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Disappointing day out for the team formerly known as the Scorpions today. This year was always going to see a vastly different looking Casey side, having lost the experience and nous of Dunn, Grimes, Terlich and Garland, as well as the ball winning abilities of Michie, Newton and Matt Jones. Most of this group of players were mainstays and consistent regular good players last year, and they've been replaced by Under 18 and local players essentially. Add in our current MFC injury list that's in double figures,and I was always a bit hesitant of our chances today. Nevertheless, a bright opening quarter where we dominated around the ground, offering great forward pressure to keep the ball down there, and a midfield having the run of play, despite not winning many ruck hitouts, and we probably should've been further than a goal in front, Williamstown made the most of their limited forward thrusts. At quarter time, where coach Plapp really only highlighted two players for sloppy play in Tom Baker and Bayley Fritsch, all seemed rosy. However, from the start of the 2nd quarter, and for the rest of the day, Willi proceeded to show more intensity than us around stoppages, aided by the dominance of Meese at the hitouts, to simply outclass us in general play and ran out deserved winners. Plenty to ponder for Casey, although next week's opponent North Ballarat are coming off a 190 point loss, and look even worse than some of the latter day Frankston sides. Here's my 2 cents on todays MFC listed players: 37 Dion Johnstone - I only noticed he was playing late in the 2nd quarter, went on to have zero influence on the game, extremely disappointing. 38 Tim Smith - Started up forward, wasnt a good day for tall forwards with the service they were getting, so moved onto the ball ten minutes into the 3rd term where he had a bit of impact as a bullocking onballer. 41 Mitch White - Played a pretty typical game for him, lots of intercept spoils, using his judgement to get to contests and take timely marks, but will really be missing the better players he had around him last year (as a comparison his compadres this year are the inexperienced Moncrieff and Hillard) 45 Dec Kielty - A quiet day, started in the ruck and didnt have much influence on the contest throughout. Was moved to be a permanent forward for the last term, but after having both legs worked on during that break, looked to tweak a left hammy early in the last. Came back on but not a great day. 48 Cory Maynard - First time I've seen him go, and was impressed with him, a very good size, started on the ball and not afraid to throw his weight around, but when he does do this tends to be a bit rash. Accumulated possessions at will, moved to good ground position, and has a good workrate. One to watch. 54 Jack Trengove - The best onballer for us, his workrate to get to contests and do the 1%ers was enormous. His disposal however, doesnt hurt teams that much, so while he accumulates, he doesn't cut teams to ribbons like say an Oliver can do. Will be thereabouts for selection based on this game though. 57 Jay Kennedy-Harris - Started brightly involved in lots of forward pressure acts, then went a bit quiet for the 2nd & 3rd qtrs before finding it a bit more in the last, had his arm pretty heavily bandaged from his broken arm, only an OK game from him. 64 Angus Brayshaw - Was one that I wanted to really step up today to be in the selection mix, but he didn't do it. Just didnt seem to have the intensity expected, and while he still got a bit of it, was easily shaded by Trengove. Someone who appears to be going through the motions rather than demanding a place. 65 Cam Pederson - Pedo was, after Hibberd, our most influential player on the ground. He made himself a target, worked tirelessly all over the ground to be involved and was very good. Ruckwork, like Kieltys, as only average against taller opposition. Would surely come in for Weideman though. 69 Ben Kennedy - A slow start, barely noticed him in the first term, was more than made up for with his final 3 qtrs, he worked his butt off, got in an under for hard balls, ran and lead countless times in good position that went unrewarded by teammates probably due to his size. Our 3rd or 4th best player in the end. 91 Michael Hibberd - Best on ground for us by a country mile, was a wall in defence today, and was constantly the focal point as teammates looked to him to use his long raking left foot to get us out of trouble in defence. Would've gained around 7-800 metres for us. I suspect that he may have been our 7th man in defence, along the lines of the way Melbourne play, at times, and he has the perfect skillset for this role. Probably the last time we see the #91 play for Casey this year. Special mention to Angus Scott with 4 goals whose skills looked as sharp as ever and Ed Morris who was a rock across the half back line and barely wasted a posession.

