DemonDave

No Brock McLean again, will they declare he's put the cue in the rack for the year sometime next week? Also, have a look at the Bombres side, they're giving West Coast a great chance to win at home: Lloyd, McVeigh, Davey and Winderlich all out injured!

We'll be playing Sydney at Manuka Oval in Canberra, so if I was you I wouldnt turn up to the MCG that day....

No Jones on the extended bench this week, he's actually in the 18, whats going on selectors you were on a good thing!

Definitely James Wall, he's versatile and really has a dip every week. Maybe rookie listed by someone next year? Reminds me a bit of Martin in some ways...

Good post BB, for too long our list has been clogged with these type of players too good@VFL/not good enough@AFL. Some people blamed the plight of these types on our arrangement with Sandy, but its quite clear with the change of VFL affiliation this year that nothing has changed for most of these players in terms of their developement and long term prospects... Cant argue with any you've listed. Contractual arrangements with players such as Newton who signed a 2yr deal at the end of last year will pose quandries for our list management team. Why are there so many people quick to the defence of Buckley around here? He's been on our list long enough now, and hasnt cemented a regular senior place, for a variety of reasons, and is therefore a list clogger. And no, injuries and 'not enough good players around him' dont cut it with me.

He played last week in the seniors against Willi. And couldnt get a sniff of it, didnt look anywhere near as desperate to win the footy as Newton did. Its frustrating as obviouslsy he has the ability to boss them at reserves level but doesnt appear willing or able to make the next step up in itensity.

Strauss isnt playing as he isnt imposing himself on games at Casey yet, he's a bit-part half back flanker at the present down there. Just because someone was drafted high does not mean they need to be fast-tracked into the senior side. Could be close to the end for Wheels. Miller dropped again is worrying for him. Why oh why was Wheatley selected, surely not on the basis of his game last week?

McNamara has not stepped up and played senior football, thus has been a failure. He hadall of last year on our list, and this year has not improved, in terms of playing senior football being his goal. I dont buy injuries as an excuse this year, he was fit and playing and not in the seniors. As for Buckley, he played pre-season and failed to excite, and couldnt work his way up from Casey before the groin injury he succumbed to. Maybe he was suffering from that all along I dont know his story, so yes perhaps a bit harsh on him...

I found a promotional postcard in a drawer of stuff the other day, and on it were Stynes, Viney and Lyon all proclaiming they were back at the club. I think it only lasted one year that they were all skills and/or assistant coaches, from reading the back of the postcard it must've been 2000, the front proclaims "We're Back, what about you?". What a dream lineup of coaches that was!

Could it be that none of the coaches we've had in the past 17 years have been good enough to take us to that final step? None of them have gone on to coach another club, thats therefore hardly a glowing endorsement of any of them...

I’ve decided to focus on players who’ve played 50 games or less on our list at the start of the year, and whether or not they’ve improved from where they were at the end of 2008. They say the first 50 games are your formulative games, and where the most improvement leaps and bounds can be made. The following players had played 50 or less at the start of this year: Bail,Bartram,Bate,Bennell,Blease,Buckley,Cheney,Dunn,Frawley,Garland,Grimes,Jett a, Johnson,Jones,Jurrah,Maric,Martin,McNamara,Meesen,Morton,Newton, Petterd,Strauss,Warnock,Watts, Wonaeamirri Of those Bail, Bennell, Blease, Jetta, Jurrah, Strauss and Watts were not on our list thus have no history to be judged on, I’ll leave them out of this exercise. I’ve categorised them into: Improved (shown definite career progression, via a combination of: improved skills, game impact, confidence or x factor) Stagnant (have not progressed in any of the above criteria to be considered improved) Not Improved (Gone backwards, or not looking likely to get back to a past benchmark they’d personally set). This is how I see our crucial developing players: Improved- Cheney, Frawley, Grimes, Meesen, Warnock Stagnant- Bartram, Bate, Dunn, Garland, Maric, Martin, Morton, Newton, Wonaeamirri Not Improved- Buckley, Johnson, Jones, McNamara, Petterd Feel free to debate this, I’ve left Garland and Wonaeamirri in the middle group simply because they’ve played 1 and 0 games thus have not had the chance to move. This collective group is crucial if we are to make the step up and be competitive in the next 3 years, and to me there’s just too many who have not shown enough improvement. Too often this year our best players have consisted primarily of Davey, Green, Bruce, Sylvia and Moloney, the expectation is some of the younger guys need to be stepping up on a more regular basis. Also, when you look at our total games played is 2361 (including last weeks games). If list management goes as expected, and we lose to retirement McDonald & Whelan, and a possible delisting of Robertson & Wheatley we could potentially lose another 726 games of experience leaving us very light on for experience. Outside of the Under 50 gamers, players like Sylvia,Moloney and Davey have made pronounced improvements this year, so it is still possible later on in your career, but the converse of this is always the decline or stagnancy of players in their mid 20s who should be continually getting better, not on diminished returns, such as Miller and Rivers. Which of these young players can make the leap up to be an elite player for us? Apart from Grimes and Frawley who are most likely. the other possibles for mine are Morton and Garland, Your Thoughts?

