CHF

Wiseblood, have a look at the replay and you will see 4 or 5 occasions where Garland fumbles, fails to keep his feet or misses a pass to a teammate. At least 3 of those lead to Port goals. That has nothing to do with what might or might not behave img in the midfield. Similar with OMac. He was a shade better than Garland. I do not see Frost and Dunn being any worse than these two.

Wiseblood, what I would have them do is to be a hell of a lot more aware of where the opposition players are and where they are running. Yes, they kicked a lot of their goals over the back but our defence was poor when they were trying to get the ball out of our defensive 50. That is what I am mainly critical of.

I hope the selectors start this week with a clean sheet of paper and look long and hard at the players to ensure we are picking a team we think will win rather than picking a team we hope might win. I would drop 7 on their play and form today and Viney might get a week on top of that for,being stupid. OMac and Garland out of the backs with Wagner in line fora drop as well. Replace them with Dunn, Frost and Grimes. They coUtd not be any worse. Oliver, Vdb and Trengove to come into the midfield in place of Kennedy, Bugg and ANB. get Dawes or Pedersen in in place of Kent.

Defence was rubbish today with both Garland and OMac less than poor. Both need to go for next week. Bring in Dunn and Frost. In the back half the only one that looked competent was Jetta. Bugg either tightens up on his man or play for Casey. Midfield was a shadow of what it has been in games this season. A hell of a lot of passengers standing around letting others do it. Where was Kennedy? Tyson? Newton? ANB? Petracca? Harmes? All went missing and were hardly sighted. Viney completely covered in the first term. Jones tried to play a lone hand. Vince popped up a few times....too few... Stretch was there a outs but as an outside player you need others to get the,ball and there was no one there doing that. Delivery into the forward 50 from our midfield was dreadful. Th forwards kicked badly but got bad delivery and not often enough. Kent might enjoy a run with Casey. midfield selection. Start from scratch. A blank piece of paper and see what we have got in the cupbpard.

No Hunt?

We have developing players..... We have good development coaches..... Been playing some good footy but we have made some complete rubbish selection mistakes.

Hands up those who wanted to rest Max... We would be completely screwed without him in the team.

Playing absolute rubbish and we are within 3goals.... We could win this by actually playing 1 quarter of football.

I am calling it early for next week drop garland... Drop Kent..... Drop Kennedy. Drop our pants to make it easier for the Hawks

This is like watching a slow motion train crash

Viney having a dog of day so far

I like the look of this team. I had hoped that there would be a bit of freshness in the team but if you have a look at it there is with Jetta and Tyson coming back in after having a week of not playing footy and with Newton and ANB retaining their places. I think that if our midfield plays with the drive we have seen during most of the first 9 rounds of the season we believe we can outscore anyone. I think they will be asking Petracca to step up especially when Watts is in the ruck. He showed a couple of things last week which made me think he could fill into a very mobile CHF position. I will be getting up early (my time) to watch with the bowl of muesli and a pot of strong coffee. The muesli has not been a Dee's fan but the coffee is on board. If the muesli does not commit I will have to change my eating habits.

One problem I foresee is that if he is seriously injured in a tackle where he has dropped his knees and the tackler ended up going high it will be the tackler that is vilified and not the ducker.

they look great and i think the boys will walk tall in them.

No game for Casey this week as I understand it so I would expect that we would take all three emergencies. I believe Gus Brayshaw is travelling up there with the team. Never know we may swing some late changes. Next week for the hawks, win or lose, I would expect 3 or 4 changes to take place just to rest some tired bodies.

I believe there needs to be something done about this otherwise we will either have 30 or 40 of these 'high tackle' decisions given a game or there will be no tackling at all. If this becomes the SOP of the man with the ball I will stop watching and supporting.

Could not see it mentioned anywhere on here so I thought to bring it everybody's attention. This is a very good set of images working through the footy day experience last Sunday at the 'G'. it shows the behind the scenes images throughout the day. I enjoyed it and I am sure others will as well. It is on the clubs website.

Interesting table situation with the games this week. There are three teams on 24 points ( Bulldogs, Eagles and Hawks) and I would expect all of them to win. we are on 20 points along with the Crows and both of these games could be toss ups with the Crows playing GWS in Adelaide and with us playing Port in the Alice. I would like to think we can beat Port and would love to see the crows go down and that is highly possible. the others on 16 points with port are the Pies and the blues and I would expect them both to be beaten. If that were to happen it would leave us in 8th, a game clear of the Crows and 2 clear of the rest of the chasers with a game against 7th place hawks the following week. That would be interesting.

I have watched the replay of the game a few times now and was amazed to see poise Petracca showed with the ball. Not tentative about demanding team mates move to the right places and a couple of his tackles and in close work were very very impressive. As others have wondered, I sat there and asked myself just how good this kid could be. All this in his 4th game in a developing young, middle of the road team that is looking to improve with every outing. Will be a ride that is more than interesting.

