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I’m unable to provide a link to the story by Chris Cavanagh on page 89 of today’s Sunday Herald Sun “CASEY HAUL GIVES DAW SOLID START” so I’ll summarize. It starts by highlighting the fact that Majak Daw was one of Casey’s standouts in its 35-point practice match win over the Box Hill Hawks on Friday night. Daw kicked four goals for the night. However, that news was tempered by the fact that the club has said he “is some way from being fit” and has “got a lot of work ahead of him.” On that basis, don’t expect him to play in Round 1. The article adds that Kysaiah Pickett continues “his push for a Round 1 return as he also produced a lively performance”.

Max – sit the team down and look at the womens game against the crows last night. Best instructional video you will see demonstrating anger, intensity, application and attitude. That’s what I expect to see from the blokes against Freo.

Rjay I have been giving the club the benefit of the doubt because of reduced staff numbers etc last year and this year but I am beginning get a little tired of letting them off. Some things are more important than others and I guess what is important varies from one member to another. However somethings I believe are vital. For a club that struggles to maintain member numbers on the eve of a new season that follows on a very disappointing end to last year then surely pre season practice game news is vital. But apparently not in the eyes of the MFC. It would appear they are more attuned to the mushroom factory principal.

This. Tackling ferociously, shepherding, tap the footy on, caring for each other. Not the faux “get around him” crap.

The players are not nearly as angry as i am after sitting through the last 15 years of crap and empty promises

He played rubbish on the weekend but apparently has improved this year, at training anyway. He is not slow, nor soft and is actually one of our better kicks. Needs more time to really believe he belongs at the level, he deserves the time to develop though. You will get plenty of chances to love or hate him as he will play a lot over next few years. He will become really important player for us.

I'd say about 17 other teams. Though your wording is a bit incomplete. I expect players in all 18 teams are told the scoreboard doesn't matter for you, the individual player - if you and your mates all play your roles the scoreboard will take care of itself. If you don't play your role you will be assessed poorly.

That is a terrible trend. No wonder we can't win games. Those numbers are a real indictment on our game plan and structures at stoppages. All the talk of being a 'contested team', 'winning the contest' looks like bs. Great idea but not working in practice. Before anyone reminds me: yes I know that winning the contest also includes things like 'ground ball gets', 50/50 chances, marking etc but we can't win games if we can't win in the most important part of our 'contested' game, where we should have dominance: stoppages. If other clubs have 'worked out Max' we have had two years to develop counter measures. Lets hope our tactics, positioning and structures at stoppages improve markedly this year.

I really love the buy in from the Irish girls, they look to be really enjoying the game and the camaraderie. Likewise; it's evident how they are seen by their team mates. There hasn't been a lot of comment regarding Lily Mithin's game and I don't know if that's because we just expect her to do what she does or because some people have an "opinion" of her. Pound for pound I don't think I've ever seen a more courageous and tenacious player (apology to Lord).

I'm not sure that maybe sending an email, putting something up on the website and reporting on the game is being spoon-fed but if it is then I would think members & future members should expect to be spoon-fed. If you want to involve fans & build a membership base then you have to put in the work...it's shouldn't be the members/fans job to go searching.

LOL this is just complete rubbish. in the first qtr i saw Sparrow, Jordon, ANB, Jones, Chandler and Spargo lined up as a direct opponent on Daniel at various times. the players rotate through the forward half these days, hardly no one lines up on a direct opponent for a whole qtr anymore. and even though players start lined up on each other from a centre bounce situation that doesn't mean much anyway, from there its all about keeping the structures and how you want to play instead. the biggest problem we had with Daniel was our mids just couldn't get their hands on the ball enough to move it forward, so Daniel just did as he pleased instead of defending. i only saw Spargo on Daniel twice that first qtr and one was from a kick out and Spargo burnt him for pace running back inside the F50 but didn't get used. if you were 'watching closely' i suggest you need to go to spec savers. seems your hatred of Spargo is making you blind.

I can guarantee you 1 thing, that Spargo is not soft.

I wonder if the posters advocating playing Majak Daw on the strength of his performance in a VFL practice match are the same ones that said we should draft Kobe Farmer because his dad was really good.

anb went to daniel in the second after he had 11 in the first and had a real impact tbf to him both ways

Hope Mark’s family is doing ok HB, and you too.

Agree, Mithen gets 'rag dolled' a lot, and this season they seem (unnecessarily) go that extra bit to make it hurt (including sling tackles). To her great credit, she brushes herself off, and gets on with the job. Easy to see that she loves the jumper!

I agree with you about Mithen. She gets pummeled from head to toe. She goes in really hard for the ball and because she is fairly light the opposition will hit her harder. And they do. And credit where it is due she never shirks going for the hard ball. Does she need protection ? Yes. Especially in a final.

