DeeSpencer

There’s a fair argument the Dons would be better off giving the midfield minutes to Hobbs, Caldwell, Perkins, Tsatas and banking the extra pick than keeping Parish. Even if that means taking a step backwards. Similar to Hawthorn moving on Mitchell and O’Meara

Underrated as a stoppage player and provides midfield run which we’d like. Ball use isn’t great. There’s a point at which he becomes a value buy for free on a reasonable contract. If he comes as a free agent on 5 x 600k that might be close to that point. We could play an extra mid in the current side and rotate them through the forwards more. Otherwise the easiest way to fit him in is to move Gus to a wing or half back. Or use Tracc as a near permanent forward in home and away seasons. Plus take the load off Viney. Overall though he’d have to be even cheaper than the current price I think. Because we need that cap space to go after talls, mid/forward polish and outside run. Even if those options aren’t available right now it’s probably better to hold the space for a year.

Disco v Tommo will depend how much they think Cox and Cameron will play forward which brings the additional mature body tall in to play. If they don’t think that will be a consistent threat they probably stick with Disco. Hibbo as the third tall an outside choice if they think he has enough height to go with Mihocek at times and play smaller at others. But lack of match fitness now heavily against him. I don’t expect Bowey, Salem, Riv, McVee will change. Hibbo as a small, very unlikely for mine. T Mc almost has to play. Hopefully Fritsch is right. JVR. Pickett, Chandler, ANB. Do they keep Smith in with Fritsch and McDonald? Or use Tracc as the 4th tall, have Smith the sub and bring in another mid/small forward? Smith’s pace gives him the edge over Laurie for me given the danger of the Pies counter attack and the athleticism of their backs.

I wouldn’t write off De Goey, at anywhere near his best he’s a devestating center bounce and forward half mid. He can easily break open a game. Gawn has a 50/50 record against Cox and the Pies rucks the last few years, again, not sure where the blind optimism is for that. Gus was fine, but now he’s less at the contest and less on ball he’s less at the coal face and it would be nice to have someone who can kick a drop punt in that role. We might have to use him to tag De Goey or Pendles to get maximum value out of him. He’d be soft tagging Neale if we were playing Brisbane Disco did some good but there was a lot of being caught out forward or unable to jump or hold position at a big marking contest. He looked like a promising young tall in his 3rd game who’s main strength is intercepting and is a shaky as a deep defender. That’s not a negative, just the truth.

I’m not confident. Was a good win today but; Our talls at either end are uncertain. Disco didn’t lock down the spot. No idea what our best available forward mix is. We need as many talls as possible but also as much pace as possible as we’ll get exposed for transition pace if the Pies get to the outside. Hunter and Langdon both got killed by Gulden and consistently leave too big a gap behind themselves in the zone with the half backs struggling to patch it up. Especially with Salo’s lack of speed. Gawn is a liability at centre bounces if he can’t win the hit out and we look slow and top heavy in there. De Goey’s power and Pendles ability to hold space for himself are both going to cause huge issues. Oliver showed some good signs today but isn’t exactly in peak form and Gus is now getting squeezed out and having his weaknesses exposed by being more in space. If the Swans kick straighter they might’ve had a match winning lead rather than 3 goals which would could peel back quickly. Strong win, good win, no big reason for optimism in to next week

He was very good but the question is how much was it because he was fresh legs coming on with both sides pretty stuffed. There’s no doubt Laurie’s best would be really handy, but there’s a risk he’s beaten for pace and can’t get out of traffic against an aggressive quick pies side.

spirited win against a dangerous side Just awful for Melk. And Goodwin will still be playing Salem when he’s on his death bed. Baffling he wasn’t freshened up. Not sure you could pick him with any confidence Thursday week now given how slow he’s going

Form - both the team and individuals are well served by continuity Fitness - match fitness is the best fitness and you risk fresh injuries when you back players off then ramp them up fresh Casey - if we take half the casey side out we are likely ending their season, meaning our depth players no longer have opportunities for match fitness North and Richmond have retired players, Geelong have sent half their list in for surgery. Essendon have half a dozen who were fit last week and suddenly aren’t. If we took a dozen out we’d be questioned but I don’t think the AFL would crack down on us for leaving a couple out.

We rested May against the Crows in the penultimate round of 2021. But it’s horses for courses and we have to acknowledge the rare circumstance we might find ourselves in. Gawn and anyone who can benefit from the rest should be rested. Play everyone else.

Agree entirely apart from the Tom Stewart comparison. For 2 years now Disco has looked ready to step up and play a role at AFL level and the strength of our backline and consistent bad luck with injuries has set him back. We’ve effectively been given a free hit at the Swans. Give Disco a go, if he’s up to it we don’t have to shift Smith or rely on a pair of clydesdales in T Mc and Tommo.

Some feedback for the cheersquad. The target was way off in the Carlton game. Change of ends must’ve thrown out your alignment. Think it was much better on Sunday.

Hunt would've provided cover for Bowey and Salem who are both playing through niggles or fatigue at the moment, possibly enough to see us beat Carlton a week ago. McVee's been great so we haven't missed Hunt but he would've been a very good depth player as he was the last 2 years. Bedford could very much be best 22 and making an impact. He's gone up a level at the Giants and is playing good footy. I was never a huge fan of his game but the club seemed very keen to keep him and I can see why.

I can’t imagine Geelong would willingly trade their best young player just to draft another young player. But yeah, we should absolutely be doing all we can to get him.

We lost Bedford and Hunt due to salary cap and competition for spots, whilst we’ve covered both they would’ve been very useful. Apart from early picks or trades we need at least one of Howes, Laurie, Woey, AMW, Disco to become best 22 next year. And a bunch of them to become genuine options.

