the pearl

For the last two (more??) games we've had more handballs than kicks. For the past couple of seasons, this has presented us with problems - going around in circles, handpassing to stationary team mates, loose handballs - all leading to turnovers and sometimes, a stack of goals kicked against us. It looked like we handballed too much and that the game plan could have been flawed and that the coach might not have been up to it. Bailey never wavered in his media interviews or his approach.

Against Richmond and also against Brisbane, the movement of the ball by hand has been superb - opening up runners, breaking through lines, running the opposition of their feet. Chains of handballs have resulted in running goals. Defending opposition players have been bamboozled, tricked and confused.

It has taken our breath away with the precision of the handballs and the vision. The efforts of the receiving players to make great position and support their team mates has been fantastic.

I think I can see what the coach is trying to do. It won't happen all the time but when it happens most of the time, we're going to be hard to beat!

What a nightmare - over the next 2-6 weeks there are players at Casey that might by vying for promotion

A nightmare? I won't be losing any sleep over this sort of scenario.

They had to kick 5 goals to nothing in the last quarter. We would have to have stood still to allow them to do that. The tackling and the pressure was far too good for Brisbane to overwhelm us in any way. I feel the stress and lose confidence sometimes but not last night.

6. Sylvia

5. Moloney

4. Frawley

3. Scully

2. Warnock

1. Trengove

This article covers the game in a fundamental sort of way. Apart from Brown, who can be a machine, the others names mentioned should not have Demons shaking in their boots. Most of them jump out of their skins when the Brisbane crowd is behind them and they get on a roll. Winning in the mid field is the part of our performance that has improved most of all and this is where can win the game.

I Hate this Thread...Jack Watts is 6'5 & still growing not six months out of school.

The Club has made one mistake, that is we played him in the QB game last year.

he is just out of school boy footy-LET HIM LEARN HIS TRADE (all year at Casey if necessary)

6'5 & still growing-He could be anything.

Get off his case & show him support.

Exactly right Why. Early days, early days. Lets make the call on Jack Watts in five years time. In the meantime, we should enjoy watching his development.

No. Brad Green qualifies for vet status nxt year and i'm gathering Bruce is the other one. Mcdonald will cost a youngster a senior spot next year. Thanks for your efforts Junior but this will be your last year.

Disrespectful post!

Bruce and Green don't tackle, rarely lead by example and don't bleed for the club as much as Junior. Green is fabulous but will not ever have Junior's endurance and commitment.

If Junior Played next year he would have to be an impact player off the Bench. Let's get through this year first-it's only just started really.

Junior McDonald should play for Melbourne as long as he wants to play. He has so much integrity that he would not decide to go on if he couldn't cut it with the best.

He inherited the prodginy of Barass' & Jordan + added a few like Doug Koops from Nth Melb.

He did a good job with other peoples efforts.

Didn't Doug Koop come from South Melb/Sydney and Springvale before that?

Whether Jones can continue to improve his kicking will determine his future.

In the 1st quarter (I think), he delivered an outstanding, non-preferred side pass on the northern wing, about 35 metres. He also made some good, if unpressured, preferred side passes during the game.

BUT, and this is a big but, a number of times he shanked attempts at long bombs into the forward area. He has a natural, crude kicking action which is to drag the ball down onto the kicking foot when going for distance.

He must eliminate this if he is to stay a part of what may well be a gun mid-field.

Also, your comment about the smaller tiges bodies is well founded.

Yeah. Good post, mono.

I'm nibbling at a bit of humble pie re. Nathan Jones at the moment.

I worry about the random handball out of the pack when he gets possession under pressure - the sort of thing you see them doing at training with no opposition. However, I really liked his intensity on Sunday; it was second to none.

is it just me or did Bruce seem like he just CBF today? He just seemed like he could not be bothered chasing the ball. Is he not 100% fit or is he down in confidence? I do realise he had 29 disposals @ 90% (20 handballs), but he just did not seem the same to me.

