Earlier on another thread , someone said :

"Tbh i think we'll be lucky to get within 5/6 goals of the Sqawkers. Could be wrong. Think we'll actually miss Viney shutting down someone today. Someone else will need to do that role. Too many not giving Hawthorn due credit imho Dees need to be awake early . Don't want to get jumped as that's catchup footy.... tiring and all too often futile. Like to see Fritter get jiggy. Be handy should Clarry have a blinder to silence his 'fan club' in the media. Roo needs to hang on to a few and find the sticks otherwise I'm not sure why he's back in tttt. Just got to make a fist of it Dees. Go Us"

And here we are..... sadly.

I think today two errors compounded.

Many gave incredulous dismissives to Hawthorn and many over rate the Dees list and ability to play decent footy consistently.

The writing was on the wall for those that can and would read.

It's still there !!

35 minutes ago, Dingo said:

Kossie legged in the goal square and no free??

I just saw that trip…

That Umpire should never officiate an AFL Game again

That’s akin to Cheating

2 hours ago, Disco InTurno said:

We were the better team today. They’ll finish 6th and go out in the first round of finals.

Respectfully disagree that we were the better team.

We lead for about 3 minutes of the game, Hawthorn kept responding like a good team does whenever we applied a bit of scoreboard pressure and destroyed us in the last quarter.

Sure there were some positives today, and we had them on toast at times, and Langford and XL were exciting.

8 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I don’t know about you lot but that hurt. We had them on toast and played some great footy. This year becomes all about next year.

The Pig and Mitch Brown would be handy these days.

Just now, Sir Why You Little said:

I just saw that trip…

That Umpire should never officiate an AFL Game again

That’s akin to Cheating

#freekickhawthorn #nonetomelbourne

Jefferson is probably a lovely fella, talented in VFL and local leagues for sure, I went today and didn’t even notice him except for 1 mark at the punt road end then kicked it and didn’t even score. He has about as much grunt as Schache and Weid.

Can we draft a forward with a bit of @$#t who wants to rip off their opponents head?

Langford first season and already you can tell he is a player. Kicked a nice goal and even tried to get the crowd into it with his celebration.

JVR and Jeffo are just too raw. No point potting them , they shouldn’t be our focal points at this stage.

Selwyn should be the first person sacked, not Goody. Our fitness is our biggest problem.

51 minutes ago, old dee said:

Binman! Do you now see where my negative attitude stems from? Your two CPF's had blinders again. Sorry but I could not help myself. To all those who think we have a good team need to open their eyes. We need at minimum a 2 year rebuild of our forward line. Jefferson, JVR and Fullerton will not take us into finals ever.

We also need a quality mid who can use the ball better coming inside and occasionally drift forward for the odd goal. Which we might have found in Langers although most likely will need a few more pre-seasons to be a consistent impact player here. Great start though.

But we'll also then need to replace Vines & Sparrow. Sparrow is too slow and has no other weapons except defensive effort.

And no, Rivers aint gonna make it as a mid i'm afraid. He needs to see the ball in front of him and plays so much better as a HBer.

Then there's the Maximus factor OD. He just isn't replaceable so we'll just have to aim for someone reasonable. And that aint coming from Casey either with Verral another bust alongside Jeffo.

We are at least a mini rebuild of significant proportions away from fixing the forward woes and the above. I'm thinking around 3 to 5 seasons plus a new forward line coach.

And who knows who else will still be there from the present FD by then.

Edited May 10May 10 by Demon Dynasty

My take .....
Bad kicking is bad footy.
Issue has plagued us for far too long.
Good sides take their opportunities.

Also listened to Bruest after the game.
When asked what Mitchell said at 3/4 time he declared Mitchell told them they were boring.
Play fast and exciting and if they lose doing it .... So be it.
Entertain him.

I'd kill for a coach with a similar philosophy.

Edited May 10May 10 by Fork 'em

34 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Half back flankers are some of the most important players in the modern game now.

Windsor has elite speed and skills, and is exactly the sort of player you want starting your attack from half back.

It makes perfect sense to play him in that role, especially with Lindsay and Langford now both playing the wing role so well.

Ideally yes. But we have zero spread ahead of the ball. What is the point of having sit on HB winning turnovers where he has nothing to kick to?

Bowey and Rivers behind the ball and Windsor on the HFF. Season is kaput so worth a shot.

