Casey Scorpions v Werribee Tigers - VFL First Semi Final

[deanox 8,944]

Does this work?

All the players we want to keep ( including Clisby) were sent on leave so that they can start pre-season on the earliest possible date

We left Casey with the players we intend to de-list......................

other than Clisby, who could have played but didn't?

I can't think of anyone else who qualified, didn't play and want injured.

I also can't identify anyone who was sent off for end of season surgery even though they could have kept playing.

Can you identify anyone who fits is these categories?

[DemonWA 3,630]

From the statts Garlett does not look like he has been more than poor .

What's the news?

Yep, poor game from him too.

[DeeSpencer 23,637]

A lot of Casey's problem this year was injuries and I don't think MFC can be blamed for that.

The 3rd and 2nd last game we lose Rodan, Byrnes, Blease, Strauss and Fitzpatrick and then Hogan and Magner go down in the VFL. Spencer also gets injured late in the season. Not to mention Couch missing an extended period.

Besides Clisby (and is there any factual proof he was sent home by MFC) what others were pulled out?

The way I see it part of the problem is that we have a MFC Casey list full of potatoes. Guys like Sellar, Jetta, Davis, Gillies, Magner and Couch who just aren't AFL and therefore the step to VFL finals finds them out a bit as well. It's also the wrong type of guys to be building a committed finals campaign around.

I expect under Roos he will have a select group of 25 he'll be keen to play most weeks and he'll look for a group of 5 Mitch Morton senior types who also get their shot. Another 5 or so we'll be Brandon Jack or Jed Lamb types who come in for trials at AFL. The rest will be building from the ground up.

What that will mean at Casey is that we actually have a group of guys who really have to improve week after week to even get a look in and who will be young and hungry and talented.

If we want Casey to win a flag it won't be around guys wondering how close to finished their AFL careers are and where they'll get a job next year. It will be around the basis of guys like Taggert, Barry, Gawn etc who actually have talented but are building it up at Casey.

We didn't have the luxury of Kent and Toumpas joining that Casey squad, they were too good compared to our regular Demons 22 so they had to be in the senior side.

Neeld tried to stack the 22 with a lot of mature types so the young guys could develop properly at Casey. Instead the mature types were crap, the guys at Casey didn't do enough and a lot of the young guys got AFL time. This was an even worse result than just going for the ultra young list like in the Bailey days.

[Invincible 9]

The sad future is the disposal of Melbourne players.

Gawn, Couch, Magner, Sellar, Gilles, Tynan cannot kick and hit a teammate

[Pennant St Dee 11,752]

Speaking of ball winning, watching the WAFL, the mighty black ducks have their noses in front against the royals. Old dee's pal Jamie Bennell is dong his usual effort (has he touched it?) and Morton and PJ are playing for the enemy!

Was there today Demon WA East Perth's Meth Coast players were a big difference in the end, Geappen getting injured hurt your boys. Royals big man department cause a lot of headaches, but good to see the Mighty Cardies get across the line to book a place in the Grand Final in the 2nd semi final!

[Don24 103]

The sad future is the disposal of Melbourne players.

Gawn, Couch, Magner, Sellar, Gilles, Tynan cannot kick and hit a teammate

Do you honestly think any of these players excluding Gawn will be on our list next year?

[Fitzy36 29]

Do you honestly think any of these players excluding Gawn will be on our list next year?

Tynan should be, still only 19, has put on weight. I reckon give him one more year to prove himself.

[drdrake 3,059]

We can't blame the MFC for this result, I think North only had 7 listed players out there. The fact is the VFL depth isn't there. YOu take out 6-7 MFC list players and Casey struggles. I feel for the Casey supporters but as a MFC supporter Casey is our VFL team because they don't have the Money to buy players like Werribee, Williamstown and Port Melbourne. Most Casey matches had the MFC team with top up players from Casey. This is what we all have wanted for years, Casey are the Melbourne FC VFL team same as Geelong, Collingwood, Essendon and as that the team is there to what is best for the MFC.

[KC from Casey 6,756]

Don't know that this loss is about one or two unavailable Melbourne players.

I think I should elaborate on my views on the issue of MFC players qualified and made available to play in the finals for Casey. WJ informed me a few weeks ago that the club was seeking to get a strong list of players qualified for the finals. At the time it was a possibility that the number would be around about 20 including Jesse Hogan but then injuries and retirements struck hard. The master has documented it pretty well above but you can't discount the effect of losing defensive players like Troy Davis, Joel Macdonald (retired) and James Strauss. Hogan was also a major loss because no opposition team really has the players or the capacity to neutralise him.

The injuries also affected the club's ability to qualify a few more players and I know there might have been one or two stuff ups but without knowing the full circumstances, it's probably unfair to comment.

However, consider this.

For most of the season Casey had 12 -15 AFL listers playing on any one given day.

Whenever, injury or the circumstance of having to leave one or two aside for emergency duties the number might drop to 10 and then Casey was in trouble as it was earlier in the season against the Box Hill Hawks.

Further, whenever Casey had at least two big men in combination i.e. Spencer/Gawn/Fitzpatrick and later Jamar, the team would flourish. Although, Spencer was qualified to play it would appear that he suffered an injury late in the game against the Bulldogs. Without his input in the ruck, Gawn was given a tough task on the day and he was clearly a tired player in the end. I believe that Spencer might have made the difference. Losing Dom Barry to injury late in the piece and not having qualified Cam Pedersen when this could easily have been done didn't help either.

