1 hour ago, rpfc said:

One good game doesn’t make a lock

2 hours ago, SPC said:

He certainly must be doing stuff that coaches ask of him that supporters don’t see or appreciate.

I look at him and think, he is a good size, seems powerful, is reasonably quick, good runner, good above head and has neat skills. But I just don’t get why he can’t put it all together. Athletically he is miles above Viney. But when the ball is bounced- couldn’t be further from him.

It must just be an attitude thing.

Unlikely an ‘attitude’ thing but rather an ability thing

Possible Team

B: Howes McDonald, Salem

HB: Rivers, Lever, Jiath

C: Windsor, Langford, Langdon,

HF: Chandler, van Rooyen, K.Pickett

F: Fritsch, Mihocek, Sharp

FOLL: Gawn, Steele, Tholstrup

IC: Petty, Lindsay L.Pickett, Culley, Heath

EMERG: Moniz-Wakefield, Taylor, Sparrow

Windsor Langford takes centre clearance Windsor Langford outside Tholstrup tagging

K Pickett also run through centre for burst swap with Tholstrup

LIndsay chop out Windsor Langdon THolstrup Chandler Sharp Salem ( lets see what hes got)

L Pickett burst swap with Chandler, Sharp

Culley swap with Mihocek, Van Rooyen Fritsch (Van Rooyen, Mihiocek rotate FF and CHF)

Heath chop out for Max Mihocek, Van Rooyen (Forward role)

Petty is a better ruck than both Roo and possibly Heath but can plug in for any defender needing chop out (Lever Howes Mc Donald) and can chop out for Max jn defence role

Theres plenty of flexibility around some core who have little rest Langdon Rivers Salem Jiath Mc Donald Steele

Van Rooyen must be just forward rotatindg and leading with Mihocrk. both providing contest so ball comes down to crumbers. Fritsh plays deep and behind contests.

TMac must come in for Disco. I would consider AMW for Latrelle and maybe Heath for Culley. MY rationale is that TMac is a no-brainer. AMW is quick and a bit more experienced than Latrelle. He is a good kick and can cover Carlton's small forwards. 2 little blokes for Freo took us apart, one in his first game. Culley's role at the moment is as a marking target, not so much a ground-level ball getter, where Heath can also be a marking target and take part in forward ruck contests

3 hours ago, Dannyz said:

The easy option for the coaching staff is to drop Sparrow but the real challenge lies in coaching him through increasing his production.

Could substitute any number of players in that consideration.

This is where we start to really understand the what and where of this new FD.

Easy to tinker and caress when all's going well but real character and ability comes on display through adversity.

Most of this team has real ability and CAN play good footy ( we do need some more players of a higher ilk but that's another discussion) but they didn't on the weekend... well not nearly enough, for long enough.

Hopefully the coaches can attend to this with positive reinforcement of what was done well and work with that.

We got knocked down.. we need to get up

What I take from the first two games is that we have a maximum of 12 players who genuinely belong at AFL level and who are capable of playing at a decent level most weeks.

The reality is that we can throw the magnets around each week, but we're not getting any more from the top 10 players at Casey then we're getting from the bottom 10 players in the senior team.

The first question is who is going to benefit most developmentally from playing AFL and who is going to benefit most developmentally from playing VFL. The second question is who do we put a line through and decide that they are not going to help us either now or in the future, and when do make these decisions.

I'm not convinced on Moniz-Wakefield, but he needs to be playing AFL as soon as his fitness is good enough to see if he can make it. Ditto Kentfield. We have to take a look at Heath and Jefferson as well, preferably sooner rather than later for Heath. Maybe Adams if his form warrants it.

I really don't see any benefit to playing Laurie, Henderson, Johnson, and McAdam at any stage, and probably Melksham as well, unless we run into injury / fitness problems.

Latrelle has had a taste of senior football, and did some fun things against St Kilda, but zero tackles in two weeks is completely unacceptable in that role. He needs to improve his endurance and strength in the VFL, and come back when he is able to compete more consistently.

We do need to ride the bumps with Tholstrup (not overly a fan), Culley, Sharp and Howes because they are not going to improve further in the VFL. I'm happy for Langford, Lindsay and Windsor to have a week off every so often if we see that they are struggling.

I could write a thesis on how Salem, Lever and Sparrow are complete liabilities who are in no way taking us forward, but I suspect that all three are undroppable. Hopefully King is not as attached to his senior players as Goodwin was.

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

Isn’t he Swallow this year?

A Casey Swallow

Kolt to Jagga

Long knives out for “Captain Jack Sparrow” a premiership player who’s been working at the coal face for five years, whilst club heroes, Petracca, Oliver and Viney have been counting the members money.

Not every game can be bang, bang, bang.

9 minutes ago, bluey said:

Long knives out for “Captain Jack Sparrow” a premiership player who’s been working at the coal face for five years, whilst club heroes, Petracca, Oliver and Viney have been counting the members money.