NEVER KC! What you do for us is great mate.

Right now he is a better option than Weideman, he is the type of player that straightens a team up.

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FMD Pro he looked like a fish out of water last Saturday. I doubt even Hogan can resuscitate him. Give him a spell at Casey to regain some confidence.

If he's class it won't matter, because class slow players don't often get caught. If he's not class it will matter. So is he class at VFL level and not class at AFL level ? That's the question. There are also posters who say he's slow every time they say his name. It's like they can't say Trengove without using the word slow in the same sentence. I don't take much notice of people these days who say he's slow, because there are a lot of dummies who post here.

I feel really sorry for O'Meara and Mitchell, who would have already cleared a spot on the mantle piece to put their cheap premiership spoils. Nah, not really.

He has a GF medal to hange around his neck which is something his contempories at the MFC will never have. Dont feel sorry for him

I'm not saying Pedo is really a higher standard than VFL but watching him here he is clearly a better option than the Weed.... for now

How's Geelong's kicking at goal this week? Bloody hopeless in comparison to last week. That'd be right.

A very pleasant day down by the bay preceded by some lovely fish and chips at the Pier fish and chippery. In the winter sunshine and with low winds Seagull Oval is a wonderful venue. Unfortunately the game from a Demons viewpoint was a great disappointment. Obviously they are trying to get the game plan of run and handball going but it seemed that every third handball in the chain was to a player standing still who was then heavily tackled. (Sounds familiar doesn't it.). The best part of the day's play was probably between Trengove and Brayshaw in the second quarter but even that good play was preceded by a fumble. In the third quarter and for some of the fourth I stood a few metres from the coaching dug out. The reaction of players when they come off is very different. JKH is very talkative. wheras Angus was always quiet and serious looking. It made me wonder if he is enjoying his football but perhaps that is his game psyche. As an occasional watcher I would not feel competent to comment too much on individual players save that none really stood out to me other than Pederson. He has a strong body and positions himself well. My gut tells me that he is not really the future given our game plan but I am starting to worry that the players as a group are not quite yet up to the game plan. Trengove had lots of the ball but I cannot really remember many flashes of brilliance. Angus fought very hard and played well without being outstanding. Casey as a team were outmarked and generally outdone around the packs and occasionally on the outside. The third quarter reminded somewhat of our third quarter against Freo on Saturday. That being said they were not thrashed today and with a few less misses on easy shots for goal they would have been a lot closer. All in all an enjoyable and instructive day. PS: The facilities were good and my AFL (Melbourne Support) got me in for half price ($5). Judging by the constant queue they obviously do a very popular hamburger etc.

Pedersen is a much, much better AFL player than Weideman at this stage. He will give us more than Weid in every way imaginable. We have to win games to make the finals, and playing a 19 year old KPF whos not even close to being ready for AFL is a liability.

Just snorted beer out of my nose. Damn you.

Is Trengove at the huddle yet?

Trenners will always be painfully slow, it cant be improved and he wont help us at AFL level unless we lost a bunch of inside mids to injury. Saty just blindly defending every player as usual while telling the other person they cant have an opinion.

