Wiseblood

Clearly the club is getting behind the idea of rewarding good form at Casey, and if the seniors aren't playing well then you're dropped. Absolutely love it. Stretch will get the vest but it's terrific to see him get a run so early in the season. Good luck to the kid!

I'll play devil's advocate - if we can start a thread with us licking our lips at the prospect of raiding GC and their talent pool, it probably means we can't be upset with the prospect of Freo trying to get Hogan from us at the end of 2017. I'm all for us getting more talent when they are OOC and so forth, but we then can't turn around and cry about it when it happens to us.

I agree, although he still needs to adjust to the speed of senior footy. Can find his own ball but is often caught in possession with it either trying to do too much or by not taking the first option given to him. When he corrects this then he'll be a very handy player for us.

I'd love him at the club, but I think Roos will target mids again come the end of the year. It's still our biggest need.

Watching Betts tear it up in the showdown today only shows how important Nev Jetta has become to our side. He wouldn't have made much different to the scoreline, but his ability to keep his man quiet while also offering a bit of drive out of defence is invaluable.

He certainly isn't hitting the heights he did last year, but I would hardly be writing him off just yet.

I loved the Wiz. In hindsight I reckon he would knock back the move to Freo and would have stayed with us. It's a shame it didn't work out that way.

Right now it is. But it's not fixed overnight. Cross, Vince, Lamumba... they are they to lighten the load from the kids until they are ready. It might mean we still take losses like today from Top 4 sides but the long term benefit will be much, much greater.

No, they aren't. None of those players will be part of our next premiership. What they are there for is to support the next group coming through, something we failed to do the last time we tried it. Those guys you named above are there for the Viney's, Salem's, Brayshaw's, Hogan's and Petracca's of our list - to guide them with their experience, to help set the right culture and to support them on and off the field. We made a huge mistake last time when we went with youth by getting rid of all our experience to give them games... and we all know how that worked out. The above guys are planting trees for the shade they will never sit under, and we as a club are better for it.

Can we play with both Dawes and Pedersen? Or does that leave us too tall?

The last quarter was disappointing and I would have liked to see us stay in it for longer, but the previous two quarters showed that in time we have what it takes. The end result is hardly surprising and they have some SERIOUSLY good players. They will go close to a flag this year. We are better than the end result. Hopefully enough posters on here realise this.

I'm pretty proud of the boys so far. Freo came out breathing fire and THIS time we didn't allow it to get too far ahead of us. We worked hard and were able to hit the scoreboard a bit, something we would have struggled to do in previous years. There is still room for improvement too. Freo could well come out and turn the screws on us in the second half, but if you can't see that we're a far better side than last year then you're blind. We might lack some polish at times and turn it over when we shouldn't but we finally run both ways and we have guys who can apply constant pressure. Fingers crossed for the second half.

And it's 20 points the difference. If that's us at our 'diabolical' best then I'm happy with that. If we turn it on then I expect us to win by 100 points going by your summation.

Very true, however it shows that there is plenty of scope for improvement in our boys, and IF we can make that happen then hopefully we can put some scoreboard pressure on them.

The scoreboard could be worse. The first 10-15 minutes showed how far behind the Dockers we are, but we have settled a little and we are still in the contest. We need to tidy up the disposal and stop the easy centre clearances though, as giving them easy ball forward will only result in us getting smashed.

Freo are the in form side in the league and undefeated. We are coming from a long way back. Get a grip.

Umpires are completely rooting us up the arse.

Midfield getting smashed. This is hardly surprising though.

Well he is not exactly what you would call an 'impact sub' - usually you want your sub to be someone who can come off the bench and give you a lift for the last quarter by possibly snagging a goal or two, or using some pace to nail a few tackles and get a few kicks. McKenzie is not that sort of player.

McKenzie is the sub for us. De Boer for the Dockers.

Pedo will have a crack and he is a little better when it comes to being the second ruck. Hopefully he can bring something positive on Sunday.

I'm bullish about our chances on the weekend and I think we can give Freo a bit of a scare... but I hope we don't forget that Freo are a brilliant side and, if the inevitable 7 goal loss happens, that we don't lose sight of that fact. It would be very, very easy to slam the side after a loss like that but we need to remember where we are coming from and just who we are playing. As long as the side puts in the exact same effort as last Friday night then I don't think we can fault them. I'll be quietly confident that we can give it a real crack but won't be disappointed if Freo show us why they are a few rungs above us in class and skill.

The Hawks and the Swans are both getting flogged.... what the hell is going on tonight?

Not much in it really. If he wants 650k then he is welcome to it... at another club. He isn't worth that much. Am I right in saying that he is a restricted free agent though, so we could see which offer he takes and just match it anyway?

And it's not as if it will be a long term answer - surely even he can see the benefit of giving Jamar a chop out in the short term.