17 hours ago, sue said:

No need to discuss it further. Scott on the AFL site says:

"With Bernie Vince likely to replace Lewis, Scott said Demons ruckman Jake Spencer would likely fill the forward-line hole left by Hogan."

Stanley is a spud, Spencer will be number 1 ruck and Gawn will play full foward relief ruck

I have inside knowledge (inside a bottle of rum)

34 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

According to the Casey pre-season thread, Tim Smith could barely run out the last quarter of last weeks game and couldn't provide any defensive running/pressure.

If that's true, he ain't playing AFL on Saturday.

According to the Casey coach...

“I thought Tim Smith was a very good player. He really competed at an exceptional level,” Plapp told melbournefc.com.au.

“He played some different roles on the weekend, but he did some really strong competitive work, in and around the contest, which was a real highlight. His ability to be able to mark the ball when forward was also really strong."

I think I'll go with that one and it looks like Smith is playing this weekend.

Congratulations to him, he's worked hard for it and kept the faith in his own ability when it would have been easy to go back and make a bit of cash in the lower leagues.

In-Tim Smith, Bernie Vince, Sam Frost, Dean Kent.

Out- Jesse Hogan, Jordan Lewis, OSCAR McDONALD!!!!, Jake Melksham

 

Great four changes. Thank God somebody wants to drop Melksham

I swear Oscar McDonald will cause my death due to a heart attack. When Oscar McDonald gets the ball in defence: Grinding teeth, tense body, to stiff to move or speak, head in hands, fork in eyes, feeling like my heart will explode. Then he disposed of it and my body feels looser yet again. The ball ends up through the goals of the wrong teams end, that is also the end of my TV. I just hope he won't touch it again.

6 minutes ago, hank said:

Great four changes. Thank God somebody wants to drop Melksham

Did you watch the game or just bringing inane biases to the table?

2 minutes ago, Hogans Heroe"s said:

I swear Oscar McDonald will cause my death due to a heart attack. When Oscar McDonald gets the ball in defence: Grinding teeth, tense body, to stiff to move or speak, head in hands, fork in eyes, feeling like my heart will explode. Then he disposed of it and my body feels looser yet again. The ball ends up through the goals of the wrong teams end, that is also the end of my TV. I just hope he won't touch it again.

Rubbish post. He had 1 clanger on the weekend, went at 83% DE, and didn't concede a goal. He reads the play beautifully

Yes I was at the game and had my eyes open all the time so that I could watch all the (not under pressure) turnovers by Melksham

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

According to the Casey pre-season thread, Tim Smith could barely run out the last quarter of last weeks game and couldn't provide any defensive running/pressure.

If that's true, he ain't playing AFL on Saturday.

No defensive pressure? He will fill Hogan's spot perfectly 

3 minutes ago, hank said:

Yes I was at the game and had my eyes open all the time so that I could watch all the (not under pressure) turnovers by Melksham

Absolutely correct. Has quite suspect skills and is a little slow with both desicion making and awareness. There were certainly a few times his kicks made me tear my hair out. 

If Smith gets a run that is Pedo finished.  Goody must not be a fan of the big fella, lack of pace/mobility maybe?  I have a soft spot for him and will miss the bumps

Yes I'm afraid pedo may be done with Hogan, Weideman and now probably Tim Smith all ahead of him. I will miss the strength and aggression from the big fella 

4 minutes ago, Hogans Heroe"s said:

Yes I'm afraid pedo may be done with Hogan, Weideman and now probably Tim Smith all ahead of him. I will miss the strength and aggression from the big fella 

Don't worry mate.. There's a reason why they call Tim Smith 'Bull' ..

On 4/5/2017 at 8:23 AM, special robert said:

After we crush Geelong we should storm AFL headquarters and trash the joint.

Maybe you could move your humpy to the roof, as in OCCUPY it.

We played Etihad extremely well in Round 1 and the space and width of the MCG appeared to negate Goodwin's plan. It could be that having played pre-season and then Round 1 on smaller, narrowing grounds, we thrived at Etihad.

We will win.

Tim Smith coming in doesn't spell the end for Pedersen. Run an eye over the Casey reports - Pedersen is still working into it after a limited pre-season. I don't know why we need to be so melodramatic about selection.

9 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Tim Smith coming in doesn't spell the end for Pedersen. Run an eye over the Casey reports - Pedersen is still working into it after a limited pre-season. I don't know why we need to be so melodramatic about selection.

It's a black and white world for some

45 minutes ago, praha said:

We played Etihad extremely well in Round 1 and the space and width of the MCG appeared to negate Goodwin's plan. It could be that having played pre-season and then Round 1 on smaller, narrowing grounds, we thrived at Etihad.

