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It's all over with the Scorpions winning in a canter by 78 points Casey Scorpions 2.9.21 6.12.48 14.17.101 16.20.116 Coburg 1.0.6 3.0.18 4.0.24 6.2.38 Goals Casey Scorpions Terlich Weideman 3 Michie Neal-Bullen 2 D Collis Kennedy Pedersen Scott J Smith Trengove Coburg Saad 3 Hill Posar Ronke Best Casey Scorpions Newton Michie Neal-Bullen Weideman Terlich Keilty Coburg Lehmann Fox Hunt Featherstone Kovacevic Gregory Disposals Grimes Kennedy 39 Oliver 36 Newton 34 Michie Trengove 30 Morris 26 Terlich 25

As far as future prospects go, I really like the look of Joel Smith. Excellent pace, good size and very composed.

But.. but.. Weideman was the new Lucas Cook last week!

Wow, seriously? The guy has played the most games in VFL/AFL history, a North Melbourne champion... I open this thread expecting to read congratulatory posts, but instead read disrespectful, horribly ugly digs at him. That's why I love this place. Get [censored] Harvey.

Just needs to get fitter. His kicking is actually brilliant, top ranked kick in his draft in the testing. At the moment he gets no ball on the outside as I he isn't fit enough. He smashes in with the stoppage and then can't spread to follow up. With added fitness he will be a weapon and IMO could become our best player.

This should go well...

If we had played West Coast at the G, in similar conditions, a few weeks ago and been soundly beaten then I would agree. It would be very disappointing. But we didn't. We played them on their home turf, much of it wet, slippery conditions, and if not for wasted opportunities that we should have taken, we win the game. We didn't win it, but to suggest that our game against the Eagles is somehow similar to the one today and that things will 'get ugly' if the Pies get up is a sad, naive and short sighted response. It's a response for those posters who love to wallow in negativity and they'll look for ANY way to push that feeling on others. I say get stuffed. Any reasonable Melbourne supporter would be disappointed with last week's loss (myself included), but see today's outcome, if the Pies get up, as not even close to a reflection of last week or that it shows we are 'behind' the Pies. It's nonsense.

Big win to Casey - it looks like the development league team will join the seniors in the finals - Casey Scorpions 1.3.9 6.11.47 8.14.62 12.22.94 Coburg 2.4.16 2.4.16 5.9.39 6.9.45 Goals Casey Scorpions Baker Di Pasquale 2 Ferreira Freeman Fritsch Hannon Daniel Johnston Kennedy-Harris McDonald Munro Coburg Staples 3 Merlo Valeri Wunhym Best Casey Scorpions Munro Vander Haar Kennedy-Harris Wyatt Moncrieff Ferreira Coburg Corigliano Staples Sutherland Free Stillman Tarczon

Agree actually. And normally i hate him as a caller. Tonight was the best call i have heard from him. Perhaps it was because he was calling with Cometti and felt, rightfully, he needed to show some respect and tone things down. As a side note Cometti was brilliant tonight and actually much better without Bwooce. In my humble Commeti is the best TV caller i have ever heard. Smart as a whip, has a great voice, funny (in a sharp witted good way) and really knows his footy. But most of all knows how to call football. Will be a huge loss when he retires - not just because of how good he is is but also because there is no one else to fill his spot.

I agree Ricky, although even an eternal optimist like myself who looks for the positives in most things will find it a hard pill to swallow if we get done tomorrow. If we want to move on from just being a 'middle of the road' side then games like tomorrow are the ones we need to win without too much hassle.

Insulting Brent Harvey.

Yep - as I said in a previous thread, there won't be a lot of time in between him sitting down with Goodwin who will say "thanks for trying, good luck after footy" and winning the Casey B&F, which he should do by the sounds. I know you (and others such as P-Man) believe he's been hard done by; I just think he's an unfortunate victim of the harsh reality of professional sport: if those behind the steering wheel don't believe in you, you won't get a lot chance to prove them wrong, and failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are only 22 places in the team and they're always going to pick the team they think is best, that's their job at the end of the day. Either way, there's not much justice in the world for players like Michie. Best of luck to him. Edit: and for what it's worth, he's got some pretty good company in that boat with two former MFC captains.

