Whispering_Jack

Round 10 Casey player review

And some different views from the game:- (i) from the official VFL site:- Casey win close one and (ii) from the Football Nation site:- Comeback ruckman on way back for Dees

The AFL point of view should be to protect the integrity of the competition and not to create conditions under which it is well nigh impossible for a club to retain an outstanding player aged under 21. So there you have my cut off if you like. The players you cite are all over 21 and have all given their clubs more than two years' service. In my view, it's absolutely unconscionable that a situation should be allowed to arise whereby there is even a question of uncertainty about the future of a player of top calibre at such a young age.

No matter what happens with you know who, our club should lobby the AFL to ensure that any team which loses a #1 draft selection would be compensated with the first pick in this year's draft. That's a lot fairer than having such a player stolen by GWS for pick 17!

I was getting one train earlier than I needed. I've worked out that I should have gone with two trains earlier

Given that the incident was assessed as "low impact" then I can't see that the tribunal needs to consider it. The main factor in this is the level of intimidation against the Tribunal that Collingwood can impart. There was a time when the tribunal's function was to adjudicate on cheap shots and punches like Daisy's and it was simply a matter of how many weeks' suspension was meted out. These days they're more concerned with bumps and tackles. Punching an opponent is hardly a crime any more.

Updated with Melon22's player by player review in HOW THE DEMONS FARED.

Never try to make sense out of anything related to the MRP.

As it is, there are too many changes being made for change's sake. An emphatic "no" from me.

Earlier this season we suffered relatively few injuries and, as a consequence, made very few changes. Since the Adelaide game, the tide turned dramatically with four to five changes on a week becoming a regular occurrence, much of it out of necessity. After the Carlton game, the axe swung and we saw an improvement in performance against Essendon. Hopefully, we can put our horror run with injuries behind us and limit changes to a minimum. I saw Sam Blease with the Scorpions yesterday and he continues to improve every time I see him. I know that both Evans and Nicholson are fast but Sam might come in to replace one of the rookies, not because they have played poorly but rather to give one of them an opportunity to get more game time at Casey. The TBBO where the game was played yesterday is smaller than most AFL grounds but the lack of space didn't prevent Sam from showing some genuine pace and if conditions are good on QB then it might be time to unleash our young red head. Otherwise, our better form on Friday night could give players coming back from injury the extra week to get things right or to play at VFL level in their first week back.

Before I saw the vision of the incident I thought to myself that this would be yet another incident where a punch thrown in the play would be given the benefit of the doubt by the MRP by them citing "insufficient force", an absence of intention or something like that but this looks at the very least reckless and it did draw blood (but didn't Judd get away with it after drawing blood against Freo last year?). Anyway, the media are onto it and it remains to be seen whether the call of "nothing in it" from the Magpie camp will prevail. According to an article in today's Herald Sun - Collingwood could be depleted for Monday's clash with Melbourne There's not all that much leeway for the MRP to avoid giving Thomas a holiday there but, some believe that he's a chance for a Brownlow so who knows what thought processes might be involved to prove yet again the inconsistency of the MRP?

I just had to change the topic title to just plain "Tom Scully". Sorry, but I couldn't take the title screaming out in capital letters.

And Kelvin Lawrence is this week's mystery injured player.

Rare insight gleaned from the contents of that magic hip flask. At one stage late in the game we really were 21 points in front but I don't have a problem with those last two goals spoiling my prediction. They took the winning margin over and above that of last year when Matty Knights was coaching them. I'll be letting my Essendon supporter friends know all about that in the next few days.

Mea culpa. The linked article contained the full injury list and I made the change to avoid duplication.

Round nine Casey player review

Now let's not get too carried away. He's played two very good games in a row in what might be the second highest tier of the game but it still is a fair way below AFL standard. That said, he held his own against Ben Hudson who had several years of AFL experience on Max (although Max has 10cm height advantage). This is why I would not have had any issues with Max having played in Melbourne's last two games because the circumstances were such that his presence would have stretched the opposition ruckmen and therefore created what might have been a point of difference in our favour for once. I'm a big believer in doing things like that - especially when you're starting behind the 8 ball with injuries as we were last week.

I think we all accept that Dean Bailey was limited by having half his best side on the injured/suspended list. My problem however, is not whether the style adopted was legitimate or not - every tactic in the coach's handbook can be properly described as "legitimate". But to go through an entire game without attempting to play attacking footy (which doesn't necessarily mean going man on man) is what IMO was dumb. "Dumb" because of the message it sends to the playing group. "Dumb" because it's focussed on the outcome of a particular game in terms of damage control. "Dumb", because it bears no regard to teaching the game to a young group which would provide the club with benefits in the future irrespective of the result of this game. And "dumb" because it demonstrated a lack of flexibility on the part of the coach. It's very easy to be correct with the benefit of hindsight but if you want to look at it in terms of winning the game then why not do what I suggested to my neighbour at half time i.e go all out attack from the beginning of the third quarter (when we were only 16 points down) with the exception of a heavy tag on Judd. That would also have been a legitimate tactic to employ and if it didn't work then wave the white flag and go back to our primitive defensive style. In saying the above, I'm trying to adopt a constructive approach to Bailey's current coaching woes. Despite the fact that GC lost by 11 goals in the end I think every supporter of the club would be proud of the way their team approached the game against the Cats. Sure they were overwhelmed at the end but you would have to go away from that game feeling assured of their future.

