bjgc

I just hope that they don't refer to him as another Vandenburg. Junior is better than that the only good thing Vandenburg done for Hawthorn was retire he was a hopless footballer. As usual we went for the safe option just as I thought would happen Bailey has shown the football world that we have been forced onto the youth policy instead of wanting a youth. We should be getting our youth to lead but we are not which is disappointing. They must get rid of the stupid voting system. McDonald didn't have a great year and is 32 this is just another uninspirinig decision made by the coaching staff get ready for an unispiring season. If I hear Bailey mention the word competitive again I'm going to smash something. Get them into a winning frame of mind and competitveness will come with it. Getting the club into a competitve frame of mind will just provide the same results as last year. I'm trying my best to like Bailey but I just can't the sooner he leaves the better.

Great to see Davey having a good pre season. He along with Sylvia must have a good season if we are any chance of surprising a few teams next year.

Fair point but I hope he has a better year than you think he will.

Didn't CAC say the first player he recruited was Johnstone? I'm not 100% sure but if that is the case then he would not have recruited them and even if he did that would leave him with only 2 good draft periods in '97 and '99 the rest were either ordinary or awful. '00 - '03 drafts have ruined the club. We have no good players between the ages of 23 and 27 which would be most teams core group of players. CAC and Daniher are responsible for the position we are in the thing is Daniher has been sacked never to coach an AFL team again while CAC has been promoted. What a life it must be for a recruiter where you can get most of your decisions wrong and still be promoted.

I can see why CJ was not happy with the lack of oppertunities he was getting especially considering the free ride Sylvia has had but he only has himself to blame they gave him an oppertunity at the strart of the season for the last couple of seasons and played horrible football now that he's played a few good games near the end of the season he wants to be garanteed a spot in the 22 pretty poor I think by CJ I think he read the clubs mood well though I have a hunch that they only wanted him as insurance for injury's. I think they already had a replacement for him and that is Grimes every report I have read about Grimes tells me theat they want him in the side ASAP and I think the role he would be most suited to ATS would be half back I think they want a leader down back and Grimes fits the bill while CJ shows no leadership at all Stynes also said that Grimes would be the next player to step up next year. If I'm wrong then I have no idea why the club would not give him a 2 year deal I would have him ahead of Wheatley.

When the Dees play the Kangas in Rnd 1 Casey will be playing a practice match if it's anything like last year the main players at Casey will have a rest before the main season to give our yougsters a go so I expect every Melbourne listed player to be playing if they are fit enough. Blease is too good for Casey's 2nd's if we were worried about players getting knocked around too much we wouldn't be playing Morton you can't get much lighter than Morton. Like everyone they will be picked on form if players like Blease are playiing well enough they will stay in if not they could be dropped the good thing about Casey is they only have 4 or 5 standout performers (Matthews, Wall and Silvagni only come to mind) while Sandy always had 9 or 10 so we should hopefully have more of our kids playing for Casey than than we did with Sandy. I think you overestimate the experience at VFL level most teams play kids these days I think Casey don't have a player over 23.

True but if Newton and\or Meeson are langishing in Casey's reserves the club would have to consider paying them out like Carroll and you would think they would be on a fair bit less than Carroll was. If Meeson and Newton weren't contracted for another 2 years I would have put them in a different catergory like the better pull your finger out or your gone catergory.

The season hasn't even started yet. 2 years ago Bell was one of the few shining lights. He had a crap year and he wasn't the only one I would be waiting for some time during the season to make judgements like that on our players. The players I think should be under the pump next year are. Jones, Miller, Sylvia, Dunn, Bell, Moloney, McDonald, Robertson, Cheney, Meeson, Rivers, Newton, McNamara, Wheatley, Zomer, Davey, Jamar, Spencer, Valenti and Whelan. I don't think the coaching staff rate Jones 18th in the B&F and when they wanted Redden in the draft to help out the midfield they only mentioned McLean no mention of Jones at all. Miller and Wheatley had reasonable years but if they go back to playing the footy they have played in the past they could be trade bait. Sylvia, Dunn, Bell, Davey and Jamar have stagnated another ordinary year could see them as trade bait. Moloney, Rivers and Whelan have been too injury prone over the years. McDonald and Robertson are getting old. Cheney, Meeson, Newton, McNamara, Zomer, Spencer and Valenti at the very least need to be playing good footy in Casey's Seniors if they are in the reserves they will find it very difficult to retain their spot on the list.

Sylvia better have a good year next year or we should get rid of him he has done too little for too long you can put Davey in that catagory too. The first 2 games will show where we are at. The Kangas and Collingwood are known to drop games against teams they should beat if we can't at least get 1 win there it's going to be a long year.

Wouldn't it be great if he plays rnd 2 and destroys them.

That's the exact reason why I wanted Cousins to give the club the publicity it has never seen before, but can't complain about an indigenous KP forward.

