IvanBartul13

His pressure and effort is great there is no doubt about that. I don't think his detractors will have ever said a bad word about that. The knock on him is that he has killed momentum in games by butchering basically guaranteed goal opportunities. Viney laid 9 tackles in the first half, including some holding the balls, so I'd argue he set the tackling tone, but ANB was obviously good in this regard. The way I saw the game - Harmes, Weideman, Viney, Brayshaw, T.McDonald, Salem, Oliver, Gawn, Lewis, Jetta, Frost Vandenberg were better players and I really thought Oscar McDonald was terrific as well. Thought Neal-Bullen's was a 7/10 game.

Not sure what my football ability has got to do with it but Jay Lockhart might be the one challenging him next year. My point is that Geelong sent their worst their player to him, which is relevant to analyzing his performance, as is the fact we basically dominated the game. But credit to him, zero ball use clangers the last two weeks after 50 previously. It's made him a good player the last two weeks.

He's played well the last few weeks for sure. He is playing far more to his limitations and all of a sudden he isn't panicking as much. My comment was on the backen d of 16 ball use clangers in three weeks, which is almost unheard of in AFL football and he was clearly awful in those games. Against Sydney he had six from 14 possessions - ghoulish. Don't forget he is playing in a very good side and on the weekend he was playing on arguably Geelong's least heralded player, Mark O'Connor so his role was pretty easy let's be fair. Just run to the fall of the ball and clog the ball in and if not, chase and tackle. Terlich (didn''t play every game) and Matt Jones (Jones in particular) carried a big load in their first seasons. Matt Jones as an example had 31 ball use clangers from more disposals in that year compared to ANB's 50 this year. ANB as far as I'm aware leads the league in ball use clangers per disposal and even though he was good on Friday night, it was in a dominant team performance and even still he wouldn't been in the top 12 players of consequence for the Demons on the night IMO. I would probably rate him our 15th best player on the night.

North have another promising ruck, Xerri, on their list and if you actually go club by club there aren't a lot of teams that actually need a first ruckman - and even less if you consider that maybe Preuss wants to live in Melbourne. It may be that we're willing to pay him overs contractually to come and be the insurance policy for Gawn, given it is an obvious hole in the list.

6. James Harmes (went toe to toe and beat the most celebrated midfielders in the competition) 5. Sam Weideman (BOG in the first quarter and played a classy four quarter game as a key forward/second ruck) 4. Jack Viney (incredible tone-setting with his tackling pressure and endeavour/stymied Cats mids) 3. Angus Brayshaw (played low game time first half enabling him to go berserk in the third quarter) 2. Tom McDonald (BOG to half time when the game was essentially won. Cats nullifield him second half) 1. Clayton Oliver (just kept grinding away - 17 contested possessions - freak!)

I wouldn't want him. Isn't a bad player, but isn't the 'elite' ball user he was projected to be and tends to just coast through the games, not having a huge impact but not doing all that much wrong by the same token.

Stocker's a midfielder - pretty solidly built, more inside mid but uses it well - most speculating he will be gone in top thirty. Might be related to Anthony Stocker who was a Demon ruckman in the 90s. Its incredible Walsh only polled 14 votes. Reported to have absolutely dominated at least a half a dozen games this year. Xavier Duursma is the son of Dean Duursma, who was on our list for a few years and is Jamie's nephew - should be drafted.

He simply couldn't be picked on the previous week's game.

He's tiny. Moves a bit like Switkowski who did well for Freo in the last round of the year.

The Crows will surely try and package picks and McGovern for Pick 1. It's an interesting position for Carlton. With Curnow and McKay they don't really have a need for another young key forward. So their decision is to either bypass the best player and go for need (midfielder Walsh) at 1. Take Lukosius as best player available. Or to get multiple picks (8, 15, 19 an example) and have a quantity not quality approach at the draft. They probably have to take Walsh, which then leaves Gold Coast at pick 2 and Pick 3 who the Crows on draft night could try and sway. The Suns desperately need a key forward but the go-home factor concern will be enormous. It's quite interesting. Wouldn't shock me if the Suns take the King brothers at 2 and 3 with Lukosius bizarrely sliding based on non-ability reasonings. But you'd hope they would back their culture in and take him.

I agree with the first bit, particularly in relation to Harmes. I think he was probably rated a bit as a versatile flanker but I don't think they could have foreshadowed him being the powerful inside outside mid with decent finishing ability that he has seemingly become.

Surely King gets delisted.

It wouldn't shock me if he was dropped, he was completely ineffective, but it does leave Pedersen as first ruck and takes him away from a key position berth so perhaps he is injured and played injured last week, explaining his performance. Preuss could only really be the back up ruckman. The one thing with our list is if two of Weideman, McDonald or Hogan were unavailable you could run with Gawn and Preuss in the same side no problems. He is not a skilled forward but he will compete.

there is absolutely no way Mitch King will be kept on the list after last week's performance.

Harmesy very stiff.

