stinga

In my mind he has all the attributes, but a bit like Stretch was. He gets found out at the higher level because he doesn't have the will to get inside or centre side of the contest. He's always between the contest and the boundary line and unlike casey, at the top level you run out of room. Maybe if he builds his body up he will get the confidence to change. James Hird used to call it sheep dogging - circling the pack but going nowhere.

he gets a game because of his two way running not his skills. If he kicks 30 goals its a success, if not it's a failure.

He's a small forward with ability to jump for marks. Our fastest small forward to create pressure, and kicked our second most goals. With a better forward line he could boost 20 goals to between 30 and 40. That's our problem - where do the goals come from. He's a necessity.

So with just 35 on our list and 2 selections, how do we get the senior list to 40

I can only find 18 players on our current list left from last year and not including any we have picked up in the trade period, who are in our best 22. By jumper number May Jones Salem Harmes Petracca Viney Lever Brayshaw Gawne Oliver Hibberd Melksham VanDenBerg T. McDonald Hunt Fritsch Hore Jetta The rest are just fill in for injury types, untested over a quantity of games or development types. We need every best 22 we can get whether it's Bruce or someone else.. To get a best 22 you need at least a best 26 to cover injuries and create competitiveness. I even think there would be debate whether all the above should be in a best 22.

Hannan is too soft and doesn;t get the ball enough. Smith is better especially when he is the 3rd tall which he will be if we play Preuss and Gawn. So Lever for Hore, Gawn for T Mac and Smith for Hannan. If Petty still concussed then either J wagner or Oscar. Jetta needs another week.

TERRIBLE GAME. BUT SO MANY INJURIES. HIBBERT LONG TERM INJURY MELKSHAM AND LEWIS BOTH PROBABLY OUT. ALREADY GOT 3 OR 4 OTHERS PLAYING ON ONE LEG THEY'LL HAVE TO GIVE THE BOOT STUDDER A GAME SOON.

Baker would be the outside runner. At least a run for 3 games just to see how he goes, even if only as experience for next year. Can't do much worse than the others and he has a bit of height to take a mark.

thanks. With so many injuries you'd think they might give him a run at vfl

KC Bradke not selected and not on injury list. Any reason?

There's no point in playing the Wagners and Lewis. They won't be there next year and we need to get game time into some of the others, regardless of the results

sounds like the coach gave the better players a break on the bench in the last quarter

Sparrow Has had a taste and will be a good player but not yet and cant be carried in a side under performing Petracca needs to go back to Casey and get some confidence. Can't mark, can't kick and can't chase and fumbles at the moment. Neale Bullen - all at sea at the moment and can't get to where the ball is Hunt - should have been left forward but now lost confidence and needs to go back to casey and played as a forward. Let him get a couple of bags of goals and then bring him back as a defensive forward. B Jetta McDonald Keilty HB Hibbert May Frost C Viney Oliver Salem HF Melksham Weid Tim Smith F Lockhart McDonald Preuss R Gawn Harmes Brayshaw Int KK Jones Fritsch Baker Of the doubtfulls May gets benefit of the doubt due to corky but has to attack the ball more and no silly free kicks in front of goal Jetta maybe carrying an injury, but too good to throw out. He'll come good Keilty deserves a chance to show what he's got Frost Makes blunders but there is a lot of upside when he goes well. Gives better balance as 3rd tall Weid - we just have to persevere Tim Smith - At least he can take a mark and certainly adds pressure Lockhart - did enough and you don't drop a kid on 1 game unless he has a shocker Preuss - The only time their back line looked under pressure was when Gawn went forward and 2 or 3 had to go up against him. They have to try it at some stage. McD and Weid are good runners so you don't lose too much defensive run in our forward line. Jones and Fritta are making mistakes but at least they are getting the ball KK looked ok but went missing too much. Deserves at least 2 games. Baker is a taller and quick midfielder who can't do any worse than the ones left out. They might want him to do more game time at casey , but I'd take the chance.

Seems to me we have 3 problems 1. Too many players back after injury still carrying after effects combined with lack of game time 2. Too small Jetta, Harmes, Jones, Viney, Hunt, Spargo, Salem, Neale Bullen, Sparrow, Lewis and Wagner from last week are all under 185cm 3. Too slow. Only Frost and Hunt have short burst pace. Until we get better players back from injury and game time into those returning we need to look at pace and height. The only options are May, Preuss, Keilty, Kolodjashnij, Baker and Garlett I'd take Kolodjashnij Baker Preuss and May and lose Hore, Neale Bullen, Sparrow and Viney(he's obviously carrying something). Did anyone else see Oliver vomiting down on one kneee after the half time break? I wonder if a virus has gone through the team.

