Doggo

His kicking was pathetic. But thats not the only reason I am now off the colin wagon.

I made a conscious effort to watch his defensive pressure as I realise I dont normally take note of this side of the forwards games.

As it is often commented on here, I thought I would make an effort to have a more informed opinion

I was dismayed with his work ethic.

His kicking for goal was very poor, i agree. But, I thought there were encouraging signs there though... He had 5 or 6 shots on goal - yeh he only got 3, and missed some gimmes - but that's enough to show me he could become an effective forward. If we could get 6 shots out of him a game, i'd be happy with that.

Better still, if he can look at the tape, get on the track and and work his butt off on those negative areas of his game, he could become a very good player. But as you said, his apparent work rate doesnt suggest it will happen.

Moloney dislocated his shoulder, apparently they had a lot of trouble getting it back in; would have to be very doubtful for next week.

That's a shame. The recent continuity in his game was starting to reap benifits. He was one of our better clearance players all day before he went off. How many weeks is he looking at?

A strong hard body that'll be missed in close there. But maybe a chance for Valenti to get another crack?

Bartram - 6

Bode - 6

Green - 8

Johnson - 5

Sylvia - 5

Yze - 7

Good effort that. However i think u were a bit generous to Bartram (IMO, i'd give him a 5), Bode (3), Green (7), PJ (6.5), Sylvia (6), Yze (6.5).

Agree completly with the rest.

Unfortunately i couldnt make it to the game today, as i've been absolutely floored with the flu for the whole long weekend (so don't count my votes in not needed). I was shattered that i wasn't able to walk the march and see the pre-match ceremony for our 150th, as well as a bloody good game of footy! I'm not sure my sore throat would've been able to cope with all that screaming though... I did more than enough of that at home on the couch. Especially after all those missed shots on goal in the second half.

But as expected on our 150th celebratons, our boys came out fighting and did not lie down, so credit to the team. But a loss is still a loss, though with the current draft system, it seems less worse than it should.

But it was definitely a game we could have won, and whilst i'm always dissappointed to lose, especially against Collingwood, there were a lot of good signs.

My votes:

6 - McLean - Clearly our best today. Was everywhere, used the ball well and kicked an important goal.

5 - Garland - Getting better every week. Starting to use the ball well. His best perfomance to date.

4 - Wonaeamirri - 3 goals and great forward pressure. An excitement machine!

3 - Warnock - Took the honours on T.Cloke

2 - Jones - Hard, solid game for Nat. Had more influence than in recent weeks + his running goal before half time was a gem.

1 - P. Johnson - Improved his influence in the ruck, especially in final term.

Green, Yze and Sylvia maybe a bit stiff to miss out on votes, but they all sprayed crucial shots at crucial times, and Yze and Sylvia (in particular), were shockingly unaccountable and selfish late in the game. Wheatley played alright, but had his fair share of poor disposals. White was pretty good, but i thought PJ showed more determination and physicality today, improved ruckwork, and a pretty good chase on Dale Thomas on the wing late in the game. Moloney was really good and tough in close again, before unfortunately incurring what looked like a broken wrist.

Bruce wasn't too bad, did some nice things. But overall was just OK in my opinion.

Morton - is going backwards

How can a skinny, first-year 18-year-old, who's played less than 10 games... go backwards?!

He's young, and although sublimely talented, still quite raw. He will have lots of ups and downs, as all kids do. Remember, a consistently good player from debut, is the exception, not the rule. All kids, even the highly rated ones, take time. And in Morton's case given his slight build, he's expected to take more.

But to say he is going backwards is ludicrous.

Col Sylvia refusing to man for about a minute as the Pies iced the clock...!!! :angry:

Everyone else had reverted to one-on-one, whilst dumb Colin was still playing the zone, guarding space all on his own. The rest of the team had figured out straight away what they trying to do, and accordingly manned-up at all costs, except Colin! I couldnt believe it when he continued running round in circles pointing at teamates, when he was jogging around alone!

I didnt want to be too critical of Col today as i thought he showed an encouraging performance, and bar some poor kicking, could have had 5 goals. But that moment of unaccountability smacked of completely, utterly selfish and poorly-drilled footballer, or just a lack of awareness of the match-situation. That complete refusal to man-up in such a crucial time of the game was something Robbo wouldnt even have done.

