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What i would like to have seen....

(OUT) Jamar, Sylvia, Toumpas, Blease, Gillies, Watts, Seller & Trengove

(IN) Gawn, Jetta, Evans, Bail, Couch*, Magner*, Tappy, Kent (Sub)

I realise * = rookie listed but what a massive error placing these 2 on the rookie list. Reminds me of the 2 Jack Captains blunder. Mid field screaming for some kind of support and the only 2 reasonable ball getters at Casey can't be called up. Seeing as we can't and he kicked 6 then Tappy's an auto call up obviously. Trengove was recalled at least 2 to 3 games too soon IMO so only placing him in as an (Out) as i believe he should never have been called up last week. Tappy should have retained his spot and given time to settle/redeem from previous week's poor effort. Chopping and changing 2nd or 3rd season young blokes every other week is the worst thing for their confidence i reckon.

And lets leave Sylvia in (again and again and again) after yet another sub par performance. Yet Rodan, who had about 1/3rd as much game time gets 1 less possession, but we'll drop him straight away, best he doesn't get a chance to settle and find some form! Send him back to the Magoos and lets bring in a less experienced player with a smaller mid field AFL bod so he can get taught a lesson by Priddis, Kerr, Selwood & Co :huh:

And Jamar stays in after getting smashed last week? Can't leap, can't mark. Shocking disposal even for a ruckman. But lets leave Gawn in the Magoos who is at this point our most 'likely' ruck prospect for this season and beyond until/unless we trade in someone decent. Height will at least help him compete in the centre bounce under the new ruck rule and couldn't be a worse liability around the ground vs Jamar. More than likely isn't AFL match fit at this point but i'd take even half a game of competitiveness versus a whole game of virtually zilch including dropped marks, panick handballs etc.

Comedy selection capers at the MFC.....yet again :blink:

Slowest players going around...

There's no room on the list for 3 slowies.....Jordy Mac, Couch and Magner.

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Its not outright speed we need right now.

Its more a mature composed stance in the contest.

we need to be able to stand our ground & fight.

when the team settles into some composed form, then we can start to add some frills.

I see the game differently.

Run, play on, play with flair.

If we go man to man, or zone, WC will bury us.

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Lol Pederson couldn't get a kick all pre season, then got dropped after he couldn't get near it in round one now gets promoted after not getting a kick for Casey. Can somebody make sense of all that?

Check your facts. Pedersen was one of the best at Casey, 21 kicks and 11 marks.

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Lets's be brutally honest, on the form shown in the first two games, 16 of the players should have been dropped. Everyone is quick to dump on Watts, but have a look at the form of Byrnes, Jamar and young Toumpas, nothing flash with those guys.

Like many others, I believe that it is the clubs development department and coaching that is failing. The new game plan & structures are not working. It failed last season and it is failing this season.

We cannot keep possession of the ball and our skills are disgraceful, we turn the ball over time & time again.

Play the players where they will be able to perform best for the group. Frawley CHB, Garland full back, Grimes on a HBF. Forget the loose man in defence and get Watts on a Wing or up forward. Sylvia would be better running on the ball to support Nate Jones. Mitch Clarke should move to CHF, but I am concerned he is carrying an injury and if his work rate is increased too much he may go down.

Surely Spencer is worth a go over Jamar. He has been on the list for a number of years and is becoming a list clogger. At the moment he would be a better option than Jamar

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Not the outs I would've but then I thankfully didn't see the bombers game.

On what I've read though and on the face of it I don't see the benefit of dropping Watts. Perhaps it'll give him confidence racking up possessions at VFL level, but what I see happening is more ammunition for the media on the issue of Watts.

Blease getting dropped is even more bizarre, he is one of a few that take the game on, and while yes he has defensive issues I would much rather see him in backing himself to be able to beat a player with pace than have him gain fitness and touch at Casey.

This must be Jamar and Sylia's last go around the merry-go-round. These two were woeful against port and I didn't hear any improvement v Essendon.

