mo64

Baker played well against the Dogs, and was clearly in the best. But his stat line was inflated by junk time disposals in the last qtr. My assessment of Baker is based on both this season and last. I thought he was a prospect when he first arrived. But now I can understand why he's not in contention for senior selection. Yes he provides an outlet, but his decision making is poor.

There is no way Baker gets picked up by another club. And to say that Jordon has played poorly is garbage. Spargo and ANB are forwards that apply pressure. Baker doesn't provide that at VFL level. The reason Baker got shuffled to the back line is because our Football Dept have high hopes on Blakes Howes as a wingman. Baker is certain to be delisted.

Baker accumulates possessions in positions on the ground that don't hurt the opposition. At AFL level he'd be ignored by his teammates. He also took some kick-ins after a point, where he moved outside of the goal square and is credited with a possession. His decision making with the ball is poor. This year he's been moved from the wing to half back. We have heaps of depth in that position, and Baker sits on the bottom of the depth chart. By all means keep him at Casey once he's been delisted. His big body helps the youngsters.

Chris Johnson who went to Carlton was openly told to f off during training by coach Dean Bailey, once it was known that Johnson intended to leave. Pretty immature by Bailey. It was nice to see CJ in the rooms after the GF.

We had 7 nominated in the All Australian squad. Our A graders hardly missed a game last year.

I've already said that we are probably loading. But it's you that's guessing that we are the only team impacted by it, and are trying to measure it's impact on us. You can't, it's as simple as that. But you can measure the impact of injuries and form.

Now you are just surmising to justify your argument. Nobody on here has a clue about what sort of loading we've done. The facts are that we've had injuries and inconsistent form from our A graders.

No.

I love Goody, but after the Gold Coast game when we hardly scored in the 2nd half which gave the Suns a sniff, Goody came out and said that we didn't need to score. That sort of attitude gets ingrained into the players. Once we have a lead, Goody will tell the players that we have the game on our terms. Then we try to defend the lead by playing safe down the line football. Once the opposition get a sniff, we can't redress the momentum. If you look back at all the games where we've given up a lead, the opposition has kicked the last 1 or 2 goals before the half time break. I can't recall the Pies game, but it definitely happened against the Dockers, Swans and Dogs. We go into half time happy with ourselves, whilst the opposition look at the scoreboard and gives themselves a chance. Not ashamed to say that I backed the Dogs at H/T when they were paying $4.50. I'd seen this script before.

I don't deny that training loading takes place, but if every club that's contending for finals is doing it, then the results amongst those teams is neutralised. Why will we be the only club that miraculously improves in the last 4 rounds? Burgo talked about it, so some think that it's the be all and end all to our results. Remember when high altitude training was all the rage after the Pies won a flag. Everyone started doing it. How can you properly load when so many of your key players have had injuries or Covid during the loading period? Add to that the difficult fixture. Our form slump is due to a number of things, with injuries and poor form being on top of the list.

Spargo has never been a true crumbing small like Kozzie or even Bedford. He's more of a link player, as is Chandler. But what I've seen of Chandler lately, he's better overhead than Spargo, and a more penetrating kick. At the end of the day, I agree that Chandler doesn't fix things, but his form warrants inclusion.

When Bedford was in the team, Spargo was playing further up the ground, so I can cut him slack for averaging less goals. But his possession numbers should have dramatically increased, which they haven't. He just doesn't get involved enough, wherever he plays. I haven't been a Chandler fan, but his form at VFL is hard to argue with. He even takes marks on the lead, not that we utilise that option much. He must get rewarded, and Spargo is the obvious one to get dropped.

Based on what? English is a very good footballer and far more consistent than Jackson.

Are you sure Petty was on JUH? When you watch his 5 goals, only once was he manned up, and Tomlinson was on him.

Langdon was ordinary tonight, but he also had a quiet stretch of games last year, which is why he didn't even make the AA squad. I think his form overall this year has matched last year.

Brayshaw, Jordon, Viney have improved this year. Clarry, Kozzie, Fritsch. Langdon and Petty on par with last year. The rest of the team have slightly regressed, and a few have dropped badly. Goody said at the start of the year that the players who missed out on the GF would drive the group forward. Casey are sitting unbeaten with 15 wins, and some should feel peeved with not getting rewarded with selection.

@DemonstoneI've found a live one. He may be hearing English, but I'm not reading it.

You missed the Richmond/Freo game then?

Maybe if we played 2 KPFs they could share the workload. BBB has been run into the ground. And I don't buy that JVR needs more time. He was playing senior WAFL footy last year. We are at the point where it's obvious to everyone that playing 1 KPF isn't working. Selection needs to change. If Spargo is neither applying forward pressure or kicking goals, should we not look to change things up?

The 1st goal he kicked was symptomatic of how he plays. He was out of position to contest that mark but was fortunate that Dale slightly boxed him out. He was never going to get to that contest. If his only strength is marking on the lead, then he's at the wrong club, because that's not how we play. It's ingrained in our mids to go long to a contest. It worked last year, especially in the G/F, and for the 1st half tonight, it worked also. But when you are only playing with 1 kpf and 2 resting ruckmen who are giving us nothing up forward, surely you have to change things up occasionally.

For starters, we lost the game because we were overrun. The umps didn't help, but they weren't the reason we lost. Too many on here can't see that we have too many players down, due to either fitness or form. Gawn, Petracca, May aren't playing anywhere near their best. Aside from the Brisbane game, we haven't played well for 10 weeks. Secondly, last year we prided ourselves on being the fittest team in the comp. We've now been overrun by Freo, Swans, Pies and Dogs after holding 20+ point leads during the game. We clearly aren't at the same levels as last year. And can we finally debunk this training loads nonsense.

Actually it was Mick Jones that wrote and sang Should I Stay Or Should I Go.

Seems like GWS are the other club enquiring about Grundy. Personally, I don't get it. He'll be 29 next year, and has never shown much as a resting ruckman in the forward line. And I don't see Max as a permanent forward. Grundy plays like a ruck rover, but his role was diminished once Buckley was sacked. He was no longer used as a link man, because his possessions were deemed ineffectual. The Pies have been better without him. I doubt that the Pies will absorb more than 30% of his salary and accept a token pick. And if we lose Gus over money, and take on a fair chunk of Grundy's salary, it will be a bitter pill to swallow.

Today wasn't one of his better days, but the conditions didn't suit key forwards. We also bomb the ball in, which is our game plan, so key forwards have to earn their kicks. He didn't play as much 2nd ruck today, which I was happy about. Personally, I think he's ready now because he loves the contest.

Did you watch the game? How many junk marks did Baker take in the last qtr? He calls for 15m sideways passes from teammates. That's seagulling. But that's not how we play at AFL level. Why do you think that he's never considered for promotion even when we have players out? He's rarely named as an emergency.