Maldonboy38

Big picture reflections: Back 6 and full ground defense continues to look strong. Forward play - great to see leading patterns and repeat leads. A lot more activity and less kicking to prescribed zones after setting up. Refreshing. Midfield. Beaten well at times in first half, but we also rotated a lot of people through. Players with nouse and pace like McKercher and LDU ran away too often too easily. My biggest questions: Do we play 2 rucks? Campbell was very good. Do we fit Jefferson AND JVR in? Where do we play Kozzie? He was outstanding through the middle.

Welcome back Clarry - you star. In everything, bringing others into the game, running through stoppages at pace, showing leadership to young players which surprised me. and those hands in close - beautiful. Kozzie, Bowey, Rivers, Sharp, AMW, Lever, JVR the standouts. Langford strong and skillful but pace a definite issue. Lindsay smooth and effective but didn't see him much in packs and stoppages. I am huge fan of young Jeffo, and can't wait until he stands next to JVR for 150 games+. Leading patterns are great, follow up work good, but not impacting most of the contests he gets to. Campbell surprised me and was very impressive. Laurie started well, Chandler was fairly absent, Sparrow strong at times. The squeeze for starting 22 is now on.

Lots of players need to lift, but for those who need to prove themselves or show something to get/hold a place in the 22: Sparrow. I still reckon he has it, hopefully he can find his right spot, stay there and explode. Spargo. The forgotten man. His delivery inside F50 was a thing of beauty and remains one of the weakest parts of our game. Two others who I am really keen to see but are too young to have to prove anything yet, are Verrall and Jefferson.

I love this selection: big body, consistent, one touch marking, good through traffic, really good kick. But I am not expecting too much from him in 2025. He looks to be one of the most AFL ready first year players we have seen in a while at the Dees, but I also remember the first pre season of Petracca who really struggled prior to the Christmas break. The step up is a BIG step so I watch with huge interest but little expectation. I feel more confident now because our development program is so good. Tholstrup, Windsor, McVee, Kozzie, Luke Jackson all played in their first season. I will watch closely to see if Langford can do the same.

Absolute steal from West Coast to get Bo Allan. Round 1 is possible, and Freo will be spewing.

Really interesting that both our draft picks so far are great kicks. With Windsor last year, it seems our "best available" philosophy comes with a qualification about good foot skills.

Welcome Harvey.

He really surprised me. I felt he had become a very good VFL player whose skills would not transfer up to AFL standard. Very happy to put my hand up and say I got it wrong. He was very good for his 6 games and is probably competing with Jake Bowey for a spot as a small defender. His main issue is definitely his fitness. He was playing so well, but in most of his 6 games, he was making errors in the last quarter, simply because he could not get to the next contest, or be caught out of position through exhaustion. A good preseason will fix this.

It feels like a lot of deals have been made late so things sound comprehensive, but really only 3 clubs have made significant large-scale changes - Roos, Dogs and Tigers. I hate this extended trade period fluff.

Denis Pagan played for North Melbourne when it was the VFL. Edit - ooops, missed the tongue in cheek tone.

Looking like Ashcroft, Neale or Zorko for the Norm Smith. Hard to separate them actually. Ashcroft or Zorko for mine.

This is looking like us in 2021, from about 10 minutes to go in the third quarter. Nothing working for the Swans, everything working for the Lions. Lions running and playing full of confidence, Swans like a wombat in headlights.

Although he is doing a lot of ground work and follow up, in his main role he is being beaten by Fort.

The Lions are showing so much more intent and will to do all the demanding off-ball stuff. They are getting 2 or 3 extra players to each contest, they are spreading the Swans across the ground creating small spaces for them to do repeated 20m kicks, and so many more handball receives. Their field kicking is wonderful, leading to strong F50 marking. Swans looking lazy. Grundy being well beaten by an impressive Fort, Heeney being well held by Dunkley (illegally I might add, but umpires not noticing it), and the Lions midfield slaughtering the Swans midfield. Not a great game of footy to be honest.

His best is breath-taking. Power in close, goals on the run etc... Other players at both clubs he has played at have loved what he does on the field. Consistent, frequent goal kicker. He produces this best 5 or 6 times a season in match winning games where he does all his power/burst/explosive stuff which keeps him in public conversations. The other 17 games are 5/10 or below. I was club chaplain at one of his junior clubs (just after he left) and his amazing strength/burst footy was often talked about. But his emotional intelligence/social awareness/personal decision making was also often talked about (joked about). For me, 2 things dominate - 1) his lack of fitness, and 2) that he produces his best so rarely. Fit and consistent - yes. In current fitness and consistency - no.