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Further analysis here is interesting to read, but this is the main stat for me: INJURIES Melbourne: Nil

Nothing of substance to take from last night as it was clearly little more than a glorified training session. Some random reflections - The foundation of our 'system' is pressure and intensity. The system does not work if our pressure and intensity does not meet the minimum threshold If there was a scale for pressure and intensity, lets call it the binman scale, our grand final (bar the second quarter) would be a 10 and our round one game against Freo maybe 6 On that hypothetical scale, lets say 6 is the minimum threshold for our system to work On the binman scale we were a 2 last night, except for a brief period in the third and the start of the last quarter, when maybe it got to a 4 By contrast were 6 plus on that scale all game against the Roos When we lifted our pressure and intensity the system rumbled into gear and we got on top I think the biggest challenge of the dees this year, and in particular for coaches is calibrating our pressure and intensity. We will lose games if our pressure and intensity drops below 6, but by the same token can't be at 10 all year as it is not sustainable and we will burn out. This calibration is something we did brilliantly last year, but as they say on the ads for super past success provides no guarantees for future performance Speaking of intensity, and at the risk of being too negative about Weed, his first involvement in the game perfectly summed up what he needs to address if he wants to be a regular in the ones. Weed dropped a mark he should have clunked, but that was not the real issue (after all, he had come on late in the game after playing earlier in the day ). It was his next effort - or lack thereof to be more exact. When the ball hit the deck he simply was not urgent enough, which i find baffling given he he is bloke trying to force his way back into the team On the selection front, the only thing to come from last night is i think it cemented Smith in for Petty. I thought he was good, without being great, but had a better game than tomo, who i think lacks a bit of pace and lateral movement ATM Tomo is better suited playing against the biggest opposition forward but that role is now Mays. So my tip is Smith will get the nod as he has the closing speed and leap to impact more aerial contests and can better run of opponents On a related note, it is hard to asses the performances of any of the defenders. For one thing this was a group that probably had never lined up together, so confusion, for example covering ground balls, was inevitable. But more significantly, the pressure up the field was non existent and our defensive model relies on that pressure to function It was no surprise that Lever had no impact in terms of intercept marks until the third when we noticeably upped the pressure and intensity The biggest win for the night was no injury

My biggest learning is that hysterics are back! Oh the real Demonland. How I’ve missed you.

The wrist slashing after a practice game that we lost by 5 points, with next to no intensity shown by the players is quite extraordinary. What makes it even more amazing is we also just won a flag for the first time in 57 years only 5 months ago.....

Having 85% of your backline out is not something "depth" can fix. Depth is 1-3 players max. After that you're asking too much, as more than half your core group isn't there to stabilize the others.

Well it was only a practice match. How do you microwave a digital membership without damaging your phone?

Harsh indeed, on many fronts. Not sure what you mean by too much leisure time over summer, I’ve never seen him in better shape. Last two praccy games he’s spent quite a bit of time in the midfield, particularly at stoppages. What I saw at Casey v North was pretty exciting really, adding x-factor and genuine speed to our midfield mix. Last night he ran out the game strongly. He is bloody fit and he is deadly serious. And he ain’t just a small forward anymore.

On the back of last night's embarrassing performance, I've emailed the club and asked them to take my name off the flag.

Really disappointed that the report doesn't mention the couple of Casey Demons VFL listed players who kicked goals. This is a team game and it represents the Casey Demons. Club reports on these games should respect this fact and acknowledge the Casey players. Let's not forget that one of our best players in our premiership team and again last night, was originally a Casey VFL listed player.

i had no issues with the 50s against jordon (failure to hand the ball directly back), viney (blocked the previous 50s run forward), and langdon (another failure to hand it directly back) the one against clayton was pretty harsh but, as per above, technically 'there' as he clearly thought it was a dees free (as it arguably should have been) but, in particular, the penalties against tomlinson and t mac (note: not trac; it was against t mac for raising his arms in disgust in the umpire's direction after cripps ducked and earned a free) were absolutely laughable things that looked like they worked: fritsch as our main forward target lift in intensity in the second half things that looked like they didn't work: missing 5 of the premiership back 6 gus at half-back lack of intensity in the first half mostly, it seemed to be like we blew out some cobwebs ahead of the real thing starting in 13 or so days