In aflw the boundary umpires have been throwing the ball in from about 20 m inside the boundary line so that it ends up as a contest close to the front of the goals from anywhere inside the forward 50. Defenders knocking the ball to a place where it might go out rather than trying to get it past 50 is not likely to continue. More players would have to be around the contest for defenders at throw ins as well. I'm not even sure if this is going to be trialled/accepted in JLT and season games. Are they doing anything at training about that.

Weid had a problem of positioning himself or making his leads so that he found himself under the ball too often. Towards the end of the season he was coming in from the side and took some great marks. Has anyone at training seen that he is building on that.

Before VDB came back from injury our best players available to fill gaps were JKH, Garlett, Stretch who are lightly framed and easily pushed off the ball. VDB gave us that extra grunt around the packs. If he goes there's no one on our list of a similar type to take his place. The nearest from Casey would be Lockhart and he's not on our list. Baker is probably next cab off the rank but he is more like Clarrie

As much as I hate it we need Lewis still. He gives 30 touches each week and mostly pin points the kicks (I know one was a shocker). He's too slow but the benefits outweigh the negative. We need his experience and help to some of the younger ones. That said we need pace. Something is wrong with hunt because he's not running even at casey. Baker is tallish, is quick and most importantly runs through the spine. We have too many of Nibbler, Brayshaw, Harmes, Salem, and Spargo. Medium sized, not fast, not overly good at marking and most importantly nearly always go out wide. When we win well they all play well but not when we are in close games. One of them has to go. If Tim Smith is fit again, he's done enough to come back in. He needs a patch of at least 5 games to get confident. They've done it with Spargo and he'll be better for it over the next few years. He comes back for Pedo. Joel smith did enough, is athletic and adds variety to defence. He needs 4 -5 game patch. That said, if we play someone with to big talls like Weagles I'd like to see Petty have a crack. He's our only 197cm defender and looks to have some footy nous.

apart from Oliver our mids are pretty small. Viney and Salem back does not help this. I'd like to see Tim Smith in there. He is not only tall but strong and aggressive. His 31 possession BOG in the last VFL game shows he can do it. With Suns and Carlton coming up it would be an ideal time to try it.

I agree but there's another way at looking at improvement. We had many who hardly played a game due to injury so they all have to make a huge % improvement on such a low base. Both Smiths, McKenna, ANB, Brayshaw and Hogan

I agree. You can't be a player who occasionally goes through the midfield, have 3 possessions in a losing team and expect to stay in. So Hannan has to go. Vince and Jones will come back in. I think Trengrove will be the one to make room as the second out. Maybe they'll give Maynard a go for JKH. Weid couldn't have done much more in todays VFL game to take Hogan's place , but I think they'll want at least 3 in a row at that level before they bring him back. So Pedo to take Hogan's place.

Its a question of how badly do we need to win in WA and how badly do we need to manage the players with 3 x 6 day turn arounds in a row, It's now a reality that we will probably play finals, so have to keep that in mind. At the very end of the game I saw Harmes limp towards the bench with a lower leg injury and they just told him to wait on the ground and 5 seconds later the final siren blew. So I think you can add him to the the possible injured list. If he is out it gives either Kennedy of JKH a go. I want to see Maynard have a run and if managing players injuries is the issue, it would be a good time for that to occur. I don't want them to try him closer to finals - which means he would have to wait til next year. If Jones doesn't pull up I'd replace him with Maynard. I doubt they'll risk Max next week when he only has 6 days to recover for the following week in a tough match against the swans on Friday night. Big men and long flights don't help recovery in a short week. Without knowing the extent of soreness it's difficult, but in the last 2 weeks Watts has had ankle problems, back spasms and hamstrings. He needs a rest, so its Spencer for Watts and Pedo plays Watts role.

Hogan and Gawn are the obvious whenever they are ready. Spencer should come in after a hit out in the 2's. After watching the last Casey game, Maynard is the one who really impresses me and I'd love to see him get a run - he is easily the most athletic and hard at it player there. Melksham, Harmes Bullen and Salem were all pretty poor today, and should be the first to go.

Why does Weid always find himself under the ball when going for a mark. He never gets momentum to jump forward to take it. Is it just that he can't judge it or bad coaching.

I'm worried about the injuries some of our guys are obviously carrying. Viney and Trac both had their knees taped up and were lucky to play out the game last week. Jones occasionally has to stop and hold his arm - maybe shoulder or elbow. We halved the stoppages against a losing ruck last week so I hope our midfield are fit enough to do it again. Lucky we got the extra day for recovery.