Whispering_Jack

Dan Nicholson goals from a Matthew Bate pass. Sam Blease is showing great pace.

Early goal to Jeremy Howe reduces the lead to 25 points. A pass from Kelvin Lawrence to Fevola for a long goal, quickly followed by another off the carpet to Fev. 11 points in it.

Half time: Bendigo Bombers 12.5.77 to Casey Scorpions 7.6.48 Bendigo kicked the last four quarters just as Casey was fighting its way back into the game. I like Max Gawn's game in the ruck but then again, I am his sponsor . Jordie McKenzie hasn't lost the ability to tackle. Matthew Bate is doing well and will be back at Melbourne next week.

Goal to Fevola brought the lead down to 5 points but the Bombers scored two quick goals to restore a 3 goal buffer.

Jeremy Howe gets his first - he's been doing well. A goal to Tom McNamara brings it back to 11 points.

Nobody really standing out. Matty Bate should be back next week. Jordie McKenzie is getting into the game. Sam Blease just kicked his second.

Second goal to Kelvin Lawrence.

Kelvin Lawrence shows some pace to kick Casey's second but a 50 metre penalty to the Bombers gives them a 27 point lead late in the quarter. The siren goes and it's 6.5.41 to 2.2.14.

Sam Blease first goal for Casey who trail 1.1.7 to 4.4.28.

Bombers with the wind have kicked the first three goals.

Two of the players who impressed during an otherwise dismal pre season for Melbourne were Neville Jetta and Addam Maric. However, when the real stuff began, they both failed to impress and were dropped back to the Casey Scorpions after a couple of rounds. They showed there that they were a cut above VFL standard and both stood out in a tough game against Port Melbourne. Maric came back last week and played his best game for the Demons last week and now it's Nev's turn. I have to admit that until I saw him play at Port Melbourne I was skeptical about his ability to play the middle but he half convinced me that day. Now, he has to go that step further and prove it in an AFL game and I think Etihad against North is the perfect place for him to emulate Maric's performance last week. The Jetta's are big favourites here at Demonland. Father Nev and brother Rodney played for the Demonland/Demonology team in the off season. Dad is still a fair footballer into his 50s while Rod has gone on to play for the Zebras and kicked a couple of bags in their twos. And Mrs. J is a terrific mentor and role model who writes terrific songs and has appeared at MFC functions. I wish Nev and the entire family all the best for a big day today.

Six days ago, I kicked off the Game Day thread as follows:- Eerie, isn't it? I'm going to be careful this time and won't name any players in this post because I clearly owe them a duty of care to prevent injury and unwanted tribunal appearances but I will say that today's game has equally important implications for the Melbourne Football Club. Last week, it was all about the team's capacity to come back after an unsatisfactory performance and the response from the playing group was everything we could ask for and more. Today, it's more complex than that. The club has been under the microscope because of a combination of the Jack Trengove situation and the injuries to some key players. This poses a different test for the group but it also gives it an opportunity to demonstrate its mental resilience and the capacity of players to step into the breach when injuries occur. We've always been regarded as brittle and flaky. Now's the time to prove to the football public that this reputation is wrong.

I certainly do and he is a big lad. I'm stoked that he's been picked as an emergency and can't wait to see him wear the famous #37 onto the ground (IIRC the great Jimmy Stynes wore that number in his early years at the club).

Personally, I'm a big fan of the high mark but after all, a player's head is sacrosanct these days and even if injuries like Toovey's are accidental the player going for the mark owed him a duty of care. I know this could spell the end of the high mark or any mark for that matter, but for the sake of every player's human rights we have to wipe it out of the game.

I'll be going to the Casey to report on the game in KC's absence (he's up in Queensland visiting the folks). I will keep an special eye out for Cook and let you know.

Let's not be paranoid about this. It was a poorly conceived rule that caused the obscene result at the tribunal and not the fact that the player in question was one of ours. The same result would have applied if Dangerfield had been the tackler and Trengove's head had hit the turf. It's another day, now let's move on and smash the shyzen out of North.

Nothing to explain unless the AFL can prove that a particular tweet caused concussion or damage to someone's head.

CASEY PLAYER REVIEW

Good point about the Pies. I think they might look back on previous experiences. Grand finals are more important than round 8 matches but back in 2002 and 2003 Collingwood rolled the dice with appeals against suspensions in Preliminary Finals to Jason Cloke and Anthony Rocca respectively. Eddie McGuire made a lot of noise, the club expended a lot of time, money and other resources and energy on the appeals processes during grand final week. Neither player got off. I spoke after the second grand final to a member of the Collingwood hierarchy of the time and his view was that the general feeling at the club was that in all the controversy generated about the individuals concerned, the entire club took its eyes slightly off the main aim of winning a premiership. There still is a lot of regret about taking the course they took in those years. We must console and support Jack Trengove over this and the club will doubtlessly weigh up all factors but, in the end, it's a team sport and our focus should remain on the 22 who represent the club on a week to week basis.

Redleg, what are the grounds for an appeal against a tribunal ruling? My understanding is that there has to be some new evidence introduced upon which an appeal can be based. Is it enough just to say that the tribunal made a poor decision? I think not. It seems to me that the tribunal decided on the facts presented to them that Trengove was guilty of breaching the rule. To me, it's not the tribunal that dispensed "bad law" but that the law itself is bad and therefore needs to be changed (unless the consensus is that we turn the game into a form of netball played on grass). The solution for the Melbourne Football Club and for Jack Trengove therefore is to take it on the chin in much the same way as it did with the Colin Sylvia incident last year and focus on the job ahead which is to overcome the adversity of the decision and the injuries that afflicted us during and after the win against the Crows. The group needs to concentrate its thoughts and energies on the weeks ahead rather than to fight costly legal battles against an unsympathetic AFL establishment. That battle is unlikely to see Jack Trengove exonerated but it might well become counterproductive to the ongoing fight for team improvement and premiership points. We might be going into next week's round without some of our better players but we need to look at the game against North as a real test of this club's mettle and an extension of the challenge we faced last week when we took on Adelaide. I like your sentiments but we're a football club and it should be business as usual now that the decision's been made.

You would think that having been Jack Trengove's captain and a former teammate that Junior would have excused himself. There's a legal principle which applies to such matters and the Tribunal is an administrative body which should uphold such a principle as the right to a fair hearing where an adjudicator has no conflict of interest.

You have a comprehension problem. Grow up.

I'm looking at the ladder as it stands at the moment and I see there are ten teams below us at the moment. Then there's also GWS which isn't yet in the competition but is fielding a side in the North East Australian Football League which lost badly yesterday to the Sydney Swans seconds. It seems to me that there are going to be a lot of new coaches in the market next year.

If I remember correctly, we banned a poster for 12 for spreading misinformation about an injury allegedly sustained by Jack Grimes a couple of years ago. I would suggest that our moderators will be consistent on this issue if the information turns out to be incorrect again this time (as I hope is the case). Twelve months is a long time but in that instance the poster was given the opportunity to 'fess up and show remorse but that didn't happen on that occasion.

I'm going to go early with gameday and say that today's game has important implications for the Melbourne Football Club. A good performance and hopefully a win will take the heat off the club while the spotlight goes onto Eade, Voss and hopefully, Craig. I think our danger man today is Dangerfield and I'd like to see Jack Trengove turn it on today. He's been one of honest hard workers throughout the early part of this season and I sense that he's ready to step up a little more in the not too distant future.