We will win.

That's great that Goodwin's plan suits Etihad, but we might want to fix our MCG form considering we play there 8 more times than Etihad.

So this whole week theres been alot of debate around who deserves/doesn't deseve to go out. So lets break it down a bit. This is the way I think most of us see it at this stage (assuming the rumor that smith is in is true): 
Vince for Lewis, Smith for Hogan and Kent is best 22, but who goes out?
Kent is primarily a small forward who can spend some short stints in the midfield. That means he could play any of the following players role:

• Garlett
• Petracca
• ANB
• Hannan
• Brayshaw
• Harmes

I think we all agree Garlett and Petracca are as good as 0 risk of being dropped. So out of the remaining 4 who is most at risk?
Harmes has only played 1 of the 2 games and the last in, first out model is likely how the club would have looked at it if they had all been brilliant, he was essentially just filling in for Salem while he played Vince's role. But IMO his performance was 2nd only to Garlett on the above list.
Brayshaw had a shocker there's no denying it. But of the 4 most at risk has the biggest upside and the club likely thinks he needs more game time, particularly given his injury struggles last year.
ANB is arguably the least talented player on this list but has twice gotten praise for his defencive efforts and is second only to Oliver in tackles. Given Oliver stands side by side with his man at most contests and ANB doesnt, his numbers are great. Geelong's defencive retirement village could really be troubled by his pressure.
That leaves Hannan. This bloke was a rather shock inclusion, played beyond expectations in round 1 then was quiet but tried hard in round 2. He has shown that he could maybe be a player, but despite his best efforts he really struggled to have an impact in round 2.

I'm glad I'm not the one actually making this decision, there is a reasonable case for any one of them to stay or to go. Personally I think that you have to go in with the most talented side available and that would mean ANB goes out. However I suspect the club wont go with that approach. I think the club will most likely drop Hannan.

Most important thing here regardless of who goes out: There's no need to panic! they will still get plenty of opportunities throughout the rest of the year. Form/injury/suspension something will give them another chance. Any of the guys that stay in will be on thin ice and have alot of pressure to perform on any given week. Fact of the matter is Hogan, Lewis and Hibbard are walk up starts when available almost regardless of others form. If we play well in the next couple of weeks, these selection decisions are only going to get harder. And this whole post hasn't even mentioned Buggy who was apparently BOG or close to it at Casey
 

While Kent is a good player, his reputation vs actual output is a little off the mark.  I'm not sure he's an automatic selection in a 2-0 team.

When a team is playing well, anyone outside of that 22 needs to be banging down the door.  Is Kent banging down the door???

13 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

So this whole week theres been alot of debate around who deserves/doesn't deseve to go out. So lets break it down a bit. This is the way I think most of us see it at this stage (assuming the rumor that smith is in is true): 
Vince for Lewis, Smith for Hogan and Kent is best 22, but who goes out?
Kent is primarily a small forward who can spend some short stints in the midfield.

I'm with you.  But I think we need as many avenues to score as possible so I want Kent in and Hannan retained because he's capable in the air and on the ground and he's a reliable shot.  I'm on record - I'm a Brayshaw fan but he goes out for me - ANB and Harmes are providing more right now.

If we win this the lid is right off.

Post from BF. Think this guy called the Joel Smith debut as well.

1 hour ago, Nasher said:

Tim Smith coming in doesn't spell the end for Pedersen. Run an eye over the Casey reports - Pedersen is still working into it after a limited pre-season. I don't know why we need to be so melodramatic about selection.

I'm still coming to terms with the fact that Jetta isn't part of Goodwin's plans.

Sounds like Goodwin has a plan to deal with Selwood and Dangerfield.  "Like all teams we'll have some scenarios that we can go to depending on how those two guys are going..."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-04-06/demons-back-infrom-mids-to-take-on-dangerwood

But he isn't giving much away on selections:  "...revealed midfielder Tom Bugg and versatile tall Cam Pedersen were in the selection conversation....He also forecast the club could blood a third player for the season, with mature-aged recruit Tim Smith a strong chance to join round-one starters Joel Smith and Mitch Hannan as Demon debutants in 2017..."

Goodwin may be being coy but no mention of Kent...  Is it conceivable that Bernie might miss (...to send everyone a message...).  I doubt it but stranger things have happened.

With Bugg, Petersen and Smith in the conversation and Bernie to come back there may be more changes than we think!

20 hours ago, jumbo returns said:

Scott's being a smarty pantaloons...and full of shirt..

On this description, he sounds more like a pirate than a footy coach.