Another interesting selection week. We have a few players that should come straight back in, we need to manage a 6 day turn around compared to Port's 7 days and we need to keep in mind that we have Hawthorn at the 'G' the week after. I would like to think we are looking at putting out the best side each week with a view to winning and not making 'tactical' selections based on giving a game away to and seeing what someone has to offer. Jetta will come back in after his holiday. Pedersen and Tyson should come back in if they are fully recovered from their illness. That is a minimum of three changes in my book and I can see there might be two others given a 'rest' week. another factor to keep in mind is that there is no Casey game this week so anyone left out will be having a footy free weekend. In defence we seem to still be looking for the perfect diamond. I did not see a lot from OMac on the weekend. saw a couple of good things he did but looked to be found out of position a few times on a very inexperienced forward. Garland had a good game and is coming into a bit of his old form so I would keep him in. TMac, Jetta and Garland to make up 3 points of the diamond with Dunn or Frost as the 4th point. I keep looking for reasons to drop either Wagner or Hunt but, while they do some have a few brainfats every now and then they do add a lot to our run and spread out of defence. I like Hunt's run he looks like a faster version of H. One of them may need a rest but I would be looking to get them to make one more game and then swing a few management changes the following week for the hawthorn game. The forward setup looks to be working and they look to enjoy working together. Watts, Kent, Garlett and Hogan are building a good understanding and fluency. Hames is effective up there as is Kennedy but I can see them rotating a bit on to the wings and midfield along with Petracca who looks to be playing a little more on the ball up the ground. Cannot see to many changes happening there except we may go back to having either Pedersen or Dawes working as a 2nd ruck/forward this week with the main role being a second ruck rather than a forward. Max had nearly 85% game time last week and was down on form. I would keep him in the team but drop his game time back into the mid 60's to give him light duties this week and look to the 2nd ruck to take a load of work against the rucks Port have. The mids we have a few more options. but the bulk of them pick themselves. Jones, Viney, Stretch, Vince, Tyson (if recovered), all certain inclusions. Oliver is there as well if he comes up after his corkie. Bugg I would put in there as a certain inclusion but he plays out of back half of the ground. ANB keeps his spot for a second week as he had light game time and good impact when he was there. This is my selection at the moment and I lean towards Frost and Pedersen inclusions rather than Dunn and Dawes. it also in predicated on Oliver having the week off to ensure he is right for the following week. Unlucky for Newton as I think he played well. we do have some players at Casey that could easily slot into the team. Grimes, Trengove, Dawes, Dunn, Salem, Vdb, White and even Terlich has some good form. Spencer is running into a bit better form. Lumumba needs a couple of runs at Casey before he could be considered I believe. There are 6 or 7 in that list that could slot into our present team and not weaken it. B : Jetta Frost/Dunn Garland HB : Hunt TMac Wagner C : Stretch Tyson Vince HF : Petracca Watts Kent F : Garlett Hogan Harmes R : Gawn Viney Jones BENCH : ANB Kennedy Bugg Pedersen/Dawes

Not a bad team for Casey this week. of the 15 MFC players named in the team only 4 ( Hulett, Weideman, Max King and Smith) have not had first team experience.

it will be interesting to see how these two develop. We made the call to trade our first round in the next draft so we had two early picks and I think they got the two they wanted. Oliver has shown a lot and I can us giving the Weed a few years to fully develop. I can see him maybe getting a game late in the season depending on injuries and table position and then playing a lot more next season in the seniors maybe playing as one of three talls in the forwards. This might release Watts to rotate a bit more on to the wing. in reality the way we are playing he is doing that already but if the weed comes on then it will give him a bit more flexibility. Similar with Hulett. Let him develop as required and give him a run if/as needed. they are both young boys and the coaches need to build the engines in both of them and in the Weed's case they need to build muscle on him as well. If all goes well can you imagine in a couple of years have a forward selection problem with Hogan, Watts, Weed, Hulett and a King or two to consider?

It seems to me that each defeat we have had there has been some admission that there were mistakes made at the selection table. last week it looked as if we lacked a bit of height down back in defence as well as a bit of leg speed and nous to know where to place our diamond. The thing last week with our Diamond Defence was that there seemed to be a big hole in the middle of the 4 men that the doggies found time and again. This week against the Lions I think we need to look to go back to the basics at the selection table. that is not to say go back to the tried and not so rue anymore. In defence, have a look at getting a couple of talls in there to handle the main forwards, add a third versatile mid/tall and then a shut down small and a couple of attacking HBFs. Jetta is out so bring in either Dunn, Frost or OMac so we have the extra tall we need to have back there. retain garland and have him as the third point of the diamond defence on the third tall if there is one. the fourth point of the diamond defence is the shut down defender. a role I would give to Bugg. Running HBfs? well I would be getting rid of either Wagner or Hunt for this game, most likely Wagner. in my view of the game last week he was weak with his kicking. The point he kicked sticks in the mind.Vince or Salem to be back there maybe? In the forwards I would look to bring back Kent if he is fit. Midfield is pretty settled and hard to get into but I would find a spot for ANB at least and maybe Newton. I would consider Newton a long shot for a game in the seniors as I think they will give him one more run around at Casey. Same with Trengove. My team for next week. B: Garland, T McDonald, BuggHB: Salem, O McDonald, HuntC: Vince, Tyson, OliverHF: Watts, Pedersen, KentF: Harmes, Hogan, GarlettFOLL: Gawn, N Jones, VineyI/C: Petracca, ANB, Stretch, Kennedy/Newton EMG: Kennedy/Newton

Beaten by a better side today that was showing a bit more skill and polish then the Dees. There will be a few spots opening up for the players that performed at Casey. Would expect to ANB get a run.

Too much skill from the doggies