Some of Hughes' second efforts and pressure were outstanding on Saturday, from close up at the game as I was I didnt realise how hard he worked. However I dont know if he'll have the size and engine to be able to make that step up to senior AFL level, to me he's a forward version of Valenti, clearly loads of talent and application, but lacking size and speed to be able to make it...

No McDonald, no Jamar. Wonder how far off these two are then? Whelan picked ahead of Cheney, can anyone explain this?

Gold! Post of the Year contender. Vote Now. Maybe an extra half point if you could've slipped a reference to Neville Bwuns in there somewhere too...

I've been thoroughly enjoying Martin Flanagans articles on us this year, here's his article on Jurrah from todays Aged: Warlpiri Wonder The only issue I have with the article is the byline: "Big business is taking place at the MCG tomorrow night, and it's about much more than footy." Did anyone at the paper bother to check the fixtures for where tomorrows game is being played??

Now that there's more than one coaching position available, I've no doubt it will speed up the decision making process of a couple of clubs, lest they miss out on nabbing someone like Nathan Buckley. You'd hate to think you missed the chance to get someone like him ten years down the track..

Haha, remember on this board around pre-season draft time where everyone on here were screaming for us to draft Casey Sibosado as 'he was the new Franklin'! Not only is he nowhere near cracking a game for an injury ravaged and woeful Freo, it seems the bloke we 'foolishly' drafted instead of him is nearing his senior debut!

N.Jones named on the extended bench for the 78th week in a row! For the sake of balance PJ would have to play, same for Jones and Maric. The 4th spot for mine is a tossup between Cheney and Bennell...

No, Jurrah has played a grand total of about 10 VFL senior games in his career, and to my knowledge hasnt been named in the best once. He was taken in the pre-season draft (so realistically about pick 80) and thus I think sylvinator has him in exactly the right category of 'Speculative'. For mine, this is a pretty good (and not too overly optimistic as so many are) analysis of where we're at. Would've been interesting to see a similar analysis of the Hawks list 3-4 years ago.

Wheatley has played the last 2 weeks for Casey Reserves, building up his game time to 80% last week. You'd think he'd step up to Seniors at Casey this week, and even though last year was his best for quite a while, you'd think this year may well be his last on our list unless he very quickly turns things around (contract status notwithstanding)...

It's always good to read a match review from the oppositions point of view, here's the Cats take on the game: http://www.gfc.com.au/geelongnews/newsarti...12/default.aspx Robbos opponent on the day gets a special mention from their coach for his job. Also, I thought the AFL/VFL split has to be 12/10 didnt it? Or is that just for finals?

So we've dropped our full forward and half forward flanker for a ruckman and a defender masquerading as an on-baller? Who has less awareness of whats around him than Rotten Ronald Deeman would in his full outfit?

Err, I'd think they'd be playing Robertson so he can teach some of our younger, developing forwards a trick or two. He's far from finished what a ridiculous statement, the guys played a mere 4 games into his comeback from a potential career ending injury, and is only 1 goal off leading our goalkicking! One brain fade does not condemn a servant of the club into retirement. If our younger key forwards are burning down the house playing for Casey, of which neither Watts or Newton are, then fair enough there will be pressure on Robbos spot, but until then he's the closest thing we have to a multiple goal-kicker every week! You dont win games of football, or develop the skills of the 18-21 year olds by playing them along with 21 other similar aged players in your team every week, you need a mix of experience for them to truly learn anything off team-mates. If they can see the way Brad Green backs back into a pack, it will inspire and make them better footballers, they wont learn anything about the traits of courage or smarts looking over at the likes of Lynden Dunn or their ilk running around beside them, picked ahead of the likes of Robertson & co just because of their age..

Now that Stef Martin wears the #34 guernsey, at times I'd swear it was White running around out there...

Did the club make a mistake by resting Bennell last week? He just could not cope with the speed of the game today, it looked like he'd missed 4 weeks of football not 1 such was his lack of awareness of the pace of the contest. I'd say a run at Casey to get the confidence back would be in order for him, given Cheney is knocking down the door..