Game was pretty indicative of where we are. Nowhere near as bad as we looked rds 2-5, but a bit of a shadow of our old self. Relying a lot on a select few guys delivering their role every single week - namely Gawn, McDonald, Melksham, Bowey, Langford, Petracca, Langford, Pickett, Chandler. When any of these guys lower their colours, like TMac in the final quarter today, nobody else seems to step up to replace them. Some real good youth who I have a lot of faith in, but equally a couple of young guys who are tilting towards busts. Jefferson and Tholstrup the obvious candidates, and whilst it breaks my heart to say because he did look good, JVR isn't far away.

Out:

Fritsch - made Sicily, the guy in the worst form of his career, look unreal. Barely even applied percieved pressure, never mind actual pressure. And I've been a defender of his.

Jefferson - absolutely nowhere near it, unfortunately.

Tholstrup - I said it when he debuted and I'll say it again - there are no clear strengths to his game. What was Taylor thinking? Hope he comes good, but he has a lot to do.

In:

Melksham - football smarts

Petty - can't believe he's the answer again, but here we are

Laurie - deserves another go

Oliver for Viney and JVR for Fullarton are both tempting changes too. Fullarton can barely play, but there's something in his and Petty's ability to stay out of eachother's way.

44 minutes ago, BDA said:

Do you mean we should have recruited better goal kickers?

Fritsch missed 2 gimmes. thats on him, not the coaches.

Our Forwards are not being Coached correctly or PREPARED correctly

Some of that is on Goodwin, and some on the FD

When have we seen improvement in our forward 50 craft since the GF??

It’s not helped by a Pathetic VFL fixture, but other Clubs have that problem and seem to function up forward, but not us

Simon’s Learnings obviously do not include the Forwardline, it has been neglected for 3 seasons

6 Goals to 3/4 time on a Sunny afternoon when “supposedly” we had them on toast…

What Rubbish

Other Coaches in the AFL would have sorted our Forwardline massive inefficiency in one preseason. This Season the problem has actually got worse, because we cannot run out 4 Quarters

Intense pressure for no rewards takes its toll…

2 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Simon is not smart enough at selection.

JVR, Jeffo and Fritta all horribly out of form yet plays all three.

The one dangerous tall that performed last week he moves down back for Petty.

Another zero goal game from Spargo and pretty sure same for Chandler. When the heat comes on and we're struggling the only small forward that stands up (when he's playing as a small forward) is Koz and he's probably gone at years end.

Kolt & Jeffo aren't ready for AFL and Jeffo is barely VFL level at this point.

JVR kicked 5 in the VFL last time out, didn't he?

Chandler also isn't a small forward. He's very clearly playing between the arcs.

16 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Respectfully disagree that we were the better team.

We lead for about 3 minutes of the game, Hawthorn kept responding like a good team does whenever we applied a bit of scoreboard pressure and destroyed us in the last quarter.

Sure there were some positives today, and we had them on toast at times, and Langford and XL were exciting.

Sanity

We have had some big outs...Viney...Petty... Milkshake....Lever.

Their getting older and injury prone. Although a concussion in there

Let's face it the club got complacent after 21 . Maybe after 21 the club got complacent.

Maybe after so long one flag was enough

We failed to recruit big fwds. You need a lot of them cos some often don't pan out. Ie Weed.

We also strangely picked up a few players from other clubs that weren't very good.

Also something went wrong with our club culture too. Something wasn't right and it's hurt us.

In any case it shows what happens when you get cocky. Success can be an enemy.

Shame because we thought so much we had a great list. I guess we did. We just lost two double chances and one cos Gus was Ko. But the way Salem played today and Fritta and Oliver and ... absolutely makers of our 21 cup. ....it's hard to understand

AFL cubs fortunes come and go as MFC fans no better than most.

Maybe time for Goody to go.

He failed to move Turner when we couldn't take a mark inside fifty or convert a set shot.

Gee we've had it so good for a few years I've forgotten how painful footy can be.

Bummer.

Edited May 10May 10 by leave it to deever

1 minute ago, Pirlo said:

Game was pretty indicative of where we are. Nowhere near as bad as we looked rds 2-5, but a bit of a shadow of our old self. Relying a lot on a select few guys delivering their role every single week - namely Gawn, McDonald, Melksham, Bowey, Langford, Petracca, Langford, Pickett, Chandler. When any of these guys lower their colours, like TMac in the final quarter today, nobody else seems to step up to replace them. Some real good youth who I have a lot of faith in, but equally a couple of young guys who are tilting towards busts. Jefferson and Tholstrup the obvious candidates, and whilst it breaks my heart to say because he did look good, JVR isn't far away.

