Ted Lasso

Mid season review - by Sassy While the hope around the Dees rose with the arrival of Roosy I don't think anyone expected the improvement to come so obviously so quickly. The dees are now playing with a ruthless defensive attitude that looks capable of restricting even the very best sides with the dees biggest enemy still the lapses that seem to come hand in hand with having a young list. Taking out the west coast game which I put down to a rather bad blip on the radar our defence is currently ranked 3rd in the comp and ranked as better than the ladder leader Port Adelaide, an amazing improvement when you consider we entered the season ranked 17th for defence. Another massive positive is we suddenly have a midfield, the emergence of Dom Tyson and the form of Bernie Vince have been a bit of a surprise to me personally, I viewed Tyson in the same light as a lot of our young players that he would take time to develop, but he hasn't needed it, he has walked in and had an instant impact, probably sitting second in our best and fairest at the moment and showing some signs of being a future super star of the comp. Bernie Vince I knew was a good but inconsistent player, which I think in a lot of ways he has lived up to at the Dees but I wasn't aware of just how good his hot patches are, great disposal, the ability to impact the score board, win contested ball, kick long goals, when Bernie is at his absolute best he is running back to help the defence and he is also running forward and creating shots at goal, fair to say his inclusion has been a good part of our improved performances. The emergence of some of the lesser likes in my opinion has been the catalyst of the improvement, when you consider Cam Pederson, Mark Jamar, Max Gawn, Lynden Dunn from questionable positions on the list to consistent best 22 AFL level performers has been quite shocking, Cam Pederson in particular has shown far more than I ever thought he was capable of. Jack Watts and Jeremy Howe moving positions has been another huge move, Howe's marking looks a great asset in the backline and Watts finally seems to have found his role. currently sitting on 3 wins but could be better having been in front in the 4th quarter of games against, Gold Coast, GWS, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs and knocking off last years finalists Richmond and Carlton as well as beating Adelaide in Adelaide almost seems unbelievable when you consider 2013's 2 wins and %54 at this stage i would say the best and fairest would be sitting at 1. Nathan Jones 2. Dom Tyson 3. Lynden Dunn 4. Daniel Cross 5. Tom Mcdonald not far behind, Cam Pederson, Chris Dawes, Jack Viney while our next 3 games look tough on paper with the Power, Magpies and Bombers i will watch those games with the belief that not only can we compete but we can win.

Tom Mitchell is a good player, forget the 64 touches or whatever, he's a solid young player, I would absolutely love him at the Dees

I am pretty sure we are right up there for goals- inside 50's

He had a lot more zip in his first 2 years

20 year old who kicked 60 plus goals last year and was all Australian in the 17th ranked team that's a rare talent and as such should be rated far higher than sheil and Treloar

Disagree, I think he's an inside mid and we have been trying to play him as an outside mid/half forward where his pace gets exposed more so, I want to see him at the bounces.

Here's a question for the non Bail dees supporters Who's the better player of Nathan Jones Vs Travis Boak Dom Tyson vs Oliver Wines

Absolutely, I am all for a juicy 5 year deal to Cameron, and would happily give them pick 4, pick 22 and Blease to get it over the line, if we lose Chip I wonder if we could use the compo pick to wrangle one of Sheil or Treloar into the deal as well, that would be absolutely perfect imo

Agree, going to cost us at least a mil thought, pick 4 at least though.

at least it's not about Toumpas for once.

That's the thing Roosy has turned Pedo, Bail, Dunn, Jamar and others from possibly not even AFL standard to solid AFL players in a few months, Trenners has more talent than all of them combined and it's a huge potential upside for our team if he can get him playing how well he is capable, i remember pre draft being told to watch him as he was the second coming of Nathan Buckley

The thing about trenners is I reckon he's solid and makes decent decisions but with no pace or penetration just isn't as damaging as we'd hoped he would be, hopefully he is right after he comes back

He was certainly looking much better in the nab cup

we still need to work on our midfield, we are still ranked last for clearances, need another good player added to that group and Trengove to come back firing

One big difference I have noticed is Neeld seemed to coach us as if we were beyond where we were at, didn't worry about teaching or developing just expected more and more games to do that for him, Roos has basically said don't worry about the opposition 2014 is about making sure we know our game plan and do the things we want to do.

I would cough up pick 4 for Treloar or Shiel without hesitation or regret, if it were for the other two we'd be essentially picking up a new draftee with a couple of years in the system

I don't know that he would change much defensively, maybe just the offensive side of things

Exactly why I am just about certain the successor will be Brett Kirk, but I don't think you'd knock back a bloke with Bomba's credentials if he was open to coming to the Dee's

I like it stuie, roos establishes elite defensive tactics, bomber comes in when we have a handle on that and coaches offensive plan and ling then takes over a complete team ready to compete with the top sides

I am pretty sure they giftwrapped him and Byrnes for us to get them out the door quicker.

Mathew Nicks, currently Port Adelaide defensive coach?

Tex walker is out of contract at the end of 2015, but teams are going to become more and more willing to trade players the year before if they feel they will lose them in order to get better compo

I'm not sure what Chip will do, but I certainly think we are ticking all the boxes atm, good direction and culture, few wins, commitment from Roosy I still think Treloar is the second best talent at GWS behind Cameron I'd be thrilled with 3&4 and our second rounder and Blease for Treloar, Shiel and Tomlinson bit of a mega trade but if the boys wanted out of the Giants I reckon they would take it.

He was simply Sheedy's attempt to get back at MFC personified and it's backfired bigtime, we all knew how poorly managed the club was the moment they offered 1.2 million a year to an unproven player.

Quite simply footy is a job, of course people will look at a significant pay rise to fill exactly the same role somewhere else.