Neil Crompton

If we had mids and half forwards that could actually hit a target when they kicked, Jessie would have confidence in leading, would kick 60-80 goals a year and be an absolute superstar. Spend our time improving the delivery of the likes of Jones, Tyson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Spargo, ANB, Viney et al, and our game plan would work, our forward line, and Hogan in particular, would be almost unbeatable, and all this ridiculous chat about trading Hogan would disappear.

This would have been a great first half if we'd kicked straight. The sky id not falling yet.

Can't wait for the game to begin. Might give us a break from this. You two should get a private room.

Interesting quote from Leigh Mathews some years ago: “When I look back I was a young, driven, selfish, egotistical, brutal, callous - call it all of those words - footballer," he says. "As a 61-year-old middle-aged grandfather now, I kind of think 'Jeez, that was a nasty piece of work'." For once I couldn’t agree more with Mathews - although somewhat understated I believe.

Under the present system, it would appear that players who have reached the final year of their contract, can have a new contract offered to them at any time during that final year. This is beneficial to the Club, because an early signing provides more certainty in the planning going forward. But is it putting too much pressure on the player? If he doesn't sign in due course, or if he states that he wants to delay talks till the end of the season, he becomes the target of extensive media, public and peer speculation and often pressure. The better the player, the more the pressure. Think of the media and public frenzy surrounding the Dangerfield or the Martin or even the Hogan decision to delay contract talks. Look at the peer pressure and resentment we know was placed on Lever, and appears to have been placed on Lynch, or the rumored pressure surrounding Gaff's current indecision - and the possible impact it's had on him. The pressure is there whether they sign or not. Therefore, is there a better system that would not place players under so much pressure during the season proper - particularly in terms of team moral and performance? Even acknowledging that contract talks can take some time to negotiate, would a set period at the end of the season for all contract renewals to be offered and accepted / rejected be a fairer way? Interested in your thoughts.

A lot has been written on this post about what a nice guy Gaff is, how uncharacteristic his attack on Brayshaw was, and how upset he currently is about his actions - almost to the extent that the authors are looking for reasons, in their own minds, to excuse his actions. I use the word “excuse” because those characteristics certainly don’t explain his actions. But they do offer a good number of Demon supporters some justification for still wanting Gaff to join the Dees. But why did he do it? He didn’t try to chop an arm that may have been hindering him or use a “don’t argue” to gain some distance - the methods most players use to escape. He deliberately chose to use a forceful closed fist punch to break away. In terms of intent, where he hit Brayshaw is irrelevant, he chose to punch him. The pressure of the game situation couldn’t have caused this - WCE’s were winning comfortably, Gaff was playing very well and their top 2 position was not being threatened. The only explanation offered, because of his good character, is “brain fade”. A layman’s definition of brain fade could be an unconscious act or desire escaping the prison of the brain unfiltered. Minor brain fades occur all the time - he kicked when he should of handballed, or went for the mark when he should have punched. Players are skilled in what to do and what not to do every single week of their playing careers, it’s ingrained, and because of this, of all the thousands of players who have played AFL/VFL football, there have only been, fortunately, very few who have had brain fades of this magnitude - Bugg, Hall, Mathews to name some more recent players that come to mind. In fact a player of 170+ games, who knows how important he is to his teams success come September, would know internally that you don’t make stupid decisions that will jeopardise your teams chances. Yet he did. Is he likely to do it again? Probably not, but who knows? Hall and Mathews certainly did. Bugg hasn’t to date. And quite apart from his impact on Brayshaw, his actions have certainly affected his team. And that to me is a huge issue. We appear to have a wonderful group of current players and coaches who are developing our own unique team culture, and for me Gaff, post incident, and as good a player as he is, has shown that he could be a risk to that culture. So for all of that, and I know I am in the minority here, I would prefer if we didn’t chase Gaff.

I think the title of this topic “Go and get Gaff”, may have just taken on a whole new meaning since the events of the weekend.

Brain fade maybe, but a cowardly dog act just the same. If he was on our “wanted” list, he should be wiped off now. End of story.

OD it was my spelling. I said resign, but meant he will re sign with the eagles. So we agree

Each team would be a player down from their 22. But on field it would be 18 vs 17.

I think now that Gaff will resign with WC. He will feel he has let them down by his actions and will have to make amends.

Jones, Hogan, Jetta and Petracca. Not one tackle between them to half time.

Disagree. There is one team that worries me. Melbourne.

I think that would be doing Hunt a great disservice. We all want him in our side, but bringing him straight back after 4 weeks off, and after average form in the 2’s is setting him up to fail.

There is a role for Bugg. That role is to help develop the younger players at Casey.

You kiss a goat, you deserve to do your hammy.

I don’t think that’s correct. That was simply a Talking Footy opinion of what they thought GC should do.

As a Dees supporter, I could care less about a team we won’t be playing again this year, let alone 2 of their players. I also don’t see the need to be disrespectful of the abilities of 2 players who have given great service to the crows. But that’s me. I’d rather worry about our own forward line and try and improve our goal to forward entry ratio.

I hope he is carrying an injury to explain why he has been so awful the last month or so. He is a confidence player, and at the moment he has none. He isn’t leading, he isn’t jumping, he is rarely seen making tackles, second efforts or chasing. If he wasn’t Jessie Hogan he’d be dropped. So all efforts should be made to get him fit, and help him regain his confidence. He is too good a player to be playing this way.

Thank god that doesn’t apply to supporters. If it was t for the MFC I wouldn’t have a reason to drink.

Good to see JKH finally find the gap between the two tall posts

One thing we proved today. The coaches picked the right McDonald to become a forward.

Hogan needs to watch a review of Hawkins goals to learn how a good key forward needs to play. Hawkins got 5 of his goals after making fast leads and, as a result, marking the ball virtually uncontested.Hogan doesn’t lead. He prefers to stand still and try and mark within a pack, usually one handed. Tom Mac can mark in a pack - Hogan can’t. Hawkins got his other 2 goals from desperate ground play. Hogan is rarely desperate for the ball once it hits the ground. Hogan is a worry.

ANB and JKH out. Hannan and AVB in.

We threw away 4 points today, but I don’t think the sky is falling in, just yet. We didn’t lose because of the umpires, or because OMac had a bad game, or our backline was poor, or because of bad coaching. We lost because we didn’t take our chances in the forward line. We missed at least 6 very getable goals, and we fritted away at least 8 other forward entries that should have ended in goals. Fix this and we can defeat any team this year.