Leaderboard

No, no, no, a thousand times no!

As a punishment the culprit should be made to bite Hopoate's finger - we know where that one's has been. ( that'll learn him)

Brent Harvey's book: 'Me by Brent Harvey Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me. The End.'

Apparently Clarrie asked him "who the fk spells Mike with a 'Y'?"

Then the umps pay 50 against and cost us a goal? FMD they are idiots. 8-10 weeks minimum I reckon.

Being able to understand opposing sides of an argument is a strength of mine, but this view is incomprehensible to me. Production of the "Goodwin era" is precisely what Paul Roos was for. The development and coaching systems and playing list in place for Goodwin to inherit were put in place by Roos, with staff hand picked by Roos, including Goodwin himself. I can't see any logic in taking credit away from Roos for this.

Paul Amy‏ @PaulAmy375 Handy return to football for Demon Christian Salem. Had 22 touches for the Casey Scorpions reserves team y'day. Jay Kennedy-Harris had 30.

The umpires knew they'd made a mistake as I don't think I've ever seen an umpire console and put their hand on a player to see what was up after he gave away a free kick. Incidentally, I love Clayton Oliver. He's just what our club needs.

Saw the incident. At least I saw Clarrie's reaction. He certainly got fired up but it was not possible, from the tv coverage to see just what happened. In any case, don't worry dazzle, picket fence has gone around to bomb the player's home and then he is going to set fire to the 'sandy clubrooms.

You are far too centred on the outcome (number of wins), rather than the process (how to build a finals winning team). This year is actually all about next year. I don't particularly care how many wins we have for the rest of 2016, I care that the process of developing the team to be AFL finals ready is followed. If you want to build a backline from our young talent, they need experience, not wallowing in the seconds until they're 'ready'. We have got to get our talented young players to 50-60 AFL games minimum, not just ask them to put on 15kg.

'mo', you are way off the mark. If you can't see that we've gone from a basket case, the worst club in the AFL by a country mile to competitive you are not thinking straight. Compare like to like and you will find no club like this one in the way it was so poorly managed...

I hope that is just a throwaway line. One has kicked 154 goals at AFL level while the other has kicked 6. He is capable of playing some good football and if he didn't cost too much (financially) I wouldn't be against it.

Beveridge had the years of development under Macca to build from. It wasn't his instant success, it was Maccas slow build that he has benefited from, and done an outstanding job with. Goodwin may well do the same next year after 3 years of Roos development, lets hope so.

They missed the cheap hit on Gawn when he couldnt even see it coming. Max channeled his anger and got the next clearance but he was extremely angry and disciplined at the same time. What a champ.

Two Casey matches on TV in incredibly windy conditions and apparently the Weed turns into a cross between Cook and Juice!

I think there are quite a few here that love sitting down on gameday with their computer, pad or phone in front of the game, ready to post some negative comment the instant someone makes a mistake. It might be a little "happy we are losing", or the somewhat opaque view through the "veil of negativity", or it could be just plain "MFCSS". But it's particularly galling when you can't watch the match and are trying to get a handle on it through Demonland. When I first read the Gameday discussion on Saturday I thought we were 10 goals down, only to discover we were actually a goal or two up.

Get on board the... #pedotrain

I think I might speak for the silent majority who just can't be bothered answering every negative comment about Tom (and Oscar) but I'll post here every now and again for balance. Tom is a terrific footballer. He is fantastic one on one, he is a great mark both contested and uncontested, he is a fantastic aerobic athlete and most of the time he is a good kick able to make good decisions. He saves many many more goals than he gives away. But he also makes mistakes (like all players) that the haters jump on at every opportunity claiming each and every mistake cost us the game. It's rot. If Tom McDonald wasn't in our team we would be noticeably worse. He's being chased by multiple teams who are prepared to pay high dollars for him because they know that at his age you can build a backline around him for 8 to 10 years. He is in the top bracket of tall defenders in the AFL. I'll be bitterly disappointed if Tom leaves. He's a vital part of our future and that many can't see that surprises me. The concept of trading Tom for Tom Mitchell is mind numbing. A key position back who you can build your team around for a 3rd or 4th string mid who's disposal is poor and has been relegated to tagger on multiple occasions. Please stay Tom, you're a vital part of a very talented young group and to achieve what we all want you're required.

