Melon22

The big men dominated for the Calder boys today, Kovacevic dominated the ruck and the calder mids took advantage. Wright looks to have suffered a minor knee injury as well for Calder going into next week. Demon watch Jake Lovett got a lot of the ball especially first half but was a bit wasteful today with his disposal.

This is a very surprising move and I believe the wrong call. No real problems with these guys playing but why should Hawthorn be able to put these guys into a competitive game while the other clubs cant?? I'm sure North would love to play some guys on the fringe of selection as well especially any north ballarat players who haven't played for 3 weeks. It seems that Hawthorn has got it pretty good and has friends at AFL Victoria.

Hi Jack, I'll be heading down to watch, It's been a very entertaining finals series so far with only 1 blowout.

Should be another good day of footy at Princess Park on Sunday, hopefully the sunny and light winds weather prediction holds and we can watch some really good footy. 2nd Semi Final 11:30am Sunday 7th September Geelong Vs Dandenong These 2 teams faced off just 2 weeks ago with Geelong running out winners by 10 goals, Patrick McCartin is set to miss which should slightly even the teams out but I believe Geelong has too much class and should beat out Dandenong. Jake Lovett has been named on the extended bench again for Dandenong and hopefully will play on the weekend. 1st Semi Final 2:15pm Sunday 7th September North Ballarat Vs Sandringham Sandringham have the edge with a very talented team and should account for North Ballarat this weekend, Angus Brayshaw has been named in the centre for the Dragons.

Don't want to raise panic, Hogan is off with a knee injury. Went straight off at the 10min mark. Think it may be just jarred knee hopefully, being assesed by the doctor now.

Jack Viney's last 10 mins will stick with me as one of the great grand final peformances that I have seen. just magic.

Open game, some of the stoppages are shockingly open as some of the midfielders struggle with the tempo.

Ralph has said nothing that isn't true, anyone that has watched him closely in the VFL this year will agree that this isn't an isolated incident about workrate. I don't think anyone is saying he can't make it but he needs to improve his defensive side to his game significantly if he wants to keep his spot in the senior team. Also his form improvement at Casey has coincided with a move from defense to the midfield and straight away his output went up and he has been averaging around 30 possies per game for the last couple of months. He played in defense on Friday night and looked like he did earlier in the year for Casey playing in defense where he was unimpressive.

From what I saw Scully might need another week in the VFL, I don't think he played in the last quarter but I could be wrong. He started like a house on fire but seemed to run out of steam a bit and with a six day break it might be a bit too much to ask. Strauss, Gawn and Howe are the players for me that will push for selection. 2 really good games in a row for Howe will surely put him close.

I think he has been great today, he would have about 10 effective kicks so far.

Scully was easily Casey's best in the first quarter with howe a clear second, if I would have to guess scully would of had 10 posses and three to four tackles in the first qtr alone. Willy's very experienced forward line of Vespremi, Grant and hahn were on top of their defenders and casey were unable to beat the press that was put on. The second quarter Casey started to win more of the centre clearances and The Casey defence got well on top of their more experienced opponents. BLease played in the middle for that quarter and I thougt it was his best qtr I have seen from him, he capped it off with a very nice snap on the run for a goal. Howe, Strauss and Mcdonald are the others that have impressed so far. Btw no breeze to Speak of.

Half time Willy 7.7.49 to Casey 7.4.46

Great casey comeback. Willy 5.6.36 to casey 4.2.26

This kid is the real deal, first time I saw him play he bagged back to back goals from 50m out on the boundary. It certanitly left an impression on me and he has managed to step up this year with massive expectations. Looking forward to seeing him in the U/18 champs.

A very enjoyable day for any Melbourne supporter at the game today, the sun cancelled out the strong icy wind and every Melbourne player contributed to the big win. It must be said that Casey had 14 Listed players to 2 or 3(I wasn't paying much attention) for North Ballarat with Pratt the only notable player for the kangaroos playing. All day Casey was able to play the game on their terms with only a 10 minute period in the third quarter where Nth Ballarat looked to threaten Casey's Dominance.

Casey's backline is dominating,Joel Macdonald, Nicholson and Jetta have probably Casey's bes but all the Dees have done well so far. Casey is moving the ball very well and are putting good pressure on North Ballarat.