With due respect, I disagree with nearly everything you've said. Referring to 3+ list cloggers is totally disrespectful and unfair. Some of the players on our list aren't going to make it no doubt but that's the same in any club. It's not an exact science. ANB went from a fringe unwanted player to essential in 12 months. I guess you would have classified him as a 'list clogger' at the end of 2020. 8 players were either delisted or retired (pretty much the same thing) at the end of 2021. We picked up 5 players in last year's draft plus traded Luke Dunstan in. You think we should have chased midfield, half back and half forward depth. Did you look at last year's trade period? You don't just get the opportunity to trade talent in at bargain basement prices. Clearly Dunstan was brought in as depth and most of those in the know reckon because of our depth he'll be lucky to get into the side barring significant injuries. We tried to get Cerra in but clearly didn't have the salary cap space for that to happen. In Gawn, Oliver & Petracca we have the top following division in the AFL. There's a drop-off in quality after that but we have depth. We were missing 5 players from our backline in last night's game but 3 will be back for Round 1, and all 5 will be back by Round 3. I agree that if we have 5 players missing from our backline during the season we will have significant issues (that's not going to happen) but no club can have that sort of depth. Haif forward depth? We have Kossie, ANB, Spargo, Harmes, Sparrow. Melksham is there as depth with Laurie coming through. Kossie and Sparrow, possibly Spargo, all have significant upside. All clubs would like to have quality depth players in all positions so injury doesn't have a significant effect on performance, but that just isn't reality with salary caps, quality players wanting to play for the senior side, etc. etc. You've written JJ and Sparrow off after one meaningless practice game. Likewise Harmes. For me Harmes is looking stronger this year and didn't look out of place up forward against North in Fritch's absence. BB is useless after one week, Jackson hasn't progressed apparently, TMac is rubbish. Last night was tough conditions, it was slippery, hot & humid. It didn't suit tall forwards and the delivery into the forward line (especially in the first half) was poor. I do agree with you that TMac has his limitations, especially when the ball hits the deck, but if he competes in the air, clunks a couple of marks and kicks a couple of goals a match he's doing his job. The same with BBB. Jackson is still a work in progress. Any forward line is going to struggle if there's slippery conditions and the ball is bombed in. One thing I don't understand is why Wiedeman isn't being given more opportunity pre-season. They played him in the ruck for less than a quarter against North and again for less that a quarter against Carlton. Might as well have let him play the whole game for Casey earlier in the day to get his confidence up. This was just a practice game. We lost by 5 points despite only turning up after half-time. 6 goals were scored by Carlton from 50-metre penalties (we won't see that level of over-officiating or poor discipline again). I'm personally happy with the result. Better that than an easy win against poor opposition. Carlton are much-improved this year and with a new coaching team were clearly out to prove something (unlike Melbourne). Carlton will probably make the 8 this year but I doubt they'll play much better than they did in the first half last night.

The scoreboard is irrelevant in Praccy matches,both teams are playing players in new/different positions. The one stat that told me everything i needed to know at half time was we laid 22 tackles,there was no pressure. 4 of our 6 premiership defenders out and Carlton had 10 goals to half time,in the GF,Bulldogs kicked 10 goals for the whole game!!! When we decided to have a dip in the second half,we put on 10 goals to 5 and 9 of the last 12 goals. In the home and away,we'll beat the Blues by 10+ goals

What an embarrassingly poor post. have a spell DeeSpecer, and wake up to the reality of the importance of pre-season games

We seemed to play man on man a lot of the game. There was a lot of time when we didn’t have an extra back. We were definitely not going hard into contests. perhaps the goal was more about getting as many k’s into their legs as possible rather than sticking to structurally sound game plans that have proven to be effective last year. Hopefully the caution at the contest was also a preservation thing. the difference in energy levels and intent was very noticeable at the ground. Carlton we’re very up for it and we were going through the motions. They were getting around each other after goals and we were not really. They were very hard at it and we kinda let them have it. The optimist says we are managing ourselves and the pessimist says we drank too much bath water and are headed for a hang over. It felt like we were never in it and almost pinched it at the end which is a good sign. our game is built on our backline and they were all out tonight, lever aside. No team has that depth. without having tv to know what went on with all those fifties I am absolutely at a loss as to what happened with any of them. I can’t remember ever seeing so many in a game and all for one team.

