Whispering_Jack

Meanwhile at Lords the first test of the English summer sees England dominating the Windies thanks to some superb swing bowling from Jimmy Anderson early and later Stuart Broad (7fer) and a ton from Andrew Strauss. The Poms swing it, others don't - a sign of things to come when we tour this time next year. And of course, they couldn't get Chanderpaul out.

It would be somewhat ironic if Travis Cloke ended up a Demon. I'm sure that back in the 1960's Peter Cloke (Travis' uncle) played in some pre season intraclub matches with Melbourne but ended up a Richmond player as did younger brother David (Travis' father). I think the story was that the Cloke family lived on the wrong side of the border (for us) between the two clubs' suburban zones. Things would have been different for the club in the late 60s and 70s if the Clokes had only lived on the other side of the road.

Michael Evans (back) - indefinite Max Gawn (knee) - season Jordan Gysberts (jaw) - 3-5 weeks Neville Jetta (ankle) - indefinite James Sellar (calf) - test James Strauss (leg) - test Josh Tynan (foot) - 2 weeks Leigh Williams (virus) - 3 weeks

From Twitter: Happy Birthday to GIANT #9 Tom Scully who is 21 today, hope you have a great day! #youngguns

We've now loaded KC's How The Demons Fared onto his original article. KC advises that the Development League game this weekend is at Frankston and not Casey as originally advertised.

This was my first opportunity to properly see Rory Taggert in action and I like what I've seen.

Do yourself a favour Redleg and extend ...

I have a loophole. We transfer a player who in our opinion is a spud. Then we can say we're not rewarding anyone but rather penalising whoever does the deal with us. Seriously though, if the AFL is concerned with ethics and draft tampering it would have investigated the GWS fully over the poaching of Tom Scully, not to mention the fact that when GWS officials know that Lauchie Whitfield is the #1 choice yet they say they were prepared to nominate Viney to force Melbourne to take him early, that must also be regarded as draft tampering and a penalty should also apply to that. (but it won't because Vlad runs the joint the way he wants)

Time to move across to Post Match Discussion

Oh and ... It's not every time you play somebody and show a 143 point improvement.

They have Box Hill next week followed by a bye and the week after is the representative game so it's 2 weeks off after next week.

Already a bit of a contrast to last year when Geelong kicked ten straight in the first quarter to lead by almost six goals.

Starts early today with a tweet from the ground where the VFL game has started:-

I don't think there's much new in Caro's article. Most of it has been said in one form or another, many of the old questions lay unanswered or buried and all we know now is that a virtually new football department has been installed to replace that which had clearly become dysfunctional. Whenever there's change of this sort, there's inevitably going to be hurt and pain. We've seen this in a number of areas with the leadership group being almost totally removed (that's tough when it's a team game like footy when the individuals concerned have done so much to gain our respect and admiration). On balance, what was done, probably had to be done. I disagree with the notion that the club has to go through a rebuild. We were already going through a rebuild that is still in progress. Many of the young players recruited to the club in the past 3-4 years have, for one reason or another, not played enough games to be in a position to realise their full potential. Some will get there eventually, others will not. In the meantime, we are moving on and I believe that by the end of the year, we will be well on the way to getting back on track.

It seems that the mystery of Couch's suspected broken toe has been solved. It was North Ballarat's Nick Couch, not Casey's Tom Couch. Simple as that!

Steady on there KC. You've upset the pollies and now, I assume the atheists around here would also have been pleased about the ringing of the bell. Please keep the controversy for the footy! Well done Casey. Melbourne could have used a few of those final quarter goals last night. And apologies to Tom Couch and family. Obviously, the rumours about his broken leg toe were greatly exaggerated.

What can I say? He's tough that Couch!

Correction. Apparently, it's a broken toe. Still most likely to sit out the rest of the game.

Scores level at half time with Jamie Bennell the standout and Jake Spencer very good against Todd Goldstein. Bad news for Tom Couch - off the ground with a suspected broken leg toe. Casey Scorpions 7.7.49 North Ballarat 6.13.49 Possession Stats at Half Time Bennell 16, Nicholson 13, Panozza, Couch, Fieldsend 11, Petterd, Sheahan, Blease 9. Goals: Riseley, Smith 2 goals each. Edit: suspected broken toe for Couch not a suspected broken leg.

Who's going?

I've never seen an Opel car on Australian roads. Does this mean they're going to start marketing their vehicles here?

Anyone who watched the last hour's cricket today would vouch for the fact that cricket's a funny game. Windies coasting at 4/230 with Chanderpaul nudging towards a ton and the chances were that the home side would end up with a sizable first innings lead ... and then Nathan Lyon strikes, five wickets fall and it's game on ... we should get a result now.

Here's one from the coach on the MFC website - Round four VFL player review

We keep handballing into trouble because there's no movement; nobody running past for the handball. We're stationary.

There was also a time (in the second or third quarter) when Kerr was already ducking his head before a tackle was laid. I don't think he got the free kick but I have no doubt that he and the Eagles players were well aware of how the umpires were interpreting these tackles and it was a case of playing professionally in the circumstances. Whether you call it cheating or something else it worked on a day when our tackling was generally poor to start with and quite a few of the decisions against us were legitimate.