Game One: Dandenong Stingrays v Calder Cannons In a day full of surprise results the first surprise of the day for me was finding the Eastern Freeway completely blocked at Bulleen Road forcing me to miss the first quarter and a bit of the Dandenong Stingrays v Calder Cannons game. When I did finally get to Visy Park, I was entertained by very high standard with game some very talented players on display. Dandenong was on top early with its run from defence and its precise kicking was very impressive, while Calder looked a little a bit outclassed with Dandenong’s defence well on top. At half time Dandenong had a handy lead of 17 points and, after Luke Parker kicked the first goal of the second half, Dandenong looked to have the running and appeared to be well on top of Calder. However, Calder regained its composure and kicked a couple of goals in quick succession, the entire momentum of game changed with the Cannons making all the play and the Stingrays starting to miss targets. Calder went on to take a 8 point lead at ¾ time. The final quarter was a continuation of the third with Calder kicking away with a Tom Lynch consolation goal the only major of the quarter for Graham Yeats' Stingrays who will be bitterly disappointed not to have made their third consecutive Grand Final. One of the highlights of the match was the duel between prospective first round draft picks Matthew Watson and Tom Lynch in the second half. While Lynch is the more athletic player, Watson made an impact on the contest to either get an important tap or make enough body contact to at least break even and to allow his teammates to come in for support. Lynch started to push higher up the field the more Dandenong struggled to get the ball out of defence. Watson allowed him to run up the field and this gave the Cannons player the space to become an outlet for his team and allowing him to use his penetrating left foot to set attacks. Late in the game Lynch was able to take a couple of contested marks on Watson and to kick a goal in what was a very even contest where both players had their moments of brilliance and showed why they are so highly rated. Dandenong’s Luke Parker was playing well until he was involved in a nasty head clash early in the last quarter and was unable to return to the field. Up until that point, he was important in the stoppages with his bullocking work and clean hands around the contests. His ability to get forward and kick a goal was sorely missed in the last quarter by Dandenong and his absence was one of the reasons for a disappointing fade out. The other player who impressed me but who wasn’t named in Dandenong's best was Jake Batchelor who was one of the few players who continued to run even when Calder was well on top. While he isn’t the most skilled player he gave everything to get his team back in the game. For Calder, I was very impressed by defender Cameron Guthrie after half time when he provided some great run out of defence. His ability to win the contest and run off his opponent was crucial to turning the tide of the match towards his team's favour. Luke Mitchell, the power forward for Calder didn’t have a big influence on the day but he continued to present all day and worked hard for his team which is one of his main strengths of his game and was important for the Cannons' structure. The Bulldog-bound duo of Wallis and Liberatore were good without being outstanding. They were outshone by their Vic Metro teammate in Dion Prestia who got his team going and was Calder’s best player on the day. Calder Cannons 2.2.14 4.6.30 9.9.63 13.13.91 Dandenong Stingrays 4.3.27 7.5.47 8.7.55 9.10.64 Goals Calder Cannons Schroder 3 Kefford 2 Sullivan 2 Prestia 2 Mitchell Meli Guthrie Williams Dandenong Stingrays Parker 2 Curren Lynch Elton Buntine Hallahan Tagg Treloar Best Calder Cannons Prestia Guthrie Sullivan Sheridan Ellis Williams Dandenong Stingrays Elton Shiel Amalfi Treloar Gent Lynch Game Two: Oakleigh Chargers v Gippsland Power The Oakleigh and Gippsland match had very similar storyline to the first game. The Chargers started the stronger of the two sides and looked like the team most likely with more talent on the park than Gippsland. Potential first rounder Andrew Gaff and Tom Schneider were running rampant with Gaff’s kicking into forward line particular damaging. Gaff was seemingly running on his own in the first half and he was ably supported by Max Otten, Sam Crocker and Alex Browne who were controlling the back half for Oakleigh. After half time though it became the Dyson Heppell show who through his dominance got the other Gippsland boys involved. Jed Lamb started to get busy and Tim Northe and Dean McDonald (who played for Casey Scorpions during the year) kicked important goals to steal a win for the Power in what was a major upset. Morrish Medallist Heppell was brilliant. His was one of the most dominant displays by one player in match that I have seen; he finished with 40 disposals, 9 clearances, 8 marks, 11 inside 50’s and 1 goal. What makes these statistics even more impressive was the fact the nearest Gippsland player had only 20 possessions. But it wasn’t just the quantity of the Heppell’s possessions- it was the timing, whenever Gippsland needed a mark or clearance Heppell would be there to make it happen and it was awesome to watch. Lamb has tremendous pace and skill but it was his tenacity and his attack on the ball that impressed me the most. The desperation for the contest he showed in the last quarter was something that I hadn’t seen from him before. While his finals campaign has been okay, he is a big time player and I am looking forward to watching him on the big stage of the Grand Final. The other player from the Power that impressed me was MacDonald who was competitive across half forward. He has a penetrating right foot kick which he used affectively for two goals. For Oakleigh the clear for me was Schneider, even though he strangely wasn’t even named in the official best he picked up 40 possessions and was the one player in the last quarter who was uncompromising at the contest for Oakleigh when some of his team mates had dropped off. While his disposal isn’t the best, his ability to get the footy isn’t in doubt and he capped off a wonderful finals series where he had 44, 32 and 40 possessions in three games. Gaff’s first half was great switching between a midfield and forward role he was an important link man and got a lot of the ball. But alarmingly when the game started to turn in Gippsland’s favour he went missing and wasn’t able to influence the contest enough. I still thought it was his best game of the finals campaign and to finish with 30 touches in a preliminary final is good performance. Otten was very important for Oakleigh in the first half with his composure and run off half back but like a lot of his team mates his influence after half time was diminished. So it's on to the grand final where two unlikely opponents are pitted against each other. At the end of the regular season Gippsland was 6th and Calder 7th. Oakleigh Chargers 4.4.28 8.6.54 10.8.68 14.9.93 Gippsland Power 2.5.17 4.8.32 8.13.61 14.20.104 Goals Oakleigh Chargers Johnson 4 Gordon 2 Crocker Batsanis Gaff Tomlinson Karnezis Tyson Schneider Michie Gippsland Power Wyatt 2 MacDonald 2 Northe 2 Deery 2 Hoghton Bugg Smith Salton Heppell Lamb Best Oakleigh Chargers Cassidy Johnson Gordon Crocker Gaff Harris Gippsland Power Heppell Lamb Northe Wyatt Deery Ross

