MadAsHell

About 4 hours ago Sylvia twittered or whatever it is asking if anyone can recomend any hotels in Sydney to stay as he's heading up there for a few days this weekend. Now I know his season's over due to suspension and he's entitled to a personal life. However it just caught my eye as odd that he's heading up this weekend while the rest of his team are finishing up for the season in Adelaide and Casey are playing finals. Talks with GWS or Sydney? Who knows??? It just caught my eye that's all, especially with him out of contract. Curious as to if it caught anyone elses eye?

IN: Bail, Petterd OUT: Jurrah (inj), Morton FB: Frawley, McDonald, Bartram HB: Garland, Rivers, Bennell C: Bail, Moloney, Scully HF: Green, Watts, Petterd FF: Martin, Howe, Jetta FOLL: Jamar, Trengove, McKenzie INT: Blease, Jones, Tapscott SUB: McNamara EMERG: Davey, MacDonald, Morton This way we can take along all 3 emergencies to Adelaide while not effecting Casey's finals as none of the 3 listed are eligable anyway. As of the following week, all of McDonald, Jetta, Blease & McNamara can return for Casey's remaining VFL finals.

Agree 100% dee-luded. We had a really good relationship with Sandringham and we never seemed to pull our players on them. I clearly remember players like Sylvia, Bell, Armstrong etc playing in winning grand finals with the Zebras. Since our first year of the alignment we've been pulling players on Casey once finals come around. I remember German cracking it big time when we only made 3 players available for the 2009 elimination final v The Filth. We've got about 16 players eligable to play finals with Casey this year. I'd only expect about 12 to play next week due to Melbourne playing interstate, but after that I'd like to see all eligable players being made available for Casey.

1. Mick Malthouse 2. Paul Roos 3. Ross Lyon 4. Mark Williams 5. Dean Laidley 6. Rodney Eade 7. Dennis Pagan 8. Gerald Fitzgerald 9. Mark Neeld 10. Peter German I didn't include Matthews as he's previously said anyone who'd take the Melbourne job would have to be mad. Figures that rules him out.

According to my records (and KC can correct me if I'm wrong), the Melbourne listed players eligible to play finals with Casey are:- Bate Blease Campbell Cook Davis Dunn Fitzpatrick Gawn Jetta Johnston Lawrence T McDonald McNamara Maric Nicholson Warnock I think both Howe & Joel Mac missed out by 1 game each.

Thanks KC. Really is a brilliant story that Kyle has been able to come back from this to make it back into the seniors. The Scorpions sure have missed his leadership out on the park aswell as his grunt and contested work in the middle over the best part of 2 seasons. Another thing that shouldn't be forgotten also is how well the Casey FC have played over this time, with the departures of players like Silvagni & Faulks to compound the loss of Matthews through injury. James Wall really has been fantastic stepping up in Kyle's absence and Casey have been great with the support they've shown Kyle. Fingers crossed Kyle plays a good game on the weekend and Casey can notch a win for him and secure that all important double chance.

1) A 2nd round pick in a weak draft which is likely to be in the mid to late 30's and an unproven and underachiving Morton for a premiership player, very good midfielder to help out with our lack of leadership who's still 27 sounds like a great deal to me. 2) What you said about Rohan many could use the same to comment on Sylvia. Rohan's at least younger with more potential. 3) Jamie Cripps, young goal sneak who kicked at least 1 goal in every game he played with St. Kilda this year before he got injured. Something that we need.

Ross Lyon would be the perfect fit at Melbourne. He's defensive minded, but at the same time he's smart enough to know that with Melbourne playing at the G we wouldn't be able to play their lock down style play at Docklands to the same extent. With the MCG being a much bigger ground more of a balance between attack & defence will be needed. Ross Lyon is a smart enough man to come up with a suitable game plan that will work for us at the G. He's uncompromising and demands the most out of his players. Fingers crossed with so much coaching experience at Etihad he could actually get us to win a few games there also! While Malthouse, Clarkson & Roos are still the top 3 on my wish list, Lyon wouldn't be far behind.

