Radar Detector

Gotta give ENYAW credit where it's due as well. His call on Hunt was just about the biggest longshot but has been spot on.

I rate him, but not sure that's one of his qualities.

I'm with Stuie on this one. Harmes certainly does not have class at this stage. He did one thing that looked classy but its certainly not a defining characteristic. By your logic, Tom McDonald has class. I've seen him hit blokes on the chest more times than I've seen Harmes do it.

Let's just cross this first hurdle shall we? Port have beaten us the last seven times and are in exactly the same position as us in terms of finals. A win against Port would be huge and shouldn't be banked just yet. That all said, we're a decent chance. I'll be absolutely stoked if we go into each of the next three rounds still a mathematical chance.

Can't understand people calling for Hogan to wait another week. If fit, he plays. Pedersen did a decent job but let's not inflate his output too much. From my recollection he only had one touch for the entire first half. He had less ball and kicked less goals than Weed. Plus Weed is the future. Hogan in, Pedersen out. Only other change I would consider is BenKen in for Garlett but that depends on the mood of the selectors.

I wonder what his demonland avatar is...

We're on 9 so not quite

Haven't seen us sustain that standard since 2006. Epic result and even more impressive to kick away from behind in the last. Absolute best!

Both in the same team would be nice

Funny reading through this thread that as soon as Prestia is strongly linked to another club, nobody wants him and said club would be throwing away their future. He is a gun and worth what Richmond are quoted to be offering. If we're not in the race it's probably because we don't want to be but it doesn't make Prestia a bad target for Richmond.

What nonsense. I don't know a person alive who would walk away from that contract voluntarily. People on this forum forget that for the coaches and players this is a job, not just a game:

Malcolm Gladwell would agree.

We have actually had very predictable results this year IMO. 1. We generally beat teams 11th or below on the ladder 2. We generally lose against teams 10th or above on the ladder 3. We struggle in fast conditions against fast opposition (Ess, StK, Bulldogs) that exploit us on the outside and out the back I'm confident the trends will continue as I can't see how GC will win enough contested ball to supply their forwards with enough opportunities to kick a winning score. Lynch, Day and 2m Peter would need to have a field day for them to win.

Imagine we were shorter odds against Essendon. Also against half a team.

I find the commentary interesting. I actually think Wagner's kicking and/or decision making have been a weakness all season. I'm not sold on him at all TBH and think he will become a Casey regular if we recruit Hibberd and bring Melksham into the mix. I actually don't think we should rookie upgrade him yet for that reason.

Mods, a lot of this discussion is interesting but is clearly in the wrong thread and is now quite extensive. Can it be moved to a new thread?

OD, you've gone back to sounding like Eeyore!! Where's the brazen positivity from a month or 2 ago?

Realistically, the ladder perfectly reflects where we are at. Our only loss against a team sitting below us was the Essendon anomaly. The only win against a team above us was the GWS anomaly (I say anomaly because it was round one and they were missing Cameron and also arguably their most important mid - and have subsequently proven themselves to be a far superior side this year). So aside from anomalies in rounds 1 and 2, we've actually been extremely predictable overall and, on that basis, I'd say we will win 2 more against GCS and Carlton to finish on 9 wins. We are highly unlikely to beat any of the other 4 teams who are competing for a spot in the finals and, at this point in time are just better than us. Even Port. Our skills and decision making are still sub-standard which, despite markedly improved work at the contest this year, leaves us short against good teams in pressure situations. A few weeks ago I was pretty downbeat about the prospect of 9 wins, however I think we are clearly one of the better sides outside the eight and with a really young list which leaves us in a pretty good position to launch (like GWS have this year). Next year, if we can leapfrog the saints and port we are a serious chance to push for finals which going forward has to be 100% the minimum standard.

Geelong look way off contender pace to me. Far too reliant on Dangerfield. One injury away from being a non-finals standard side imo.

Assuming one of Weideman or Hulett come on, how would a forward line accomodate all of Hogan, Watts, Weid/Hulett and Nankervis/Gawn?

But it was defensive running that killed us last time

I agree. I'm not so fussed about Stretch going out as his output has been a bit down and Gus will certainly be fresh. But I think Kennedy is lucky to stay in and has probably only been saved by his pace. A couple more fresh runners would have been nice. That said, to my own surprise, I am happy Oscar will play. The defence has looked far more potent with the two Macs and Frost all playing together. And St Kilda have three capable goalkickers in Riewoldt, Bruce and Membrey. This gives us far more versatility.

I don't think I'd go so far as calling it a failed trade. Anyone who thought he was going to be a messiah had obviously never seen him play at Collingwood. His best ever goal haul in a season was 30 in a premiership team no less. He was never going to win games off his own boot, he was acquired to give a young inexperienced team some structure. The fact it was expensive to get him is an utter irrelevance as it at no stage prevented us from re-signing a player we wanted to keep or acquiring a player we were chasing. All that being said, I don't think he has deserved his spot for more than a season now. Pedo is a battler, but he has been superior for two seasons in pretty much every statistical category and is capable of relief rucking a few minutes each quarter. And now that finals are no longer an overly realistic target, we sacrifice little by giving both Hulett and Weideman a taste. Roos and co have seen fit to experiment with the AFL's least read tall defender for most of the season, I see no reason why they can't give the two young KPFs a taste at varying stages.

6. Watts 5. Hunt 4. Harmes 3. Jones 2. Garlett 1. T-Mac

Not stopping Hogan, Watts or Garlett having an impact. Poor call. Every major involvement Dawes has had resulted in a negative outcome.