RalphiusMaximus

Carlton are in their clash strip. Can't you see the white shorts?

Motlop is exactly what we need in our midfield. What we have at the moment is a one-paced ball-winning unit. We're desperate for fast skilled ball-users. Just look how much better our midfield unit looks when Garlett takes a turn in the centre.

It was just pointed out that Alex Fasolo had the same injury as Jack. He also re-injured it and after a long layoff is finally playing well again. Just shows that it is possible to get back to your best after something like this. I hope Jack can recover as well.

Seriously? What possible downside is there? He's contracted outside any regular list, his pay doesn't count towards the salary cap, we don't give up a draft pick to get him and he was one of the best key forward prospects in the country when GC pre-listed him. Why on earth would you not want to give him a try?

Does that help?

Amazing the Saints sacked him really. He's now a handy player and they've spent the last three years desperately searching for a tall forward. While it's good to see other teams have goal-kicking woes, I wish we could have pulled a couple of wins out through sheer weight of scoring like the Crows did.

I quite like it. It's basically the same idea as future draft picks, you can bank some of your cap to use in a couple of years to nab a big gun. This is something that actually will help the bottom sides since they are less likely to be paying 100%.

Amazing how time flies isn't it? For those who don't remember, Keath was a 196-7cm CHF type who was pre-listed by Gold Coast as a seventeen year old. He declined to play for them and signed on with the Bushrangers to play cricket instead. While he had a fair bit of success with the Australian Junior cricket side playing with guys like Pat Cummins, he didn't kick on and has now been cut from the Vic squad. Keath is now eligible to be listed as a Category B rookie, that being a player crossing from another code to play AFL. Despite being an elite junior, he's been out of the game long enough to qualify. This means that he can go to any club he likes outside the draft and be paid outside the salary cap for two years while they see if he's still got his footballing mojo. This is the same path Mark Blicavs took to Geelong. Even though we're reasonably well off for talls, I really hope Melbourne is one of the clubs trying to talk him into crossing back over. AFL article HERE.

Hogan and Garlett are going along nicely. Both are well on target for 40 or so. OF the rest you can excuse the midfielders. You don't expect a goal a game from them and having a good spread who can score is healthy. The real issue on that list is Dawes. He needs to have more of an impact on the scoreboard. Going from 20 goals as our sole forward last year to struggling to make 10 when he has quality help is a shocking effort.

Gawn Unlikely to Leave, or so they tell me. He seems pretty likely to hang around from all the little bits and pieces we hear. There hasn't been much mention in the media of him moving on which is generally a good sign.

As I said, according to the AFL stats this is the case. Feel free to look for yourself. 9 marks, 1 contested. Footywire agree. Funnily enough, Cale Hooker took the four CM I said he needed and is now in second behind Hawkins. Amazing what happens when you bother to look stuff up instead of posting mindless snark, isn't it?

We kicked ourselves out of both games. Three weeks we kicked 7 goals 18, 8 goals 12 and 6 goals 10. You can't win games with conversion like that. Even in the collingwood game we only broke even at 13.13. So many easy shots missed, it is going to cost you games and that's just what it did.

He's also quicker than I thought he was, which is nice to see.

Mystery withdrawal. Probably has a bug of some sort.

Agreed. Plus a goal. That's as much impact as Stretch had in a few games, more than vandenBerg had against the Saints. None of these young players are in the side because they are the best available right now. If we were worried about that then Bail and Matt Jones would be in there. We're giving the kids a run to get them used to the pace and intensity. You saw how important that is when ANB went back to Casey and had 40 disposals. It's about getting them to up their intensity to AFL level so they know what they need to do to earn a spot on their own merits.

I love the effort he puts in. He just throws himself at the contest and holds nothing back. He still needs to work on his skills, but you can't possibly fault the work ethic and he's now had a couple of games and is getting his head around the pace of the game. I think he's going to make it.

I don't think we'll be seeing Salem quite yet. Let him have a bit longer to build up in the two's.

White in the best again. I'm getting more and more excited about this kid. I really want to see him get some senior game time in next year.

North have a very tall forward line. We'll struggle to cover them all. Add to that their strength in the ruck and I think we need Fitz to come in. He's been very solid at Casey for quite a while. I'm not really sure who would come out for him.

I thought it was just an airplane. Could be wrong. Maybe it was a magpie?

I noticed this too. Given that a couple of players were named in both the seniors and the Casey side, I assumed that when the final team was put up he'd be there, but it is a bit of a kick in the teeth for a young guy who's playing really well that they keep listing him on the fringes of the Casey side. Given the way he's played lately he certainly deserves the token acknowledgement of being named in the starting line-up.

I was just looking this up. Footywire has Hogan and Garlett on 32 goals each. I don't think that includes today. Two forwards on track for 40+ goals is unheard-of for us.

Release The Kraken!

Second behind Hawkins as of last round. Both are credited with one this round according to the AFL stats, so that won't change. Cale Hooker needs 4 to overtake him.

I get the impression that he's finally figured out how big and strong he really is. He seems to be looking for contact instead of avoiding it. He's not afraid to get hit any more.