CHF

Cats win by about 20 points and we are in the 8 on percentage after this game.

I have no problems with sticking with a winning team and only making the change because of injury. The coaches obviously have a plan or two prepared to cover the defence depending on how the game unfolds. We do have flexibility with players like Pedersen and even Watts to swing back there if required. The main weapon for the defence will be if we can be first to the ball and win it out of the midfield. To that end we have maximised the number of players we can run through the middle with 14 or 15 players capable of taking turn there as required. Forward and midfield defensive pressure with speed on the turnover in both attack and defence will win this for us. ANB will get his chance and when he finally does I expect he will be hitting it hard. You get dropped from this team for whatever reason and you will find it hard to battle your way back in. No one in this team wants to give up their position unless they have to. Dees by 4 goals after a tight first three quarters.

Ahhh..... The French.... they have a word for everything

I have managed to watch all of our games live via streaming this season so far and have watched replays of most of them at least once. I have enjoyed the way we are playing with fast transitions from our turnovers.There is plenty of run and a lot of speed with players like Hunt and Wagner getting to positions to receive and link into the corridor. this has lead to a lot of our scores and it is great, attractive footy to watch. we have backed ourselves to kick a higher score than the opposition. With the way that the attacking game has evolved this season I think there is still a lot of work to be done in structuring a defence to handle the speed of transition. We are still a work in progress in this respect. As are a lot of other teams. With the high pressure defence that starts in our forward 50 and is structured all over the ground we need to ensure that the back men react fast with flexibility and intelligence. sometimes we get it wrong with matchups like Jetta in Daniher during the bombers match but time and experience will help sort that out. When we move into attack I would like to see a fast sweeper drop back to help cover the quick opposition break. someone like Hunt who has good closing speed and fast twitch react time to recover his feet. I am sure they will work it out but it will require a lot of understanding and team work on structures. After last weekend Melbourne must be emerging as one of the more difficult teams to defend against. we had 13 different goal scorers with our two main forward weapons only kicking one goal between them. I am looking forward to this game and think we will shade them by a goal or two. what I do know form the season so far is that no matter what the scores my be, we will not drop our heads the way we may have in the past. I have heard so many of the team express confidence in the structures and the way they want to play that it gives me confidence we will still have a crack no matter what the scores. There is one thing I want to see this season at some stage. I want to see our players really show confidence in defence. Confidence in their team mates nailing the ball carrier so they do not have to leave their man.

Being a Sunday game I cannot see anyone being dropped when the team is named tomorrow. The three to be added to the bench will be ANB, Frost and Terlich in my opinion. I would like to see ANB get a run but it will be a hard thing to drop any of last weeks team. With players like Hunt, Wagner, Stretch we have a lot of speed and run. Loved the places Wagner ran to in transistion to provide a let out link players running through the corridor. Garlett, Kent, Kennedy and Harmes provide speed and run in the forward zone and all players realise the responsibility for,defence starts as soon as the opposition gets the ball no matter where on the ground it is. Every player that gets in the team should know that they will get at least two games to,show what they have. They all know that there are good form players at Casey that are looking for a chance to step,up and that the quality of the team will not suffer with the players coming in. Love the pressure that this generates. We have quality running around on each line of the Casey team. Dunn, Frost and OMac can all cover key defensive positions. Terlich, White and Grimes rounding out a reasonable back 6. Forwards are well covered with Dawes, Hulett, Weed and Max King add in the midfield/forward rotations of AvB, Trengove, Newton and Matt Jones. I like the position we are in at the moment and the way Casey are training and playing compliments the senior team style. I believe that the style of defensive playing I'll need to evolve to counter the way midfield sand forwards,are,playing and moving the ball. I think this has driven the emergence of players like Jetta, Hunt and Wagner. They need speed, flexibility and a quick mind to cover the attacking players as they spread into attack in transistion. One thing we could do better all over the ground is to trust our team mates to,do what they need to. So many times I have seen a player leave their player to assist in a tackle which leaves a player free to receive that trust will come. So started on team selection and ended up on more expanded thoughts on team structure a depth.

I think that one of the more desirable things about trading our first round pick in the next draft is that it allowed us to get a second good young player into the list and the team a season earlier than otherwise would have happened. We are constantly fielding the youngest team week in week out and by getting the kid in earlier it gives us an opportunity to get games into them. This, to my mind at our stage of development is critically important.

I have watched the replay a couple of times and each time i picked up on a few different things. The games that Watts and Hogan played were significant and part of the reason we won so well. each of these players were targeted by the Suns and were double and sometimes tripled teamed to ensure they did not get ant chance of clean ball. To the credit of both of them they still managed to have a positive effect whenever the ball came into their sphere of influence. while Watts did not get a lot of the ball, when he did get it, his use of it was exceptional. His vision and the way he weights his kicks is lovely to watch. Hogan wants the ball and will move all over the ground to get a touch. his second and third efforts are great and a few of these lead to the ball staying in the forward 50. In the midfield we have some real talent. Viney we all know about. To me he is not the most skillful player but he is one of the hardest players I have seen in a long time and his persistence to get the ball is something else. This season I have also noticed in broken play that he seems to be positioning himself a little better knowing that team mates will win the ball. What to say about Oliver? He is where the ball is. He gets his hands on it and gets it to a teammate and then moves to where to bell is next going to be. 18yo? if he builds his tank, develops the body and just continues to do what he is doing now for the next 10 years without improvement he will be a great. Not about to go through every player but a special mention to Petracca. He did some excellent things on Saturday evening and will only get better. he has good hands a vision and knows where to move to. His second goal was a cracker. In Hunt and Wagner we have a couple of players that give the Demons a real point of difference. With their speed off the mark from half back they are going to cause a lot of teams a lot of headaches. In the last few seasons I have been existing on hope. this season, for the first time in a long time I have expectations.