I agree with you Fifty-5, I reckon both players will last longer than OD suggests. However I had a look at our list and I was surprised to see how hollow it is at the older age levels. Of 12 players who are 26 yrs and 6 mths or older, only 4 have played regularly or even played at all this year. Vince, M Jones, N Jones and Garlett. The other 8, Lumumba, Pedersen, Dunn, Garland, Dawes, Grimes, Spencer, Terlich do not look like they will be significant contributors going forward and certainly not leaders. It's possible all will be gone by the end of 2018. But it seems understandable to me now, why some of these players were given contracts which seemed incomprehensible at the time. We would have had a list of babies otherwise, at least our new recruits can play in a successful VFL team with some hard bodies while they are developing.

I noticed listening that he never really said it was the right call, he just said there was justification enough for him to back the umps decision. On another umpiring point, I note 2 eagles got fines for rough conduct in the last quarter, you wouldthink that engaging in rough conduct would get a free wouldn't you? One of the not frees cost us a goal as well as it blocked any chance of Gawn contesting a mark they took that they goaled from

Peter Filandia enjoys combinig the two.

Courtesy of Titus O'Reily excerpt from The Monday Kneejerk. pretty well sums it up !! West Coast (66) v Melbourne (60) "Melbourne had to work incredibly hard to manufacture this loss. They won every statistical category ever invented, even non-footballing ones and still managed to find a way to not win. The Demons would be kicking themselves that they lost this and based on their performance, they’d miss. Countless times the Demons streamed forward, only to invent new ways to turn the ball over. It was a performance eerily similar to The Simpsons scene where Sideshow Bob repeatedly steps on rakes. It would be too much to ask for Melbourne to learn from their mistakes during a game. While the Demons were inept, the Eagles hardly won any admirers with this performance. Make no mistake, the Demons lost this, the Eagles certainly didn’t win it. If this is the best they can do at home, expect the Eagles finals stint to be shorter than Mal Meninga’s political career."

As someone who has despaired of OD's despair, I have to say OD has been unusually positive several times this year.

No he means a pick somewhere in the 350 to 400 range. Probably omitted to say Rookie Draft.

He is actually the guy that directs the players during most stoppages. Listening to him " wired up" during a game I thought he did it well and without too much ego. Being the most experienced and arguably the best player on the team , I would have to say he is a leader. Your arguement might stem from him getting pantsed at a pool game after a cricket final in Adelaide . i judge him only on what he has done hear which is lead by word and deed in every possible way. Even Hodge gives away the odd 50 for stupid acts of aggression but He kind of makes up for it with the odd Norm Smith and premiership medal here and there.

Exactly. Some people forget only 2 seasons ago we had this scoreline against this mob who didn't even make finals that years, on our home turf http://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/2014/111820140330.html No one is happy with losing, it is bloody frustrating/infuriating, especially when we were easily the better team on the day. But only 2 years ago we would've seen getting within 10 goals as a "good" effort, now we expect to win. I can't fathom how people don't get this.

Clearly you haven't actually noticed the changes at our footy club. Almost the entire list has been turned over and most of the team has played under 50 games, many under 20. We are now less experienced than we were when Roos started yet we are winning far more games and have doubled the percentage. What Roos said he would do is put together a coaching group and list than was there for the next coach to work with. He has done that very very well. If we already had these players 3 years ago then I would agree with you, we didn't. Roos has changed this club massively both on field and off, what we have now is a great group of young talent that is developing well, to expect the youngest team in the league to win all the time is stupid and unrealistic. If our senior players had developed as I am sure Roos hoped they would (Dunn, Garland, Grimes, Dawes) then I think our Win Loss ratio would look very different to what it does. They didn't, they aren't getting played, and we are going with the kids who will play the right way.