I think the opposition have done a lot of homework on us since our second half of 2018 (6-6-6 etc haven't helped either). In some respects it's easy for the opposition as Gawn wins the majority of taps so it's just a matter of analysing where he likes to hit it and nullify the player he's hitting to. I felt early on last year Oliver was usually his target and Oliver was tackled / held / scragged before he had even received the ball. After a few holding the ball decisions it lead to a bit of panicking and quick handballs / kicks which ended in turnovers. While I think the umpires should have clamped down on this, it was disappointing that we weren't able to adapt - with Gawn and Oliver (and Petracca and Viney) in there, we should be the team that is able to make things unpredictable for opposition teams. It's clearly not an easy fix but it is good to have some experienced fresh eyes looking at it in Yze. I'm hoping this is the breath of fresh air our mids needed.

While Max gets large numbers of hit outs not a lot of them are well directed. You seldom see him hit one of our players and some teams rove his hit out very well.

I agree with accolades about our better known players last night and I loved seeing some of the lesser known team members show what they are capable of: Heath, Sherriff, Lampard, Tarrant, Colvin and Magee. And it’s great to see Goldrick’s attack on the ball, and courage - reminds me of Matty Whelan’s approach. Another beauty is McNamara - very skilled and courageous too. Was absolutely stoked in last night’s effort by the women. Hope some of it rubs off on the men!

Put a line through Darcy Tucker of Freo. Hurt himself playing WAFL practice match today.

What a fantastic evening that was at the footy. There was one way to describe how the girls played this evening and that is the old saying of guts. Plenty of it. Adelaide are a strong side who move the ball quickly but our girls never gave them room and tackled fiercely. If I was Goodwin I would sit the senior side down this week to watch that performance. I can't think of a bad player for us with maybe Cunningham struggling in the wet. Having said that Pearce and Zanker were 2 talls who were close to BOG. However I have to give that title to Hanks. She is a superb player. Paxman ( as always )' Gay and Hore were fantastic but I really liked the game of Lampard and Heath. They were terrific in defence. My coopers pale ale is tasting really good now.

Just getting to watching the game now. Hanks was bloody robbed of that goal called a behind midway through the 3rd!!

Mithen gets smashed because she goes in hard and the oppostion knows she's dangerous around the goals. Hanks wll also find herself under more pressure soon as well. Also small but provides so much drive from the middle. They're gonna have their hands full with Zanker though. Big strong girl with clean hands in the middle who can run all day. Very tough to match up on.

There's an emergency every week that's held over for the match in case there's illness overnight or an injury in warm up. This is a non issue.

More pre-season BS from the Kings of BS. Just STFu and play footy consistently hard and with passion. We're sick of the pathetic capitulations from this mob. Its been going on for years.

i'd take two majak quarters before i take 2 weeks of tmac's

And hopefully when she hangs up the boots she gets a gig as an Assistant Coach for our men's team. She is very smart tactically, game plans and how to neutralise opp strengths. Not sure our current club leaders value her as much as the PJ regime did.

Yep. Interesting Stafford was moved from the ruck coach role end of last year, and a little concerning we don't have someone in that role now, but hopefully Yze as midfield coach can bring some improvement. It's not been tracking the right way the last few years. 2018 Hitouts: 1st Clearances: 3rd 2019: Hitouts: 3rd Clearances: 8th 2020 Hitouts: 3rd Clearances: 15th

I haven’t seen every game but the North game was the slickest performance I’ve seen this year. I said in that game day thread that we would be giving the flag a real crack. Yesterday was more of a contested game where we pummeled the opposition into submission If we bring yesterday’s effort and the skill execution that we showed against North, we can and will beat anyone.

I’m usually keen to get hold of any Dees podcast, but the Gus and Gawny one is hard to listen to - unfortunately, Brayshaw seems to be one of those guys who’s had it all on a plate and being a footballer is just part of the wheeze.

I thought it was very funny!

You must only look at Spargo with a blue eye. At crucial times in our scoring. He is the one who links it all together. By being in the right place at the right time. yes he is small, never going to take mark of the day, can’t kick 60 m , but IMV is a very important part of the forward line. in any case it does not matter what we think, if the selectors choose him or not thats their decision. an interesting few days coming up. I hope we all enjoy more wins than losses this year and can put our views as we think fit. Come on Dees !!

Can we talk about how bloody good Tyla Hanks is?! Her decision-making and execution is outstanding. She would be leading our b&f and is now one of the best players in the league. So smart and clean.

