Leaderboard

Only two, 20-minute quarters. Hardly a big workout and not a lot of goal scoring. Four in total if the scoreboard told the truth, but I was a few minutes late and missed some action. Weed did himself no favours and barely touched it, if at all. Sad but he is going to have to be relegated to find some confidence. Brown kicked a couple of goals that I saw, missed one, and marked a few. De Class looks very likely and was noted in heavy traffic and was included in post-match boundary throw in drills. Daw rucked well against Gawn in the same boundary throw in drills. Red headed kid Bowey was busy. In the first quarter the teams were probables (including Weideman) in blue and possibles (including B Brown) in red. Think of your first choice team and they were the blues: Jones and Jetta for example were among the reds, although so was Petty. May, Lever, Hunt, Langdon, Gawn, Gus, Clayton all blue - get it? For the second quarter Weid and Brown exchanged places. Melksham was also a possible (red) in the first term and a probable in the second but I did not see who he swapped with. Annoyingly some random passer by insisted on engaging me in conversation so I found it hard to concentrate even though I tried to ignore him, so I don't have much more to offer. The most promising element was De Class who really looked at ease. Oops. Late edit: should have added Viney was with the reds - don't know what it means, if anything.

Another coup for Pert & Co.

Viney was moving really well. Looked right to go. Brown also would have to be considered given he clunked a few and kicked mostly straight. The rucking contests I referred to came after the two quarters. Brown stayed out practicing goal kicking after the others went in. Clarry also stayed out, doing some extra running on his own. Good boy.

Any BT is too much BT.

Seems to be as strong a sponsor as we have had for some time - to cover both AFL and AFLW shows that Zurich truly sees the value in our relationship. Our leading community programs and players (i.e Nev Jetta) help differentiate us from other clubs. Anyone know who has been our longest serving main / principle sponsor?

Not to mention the panic amongst some when rumours of other club's interest in him were first aired. Recent games seem to have dampened that. We might not need a messiah, but we do need someone with some presence on the field. At the moment Sam is not doing enough.

I'm in total agreement that he''s out of form, has to be dropped. I just don't agree that he's a write off and that a handful of games defines his career.

Meanwhile, Casey who have played (and won) 5 games, together with Collingwood (3/5), Sandringham (2/5), sydney (2/7) sat out byes, and Southport (⅞) sit atop the VFL ?. Why in any reasonable competition should 3 clubs who have played only 5 out of a possible 8 games all have byes? Ridiculous “support” league.

I expect they'll cramm everyone in to one small section of the G as per the usual safe practice. #respectforthefans

100% discuss what's going on with a players football form, perhaps even bring some stats and analysis into it, that would be great hey? This thread has become just a 'he's a dud', 'give him away', 'can't mark, can't kick' thread where posters are just throwing silly insults that are overreactions rather than actually discussing football. It's not a 'discussion' at all now.

This thread really is bringing out the worst in a lot of posters. Just continual kicking of a young player rather than actually discussing footy.

A bit of deduction can be used to narrow things down a bit. In Round 17 we play Port. No other games are as big as that one (there's Bulldogs v Sydney and Richmond v Collingwood). So I'd say we'll be Friday night (or Thursday night). Working backwards, you'd hope that means we're not on the Sunday the week before, to avoid a five-day break. But there are two MCG games (Collingwood v St Kilda is the other) so unless one's a Thursday or Friday night, they have to be Saturday and Sunday. I'd expect us to be Saturday, not Sunday. Question is then whether we're day or night. This week we're night vs Essendon, so we might be the day game vs GWS, otherwise it's a lot of Melbourne on FTA (no complaints from me of course). Round 18 vs Hawthorn there are three MCG games so again, unless there is a Thursday night, these need to be spaced. Richmond v Brisbane a good chance for the Friday night, but Collingwood v Carlton could be a Sunday afternoon as they play in that timeslot a bit. We'll be shuffled around those but I expect either Saturday 1.45pm or Sunday 3.20pm. Round 19 away to GC will almost certainly be Saturday twilight or night. They play nearly all GC home games in those timeslots. Round 20 vs the Dogs could be another Friday night, not much competition for prime time that round (Essendon v Sydney, Fremantle v Richmond). Round 21 vs West Coast I'd pick for Saturday night. There are three Marvel games so one has to be Friday night (I doubt they'll be doing Thursdays by then) - probably Bulldogs v Essendon will be Friday. Round 22 vs Adelaide will be Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Then Round 23 will come down to critical ladder positioning games I reckon. But there are again three Marvel games so one will have to be Friday night, meaning we won't be (unless there's a Thursday night). I'd expect Bulldogs v Port for the Friday night, leaving us for maybe Saturday night. I'll probably get none of these guesses right though.