I'm really over these group-thought, run-of- the-mill lines that seem to circulate around demonland and have done for years. The same used to be said about Frawley, Garland and Dunn (until they were dropped) etc etc... Firstly, as a side, we've had to rely on Tom McDonald more than we would like simply because of the lack of experience and lack of cohesion we've witnessed in our backline this year. Frost (35 games), O-Mac (12), Hunt (14), Wagner (13), White (3), Salem (29), Michie (21). These are the players who have played as part of our back six this year with Frost, O-Mac, Hunt and Wagner being the regulars. It goes completely against the philosophy that Roos' continually spins in regards to how important it is to develop young players at reserves level. The fact that we have Dunn, Garland and Grimes combining for a total of 406 AFL games experience sitting in the VFL, all of whom have played the majority of their career as defenders is the reason that we find Tom McDonald to be an important player for us at this present time. We have the most unsettled and inexperienced back six in the entire competition. You've completely disregarded all of that by stating outlandish one-liners, the most ridiculous being: 'If we lose him, we will probably go back 2-3 years minimum in our tilt at a premiership'. Premiership sides are made up of disciplined, experienced and functioning sides who both attack and defend really well as a collective and premierships are almost always won on the back of the talent, strength and depth of the midfield brigade. I'm also fully aware that there have been elite champion key position backmen in premiership sides over the years just as there have also been 'no-fuss', combative and limited big bodied defenders playing in those key position roles. It is complete tripe to suggest KPD don't grow on trees. The Dog's picked up Adams from the WAFL last year, Freo picked up Collins from the VFL. Sydney have Richards, Grundy and Laidler as their three talls. That's two trade ins and a former forward turned defender. The power traded for Hombsch from GWS, GWS have a former Brisbane geriatric. They're everywhere. Those teams however have incredible support and experience around those positions which simplifies the role of the key defender. McDonald is doing an honourable job and is in my view, doing more than he would normally be required to do given the circumstance. What we are missing is a genuine big body who can play on the heavy weights which is why I think bringing in a Brown or Mackenzie type would help our cause. (Providing Dunn never gets back to his best). If Tom leaves because he feels he deserves more money, it won't concern me at all providing the club had a plan in place. You're missing the bigger picture in all of this. The addition of Melksham and the potential addition of Hibberd next year will go a long way to settling our defensive setup. Both have over 100 games experience with Hibberd being able to play multiple roles. The shape of our list is still changing and needs to change. For the better. Tom McDonald's position is an important one, but one that can always be replaced if he left.

A thousand times no. I'd rather have Declan Keilty.

Could be a handy 2 year signing if he cost us nothing.. I think we have 2 good young forwards at Casey, but they are not quite ready to play AFL yet. Our bigger bodies in Dawes and Pederson are certainly not performing. He could help to cushion the transition for Hullett and Weed and help Gawn to get forward more regularly.

We need to extract everything we can out of Jones and Vince because of that void immediately behind them in the 23-27 bracket It's another reason why Prestia would be a good pick up. He helps plug that gap..

Don't believe you wish we would just fold but can understand your frustration and share it. In simplistic form the notion that top clubs can adopt the simplest "anti Robin Hood" strategies by robbing the poor to stay rich is stupid. But don't think to say we will never get there is right. Sure, the way it is ,with clearly inadequate compensation makes success more difficult but it will in the end make it so much sweeter. I believe we have improved, our playing group and coaching staff are really trying. As Roos said when he arrived, we started a mile back and it will take time. However it is happening albeit slowly.

...who is entirely blameless for the unprecedented run of bad luck and injury which prevented him from ever showing us why he was drafted in the first round. Seriously, get another example, that one is completely inadequate to demonstrate your point.

Equalisation is a crock of rats entrails. That plick Frawley said pay me $700- k or I'm gone and went to Hawthorn for about $350- k. Thanks ####! Thats what they do. They tell the free agents they're interested in "come and play in a decent team, play finals, enjoy the glory, but don't think you can command big money. It's on our terms or don't bother." It's all very well for Hawthorn and a couple of other big clubs but the smaller clubs having to pay their own players more money to keep them will keep the premierships in the big clubs coffers for a long while to come. Gil (who I believe is an empty headed puppet and a political appointment that will just pay lip service to "equalisation" in the interests of Hawthorn) has done nothing to change the alarming direction the game is heading. The AFL has to ask itself a basic question. Is the game for the fans? If the answer is yes then how much joy is enough for the Hawthorn supporters? When are they going to meaningfully intervene to share the joy of the game around to the other supporters? Shouldn't the charter of the AFL be to create the game in such a fashion that over a ten year period we see at least 15 different teams playing off in a Grand Final? Not easy to do but shouldn't they be at least trying to achieve such an ideal? Where is there someone, anyone in the media railing against this ridiculous monopoly. Melbourne will never get there. Never. Sometimes I wish they'd just fold. Sorry about that, but it is the way I feel.

Can anyone name one club that said they would have taken Cook in the first round? Most of the creditable draft watchers had him 25+. Terrible pick. He was a stab in the dark by a recruiter that didn't know which end of the knife to hold.

I have it on very good authority that after seeing the 6 shots sprayed across the front of the house the police are interviewing Joe Daniher.....

Hell no

There seems to be a slight adjustment in our defensive Zone. Looks like we are now ensuring we have at least 1 but most time 2 players ensuring players don't get behind us and kicking the easy open goal. Unfortunately on the weekend we controlled so much of the footy in our forward half West Coast just had 3 spare inside our forward 50m arc. The last quarter we had to win it, we needed to man those loose players up, we had 3 quarters of the Eagles defending with large numbers, I reckon we should have pushed a Tom McDonald forward at least to stop the Eagles Inside their D50m Marks.