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I wonder if Jamar will get dropped after getting towelled by Cox this week. Thank God Naitanui isn't playing as well.

Please play well for Casey, Gawn and Spencil. I'm sick of Jamar and I want some change in the ruck rather than cycling the usual suspects through the Scorpions and letting a former All Australian coast by on the reputation he developed through ONE good season.

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I don't think dropping Watts and Blease is such a bad thing it give them a chance to get some confidence back. There is a good chance that there will be two for to replace next week.,

All those brought in played well in the VFL last well and deserve to get a run. I think it's a shame that Magner can't.

Sylvia has to play as do all of leaders, they have to be forced and taught to lead from the front, happy to see Col named in the midfield.

While it's hard to see two of our future stars dropped I feel over time it will force the players to compete for spots every week.

Best players play!

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I knew Watts was going to be dropped as soon as he was the sub. Why be mad. The guy has had a bad 2 weeks and its for his own good. Remember this is his 5th season. He needs to lift. Also it will get the media off his back though it will be back on the club for dropping him.

Disagree. The media will get off his back when we stop running him under a bus and giving them something to write about.

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I don't think dropping Watts and Blease is such a bad thing it give them a chance to get some confidence back. There is a good chance that there will be two for to replace next week.,

All those brought in played well in the VFL last well and deserve to get a run. I think it's a shame that Magner can't.

Sylvia has to play as do all of leaders, they have to be forced and taught to lead from the front, happy to see Col named in the midfield.

While it's hard to see two of our future stars dropped I feel over time it will force the players to compete for spots every week.

Best players play!

How can Watts get confidence sitting at the MCG. He's not going to Ballarat he's emergency!

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Slowest players going around...

There's no room on the list for 3 slowies.....Jordy Mac, Couch and Magner.

Don't need to be quick to get posessions through the mid and use it decently. Ask Sam Mitchell, Lingy, Kelly, Chappy etc. Just need the work ethic and football smarts....and an AFL sized bod. Simple fact is we don't have enough mids of AFL size/quality in the 22 we put on the park each week so far this season. That's why we've been smashed and will continue to get smashed by almost every side in the AFL that does this year and beyond until we do. The better teams have 6 to 8 players (and some have about 10!) they can rotate through the mid who are fairly solid/decent quality. And the top teams each have at least 1 A grader or more. We'd be lucky if we had 1 solid (Jones) to rotate through and 2 fill ins (Grimes/McKenzie) who can hold their own (to a point). We might have approx 3 others as fillers but just aren't up to it.

So we manage for approx a quarter (barely) and afterwards the oppositions quality/rotations get us. Pfffft.....game over. Easy picking and they run off our men knowing they have us well and truly covered (out classed) through the mid field. Having such a poor skill set (Coach & FD...WTF??) in the rest of the team doesn't help either. Other Coaches/teams know this of course. Know we'll turn the ball over with even a mediocre degree of pressure placed on us, so most of their players just run forward in waves or latterell to the contest, waiting for the easy receive out in space whenever there's a contested ball. They're usually rewarded by either their players quality of ball use or our turnovers. Massive confidence boost for them. Ugly for us. Pitty our defence. No wonder they're confidence and mental state is shot.

Having Jamar contesting the stoppages and centre bounce doesn't help either of course. Not the Russian's fault. A great bloke and i'm sure he gives his all, but the game appears to have passed him by after that unfortunate injury.

Edited by Rusty Nails
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Players are selected, or otherwise, as much for what they're doing when they don't have the ball compared with when they do. Take that into account when you look at the omissions.

There's hardly a player that deserves to retain their spot, so there's little point being affronted by the team selection. They weren't all going to be demoted and not one player that was demoted could complain when one considers their output.

