DemonDave

Chris Dawes is only 27. The way some people are saying he'd be better in a coaching role you'd think he's well past 30! Like most I agree that Dawes' best is better than what Pedo or Frost have to offer. Frost is miles off being a consistent AFL player IMHO. I assume given the natural attrition during the year I expect him to see more games this year once fully fit

It didnt help Rocket Rod Keogh that they gave him #31 also!

Here's the official Champion Data graph of this, it's a really fascinating snapshot, that I only just discovered last week: It's great seeing our offence really click the last few weeks, now just got to get a bit stingier down the other end....

ANB also missed most of the preseason also, so it'd be a shame if he misses a week of footy completely as well. The whole having to carry over at least one emergency denying them match practice is not good, Stretch goes from almost hero in Hobart, to not playing football at all the next week due to being the standby. And now he's not even in the seniors or the selected Casey team mysteriously..

As much as I loathe him immensely, David King brought up an interesting scatter plot graph that Champion Data use to determine how close to premiership standard teams are. It's based on scoring 100 points a game and conceding around 86. This was from Round 21 last year I think, and as you can see by the legend 14 of last 15 premiers have met these criteria. Last year we were not scoring enough, nor defending well enough. Now the updated graph for this year after 4 rounds has us much closer to somewhere near we need to be: Both our points for and points conceded totals have improved a lot, and we compare favourable to some good teams such as the Hawks (who have obviously underperformed by their standards so far this year). For the first time in a number of years, like a lot on here, I can genuinely see progress onfield on a more consistent basis, and now statisically that's backing up our reason for cautious optimism.

I would rate ANB as a more dangerous goalkicker than Brayshaw. He's got 6 in 11 games vs Angus 7 in 23. Neal Bullen's workrate in the Geelong game last year, as witnessed with one goal where he was involved in the start of a chain in the half back line and worked his way up the ground to be on the end of it for a goal shows his ability to cover territory well, and be in the right place for opportunistic goals. I think Brayshaw is best served being a provider rather than a beneficiary, such as the two long raking kicks he did over the top to Garlett in fast breaks for goals in the one game last year. He's had quite a slow start to the season while playing predominantly forward, necessitated due to his fitness levels, and hasn't had much of the footy. If you're picking them purely as a midfielder, then of course Brayshaw is picked over ANB, but I'd rather see Brayshaw play half back than half forward if he's not on the ball.

Got concussed in a marking collision, not too much in it and it didnt look like too heavy a concussion from where we sat. He'd be tested during the week you'd think...

They need to work on their identification of the Casey players though! The last goal was kicked by Rutherford, they had Munros name up there. Same with Wilson kicking a goal earlier they labelled him Hutchins, who's about a foot taller

Newton scored a goal that I saw, so not sure if these stats have been lifted from official stats. And yes, he was on limited game time as was Max King, who was also playing his first competitive match for the season. Thus Kielty took most of the ruckwork when he wasnt in the rooms getting patched up from 2 separate knocks in first and second quarters. So to lose Oscar Mac very early, and have two players playing their first hitout at any level for the year means our last quarter demolition is all the more credible. That's 21 goals in our two 4th quarters this year, fitness levels are evidently good. Garland after a slowish start was fantastic, he was running out of defence with confidence we havent seen from him for a while, and he also took several telling marks from long bombs in. After a slow first quarter and a bit, Trengove really got into the thick of the action, he's still a tremendous tackler, and very good in close. Speaking of in-close, Neal-Bullen is too good for this level. His awareness by hand in the packs is first class, as is his ability if the situation arises to quickly get boot to ball to clear it. If only Tyson had his smarts Dom would be a Brownlow contender. Terlich was easily BOG. I know it's not the thing people want to hear, but he was seriously in everything all day. Made 1 maybe 2 errors all day, so his ball use and awareness of teammates positioning has definitely picked up. White is a more skilled version of him, but finds it harder to find the pill with the regularity that Terlich does. Michie was our best midfielder for the whole 4 quarters, continually racked up stats, but needs to kick the ball longer, some of his short kicks were found wanting. Grimes was outstanding on the opposite wing to Trengove. he found plenty of the ball, and used his smarts to get forward and create and score goals. Petracca was very good, first time I've seen him in the flesh. His workrate is first class, he dropped back across half back a couple of times when we were kicking against the breeze to intercept and create scoring chains. His sheer size is frightening, he monstered a couple of Collingwood players with tackles, and his sheer presence coming at them forced turnovers also. As mentioned in another thread, his field kicking is still a work in progress, he tried to be too precise with flat,fast passes that missed targets on at least 4 or 5 occasions but he's clearly still a class above this level. Weeds was decent, a few of good leads were ignored or the ball kicked too high for him, workrate and fierceness at the contest well founded. Got most of his goals later in the contest, you can see there's a really good key position forward in him, just needs some more time in the gym. A couple of late season games a la Oscar Mac would be a good appetiser I think. Hulett only flashed in and out of the game, he's still a long way off but is a good size and led to the pockets well for his two goals. Not sure what role they have him pencilled in for long term but clearly he'll have this whole year to find his niche at Casey. First time I've also seen Joel Smith in the flesh, he seems to have pretty good footy smarts and doesnt mind a dash out of defence also. Went for a couple of leaps that had me having flashbacks to #29 in his prime, alas he got nowhere near the footy. Look forward to seeing his gradual improvement this year. Of the Casey players was very impressed with Pattison as a small backman, Rutherford continues to improve and impress, and you can see why Kielty is on the radar of recruiters, he's undersize for the role he's playing but really attacks the contest well. Munro is also a very good VFL onballer/half forward.

