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Morton is having a crack. I don't mind mistakes or the odd turnover if you're having a crack. I respect Cale's efforts over the last two games.

Are we going to have to put up with threads like these every week? The two Jacks are learning on the job. Don't expect Voss and Hird in their third and fourth years of football. They have been picked to grow into the role. Get used to it!

If you get a Casey ticket as part of your membership, half the team is Melbourne players, and we train there during summer, it seems to me to be perfectly legitimate to 'barrack' for Casey and think of them as 'our' team.

Do you really think he was asking that question to get an answer? He was posing a question to instill a mindset. Personally I think it's great.

Unfair!! He threw himself right into it today.

Watts kicks his third - margin 19 points. Gysberts off injured.

I suspect that Schwab and Connolly came to the view that he wasn't coaching and developing the players to play a game-plan that was competitive against most teams. They didn't press, they couldn't handle a press, they didn't play with any accountability, or defensive mindset. After nearly 4 years it was pretty obvious he wasn't a great coach and I suspect factions within the club were forming and perhaps the air around the place was becoming a little thicker.

You have no idea. Caro is a good football writer. She doesn't lie and gets told all sorts of stuff from all sorts of people. Her job is to filter it and find out facts. Occasionally she fills in gaps that are obvious but she is after all an opinion writer. Did you ever think that footy is a political business and some people use the media to spread lies and untruths?? Don't shoot the messenger. And when you see people like Grant Thomas and Greg Denham who sprout confidential stuff without checking facts you should be glad people like Caro are around. As for the article I think it shows why our leadership group is new this year. What did the players think they were doing?? Play footy FFS and stay out of the other stuff.

This sounds like a fairly honest version of events . Baileys biggest mistake was turning his men against Schwab. Players should never be privy to political discussions inside a sporting club . Cam Schwab over -doing his job is not as bad as Bailey underperforming. Brad Green and Rivers got involved in backing the wrong guy . Schwab and Connolly had gotten rid of Old MacDonald and Bruce-so they freared being next . The Moral of the story is-as always-mind your own business .

Well I guess Neeld won't be driving me to the footy tomorrow.

Man, that avatar's disturbing........

Can someone please, please, please tell Jamar NOT to handball to someone three inches away from him whose got an opponent breathing down their neck?

Rubbish post of the highest order. Go barrack for someone else. Sylvia is 2 games into returning, and Moloney was honest and has more credits in the bank than most. Geelong may have had 10 players under 50 games, but we have more, and you might think about who the other 12 Cats are! We are 6 games into a new contested ball, defensive, elite structure, against one of the best games of all time, on their patch. We clearly had a dip today, just lacked class, spread, pace and structure.

Oh and ... It's not every time you play somebody and show a 143 point improvement.

Like sand through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives *cue cheesy dramatic music* Unbelievable. No wonder Neeld thinks we were a club concerned about everything but football.

In reference to where OUR players play it is OUR side and I dare say who the majority on this forum would follow.