Still don't understand why we pulled Weideman out at half time in the ressies to give him 10minutes in the last quarter. Not exactly setting him up to succeed with that game prep

All this based on a preseason game. How on earth could we afford to pay out Melksham under the salary cap? We shopped him around, no takers, so he remains. How many times have you seen Laurie play? He's a 2nd year player who got injured in a Covid affected season. How anyone can make an assessment of him is beyond me. You clearly have your biases against certain players, and nit pick whenever they don't have a good game.

I thought the 50m penalties for "delays" in getting the ball back to the player awarded the free kick made the game really hard to watch. It was interesting that Jordon and Langdon got 50's for "clarifying" who should get the ball before handing it over, and Oliver got a 50m penalty against him for giving the ball back to the wrong player because he didn't ask. So you're damned if you clarify, and damned if you don't, but inadvertently give the ball to the wrong player because you don't know who should have it.

As good as our mid were at times last year it wasn’t our strength, our defence is where we really have a point of difference to everyone else it gives us the luxury of gambling round the ground safe in the knowledge we can defend if it goes wrong. With 5 of our starting 6 missing it’s clear it all fell apart. Tonight will hopefully be a lesson on how to adjust our game plan in such as scenario

That's true but our backline wasn't so much the issue, our mids and forwards were sloppy and didn't want to dig in when Carlton stepped the tempo up halfway through the 1st. That's fine, it's a practice game so I get not killing yourselves for nothing but hopefully they get their heads right for round 1. Similarly it wasn't Smith, Baker, Hunt etc that was why we lost/played poorly - it was Petracca, TMac, Kozzie, Oliver etc missing targets, bombing away and failing to apply pressure.

We had our serious hit out last week. Yes, we played the wooden spooners but our intentisity was full on, something that was super apparent at the ground. Our intensity tonight was lucky to be half that of last week. Chalk and cheese. A mirror image of last year's preparation.

You can't win the flag at this time of year but you can lose it. Looks to me like we have had a good preseason. We have no long-term injuries, zero injuries to key players and we look fit (9 out of 11 last goals). The players who will miss against the Dogs (Petty and Rivers) are replaceable. We have been given a lesson to shut our traps and give the ball back faster. The Blues were pretty impressive IMO. McGovern looked excellent down back. Kennedy played well. Cripps is a star again. Viney looks like he could do with another run but it's a long year and we need to be careful not to over do him. Lever started poorly but got better. Fritsch a similar story.

Some old timers on this forum have forgotten to take their afternoon nap pills it seems lol...

Fan: Can I call the umpire as a maggot? AFL: No, and you'll face stiff penalties if you do. Fan: Am I allowed to think that the umpire is a maggot? AFL: You can think whatever you want. Fan: "Hey umpire, I think you're a maggot."

Had 8 tackles last night, 3 inside 50. Reckon this is an overly harsh assessment.

The topic is a valid one but the way @Mach5 is going about raising it is p**s poor IMO. If you are aware of specific failures within the club's management, explain what they are. To the rest of us mere members, all we see is increased membership, increased sponsorship, better FTA fixturing and more relevance in both the media and the general footy public. The only example I've seen you put up here is a criticism of sponsorship, which is a topic on which the publicly available evidence suggests we have improved as a result of the flag. Which, to me, makes you 0 from 1 so far. i'm happy to debate how we're going embedding ourselves into the Casey region as well as other areas of Melbourne that might be considered appropriate for us to target, but you've not raised any evidence to suggest we're failing to do that.