Hulett was impressive. He gathered possessions in defense as well as up forward, he marked well and competed well. The best game I have witnessed from him and the first time I have felt confident that he will make it to the next level.

He's not too small, he has played very well in a number of games this year. The issue is consistency, which I hope he can find.

Kennedy needs more that one good game at Casey to get recalled, last time he did that he came back into the Melbourne team and did nothing. I fear he is one of those players who is in between VFL and AFL standard.

A few things on the game/discussion. 1.Although i'm sure he'll be delisted at years end, i thought Michie was very good today. Very clean and on a few occasions showed an ability to get some outside ball which has been a knock on him. 2 Also thought Kennedy was very good. Won several contested balls and was able to extract it out of packs with cleanliness and easy. He'll be a very good depth player over the years i suspect. 3. Hulett will play senior football this year. Probably the last two rounds like we did with Oscar last year. They'll probably get him to play the forward/2nd ruck role. His improvement as the season has gone on has been impressive. 4. Those concerned about Weideman need to relax. The fashion he started the season in was on par with Jesse Hogan's VFL season. He's missed a lot of football over the last 12 months and as others have said, the conditions combined with a long season are probably just getting to him at the moment. I expect he'll re-find some form by finals. 5. We need to draft Declan Keilty. Probably use a 3rd round pick to ensure we get him. Guy is a younger and better version of Pedersen. Can play back, forward or as a very capable undersized ruck. He could be the ruck reinforcements we need. 6. Those saying we stuffed up taking Cook at Pick 12 (i agree with you there) as none of the experts had him going that high and also saying we stuffed up taking Trengove before Martin and Toumpas before Wines. You can't have it both ways. All the experts had Trengove going before Martin and Toumpas before Wines. Find better comparisons eg Gysberts/Talia or Bennell/Sloane. 7. Jason Bennett should replace any one of channel 7's commentators (bar commetti). He's a good caller.

I just vomited in my mouth! Like Lucas Cook and the previous drafting blunders in this thread weren't enough, now Newton makes an appearance.

Not true...Oliver is a great kick, just doesn't kick enough for mine. He would be in my team any day of the week, I would have him learning his craft in the AFL.

T Mac, wasn't horrible under pressure, he did well under pressure, it was when he wasn't under pressure that he was horrible.

Whilst many bask in the luminosity of our great positives I'm bemused how few seem concerned about the inabity to craft a win. This is not about them 'trying' to win, which they obviously were, it's about any capability to make the magic work when required. In contrast the team that should have lost by all accounts didn't. They found a way to win. We need to find this ability.

Because of obvious reasons, Parish was always going to be given plenty of games and opportunities this year. Therefore, it makes sense that he's picking up the pace of the game quicker than Oliver. Oliver also needs a couple of pre-seasons to build a proper AFL standard tank. But once he does, strap yourself in, because although it could be argued that Parish is a more AFL ready player, Oliver has a much higher ceiling and may well prove be even better than the Viney's and Petracca's of the team. Also, the average disposal numbers between the two aren't drastically different. While Parish does accumulate more possessions (average of 20.5) it's only around two more than Oliver (average of 18.1).

Structurally I think the 3 most important players in our team are Gawn, McDonald and Hogan in that order. Hogan may end up at number 1, but premierships are won in defence. We need a Tom McDonald in finals. No team can win a flag without a strong backline. Some have won it with average forwards but defence has to be rock solid. McDonald, for all his kicking brain fades, is not even in the prime of his career and is already in the top dozen tall defenders in the competition. Do I wanna rip his head off when he turns it over? Yes! Do I thank god that he is ours when he takes countless of marks a week, punches the ball away, defends against the best forwards each week and can run out a full game without a break? You bet I do. If we lose him, we will probably go back 2-3 years minimum in our tilt at a premiership, and that's only if we can draft/trade/develop someone else who is equally as good. Maybe we won't. KPDs don't grow on trees. They are as hard to get as KPFs and they make or break a team. We have to pay maximum value for these players because losing them is going to cost us that much more in the long term. I will be furious if we lose McDonald for the sake of $100k or even $200k a year!

It was such a heartbreaking and frustrating loss, but you can't ignore the positives no matter how furious you are about the loss. We lack composure. If the tide is turning in a game we go to water, when the game is on the line we lose our nerves. We make bad mistakes at crucial times and we desperately need Salem back, because our kick outs situation is diabolical at times. Wagner kicking out? Really? Not ok. We don't have enough leadership to steady the ship and we can't afford to win the stats so comprehensively for 3 quarters and not make the most of it in front of goal! Easy misses, bad umpiring, poor decision making, these things are not permanent. The talent is there but we need time.

unless you painted it red and blue !!