titan_uranus

VFL flogs eh? I would say Johnson is one of them... Morton and Wonaeamirri are not flogs from VFL, they are more than competent AFL players who will improve the team and are best 22 material. It's two of the last three weeks now that have been sub-standard efforts against teams we really should be beating. West Coast at the MCG are beatable every day of the week. If this performance had been against Geelong, St Kilda, Collingwood, or interstate, there wouldn't be so much of a problem. But there are still senior players in this side who don't stand up when the team needs them (Bruce, Rivers, Johnson), and with a bunch of more talented players at Casey belting the door down, it's hard to justify keeping them in there.

Martin is the only one of that lot who should be considered to play ruck. Spencer offers nothing else at the moment, Miller and Newton are not ruckmen (nor is Dunn for that matter), and Meesen's obviously injured. Martin I still think will be good at it if he gets an extended shot at it, but it's hard to make a case for bringing someone crap in to ruck when we could just as easily play another runner and 'fake' the ruck contests when Jamar's off.

Bad thread IMO. Copped a knock to the head and didn't look right to me when he came back on (after spending time off the ground trying to recover). I'm not a fan of the little dinky short passes he tries to pull off to often, but he's not as big a problem as Sylvia atm.

What?!?! Sylvia of course. No problems there. But Davey copped a knock to the head, spent a while off the ground trying to recover, and didn't seem fully right when he did come back on. And Bate hurt his ankle, probably had an injection to fix it up, then came back on and gave us an option despite not being fit. He also created a goal by running back to the goalsquare when we had no one forward of a stoppage 30 metres out from goal. He was better than a lot of our players despite being hampered by injury. Bad call HT, bad call.

There were a few things the coaches did poorly in yesterday. The defensive match ups weren't right for most of the game. Starting Rivers on Kennedy was a fail. We never really found the right set up down there. We also failed to shut down Priddis and Rosa through the middle, and they tore us up on the rebound. But what worried me the most was the fact that, for the second time in three weeks, an opposition who is worse than us in terms of talent, chose to try and shut us down by clogging up the centre corridor and zoning back when possible, and it worked. When we play teams like the Dogs and the Lions, who think their own game plan is good enough to knock us over, we end up playing well. But against teams who adapt their own games to mould around ours, we end up being forced far too wide and we fumble around with it as they defend through the middle. Both North and West Coast did this to us from the get go, and in neither game were we able to adapt to it and kick a winning score despite it.

I've been going on for a while now about rewarding players who are playing consistently well for Casey. Miller's kicked 4, 3, and 3 in his last three games. He's doing what's being asked of him. It wouldn't really be the best move for the future, but if Martin's not fit (which seems the case), then we have to bring someone in for Johnson, and at least Miller's trying at Casey.

It seems to me that we just don't command the respect of the AFL, such that we continually end up with the worst umpires. I mean, that Jennings guy hasn't had another game since he crapped it up in the Brisbane match. Even if the umpiring was slanted in our favour though it's not like we would have won, so while it's annoying and frustrating to watch umpires lack consistency, we need to focus on ourselves.

He sucks one-on-one, and he's too slow. His only value is as a third tall, dropping back, zoning off, reading the play. He cannot, and should never again be asked, to play FB or CHB. He just can't do it. Not strong enough, not fast enough.

Yeah I heard that too. What a [censored]. I might have understood it (somewhat) if Watts had sucked today, but Watts was actually quite good. One of our better players. Showed me his future is bright. Matthews, like most commentators, just loves Naitanui and thinks we got it wrong.

6 - McDonald (brilliant again) 5 - McKenzie 4 - Grimes 3 - Watts 2 - Garland 1 - Green I had no idea who to give the last vote to.

Mmm maybe but he burned up after 8 minutes just from running through the middle. Over time this won't be a problem but I reckon if he'd played deeper he would have had more energy late. Anyways, it's nice to know that we do have a player in Watts. What's more pressing are the dud players around him.

I thought Garland was OK today. Ran back with the flight, chopped passes off, manned up when necessary. Didn't really reach some spectacular heights, but there were plenty worse than him.

Oh I forgot Rivers. God he's slow. Kennedy burned him on the lead. And he can't kick either. He'll make way. McNamara could be considered too.

I know. But anyone with height would be better than Johnson in the ruck. Miller has kicked 3 goals each of the last two weeks. If he does it again then we could play him forward and use him in the ruck to provide relief. I'm not saying it's the best way to go, but if Martin's truly injured then there's really not much choice.

Hughes wasn't very good. We aren't kicking enough goals, he doesn't have any ability at ground level. He seems lost when we're in defence (there were 3 times in succession in the fourth quarter when he was standing in between players without committing either way, there was also a period in the third when he left his man to zone off an area which we already had covered). He'll struggle to keep his spot if all he can do is take a mark.

Watts was actually quite good. He is brilliant at ground level (can't say the same for PJ or Hughes), took 2 contested marks, dished off a couple of really tight handpasses, and generally looked like he was in the right spot at the right time. His fitness is still nowhere near good enough, but that will come with pre-seasons and added time in the AFL side. But he showed me today he is definitely going to make it. Probably should be played closer to goal though. With his agility and hands he'd be a handful for most defenders.

Getting in early, I know. PJ goes. No question. Someone needs to back up Jamar, so (and I can't believe I'm about to say this) Miller or Newton might find themselves back in the team. Otherwise maybe Martin or Spencer. Bartram was terrible today as well. Time for Cheney to get a game. Bennell wasn't good either. Still doesn't play 4 quarters (but plenty of others didn't either). But with Jetta and Wonaeamirri playing well at Casey, he's got to do better. Sylvia looked disinterested. A drop to Casey would be a big wake up call. Hughes didn't show me anything. He was better in the wet. Bruce, Bate and Davey might have injuries. So with that in mind: In: Martin/Dunn/Spencer/Miller, Morton, Cheney, Wonaeamirri Out: Johnson, Bartram, Hughes, Sylvia Emotion will probably have the better of me at the moment but there were too many players today who didn't run hard enough, didn't show any fight, and just didn't do anything decent.

The next month, we have Port in Darwin, Geelong in Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood. We could well be 3-9 after 12. And we still have two trips to Adelaide, a Brisbane game, a Perth game and St Kilda at Etihad to come.

Yeah well I got those MCC people who don't know how to say anything but 'Kick the ball!'. We didn't have anyone to kick it to. No forward line, no fluidity through the middle. No team should lose to this West Coast team away from Perth. Poor, poor, poor.

Yeah saw this. Bravely kept going until the ball was out of the area so he could come off. If he's injured it paves the way for Bail, McNamara, Cheney, Gysberts and/or Strauss. But I feel there will be other players out of the team this week.

Dappa...glad to see you've come around. That man is useless. Never should have got a game, should be banished for the rest of the year. Hell, we'd get more effort from Miller or Newton or Dunn. One of them could be brought in for him and the output would increase by 100%. He is useless, Johnson, most of us knew it before today, and he proved us all right.

What an unbelievable game of cricket! I wasn't sure that Michael Hussey was good enough to get a spot in our T20 side but he's shown why. 60 off 24, with 22 off the last over to win us the game. Wow!

Yeah I think this is right. But Jon Ralph's article in the HUN today brings about some confusion I think: But the 21-year-old's contract takes him out of the three-year window which allows Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney to sign uncontracted players.

There's also an article on afl.com: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/94260/default.aspx I applaud you for continuing to put up a fight despite the majority of the rest of us disagreeing with you. But I'm never going to be convinced.

I think this is where everyone's at now. Except the AFL. Typical.