My letter to the club this morning: Hello, Our family attended the Fremantle game on Saturday, and I am writing about the role of private security post-match. My daughter begged me to sit down near the fence both times we have been to the football this year so we sat three rows back right near the cheer squad. This gave us a real insight into what the AFL calls 'game day experience'. One one hand it was great to sit near the cheer squad and for my daughter to hear the real passion for the game inspired by the chanting and barracking. Not so the role of private security, who after the drama and disappointment of the last goal decided that they would swarm this area post match and move in on patrons because they had allegedly heard some 'abuse' from the crowd. From our vantage point the cheer squad was in excellent spirits all day and the intrusion of a private 'flying squad' of bouncers was totally unwarranted. The club is often criticised in the media for lack of passion at games, I wonder what security would do if it was a Richmond, Essendon, or Hawthorn cheer squad member had allegedly berated the goal umpire. There was no indication of racial or sexist abuse. If the AFL, or the club, or its sub-contracted security want us to simply turn up and jog on the spot for some inane 'run like a demon' at quarter time, and act on any other of the various queues of the ground announcer, and allow members and patrons to be pushed around by glorified bouncers then I can't really see the point in bringing my family up from Gippsland - a 250k round trip, we could just watch the game from home. I hope that the club liaises in this instance with the cheer squad and find out what, if any provocation there was that required a squad of private security to intimidate paying patrons in this way. If the alleged misbehaviour was trivial and no more than disappointed barracking at the goal umpire, I sincerely hope that the club makes its feelings known to the ground managers at the MCG and ensures that sub-contracted crowd controllers can not act in such an unrestrained fashion in the future.

Considering that, throughout this thread and others, we have so many poor kicks, poor decision makers and poor leaders, a coach in the gun and a few young forwards who can't get near it - how come we're 2-2 and, if things went our way (kicking for goal, for example), we could be 4-0? Do we actually have any good players, good decision makers, good leaders etc or is our whole list outside of Oliver just putrid? I'd love to see a little positivity because, at the minute, we seem to be talking down about or side so much that I'm surprised we're not 0-4.

I don't know what to think. I just hate the fact that Lewis and Gawn are out, and that had we had both of them (with Hogan) we'd probably be at least 3 wins and 1 loss. Richmond will be a tough game. The absolute 'in' must be 4 quarter white hot intensity. No more 10-15 minute lapses.

HAAAAA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I take a small piece of pride knowing that it was definitely Melbourne that finally cracked them and made them come crumbling down. Before Melbourne beat them - 9 wins in a row, just two losses for the season to round 18. Since Melbourne beat them - 2 wins, 7 losses. We can pin this one up next to Melbourne breaking Essendon, way back in the actual drug-cheating season. Before losing to Melbourne, Round 10, 2012 - 8 wins, 1 loss. After losing to Melbourne - 3 wins, 9 losses. As a club, we achieve two things for other clubs. Getting their kids rising star nominations, and intervening on behalf of the football demiurge.

Too bad St Kilda own their pick, what a gift it will be for them. Hopefully they pick another McCartin.

Highlight of 2017 thus far!

I'd say the number 1 thing is pray the most dynamic midfielder in the country is born 15 minutes from your home ground and wants to go home in a deal that costs you nothing. Without him their last 30 games would have had 15 more losses in it - and they'd not be talking up their 300 game record.

His numbers are most definitely A-grade, although I agree a player needs two years of such sustained performances, not 4 games. Presently he's top 10 in the AFL for disposals, contested possessions, clearances, centre clearances, marks and AFL ranking points. The only other player top 10 in all of the above categories is Rockliff. Dangerfield will be the only other top 10 for all categories if he lays 11 tackles today and Selwood if he has a good day should join him. What Oliver is doing is extraordinary.

I have taken my time to read a lot of Demonland posts, re-watch the game etc... I agree that the loss is very frustrating and it is one of those "we should have won that" kind of game. But I am also reminded of a lot of comments around January that the main hope for many in 2017 was that we would be competitive in every game, that we could go the footy without a knot in our guts knowing we would lose. We are playing good, watchable footy. Not perfect, but VERY watchable. I am genuinely pleased about that and the fact that our two losses have been by small margins. Two things are heavily impacting our games and both are very fixable: 1. Leadership. Viney is struggling and is not showing leadership. Lewis - whose influence is greater that we give it credit for - is a huge loss for us. So this leaves poor Nathan Jones as once again the lone soldier, with a little help from TMac. Vince is not a leader. We need Lewis back on the ground and we need Viney to be given a huge rev up or spray or something. 2. Injuries/suspensions/poor form. Hogan, Lewis, Gawn, Hibberd, Tyson, Kent, Brayshaw, J Smith ... Our best 25-26 players is yet to settle, and it is looking like Weideman & Vince may not be in our best. A bit more trial and error over the 3 next 4 weeks unfortunately. Queen's Birthday is looming as a date when our team might be settled, and we can begin to gauge where our season is going. Or at least I hope so because it is all a bit unclear just at the moment.

