Nasher

If only the supporters hadn't thought we might win.

Well I've freed myself of an expectation of a win, which is a relief. Hopefully we can at least restore a little bit of respect. What a bitter disappointment.

And yet, we're not. We were on top in the first, no reason we can't get on top again.

I was going to say something similar. It wasn't one long rebuild, it was three - two botched rebuilds and one that finally looks to be bearing fruit. Any club would have to be woefully incompetent to spend as much time in the wilderness as we did (as we were). I reckon only Carlton have been managed as bad as us over the years.

Bennell looked last year to have turned in to a decent player. Even so, I agree that you could hardly say it was a misjudgement that burnt us. He'd be competing with Jetta now, who I am very happy with. Vince and Garlett to me though are examples that all clubs can make gross errors of judgement sometimes, particularly in clubs with "rigid" coaches at the helm (and I think Neeld, Malthouse and Sanderson all belonged in this category). It seems so hard to believe that both players were told they had no future at their clubs. I reckon Roos, Viney and Taylor still wouldn't believe their luck. I sure can't - I was happy with picking up Garlett as an AFL grade goal sneak, but he's an even better player than I thought. I didn't know he tackled and attacked the way he does, and I didn't know his skills translated to five minute blitzes in the midfield with class ball use. Exciting things happen when he is near the ball. And all this basically for free - thanks again Mick. Look forward to hearing he's re-signed soon!

Don't worry. By round 10 Hawthorn will have started an unstoppable roll towards another flag and everything will return to normal. Seriously though, while the game last night was rubbish, it was one game and it happens sometimes. It doesn't undo the good work both these teams have done to get where they are. I'm reluctant to dismiss either side as contenders just on the back of one game, even if that game was awful. It also shows that even decent sides play shocking games sometimes. North were a long way off, but Footscray outdid them for being off the boil. I hope everyone has learned their lesson and I never see a "we won, but we'd never have beaten xxx side playing that way" after a narrow win ever again.

Why use a (sort of) positive thread about one player on our list to take an unprovoked personal swipe at another player who has nothing to do with the topic at hand? Rubbish post.

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.