He played under 19s for us in 1988. I remember him playing in the reserves that year a few games wearing number 55. I remember because he took one of the best marks I've seen in a reserves game at the G - absolute screamer.

Carlton will get McGovern - they have been trying to get him for the last two years and he's now keen to go there.

6. M.Gawn 5. J.Harmes 4. C.Salem 3. S. Frost 2. C.Oliver 1. M.Hibberd

First time I've had a chance to watch Casey in any kind of meaningful way for a while and there wasn't much too like. Pedersen - when Casey were moving the ball with any sort of fluidity, he looked extremely dangerous, but was too often called on to try and combat Meese in the ruck when others had failed. Kicked three goals, tried his heart out and still remains a very good player at this level. 7/10 King - completely outpointed by Meese in a performance that waxed between horrendous and abysmal. Seemingly did not have the athleticism to leap at ruck contests in any sort of meaningful way and at boundary throw-ins was either manhandled or meekly gave up front position. His few good moments were the odd ground level pick up and neat hand pass but they were few and far between in a very low rating afternoon at the office. 1/10 Petty - had very little influence on the game and seemed to let the match pass by, bar the odd well-executed possession and strong attack on the contest. With Hutchins and Keilty, unable to quell the influences of Rodda and the footballing genius that is Jaylon Thorpe in the second half. A long way away from senior football. 3/10 Garlett - in conditions that suited him, Jeffy played a very good first half, kicking his trademark goals and applying more pressure than in recent times. Faded away in the second half as opportunities to be an influence dried up. But he's given the selectors another option if he can maintain this level of form/intensity. 7/10 Johnstone - his stats are padded by multiple kicks to himself to play on from point kick ins but he had a serviceable game all the same. His kicking was on the whole good and he kicks well off both sides (penetrating right foot/neat short kicking game by left foot) which is pleasing particularly for a defender. The question mark on him is is he nimble to shutdown good AFL quality small forwards because at times he looked a little robotic today both defensively and also in trying to evade trouble with ball in hand. 6/10 Smith - like Pedersen, in the first half when Casey was on top he looked dangerous both at ground level and in the air. Unfortunately, he wasted shots at goal and burned some likely attacking chains. In the second half he seemed to disappear from view like many others. 4/10 McKenna - played quite well in the first half, using the ball nicely and intercepting on occasion. In the second half, he was quite poor, missing an easy shot at goal and making a few disposal and handling errors that were absent from his first half display. To sum him up, you'd say he doesn't do enough for an AFL listed player playing at this level, but he does look a lot heavier and less fleet across the ground than he did in his junior and GWS days so perhaps he is still getting his body right and still adjusting to the tempo. 4/10 Josh Wagner - solid game from Wagner. Made very few mistakes and was by and large tidy quarterbacking across the half-back line. A noticeably good player at the level without being particularly damaging. 6/10 Keilty - thought he was quite good in the first half and took a couple of towering marks, but I was quite disappointed that when Williamstown charged in the second half and the ball was going inside their attacking fifty with regularity that he wasn't able get his clutch some relieving marks - as his forte - and stop Rodda in particular having an influence. 5/10 Lockhart - good little player, versatile, has a dip and has a bit of skill about him. Can see him getting drafted around the 40 mark. The only thing with him is that I wouldn't bother keeping JKH around if he is to be picked up because with Stretch coming back it will push him so far down the queue to getting a game, I don't see the point having him on the list. Corey Wagner - good VFL and had a workmanlike game, but his lack of polish hurt Casey at times. I think he probably deserves another chance on an AFL list as a rookie list, not necessarily at Melbourne though. Hutchins - ran around did a few good things and a few awful things. In the third quarter he was horrible defensively but he shouldn't have been the one competing one v one with Rodda. Regarding his suitability for AFL football, he isn't. Munro cracked in as usual as a negator, Gent was neat at times and Jaxon Briggs had some moments running, carrying and delivering but on the whole the Casey crew were disappointing. Best: Pedersen, Lockhart, Garlett, J.Wagner, C.Wagner, Johnstone.

6. Max Gawn 5. James Harmes 4. Jake Melksham 3. Nathan Jones 2. Angus Brayshaw 1. Clayton Oliver

EIshold was never a regular to the same extent but was a better play and Dunn as a defender (the role he played when he was a regular) is a much much better player. Byrne and Seddon pre-date the time period in question but Byrne was top 10 in a Brownlow and Seddon never played more than 16 games in a year.

He just needed to take possession of Frost kick against Geelong as well! Enough is enough!

Ive watched every game for 30 years and he is the worst MFC player to play every game in a season i can recall

6. James Harmes 5. Angus Brayshaw 4. Dom Tyson 3. Clayton Oliver 2. Christian Salem 1. Tom McDonald

I agree100%. Should say that credit is due for his work ethic and love of the jumper! But that is not enough. he is the worst player ive seen play for Melbourne to play the percentage volume of games he does and today he reprised his north melbourne role of last year - by destroying countless gilt edged scoring opportunities. Only plays decently when we are absolutely dominant and most of it ia fluke IMO