Yeah look, I’ll ease up for one. Really don’t like the pile-ons, and found the Spargo one pretty unbearable (not to mention misguided). It’s just frustration, but it’s not like he wouldn’t be trying his guts out to get himself right. I remember a sunny day in ‘18, watching our last H&A match against GWS from the pocket in the Southern Stand. Sam had a set shot right in front of me from about 50m. He effortlessly slotted it with a beautiful motion, and I remember thinking that he really could be our next champion player. Just gotta find that guy again!

Jack's Available

OD, depending on your spell check, being vaccinated might reduce your chances of not: losing weight changing the color of your hair making hippie inspired t shirts croaking

Thankfully Brian Taylor isn't on the Saturday night roster for Ch 7. Whilst we've had our fair share or FTA games lately, we've also had more than enough of BT.

I would love nothing more than for Weid to find form and/or develop into a player that can kick bags of goals and prove all of us wrong. I get the delicacies of social media and not writing off young men but this is a fan's site and we should all feel comfortable in posting our beliefs and opinions. If we are way off the mark or over zealous in our views, I have no problems in being called out for it - we live by the sword and die by the sword ?. My view on Weid is that in his 6 seasons of AFL and almost 50 games of footy there have been very few indications that he has the skill, belief or attitude to make it - i can only go by what i see on the tele so cannot say which one is at the heart of it. For comparative purposes (i know how all you DL's love stats and comparisons) you only have to look at Eric Hipwood who was picked up in the same draft, 5 selections after Sam. The key stats are that he has played more than double the games and kicked more than triple the goals (should have been much more had he learned how to kick straight). I don't think Eric is anything super special. He is a good, tall, mobile forward but you could see in his first 1-2 seasons that he had the goods to cut it at AFL level and is worth almost 2 goals per game. We refer to Sam's finals form as the potential he has, which has been the carrot being dangled before us all that has/had all of us accepting of Hogan's departure as nothing to be too concerned about. Give him a solid 5 game block in the VFL and if he is kicking 4-5 games consistently and Brown is not impactful, then i'd give him one more crack. I do hope for the team, that we are not in this situation though.

Nah, you're blinkered. Haven't seen one person blame him solely for or the loss against the Pies. Bar one game he has never put it together. And that was in 2018. He's gone backwards. What are his key attributes aside from being tall? He can't take a clean mark. He can't kick goals. He can't lead properly. Hell, he doesn't even tie up a key defender. The narrative is really about letting him find form in the two's. We are simply playing one short with him in the team And gee whiz we have a ready made replacement waiting. Two in fact.

Happily AZ vaxxed here. Would do it again without hesitation.

od, according to a leading epidemioligist on the radio today IF 70 YEARS AND OVER if you get covid and are unvaccinated you have 1 chance in 100 of dying from covid if you get vaccinated with az you have 1 chance in a 1,000,000 of dying from az you made the right choice

Pay more WCW wash your mouth out.

True. The key thing though is if vaccinated, if you do get it you don't get very sick.

There is 0 evidence of outdoor transmission. So having 15% capacity at the MCG is actually a joke. The only reasonable explanation behind it would be to reduce the load on public transport crowding. Beyond that, it is actually just a silly number to pluck out of thin air.