Hi, just thought I would a start up a thrread about the TAC Cup Preliminary Finals this Saturday at Visy Park (Princess Park). We have Dandenong v Calder in a rematch of last's years Grand Final in what promises to be the game of the year. These two teams have shown the best form in the finals series thus far and it's a shame that they meet in the Preliminary Final and not the Grand Final because I believe these are the best two teams in the competition by a fair way. The other game is Oakleigh v Gippsland, this game looks just as even as both teams came from behind to beat their opponents last week and it should be an evenly matched game. The teams are listed here The Dandenong and Calder are teams are chock full of talent and it should be great to watch furure AFL stars go head to head. I am really looking forward to watch this weekend's games and am just hoping that the weather holds off so we get to see their skills at their best. I will post a report on how some of the prospects that we have been talking about in the forum played after the match. I'm tipping a Dandenong v Oakleigh Grand Final for what it's worth.

I left 15 minutes into the second qtr and Casey being belted by box hill reserves.

Box Hill won the reserves by 53 pts. Blease didn't get a lot of the ball, but was all class when he did. Probably the only Casey player to consistently hit targets. Healey was good in the clinches and attacked the ball well. Gawn only played the first half but was extremely good against handy opponents.

Half time at the ressies it's Box Hill 7.5.47. To Casey 3.8.26. Good effort by Casey In the second quarter to peg back the hawks after they kicked 7 goals unanswered in the first quarter. Healey, Blease and Gawn all playing. Assuming that Stef is playing seniors.

Actually all 18 starters are Hawthorn listed players, Shane Savage is a hawthorn player as well just not bolded. It helps that they only have 1 player on the injury list in Max Bailey.

Casey win by 6pts

3/4 time, scoreboard finally working. Sandy 9.8.72 to Casey 8.6.54.

Half time. Casey 5 goals to Sandy 5 goals I think as there is no working scoreboard here for the reserves. Blease involved in the play and has had clean disposal but hasn't had a lot of influence on the game. Stef didn't get any of the ball when he was playing forward but dominated the ruck in the last 10 min of the quarter. Took a big mark just before half time which was very pleasing. Very spiteful game with fights everywhere