The Taciturn Demon

I think Geelong get some very handy (in some cases unfair) advantages simply unavailable to any other Victorian team. But they also have a huge number of ANB types. Medium-level talent who bust a gut, do the team thing every week and don't put too much pressure on the cap.

This sounds harsh but is completely fair. I'm not a huge fan of Goodwin, but I find the idea that he (and our other coaches) simply fail to teach basic things like leading patterns or say "Just stand and wrestle" difficult to believe. Again, I don't think the gameplan is looking scorching hot at the moment and forward entries aren't exemplary by any means, but I agree with this. We're clearly trying to bomb less and so the importance of getting separation and presenting hard at the ball carrier is more important than before. It could be that coaches aren't instructing him well enough or it could be that he really struggles with this part of the game. He's clearly a capable player, but being a key forward in the AFL is EXTREMELY difficult. And it's much more difficult when people are looking at you as THE MAN. He's badly out of form and I think he can get out of that funk. I'm hoping he becomes a solid forward line contributor, ideally when we find a tall to complement him (I like Petty and Turner a lot, but both seem like natural defenders to me). Whatever happens, I'm not expecting him to become a reliable 50-goal-a-season gun.

My question would be what, other than wishful thinking, makes us think Jackson's professions of loyalty to Fremantle are disingenuous but Kozzie's to us are legit?

Do they veto much?

Very interesting. Thanks for the insight. (I thought the one they wanted badly and were desperate to trade up for was Humphrey.) Statement of the bleeding obvious, but Cadman would have been great. Funny to look back and see the widespread enthusiasm for players like Tsatas. Everything's relative, I guess: he may well have looked exciting in what turned out to be an extremely shallow draft.

80s/90s-style banner snark. Love it.

Wrong about one thing, wrong about everything. Got it.

I think our bailing efforts have sped up and we're not sinking quite as fast as we were. My concern is that even if we got all the water out of the hull and patched up the holes (which I doubt very much), the vessel still isn't in particularly good shape. I love optimism - I come to Demonland in part to read about hope for the future - but I wonder if the optimists are a touch too focused on how good Langford, Lindsay and Windsor look, and too nonchalantly overlooking how shallow the list is. We've had players spectacularly out of form for weeks on end and there is a very large group of players either doing very little at Casey or putting up decent stats but not being considered. That either points to outrageous stubbornness from the people responsible for selection (I'm sure there's a bit of that) or a whole heap of players not capable of doing it at AFL level. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when the vast majority of supporters agree with Goodwin et al that Melksham is an immediate inclusion under every circumstance, you know your list is still a way off. I didn't think this was a finals team at the start of the year. I don't think it's a finals team now.

That was brief.

Maybe I'm completely blinded by nuffie glasses, but I'd expect if Pickett for Jackson was the start, we'd also want quite a buit more in addition.

Yep. I agree. If Jackson was an extremely strong contested mark and capable of kicking 1.5 a game as a resting forward, this would be super exciting. It's great that Jackson may want to return (although this is Seven West Media, so enormous grain of salt), and very handy that we once again have an obvious Gawn replacement, but I'm not thinking net positive at the moment.

Taking out where they want to be (which I concede is a big thing to take out), Kozzie every single time.

Ah. Interesting. Thanks.

Thanks DZ. It may well have been in the post-half time huddle, so that makes sense. Appreciate the reply.

Interested to hear what regular Casey watchers think of Brown this season. Got a senior game very early last year (as sub) but then seems to have been ignored ever since. Is he just not showing much at the moment?

Sorry if this has been covered already but at (I think) three quarter time I noticed Judd McVee standing away from the final huddle. He was given encouraging pats from one or two trainers and when he joined the huddle he seemed doubled-over the whole time. Anyone know what happened there? Illness maybe?

Damn. What a pity. I think he's very close to our most important player. With May, Oliver and Petracca not the players they were only a few years ago, he's just about our best player (behind Max) as well.

GOOD LORD!

Fremantle have snuck over the line against Sydney at home, had a three-goal win against the Bont-less Dogs at home, comfortably beaten Richmond and lost the rest. Their injury list is long, but Hayden Young is the only huge out. (That might be hard on O'Meara but not on Walters or Fyfe.) They've won one final and played in one finals series as they've assembled this list. (One final in nine years, actually). Is that list, seemingly considered excellent by a lot of people (not least of all their own supporters), actually pretty [censored]?

Fox barely a step up from Zero Hanger.

An excellent sentiment that applies to so much more than mental health. Well said.

It's a massive list.

I think you're right. For a very long time I've thought Petty was the ideal replacement, Turner being a good (and probably more physically robust) replacement for Lever eventually. If Petty still has a desire to return to South Australia that throws a spanner in the works.

I come to Demonland for the footy goss. I stay for the poetry.

It's a complete disaster. They've pillaged and ruined a once-great competition while also failing to turn it into a fit-for-purpose, reserves-style second tier comp. Talk about worst of both worlds.