Leadership group next year to consist of: Grimes Jones McKenzie Moloney Rivers Scully Trengove Watts Rivers to be given the captains role for 2 years with Moloney as vice captain before handing over to one of the younger generation from there. Preferably Trengove as captain and Watts as vice captain.

Any of the below trades I'd be happy with. Morton to Port for Pittard. Morton to Port for Salopek. Morton & Our 2nd round pick to Port for K. Cornes. Morton & Our 1st round pick to Port for Butcher. Sylvia & our 1st round pick to Adelaide for Dangerfield & their 2nd round pick. Sylvia to Adelaide for Sloane. Sylvia to Adelaide for Walker & their 1st round pick. Sylvia & Morton to Sydney for Rohan & Johnston. Bate to St. Kilda for Cripps. Warnock & 2nd round pick to Brisbane to for Black who comes to Melbourne as captain!

Great minds HT. I'm with you 100% on that one.

Viney certainly sent a message which I was pleased to see. If he wants to be captain next year he'll need to play 2 blinders in the next few weeks. Then we again go to the debate of who gets the gig? As I've said on another thread I'd give it to Rivers on the understanding that it's for no more then 2 years before handing it over to one of our young stars. Preferably Trengove, Watts or Grimes.

As I said, I was only calling for him to be dropped so he qualifies for VFL finals. He's certainly earned enough runs on the board to be allowed a quiet game.

My top 10 are. 1. Mick Malthouse, Alastair Clarkson or Paul Roos coming in with quality assistants. 2. Myles Sewell or Kane Cornes. 3. Brendan Fevola. 4. Our players to committ to the club. 5. If we loose Colin Sylvia or Tom Scully we replace them with someone like Dale Thomas who wants to follow their coach to our club. 6. When we play Geelong next year (hopefully round one) our players draw a line in the sand. Not necessarily to the violent extent Hawthorn did, but with the some aggression shown towards the ball and any opposition player with the ball. 7. A top 4 finish. 8. A playing list that is fit and not having to play players when they're under done (Tom Scully, Aaron Davey, Liam Jurrah, Mark Jamar and even James Frawley at the start of the year). 9. A united club, meaning players, admin and board. 10. Our club president kicking strong next year watching the dramatic improvement.

Probably right RR. I do find it unlikely, more wishful thinking. IMO it was those sort of actions taken by Melbourne towards Casey leading into the VFL finals of 09' that I reckon probably first started to rock the boat of their relationship...

IN: Bail, Jetta, McDonald, Tapscott OUT: Davey (susp), Sylvia (susp), Howe, MacDonald My reason for dropping Howe & MacDonald are that both of them & Dunn need to play 1 more match with Casey to qualify for VFL finals, and with next week being the VFL's final round and our season being dead and burried I say let's at least try and claim some VFL silver wear. FB: Frawley, McDonald, Bartram HB: Garland, Rivers, Tapscott C: Bail, Moloney, Scully HF: Jurrah, Watts, Petterd FF: Martin, Green, Jetta FOLL: Jamar, Trengove, McKenzie INT: Bennell, Blease, Jones SUB: Morton EMERG: Davis, Maric, Nicholson *Davis to be our non playing emergency.

My wife was extremely ill yesterday, causing this to be the first match in Melbourne that I missed for the year. To clarify missing the match was the positive, not that my wife was ill.