I watched a preseason match sim session earlier this year where a thin newbie ran back after an overlap kick, leapt high in the air and got an intercept hand on an otherwise unstoppable ball. Then he followed up to reverse the ball back the other way. Received much praise from his teammates. I had no idea who he was and had to ask around. Todd Viney and some of the assistants on the boundary were looking at each other smiling in amazement. It was Joel Smith. He looked very light and understandably had no tank for repeat running, but did quite a few things that showed he has a good football brain and a freakish leap. Don't know yet if he will make it, but I'm a fan already. Hope he gets a few AFL games next year.

Mods, surely a ban-able offence.

It's great, isn't it.

Grows it maannnn

Satyricon being "lippy": "Fine handball old chap! Even though you're an opposition player I respect you as a human being and admire your skill to execute that handball." "Favourite teammate number 3, I'm not sure if the turn or your guns blinded my 6th favourite opposition player, but it was a jolly good turn indeed!" To the crowd: "Leave these men alone! Don't you know they have feelings? How many games have you played? Why do you come here if you're going to be mean? You should be approaching these players and engaging them in what you think is pleasant small talk!"

Negatives In the fist quarter we dominated possession but in some cases hacked the ball or chose to kick it down the line straight to a loose eagles player waiting a kick behind play (Dawes) In the first/second we failed to pull the trigger coming around the wing often enough when the opportunity was there. Either due to lack of confidence in kicking ability or lack of vision, instead kicking down the line to a contest. Our backs were great when ball was hitting the deck. Ie., cleaning up, with the exception of Omac. Not so good with long balls deep to a one on one and being isolated. What we gain on the attack we lose in true defence. Ie., being able to beat or nuetralise your opponent much of the time in a marking or pack contest with a long ball coming in. OMac the biggest offender here costing us 2 goals in the first beaten easily both times in the marking contest. He also continues to miss or choose incorrect targets up the field. To me Omac is an easy swap out for Dunn here. Dunn will do just as much in attack and neutralise a little more often in the contest. Omac is at least 2 pre-seasons away from coping at this level physically. He has a teen bod which is way off AFL standard in a contest at this point. No contested marks i50 by our key talls with the exception of one from Dawes. No assists from any! All Key tall/medium forwards were pretty ordinary with Watts/Hogan both ineffective on the scoreboard. The Jones Boy, Tyson, Kent and Viney are all fairly ordinary with ball use in general and rarely impact the scoreboard. Kent occasionaly has a cameo when playing more of a forward role. Clarry doesn't impact enough when he receives on the outside at times but is a mile ahead of these 3 with his inside work. Much cleaner/smarter ball user. We will see a big improvement once he becomes a regular inclusion. The sooner the better. Kent falls/slips over way too often for my liking placing pressure on many of his disposals. The disposals after he slips are less effective as a result. Wagner's horrible kick coming off HB in the first resulting in the Eagles 2nd goal (i think) to Priddis. Wagner another clanger off HB in the last straight to Butler. Clean it up fellas (Tmac/Wagner this week!) and give yourselves a chance! If you can't do so please go back to Casey and work it out. Dunn & Garland are hitting short targets more often now albeit it is only VFL. Still, time to bring them in and instruct the others where they need to improve! Dunn & Garlo can also be bad but can't be any worse. Lets see if they have improved! As if the free against Dom wasn't bad enough people forget......The first Goal to the Eagles was the result of a blatant throw in a tackle and should have been free kicked by the umpires with no goal resulting. We are ball deestroyers most of the time (not in every case) coming i50 with very few players able to hit targets or kick to advantage often enough. This includes but not limited to, Nev, the Jones Boy, Kent, Harmes, Gus, Dawes, Tyson, ANB and Stretch (going down the line with 11:00 to go in the last instead of deeper towards the hot spot....Dawes alone around there!). You can have as many i50 entries as you like. While you continue to murder the ball as often as we do it is, in the majority of cases, a complete waste of all prior effort off HB or out of the middle. We gift the ball back to their backs (and +1s) and and we are defending again. ANB ,the Jones boy and Frost a few exceptions hitting targets i50. When the opponent is often playing a +1 down back this is even more critical to avoid the quick rebound and play into their game plan! Tyson's mad bomb after crumbing from a contest with about 12:00 to go in the last a great example. Bombed it to a deep pocket contest instead of the hot spot! An easy Eagles mark to Mackenzie resulted. Alternatively take a few steps and have a ping mate! Viney plays on far too often at break neck from marks/free kicks. Needs to assess quickly first and check himself in case there's nothing on. Places himself and others under pressure here often resulting in some costly and unnecessary turnovers. Is this a lack