OK. I want to talk about some positives and what we got out of this pre season game which could save me smashing something:D.

First of all Spencer was very good - loved him.

Frawley created good run.

I'm sure there's more - please add.

Prediction: Jack Grimes will be top 5 in the Bluey if he stays injury free and will give the Rising Star a shake!

Other positives. I am positive that Newton is a disgrace to the jumper

McLean was awesome. Frawley was very good. Green lead from the front as per usual. Grimes showed good signs and so did Petterd (except for some of his disposals). Spencer showed signs and Davey looked good when he was on the ground. Bate looked good up forward with 4 goals. Garland once again dominated his opposition.

We still have Watts, Blease, Strauss, Jetta and Bennel to come.

McLean was awesome. Frawley was very good. Green lead from the front as per usual. Grimes showed good signs and so did Petterd (except for some of his disposals). Spencer showed signs and Davey looked good when he was on the ground. Bate looked good up forward with 4 goals. Garland once again dominated his opposition.

We still have Watts, Blease, Strauss, Jetta and Bennel to come.

I love Maric.

Mr Positive

Kyle Cheney looks the goods! A chance of playing Round 1

One positive is that MFC will now have some certainty that it will be playing at Casey Fields on Saturday 14 March at 2:00pm in a NAB Challenge match.

At least with 3 weeks notice, it can really market it hard to the Casey community.

Advertising should start this week in local papers if the MFC marketing dept is switched on.

Excuse the dot points and the cliches, but I'm tired and a little disappointed.

Spencer, Spencer, Spencer.

Bail showed signs.

Frawley looked as though he belonged.

We moved the ball well.

Cheney was aggressive, despite a couple of average disposals.

Grimes looked good.

Garland is poised, skilled and versitile.

We can now be convinced that Sylvia is just nowhere near AFL standard, he can't settle into the pace and skill required.

We were robbed by a few bad decisions if you want to get picky.

yeh i learnt plenty. Grimes can't kick, either can cheney. I'm off Newton now and Miller lost us the game when he made the decision to try and keep the ball in (instead of following the ball over the boundary line) when he was surrounded by 3 hawks players. He kept it in, they got it and they kicked a goal. Game over. stupid decision by him. Spencer was great though. But for Gods sake, can we just get Strauss in already to teach the boys how to kick. Morton's decisions have probably got worse too

I can't believe how many people have gone straight to the 'you suck' line when we lose an intense and hard-fouight game against the reigning premiers by a couple of bits of bad luck a a last second goal.

Cool it, you look like idiots.

Positive number 1 - the following players ALL had disposal efficiency above 80% -

Bruce, Davey, Dunn, Jones , Cheney, Bate, Morton, Johnson, Spencer (100%!), Garland, Whelan, McDonald, Martin, Warnock.

We've definately found an extra ruckman in Spencer.

Jack Grimes has the magic in him.

James Frawley has definately taken a step up.

Bate played as a genuine forward and was pretty good, with 4 goals.

Mclean is on his way back for sure.

Cheney looks handy.

Clangers were way down on last year.

Intensity, for most of the game, was well up on last year.

Overall, a very good first hit-out for the new season. I'm looking forward to the real thing, and think we can take North in Round 1.

But the key disappointments were -

Although Miller worked extremely hard and finished with 11 marks, he clearly didn't have touch.

Sylvia clearly hasn't got touch yet for the season. Unlike some, I'm not going to write off the previous signs of progress on the basis of a first pre-season game and an intraclub match. Seriously guys, thats pretty weak.

Newton is... our special present to the Casey Scorpions, and then the Gold Coast...

for what it's worth, the game game down to Hawthorns freakish accuracy on the day (which was uncharacterstic) and their better capacity to adapt to the slightly weird line markings on the 'windy' wing.