Makes more sense to blame Riley (the bastard cost us pick 17 last year and the extra pick at 1 this year, with his stupid beating of Carlton...

He defected to them almost immediately after that "win" too... :angry:

It has to be Cam Bruce making the top 150 surely!

Oh God....

That would certainly be a travesty...

don't even know why i'm reading this thread

Hi guys, Daniel Bell is actually my personal trainer at a gym called 'Jungle Gym'. I ask him every week for updates on the club and i asked him today about the state of Michael Newton. He told me he hasn't had a good run this year. In round 1 he told me he got a knock to his knee, then he got told by Bails to have a run at Sandy, then Belly said that he got suspended when playing for sandy and when he resumed training before his return he did his Hammy (a 4 week injury he said). So it seems to me guys that Juice has a had a bad run with injury and suspension this year. Bell mentioned that he is resuming full training in a week or two.

How did he feel about getting dropped this week?

No Newton again, (not named for Sandy 2's...)

What's that now?

7 (seven!) weeks since his last game of football? hmmm....

That's a much fairer assessment than the bogan who writes this blog on behalf of the Magpies -

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/afl/fan...he_snowbunnies/

Ha... i just lost the last 3 minutes of my life reading that garbage... and i want that 3 minutes back!

Frawley has been a woeful defender for the club so far.

Any chance of trying him forward at all?

I'm not sure how VFA/VFL Springvale old-timers on the Casey Board would feel about it, as the Scorpions were originally based in Springvale, and have a long and successful history thru several leagues, but i really hope that we can convince them to drop the 'Scorpion' mascot in favour of the 'Demon', and adopt our jumper, or a similar one.

From what i understand, the Scorpion's colours are already red, navy and white (like our clash strip). I think if we were the 'Casey Demons' in the VFL, with a modified 'Demon' jumper (hell, they can even have the surplus stock of this years silver clash strip, lol), it would go a long way into securing new supporters/members for 'the Demons' in the Casey area, and would create a more permanent 'Demon/MFC' identity in the area.

Similar to what Essendon have done with the Bendigo Bombers.

Since we've been doing jumper designs for the last few days, I thought i'd have a crack at what the Casey DEMONS should look like.

If Newton plays in the Sandy 2nd's i swear i will hand in my membership and never forgive Bailey.

I am sick of the treatment of Newton by our club.

I'm sure if he's playing 2nds its only to 'ease him back in', so to speak, for a half or 3/4's. Bate came back from his hamstring injury initially thru the reserves also.

I just quickly checked up on it, and correct me if i'm wrong, but Newton hasn't played a match of football, thru injury and/or suspension and the break for the All-Stars match, since the Zeb's played Box Hill on April 20th. 6 weeks?

It would be thru no fault of Bailey's that Newton, if fit, is not playing for Sandy 1st's - I'd imagine Sandy won't want to go into a match 'carrying' a player who is returning from an injury break. VFL Premiership points would be far more important to SFC than easing MFC youngsters back from injury.

Hopefully something the club can have more say in with the upcoming Casey VFL-affiliation in '09.

Hopefully available tomorrow afternoon!

Cheers...

Very keen to see if Newton is fit, and named in the Zeb's 2nd's squad or not.

The days of big bodied forwards are NOT over.

Jonathan Brown, Travis Cloke, Pavlich, as well as Hawkins, Lynch (although not nearly the standard of the others mentioned) are all 100+ kilograms

True.

But one thing that Brown, Cloke and Pavlich, and Richo, have that sets them apart from the big forwards the game's seen in the past, and what makes them great now, is they are athletic, have big motors and are willing to run and present up the ground all day, and push back towards goal just as hard. Key position defenders at AFL level, more than ever, need athleticism and endurance over bulk. Gorrilla FB's like Ben Holland are a thing of the past, because gorilla forwards like Rocca and Q.Lynch are becoming rarer and rarer...

I just wrote to the Footy Show with the following letter via Sam's Mailbag.

Please direct this to Garry Lyon.

Dear Legend,

Further to your comments regarding the MFC's alternative strip last Monday on Footy Classified, a number of Demons fans have been coming up with alternative strips for the MFC on the Demonland Fan website.