Well Ive just seen the Viney incident on Before the Game, looked worse than I remembered at the game, agreed Wojo is gone. Of the Demons players: Blease - great last half where his running to space and with the ball in his hand was a feature. Took a half to get into it though, hardly noticed him in first half. One more above average game next week and he'll get a callup I suspect, we sorely his need line breaking leg speed in the seniors. Fitzpatrick - As previously mentioned the real eye opener for me. Was the focal point up forward whenever he was there, lead hard and repeatedly all day, kept working hard when the ball was on the ground and also toiled away sufficiently when pinch hitting for the resting Spencer. The first time Ive seen him look comfortably above most VFL listed players out on the ground, very pleasing game. WIll I believe get a game next week at the expense of Sellar or Dunn. with the bonus that he'll be a more viable relieving ruckman than the aforementioned. Jurrah - Started off well, went in and out of the game as to be expected, but glimpses of the magic werent far from the surface. 1 maybe 2 more weeks at this level and he'll be back in, didnt do enough for mine just yet to earn a birth. Davis - Beaten by his opponent Kersten in too many contests, and also made a few questionable play switches in the last line, not his best game.Seems a little bit too much of an 'in-between' height for mine also as a defender. Bennell - Another very good game from Bennell, his confidence levels seem to be very high at the moment,taking the game on, initiating runs and forcing teammates to run to spaces that he creates, he was a great livewire creating presence off the half back line Couch - A sold game,was in and under where you would expect a player of his ilk to be. Disposal when inside 50 left a bit to be desired, his obvious one-paced approach wont give the selectors enough variety to what theyve already got, so I think he will remain playing for the Scorps for the time being. Nicholson - Busy without being a standout, I suspect he had a run with/stopping role this week. Never one that stands out for mine, although his pace is still there. Lawrence - Ever enthusiastic, he doesnt have enough of an impact with his limited stats, needs to work harder further up the ground to earn his own ball. Spencer - Up against Orren Stephenson who gave his midfield great service, Spencer was serviceable. Tried hard and provided a presence around the ground which was pleasing. Kicked a goal too which was good to see. Cook - OK game, kicked a couple and looked OK when he lead at the right times, but the focus of our inside balls was predominantly Spencer. Will be good for the run, hopefully can build his confidence up and be able to lead with a bit more authority. Petterd - A very good second half for Ricky P. Was running around doing as he pleased off a HFF/wing. Has too much class for this level clearly, will come under consideration for next week against the Hawks Sheahan - Did a few nice things, seems to read the play well and has a good height about him. Still needs to put on a bit of muscle but I can see a future for him in the red and blue. First time Ive seen him play in any form. Probably broke even with his opponent on the day. Taggart - Didnt notice the Scotsman that much ,although it was a good show of faith in his ability that he did start a lot of times in the centre square. Will be keen to watch him improve over the year at Casey and possibly push for a 'Grimes/Fitzpatrick' game in Round 24. Watts - Workrate was reasonable, but is the kind of player you can never really tell how hard he is pushing, has a certain laconic nature about him. Despite the stats and four goals, I still dont think he did enough, as harsh as that sounds. General consensus around us in the Melbourne bay was the same, he simply needs to show more urgency and hunger. Will he get a recall next week? 50/50 really, depends if the match committee saw it the same way I did. No for me. Viney - What an eventful debut! Having seen him play in under 18s last year I knew what to expect from him, and the stepup in level provided no problems for the young tyro. He reminds me of Luke Power, tough, short, continually finds the ball and loves the contest. Crunched into two Cats players in the third quarter, dusted himself off and ran off while both Cats lay stricken. Was everywhere around the ground, helping out down back, pushing forward. This kid will be in the starting 18 come round 1 next year, there is no doubt about that. I thought they may have only given him a half or so given he has missed quite a bit with OP, but his intensity did not wane all afternoon until he was hit by Wojinski. A debut to remember for all the right and wrong reasons. A very solid win for Casey with a very good squad, so no real surprises in a way. Also thought that Riseley, Lees and McGough played well of the Casey listed players Will give our percentage an enormous boost too, given it was barely over 100!

I think we were outclassed and outworked today. It's really that simple. The reason Geelong made us look slow isn't that our players are slower in an outright sprint, but that their players work so much harder off the ball to get into space. Then when they force the turnover they look up and see players wide open and move the ball to them quickly and accurately. Our players meanwhile cluster around the ball and hold their zones when the play is elsewhere. I found Mick Malthouse's comments on the play to be very interesting. He said that the Melbourne players didn't trust each other to win the bal, so they were being draw into contests they should be staying out of, and because of this had nobody on the outside to pass off to. Geelong on the other hand have absolute faith in the man at the contest, and so they hang off and give him someone to pass to after he gets his hands on the ball. He said that once the Melbourne players got their heads around the notion of letting the man at the contest do his job, then we would see a drastic improvement come on very quickly. Obviously this fits in with Neeld's mantra of winning 1 on 1 contests. You'd almost think the two of them had talked about this before... Anyway, Back to the game. How good is Mitch Clark? He's carrying our forward line single-handed at the moment. The sooner we can get LJ back out there the better. If we can get Fitzpatrick or Martin firing as well things will start to look very promising up there. I'm also loving the improvement by some of our mid-tier guys. Bate, Morton and Dunn are all doing better under Neeld, and Jones has become a real onfield leader and inspirational player. We just need some of the youngsters to put on a bit more bulk and they'll be fitting right in as well. Even better is that the backline is finding their mojo again and Bartram is actually kicking it pretty well these days. We always knew it was going to be a loss today, but I'm thrilled to improve by 146 points over last year. Imagine if we do it again next year!