Don't worry mate your not being spiteful. I feel personally that if Bernie would need to play good footy its back to the position he knows best and thats being that aggressive midfield tagger that he does best. He won the best and fairest playing in this position. Why the coaching staff leaving him down back i have no idea.

Oscar McDonald wouldn't have spoiled it - he would have marked it. We win.

Clubs like Haw Syd and Geelong have won tight games regularly over the last 5+ years. Leadership goes a long way towards dragging a side over the line for a win in tight games. Guys like Mitchell, Hodge, Selwood, Bartel, Kennedy and McVeigh are/were very good players but also great leaders. I'm not a fan of military terminologies in sport, but they're generals. Jones has some leadership quality and I love him as a Melbourne player, but I'd hardly rely on him or our other leaders to drive us to victory in a tight match like yesterday. You can always find results to prove any hypotheses. However, when a very close game is there to be won, I'd much prefer to have good leaders with composure who are also good players than just good players

Nothing wrong with a bit a schadenfreude. Their fans truly deserve it. So happy for them.

I have had to swallow hawk bile for years with an in law that would just rub everyone's nose in their success. All of a sudden they are not even going to games. Thank the lord for small mercies. 18th and about 50%. Say goodbye to 2017! One less team to fight against for a spot in the 8.

But no doubt the AFL will reward them with the Easter Monday special again, just as they have the DrugCheats and the underperforming Magpies with Anzac Day. This year's will be an absolute doozie, though no doubt there will be the usual tripe about their boys being like war heroes!

Geeze.. there's being bitter and the there's just being pathetic.. The guy served his time at Melb, played under the worst management of the clubs history still became AA.. Left (which we ended up getting with picks 2&3 with his compo) And you label his premiership "cheap" the fact that you label a premiership cheap when the club we support hasn't been able to achieve since TV was Black and White..

FMD Saty, do you always have to toe the party line? Try thinking for yourself - it might be habit forming.

I think today was more about touch than match fitness for hibberd and he looked our best to me

I cant believe Weiderman is being given excuses. I dont get it.

Watched Oscar today very closely. Man handled a few contests but has a iron fist. Not this week but is the future.

A very cheap medal it is too

So you attack a posters view for suggesting it may be an issue and then admit he needs an entire pre season to maybe fix this issue but really don't know. No one wants trenners to fail, you imagine that because you take criticism of players personally, some posters are just a bit more honest about where players are at.

I liked the letter except you used the word queue where it should have been cue. I particularly hate dance like a demon. Security should steer clear of cheer squads as presumably they are not offending other paying patrons.The officials have to expect the crowd abuse- racism notwithstanding . If they walked into the Richmond cheer squad there would likely be a brawl.

We were destroyed in that match and the ground was essentially flooded. If we judged everyone by the standard of that game we would have delisted 16 players last year.

http://www.radioau.net/casey/ Iive streaming online.

Goodwin is slow to grasp the nettle. Very well to get games into Omac,Smith,Hannan,Weedetc and looks progressive enough. Frost ,Pedo and Spencer warranted selection before all of them. His attempt to show up Jack Watts now looks infantile as does his promotion of Viney. He could stamp his authority by keeping it more simple and trying less innovation and left field decisions.Its not about him. Spencer warranted selection for the Geelong game. Pedo warranted it before that. Frost was picked late after Hogan went out . I don't care about the players age and wish they were selected on merit only.The Pedo is on the list and should be used when needed. We need marking power not more press conferences for debutantes. Also looks like Weed and Melksham are getting games based on perception not reality - playing favourites is no good. Keep it simple Simon.