But in fairness Melksham was so bad last year for a senior player, we should be better off without him. Unless he has pulled the finger out over preseason

Wrote my round 1 team down on a post it note. let me know your thoughts

I don’t care what Max or anyone else says. Preferably don’t say anything at all, well not until you can win games of footy, and, hopefully, consecutively, even try winning a string of games. Then try winning enough close games to be in the bloody 8 at season end. Try winning finals games. Words no longer mean anything. But how do you feel? How will you feel at the end of your career if you are associated with a team of losers, a club that attracts derision. Is a laughing stock. You may have lots of money, but how will you feel about your footy career? Will you feel a failure, will your team mates feel that they are failures ? Or will you and the Coach simply move on? Will you get over it as you and your team mates sip on your Pinot Noir in the wine bar and blame others? Just win games, win the close ones. Until then I will mute the sound coming from you and Simon or the next coach’s mouth. I will not bother reading what you have to say. I will remain totally detached and increasingly lose interest in the season. I will forever remain loyal but I will have lost the emotion I have for my team. I will remain detached. I will take more interest in other clubs and the results of other games. It will be purely of academic interest as to what happens. All of us Demons want to see you as the new Richmond. Tough, resilient, successful and proud. Do you have it in you?

Not ruthless enough at each seasons end imho.

Wow. Looks like we’re set for a golden period ahead. Watts Scully Trengove Morton Maric Strauss Grimes Rivers. Frawley and Jones look like great players already. Add in experience of Sylvia, Moloney, Bruce, Davey, Green, Jmac. Jamar and Martin make a good Ruck division. Add in excitement of Jurrah. Good times ahead. Well it was a reasonable year 2010 (8 wins 10 losses 1 draw - some close losses too - smashed the Swans) and it was a feeling of hope -it was looking ok for the years ahead ... until it all fell apart with GWS + Suns intros, injuries, Scully defection, lack of development Jurrah-going and the stupidity “sacking”junior.

I think communication is very important if they ever want to expand and reach membership numbers. They really should look at how the top EPL clubs it se social media to engage supporters.

Great win by the girls, really team effort with a few standouts already mentioned. Playing with purpose and a plan for the wet too. Looking forward to seeing them live next week in Perth. They'll come over with confidence in their system.

Same. The skills might not quite be there with the womens game but the competitive spirit sure is. Love watching them play and seeing their enjoyment of the game.

Great team win tonight. Zanker and Hanks awesome. Gotta say though .... Cunningham is hopeless. Have only seen her do a couple good things over several years of footy. On a side note. My anti-football missus had no option but to watch as I wouldn't let her have the remote. Later in the game she declares "There are alot of pretty girls in your team." Me - "Ahhh ..... Yes there is." Lol.

Outstanding win by our girls! Played with true Demon spirit, and worked as 'one' with desire, courage and intensity.

Best Hanks. Footy IQ and skills are a step above everyone else’s L. Pearce. Looks like she is working out what she is capable of. Lots of touches around the ground amd that mark and goal in the square was fantastic Zanker. Hats off to Stinnear for putting her in the centre square rotation. Too big and strong for opposition mids to deal with. If she could just hang onto her marks she could be anything Gay. It is a great situation to be in when your 4th option mid gets 20 disposals, 3 marks and 5 tackles. Also one of our top half dozen kicks in the side Paxman. Paxman game. Takes the right option Sherriff. I was surprised by how good she was. Really reliable defender Hore. Thought she was a bit lucky with the free kicks but they were there and she kicked 3 goals Great team effort overall

It's Demonland, we don't need no ******' evidence.

We should get off to a good start and win the first 3: Freo, Saints and GWS injuries are just as bad if not worse than ours. I don't really care what commentators say. Its our story to write. I have little doubt we can make the 8 and win a final or two. Will we? Who knows.

Not a lot of good following on twitter would have done people anyway. I found out about the game at about 10 min before it started last night when I made the effort to go to Box Hill's twitter to see if they had any info because I was free to go if it was today. I follow both Melbourne and Casey on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as Melbourne on YouTube and as we know nothing on the website or via email. Nothing from any of them until the game had already begun. In fact the earliest communication was Casey's first tweet that came with a photo showing it was already 24 minutes into the first qtr and Melbourne's only communication was a retweet of that very post an hour after that. I understand when they withhold injury information despite how frustrating it is. But this is just crap. A simple tweet from both saying "Casey boys playing Box Hill at Casey Fields tonight. Unfortunately this will be closed to the public. Updates and a match report to follow" Would have been enough info surely. A team list would have been a bonus. But nothing at all? As for Ben, He's around working mostly on AFLW stuff at the moment. They did release an AFLW "Before the Bounce" video last night with Libby and Ben

And please nev. That tweet you linked, seemingly the ONLY comms about the match by the club was posted at 8.23pm. Which presumably was after the match started. And I'm guessing after someone at the club saw or heard about the disquiet here. And received all of 9 likes. Viral. Not.

Nibbler’s value has significantly increased with rotations dropping to 75 and the return to full length quarters. The boy can run as far as the day is long. Couple that with what looks to be a spell of strong form and It wouldn’t surprise me to see him playing the majority of games this year. This game is must win IMO. If we don’t, it’s not an overstatement to say that Goodwin immediately goes on notice. He’s essentially done that to himself by stating in so many words that top 4 is the pass mark. We simply ,must start the season on our home ground against Freo with a W.