I love the way if Watts kicks a goal Hogan is the first one over to him and vice versa, they've developed a great affinity down there this year.

I still thought Petracca missed a lot of targets by foot yesterday, he tries to kick most of his field passes flat, low and fast. He would've gone at maybe 60% by foot, so still has to work on that. Given the form of the senior team yesterday, and with Vince and Garlett to come back, I can't see him getting the call up for the Tigers game as you rarely make 3 changes to a winning combination.

I thought michie and terlich were our best 2 players over the whole game

It seems the only supporters left now are scorps fans. Goal to rutherford it's raining goals

Our kicking into our fwd line this last qtr has been great. Garland has also been very good given the early loss of oscar

Super VFL player Ed Morris. Crucial to us this year given we've lost so many other experienced vfl players. No cost to get it as it's not a fenced ground! Has some nice grassy hills to sit on last year's practice game there last year was great to watch from

Adelaide would have plenty of cap space now Dangerfield has gone wouldnt they? Although they do have Tex, Betts, Lynch in their forward line already on pretty good coin, and not many blue chip mids on megadosh apart from maybe Sloan.

Number 20 is Tim Smith, been on Caseys list for a few years now

I must say I've been very confused by the whole media coverage of this incident, in the very same story that states Casey demand an investigation, it declares the culprit has been given two weeks. What's there to investigate if he's been rubbed out?

We usually head to the Duke afterwards if we win to grab a free Demon Ale. Who doesnt love free beer, that tastes even sweeter after a Victory!

So in the doomsday scenario that Max Gawn got injured, what would the selectors do? Would they play Frost/Pedo rotating as ruckmen, or would they take the gamble on one of the Kings, despite them being very very raw? I see the Hawks debuted a ruckman on Monday, didnt notice him get any touches though. Ruckman clearly take a long time to develop.

Both Frost and Pederson are being played as decoy forwards to try and deflect attention from Hogan arent they? And yet teams have figured out all they need to do is double team Hogan when the long bomb comes in as neither of them are perceived as a threat by opposition defences. We saw it in the Nab Cup, and we'll continue to see it unless we change the mix down there slightly. We're not getting enough out of either of them, and therein lies the dilemma, Weed is still a while off, Dawes a month away. I feel one of them will go when Dawes returns, he's got plenty of detractors but we know Roos rates him highly, and you'd think would command a bit more respect from the 2nd best defender than these two. At least Pedo took one strong mark on a nice lead, Frost didn't look like it, except for right on one of the sirens (3/4 time?) when the umpire blew time first. The only tangible defensive forward acts I saw were his spoil of a GWS defender down Harmes' throat for a goal, and his run down that gave away a free somewhat unjustly. This seems to be the story of all of his MFC games so far (and yes I've been to all of them in VIC and seen the others on TV). I feel he needs to go back and dominate a game at Casey with all of these so called physical attributes and speed that we keep hearing about. Right now, like Oscar McDonald, you suspect he's in the side on potential based on his size more than his actual output.

Thats the $64 question. He played pretty much exclusively deep forward vs the Swans in the NAB Cup, so I would assume the same scenario in Round 1. He'd be too strong and slippery for Jetta as much as I love the way he goes about it, Tommy Mac and Dunny will have their hands full with Patton and Stewart, unless Oscar Mac gets a game, in which case he plays on Stewart and Dunn goes to him this is probably the ideal matchup. Otherwise Garland (*gulp*) or Harry O, selection pending of course. Couldn't see Salem or if they are picked Wagner or Hunt being risked on him.

I'm a bit concerned that Stevie J could run amok, given his recent history against us, and he looked pretty sharp for an old cat in the NAB, who plays on him? If Gawn can beat the Mummy as said, we're a big chance, but we need to ensure they don't get the outside game going, or we'll be crucified as we were early last year. Tag shaw (Vince) and Shiel (Viney or Bugg) goes some way to nullifying this. Dees by 11pts, Big Maximum 3 Brownlow Votes

What criteria do they use Mo? I'd love to know how these mechanisms work, Leading Teams seem as mysteriously ambiguous as ever to me as to what they actually do and how it benefits us one iota.

Thanks for that Stuie I hadnt seen rotation numbers anywhere. Interesting that these numbers would've also been affected I guess by losing Dunn & VDB during the game and not giving Stretch a run at all, would be safe to assume every club will be sticking to 90 this weekend.