Sad but true. My worry with Jones and Viney is they don't have much footy smarts nor are they good readers of the play. You have them or you don't, they don't. Having watched the replay Watts was a leader all day: He congratulated and encouraged nearly every goal kicker. He led from the front in the sense that he was all over the ground, threw himself into every contest and he was involved in quite a few plays that ended in goals. He could see what was needed at the end and wanted to go down back to defend our small lead but wasn't allowed to. I'm not in any way suggesting that Watts should be captain or even in the leadership team. But he certainly showed up the lack of leadership and footy smarts from the three official leaders on the ground. Watts was the glue that held the team together just as he was vs Geelong. McD, Jones and Viney just played to their own separate tunes all day and forgot about 'team first'. Yes, they failed miserably.

People calling for Melksham to be replaced need to realise this week we need to cover three decent quick small for the Tigers, no use saying out Melksham in Pederson etc, they ain't going to play on butler or Rioli.

This is the ball coming in which lead to the McCarthy goal:

I've said it the past 2 weeks & I'll say it again this week... Pedersen has to be bought in! We continually lack a marking option to kick to, it might change this week with Hogan in the side, but he still needs help. Bringing Pedersen is gives us: A) another tall to kick to/bail out kick who will provide a contest every time B) can play 2nd ruck & allow Watts to play permenant forward where he is at his best. I know Pedersen isn't the future but I still think he can play a pivotal role. He needs to be bought in this week. In: Hogan, Pedersen Out: Weideman, Melksham

I think we sometimes forget that Weed is a second year player being asked to play in the hardest position on the ground with half a dozen games under his belt, and without big man support at least since the Hogan brain fade. Add to that a leg injury early on in Saturday's game and he was all at sea. Needs some 'down time' at Casey despite the often gruesome conditions . I still hold high hopes for him. As for Melksham, has he done anything (positive) worthy of mention this season?

Maybe the spoil should have been directed AWAY from the Dockers goal NOT TOWARDS it. Finding the boundary line would have been better.

Maybe the reduced numbers in some categories and the increased numbers in scoring indicate a change of emphasis.

Holy [censored] mate. Viney is just 23 years old and essentially has two Blueys to his name already playing in arguably the shittest team for 15 years! Compare that to the leadership grounding Selwood got during that period of GFC success? It's just not relative mate. The game against Freo will be used as a learning platform for Viney and he will lap it up as usual and ensure it's a benefit to him and the team. I just can't believe that after a narrow loss to a team that has effectively been tanking last year that our supporters are willing to throw our LG to the wolves after only Rd 4. The overeaction (in general) is nothing short of astounding,

Yeah I know I'm not in the popular camp on here. Demonland are glass half empty sometimes. You think we'll lose to 2 of Richmond, Essendon and Hawks? (I assume you're chalking up Crows as a loss, and who wouldn't after last night). My thoughts have to do with Hogan and Lewis coming back. They're just so important. Hogan. Against Blues, we kicked a winning score without him kicking a goal, and that was partly related to the dump kicks by midfielders always heading to Hogan, with Jesse crashing packs and cleaning up 3 players. Or at very least, drawing two defenders. If he kicks 4, and the team kicks another 6 from his involvements... we win the last two games easily. A player like him simply cannot be replaced. There isn't anything he doesn't do. And how often does he get to a contest and NOT win it, or spill it to advantage? How often is he absolutely beaten one on one? Now compare that to Weed, Smith, even Watts. Weed and Smith haven't done a damn thing for the club in our two losses. Literally nothing. Watts has done great, but is often spoiled and taken out of contests. I really do believe we're at minimum a 5 goal better side with Hogan in. Lewis is a lot of similar things, but in the backline. Not often beaten. Makes about 3-4 other players better. Think about how badly we cleared the ball with Melksham, TMac and Vince. Going back to the bad old days, our worst kicks were always blamed for delivery, when it's more down to the targets not leading. Lewis out there directing traffic, we clear the ball SO WELL. We create 5 opportunities a quarter based on good zoning. So Lewis alone, again, we're a 3-4 goal better side. Both players straighten us up remarkably, and not only get it inside fifty, but to good places that it's easier to kick straight from. I'll be interested to come back to this in a month. I think by the bye we'll be as far as 7-3.