Some of you are reacting as if the opinion "we are not a very good team" is news to you... We were good in areas today (in the clinches, one-on-ones) and poor in others (spread from a stoppage, keeping the ball in the forward 50, skills), we were overawed for much of it but willing and hungry too. The key difference that ruins us, and this is why we struggle even against a young Geelong, is that they are bred to TRUST their team mate to win the footy, beat their bloke, make that shepard. Malthouse touched on this quite a bit, our players get sucked into contests, and don't have a releasing handball, or leave their bloke to go up with Frawley to beat Hawkins and let their opponent get the crumb. They have to respect the role of their team mate and trust them to do their job and be their for them where they can actually be of use; on the defensive side in space, at the foot of the contest, or sheparding to give their player space.

He won't - at least not against a good team. I'm sure he'll pick up the three votes against GWS and GC, but that's not something he should be hanging his hat on.

It was great seeing Liam play again after what he's been through these past 8 months. I reckon he went ok, and was one of the best in the opening quarter. He showed he had bit in reserve when he spun around and goaled over his shoulder in the last quarter, before leading out for a mark and just missing another shot. He then followed up with a lightning hand pass goal assist. I'm no expert, but his touch was pretty good, but he probably needs 2-3 weeks in the VFL to build up his match fitness. All in all it was a good hit out for him and his coaches should be pleased to see him get through a game after being out for so long. Today I'm a happy man.

Jamar is sometimes as much to blame as anyone. Good rucking, but having taken a mark looks to handball to a teammate with two opponents bearing down on him awaiting to tackle. Turnover.

I must be getting old. Watts and co laughing up a storm while we're down by 6 goals got a frown from me.

I really am amazed at the bs negativity aimed at our club today. We're seriously not that bad, yet apparently "watching our club is like being kicked in the guts repetedly." Nick off if you think that.

For his own bloody good. Because he needs to learn to be harder at the contested footy for his own development, and we need to set the bar higher for Watts than for other players. You're obviously happy with him continuing to just coast along at that level, when he could be so much more.

I'd rather give Watts another week or 2 at Casey. He really needs to earn his promotion to the senior team, moreso than others, in my book.

No one doubts Watts can play. Keen to know how many 1%ers to go with the goals and possessions.

Why is Dunn the sub? Last time he was the sub he came on (against the Bulldogs I think), we put him in the forward line, and he did nothing at all. Subs should be midfielders to provide pace and run to weary legs. Don't understand what Dunn is going to provide as our fresh player.

Give us a break. Apart from his four goals at this late stage of the game Watts would be close on 20 touches. Viney is now off the ground after that collision. And the siren sounds. It's all over with Casey Scorps 22.8.140 to Geelong Cats 14.10.94. Cold here and nothing to do for an hour but walk smugly among the Cats fans. Best for Casey were Watts, Bennell and Fitzpatrick.

Gaz just reporting on Triple M that Jack already put one player out of the game, but then got hit by Wojinski and was down for a minute, which was, as Gaz said, probably the longest he has ever been down his life. toughest young player he's ever seen

All Casey now as they lead 96 to 65 late in the quarter.

Yes 'OUR SIDE' and if you do not barrack for it tough tities. Casey is still 'OUR SIDE'. Greatfully appreciated getting your updates of 'OUR SIDE' KC.

Liam's doing well. Probably had half a dozen touches in the first quarter. Cats start the second quarter well with a couple of goals but Casey still leads by 9 points.

At quarter time: Casey Scorpions 5.2.32 lead Geelong Cats 1.5.11. Jurrah and Watts both doing well with the latter scoring a goal on the siren.