Morton's decisions have probably got worse too

You're kidding me right? Morton didn't get anywhere near the amount of disposals we would have liked him to, but his disposal and decision making was top class.

yeh i learnt plenty. Grimes can't kick, either can cheney. I'm off Newton now and Miller lost us the game when he made the decision to try and keep the ball in (instead of following the ball over the boundary line) when he was surrounded by 3 hawks players. He kept it in, they got it and they kicked a goal. Game over. stupid decision by him. Spencer was great though. But for Gods sake, can we just get Strauss in already to teach the boys how to kick. Morton's decisions have probably got worse too

Hardly in the spirit of the thread, I thought Grimes/Cheney's kicking was quite good. Miller I thought was admirable, he played to the best of his ability and in a list such as ours he is an important player. Morton was in the best on afl.com.

I won't try and defend Newton.

Two positives.

1. We aren't playing Geelong

2. We aren't Adelaide

One positive for me was that while he had a quiet game, there's been progress with Nathan Jones's game. 15 possessions 3 kicks 12 Hand passes.

wasn't able to get the game over here damnit. Quick one, did Garland play on Roughie? Is so I am surprised people saying he played so well if Roughie snagged a bag of 5 inlcuding the game winner. Thoughts from the esteemed posters?

wasn't able to get the game over here damnit. Quick one, did Garland play on Roughie? Is so I am surprised people saying he played so well if Roughie snagged a bag of 5 inlcuding the game winner. Thoughts from the esteemed posters?

I think we mostly had Garland on Mark Williams, Stef Martin on Roughead

wasn't able to get the game over here damnit. Quick one, did Garland play on Roughie? Is so I am surprised people saying he played so well if Roughie snagged a bag of 5 inlcuding the game winner. Thoughts from the esteemed posters?

Warnock was on Roughead for most of the day until the last quarter where it looked like Stef Martin took up on him... which was interesting as Warnock IMO was doing a stellar job on him...

Don't let Roughead's performance fool you. He won most of his goals from Free kicks, and his last one... Couldn't help but see some hands in the back... but that just could be me being petty...

Gippy

Thanks for the update guys...

Surely Bate's performance today is a major positive?

We need a genuine option to play out of the square as Miller seems to do his best work up the ground and Newton is almost a write-off.

Positives: Cheney, Spencer, Bate, McLean, Grimes, Davey, not getting thrashed

Negatives: Newton, Sylvia, losing

Simple as that.

Good a thread that is talking about positives, not how much this person sucks, he wont live up to his potential blah blah blah.

The great positive i saw was that WE LEAD NOT CHASED. Yes we lost but it was much more competitive than the last outings against the Dorks, even if they had a few out, they are at the stage we will be at in a few years time.

We were pantsed by the Hawks Round One last year when they were missing quite a few players, then almost beat them later in the year with basically a full strength team (which ours was not)

So whilst they were missing a few, it isn't as relevant as it may seem.

Spencer is definitely a positive, and it was great to see our boys attack the game (especially in the first quarter where I felt we were in complete control for the most). We lost to a team who kicked 11.3, there's enough to take out of the game to make me positive that this season will be an improvement on last season's.

We just have to maintain control for longer periods of the game from now on.

were are a 10 goal better side then this time last year!

I honestly cant help but feel our whole club got an excellent lesson on Saturday.

The positives far out weighed the negatives.

IMHO From a long term overall perspective ... you learn more from your losses. IMHO we are very much still in the "learning phase".

We very much still have plenty, plenty work to do. Physical fitness is no longer the be all to do to win at the highest level these days.

Call me an idiot if you want but I get the feeling had we won on Saturday a lot of hard work could have been overlooked in the

back slapping process that would have followed.

I'm now 100% convinced it wont be our lack of ability that will cost us. Think we just have to consider the the prospects that some

players who have been there for quite a few years are not our future in the longterm.

We still must work on metal toughness and a loss like that is a bitter sweet medicine.

I have this inner confidence(may I say for the first time in many years) Saturday was only game 1 in a very exciting journey.

Sure its going to have bumps and set backs along the way. However, no more or less exciting for me.