We should go for Cousins. Connelly said we will go for the best player in the PSD experienced or not that would be Cousins. They clearly stated in the draft that they want a player with grunt Cousins again and we want players who can run and kick Cousins ticks all the boxes. Rockcliff is slow and not very fit, DeBoer can't kick and Sibasado is lazy they don't generally fit the criteria that Melbourne are after. We already have a heap of youngsters if anything we need an experienced player like Cousins not to mention the massive media coverage we will get and the extra 5 to 10,000 we will get to the Kangas game just to see this guy play. Take a risk Melbourne get some excitement back into the team cause ATM there is not much to get excited about with the exception of Watts who will need a couple of years of development to become the gun we need.

I would play him rnd 1 and if his form eventually doesn't warrant it drop him like we did with Morton. He doesn't have to crash and bash immediately we can use Miller, P.J and Jamar for that.

He has another 6 days to do his schooling. It may effect his training a bit I can't see it effecting him playing football. Fletcher played in a premiership going to school I can't see why Watts can't juggle school and football.

B: WHELAN, WARNOCK, MARTIN HB: GRIMES, GARLAND, BUCKLEY C: DAVEY, MCLEAN, BRUCE HF: BATE, MILLER, MORTON F: GREEN, WATTS, WONAEAMIRRI FOLL: JAMAR, SYLVIA, MCDONALD IC: JONES, MOLONEY, BARTRAM, P.JOHNSON EMERG: WHEATLEY, BELL, DUNN Watts will play he is the best kid in Australia playing for the worst team since Fitzroy he will definately get a game ahead of Newton. They are going to go slowly with the injury prone Rivers and Robertson so at best they start the season with Casey. I'm hoping they will go for youth in Grimes and Buckley forcing Wheatley out. CASEY B: BELL, FRAWLEY, CHENEY HB: PETTERD, RIVERS, STRAUSS C: WHEATLEY, BAIL, BLEASE HF: BENNELL, JURRAH, JETTA F: NEWTON, ROBERTSON, MARIC FOLL: MEESON, DUNN, VALENTI IC: MCNAMARA, MCKENZIE, HUGHES, SPENCER

You shouldn't need stats to realise ruckman are useless

Bruce will be captain the [censored] leading teams voting system will make sure of that. If the club wants to show the supporters that they will truely go the way of a youth lead revival instead of being forced to they will go for McLean but they won't they will go for the safe option and that is Bruce.

I would have hate to have seen how many goals Fev would have kicked if he done a poor job. ATM Frawley has showed nothing he looks pretty useless, but that doesn't mean he can't improve. At the start of the year Garland was all at sea and Warnock was close to playing in Sandy's seconds now they are our CHB and FB. He must start to grab his chances because the more times he fails the less confidence the club will have in him. Warnock, Garland and Martin have already jumped ahead of him in the space of a year and I don't think he has the football smarts to play of half back he must make the key position his own or the game will pass him by just like it did to Lamb.

I never understood why Stynes wanted to be our president now I know why.

If that happens if people think I'm a Bailey basher now they haven't seen nothing yet. We must go for key forwards we have no Neitz, Robbo has about 1 year left, Miller is a battler, Bate and Dunn can't play Key and who knows how Newton will end up? We must go for Watts and another key forward in the top 20. Ruckman do nothing in the game these days anyway. Sandilands proves that winning hit outs means nothing if you don't have a midfield that can get the ball personally I would prefer us to ruck with P.J and when he needs a short rest we should play Miller in the ruck which will allow us an extra midfielder on the bench. We need midfielders too but if the likes of McLean, Sylvia, Jones, Morton, Moloney and Davey can step up we could have a reasonable midfield but I can't see anyone stepping up in the forward line maybe Bate but he's more of a roaming forward not a key forward.

That never changed

If we were to go for a reject he would be the one I'd go for he has pace and pretty good skills can only get better was Brisbane's Rookie Of The Year in '07 so sacking him after 1 injury interupted year doesn't sound right, he might be another nutter like Hislop if he is I wouldn't go for him.

a) In the VFL you can win premierships with a heap of rejects because of the standard at VFL level you can't at AFL level. The SANFL is better they smash the VFL nearly everytime they play. Even though we do have an ordinary list it shouldn't stop the team from at least being competitive. We were never this uncompetitive under Neale Daniher 100% of the blame must go to Bailey. Thompson was a captain and premiership player while Bailey was an awful footballer, Mahoney a one year wonder, Williams made Bailey look like a good footballer, Wellman is the only 1 on our coaching panel who has a good record as a footballer and he was sacked by the Bulldogs last year. c) We should have gone for Sheedy. If we have to eventually merge or relocate choosing Bailey over Sheedy will be 1 of the main reasons.

I wouldn't listen to anything Bohden The Butcher has to say. How he is still at the club is beyond me.

He won thoses 3 priemerships with half a team of rejects and a full forward who couldn't get a crack at AFL level. For a team that is pleading for sponsorships and members they are not doing much about it. Our no name coaching staff typify's this.