Not every game can be bang, bang, bang.

Exactly.

There's bound to be plenty of hits and misses this year.

We did any number of things poorly but that can and will be addressed. To what result.... yet to see.

Going to be interesting to see how we play .

We can do nothing about the last result. We CAN do a lot of things better. Hopefully we do.

30 minutes ago, bluey said:

Long knives out for “Captain Jack Sparrow” a premiership player who’s been working at the coal face for five years, whilst club heroes, Petracca, Oliver and Viney have been counting the members money.

Not every game can be bang, bang, bang.

His development and impact has always been questionable.

Perhaps all he needs is one more uninterrupted pre-season 🤨

55 minutes ago, poita said:

Latrelle has had a taste of senior football, and did some fun things against St Kilda, but zero tackles in two weeks is completely unacceptable in that role. He needs to improve his endurance and strength in the VFL, and come back when he is able to compete more

Makes no sense to drop Latrelle this week. The club have him on a steep learning curve and want him to adapt and develop his game asap. Won’t do that sitting up in the stands watching this week while Casey has a bye.

Great opportunity to see what he has learnt over the past two weeks and work on his deficiencies, especially back at the wide expanses of the G against a team not known for it’s speed or defensive abilities.

Yes he had no influence this week but against quality opposition on a day we were soundly beaten in most facets of the game in hostile territory. Not a great day for any of our forwards.

Latrelle must play this week.

I think it's still too early to bring AMW back into the senior team. Give him another week or two to find his feet in the VFL.

If he looks the goods, then bring him in for Sparrow and play him at half back, allowing Lindsay to play more midfield which is where he looked most comfortable when he was moved there in the third quarter against the Saints.

8 minutes ago, Big Gun said:

Makes no sense to drop Latrelle this week. The club have him on a steep learning curve and want him to adapt and develop his game asap. Won’t do that sitting up in the stands watching this week while Casey has a bye.

Great opportunity to see what he has learnt over the past two weeks and work on his deficiencies, especially back at the wide expanses of the G against a team not known for it’s speed or defensive abilities.

Yes he had no influence this week but against quality opposition on a day we were soundly beaten in most facets of the game in hostile territory. Not a great day for any of our forwards.

Latrelle must play this week.

I'm not knocking Latrelle but as a club we must give everyone on our senior list equal treatment imho

I couldn't watch the Freo game yet, but I have watched the Casey game. Personally, I'm not sure we wouldn't get more or the same output from Paddy Cross as a small forward. If up to me I'd probably give Latrelle one more game to deliver something - after that if his contribution doesn't warrant selection, he should find some confidence at Casey and give someone else a chance

As far as small forwards go Matthews is someone who will chase like his life depends on it and can seriously jump for a mark despite his height - he is very small so he has his work cut out to make it in the AFL but then again, he is the same height as Nick Watson. If you look at Matthews and his key attributes, they are similar to Watson so who knows he may become our next wizard, my main query is does he have the same speed. The Casey game was a challenge for him as we seriously lacked big bodied forwards who could create crumbing opportunities, we will probably see him shine a bit brighter when we get some taller timber back in the F50

I know his deft touches of a wing are valuable, but not a fan of holding Langford back from the coalface.

Unleash him

4 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Sparrow had 9 tackles. Will not be dropped

I'm not questioning his defensive ability and I'm not judging him on one game, if I did I'd drop 20 players. I'm questioning his offensive ability over 4 years. I think you must have both these days. His defensive ability is fine but his offensive ability is no good. When was the last time he got over 15 possessions? More importantly when was the last time he got over 20? No excuses he's a midfielder, just like a attacking player who can't defend he gets dropped quickly. King wants to be a more attacking team and Sparrow can't be part of that.

1 hour ago, bluey said:

Long knives out for “Captain Jack Sparrow” a premiership player who’s been working at the coal face for five years, whilst club heroes, Petracca, Oliver and Viney have been counting the members money.

Not every game can be bang, bang, bang.

He hasn't had a kick since the premiership. Talk about premiership hangover.

Any news on Turner’s hand injury?

2 hours ago, poita said:

I really don't see any benefit to playing Laurie, Henderson, Johnson, and McAdam at any stage, and probably Melksham as well, unless we run into injury / fitness problems.

Do you really want a repeat of the Bailey, Neeld mess?

We’re bad enough organically for the kids who are ready to need games to get games. Anyone who’s putting their hand up at Casey and makes us better should be given a go.

The more we stay competitive the better environment for player development.

Is this not Max's 250th game? How have I not heard a peep about this milestone yet? Let's hope he gets the win he deserves!

17 hours ago, Pennant St Dee said:

Nailed it, this is very much going to be a season like 2010, kids coming through showing real promise and then having games where their youth and ability to put together 4-5 strong back to back games is tested.

Although I’m confident both the club and spread of talent and age demographic across our list is better then it was at the end of 2010

Spot on.