Thanks for the report KC. By the way what do you think would be best for Casey for first week of the finals? Finish 4th and take on an undefeated Port Melbourne (most likely at TEAC Oval) where more then likely we'll struggle to get up, especially seeing as Melbourne's match that week is interstate meaning Melbourne may take over more then 1 of the emergencies. But having the double chance can always rebound the following week. Or finish 5th and take on a less then impressive Box Hill or Sandringham where Casey should win(but are facing elimination straight away) and build some confidence going into the semi finals? Below is my take on how the Melbourne players fared. I also posted it on the Casey-v-Werribbe match day thread. Reserves: Cook: Didn't play which was a shame as he was the one I was looking forward to watching the most. Johnson: Played a pretty solid game. Nothing outstanding but covred a lot of ground and was certainly amongst the best. Will be vying for Casey seniors selection come finals time. Wonaemirri: Was lively early and gave off the handballs that directly resulted in our first & third goals. Did his ankle early in the 2nd term when running down a Werribee player. Was down for some time, tried to get up but then went straight back down again. Didn't look good and I wouldn't be suprised if that's his season but fingers crossed! Seniors: Bail: For is first game back was really good and I fogot how much we're missing him. Seemed to be mainly playing across half back and was behing a lot of Casey's counter attacks when running the ball out of defence. Would think he'd play at least one more game at this level before coming back into the AFL but he's certainly put his name up for consideration. Bate: Was good today Bate playing across half forward. Kicked one really nice goal on the run in the 1st and took some really good strong contested marks which I find frustrating as he can never do it with Melbourne. I still think he may have some (but not much) currency on the trade market. Campbell: Combined well with big Maxy Gawn in the ruck to have the better of McIntosh, although I still think Werribee won the clearances. Think he'll probably end up on an AFL senior list next year but not ours. Davis: Didn't see a lot of him but what he did he seemed to do well. Moves really well for a guy his size. Fitzpatrick: One of my favourites. Didn't have the impact I was hoping for bit I still like what I see. He's lightning quick for a guy his size. Kicked a really nice goal in the 2nd term and twice in the last he turned his opponent inside out near the boundary line in our forward 50 resulting in 1 poster and 1 out of bounds on the full. Another pre-season and watch out. Took a couple of nice marks around the ground. Gawn: Played well I thought and again combined with Campbell they had the better of McIntosh. Out of the three ruckmen I thought big Maxy did the most around the ground. Although on one bad note he missed a sitter of a set shot in the 3rd term and on a lighter note at one stage in the last term when I'm sure he was having a snap from our pocket the ball ended up being marked by another Casey player about 40m out on the opposite flank.. How he kicked it there I have no idea, haha. Jetta: Was very good rotating through the midfield and forward line. Kicked 2 really nice goals and hit fev on the cheast a couple of times which looked really good. Again his tackling was great and how he isn't in Melbourne's team this week I don't know? Lawrence: Had a fantastic 1st quarter kicking two goals and laying plenty of tackles and putting on a lot of pressure. I reckon he'll certainly stay on the rookie list next year and could be a roughy to land our roving forward pocket role. Needs to improve his fitness base to run out games but I like what I see with him. Just needs to keep himself involved throughout the game. Maric: Was good. Seemed to rotate between the forward line and midfield . Again he's frustrating cause you can see he has the ability to be as good as someone like Stephen Milne but I just don't know if he wants it that badly. McDonald: Started poorly, made a couple of mistakes and looked like Daw was going to run him around in Werribee's forward line. Was taken off Daw and then played solid game playing across half back. Did well after a poor start. McNamara: One of our best today in the midfield. Used the ball well and went in hard. Was probably our leading clearance player. I reckon he has the tools to make it at AFL level, if it's with us it'd be in Cale Morton's role, although McNamara uses it better then Morton and goes harder also. I'm concerned another team might snatch him though and capitalise where we'll miss out. Highlight for me today was Tommy Mac running down Majak Daw in the middle of the ground in the last quarter and catching him holding the ball when it looked like he was about to have one of his customary run and bounce goals. Nicholson: Was good today I thought and still reckon was unlucky to get dropped. Had a couple of really good runs where he left his opponent for dead setting up some attacking plays. His defensive efforts were good and I reckon he'll be a good player for us. Warnock: Played a good solid game at FB as he always seems to. Think he was on McKinley and I have no doubt he'll be picked up by someone next year. Some Casey Players: Fevola: Kicked 6 and I would of said until the last quarter played the good team game. Had given off some good handballs and created space for other forwards for most of the game. However late in the match (when 50+ points up) he seemed to get very agitated. Gave away a couple of silly free kicks and swore quite adamantly after missing a shot and then after having a ball kicked into him where the delivery was poor. Was a bit of the Fevola of old which was concerning, as I hadn't seen it all season and being 50 odd points up I didn't see the point in it. Was in the process of being dragged when the final siren sounded which was good to see that Gotch had seen enough. I'd still like to see Melbourne take a punt on him, although I wont lie, there were some alarm bells going off inside my head when I saw his last few minutes. Wall: Played a good game today I thought. But more importantly is that I met his girlfriend before the game today and she's really hot!!! Just thought I'd throw that one in there. Edit: Add part about Melbourne's emergencies.