However, watching Friday night's game they would have learned that the same tactic of playing an extra back might work for a mature Geelong team against a tiring young side but it sure as hell doesn't work for a depleted team that's low on skills and confidence. I'm with brfe here. I was upset both during and after our game v Carlton that we took such a meaningless approach. I'd rather go down with all guns blazing and playing attacking football like Gold Coast did last night than produce the shambles that we had to witness on Friday night. I've seen our negative brand of football squeeze the life out of a number of previously attacking players this year and I hope we change tack before it's too late.

Can Max Gawn go with the experienced ruckmen at Essendon? I think it's a matter of necessity if we want to avoid the sort of spectacle we saw last night. The kid's a big ruckman and Newton as backup is a major fail. (note: I'm Max's sponsor at the club but there's no bias in my views)

Anyone believe in miracles?

Here's the full squad:- VIC METRO U18 SQUAD 1 Seb Gotch 12 Jul 93 172 71 Oakleigh Chargers/Caulfield Grammar 2 Toby Greene 15 Sep 93 180 78 Oakleigh Chargers/Wesley College 3 Alex Greenwood 24 Oct 93 178 71 Eastern Ranges/Vermont 4 Adam Kennedy 12 Jul 92 179 69 Western Jets/Melton 5 Liam Sumner 16 Aug 193 182 70 Sandringham Dragons/St Paul's JFC 6 Tim Totevski 5 Aug 93 173 66 Northern Knights/Mill Park 7 Jack Viney 13 Apr 94 178 77 Oakleigh Chargers/Carey Baptist 8 Max Warren 29 Jan 93 181 78 Eastern Ranges/Healesville 9 Alex Woodward 11 Jun 93 179 79 Sandringham Dragons/Dingley JFC 10 Mitchell Wooffindin 3 Feb 93 178 76 Oakleigh Chargers/Templestowe 11 Jack Newnes 24 Feb 93 184 74 Northern Knights/Ivanhoe 12 Alex Brown 26 Sep 93 191 80 Oakleigh Chargers/Doncaster Heights JFC 13 Michael Bussey 5 Jul 93 196 81 Eastern Ranges/Rowville 14 Rory Atkins 12 Jul 94 183 75 Calder Cannons/Maribyrnong Park 15 Hayden Crozier 24 Dec 93 184 68 Eastern Ranges/Rowville 16 Tom Curran 18 Sep 93 195 85 Oakleigh Chargers/Wesley College 17 Matthew Haynes 19 Mar 94 190 76 Northern Knights/Carey Baptist 18 Will Hoskin -Elliot 2 Sep 93 182 73 Western Jets/North Sunshine 19 Hal Hunter 15 Jul 93 185 86 Calder Cannons/Wesley College 20 Elliot Kavanagh 19 May 93 187 78 Western Jets/PEGS 21 Daniel Markworth 3 Apr 92 189 76 Calder Cannons/Macedon 22 Doug Morris 27 Sep 93 183 85 Northern Knights/Northcote Park 23 Thomas Sheridan 28 Oct 93 185 76 Calder Cannons/Riddells Creek 24 Jackson Paine 21 Jun 93 193 87 Sandringham Dragons/Melbourne Grammar 25 Lachlan Plowman 11 Sep 94 190 81 Calder Cannons/Macedon 26 Xavier Richards 25 Apr 93 194 81 Sandringham Dragons/Xavier 27 Michael Talia 11 Feb 93 193 87 Calder Cannons/Greenvale 28 Adam Tomlinson 10 Aug 93 192 86 Oakleigh Chargers/Trinity Grammar 29 Dom Tyson 8 Jun 93 186 82 Oakleigh Chargers/Trinity Grammar 30 Nick Vlastuin 19 Apr 94 186 83 Northern Knights/Eltham 31 Matthew Arnot 21 Oct 93 180 83 Oakleigh Chargers/Vermont 32 Brandon Ellis 3 Aug 93 181 81 Calder Cannons/West Coburg 33 Jack Beech 23 May 92 200 85 Sandringham Dragons/De La Salle 34 Chris Prowse 26 Feb 93 203 87 Oakleigh Chargers/Xavier 35 Sam Frost 28 Aug 93 193 85 Sandringham Dragons/Wesley College 36 Fletcher Roberts 3 Jun 93 197 80 Sandringham Dragons/Melbourne Grammar 37 Ben Darrou 25 Nov 93 190 91 Sandringham Dragons/Wesley College 38 Jonathon Patton 20 May 93 197 95 Eastern Ranges/Scoresby 39 Leif Cope 22 Aug 92 203 99 Eastern Ranges/Yarra Valley GS 40 Billy Longer 12 May 93 202 95 Northern Knights/MacLeod

I look forward to seeing Brock McLean playing at the MCG this Friday night. He was a favourite when he played for us but I think injuries took their toll. He was never fast but when I saw him playing for the Bullants in a televised game earlier this year, he looked as slow as treacle. He still managed to pick up a lot of the football. I'm over his decision to leave ... well almost. I still look forward to him having to make the long and arduous trip down the freeway to Casey Fields on 27 August when the Bullants take on the Scorps.

Hate to bring up the subject but there's an Interesting quote from Amused of Berwick in the comments at the end of the article.

This decision makes a mockery of the rule, the MRP and the Tribunals that decided the Trengove cases. The "not unreasonable in the circumstances" part is ridiculous. The penalty had nothing to do with the tackle but rather, the consequences of the tackle.