of confidence in his ability to hit short/medium targets from a set kick i wonder? Tends to bomb the ball coming i50 on the run also. Needs to lower eyes, hit more targets and/or kick lower raking longer kicks, closer to the hot spot. Kicks are high with not enough distance falling too short to be effective or for forwards to impact. Our forwards should also become more aware of this when seeing the game unfold and work to the front higher up. Our set shot kicks for goal were pretty ordinary most of the time. For god sake practice guys. Shithouse and IMO this ultimately cost us the game!!! Watts (albeit usually on), Stretch, Kent, Dawes. When we recruit this year and next for Lucifer's sake, get some decent set shot kickers and some mids who can kick goals from 50 or just inside also! Matt Jones from 35 to 40 meters couldn't even make the distance on the run. We lack polish, class and some power kickers in and around the paint! Gus did some very good work but missed a critical straight forward handball in the 3rd with about 4:30 to go that would have given us a running shot at goal and may have put us 3 goals up with a bit of breathing space. He also gave away a very ordinary free deep in attack with a few minutes to go in the last. We were one Key tall short against the Eagles IMO with Dunn being the obvious "in" for Omac to cover Darling and give a chop out to Tmac on Kennedy when possible (and visa versa). The Eagles had limited supply but made the most of their limited entries by taking enough contested marks and converting accurately due to our Key Tall backs and other HBs being too easily beaten with the exception of Tmac and Frost. The ump paying a 50 against Vince for trying to get Licenth (or whatever his name is) off him after the ridiculous holding the ball decision with 3 min to go in the 3rd. Then giving 60 meters or so! Amazing bias or incompetence. The Fake "legs taken out from under" by Darling on Watts in a critical contest at the 11:20 mark in the last. Can't believe the umps and commentators fell for it, including Derm. Clever play by Darling though. Priddis and Giles both dropping the ball (incorrect disposal) in a stoppage with 9:50 to go in the last not paid...Tracc screaming for the one against Giles or maybe both lol! He can see but four umps couldn't or maybe didn't want to!?? 50 Meters to Mr Vince at the 6:15 mark of the last after being knocked down well after marking....no decision! Almost a certain goal there. All controversial decisions defended by the head of umpiring on AFL's website. The bias runs deep! Tmacs horrible turnover rebounding off HB with about 2:30 to go in the 3rd. Goal to Cripps. His turnover to Kennedy, again attempted short pass under no pressure after marking early in the 4th. After nearly 100 games he continues to cost us in the worst parts of the ground and undoes much of his good work. A huge worry for mine given the games under his belt. May not be fixable. Trade consideration? Why are we allowing Wagner, a 13 game rookie to take the kick in (or any kick ins!!?) with 5:00 to go and game on the line in the last! Astoundingly poor coaching/on field leadership!?? Positives General pressure and tackling on the opponent was probably our best for the year. Our biggest tackling game for the year, the next against Freo. Our forward press in the 2nd quarter was on for a long period and again probably the best i've seen over such an extended period of a quarter. Stretches spread and ball use is mostly, but not always, first class! Great team effort under extreme pressure to clear the ball off HB with 13:00 to go in the last. Finishes with a super short pass from Dawes to Kent on the wing. This is the type of slow play we need at times in order to avoid constant fast play, eventually turning the ball over to their +1 or another HB under extreme pressure when going fast too often, only see it come back over our heads straight away. We need to play this option a little more often and assess before hitting the "go go" button so often. Frost's solid last quarter. Was a little quiet at other times but i've been critical of his inability to finish off a game so this was great to see. Tracc's great run and decision making plus finish to hit ANB lace out coming through the middle with 9:15 to go in the last. Unfortunately all that good work was yet again undone with ANB having no confidence to kick from 45!? Passed a cheapy off to Gus who off a step or 2 kicked a meek one to the pocket....again. OOB no score! Again we didn't finish. Sorry but had to put this negative in as it's associated with a positive Great smother by Watts in the last with 8:00 to go should have resulted in a goal by Kent ot Kent to Dawes for a running goal or set shot. Another point and yet another poor finish. Another great smother by Mr Vince shortly after. Overall The bottom line is, for all our efforts and for all the massive supply that was and is given in many matches, we are STILL not potent enough up forward against the better clubs (ie., top 8) in terms of conversion. As much as we have kicked some high scores this year, this remains an unresolved issue. This one should have been a 4 to 5 goal canter IMO had we hit more targets on the lead, targeted the hot spot more often from outside 50 when running in and kicked accurately with set shots & some on the run. That was our worst game up forward efficiency wise this year with 50 disposals per goal and a conversion rate (% inside 50s goal) of only 12%.

