DemonDave

I hope the Melbourne supporter that sat directly behind me in the AFL members area yesterday reads this thread. He yelled out 'Youre a spud Watts' after he missed that set shot in the first qtr. Took all my nerve not to turn around and berate him, but we were a slim minority of supporters in that area yesterday, didnt want to be at war with one of our few allies...

D'oh. Think you mean the Dallas Cowboys! The Mavs are also owned by a crazy rich tycoon, Mark Cuban, but they relied on a 30+ German to carry them successfully to the NBA title this year. The Cowboys also opened up a heap of cap space this free agency period and missed on all their targets so money isnt everything.. The arguments that Geelong and Hawthorn did not do altitude training are still valid. What happens if the Pies dont win the flag this year? Do everyone head to the sand dunes of Ocean Grove just because thats how Geelong won a flag?

Thanks I mustve blocked it out! Or I was too busy booing.

Thankfully for us no Carazzo for the Blues, he always plays on and completely shuts down Aaron Davey, not to mention niggling and annoying the sh1ts out of him. If Setanta was playing you can guarantee someone like him will always kick two or three against us too, so thats also a plus. Is this Brock McLeans first game against us?

Sylvia was the one photographed out and about on Saturday night last week wasnt he? So perhaps theyve taken a dim view of this. Possibly the first time since his debut year he's been dropped? Same for Jurrah.

If you base coaches 'ability' on their trading record, then Bailey trading out Brock McLean and Travis Johnstone for Gysberts and Grimes makes him Coach of the Century!

Because McKenzie is a plodder who lacks pace. Judd has blistering pace. While Jordie would be effective at tackling him in the packs, its Judds ability to burst from the side of a pack and break free using pace that makes him special. Jordie would be grasping at thin air. It has to be someone who can run at his side and keep up, certainly Sylvia has this but not sure of his dedicated defensive capabilities.

West Coast finished last last year, pretty sure they spent the same amount of money on FD in 2010 as they are in 2011. Or maybe the pumped more money into the FD this year and thats the reason for their instant success?

Hawthorn sell home games and they seem to be doing ok financially. Also geelong really only have 5 or so ' true' home games each year, last weeks game against the tigers at docklands was their home game. I think too much emphasis is put on ' oh if we had x million more to spend on the fd all our troubles will be over'. Essendon have spent $5 million on their coaching staff this year for negligible improvement. As I think it was a north melbourne official said a 15kg weight still weighs 15kg no matter where it is

Because Tom McNamara was dreadful for Casey today, barely had a dozen posessions, his man constantly ran off him...

For the first (and hopefully only) time in 30 years of going to the footy, we left at 3/4 time today. It was a horrible feeling picking up your bag to go and not hearing any team song over the PA. On a related note, what is it with Geelong crowds that they are so darned quiet during the game, you can almost hear a pin drop when they are not cheering a goal, its one of the weirdest things Ive ever encountered, and it happens every year...

We had a player on standby, Tom McDonald didnt play in the Casey side, and warmed up with the seniors at half time of the VFL. So for Moloney to put personal pride in the way of team functionality is simply not good enough!

Based on the Casey game that i was at, ins: Bartram, McDonald, Gawn (or Tom McDonald), Scully, Davey outs: Strauss, Maric, Dunn, Gysberts, Nicholson Thats not to say Bartram and Davey were deserving of promotion on todays game, but change for changes sake is needed

Just looking at their half time stats from the ground said it all, Moloney 0, Green 1 and Rivers was from memory about 3.

How on earth did davey get listed in the best? He was ordinary at best. Gawn, mcdonald and maybe bartram were just ok the rest forgettable passengers. Bennell was one of the worst on the ground just didn't chase. Wall and mohr as usual dependable and fev did his part, with limited supply. Lots of very inexperienced and short casey players out there today I had seemingly never seen play before. What a long torturous eight quarters of football that was to watch today!

Always goto Geelong each year, so yes I'll be there at sparrows to catch the curtain raiser (hopefully a win!) and then the main event (hopefully a modest loss)

I think this is the first time Tom McDonald has been emergency isnt it? Good luck to him if he gets his chance over the next few weeks, as I like the look of him. Shame Joel Mac is also not available, if he and Davey are running around with Casey and maybe Aussie they'll have quite a strong side.

