rpfc

Hi Jarrod! Nice fellow.

Well, this pretty much assures Jack he will be a one club player.

I'm more excited by Burgess coming on board but at least Richardson is experienced, although he is largely a replacement for McCartney. Chaplin, Rooke, Mathews, Plapp, Egan...and Goodwin... have little experience or had little when they joined. And with Rawlings spending most of the year at Casey - we didn't have much 'pedigree' guiding the players.

Both of these statistics are damning of the forward line, the forwards coaching and Goodwin. We get plenty of it forward but we haven’t set up well enough, or don’t have smart enough players to make the most of it, and our forward line, which has been dominated by ‘defensive’ players with no idea how to play forward, allow the opposition to leave the forward line with ease and we get murdered in transition. If McDonald is injured don’t play him, but if not, he has 10 weeks to work out with Weideman how to ‘compliment’ each other and for the smalls - let’s forget about picking defensive players - play the kids that can play forward and have high standards for defensive pressure. Other than that - get rid of the forwards coach. It’s 6v6 FCS, create a structure that leverages a midfield that is prolific bombers of the footy.

I should have known I needed to do more. Garlett can find the footy in the forward line. 9 touches in the 50 last week, 9 against the Eagles three weeks ago. No forward is prolific but he is the closest we have to a functioning forward who can find it in the right places. I don’t really care, this season is done and Garlett is probably in his last season in footy. But our forward line has been an absolute disaster this year - not all of it is at the feet of delivery. It is also at the feet of how we set up in the forward line and also how the FD place defensive pressure well above above forward nous.

Garlett makes errors but he gets the effing pill. Which exactly no other player in our forward line does. Only natural forward down there. If we are tanking, fine, drop him. If we want to win then play him.

Too slow between the ears. Depth now if he wants to stick around behind Lever, May and Frost.

I think we need to calm down... We have had a terrible start to the year and I really do think that this group having a month less break/pre-season for the first time in their careers is having a pernicious effect on the group. We have played poorly but our midfield finally has a constellation with Gawn, Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw and Harmes, our forward line has a proven goal scorer when in form, and our backline has solid base to build on assuming (yeah, yeah) that injuries are not permanent features of careers. I don't think we can claw our way back to relevance for this year but we are not what we used to be.

It’s stunning how quickly some players can simply lose any semblance of how to play to a consistent game plan. But we do have to face facts - our top end talent falls away rapidly and our bottom 6 players are VFL calibre. That, and a month less of a preseason than we usually get adds up to this nonsense.

I gulped when I saw the bump but... On point once again.

Powerful

We have had a shortened summer (by a month) for the first time in the careers of all the players. They are not prepared just yet and I hope they get there soon or the season will get away from us. But Goodwin knows, from the sporadic selection of our smalls in the forward line and back line, that we don't have trusted talent in those positions.

Whether or not I agree that we did anything 'wrong' we have been made to face a truth no other club has had to. Every year the AFL allows clubs to sit players and play youth, with the incentive of a higher spot in the draft. We have learnt from it and we are a stronger organisation. But we are alone in that damnation. The AFL are the ones that need to learn.

Really interested to see whether Salem is on the wing in actuality. Would love to see but I do not see a perfect replacement. And once again, a huge vote of confidence for Hunt, or what he brings is seen as so important and different to what we have in the team that he is given every opportunity.

The only question I have is if Ron Burgundy loves Simon Goodwin?

You old drunk...

Encapsulating where the club is at is a difficult thing but that video, starting with the pain of the Prelim my mind refuses to remember with great clarity, and taking us through the mindset of a young coach that knows the power of a buoyant fan base over young footy players is the closest anything will come to defining where the club is at right now. Well done to the club for putting that together and kudos to Goodwin who shed his buttoned down persona mid way through last year and revealed more of himself and what drives him.

I will reveal the meaning on my death bed...

Hunt is highly regarded by Goodwin and co. - how do I know this? (Considering this isn’t coming from a board member I ‘know’ nor talking to staff at training...) Because they played him against Sydney after being out for an extended period. They rushed him in because he’s a point of difference or just better than similar players we have. He will earn his games this year that’s for sure. The wing/HBF will have some pretty handy players fighting for spots; Lewis, Jones, Stretch, Fritsch, KK, Salem, and Smith with Hore and Wagner behind those above. Some will have to find a place elsewhere or stay at Casey.

Well, snorting ice cream will do that...

How much ice cream do you have to eat to get as drunk as that?!

Following around the best players in the game would have helped. And, I harp on this a bit, but he was in his 5th year on the list... As a former rookie listed player, he has had no pressure and plenty of time to develop and be ready for his moment.

You’re amazed? There were reports the AFL were not consulted. There were reports internal staff were blindsided. There were reports that this was less a board decision and more of a Bartlett decision. And yet it is amazing that there is negativity...

Interesting how some of the worst reactions are for those who didn’t read past the headline... If you do this kind of thing, I won’t punish you - the cosmic forces of karma will get you back and real soon. Today? Let me know how it got you back...

@Colin B. Flaubert - My consternation over the Pert appointment was the process which I have heard (outside of Caroline Wilson’s word) was old Melbourne; rushed, the board not fully supportive, the AFL blind sided. I am most definitely supportive of the club and hope he does well, but I hate that Bartlett has allowed even the perception of this kind of amateurish behaviour with one of the most important decisions a club can make.