I suspect the coaching panel decided in advance to give Toumpas more than two games, which I find quite reasonable. Allowing him a few games under his belt to get acquainted with the pace of AFL footy makes sense to me. When Kent does get his go I suspect they'll give him a few on the trot too. I vividly remember Andrew Gaff's first few games in 2011. He was utterly out of his depth, but they kept playing him - well, they gave him the first half dozen. He came back later in the year and looked a different player. I have no doubt that Toumpas will get time down at Casey sooner rather than later, but to give him a few in a row makes perfect sense.

Edited by MH.
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Going forward I’d like to see one of two things happen:

1a) play kids and develop for the future (can see why we drafted a whole lot of these players)

or

2) play the players who each week play the best in the VFL/AFL and be strong on this. Clearly Blease sucked last week, I have no idea why (i love him & what he can do). If you take this approach at least it is transparent that if you don’t perform you are in the two's. This will hopefully set a good precedent/standard. [rather than 'he played [censored], but we need him so he stays in' - surely that may undermine the players confidence in Neeld]).

Also:

I feel that some players are being played for an ideal structure, rather than for the form they are in (Seller).. I’d kill to see Kent in to replace him.. Kent’s NAB cup form was very good and he found space as a forward.

Why play 5 tall backs last week, when in round one we had an inability to run the ball out of defence? On top of this, most are renowned for having poor disposal by foot.. Can we really win a premiership with guys who cant kick?

A team is only as good as their ruckman. An amazing ruckman makes a B grade midfield look A grade. E.g. Richmond last year, Ivan comes in their whole outlook on the field drastically improved. E.g. Eagles against the Hawks, no nic nat and a first gamer and all the sudden they were reactive at centre bounces (cox had an ave game too).

As a few posts are saying, Jamar is no longer above average, at best he is average, and last week Ryder made him look poor (I’d question the re-signing of him for 3 years too).

Lastly:

Drop Seller and play Jamar as the second forward/ruckman. Bring in Gawn - renowned as a tap ruckman, second tallest player in the AFL (try jumping over that Paddy), and had the most? tackles in the VFL last week.. Yes injury prone, but we are [censored] and only reactive, we need to try to at least give viney/jones a chance to get first hands on the ball.

3) Try to get close to the same amount of possessions as the opposition (the last two years we have been smashed).

Whatever happens i will support us always, Go Dees :)

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Doesn't matter how many bad players we had. Watts was bad AND lacked any intensity and did not go near a fair dinkum contest for 2 weeks. If you Watts huggers are happy with that, then you well and truly deserve to cop the 2 weeks we've had and then some. NFI some people.

Regardless of Watts form this weekend for Casey he should serve minimum 2-3 weeks. We need to take a long term view with him. Drafted as a key forward yet struggles as a loose backman, disgraceful. Not sure what his contract status is but if he doesn't step up we must cut our losses at years end, regardless.

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I am not at all disappointed with the selections, regardless of Blease and Watts being dropped. All players need to be motivated to perform better at times, regardless of their talent. Playing Michael Evans is long overdue and I think that he will prove to be a dangerous midfielder in our near future. Pedersen needs to start proving that he can hold down a spot as a key target up forward and Neville Jetta is one of our best tacklers and he provides energy and run. He is also aggressive and will be in our best 22 for a few years to come. This team looks as likely to win as any 22 that we could name and people need to realise that Watts and Blease are only match winners if they are in form and if they work a lot harder on their mental and physical approach to every game.

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I'm disappointed that Blease and Watts were dropped. I'm disappointed because I know it's the right decision and that put simply both have major deficiencies that they haven't gone close to rectifying. And I fear they never will. I had such high hopes for both.

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I will be interested to see if any one of our players is going to "test" LeCras' arm early on in the game... I like LeCras as a player and don't wish major injury on any player, but a statement of intent is required and if they can unsettle (NOT injure) him early in the proceedings, our chances improve dramatically.

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I will be interested to see if any one of our players is going to "test" LeCras' arm early on in the game... I like LeCras as a player and don't wish major injury on any player, but a statement of intent is required and if they can unsettle (NOT injure) him early in the proceedings, our chances improve dramatically.

Absolutley 1st tackle drive him into the ground

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