Out:

Fritsch - made Sicily, the guy in the worst form of his career, look unreal. Barely even applied percieved pressure, never mind actual pressure. And I've been a defender of his.

Jefferson - absolutely nowhere near it, unfortunately.

Tholstrup - I said it when he debuted and I'll say it again - there are no clear strengths to his game. What was Taylor thinking? Hope he comes good, but he has a lot to do.

In:

Melksham - football smarts

Petty - can't believe he's the answer again, but here we are

Laurie - deserves another go

Oliver for Viney and JVR for Fullarton are both tempting changes too. Fullarton can barely play, but there's something in his and Petty's ability to stay out of eachother's way.

Yes to Laurie but only as a short term sub for Kolt and only if he performs on match day. Otherwise back he goes.

There is no one on the present list that stands out as a 'knocking on the door' option for that 23rd spot.

Was hoping it might be Brown dog but he doesn't appear to be coming on either (to date anyway....shows glimpses). Didn't see any of the Casey game today though but sounds like most were pretty average.

1 hour ago, No10 said:

Clearly I’m typing with eyes closed. We were the better team.

JVR looks everything he should be, just can’t break out. I see it as just a matter of time and when he does, it will stick.

Oliver has a journey back but I believe in him 1000%, just hope it’s with us. Trac, Gawn. Gods. The youth are incredible, Lindsay was excellent, Langford sublime. Windsor set himself a high standard. Kolt should’ve started. There’s a lot of improvement from McVee. Fritch was playing on Sicily which is no small task, thought he did ok.

Honestly, it seems like a team that should be contending. That’s my frustration, the chemistry isn’t chemisting.

I admire your positivity. No mention of Jefferson?

6 minutes ago, Pirlo said:

JVR kicked 5 in the VFL last time out, didn't he?

Chandler also isn't a small forward. He's very clearly playing between the arcs.

That was a 100 point thrashing of a very poor Tiger team. He was given the ball on a platter a few times and kicked some lovely goals from various angles and a couple were from distance with the breeze.

However, for all matches prior till then, he was horribly out of form and looked lost in his first Casey game against a much more competitive and serious VFL team in the Giants.

We needed to see how he went over a decent body of work against a few other reasonable or better VFL teams before deciding to bring him back.

Even some ppl close to him admitted that he was a mile off it and in bad form.

But the fact that the Coach & FD couldn't see that and pulled the trigger too soon is on them.

I hope he turns it around but the chopping and changing of out-of-form players that don't really find true form at Casey and then are brought straight back in, only to be clobbered again at AFL level, is again, all on the coaches and the SC.

SHIITEHOUSE player management imv.

Edited May 10May 10 by Demon Dynasty

2 hours ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

Poor goalkicking.

Wasted opportunities.

Last quarter fade out

(Copy and paste from any game, really)

Umpiring was corrupt but it’s not why we lost. We were in it at 3Q but didn’t turn up. Again. Apparent we are not a real team and won’t beat any real teams this year. Blood the kids, get ready for 2026

But we should've been 30 points on top of the dirty Hawks, had we kicked our goals.

1 hour ago, Adam The God said:

You realise we led just before 3/4 time, plus had 4 more scoring shots than them to 3/4 time. We. Had. Them. On. Toast.

if you're gonna have a pop at least show you have a feel for the game.

We've completely changed the way we move the footy.

Yes but I thought we did go back to kicking long down the line too often and went away from switching around the flanks to open up the forward line.

Lack of tackles inside 50 was telling as well. Kolt should not have been sub.

Id give JVR a mulligan. I’d like to see him play 2nd fiddle to Petty. Turner does look good down back too so I’d rather play him there as the 3rd tall.

If JVR not capable then switch him to the backline as third tall and Turner up forward.

1 hour ago, BDA said:

Do you mean we should have recruited better goal kickers?

Fritsch missed 2 gimmes. thats on him, not the coaches.

Might also be on anyone involved in selecting him 🤔

2 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Might also be on anyone involved in selecting him 🤔

What happened to Frittata? He used to be automatic.

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

I admire your positivity. No mention of Jefferson?

Haven’t seen enough to say.

Wasn’t super excited when we drafted him, don’t really know what he’s meant to become?

Just looking it up, 2022 wasn’t exactly a super draft.

Just now, ElDiablo14 said:

What happened to Frittata? He used to be automatic.

It's a very very good question.

You can't question the ability. Unfortunately everything else warrants one ( question)