RalphiusMaximus

Upgrade Magner with Grimes to the LTI. Problem solved.

I have noticed this with our group. You can add a few guys who are quietly going about their business at Casey, getting some successive games in for the first time in their careers and playing together as a unit. They are also executing the gameplan better then the senior side from all reports. We should start to see a few more of these players filtering into the side and pushing for a regular spot as the year progresses and then next year Hogan gets to join them, having already built a good understanding with a number of his teammates at Casey. Despite the fairly horrible season we're having, I do have a degree of optimism. I just think it may not happen this year. Spencer was killed all over the ground. He didn't have the physical presence to stand up to Warnock and Hampson. Jamar isn't in AA form anymore, and he struggles to be the mobile link man around the ground, but he can at least hold his own physically. Spencer didn't have any more possessions than Jamar and was far less use in the ruck.

Not only was Spencer killed in the ruck, he was bullied around the ground. He's getting to be a big unit, but he couldn't stand up to the Carlton rucks. GC have a couple of huge rucks on their hands who will be more than happy to run through him at every opportunity. Jamar is a better option to stand up to that sort of physical attack.

The bungle was in trading for him at all. Pedersen is a lemon. Has ok hands, is an ok kick, slow and with no footy smarts at all. I'm perfectly happy to see him on the sidelines.

I was very happy with Dunn's game, but I don't like them using him as a tagger again. This is exactly what happened to him under Bailey and nearly destroyed his career. Now that he's done a good shutdown job they'll start to throw them at him every week.

I saw embarrassing turnovers, poor decisions and players refusing to attack the ball and instead trying to tackle the guy who did. I saw our two future rucks get smashed all over the ground. I saw pathetic efforts by our forwards. Let's not kid ourselves, we were pretty bad today. The skill errors were cringe-worthy and some of the contests our players gave would be lucky to be called half-hearted. Fortunately, this was to be anticipated and I was well prepared to face these occurrences. I do wonder what will happen next week. GC have a very good midfield and their forwards are in great form. We should be able to stretch their back line if we can get the ball in there though.

In: Jetta, Fitzpatrick, Jamar, Dawes Out: Grimes, Spencer, Nicholson, ? I want to see if we can't stretch the Suns' defence with two legitimate talls plus a resting ruck down there. Grimes is obvious with Jetta being an obvious replacement and Jamar isn't listed on the injuries, so if he's fit he comes back in for Spencer. It would be tempting to bring in Magner as well given we can LTI Grimes. Maybe drop Jordie for him if we want to go that way, although he would normally get the role on Ablett.

This is one of the big issues we have right now. Our skills as a team are abysmal. There are a number of players in our starting line-up who can't be trusted to hit targets under little to no pressure. They also show a regrettable tendency to give a short sharp handball to a player who is surrounded by tacklers rather than running the ball into space. We have a number of players who would be fine if only they could be trusted with the ball. Nicholson, McDonald and McKenzie are the worst of these offenders, but not the only ones. They need to be given specialist help to improve their kicking before it really impacts their careers.

I'd love to see a new instruction to umpires. "Only make a call if you actually see it, no guessing!"

I do love watching the Cats play. The Hawks as well. They win games through the skills of their players rather than a rigid and disciplined gameplan (although they have the ability to do that too). It's amazing to see the flare and awareness of their better players and the way they bring their teammates into the play. I really hope that the list we are building will be able to do something similar in the future, although I suspect we are more likely to resemble a Richmond/Collingwood hybrid.

I'd just like to get in early and say that Carlton have thrashed us the last few years. Their speedy brigade of smalls runs all over us and we simply don't have the quick agile defenders to keep up with them. Since we know that this is the case, could we perhaps not have the anguished gnashing of teeth anf lamentations tomorrow evening? Perhaps we could even avoid the calls for an instant sacking of the coach/board/runner/Jack Watts. Just a thought.

I find it interesting that the "recruiters" who have contributed are unnamed, without even an indication of where they work. I somehow doubt that they are high on credibility, otherwise they would have been making a big deal out of the credentials of their sources.

I have two things to say about this squad. 1- Pedersen should be thanking any deity he can think of for the injuries that are keeping him in the side right now. 2- Best of luck to Dean Kent. He's worked hard and earned a call-up. I really hope he does well.

Agree on all counts

I believe at least one plays, but isn't great and not really interested in trying to be.

I just think the biggest issue with that play was the lack of situational awareness. So close to the siren, Bail should never have tried to pass. How often have we seen someone take a mark inside 50 right after the siren? At the end of the quarter, you need to just take the shot, especially when you're only a point down. Realistically, if he'd gone for goal we had at worst a draw. I think the chances of an out of bounds given the target he had to hit were pretty slim. This was one of the few situations where the percentage play was to be selfish and forget the team first mentality.

Dane Swan.

I don't mind Bail taking shots at goal. He obviously learned a big lesson in the Collingwood game a couple of years back where being greedy would have won us the match. If it's close to the siren, take the shot rather than passing, because you never know when it's going to sound.

Can't really argue with these.

I don't know what people are hoping for here. His job is to manage the business side of the club, not make the team play better. He may have an impact and make us a profit, he may do something insane and put us back in debt. Either way, it isn't going to involve the actual team.

A huge thank you to all who have stuck to topic and actually given us information about the game. It's great to hear that some of our project players and recovering injury listers are doing so well and quietly getting themselves back into contention for the AFL while the firsts are struggling so badly. It gives some of us a bit of hope that maybe these guys will be able to step up to the top level and contribute later in the year.

Which tells us what we already know. We actually do have some forwards, but our midfield is poor and can't get the ball to them often enough to matter. We have improved this in the last two rounds, but not enough. They are also allowing too many i50s to the opposition, making our defence look worse than it is.

This exactly. Hardwick, Clarkson and Thompson all had shocking starts to their tenures and slowly turned it around over the course of several years. We need to suck it up and let the man coach. He has told us that the list isn't ready yet, repeatedly. For some reason people can't get their heads around that fact and keep expecting him to pull miracles out. If we did for some insane reason sack him before his contract is up, then why isn't Gary Ayres on the list? The best of the best as far as VFL coaches go, has won multiple premierships with a team that has no AFL players in it. The chances of pulling one of the coaches in the poll are pretty slim, but if you made him an offer to coach at the top level, he'd have to consider it pretty seriously. No matter how bad we are, it's an opportunity to coach at the highest level again.

Neeld said it himself. We are one top midfielder short of what he wants in terms of putting the list together. We need to throw everything at getting one in this year's trade period. I honestly don't care who we get, as long as we manage to snare someone. We have a number of young developing players who could really use that example around the club and Jones could certainly use the help on the field. From there it's just a matter of getting them playing as a cohesive unit.

I was still at work in the first quarter. I only got to see the second half. I'll look forward to watching it once it's up on the AFL site.