Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Matthews looks like a ripper. Similar replacement for Spargo with his tenacious tackling, but also looks like he has more tricks as well.

Kossie finally held onto one last year! I reckon he'll take a few more this season too.

I would too, but listening to Troy Chapman's post game interview on the website, I suspect that the coaching team is backing Jeffo at this point. Chapman talks of Kentfield making a bit of a claim for that 5th bench spot after his performance against North. I also can't see that they would play both Kentfield and Heath as forward/rucks, so I'm suspecting that it will take another game of respectively good and poor/mid performances from Kentfield and Jeffo, for Kentfield to get a gig ahead of Jeffo. Not 100% that I agree with this, but it's how I'm reading the situation at the moment. I do also sense that there's something to work with in Jeffo and that he'll be given oppertunites to establish himself.

Yep, yet another case of punish the outcome, not the dangerous action.

And as much as I love to watch him, I don't think Charlie Cameron is A Grade any more, neither Zorko. I'd have Zac Baily and Cam Rayner as A Grade though.

No Kozzie? And he still considers Dangerfield and Patracca A Grade? My gosh.

Perhaps he had dirt on someone or something? Agree that he seems to have been given more of a chance to prove he is of AFL standard than many that have gone before him.

Somewhat agree, with the excuse of his game suffering as a result of Mihocek going out of the game. Key forwards have got to have that killer mentally that 'Their the man' and go for the oppertunites that present them selves. I'd also go against the notion that key forwards have to take years to develop. Having watched alot of Brisbane games the past few years and Logan Morris, being a guy that's actually a year younger and 4cm or so shorter than Jefferson, Morris has performed consistently at AFL level over the time that Jeffo's been running around at Casey. Morris is not hugely physical as a player, but leads well and positions himself well and uses good judgement, holds his ground to take solid marks in front of goal and then kicks for goal well to consistently finish off his work. I do think it's way too early to be writing off Jeffo though off the back of one practice match performance. I actually see alot of the qualities that Logan Morris has in Jeffo and with our better/faster ball movement into the forward line under King, I think there is still plenty of scope for Jeffo to stand up and produce. That said, I also think that Kenterfield and JVR are well ahead at this point in time, but I think there is still plenty of opportunity for that to change over the lead-up and first part of the season. Didn't think JVR's performance was particularly strong. Competition between our emerging key forwards is a good thing and I think they all have good potential, which is a positive going forward.

From what I've seen of alot of his performances at senior level, it more that too often he panics, fumbles the ball and holds back going for it. Somehow needs to get that out of his game.

Wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Or he could be like Bailey Laurie, who turns 24 in a few weeks and has been on the list all this time, while showing realitively little as a small running type at senior level. I did actually notice him execute a few nice passes on the game against North, so you never know, maybe he'll break through at senior level yet. I'd think that Jeffo would get at least a 1 year extension as a tall if he continues to improve, but fails to have an out and out break-out season. Be interesting to see how he and JVR work in with Mihocek later in the season, although at some point they both need to step-up and take the load of being the key forwards on their shoulders alone.

Haven't read the whole thread or re-watched the game since Friday night, which admittedly I did assisted by a few good reds, but one of my biggest impressions was that we played well, without obviously big contributions from some our bigger name players that I was expecting. Asides from Kossie that is. Mainly, I didn't notice alot of output or dominant performances from guys like Rivers, Windsor, Langford, Disco, Langdon, T Mac. That's not to say that they didn't nessacerilly perform well. But I actually saw this as huge positive that we can play well, without relying on those players to carry the team and that we got good results from the team playing well across the board and with good systems. Love the move it fast attacking ball movement. One thing I did also notice is that while we didn't always deliver the ball into our forward line, the chaos factor of delivering in there fast, meant that North's defence was under high pressure and often couched up goals from average forward entries, as opposed to the slow forward entry bomb that so often just ended up in a stoppage and/or a direct turn over to the opposition for us in the past. Also contrary to some suggestions, this agressive attacking game didn't completely come at the expense of our defensive game, where we still set-up well, dominated their forwards and restricted their score. Probably also somewhat an artefact of attack being a good form of defence, because the ball still seemed to live more in our forward half. Can't wait to see how we stack up against better teams.