Go on a vacation to Romsey. There is a house there, actually a Manor, whereby the Lord is quite well known for correction processes

This is fine, what you’re saying. It’s the comments such as he’s useless, he’s a dud, he needs to find a new career, etc. And there’s so many posts like this. My heart breaks for him. It’s not like he’s trying to underperform. There’s probs no one who wants him to perform well more than he does, himself.

But it makes a joke of social distancing LDC. Everything we are told is wear a mask and social distance. Then we are allowed a certain number into sporting events and what do we do jam them all in together. It’s safer getting a snag at Bunnings. PS don’t touch the ball if it comes over the fence! Give me strength.

It would take me 6 hours to dream all that up.

Let’s have 30,000 people at the footy and make them all sit in one single bay. Two to a seat if possible. Let’s not allow 50,000 people and spread them out so there is a 2 seat gap between each group or family attending together. Because #logic

11-2 13 Rounds played…..11 wins….. still only 44 points in the premiership bank and nothing has changed from last week. We still sit on top of the ladder thanks to a Cats win against the Bulldogs Bit different this last weekend not having any football from the Demons. Still I am sure they have enjoyed a weekend off. And so, to Round 15 and we play the Bombers, the team that suffered a number of player suspensions due to systemic drug cheating. We play them on Saturday night on the G….. maybe. I am not sure what to make of this iteration of the Bombers. I find their list a strange mix of bits and pieces. Some good young talent and some older more experienced guys that tend to run hot and cold. Biggest interest for me is to see what sort of shape we turn up in after the break. Will we be switched on or flat? We seem to be making all the right noises but the time over the white line will tell us what the players understand and believe. The facts: We have the week off – Advantage us Their home match – Advantage them We play at the G – Advantage us They are coming off a win last week against the Hawks – Advantage them (maybe) Problem areas of the game for us. Still the bloody forwards…. Our defenders are well settled and have the first half of the season in form. They did not look shiny and bright in the outing against the Pies but I am looking forward to seeing them re-set and work back into form. Stringer and Jones look to be their main avenues to goal and I see that they have their own version of our Wied in Wright. He is not in good form up forward and would not be surprised to see him ‘rested’. Our defenders will need to be sharp as a number of their forwards apply good pressure and tackles. As long as we stick to our structure and trust in each other we will get on top in this area of the ground. We have the talent in our midfield… I am sure that is not news to anyone. This week I think we will add Viney to the mix and it will all be for the better. Not just a break to freshen up but the return of a fired up Viney to spark the others. Parish is the one we need to shut down he is the one that drives a lot of their scoring ….. Harmes anyone? Merrett and McGrath are his main partners in crime but if we contain Parish we will go a long way to winning this. Max and Luke will dominate the ruck contests, but we need the players at their feet to work off them properly. Essendon will have done a lot of work on our ruck’s tap work. It may be that Max spends a lot of his time either back or forward depending on the state of the game and Luke taking the rucks. Now for the forwards……. The good; Well in the bigger picture we are 11-2 without a performing forward structure. And while we have the least points scored against us so far this season, we are only have the 5th highest points for. The bad; Weid’s form but that may not matter this week The ugly; It could be BBB’s hair this weekend. I really hope that there has been some in depth thought and coaching that has gone into our forward 50 structure. While our delivery into the forwards has improved, I am not sure that the delivers have confidence in where the forwards are going to be. We do not seem to be able to consistently find space on the lead and in static marking contests we lack some weight and strength. Selection will make for some interesting reading this week. I expect Weid to be dropped and for B. Brown to come in. Viney in for Sparrow? Most likely. The Bathwater Express is all polished up and ready for the sprint home. I have not started it up since it has just been serviced so I am not sure how it runs at the moment. Expect it to rumble into life with a power surge come Saturday night. Tough to predict this week. I want to see us turn up to this game a we turned up in Round 1….. Fresh, tough and well disciplined…. If we do that, I believe we will run out winners by 6 goals. Go Dees!!!

