w00dy

I thought Dunn was our best today. He had the best 4 quarter effort for mine. He doesn't get a lot of the footy at AFL level, but give him time. One thing he definitely does have, is good disposal by foot, something we definitely lack in our midfield. I think he will make it Lynden... Juice was our best forward in the first half, Miller in the 2nd, mainly during junk time. LJ very exciting, seemed to be a little more consistant than what I'd seen of him previously. Stef Martin pretty quiet, we know he can play back, but was quiet when up forward, and didn't look like getting near it. Hopefully he can improve in this area...

i've got the 2007 annual report on my computer. I can email that to you if you like... Can't seem to find the 2008 annual report though, although I'm sure I've read it... so it was available online...

I agree on Stef... I'm as big a Stef fan as they come. As soon as I saw him play, I was convinced we had a good player. When he almost won the grand final sprint, I was so excited at the prospects of this guy. But they obviously want him to learn to play forward, which I hope they do down at Casey. We already know that he can play back. But if he can learn the craft down forward in the VFL, then he will be a very dangerous player. Keep in mind too, he's played key forward against Hawthorn and St. Kilda. Not exactly easy sides to play well as a deep forward against. Keep the faith, keep teaching the boy, and he'll become a beauty.

Well I haven't always been on board, but he has been harshly done by this year, and deserves more opportunities than he's been given IMO.

I never wanted him to be dropped. His forward line pressure was good at AFL level, as it has been at Casey and he was having shots on goal. Sure, he missed some ones he should've kicked against the Crows, but he was having shots on goal when it was a very tough night for forwards. What I've seen and heard of him since he's returned to Casey, he's still doing all the right things, and has been seriously unlucky to not be playing.

Johnson, Jones, Bennell and Maric also all named on Casey's bench, with Cheney, Newton and Dunn all named on the field... I would've liked to see Juice play, but if he doesn't, I think Watts will stay pretty close to goal for a decent period of the game.

$1300 at the moment

With the reserve reached, by 4pm on Wednesday. There's still a weeks worth of bidding to go. If Jack plays a great game on Monday, this could go for $5,000 easily...

already one on the herald sun website: "Jack-pot: Watts to play against Pies"

that's a good one... the best so far... "That's Watt I'm talkin bout!"

I agree... You can bid on it here! Currently at $650, with the reserve yet to be reached...

Those things would be great to start with, but I think the novelty would wear off. You'd go to the first game in your backyard, but would you go to every game? Probably not. As for the grass roots feel, that's great. But what about kids, how are they meant to see with everyone standing? Even Princes Park has that surburban feel. At the swans game earlier in the year there, you could hear the hits, hear the players talk etc. it was great. We could get a very similar feel there.

anyone dare to guess how much the saviour's jumper will go for in the auction?

Sorry, but you're ridiculously optimistic here. Firstly, it wasn't the MCC, or the people of Carlton who stopped the AFL matches at Princes Park, it was the Carlton Football Club. With a President who had a massive conflict of interest, decided to not hold the AFL to it's contract of hosting games at Princes Park. With the only reason being they were forced to play there by the AFL. They were quite happy for other clubs to play home games there (including us), and rip them off more than Etihad are ripping other clubs off now. Carlton are now offering Princes Park to the AFL as a clean stadium, for other Melbourne clubs to use. All it would require is a small investment from the AFL to get the ground back up to AFL standard, where clubs could sell signage, reserve seats, corporate boxes and reap all the profits from such enterprises. The MCC or the people of Carlton would have no influence on whether games are played there or not. The main stakeholders here, are the AFL, the Carlton football club, and the AFL clubs who could potentially play home games at this stadium. Secondly, while I acknowledge Casey is a great growth area, and this community development is going to be great for the club, Casey fields is so far out of Melbourne, with extremely poor public transport. We've seen how fickle our supporters are when we've played home games at the Dome. Imagine if we were playing in Cranbourne! Our crowds would be at least halved, probably much less I would imagine. I would predict that 20k crowd against Freo would attract about 5k if it were played at Casey, tops... It's a nice idea, if I lived in Cranbourne, I'd love the idea of AFL football being played in my area. But it's nothing more than a pipe dream unfortunately, and I think we'll see us playing a couple of home games against sides like West Sydney and Gold Coast at Princes Park within a couple of years.

Not sure about the NAB cup games being played there... We wanted to have a NAB cup game there this year, but the AFL didn't give us one. We had a NAB challenge match there, but Albany hosted a NAB challenge match, they can play those anywhere. Hopefully the AFL will give us a NAB cup game there in the future. As for premiership season matches, it's often bandied about, but logistically I can't see any premiership season matches being played at Casey fields for at least 20 years, and probably never. How many games a season could possibly be played out at Casey? Two? Three? Surely we would never play any more matches than that out there. The investment required to build a stadium up to AFL standard out at Casey would be $30 - $50 million minimum... Who could justify that type of expenditure to play 2 or 3 games of AFL there a year? I can't see Casey council fronting that cash, I doubt the AFL would invest in a stadium in Cranbourne, and we definitely won't have the coin... That's without even getting started on the location. Just a pipe dream for mine... However all the details of this agreement seem to be positive for both Casey and the club. Look forward to getting it signed off...

they've been playing him on the half back line, to work on the defensive side of his game, so he hasn't been doing anything amazing with the Casey seniors... however soon they will release him back into the midfield where he naturally plays, which will hopefully help improve his form too...

he's playing on a wing at Casey, and people are saying this is where he'll play when he dons the red and blue, but I think he will play more of a forward/centre half forward for Melbourne... he doesn't have the strength to dominate these positions yet, but, he reads the ball so well in the air, and has the pace, that he can still be a dangerous target down forward...

I didn't see it, but not matter how good it is, it's one mark... Juice Newton won mark of the year, doesn't mean he's an amazing player...

And Dunn? Perhaps they've gone to the gold coast as emergencies?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl...1-19769,00.html

McNamara, Watts, Hughes is my order... Danny Hughes wouldn't be far away from senior selection, and will be given games this season I think... Looks good for casey, and with rookies eligible to play AFL in the 2nd half of the season, without a spot being vacated on the list, I think we'll see him playing some matches...

Presidents of both St. Kilda and the Bulldogs raised concerns in the media when they moved to the dome, or very early on in their tenancy. They were howled down by Wayne Jackson, who said they were full of it, and that Docklands was a great thing for both these clubs. It would seem he was the one who was full of it...

True, but totally at our expense... Shows a lack of respect for the club... I don't like it... And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Sheeds was in the final 5 candidates, along with Riley, Hardwick, Connolly and of course Bailey...

Those clubs will survive, the AFL has a responsibility to ensure they do. As long as the AFL is getting paid close to $200 million a season in television rights, all the while the clubs are paying hand over fist to put on these games, and fund a stadium which will eventually end up in AFL hands, the AFL will have to subsidise clubs on the wrong end of a poor stadium deal which was negotiated and organised by them.

no way will this happen... we sell games interstate too... how would we feel if we played 6 of our home games interstate? wouldn't be too impressed I wouldn't think... neither would the bulldogs... plus the AFL wouldn't be satisfied with this arrangement long term, as they want west sydney to have its own side... unless the dogs are about to go Bankrupt, this is no chance of happening...