Depending on form of Casey players..... Frost out - play Patracca there in his place for a majority of the game. Hames out - rest if need be but he would have to come back through Casey. Wagner out - looked a pace too slow today. ANB in - he has the form at Casey, a bit of pace and can kick a goal Trengove in - has Casey form and should not be held back Oliver in - first four weeks was excellent. Will be interesting to as how he goesfor Casey. if there are others at Casey tomorrow that put there hand up there are plenty more today that could be dropped on from and effort. Garland for Lumumba anyone?

Frost's miss in the third was a turning point. Get it and we were a goal behind his miss lead to a coast to coast Saints goal and we were three goals behind. End of any chance of a competitive game..

I would,love to know how many goals the Saints got directly from winning the ball in their defensive 50. It would have to be some sort of the record.

Very disappointing game. For the last three quarters we broke down in the midfield. We did not stick tackles and there was not pressure which allowed the Saints to move the ball too quickly for our defence to properly set up. This resulted in key defenders in MacDonald and Dunn being our of position. Added to that TMac and Dunn both looked to be having off days. TMac was hesitant and chose the wrong option 80% of the time and Dunn was just un aware of his opponent's position most of the time. Our transition in reaction to a turnover was very slow and we looked lazy. Was this a reaction to the shorter turn around? If so then the coaching staff need to take some responsibility for not seeing this during the week. The way the game is played this season means that you just have to apply pressure all over the ground. If you don't you get beaten. Today there were too many instances where players stood off and expected a team mate to do it. Not good enough. in response to the game I would be looking at dropping a number of players to ensure that all understand the consequences of a bad game like this one. Frost would be the first I would drop. He needs to concentrate on keeping his feet, sticking tackles and making sure he kicks the easy goals. Second I would drop would be Wagner. It is time for us to see what Trengove has to offer at this level after his recovery and rehab. Hames to drop back and work out his disposals at Casey. ANB, Oliver and Trengove in for those three as the bare minimum of changes. Roos has said he will pick a team of inform players that are competitive. There were a lot of players that had no form today and only about 20% of the team were competitive. Over to you Roos. one last comment; whoever is responsible for making sure the team is going into the game with the right mindset needs to get a rocket. today's performance was unacceptable..

No midfield pressure and shockingly bad defence

Not slow....LAZY

No problem fitting in the changes for next week. So many playing carp football. Not running hard no pressure. Just rubbish.

This is absolute rubbishy defence

Damn! still two more sleeps to go.

I will not pretend to understand that one. No Weeds = Gardening Leave?

I like the way that Roos enjoys telling the young players about their first match and the way the club puts the video up. it is great to see their reaction. I just hope that when Trengove gets his chance they do the same. I am sure it would give Roos a similar amount of pleasure to be able to tell him his hard work over the years has paid off and I, for one would love to see Jack's reaction.

thanks KC. any word on the Weed and where he is at this week....a rest?

With regard to Pedersen, I think he brings a lot to the team at present and like the way that the coaching team send him down the back every now and then. it seems to be a tactic we employ a lot. one of the forward talls go down there as a floating free man. Either Hogan, Watts or Pedersen get back there and it still leaves us with a strong tall presence up forward. Get another 44 games into him and turn him out to stud.

For the first time in a long time we are in a position to actually manage young players properly. we have all been critical of our development of players at the MFC and now that they are looking to manage the development of the players some of us are being overly critical. If resting Oliver and then bring him back via Casey isgoing to help him to develop and mature I have no problems with that.

Patracca named on the bench. Do you start him on the ground or do you hold him back on the bench and, if so, for how long? Personally, I would hold him back til the game has settled a bit and the supporters have settled into their seats and then let him go 5mins into he game. I will be getting up early over here to watch the live streaming on AFL Global.

Looks like the coaching and fitness group do not see any lingering effects of the short turn around compared to the Saints. Hope they are right. Would hate to see us run out of legs in the last quarter. I would have liked to see Oliver come straight back in after his rest but can see the thinking behind minimal changes given the form and results the team has had over the last couple of rounds. it might be good for the young fella to understand that he is not a walk up start at this stage. This also reflects the situation we have at this point with a lot of good, inform players trying to get into a winning team. Dees by 40pts

He looked very disinterested to me on the replay I saw. Given the family situation, I would not be surprised if he walked away.

Well done MFC imho they have handled the kid just right and it is fitting they debut him against the Saints.