DemonDave

Cook barely touched the ball until the last quarter, when he moved slightly higher up the ground. His use of the ball in that last quarter was very good though. For mine, Maric was easily the best Demons player, but that's hardly a glowing endorsement that he was anywhere near the best 6 or 7 players on the ground for the day. Worked tirelessly, but some of his disposals inside f50 to leading players was abysmal. Tried to do the team thing a few times when shooting for goal may have been the best outcome. Bartram was played mainly through the middle and had a fairly atypical Batram game, which for him at this level is disappointing. Tapscott knocked a poor Werribee player into next week after a massive hit 90 seconds in that looked fair, he simply dusted himself off and trotted off while the other bloke looked in all sorts of bother. The whack of the body on body sound in this hit was huge, Tapscott is a canon, his kicking out of defence, and also through the middle was breathtaking, by either right or left foot, yet he was only 'fair' today I thought, definitely will benefit by finding a bit more fitness next week before coming straight back in. Bate was barely sighted most of the day until the last quarter when he was one of the instrumental ones to get us going. Despite Dunn being amongst the goals, he was woeful today, no workrate or urgency whatsoever. Tom McDonald was fair down back, showed some good dash but his positioning in pack marking contests still needs work. Troy Davis was largely inconspicuous. I didnt even realise he was playing until the second quarter. He seemed to play his opponent in a very close checking role, and thus he didn't really have much of a rebounding option. Did his job but nothing special. Tom McNamara ran around in the midfield all day, and despite looking exhausted with that plodding runnning style of his didn't have a huge influence on proceedings. Then again I feel some of that in close clearance work may have been his doing (note we got absolutely smashed in clearances for most of the day though). Robbie Campbell is the size of a truck. He still manages to move around the ground quite well, but didn't do too much. Maximum Gawn its great to watch this kid develop. You can really see he'll be a quality league ruckman in a couple of years. While not a great game I thought it was a very good game for him. He was up against McIntosh who was alternating with the youthful spring of Majak Daw, and more than held his own for hitouts (the centre breaks and clearance discrepancies were no fault of his). Kicked a couple of goals, gave off at least half a dozen well thought out handballs to setup play when resting up forward and apart from one fluffed kick that led directly to a turnover goal was fairly competent by foot. At one stage in the last quarter he willed himself over to a different side of the ground, demanded the ball and beat all comers for a great contested mark. Michael Evans - Tried his darndest, but things didnt go his way. I may have been mixing him and the captain James Wall up a number of times but just didnt seem to be running to the right places at times. Will need to improve dramatically to be considered for selection in 2 weeks. Cameron Johnston was average his biggest problem today was he was too slow to make decisions when he had the ball in his hands. Tackling was good though. Tim Mohr for mine was easily Caseys best player, dominated down back often as a loose man and then went forward in that frantic last term to score a goal. Fevola? His stats were flattered by two last quarter goals, and he did give a handball over the top for a goal to Gawn so shouldve had 3. Missed a couple of gettable shots early, and then Robbie Tarrant ran off him at will. He was however very good with his instructions and observations to Cook during the huddles. The delivery to most of the forwards today, particularly Fev, was abysmal today it must be said. His frustrations were warranted. Our forward line today was far too top heavy, almost every player down there was a big marking player barely a crumber in sight and I think this aided the Tigers easy movement of the ball out of their backline. The brawl was massive, there were only about 5 minutes to go, Evans got lined up and crunched, fairly but forcefully, near the boundary, and the offending player was then crudely shoved into the fence by (I think) McGough, and from there it just erupted. Everyone, everyone, in the stadium were off their feet, getting the circulation back into their legs and the blood pumping. THis was a good old fashioned suburban brawl. It did get frightfully close to the fence, I was in the other forward pocket on that side of the ground, and the umps had no hope of containing it. A Werribee player came sprinting from a fair way away and dived Kamikaze style into the melee, it was incredible. Eventually some form of play was restarted, but the spot fires lingered for at least another minute in the area, including what I think was Gawn lifting his knee into someone, hope the umps missed that! A tricky ground is Werribee, and this was a very, very ordinary standard game today. If the game hadve gone for maybe five or six minutes more, I think the Scorps may have snuck their nose in front such was their momentum and domination of the last 10-15 minutes. The last quarter was extremely long due to Ben Warren being stretchered off with what looked like a serious leg injury, and then the melee. A crucial game dropped for the Scorps against a team right next to it on the ladder.

Of course no mention of Watts output to date would not be complete without mention of Michael Hurleys 'accomplishments' to date Michael Hurley - 33 Goals Lance Franklin - 45 Goals

Nope its not petty, I do the same, and have trained my missus to do the same. Even if the mission products are on special, never buy! Good luck to Bleasey. It is good to see as has been mentioned younger players getting a game on merit, not draft position and reputation alone. Lets hope Lucas Cook and maybe even Tom McDonald can string a few good games together and also get a taster of what is required in the big show before the end of the year...

RIP Irish, you were a great man.

I'd just wish we started moving forward from all these cliches, and just concentrate on next week

That Herald Sun list is all over the shop. Still has Garland and Jamar on it. Another thread on here reckons Bennell played his best game for the club, so the subs on this article have clearly not seen the game but merely looked at the stats page for a scapegoat.

White and Jolly were pretty handy for a while too werent they?

And of course who can forget Tom Scullys massive final quarter, 18 possies for 39 in total, in a game that made the football world stand up and take notice that the kid may just be an elite.

I'd love to see him in that number, or a gigantic single digit #1 if Nockers doesnt survive the chop...