I actually think Langdon gets a bad rap for us for kicking out of the full. I think he has done it so often, precisely because our strategy had been to hug the boundary and he's so often the player receiving and then delivering the ball in this area of the ground. King has a quiet different philosophy moving the ball out of defence and so long as Langdon has bought into that, I think we'll be fine. His ability to run all day and keep presenting as a option in the spots we need him to is a real asset and Langdon could have a great year for us with more space to move into in an attacking way, as well as his great defensive efforts.

That or Mr.Werridee had one or two too many fine reds last night, was my initial thought!

This is more like the kind of media that gets eyeballs these days: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CUEbQvQ13/ It's actually a bit of a backhander to us as well, but hey - I'm happy for everyone to keep writing us off and underrating us for now.

I think the body language of the North player in the moment immediately afterwards is telling that he knew he'd done something wrong and but also that perhaps he hadn't ment it. Still, I hope he gets suspended as we've seen so many MFC players rubbed out for similar actions and we can't afford to be inflicting concussions to players in the game. Asides from that, watching the replay did remind me of how impressed I was of the impact from Mihocek in the limited gametime he was on. Looks like a great pick-up for us already.

If he plays like that every week, yes. However one thing I feel that has occurred in the past is that Kossie can be a little inconsistent in his output week to week. I suspect that's partly because he attracts alot of attention to shut him down, which might be harder to do in the midfield than in the forwardline. As a mid, he'd also be somewhat less at the mercy of how others are delivering the ball further a field into the forward line. Give Dacos his credit to an extent, I'm guessing he cops alot of pretty hard tags and still produces. If Kossie plays a few more games like Friday early, he could easily attract the same. That said, Kossie also plays a lot more physically tougher game, which could be either an asset or a hindrance if he gets frustrated and gives away frees or gets suspended trying to break a tag. This all said I do feel a growing maturity from Kossie and I hope he is ready to explode as a regular dominant mid. My God I'm glad we recruited him and then we able to retain him last season, because he's certainly developing into a genuine star. ...and then to have his cousin at the club as well, who looks like an absolute jet. Full credit to the recruitment team for going what some considered early in the draft with these player's. The both have that real X factor at another level, that sets them apart from most players.

Are we going to revolutionise the game by playing with 15 on the ground and leaving out the HF line?

Probably ok enough. Just don't put it in your engine oil.

Is the game be televised anywhere?

Hmmmm, drinking from a can branded the same as the engine oil I filled my car up on yesterday? There's a bit if a physiological hurdle for me to get over there!

There were alot of issues raised about Alistair Clarksons time at Hawthorn, Carlton and Essendon have nearly self destructed several times in the past few years. If we go back a bit further, you had a very less than perfect Wayne Carey as the leader of a successful club at the time and I'm sure that there's plenty of others I'm forgetting about. T Mac's comment is 100% correct - no club culture is perfect. It think one of the key things is that sucess papers over the cracks. Say Brayshaw doesn't get injured and we go on to win that premership and probably no one is talking negativity about any cultural deficiencies.

Genuine question - Has this been officially announced, unofficially become know or just your oppinion? I do find it a little strange that the club wouldn't publicise it at the same time as the captains. Either way, I find it pretty hard to argue with that group. Representatives spread across the ground from backline to forwardline and generally promoting some of our young, but maturing players with leadership qualities in Rivers, Chandler and Turner in particular. There's still a great bunch of mature unofficial leaders around the club in the likes of T Mac, Melksham, Jack Steele, Tommy Campbell and to an extent Maysie (if he can get his off-feild [censored] together).

Even if we're doing the fast disposal gameplan, I don't think that means go fast 100% of the time. I think there could still be situations and strategies within that go fast that make a long boundary kick to a reliable target an important asset.

These seem like contradictory statements for a forward. Agreed.