Yes Caroline - tell us which games we lost to get Jack in 2008. Maybe it was the 1st round match against Hawthorn -belted by over 100 points. Maybe it was one of 6 other matches that we lost by over 75 points. We did did not tank in 2008. we didn't have to....we were just terrible. In 2009 we lost so many matches where we did OK for a time, then got blown away by the opposition. This was exactly the same phenomenon that occured against Hawthorn, Collingwood, North, and the Bulldogs in 2011. It runs in the club. We also got picked on for taking Liam Jurrah off the ground against St Kilda in 2009, after he kicked two goals in a quarter. We now know that Liam has issues with match fitness and trying to build up his endurance. This was a good article, but it is ruined by Caroline's blinked view of our club. She takes Bailey's word as gospel on the day he resigned, and she never ever explains what happened in that match against the Tigers in 2009. If Melbourne were tanking that day, what were Richmond doing? Please explain Caroline.

Deserves to be turned into an episode of Seconds From Disaster.

As far as I know the club doctor does not routinely examine each player before every game - it does come down to personal responsibility from the player, not only to himself but also to the team, to report illness or injury. It seems that it was BM, not the club doctor (unless he was asked his opinion) who failed BM, and the team, and the club!

Watts probably did, thats why he got omitted

I wouldn't expect much more than a fighting effort akin to last week Gidon. It's all about producing players who battle for four quarters at the moment, as well as weeding out the ones who don't have the stomach for it. Don't worry about who got how many possessions, what the media says, this week being the making of the club or anything remotely like that.Tomorrow is purely about hard, grafting and most probably ugly footy on our part over four quarters. Neeld is trying to turn the club's ethos around. Let's get behind him.

...and Trenners could give him a big welcoming tackle at our first practice match :-)

Apparently in the lead up to this week MN asked the players, 'are any of you scarred from last year? because if you are you can F*#@ off and i won't take you' Loving the hard line stance

So was everything else she said was a lie? Can you give some examples pls.

Don't worry too much Gid. This is gonna be a last man standing arm wrestle...right to the final siren. The Cats will know they've been in a massive battle to the death....that's IF the Cats survive, and if they do i'd say about 4 goals max. A break out "line in the sand" game for Neeld and most of the boys tomorrow and a paradigm shift for the Melbourne Footy Club. We could also lose a few players at the tribunal. I'm prepared for a trip back to the 80's as far as the biffo goes for this one, i just hope they keep their eye on the footy after they stop brawling lol. This game will be spoken about for many moons by Demonlanders, footy scribes/journalists and ex players ... as much as, if not more than 186.....for entirely different reasons. Get ready for one all almighty battle Demonoids!

Personally, I'm impressed with Jurrah actually playing. I was highly doubtful of LJ playing at either AFL or VFL level this year, but to his credit, he has pulled his head in, worked on his fitness, and has given himself every opportunity to compete at the highest level. I hope LJ gets a further opportunity to put a pretty crappy few months behind him after the court case, allowing us, the MFC, and the greater AFL community, the opportunity to see what he does best.

Geez I'd love to be watching Casey this week! Hopefully we can get some good updates from the people travelling down.

You obviously think other clubs are very, very, very stupid. FFS, if it's _painfully_ obvious to you, me and every member of Demonland that we intend to take Viney, I expect the other clubs recruiting staff who live, eat and breathe this stuff _may_ have noticed.

WTF? Except the fact we have to nominate him to be able to select him as a father-son selection. Thereby revealing our hand - that we do want to take him. And if we're unsure, why would we be investing so many resources in him? Why do we already have him tied to a contract? It will not fool anyone. edit: In fact, it would do the opposite. It would show how keen we are to take him, because we are going to desperate measures trying to hide our desire so we can get him cheaper. It'd cause derision of our football department and their inept tactics.

I understand what you are saying but What doubt would GWS have when he is a contrated Player and we have stated that we will draft Him????

People should just accept that we're using our first round pick on Viney. No matter what number that is. If you look at it like that, then you can see that the lower we finish, we get the advantage that our compensation pick after our first round pick improves. So if we finished top 8, yes, we'd be getting viney for pick 13ish (a steal), BUT, our compensation picks would be 12 and 14. Whereas if we finish bottom 3, then we'd get viney, but our compensation picks will be pick 4 and 12.

Vodafone's p#ss poor reception and customer service!