Any insight from your friend into why Collingwood & Geelong for that matters VFL teams struggle when they play a game plan that works so well at AFL level but can't get it done in a lower level. I'm not having a go of that's what it sounds like. I'm just curious as to why both their VFL teams seem to struggle a fair bit.

For selfish reasons I'm happy for the club to stick with Casey. I only live 20 min drive from Casey Fields so it's really convinient for me. Also with MFC having a 30 year agreement with the City of Casey and Casey being a growth area I see the affiliation doing MFC a lot of good. Also don't forget Hawthorn, Carlton and West Coast don't have stand alone teams in the VFL/WAFL so it doesn't automatically equal success. Also St. Kilda have a rather rocky relationship with Sandringham yet they should have won the AFL premiership in 09' and were a ball bounce away from winning it last year so I'm not to concerened about the affiliation as yet. Edit: Changed St. Kilda's VFL team to Sandringham instead of Casey.

Was out at Casey Fields today and saw the Resies and seniors and here were my thougts. Reserves: Cook: Didn't play which was a shame as he was the one I was looking forward to watching the most. Johnson: Played a pretty solid game. Nothing outstanding but covred a lot of ground and was certainly amongst the best. Will be vying for Casey seniors selection come finals time. Wonaemirri: Was lively early and gave off the handballs that directly resulted in our first & third goals. Did his ankle early in the 2nd term when running down a Werribee player. Was down for some time, tried to get up but then went straight back down again. Didn't look good and I wouldn't be suprised if that's his season but fingers crossed! Seniors: Bail: For is first game back was really good and I fogot how much we're missing him. Seemed to be mainly playing across half back and was behing a lot of Casey's counter attacks when running the ball out of defence. Would think he'd play at least one more game at this level before coming back into the AFL but he's certainly put his name up for consideration. Bate: Was good today Bate playing across half forward. Kicked one really nice goal on the run in the 1st and took some really good strong contested marks which I find frustrating as he can never do it with Melbourne. I still think he may have some (but not much) currency on the trade market. Campbell: Combined well with big Maxy Gawn in the ruck to have the better of McIntosh, although I still think Werribee won the clearances. Think he'll probably end up on an AFL senior list next year but not ours. Davis: Didn't see a lot of him but what he did he seemed to do well. Moves really well for a guy his size. Fitzpatrick: One of my favourites. Didn't have the impact I was hoping for bit I still like what I see. He's lightning quick for a guy his size. Kicked a really nice goal in the 2nd term and twice in the last he turned his opponent inside out near the boundary line in our forward 50 resulting in 1 poster and 1 out of bounds on the full. Another pre-season and watch out. Took a couple of nice marks around the ground. Gawn: Played well I thought and again combined with Campbell they had the better of McIntosh. Out of the three ruckmen I thought big Maxy did the most around the ground. Although on one bad note he missed a sitter of a set shot in the 3rd term and on a lighter note at one stage in the last term when I'm sure he was having a snap from our pocket the ball ended up being marked by another Casey player about 40m out on the opposite flank.. How he kicked it there I have no idea, haha. Jetta: Was very good rotating through the midfield and forward line. Kicked 2 really nice goals and hit fev on the cheast a couple of times which looked really good. Again his tackling was great and how he isn't in Melbourne's team this week I don't know? Lawrence: Had a fantastic 1st quarter kicking two goals and laying plenty of tackles and putting on a lot of pressure. I reckon he'll certainly stay on the rookie list next year and could be a roughy to land our roving forward pocket role. Needs to improve his fitness base to run out games but I like what I see with him. Just needs to keep himself involved throughout the game. Maric: Was good. Seemed to rotate between the forward line and midfield . Again he's frustrating cause you can see he has the ability to be as good as someone like Stephen Milne but I just don't know if he wants it that badly. McDonald: Started poorly, made a couple of mistakes and looked like Daw was going to run him around in Werribee's forward line. Was taken off Daw and then played solid game playing across half back. Did well after a poor start. McNamara: One of our best today in the midfield. Used the ball well and went in hard. Was probably our leading clearance player. I reckon he has the tools to make it at AFL level, if it's with us it'd be in Cale Morton's role, although McNamara uses it better then Morton and goes harder also. I'm concerned another team might snatch him though and capitalise where we'll miss out. Highlight for me today was Tommy Mac running down Majak Daw in the middle of the ground in the last quarter and catching him holding the ball when it looked like he was about to have one of his customary run and bounce goals. Nicholson: Was good today I thought and still reckon was unlucky to get dropped. Had a couple of really good runs where he left his opponent for dead setting up some attacking plays. His defensive efforts were good and I reckon he'll be a good player for us. Warnock: Played a good solid game at FB as he always seems to. Think he was on McKinley and I have no doubt he'll be picked up by someone next year. Some Casey Players: Fevola: Kicked 6 and I would of said until the last quarter played the good team game. Had given off some good handballs and created space for other forwards for most of the game. However late in the match (when 50+ points up) he seemed to get very agitated. Gave away a couple of silly free kicks and swore quite adamantly after missing a shot and then after having a ball kicked into him where the delivery was poor. Was a bit of the Fevola of old which was concerning, as I hadn't seen it all season and being 50 odd points up I didn't see the point in it. Was in the process of being dragged when the final siren sounded which was good to see that Gotch had seen enough. I'd still like to see Melbourne take a punt on him, although I wont lie, there were some alarm bells going off inside my head when I saw his last few minutes. Wall: Played a good game today I thought. But more importantly is that I met his girlfriend before the game today and she's really hot!!! Just thought I'd throw that one in there.

