely better than no one.

There’s a couple of areas that lend themselves to having chairs at Casey. Wouldn’t be hard to have a couple if designated chair areas.

JJ might be the first previously delisted free agent to move for a decent salary (he has value, it won’t be a nothing deal). latest I read on compo value. Given he’s 22 and free I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets top 50%. In fact we should offer him a 50% contract and hope whoever beats it gives him enough to get 2nd round compo: The bands are as follows: - Top five per cent = first-round pick - Top 15 per cent = end-of-first-round pick - Top 30 per cent = second-round pick - Top 50 per cent = end-of-second-round pick

Available key forward options: Chol: not the best at the contest but has a nice left foot and can ruck, has one season of good footy under his belt Patrick Voss: solidly built aggressive forward who Dons fans have wanted to see play. Not the biggest or quickest but has a go Chris Burgess: does very well in the VFL but hasn’t tasted afl for a while. Journeyman type Jacob Kositchzke: fallen out of favour at the hawks. Seems to have some athleticism and aggression but has struggled to impact It’s slim pickings out there

We need guys who can take a mark or halve contests but I’m not convinced they have to be 200cm. For instance Curnow is probably more effective than McKay even if he spots him close to 10cm. Petty and once he gets more strength JVR will be very effective at that even though they aren’t 200cm. They have the strength to wrestle and the leap to attack the drop of the ball. Jones has a leap and long limbs, I think he’s be good at that with the right development. More so we need someone to develop quickly in to a back up. Right now it’s either the very old or very young and it’s unlikely we get a big name. The less names, as I’m about to detail, aren’t very promising.