Vipercrunch

Bernie and Lewis have been less that impressive for quite a while now. Lot's of turnovers and putting teammates under pressure with poor disposal or decisions. TMac should get it.

Great summary. One rushed kicked out of defence and an up-and-under kick to our half forward line. And someone calls that "atrocious"??? Incredible blindspots. Petracca and Sidebottom both had howlers yet were widely voted as the best two players on the ground. Quite surprised Vince's name hasn't come up as someone committing plenty of mistakes. Some of his handballing in particular was really poor. Either to players feet or above their heads. Really slowed our momentum at times.

This is a good point. Anyone who played against Richmond on Monday then the VFL this weekend needs to be judged accordingly. Harmes might be the only one though. Right now I'd have Harmes in ahead of JKH, but not ANB. If Hogan is available, resting Petracca might be an option to allow his knee to come good.

I'm not sure where else to bring this up, but does anyone else get a little frustrated that Billy Stretch doesn't take the game on a bit more. Several times in the last few games, he has had ball in hand and what appears to be open space towards goal ahead of him, and instead of making some ground and using his foot skills to deliver the ball forward, he back tracks and handballs off, coincidentally to much more senior players. Does he lack the pace? Confidence? Should the senior players be encouraging him to take it on himself instead of calling for a cheap possession? No thoughts of dropping him or anything like that, but I can't help but feel he could be me offensively minded and therefore much more damaging.

It's what the OP said so I went with it. From memory, it certainly wasn't a strong a win.

Our Round 1 wins in the last two seasons were "poor" wins. Gold Coast were severely under manned and GWS played terribly. Unfortunately the team took far too much baseless confidence from those wins and it was a train wreck the week after. The talk from the club leading up to last year in particular was very disturbing.. This time we had a good win in Round 1. And the talk coming out from the club is much more reserved. Tipping a 12 goal win.

I saw in the news yesterday Erin Phillips is in talks with Basketball Australia about rejoining the Opals. Amazing athlete.

Last year I think the players and some fans really did get ahead of themselves. Last year when Jack Viney talked about winning so many games in a row, games which included the preseason games against some seriously undermanned teams, I was really concerned. We were headed for a crash. The talk seems different now. The confidence is still there but it is more measured and based far more on solid evidence (like the stuff Brendan McCartney talked about - training intensities etc). Expectations should be high, but with good reason.

Jeff White is a big fan (and promoter) of mouth guards.

Those stories got heaps of coverage also, especially the Yarran one.

I can't understand how anyone could see this as anything but a worthwhile story. A player finished 5th in the B&F one year and is overlooked for selection for the first 2 practice games for not meeting certain criteria 6 months later. Jack Watts nothing. It's disappointing for the player and club involved, whoever they are.

The way we used to treat our early draft picks was a disgrace. Put them in jumpers made famous by Norm Smith, Robbie Flower, or Ron Barassi. Drag them straight down to the MCG Long Room for a full media photo shoot. Before they had even been to a training session, let alone played a game. I hated seeing it, year after year.

I haven't heard much about if Casey are having some practice games at the moment. I mean, what, if any, opportunity are Jack and all the other players missing out on JLT games getting to prepare and prove themselves for the season?

Fyfe over Kelly every day of the week. I wonder if the Kelly link to Melbourne is nothing more than journos being so used to mentioning them both in the same sentence due to all the Tyson/Salem/Kelly trade analysis.

It's perhaps been mentioned already, but the William Hill video up on Facebook about this is very funny.

I'm against dropping Hogan as I think a lot of the forwardline problems stem from poor delivery (therefor the whole team to learn with Hogan there) BUT I really don't understand the angst against dropping someone who is out of form and not performing at their best. Dropping isn't always a punishment and it's not the end of someones career. If the best thing for a player is to drop him back to regain form or better understand his role, then so be it. If any player has a bad run of games, all possible corrective measures need to be considered regardless of reputation, talent and the dreaded "potential".

I'd love to hear some non-Melbourne views on Mayne vs. VDB. I'm nearly always of the view to grow and develop our own so it's a no form me, but to say VDB is a proven better player is a stretch.

Did it? I'm sure it hurt the group, but we've had several other poor performances since. The consistency and appreciation of the effort that is always required to win games is still a work in progress. Maybe the win on Saturday has changed that, or maybe it was just one of the many highs (and lows) along the journey.

If fully fit, Hogan has to play. It's the delivery into F50 when he is there that needs work. It's the general forward structure when he is there that needs work. Those things aren't going to improve if he's not there. Pedo was great and I value what he provides and gets out of himself, but he came in late last week to replace Hogan, so unless there is an actual problem with Weeds (or another biggish player), he unfortunately misses out. Unless another player is sore or fatigued, that's the only change imo.

Does a lot right and I really value that despite being predominately an outside player, he can get his own ball at times. Must build some strength over the coming off season though because he doesn't stick anywhere near as many tackles as he could.

Nothing good will come out of Hogan playing at Casey against physically weaker, less organised and inexperienced defenders. Has to come in if fit. The team more than him need to sort things out. The delivery into F50 has been awful for most of this year. Kick to his advantage. Kick to other forwards to force their defenders to be accountable.

Early this year we beat Brisbane by 10 goals and it was very underwhelming. We never really got going that day. I think a 10 goal win here will also feel like we've only done just enough. I'm hoping for 100+.

BenKen came back after just one VFL game last time he was dropped and didn't show too much consistency after that. Needs to build a good run of form this time I think. His height is irrelevant. From what I saw of the VFL game, I'd have Grimes and Oliver at the front of the list of possible recalls. Garland maybe required if OMac doesn't get up or is rested. I support him developing in the seniors however. I would love to see Huelett soon, perhaps for Dawes. As to who might get dropped, I'd chose anyone who is consistently wasteful and/or a poor decision maker when heading inside F50. That's the poorest part of our game at the moment and frustrates me no end. To wide. To low when the F50 is crowded. Kicks that don't favor our forwards. Is it really that hard....

Thought Brayshaw might have gone too far there but nice result.

So many long kicks into F50 going so wide. Not sure why. Hit the hot spot!