The site could do without your trolling Saty. If you have something to say to someone that is not footy related I suggest PMing them so threads don't get derailed with nonsense.

I admit I believe in depth players like Grimes and Michie more than most on here. Right now, the VFL ladder is backing up that belief. They are certainly a major step up from the Pigdogs and Couchs of previous years. I see great potential in ANB. I don't see the sense in letting Vanders stroll back in when he's stunk it up for the majority of the season. He should've been made to earn his spot back. Some are not afforded one average game, whereas others are afforded several in a row. I think performances should be assessed equally to determine the best 22 players every week and that simply isn't happening. Anyway, I've bashed this drum more than enough times.

The MFC brains trust understands the difference between AFL level footy and VFL footy. They'll remember his last AFL game, which exposed his deficiencies. He could have 50 disposals in the VFL and it wouldn't excite me. Grimes is finished at AFL level. Oliver is a different kettle of fish. His attributes are fantastic at any level. Ben Kennedy is an exceptional VFL player and can contribute at AFL level, but I doubt he'll ever be more than a fringe player in a good team.

Kennedy is a hard nut who excels at VFL level, he is still young enough to have an upside. He has already played some good games at AFL level. He is a keeper!

Kennedy was averaging 17 touches and just under a goal a game, and is a renowned competitor. Just because he's playing VFL at the minute doesn't mean he's not good enough for AFL.

Which makes the GC game critical. After that Hawthorn, Port at Adelaide, Carlton at the G and the Cats at Kardina. The Cats we have beaten once from the last 11 games, the Blues once from the last 9 games, Port twice form the last 7 and the Hawks have beaten us the last 13 games. 9 games is a stretch and would bevery good if we could get it beating two of those teams. While we are undoubtedly playing better than recent years our win/loss record is still poor. Our three losses to Essendon and St Kilda have hurt us badly. We haven't beaten anyone inside the eight and if we finish on 7 wins it would be my view that our year has been disappointing. Particulalry when PJ and ROos were aiming for finals.

When Clayton Oliver works out how to get a few cheap kicks.... He's been more than good again today, does so much work in close.

Was he bitten by a radioactive spider last week? He's destroying Coburg.

I'm just waiting for the Tigers or Carlton to kick a couple of goals in a row this afternoon so some can proclaim that they've 'gone past us'.

He's obviously lying, you can't watch a podcast.

Down there ! FFS!

Large parts of that game last night were so reminiscent of our game last week against the Weagles. The Doggies constantly bombarded the forward 50 for no result. Then, the Cats just strolled down the other end for an easy goal. So frustrating! Really felt for the Doggies, and SOOO wanted them to get up. Wasn't to be.