From the clubs webpage: Injuries Round 15 MELBOURNE defenders Joel Macdonald and Luke Tapscott will face fitness tests in the lead-up to round 15. Although coach Dean Bailey indicated on Monday that Macdonald was a reasonable chance to play against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, he said Tapscott was more likely to play for Casey if available. Forward/midfielder Neville Jetta (hand) remains two matches away, while vice-captain Aaron Davey (knee) is still 2-3 weeks from resuming. Dasher Rohan Bail (knee) will be sidelined for a further 3-4 weeks, while tall Michael Newton (foot) is out for another four matches. Youngster Jack Fitzpatrick (ankle) is 2-3 weeks from returning. Leader Jack Grimes (foot) and ruckman Jake Spencer (knee) are out for the rest of 2011. Round 15 injury list (ordered by resuming date) Joel Macdonald (knee) - test Luke Tapscott (hamstring) - test Neville Jetta (hand) - 2 weeks Aaron Davey (knee) - 2-3 weeks Jack Fitzpatrick (ankle) - 2-3 weeks Rohan Bail (knee) - 3-4 weeks Michael Newton (foot) - 4 weeks Jack Grimes (foot) - season Jake Spencer (knee) - season

Pfft, You'd better not visit the Courier Mails website and subsequent story on the issue, they lay the kids name out there plain as day. Once its out there, its impossible to 'undo'.

When the team walked forward at the start of the game, I looked at our starting 6 forward group: Green, Jamar, Howe, Petterd, Sylvia and Watts. THere are clearly no crumbers of any sort in this lot, and once Jurrah came off the bench after a couple of minutes you could clearly see today that his role was to act as that of the crumber. A role he accomplished with some aplomb. He ran, chased hard, tackled, and when he had the ball he looked his quick and agile self and found targets by foot more often than not. The kicking for goal is the only thing that didnt improve by the magnitudes that his vision and nous did.

Just found this thread! I really hope they work out a deal and get some kind of free agency period in place before the start of a season. Been watching ESPN sports center most nights when I know theres been movement but all it really amounts to is owners making deliberately obfuscated statements, players reps trying to remain upbeat, and images of athletes getting out of their luxury cars to work out solo. Not exactly compulsive viewing. Like Queenc, I'm a mad 49ers fan. Have been since the glory years in the mid 80s when Don Lane used to host. Its been a lean patch for us since Steve Young retired. In fact you can make parallels between SF and MFC, a long period of dominance, followed by an even longer period of mediocrity, with a new era being led by a #1 pick (Smith=Watts) whose performance did not meet expectations early in his career. Excited by Jim Harbaugh as coach, anyone will be better than Singletary, and lets hope the enigmatic Alex Smith (who already has the new coaches playbook to study) can finally click. Another A-grade wide receiver would be nice. Favorite athelete to watch, despite his personal history is Michael Vick easily. Loved watching him in Atlanta, was sceptical about his return but watched his first couple of games this year and was back on board...

Oh and Mumford gets three for his sling tackle reduced to two on early plea.

Kosi ends up having to serve 2 weeks for his sling tackle. And Joel Corey gets a reprimand and 97 carryover points for his sling tackle. So the AFL have at least kept this 'rule' alive for now.

Do we know why Gys didnt play this week? Another mystery withdrawal ala Nicholson last week?

For what its worth, of our opponents this week Jake The Pushup King has been suspended for a week by the Chooklotto MRP tonight. So thats a plus for us as hes been in OK form (though not AA form as the peanup Tony Shaw had him in his AA side a week ago on Fox). As for our changes, I seriously hope we dont get deluded into thinking we can play three ruckmen, it sounded ominous when Bailey floated it today in the press he usually gives pretty clear hints early in the week as to what selection will hold Thursday night. In: Jamar. Out: Gawn (possibly the unluckiest for a long time to get dropped). Tapscott to get game time into those tree trunks of legs at Casey. Blease to get an emergency nod (as he too was mentioned by the coach).

The Good: Further developement of McKenzie and Watts 12 different goalkickers. The Bad: Jurrah. If the delivery into our forward line was so bad for Jurrah to thrive today, how come another leading forward in Green managed 5 goals and 9 shots on goal? Youve gotta learn to demand and find your own football. Lack of a crowd. The Ugly: The burger bar being shut. The continual confusion over who Maloney, Pettard and Bartrum are on here. Who the hell are these guys?

You mean like this footy card from last year?

Dane Swan. Yze took him to the cleaners, and it was reported in the papers the next day Swan was in tears in the rooms afterwards. How times have changed!

Woohoo! I got my wish and I only had to wait five hours...

Can we just hand the Vice Captaincy back to Beamer now please? The guy is the heart and soul of the footy club. Numberous footy analysis shows this week highlighted his ferocious attack on the footy at the first bounce on Friday night and how it set the tone for the others to follow.

Loved getting excited by seeing him play on Friday night. And watching the replay (twice) confirmed to me he looks every inch a senior ruckman in waiting. It was somewhat of a blessing, if you like, that both Jamar and Spencer went down to hasten his progression. What I also love about the kid that Ive read in interviews with players is that he's a very confident, nay cocky, young lad. I think its a good trait to have if you want to succeed.

An Essendon player who got dropped this week kicked eight goals in a game a mere month ago. Yet Kyle Reimers is quite a divisive figure. If he played for us and did that, you'd think he'd have to play six shockers in a row before they contemplated dropping him. Us I'm not so sure, medium level players tend to coast a bit easier in our current makeup....

Four debutants in 3 weeks! Good grief, they'll all need to start wearing name tags to get to know each other.