Please click on the following link to see a few of the more popular designs, http://demonland.ugbox.net/forum/index.php...=10415&st=0.

Clearly the one in all red, with blue MFC logo and blue numbers is far superior and is gaining considerably far more support on the fan websites than the absolute trashbag second rate rubbish our club has come up with.

Can you please show this on the Footy Show and request the club and the AFL to allow us to immediately change to something more atune to our traditionally colours before our club implodes.

I would also propose we would wear red shorts and red socks or blue shorts and blue socks or a mix when required depending on who we play.

Can we please get some common sense in our club?

It can't be that difficult.

Regards Haydo.

Looks like it didn't get on tonight. At least the AFL have let up, and the jumper has been scrapped.

Bazza, do u have the reserves sides too?

Interestingly, Newton again not named to play for Sandy this weekend.

Though he may be coming back from injury thru the reserves, as i haven't seen that team yet. Hope he plays some football this weekend.

People keep saying that Benny is our best option on Rocca, but he's only beaten him once to my knowledge and that was in the same game last year when Rocca played on only one leg. Benny is far too slow and immobile to play in defence any more. His biggest weapon (besides his heart) is his contested marking. His only position now is in the forward fifty.- still he's not picked so it's irrelevant, and so for that matter is Rocca, who the Pies no longer rely on.

I agree wholeheartedly. The days of Ben Holland playing on the gorrilla's down back are over. The rest of his season should be about fast-tracking our young KPP's as much as possible. However, i thought selection may have had other ideas as there is still no-one else on our list who could physcially match Rocca one-on-one strength-wise, other than PJ, who Bailey has named as a possible full-time forward this week.

Although terrible for my dream team side, Heath Shaw has shown tightly checked, he doesn't get the footy. Perhaps Dunn is the best option. Has had quite a few run with roles in the middle and has also had the experience of playing up forward, which adds the potential of hurting Shaw the other way.

Now that i think about, is probably the most likely reason Dunn was not dropped this week. He hardly did enough to warrant automatic selection IMO, for reasons other than match-ups.

Rivers must play forward. PJ too rest there when not rucking.

I'm not competely against the idea, and if we're gonna try radical things, 2008 is the time to do it.

But Rivers has never shown any real promise as a forward, played all his junior footy down back, and would be "robbing Peter to pay Paul" so to speak, as he is too important and too good in his role in the back half, to be played in the forward half as a mediocre forward.

PJ could very well go back onto Rocca

I've thought the same thing a couple of times this week, and with Ben Holland not named in the squad, it now seems more likely. Bar Ben Holland, PJ is physically our best defensive option for Rocca. Warnock/Rivers/Garland are nowehere near strong enough, and Carroll doesn't have the height to compete overhead.

Having said that, PJ was one of the first named by DB to be given an opportunity in the forward half in his press-conference. Although i suppose you cant believe everything AFL coaches say in the press.

Surely Bartram will be retained to play a tagging role on Heath Shaw? He starts all of Collingwoods attacks with his drive, and I went to the Collingwood-West Coast game last week (call it forward scouting), and Wet Toast played Selwood on Shaw as a forward-pocket tagger, kept him to 4 posessions in the first 3 qtrs before being shifted down back to his more natural position. While it didnt affect the result, it made the Pies clearances from their defensive half more unorthodox than normal.

You'd think we'd learn after last weeks debacle in the first half of Gram and Fisher roaming free that dominant attacking half-back flankers need to be accounted for. Bartram had a go for a short while last week, but it was too late, the Saints defenders already had a full head of steam up.

I once suggested Daniel Bell for that role of 'negating half-forward' here, and was laregly shut down by the majority of posters, who felt it was an unneccessary role. I agree that Shaw, and players of his type in modern-footy (with attacks being launched off HB more than ever), need to be shut down. Would certainly have been a handy ploy last week with Gram and Fisher doing as they pleased off HB and thru the corridor. FWIW i think Bell would be more suited to the HF flank-tag-role than Bartram-- as he has the size, a better mark and more reliable skills-- to make himself dangerous the other way. But he is not in the side, so Bartram would probably be best bet for that role. I'm not surprised that Bell was dropped, but Bartram has to be on thin ice too after recent performances (apart from his good game on McLeod).