I would have preferred to win because that's what we do now, but I'm glad we didn't romp it in and then dish up this stuff in round 1. Wake up calls are good and especially before the real stuff starts.

Is anyone saying we 'lost' because of the 50m penalties? The concern I have is that penalties which depend on how the umpire intreprets a player saying [censored] because he had a free paid against him will be yet another mess the AFL has created.

🙄

yep. and Thomlinson looking up at the replay and gesturing it was the wrong call. words cannot describe how ridiculous the 8 50s were tonight.

It would have been daylight robbery but [censored] were the umpires disgusting. Should be sent to the bush all of them. Commonsense umpiring is all I ask for and it wasn't seen tonight. DISGRACEFUL

I agree. It is very offensive to maggots.

I prefer maggot over the odd swear word. Looks like we have an old fashioned stand off friend. How about we just all become offended at everything together?

Would delist

I think this result showed how much better our backline functions with Hibberd. He can play tall and small, knows how to position himself and is a competitive beast. I doubt we would have lost if he was playing.

You get an idea of the mindset when you see your players laughing and joking with the opposition as the scoreboard ticks over to show a 7 goal deficit.

Brilliant idea ,,found mine And others . Better than Wheres Wally

Really solid hit-out. We sat 4 wide the trip off of a moderate tempo, and we given no favors in the run, only to go down a short half head. Fair effort. Not much else to report. If Carlton were impressive off of that match - good luck to them. On our list, good solid hit-out. We didn’t get injured, didn’t disgrace ourselves, and will take learnings from this. Practice matches are just like sparring, nothing more nothing less. Sparring is practice not the real thing.

No issues with me. Blues played well and we played bad and lost by under a goal. If most think Blues will make finals then we have huge upside over them. Tomorrow is another day and by round 1 we will be ready. Just wish those two youngsters from WA will show a bit more come the game against the doggies. Yes Picket had 8 or so tackles but he needs to get the pill and hit the scoreboard. Jacko got hands on ball like McDonald and Brown but all 3 could not hold them. Bring on the Doggies.

Things I’ve learnt today 1. Give the umpires an inch and they’ll invade Ukraine with power 2. No May and Salem without Petty and Rivers as backup = no good backline 3. Poor discipline is always costly. We were arrogant and messy especially with setting up in the middle. That’s inexcusable. 4. Nobody got injured. Big win!

Geez. You'd be worried if the game actually meant anything. Carlton probably have an open top bus down Lygon St organised for tomorrow.

8 50 metre penalties, 3? 6-6-6 rule violations, Brayshaw in the backline, 5/6 first-choice backliners out? Yeah, not taking much from this one.

Game thoughts -- smashed in the middle - a waft of arrogance amongst some players - relieved we fought our way back to within a kick - we lack back line depth - a bit rusty and it looked like conditions were a little slippery - a good way to zap Wiedeman's confidence is to play him like that

Gotta give Carlton some credit, they smashed us in the middle, and anyone who thinks they are no good is living in the past. To be honest , I don’t think we put a huge amount of effort into this game, dare I say we looked bruise free for most the night and maybe we are just priming for round 1. We don’t make those sloppy skill errors when we are fair dinkum.

Perhaps it was the lapse we had to have. Better now than second half of season. There needs to be urgent attention tho to penalties. One of the things about last year was our iron discipline when it came to playing the game. These lapses were very unlike last year’s side. I have no doubt the hierarchy will sort it out. But it certainly needs urgent attention. Not our brand at all!

Serious question, how much of the Blues score was a direct result from ‘questionable’ 50m penalties? If the AFL wants us to respect umpires more, this is not a good start for HQ.

I don't believe for one minute that this won't hurt for the players. OK, makeshift backline, but it was sloppy, undisciplined and unfocused. Not good on any level (except the constant feeling that we could be/should be playing so much better).

Ridiculous 50 meter penalties. Surely umps will be told to relax for round 1.

No, that's not the case. Was merely using logic. Apologies for bringing that here.