14 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

There was a saying about winning the B&F medal for the VFL Reserves as they were:

It went: Good to win one but you do not want to win two !

We had a guy.... Brian Keogh who won two. Eventually he left the Dees and went to St Kilda where if I recall he had an okay career

TBH... hard to get excited by Casey unless the win/loss is relevant to the development of the younger players and/or maintaining form in the older players.

Years ago I liked the VFA as a separate comp. (Followed the Preston Bullants) but the AFL have just sucked the air/interest out of the lower level comp.

It wasn't "Brian "Keogh, was it?  But what was his first name? He was Carlton's Trevor Keogh's relative(?cousin)

He was a gutsy middle sized left footer, who was good overhead, and quite elusive. I thought he might become a star, but he didn't achieve a lot with us, or the Saints.

6 minutes ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

It wasn't "Brian "Keogh, was it?  But what was his first name? He was Carlton's Trevor Keogh's relative(?cousin)

He was a gutsy middle sized left footer, who was good overhead, and quite elusive. I thought he might become a star, but he didn't achieve a lot with us, or the Saints.

My mistake.... Rod Keogh

you are right a solid player who never quite got to the heights

From Wikipedia:

" Keogh usually played in the midfield or at half forward and was recruited to Melbourne from Castlemaine.^[1] He made his league debut in 1990 but spent most of the season with the reserves where he won a Gardiner Medal. In 1993 he won another Gardiner Medal^[2] after failing to play a senior game that year. He moved to St Kilda in 1994^[3] and was a member of their 1997 grand final losing side. Keogh was delisted at the end of the 1998 season "

Edited July 26, 20168 yr by Diamond_Jim

7 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

I think there's a difference in development strategies for different roles.  

We've got Frost, OMac, Hunt, Wagner playing at MFC in the backline because the important development there is to gel as an AFL unit with TMac and Jetta.  They're not going to get that at VFL level.

Meanwhile we've got Weideman, Hulett and Oliver working on specific individual attributes e.g. defensive play, spread, that they can learn at VFL level

If people want proof that it is working they can look at the i50 count on the weekend. You dont keep a top 8 side to a count that low without an very well structured backline. People can kick and scream all they want about size and skill but there is no doubt they are structuring up better every week. Yeah it breaks down at times but the more often they play together the less frequent those breakdowns will become

I think we need to keep Casey strong.

I want our next generation to have the mentality of "I've beaten these blokes before, I can do it again"
In the years to come when the crop of talent from the other clubs start playing AFL footy.
 

3 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

My mistake.... Rod Keogh

you are right a solid player who never quite got to the heights

From Wikipedia:

" Keogh usually played in the midfield or at half forward and was recruited to Melbourne from Castlemaine.^[1] He made his league debut in 1990 but spent most of the season with the reserves where he won a Gardiner Medal. In 1993 he won another Gardiner Medal^[2] after failing to play a senior game that year. He moved to St Kilda in 1994^[3] and was a member of their 1997 grand final losing side. Keogh was delisted at the end of the 1998 season "

I remember Rod Keogh.

Wore the 31 and played a bit of seniors with Melbourne.

I though he was pretty good but possibly he had issues with the coach or vice versa.

Rod Owen was good too but also Had a party hardy reputation.

We seemed to jettison bad boys like Owen pretty quickly in those days (notwithstanding that he had a couple of five goal hauls in his year with us). The 'bad boy' that I regret that we didn't persevere with though was Martin Pike.

I would replace VFL finals with extra rounds to reflect the current AFL system i.e 22 games with the top side being awarded the "crown" VFL clubs would benefit if their affiliated AFL club would start their fixture at the same time. The WAFL actually starts before West Coast and Freo teams,they also play each other three times. The Demons have in the past at times had good reserves and u19's however they could not produce decent senior sides.  Something I find funny is in the Development League 3 teams have a bye at least 4 times at a year. Do they mostly young teenagers who are in constantly need of a sleep……………..or perhaps they are like an apprentice who attends TAFE.

I see there has been talk of scrapping the development league.

The VFL comp structure certainly needs some work if it is to remain viable

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/localfooty/sandringham-gm-calls-for-afl-vic-to-keep-development-league/news-story/253b72167eba31709ed9c6b8310a58d4

Edited July 29, 20168 yr by Diamond_Jim

On 26/07/2016 at 7:54 AM, Fifty-5 said:

I used to think this but winning all those flags for Sandy in the 2000s didn't make any difference.

difference. 

the difference was the lousy soft culture we had at the time at Melbourne, near enough.  & the poor recruiting/development.

We are now a different & growing club, with different leaders around the place.

 

Diamond_ Jim thankyou for your item on the Development League, which more or less explains why there are several lots of 3 team bye during the fixture. This is due try to the organisation of volunteers and staff and fact that the Development teams at times having to play at different venues compared to their senior counterparts. One can actually say that due to so many byes that players are not getting the development that they should do.