The Essendon fapfest in the media is unbearable at the moment.

The more I think about this game the more I think it needs to be a “statement”. I feel like every contender apart from us have shown the competition what happens when it ALL clicks and how devastating they can be. That’s not to say we haven’t had great wins but I’m talking beating a team into submission and after losing to the pies the players should be seething (and I’d be worries if they weren’t). Looking forward to seeing Jack back in the team, he adds an aggression and hunger that few can match.

I'm not trying to bash him. But I do think many of us were hoping he'd be something special. Call that a messiah or whatever you like.

"Breakout game" might have been said a few times, but I'm yet to see one person ever say 'Weideman is the messiah' about a year where Gawn and Oliver were All-Australian. Let's not rewrite history just so we can find a new way to bash Weid.

we have three players on our injury list three! halfway thru the year!!! what even is this world in which we're in... half our team is clearly gonna come down with covid on the eve of the finals, right?

Correct. Keeps you out of serious effects and hopefully hospital.

Prof. Sutton said they do that coz it’s easier to monitor a crowd that’s all confined to one space; to make sure everyone is adhering to the covid rules. If that’s the case, couldn’t they put on extra staff to monitor more areas? It’s not rocket science.

No, but I reckon they'll give the majority of members tickets to the home team.

The journo's have gone with 15-30% since yesterday for both venues. Hopefully it will be 50% for our GWS game the following week, although we could probably accommodate everyone at 25% if we're being honest for that fixture.

As against “ getting where the ball ain’t” gee I miss Jack. I think the one I like the most is “ stand still son the ball will eventually hit you”.

Well said Demons1858.

His confidenceis completely shot. Going off @RigidMiddleDigit small little training report on Weid barely touching the ball in the minor intra club match, it's fair to say he'll struggle to keep his spot. I too held hope after his 2018 campaign that he'd become a really good key forward for us, but I don't think it'll be the case. I think he'll be at worse a Levi Gasboult type who'll still be a solid contributor at times, but nothing to write home about. Mind you Gasboult has gone on to still play 150 AFL games. I think Weid needs to think whether a fresh start at another club will be much more beneficial for his own career sake. I would presume he's going through that thought process now, but right now, being OOC and possibly out of the team probably doesn't bode well for him. I know Goodwin did say a month ago he wanted Weid to stay but maybe behind closed doors its a different dialogue. Speaking of key forwards, Essendon have found an absolute ripper in Harrison Jones. Took 5 contested marks yesterday and played like a guy that's played over 100 games.

Yep I think i know who is "ridiculously overacting". My post was pretty measured. His form his poor he doesn't deserve his spot at the moment.

Probably because they aren't regular occurrences this year, however Weid's poor performances have been.

Not panic like some posters are here. He's not in form clearly, but the past month doesn't define his career. Ben Brown hasn't even played in the last month, do we write him off too? No, we get to work. I have no doubt the coaches, particularly Williams and Stafford, will continue to work with him to help him get some form, and I'm sure Goody and Yze will be working with the midfield and forwards in improving structure and delivery to rebuild the synergy there we seem to have lost recently. The reality of our current list demographic means Weid will likely stay IMO, unless he requests a trade himself. I believe the club will back in it's development and coaching to get him out of his current slump and get him back to his 2020 form when the coaches rated him as a top 10 player for us.

It is a joke when the 30% gets jammed into one area.

More of an outer urban myth at Casey, OD.

An urban myth I suspect.

Caddy is god awful I would hate him to have him on our list

I doubt all football departments allow themselves to be influenced by media propaganda. KPF’s command a premium in the market. Scarcity is a factor but putting the ball between the big sticks is the main reason. They will win you games (or lose you games if not good enough).

Once and if BBB looks to have gained some speed on the lead and repeat running patterns when VFL returns then we should have a look at him. Until then we should return to when our forward line and forward pressure looked best which was without either Weid or BBB. I am not against 3 tall forwards but I am against it just for the sake of it.