Bruce looked smart, balanced and cool today. I've been critical of his shabby passing by hand and foot but he showed the characteristics of a quality AFL player today. He looked like he had so much time to do whatever he needed to do to generate smart attacking moves.

Junior has always been under rated and underestimated. He should have been selected in 4 or 5 All Australian teams.

A class act!

6. James McDonald

5. Moloney

4. Sylvia (10 marks)

3. Jamar

2. Bruce

1. Green

Yes, but if you want to be taken seriously on this forum, it's Trengove (no 'r') Petterd ('e,' not 'a') and Moloney (not Maloney) - and never, ever use any Watts-puns. But on topic, Jack Trengove is definitely good enough to at least get a nomination for the Rising Star, but considering players usually only get nominated in weeks where their team wins, he may have fewer opportunities to get the nod than other players.

Watt's more to the point, Chouk, is the way posters stuff up the names of Chaney, Strouse and Warlock!

The final line up is difficult to work out at this stage. How do you work out match-ups with the Toiges squad? How Richmond line up is like a lottery. Their players are either out of form or they've not got much form!

6. Frawley

5. Warnock

4. Jamar

3. Grimes

2. Davey

1. McDonald

1. Go back to family memberships that include the whole family not just 2 adults 2 children.

2. Provide partial/limited game memberships - we won't lose many full memberships but we could rope in a whole stack of people who don't contribute at all at this stage.

It is how well a team adjusts to the turnover; it's how they cope psychologically with losing the ball after working hard to get possession and how resilient they are.

Yeah, thanks for that. Have you ever been wrong before, mate? Would you prefer I delete the post where I apologize for being wrong, or the one where I'm actually wrong? Or neither? Why don't you stick to talking about football rather than making snide comments about other people's posts. Why single me out anyway? There are others in this very thread who have talked about how their ins and outs were right.

Sorry Chook. You seem to be getting a bit upset.

From a football point of view, I would stick with a youngster like Strauss - as I would with Scully and Grimes. I lose patience with Newton, Jones and Miller because they've been tried in teams that were a lot more accomplished and successful than our current team, with little development or progress.

If we're blooding our youth, then that's what we've got to do. Last week's game was an indication or what lies ahead - Frawley, Strauss, maybe even Bennell included.

This is not a time for paranoia or sookiness. Get over it.

I have to say I picked it. IN: Sylvia, OUT: Strauss is a good decision. Strauss wasn't too productive on the week-end. He didn't do anything bad, but he didn't do enough good to warrant selection again. He'll be a good player though.

Well done. Maybe you should check a recording of last week's game and make sure you haven't got your analysis of Strauss's game wrong. It's not to late to contact the selection committee/

Any other smart aleck comments?

How did you know my name was Alec?

Before you lay the boots in, recognise that I've since changed my opinion and apologised for being so wrong. But he did make some crucial errors on the week-end. I'd not drop him now though.As I said above:

Posted 05 April 2010 - 03:12 PM

I obviously was way too harsh on Frawley after the game and should have reserved my judgment until I watched the replay on Fox. Sorry and thank you to all those people who called me out on it. I was certainly wrong about him. But he still had a couple of crucial turnovers that resulted in goals, despite his otherwise fab defensive game. I want to set the record straight and say I think Frawley is an awesome player, and if it weren't for these crucial mistakes today, I would have put him in our best. Such is the nature of being a defender that errors just become so much more costly due simple to where you're playing. I know this from experience.

This one came back to bite you Chook. Recanting was a good move - particularly when you have such a strong reputation as a football commentator!

We ran Adelaide around in a practice game over there in a pretty feral environment. A little bit of inexperience and some poor umpiring cost us that game. It'll be different at the "G" with plenty of red and blue support and a team of youngsters that are beginning to believe.

this game used to be tough

if Moloney did that you'd all be worshipping him

No

Out: Newton, Bennell.

In: Anyone ..