Inner Demon

This idea of a specialist key forward coach isn't particularly backwards. There are plenty of them going around in the AFL right now. David Schwarz, Wayne Carey & Brian Taylor are just a few I'm aware of who have been used as 'consultants' or 'specialists' in recent years. It's not about teaching a player to play precisely as they themselves play, it's about working on small nuances of play that those people have expertise in like using your body in one-on-one marking contests, leading, and controlling the ball to a teamates' advantage in a contested situation. Again, use of this specialist would by no means be any kind of suggestion that Josh Mahoney is incapable, a couple of years ago I recall we were using Danny Frawley in this kind of role for our key defenders.

This will be the REALLY interesting test of the AFL's resolve on the clash guernseys. I rather feel that the majority of the clubs are just accepting being dictated to where home & away games are concerned, but we haven't had any clashes on GF day in the "clash era" and I would be amazed to see a club wear something other than their traditional strip in a Grand Final. Personally I have no problem with our clash strips, there will never be an alternative that pleases everyone, it's not that big of a deal, the club has bigger fish to fry than spend all year messing around with guernseys. However, I just couldn't abide us playing a GF in anything but our traditional guernsey.

Given the high level of sensitivity regarding any perceived criticism of Watts, perhaps consider this same topic in terms of the development of Jack Fitzpatrick, Liam Jurrah, Stefan Martin, Matthew Bate & Brad Miller. The issue remains the same, playing key position is a specialist role, why shouldn't there be a specialist coach??

Players will have to have been at their club for 8 or 10 years before they will be eligible for a form of free agency.

The cost of a one session per week/fortnight specialist coach would be minimal. We'd be paying a bloke who already has a full time job elsewhere, most likely in the media these days. The person in question would be coming in for just a few hours each trip to do some one on one work with the tall forwards. I understand your position on this, and I am firmly in the same camp in terms of supporting Mahoney, but falling back on the money defence in this case isn't viable, we're talking small change here and the club's finances are a world away from the parlous state of 2-3 years ago. Would you suggest refusing our rucks a specialist ruck coach on the same argument or would you be content having Scott West work on their rucking technique??

Offered it. AFL said no.

It will be really very interesting to see what kind of contract we sign Blease to towards the end of this year. I would imagine his contract negotiations would be held off until the last minute to get as much information about his recovery as we can. Short of something quite dramatic happening in terms of a further setback, beyond the fairly typical soreness and swelling, I could see us rolling the dice on him and giving him another 2 year contract. One would expect he would be on a very low salary so it's not too great a risk considering the minimal opportunities in the next couple of drafts.

I am completely against the suggestion that Josh Mahoney isn't a good forward coach based on the 'logic' that he wasn't a superstar player. I like Josh as a coach, he impressed me when he presented at Before the Bounce earlier in the year. However, I certainly see the place for a specialist tall forwards coach. We may well already have such a person, I just don't know. Perhaps it's a question someone could ask Schwabby on Twitter. We certainly have a specialist rucks coach, which makes obvious sense as neither Scott West nor Mark Williams could be expected to have expertise playing the position of ruck. I think the same logic could be reasonably applied to coaching tall forwards without being any kind of slight on Josh Mahoney's abilities.

Yes, they do contested work at training.

Put it this way, if John Meesen was a horse, they'd have pulled out the screen and 12-gauge long ago. His career is over.

Those numbers all sound very reasonable. But that would see Jurrah particularly, who has senior experience, ready for a call up around Round 17-18. Tapscott having not played would be more of a Jack Grimes potential situation where we give him a look Round 21-22. That would give him 2 weeks in Casey 2s and 4 weeks in Casey 1s.

Let's not let the facts get in the way of some good old-fashioned 20/20 hindsight club questioning.

We've had a kicking coach for a couple of years. His name is Kevin Ball.

The AFL disagrees. End of story.

That's the thing though. Rockliff had back-to-back better games than Gysberts. I'm obviously not complaining, but Rockliff was certainly very stiff to miss out.