The biggest problem I have with our team this week is balance, in that we have for mine too many mid size marking forwards: Howe, Petterd, Green, Dunn, Bate Beyond Petterd whose taken his second efforts up a notch the past month, none of them offer us terribly much when the ball is on the deck and heading the other way. I wouldve preferred to have Gawn and a smaller player to the combo that came in, try and push the Dawks for height in defence given they have so many talls out with injury.

I remember reading that thread and laughed at the preposterousness of it. Here is the offending thread, although I'd doubt we'd see any of the protagonists around to defend themselves: Selection Dilemma Coming Soon

One of the prominent melbourne clubs had a recruiting scout at one of caseys recent home games whose sole job it was to monitor mohr, so yes it's fair to say hes on recruiters radars

Haven't had the chance to watch these clips yet as I'm on the road, but from memory a young darren jolly played for north ballarat and impressed enough to be offerred a spot on our riokie list the next year. Would be about the only player from this game still going around? Was a great day out at waverley (the last game ever there?), in our first year of alignment it finally gave me a premiership to celebrate that wasn't a night grand final. After the grand final wins at princess park we headed to the sandy social club they were all time favourite celebrations.

From memory, the last time his contract negotiations were done, he got a massively front ended contract as we had a lot of salary cap room to move that year (or two). Wonder if he's chasing a similar sized deal?

I did read somewhere that only Gate 2 was open so I lucked out... In another telling stat on the night, Brendan Lade ordered 6 hot dogs in the food queue in front of me...

I'm no expert at analysing Under 18s games, but Viney to me had a decent game tonight, not great. Was my first look at him, and he's as short as I expected, but reasonable playing weight for that size (one of the Metro kids was listed at 66kgs!). He seemed to spend the start of the quarters on the ball, then after 10 or 12 he'd head to the forward line for a couple of minutes and then to the bench for the last few minutes, it was the same flow every quarter. Plenty of hard ball gets in the centre, he was often to be found on the bottom of a pack. Missed a gettable goal in the second quarter from a set shot (but wasn't alone in that regard tonight). Absolutely crunched a Country opponent in a dive for a loose ball, forcing his opponent off the ground the worst for wear. Young Jack dusted himself off and ran off unpeturbed. And in a scuffle involving 6 or 8 players later in the game he was the main man in the middle of it all. Kicked at least one that I saw quite comfortably on his right foot to a teammate so opposite side of the body doesn't seem a huge weakness. Only knock is he didn't do a lot of gut running through the middle when his team was in posession wide on the wings and he was relatively unmarked in the middle, although it was probably due to the nature of the contest of the kids taking the ball and wanting to run and run and link wide. Metro dominated the tempo and patterns of this game. I guess at this stage Viney reminds me of Luke Power with his stubby legs, left foot style and in and under fondness. As for the others playing, Patton was the obvious standout he took at least half a dozen contested marks inside 50, seems to have nice soft hands. Hooked at least three of his set shots to the right so will need to work on his kicking action. Other Metros to impress were: Toby Greene (another small onballer), Matthew Haynes, WIll Hoskin-Elliott (albeit let down by a couple of turnovers), Jackson Paine (another KP Forward), Dom Tyson and Brandon Ellis for his run out of defence. Not many standouts for Country, although Lachie Whitfield stood out as expected. Spotted Jack Trengove and Tapscott in the crowd having a chat to Peter Rohde, while it seems almost every person around us in the crowd had a laptop and/or ipad taking notes. Didn't stick around for the second game but it was good to get an early glimpse at one of our future stars... PS. Poor form by the Etihad staffers at the door, despite it being free entry tonight and there being only two food stalls open on the entire top level, they were still preventing people from bringing their Nandos in from across the walkway. The sheer greed and self serving of this stadium never fails to amaze me ...

They're owned by Betezy, same as Deesbet. And from their Responsible Gambling Code of Conduct: "Responsible Advertising Doggiesbet takes in obligations under the Trade Practices Act seriously and shall not be engaged in advertising that is misleading or deceptive, particularly in relation to winning. Any promotions or advertising campaigns relating to gambling shall be in good taste, not offend prevailing community standards and shall not involve or encourage minors to participate." The full Code is here: http://www.doggiesbet.com.au/Home/ResponsibleGamblingCodeofConduct.aspx So I would contact the Trade Practices Commission, as this seems to be the Govt body they're beholden to...