I'll put my squabbling with other 'supporters' aside and say this... Geelong are a very uninspiring 2nd side on the ladder, particularly in the context that the team thats 1st already has the last 3 premierships :/

I hate Geelong. I hate the supporters. I hate the players. I hate the ground. I'm shaky on the town.

I think Oliver's lack of a tank started to effect the way he played and could play, leading to habits that were detrimental to his development creeping in. Several have noted he wasn't kicking and given his engine issues I suspect he was strugging to spread as well. so playing him at Casey to build engine and have capacity to develop the outside aspects of his game may be the reason...?

I don't think Geelong get enough free kicks at home. They need to introduce a rule where they just start off with the ball rather than waste time with centre bounces.

[censored] Harvey.

toiges making a come-back......kick 2nd goal

For Presita's sake I really hope he hasnt signed with the tigers... they are absolute garbish.

Seems as though they want him to be able to run out games. Another pre season and he will be a regular. Great hands and vision. Got an edge too.

Has there ever been two bigger umpire whingers as Coaches, than the Scott twins. Chris rails at every free against the Cats and when they are shown to be correct on TV, it just makes him look even more pathetic. As ex players you would think they would be more controlled.

It will be him. He has higher thoughts and deeper insights in to the game than most people, let alone players. He is a very perceptive individual and an original thinker. Really, various unnamed journos around town should be ashamed when they hear and read Judd's thoughts. Just what you would expect from a Melbourne supporter!

Well, how could Truck not follow you with zingers like this?

And while we're off the subject I've had a selection opportunity and this is the team for this week : BERRY GALLAGHER LENNON ZAPPA HANNAFORD RICHARDS GREEN HENDRIX GRAPELLI PAGE COODER McGUINN HAZEL CLAPTON SLASH R : HOLLY KOBAIN ROBERT JOHNSON INT : JOHNNY WINTER SPRINGSTEEN BB KING PERKINS

Cats such an arrogant mob. Take Danger out of the side and they would be ordinary. Let alone the advantage of a lock in crowd at sleepy hollow. What else would they do. Not read the Vedas, the Torahs, Tolstoy or Hemingway. Dangerfield or Stringer is all we need. Let me go to sleep and dream.

Gees theres a bunch of spuds on here talking about effort in relation to the Dogs. Our players try as hard as they can. They need more preseasons and more time together. Our list is 2-3 years behind the Bulldogs in terms of preseasons and build. Half our side has played less than 30 games. And yes the Bulldogs have had a lot of injuries but I wouldn't say they've got their best 6 out. Bont and Stringer are both game winners. We don't have one of those just yet. Stop potting out players all the time. It makes you look pathetic. Remember we beat Geelong this time last year, or does that not fit into your narrative about how terrible we are?

Definitely crucified... Was in our best 5 against the Dockers. Certainly not the worst by any stretch against the Saints but immediately gets dropped. McDonalds combined cost us 6 goals against the Saints and two of Wagners turnovers (resulting in goals). Then rebounds with a BOG effort in the VFL only for Vandenburg (poor for 3 weeks before his injury) gets back in. Again Oscar Mcdonald is spared. Jack's card is marked but he hardly has been treated fairly or responsibly. Another ex captain crucified.

Lol Saty you can always try to lure them with Pokemon. I can picture you dressed up as Pickachu hiding in some bushes at Casey fields hoping someone will throw their balls at you

Yep - I stand by my misery. It has been well earned

Good to see OMac keep his place. Sick of know-it-alls who want a drop a young kid and replace him with experienced players who contribute little to the team's development. Club having its best year in a decade and people are calling for the head of a kid who has been a regular player in that side. Anyone who prefers Dunn over OMac needs their brain checked.

Sometime around the time he was All-Australian...

Perhaps it is because he has only done 2/3rds of a pre-season coming off a TAC cup year where he was not even a draft contender for half of it due to his (lack of) conditioning. My professional diagnosis would be he is a bit knackered