Really??? Again??? We have 2 clash jumpers. The AFL dictates to us on which one we can wear against which sides. The reasoning for each 'clash' is entirely opaque and defies common sense, but the AFL are calling the shots here. The club created the red clash guernsey in response to the howls of protest about the white guernsey and we wear it whenever we can. I don't know who we're allowed to wear it against, it's beyond me as much as it is you.

Judging a coach's ability based upon your own opinions of them as a player is nonsense. Alistair Clarkson was a battler as a player, but he's a premiership coach who played a very large role in revolutionising the way the modern game is played. Brendan McCartney played about 90 games of local footy before going on to build Geelong's premiership winning defence as the defensive coach. Conversely, just because someone was a superstar player means absolutely nothing in terms of their ability of a coach. See examples: Watson, Tim, Shaw, Tony, Frawley, Danny. It's clear as day that our forward line is going to be the last part of our list to develop, largely because tall forwards take the longest to hit their stride. Mahoney is a very smart guy with an astute football brain who has experience being a part of a premiership side. What I believe we do need, is a specialist tall forward coach to work with Jurrah, Watts, Fitzpatrick, etc much in the same way as clubs use specialist ruck coaches because they fill a hole in the knowledge of a midfield coach in how to play as a ruckman.

I've been lead to believe Scully & Blease are very close mates as well. I'm sure this wasn't necessarily a factor in the drafting of any of the players, but it's a very nice little side benefit.

Happy to be wrong on this occasion. I'd imagine the crew on "Lionland" would have a thread right now pretty dark that their boy missed out again. He got more possessions, with more contested and at better disposal efficiency in both of the last 2 weeks than Gys while playing in a win and a 1 point loss. I reckon if that was our boy we'd be ropeable. Interesting note from the AFL article, I hadn't realised that Gys & Blease were at school together. They've played footy together most of their lives. I like it.

That's a terrific achievement. There have been plenty of other contenders who've put in big games in winning sides the last two weeks like Rockliff & Robinson. Good to see the panel looking past the team's results and focussing on the individual performances. 3 noms in 11 weeks is pretty good going.

Important to remember even the very, very best AFL tall forwards rarely, if ever, show much before they're 20. It doesn't help to throw these kids in the deep end. They need to play in situations where they can actually get their hands on it and have shots on goal. Getting 3 touches and being beaten to the ball all day long doesn't help kids develop. This is the same reason Watts could use another couple of games back at Casey to get his hands on it again.

Dunn played some quite serviceable football for us over the first 7 weeks. He made space and provided a marking option across half forward, provided rucking relief for Jamar much in the same way as Sylvia & Miller have, even chipped in with a smattering of goals. He lost his spot not because of exceptionally poor performance, but because Watts & Miller were kicking goals at Casey and demanding selection in a side that had lost a couple of games. Since then, Dunn has played good football at Casey, kicked a serious bag of goals while Miller & Watts have put in a couple of poor performances in the seniors. You don't need to pass judgement on any of these players' past form or future potential, you simply select the ones whose present form warrants their selection, and it is a pretty clear cut call.

But bringing in these other younger players is going to mean dropping other younger players. Unless you are suggesting we drop Junior, Green, Bruce, Warnock, Jamar & Davey who are the only 'older' players in our team.

What kind of weird, misguided definition of 'heart' are you people working with?? Not being a clean user of the ball and not clunking every contested mark that comes his way has nothing to do with heart. It is freely conceded by all and sundry that he is of limited ability, but that guy goes hard at every contest all day long. He comes off the line and tries to physically impact upon the contest after centre bounces and this year he even throws himself into rucking contests against pure ruckmen. He never, ever stops trying. Brad Miller gives everything he has both on and off the field and it is complete and utter rubbish to trash him for 'having no heart'.

For those once again recalling Bail. He's played about 3 quarters of football in 6 weeks. He missed about 3 weeks with nerve damage from a bad cork played a half then had the VFL bye then had his cheek broken in the first quarter last week. He had some really promising games early in the year but hasn't had a clear run since due to very unlucky impact injuries. He is likely some way off a return to seniors.