Start the interview process now but tell all aplicants that a decision wont be made until after the GF. Also as part of their application you ask them to assess the list and ask what changes they'd be looking to make. This way if Malthouse decides he wants to coach Melbourne he can accept the job 48 hours after the GF. If not then we make our announcement 48 hours after the GF of who the coach will be and they'll already know what changes they'd be looking to make.

Certainly not my first choice but I wouldn't be shattered if we got him. However if we did pick up an experienced coach who hadn't won a premiership I'd prefer Laidley or even bring Northey back!

After the AFL, VFL is clearly the next best comp going around and experience there shouldn't be any less relevant to coaching anywhere else unless as a senior coach at AFL level. Gavin Brown's been mentioned as a possible candidate who was coaching Collingwood's VFL team last year and Jade Rawlings and Shane Woewodin who are assistants at Brisbane were coaching in the VFL and WAFL last year. Bottom line is I don't care if our coach next year is Ron Barassi or the current head coach of Frankston Bombers Under 12's as long as it's the right person for the job!

My top 7 preferences would go: 1. Mick Malthouse - Says he wont coach next year but until he makes that comment when Collingwood's season is over I wont believe him. 2. Alaister Clarkson - Perfect for the job, took the Chicken Hawks into a tough physical team to wina flag with an impressive game style. I know people are saying t why would you leave Hawthorn, but if they were to win the flag this year he might like the idea of the challenege of rebuilding another club. 3. Dean Laidley - Like his no nonsense attitude and he's proven to get good results with weaker lists then ours. 4. Peter German - Really rate his work in the VFL, first of all with Casey and now with Williamstown. Not affraid to give an old fashioned spray either. 5. Mark Neeld - From all reports probably the best of the assistants going around, not sure if he's the type of person that will immediatly demand the players respect however which I think we need. 6. Brenton Sanderson - Had great results at Geelong and knows what it takes to go from a talented list to a dominat list. 7. Brett Lovett - Apparently a brilliant tactical coach. Had some fantastic results with a Frankston list a few years ago with no money and no resources, they were a kick away from playing in a prelim final and have never been the same since he left. In his first year as coach of Sandringham now with some mixed results. Edit: By the way CK you can tell Timmy Walsh I said hi!