The Taciturn Demon

For a while I've thought he looked like the eventual Lever replacement. But my goodness, that right foot - it gives me pause. If he can get the "craft" right, he might end up becoming a more-than-handy forward.

When we picked him up the line from the football department was that he was - very smart. Odd recruiting decision and even stranger public explanation of his value to the team.

You had me at this is not a good sign. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Stopped watch.

Elite. Has been dismissed as "good ordinary" and "overrated" from the very very start, mostly be Melbourne supporters.

I tend to agree. Although I do like the idea that one (maybe even two) of the four umpires concentrates entirely on off-the-ball rubbish, aiming to delete tagger scragging from the game. At the moment there's way too much leeway given to D-graders shutting down A-graders. I have no idea why arms around and not-looking-at-the-ball free kicks are awarded readily to forwards but rarely to midfielders and almost never to rucks.

I've moderated my opinion of umpiring, coincidentally since just after September 2021. But I still find those all-too-frequent instances of 'edgy' umpiring pathetic and embarrassing. By that I mean, the decisions made about infringements that have been free kicks for decades, and where rules, nuances or community expectations haven't really changed at all, so there's little room for interpretation... but a well-placed umpire decides to make a 4D chess call during a game of naughts and crosses. I love it when Essendon loses, but there was a prime example on Saturday night when Sam Draper got front on contact 25 metres out AND had his arm dragged, and the umpire called play on. This wasn't an honest mistake or a bad angle - it was an umpire being a massive smart [censored] and changing the course of the game.

I wonder if he's more important as a cultural glue than a technical tutor. We still look to me like a bottom 8 side for kicking (of all kinds), and have for a long while.

Probably stating the bleeding obvious, but when you smash a team at stoppages everything becomes easier. I don't think it's any coincidence that all of Turner, Petty and van Rooyen looked as good as they have all season. Really interesting to see whether we can do this again, or at least begin to break even again for the rest of the season. In the big losses this year we've been embarrassing at stoppages for huge portions of the game. I guess the other part is, can we dominate in the centre square while also stopping opponents from hitting easy 45s in the corridor as Brisbane did a lot in the last half.

Giving away 14 centimetres, but kept Andrews pretty quiet and looked dangerous himself. Good game from Fritsch.

So true.

I think this is definitely the way to go. Returning to "wily" plus-28 second-clubbers who at their best offer middling performance might be "best practice" when you're chugging along nicely, and clearly going to make the top 6, if not 4. We are nowhere near that. Sorry to be pessimistic, but the system at the moment is so broken, I can't see us winning more than we lose in the final nine games no matter who we put on the park.

I feel you'd get Parish understanding you were buying vanilla yoghurt only to discover you'd got natural/Greek - not a mild flavour; almost no flavour at all. I can't help but feel this is what Richmond did with Hopper.

Thanks so much! Love this kind of insight.

That sounds fair to me. I like Bowey, but he's doing very little at the moment. I also like the idea proposed by several posters on here of trying McVee in the middle. Early in his career to make the move, I know, but he has everything we don't have in the centre square: beautiful sideways movement, composure combined with good disposal and good decision making, and speed.

If May gets $1800, Xavier Duursma is about to get a $250,000 fine for his effort this afternoon.

What's the knock on Moniz-Wakefield? First time I've had a proper chance to sit down and watch Casey this year and he looks above average. No guarantee anyone translates VFL form into AFL performance, but I think we're miles from a settled, confident AFL side forcing good Casey players to wait their turn.

Me too. It had nothing to do with the umpiring, though.

Very fair summary. I'm absolutely baffled by how the decision-makers thought the player described above could fit into our team without one of the best ruckman of the last 20 years being in some way relegated or played out of position.

It may not be if the pressure and positioning is so poor that we gift opponents easier-than-average shots at goal.

Astonishing finals series for a second-year player.

I would be stunned if we made the finals. Our form isn't just poor; it's fallen down a crevasse; we have bone poking through leg skin. Our form is starting to smell a little like almond. My only hope is we ditch the dour conservatism at selection and in games. Three times now we've been comprehensively beaten by teams who for one reason or another have played plenty of kids. And several of those kids have made really good contributions. We, on the other hand, have looked slow and staid, a team of plodders on tram tracks. We treat Billings and Hunter as if they're vital cogs in the machine, seem excited by the prospect of ANB as a tagger, give Taj Woewodin the James Jordon treatment, don't seem to know quite where Sparrow fits. Playing Kozzy more at centre bounces is great; could we leave him there for longer? Petty as a forward seemed like a sensible experiment, but it hasn't worked, and we're getting massacred at centre bounces. Is Fullarton really that far off AFL form? And, as others have already mentioned, playing McVee, Rivers and Salem in the middle seems like a trial with very little downside at this point. I haven't watched as much VFL as I did in previous years; maybe there really is very little there worth considering. But a bit of dash, some decent sideways movement and the ability to occasionally hit a target, puts you ahead of a few in the seniors at the moment.

Doesn't Brayshaw's retirement clear some space? And wasn't McDonald's post-Flag contract quite generous?

Yep. I don't really mind us taking a punt. I do really mind going back to him immediately after a completely warranted return to the reserves.

I just expected a far better kick of the football.