On a different note, congratulations to Gippsland Power's Josh Scott who was involved in an historic four way tie for the Morrish Medal last night. Scott played a couple of times for Casey as 23rd player and impressed with his strong, mature play.

[Satyriconhome 10,076]

Master, assume you were at the game? if not seems a bit rich on some of the comments, I was, Jetta was best on ground for Casey by a mile, so I wouldn't call him a spud.

I would be more worried about Taggert Gawn and Bail who all had poor games yesterday, yet they seemed to be have been omiited from the vitriol.

Unfortunately I think Tynan is on shaky ground as well, just didn't impact the game

On the injury side Spencer was at the game yersteday and had an arm in a sling

Edited September 8, 2013 by Satyriconhome

[DeeVoted 582]

Thanks again KC for all the outstanding work and time you put in to keep us updated on everything Casey related

Any word on the coach for 2014.

[dee-luded 2,958]

Four years that the MFC have done Casey over.

I feel sorry for Casey

I agree OD, & am as frustrated & sickened as hell, by the way the AFL is treating the VFL competition & its good people. they're damaging the brand of the game @ the grass roots.

& this is due to the amount of rotations in AFL... which causes the game to be far more sophisticated, with so many gamestyles & set plays etc.

...... not to mention the physical size required these days because of the 'Burst' nature brought about by all these rotations.... this inturn causes clubs to not want to win VFL (development games) as the main aim,,,, & to have a longer layoff before the pre season.

the AFL has trashed the VFL competition by this....

.

Edited September 9, 2013 by dee-luded

[dee-luded 2,958]

other than Clisby, who could have played but didn't?

I can't think of anyone else who qualified, didn't play and want injured.

I also can't identify anyone who was sent off for end of season surgery even though they could have kept playing.

Can you identify anyone who fits is these categories?

if we pulled all our players, then it would be equally as hard to see any, we could have played.. except maybe a few Sheep, for their Wool.

[Demonland 66,837]

STRAIGHT SETS by KC from Casey

For the third successive season, the Werribee Tigers bundled the Casey Scorpions out of the VFL finals series in straight sets in their semi-final at North Port Oval. The loss was Casey's 10th consecutive finals loss since 2008 and its ninth on end since taking on its alignment with Melbourne.

Whatever was the case in previous seasons, the Scorpions were certainly desperately unlucky on the injury front this year. They had nine Demons in their team against the Tigers but lost a similar number of qualified players to injuries and/or retirements in the past month including young goal kicking sensation Jesse Hogan.

But let's leave the excuses aside because Casey started well enough and held a two goal lead at the 20 minute mark of the second term before lapses of concentration, poor decision making and sloppy use of the football let their opponents back into the game to lead at the main break and then consolidate to take control in the all-important third quarter.

This all took place despite the Scorpions dominating the hit outs through the agency of Max Gawn who gave Tom Couch (38 disposals) and the heavily tagged James Magner (33) clear superiority at the stoppages. Unfortunately, it was the Tigers who often mopped up the Scorpions mistakes allowing their midfield to work back into the game. Werribee's greater accuracy in front of goal was also a factor - they rarely missed while some of the Casey forwards were making a meal out of relatively easy shots in front of goals.

Earlier, Tim Smith was dangerous up forward with four first half goals but he was also needed as a foil for Gawn in the ruck and, as a consequence, had little impact after half time.

Neville Jetta was strong for most of the game running out of defence, skipper Evan Panozza worked hard to shut down the opposition forwards and James Sellar was good whilst down back. Jake Best who has been a revelation as a small goal kicking forward was kept in check for most of the game but broke out of his shell for two goals in the third quarter.

Rohan Welsh did a terrific job with the team given that its financial position at the beginning of the year was precarious preventing it from going out to recruit big name players. He got the most of the players at his disposal whether they were Demons or VFL listed Scorpions - a fantastic achievement given what was happening with the Melbourne Football Club earlier in the season. In my opinion, he ranks among the best of the VFL coaches on his performance throughout the season.

2013 Peter Jackson VFL

Casey Scorpions4.3.27 7.6.48 9.10.64 12.12.84

Werribee Tigers 5.2.32 9.4.58 15.5.95 19.10.124

Goals

Casey Scorpions Smith 4 Best 2 Gent Gillies Lindsay Magner Petropoulos Taggert

Werribee Tigers Maric Warren 4 Davis 2 Bolton Brown Clouston McDonald Martiniello Meredith Ross Sherlock Sullivan Ross

Best

Casey Scorpions Jetta Smith Riseley Petropoulos Panozza Sellar

Werribee Tigers Clouston Maric Ross Bolton Moore Sierakowski

Final Stats Couch 38 Magner 32 Petropoulos 23 Jetta Plummer J Tynan 18 L Tynan 17 Bail 16

[DeeSpencer 23,637]

Master, assume you were at the game? if not seems a bit rich on some of the comments, I was, Jetta was best on ground for Casey by a mile, so I wouldn't call him a spud.

I would be more worried about Taggert Gawn and Bail who all had poor games yesterday, yet they seemed to be have been omiited from the vitriol.

Unfortunately I think Tynan is on shaky ground as well, just didn't impact the game

On the injury side Spencer was at the game yersteday and had an arm in a sling

No I wasn't at the game. I was at a much better one at the MCG. I'd include Bail as another who's got one eye out the door.

My point is if we want Casey to win finals, and I hope they do, then we need the right guys in the team all year so come finals they are a unit and part of the Casey side. Part of that comes from actually having a the right consistent guys in the AFL team and a culture of improvement at Casey.

At the moment our players go back to Casey to play well to get back in the Melbourne team because that's all it takes.