Whether you think we are in full rebuild mode, mini rebuild or a reboot/reset phase matters little - we all agree it's one of those three (and really its just semantics away).

And in all three scenarios history tell us young players performance level fluctuates and improvement is never linear.

The Roos, chock full of young guns, are the perfect example of that - lauded last week for their stirring win over Port they came into the game as 1.50 favorites, which is pretty remarkable given where they finished last season and the fact the game was in Perth.

Those odds looked spot on after the first quarter with the Roos kicking 7 goals and leading by 4 goals at quarter's end.

They could only manage another 8 goals for the game and ended up losing to a team that had not won since round 10 2025.

The Roos' young players, so good last week, fluffed their lines in a game that was the probably the shortest they had started to win for perhaps 7 or 8 seasons.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by binman

Does anyone know whether we will be coming out onto the ground via the same race this week? I saw soemthing, somehwere, saying it is permanent...why? Can someone enlighten me. I thought we always used the race in the Members. We used to have the one in the red seats

T Mc for Disco. Petty rucks a little more. Lever takes a few more spells on the pine so he can play with actual energy across half back.

Paddy Cross for Langford.

This one is controversial but I want Harvey getting 30 touches at Casey and developing his strength inside and marking game as a dominant on baller.

He looks to have all the hallmarks of second year syndrome and we could keep playing him through it or give him the sharpen up now.

Cross comes in deeper forward.

Some more half forward and wing for Windsor. Kolt released from tagging to play half forward/wing. Some more on ball and wing for Culley. Rivers, Sparrow on ball more too.

Open to the idea of Matthews or Henderson for Latrelle, but I might give Latrelle one more week and those other 2 need match fitness. But if he’s running straight at goal inside 50 and doesn’t kick a drop punt he’s going to Casey for 6 weeks.

18 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Do you really want a repeat of the Bailey, Neeld mess?

We’re bad enough organically for the kids who are ready to need games to get games. Anyone who’s putting their hand up at Casey and makes us better should be given a go.

The more we stay competitive the better environment for player development.

Selection integrity has been a big issue for us in recent times. It all feeds into maintaining a true performance based environment. It's a facet of our game and club I'm really hoping to see change under King.

57 minutes ago, Sydee said:

I'm not knocking Latrelle but as a club we must give everyone on our senior list equal treatment imho

I couldn't watch the Freo game yet, but I have watched the Casey game. Personally, I'm not sure we wouldn't get more or the same output from Paddy Cross as a small forward. If up to me I'd probably give Latrelle one more game to deliver something - after that if his contribution doesn't warrant selection, he should find some confidence at Casey and give someone else a chance

As far as small forwards go Matthews is someone who will chase like his life depends on it and can seriously jump for a mark despite his height - he is very small so he has his work cut out to make it in the AFL but then again, he is the same height as Nick Watson. If you look at Matthews and his key attributes, they are similar to Watson so who knows he may become our next wizard, my main query is does he have the same speed. The Casey game was a challenge for him as we seriously lacked big bodied forwards who could create crumbing opportunities, we will probably see him shine a bit brighter when we get some taller timber back in the F50

I'm not knocking Latrelle but as a club we must give everyone on our senior list equal treatment imho

I couldn't watch the Freo game yet, but I have watched the Casey game. Personally, I'm not sure we wouldn't get more or the same output from Paddy Cross as a small forward. If up to me I'd probably give Latrelle one more game to deliver something - after that if his contribution doesn't warrant selection, he should find some confidence at Casey and give someone else a chance

As far as small forwards go Matthews is someone who will chase like his life depends on it and can seriously jump for a mark despite his height - he is very small so he has his work cut out to make it in the AFL but then again, he is the same height as Nick Watson. If you look at Matthews and his key attributes, they are similar to Watson so who knows he may become our next wizard, my main query is does he have the same speed. The Casey game was a challenge for him as we seriously lacked big bodied forwards who could create crumbing opportunities, we will probably see him shine a bit brighter when we get some taller timber back in the F50

Agree but with no Casey game this week and Matthews having had minimal impact in the VFL game last Saturday, Latrelle must get another game this week. He may well need some time in the two’s this season but not when there is no Casey game to play in and also only when someone else has the form on the board with Casey to replace him.

1 hour ago, WERRIDEE said:

I'm not questioning his defensive ability and I'm not judging him on one game, if I did I'd drop 20 players. I'm questioning his offensive ability over 4 years. I think you must have both these days. His defensive ability is fine but his offensive ability is no good. When was the last time he got over 15 possessions? More importantly when was the last time he got over 20? No excuses he's a midfielder, just like a attacking player who can't defend he gets dropped quickly. King wants to be a more attacking team and Sparrow can't be part of that.

we don't know what he has been told to do and whether or not he is fulfilling his assignment. It's easy to say he's not getting possessions but we are long past the Ron Barassi/Gerard Healy "show me possessions".

What have Sparrow's opponents been doing?