Nasher

This is absolutely awful. It beggars belief that this is 1st vs 2nd.

This thread. From feel good, to close to home humour, to plain old morbid in the space of two pages.

Unless I've misinterpreted, that's not physically possible, clearly not reflected in the data, and King is an idiot.

Indeed - if every single player played equal amount of time on the ground, they'd all end up with 81% TOG. Defenders also usually spend 90% on the ground or more and the really fit ones are closer to 98% (TMac), so there is room to carry a handful of 70% or less players, but only a handful. As midfield/flankers, Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes and Kennedy have all been regular features in this statistic in their games so far this year, I expect Petracca will be too. I wouldn't expect to see all five in the side at the same time in the front half of this year, four at most and ideally only three if we want to maintain balance team balance.

As if we'd have traded pick whatever it was for a player not in our 22. Were you also in the "Lumumba is not in our 22" camp at the beginning of the year, by any chance? There is absolutely no way on Earth two zero-gamers would have been selected ahead of Melksham. He was traded in as a ready to go, clearly AFL grade flanker.

One of Wagner or Hunt would still be at Casey if we had Melksham.

I'm not sure what's so difficult to understand about managing a first year player's workload. It's obvious Oliver is best 22 on ability, but clearly his tank is inadequate at this stage. It doesn't do anyone any good to burn him out. And surely most posters recognise that from the outside, we are in no position to judge what is an appropriate work load for him. I too am disappointed he's not in, but I just have to trust the judgement of those in charge. It would be silly to think that I know better.

We've been dang lucky so far. No injuries to key players (it would be balls if Gawn or Viney got injured, for example), and we've been able to cover the injuries we've had with players in form at Casey who have stepped up as required. It means we can be super-conservative and not rush anyone back needlessly. Happy place to be.

Agreed. At this stage I'd be expecting Pedersen to going around again in 2017 for sure - I can't see the baby forwards at Casey having permanently displaced him before that. The club would be hoping Weideman or Hulett would be pushing for selection in the back end of this season though and a semi-regular part of the team by next year.

7 of those players played last week. 14 are still on the list, though 6 are currently well off the pace now. It's been an amazing turnaround.

Pedersen only has 56 games but he's 29 years old. His scope for further development is limited, not withstanding his low game count. Stop-gap player. I like him and think he'll spend most of this year in the team, but if he makes it to 100 games it's either a fantastic effort, or something has gone very wrong with our developing players (the Kings, Hulett, Weideman etc).

Yep - the moment in my avatar says it all really. It'll be sad irony if Brayshaw makes way for Petracca, but that's life. I agree that it looks pretty likely to happen - if it does, hopefully we get to see the same photo with the positions reversed after the game.

Interestingly Nick pronounces it "Ree-vold", but Jack says "Ree-wolt". It only takes one generation to give in to constant mispronunciation. It's okay to adapt - I believe in pronouncing people's names the way they say I should.

It's not that remote - we're one single injury around him playing next week.

It seems odd to me that we've won two weeks in a row this early in the season, and didn't move from 10th place. The good news is that if we win this week, the worst we can end up is 9th!

They are a consequence of those named in this thread. If you really wanted to traverse the tree all the way down, you could probably name 100 people who have contributed at some level.

Agree on all points. I've been harping on about the strange calls to drop Harmes all thread. I know it's hard when pretty much everyone's in form, but I really think those who reckon he's in the mix to spend time at Casey need to look a bit closer. Brayshaw just looks a step below the pace at the moment. I was in favour of him finding touch in the seniors, but not any more - there are form players demanding a spot in the VFL as well as Matt Jones, who (whether the fans like it or not) will also be part of the discussion if he's recovered from "general batteredness". There's no doubt Brayshaw at his best is best 22, but he's not at his best. Take the pressure off him and let him find form in the 2s.

I normally delete posts like this, but I'd like this one to stay as an example. Not picking on you particularly PG - this has been a gripe of mine for some time. This is a part of the code of conduct applicable to Demonland, but also applicable in general life: people do not want to know about the state of your erection. Ever. It honestly surprises me that people think this is an okay thing to say on a public forum, to strangers. I must have different social standards to others. By the way, if I ever have that Randy Marsh pic appear on my screen at work again, the poster responsible will receive a life ban, no ifs or buts. Sorry to be a grinch in an otherwise great thread. Cheers

While I agree with the "move on" sentiment graz, I've never been a big fan of "I've seen worse" being used as a reason for mitigation.

It was pretty forceful and in the back of the head. Not enough to knock you out, but definitely enough to give you a headache.

Another Harmesnoramus. The only thing more certain than Harmes not being dropped, in my opinion, is Harmes not being dropped for ANB. I could stomach it for a top 10 player, but not for another foot soldier.

First on our tackles ladder though.

Heh, you always know Dean Ku..err Kent won't be far away when there's a blue on either.

Funny how in a matter of seconds the whole world can unravel isn't it? I had admired him up until that point, now this incident will replay in my head whenever I hear his name.

Harmes is currently equal 3rd on our ladder of tackles (with Jetta, behind Bugg and the manic Viney). The club would be well aware of this and understand the value of it - it disappoints me when supporters don't. He can also mark better than most of his size, and can kick a goal. His mistakes come from trying to operate at maximum intensity, not through slow or dumb footy. I reckon the coaches would love him. I thought he was on the peripheral after round 1 but he has dug in since then. Won't be part of the "who do we leave out?" discussion this week.