We lost Luke Jackson. As Grundy hasn’t proven useful we’ve effectively replaced him with JVR. Hibbo has been replaced by McVee. Those 2 are the good news stories. Chandler for Spargo is a wash, nice to have both so we have competition. That’s ok depth. BBB and T Mc aren’t up to afl standard any more. We’re getting by with Smith and Melk who are classic depth players. Undersized and not convinced they are really up to it but Melk is having a decent crack. Petty hasn’t been covered by Tomlinson. Laurie for Fritsch. Hmm, not convinced. Hunter for Harmes (with Gus moving on ball). Not exactly making huge strides there. Looks like a list that needs 2 or 3 first round picks, some smart tall pick ups with at least 1 quality best 22 tall and maybe even a trade for a proper outside runner to really get back to being a complete list with talent in every position.

JVR takes the front of the pack, Melk takes a sit on him, Fritsch jumps on Melk, Smith leaps on Fritsch and Kossie flies over the top. It’s perfect

Why would they care about Smith’s emotional state and not Tommo’s? Tommo was subbed because the Hawks went small AND because he was already battling with the mobility of the Hawks talls, the last thing he needed was to match up on a small.

Happy to play the rest of them but: 1. Salem is running up and down on the spot right now. He needs the week off and some speed training. 2. We have to at least consider resting Gawn given his value to the side and age. We’ve got Grundy to use if we need him.

There's a risk of that but I think every player makes bad decisions going inside 50 from time to time and often Fritsch has been marking as the deepest forward and has barely anyone to kick to. If we can get it to him quick at CHF with some of all of Melk/JVR/Chandler inside 50 he might pick out targets. It's not like he hasn't produced some lovely kicks at times. The way I see it all of Smith, Tomlinson, Hibbo or Turner are probably giving away 2+ goals through some faults. I thought Tommo had a stinker today and gave up far more than 2, getting beat on the lead, getting beat in contests and so often getting caught up the ground not handing over to a winger or half forward and getting back to occupy bodies to help the interceptors. At his best he's a good rebounder but in finals pressure and pace it's hard to see him running the ball out. Smith's good for 1 howler and a couple of other brain fade errors that threaten goals and he doesn't provide a lot of rebound. Hibbo lack of speed and size. If we expect that Disco will give up a couple from lack of strength, not great one on one defensive traits and inexperience then he's not worse than the others and he has an intercept marking game and ground ball tackling/handballing game that I really like. Kicking's not perfect but he'll get some kicks too. It might be as simple as match ups. Tommo for a lumbering tall. Hibbo for a medium forward. Smith for a quick athletic forward. Disco for a skinny tall.

North have a stack of young talent. They’ve never needed more young talent to begin with. But a valid argument has been that the Jamarra academy, Daicos F/S, JHF quitting after 1 year has robbed them of the most elite talent. So Reid helps with that. Also gives them a confidence boost in to next year. When we were rubbish the afl quoted our picks and young talent (and coach I believe) as reason we didn’t need extra help. All North need is some marginal help to secure some experienced players. Extra list spot, a 2nd or 3rd rounder and maybe some sneaky cap space for a year or two to grab some veterans. It would be crazy to give them more elite young talent when it’s not what they need at all. I could go either way on an AFL lottery. It’s not an absolute need. But a heavily weighted to bottom sides lottery could cut out some of the stuff that has happened with Eagles and North fans wanting to lose games this year.

Consistent ball movement seems to be our biggest challenge. I hope Salo can be back near his best come finals as well as Bowey and for the improvements Lever and May have shown at times to stick. The big room for improvement is in our midfield spread and run. The Hawks ran like crazy for a half today and apart from Viney we were flagging. I’d like to see Fritsch as a flanker/de facto CHF and leave Melk as is rather than Fritsch at full forward. That would allow more Tracc on ball and hopefully in combination with Oliver at near his best we get our midfield charge game back.

I'd be annoyed if we got rid of Laurie based on what I saw today. He's building strength in his tackling and at the contest and he has genuine tricks that can work. A few stuff ups but a couple of lovely spins and fakes today. Right now he's too slow and doesn't have enough power to make up for it. There is a genuine chance he'll always be too slow. But the tank and the build are seemingly heading in the right direction - just how much speed can he gain with another preseason or two? And more games to get his intensity up. I thought he came in because they wanted his off ball running to go side to side with the Hawks kicking game and whilst he wasn't perfect defensively due to lack of speed I thought he did a solid shift of work

Out: Tomlinson, he's done. We could win 1000 in a row with him in the side, that's correlation not causation. In: Disco Turner! Out: Laurie In: Fritsch Out: Salem (rest) In: Hibbo Sub: Laurie or Woey. With Fritsch in allowing Petracca back on ball and Oliver hopefully building fitness I still think there's a Brayshaw to the wing move with Hunter out and another mid/forward in (Woey, Laurie, JJ) but that seems less likely. No to Tom McDonald this week. Another run at Casey to build confidence before a finals return if he's up to it.

We had a pair of number 1 picks and didn't win anything. We had picks 2, 3 (which would shouldn't have got but we did deserve a top 10 pick for Chip) and traded up from pick 6 I believe for pick 4 to get Oliver and we win a flag. If anything that franks the argument that a lottery that still sees the bottom 4 clubs prioritised but doesn't guarantee the top pick to anyone is a good idea. I mean, assuming we didn't stuff their development we would've had a far better side in the early 10's with Dusty and Nic Nat than our pick 1's.

Very funny until you realise how accurate it is.