DeeSpencer

Too small, not blistering, burns the footy. I think we have reasonably half forward options how it is and I don't see him as a wingman and certainly not a half back. He'd be better depth than not having any but isn't what we need.

Neeld didn't want him. Tom McDonald, Garland and Frawley (then Dunn) filled his spot. We should've got compo for him but stuffed that up. I don't begrudge him. His knee was always going to shorten his career. I'm happy he got to play some good footy. Again, stuffing the compo hurt more than Riv actually leaving.

He's got limited positional versatility, limited pace and kicks like a mule (which is good and bad). I'd be interested for the right price, but I also think Vanders and Watts can both play as 3rd tall types and have more versatility. Petracca by all reports knows how to take a grab as well. Kent back, another year in to Brayshaw and Harmes, I just wonder if giving up some valuable commodity for Lynch would be worth it. How much does another good half forward help our ball movement if we still haven't fixed the backline and outside midfield spots or found a 2nd ruck/forward who can play the role consistently. I know he'd fill the Gunston role but Gunston is quick, as is Roughy. Hogan certainly moves around the ground well but if we are trying to emulate West Coast and Hawthorn then I'd be looking for more speed to go with Hogan not a hard work rate guy.

In: Salem, Stretch, Newton Out: Lumumba, Bail, Jetta (inj) FB: Garland Dunn Grimes HB: Salem McDonald Howe C: Stretch Jones Newton HF: M Jones Hogan Watts FF: Garlett Dawes Harmes Foll: Gawn Vince Vince Int: Michie ANB Cross S: Brayshaw

At least Casey fought back and didn't get a percentage hammering. If Coburg win tomorrow then they'll move to 10th and make the Coburg v Casey match pretty much an elimination final. Hopefully some of the Melbourne boys can get up next week. Any reports on Fitzy and Toump would be appreciated.

You're crazy. Hogan has had plenty of break out games, he hasn't kicked 8 yet due to lack of service and that will continue. Either Dunn or McDonald should stop Redpath but Stringer, Crameri and Dickson are a super trio. We were too strong from them at the G but the indoor Etihad conditions will see them run all over us as they have many better sides than us. Our forward line sucks at ball retention, our backline just doesn't get the ball out with speed or skill and our inside mids might be accountable but Shaun Higgins was the latest in a long line of outside types to run all over us. If we can find this bloke and see whether he can leave the roof open we might be some chance

Got to bring Salem in. He's too good to be playing VFL. Wouldn't bring anyone else in from Casey. Not sure who the unlucky out would be. Grimes and Lumumba aren't in great form but I feel we may as well persist with Grimes for another week. Can't see Roos dropping Lumumba even if he's struggling. Matt Jones did his job on the weekend and will have Murphy this week. As much as I love him would a week off to play some fringe and kids instead hurt Crossy? Probably silly against his old side so that's a non starter. ANB and Harmes are going well. Keep them. Michie, well he just needs to play at this stage. I really think resting Brayshaw might be the smartest move. Should give him a freshen up to take on Carlton, then go across and serve it up to Freo and finally the GWS game.

Always a lot of talk from Roos and some on here about players 'playing their role'. Well the reality is we needed someone playing the role of gun key forward and a few gun midfielders. But besides those things we desperately needed a crumbing forward and whilst Jeffy has his moments of madness (see the dropped chest mark) he's also played his role and more so far.

I'm not too angry when we torched a finals team for half the game and the margin flattered them late. But I'm not exactly ready to just accept this flu story. It's not an excuse for the first quarter. And whilst you do have poor starts some weeks the deficit blew out all too easily. Our defenders need to stop spoiling each other in the air. Our senior players need to start working out a way to halt momentum by controlling play and we can't make dumb mistakes so often. Dunn playing Ben Brown from behind McDonald and Howe spoiling each other The Watts kick in The ball walzing out from the middle No run to work to create space to get a few cheap uncontested possessions The young players (Hogan, Harmes, Viney) were the ones leading the charge and even Matt Jones and Michie were up and about in the first quarter, yet it took til after the break for rest of the side to follow their way. Plenty of positives for sure but I'm not ready to just accept it as the flu and not focus on rectify some simple mistakes.

Brayshaw rested. Lumumba dropped. Salem and Vanders in if fit. If not then no change is fine as well. Lumumba is a all over the shop at the moment. Doesn't want the ball. Doesn't find the ball. Really offers little. Brayshaw has played nearly ever game coming off a short preseason. His performance is declining despite his effort being great every week. Freshen him up this week and we'll likely get 3 really good weeks from him to finish the year. Michie played a much better game than he has (barring the Richmond effort in the wet) all year. He's slow. He doesn't cover much ground and he can butcher the footy at times. But he also has a crack at contested footy and did a few good things. I'd rather give him one more week and at least then we can say we didn't die wondering.

Best 4 mids: Jones, Vince, Viney, Tyson Next 4 mids: - Brayshaw (tired) - Vanders (injured) - Petracca (injured) - Cross (old and busy tagging Harvey) Want some more? - Kent (injured) - Salem (injured) - ANB (sub) - Harmes (under 5 games) 2nd ruck options: - Jamar (old) - Dawes (not big enough) - Pedersen (inj) - Frost (inj) - King (young) It's not an excuse but sometimes you run out and have bad days where you just can't seem to get your hand on the ball to start the game. The secret is to play smart when you do get it back by using clever options and not making brainless mistakes. The coaches tried a few different things at the centre bounce. They tried a man behind the ball. But at the end of the day it took til quarter time to stem the bleeding. Due to injury we remain short on legitimate options to roll through the middle when things aren't going our way. In an ideal world Vince goes on to a flank or wing if it's not his day. Jones goes to a forward pocket. Gawny moves to full forward and a genuine second option takes it up in the ruck. Vanders showed what he could do in the midfield already this year. Petracca and Brayshaw dominated under 18's as clearance machines.

Terrible batting performance and the start with the ball not much better. We really have been stiff to lose the great Ryan Harris before this series. I don't know what the answers to our batting problems are but I'm pretty confident it's not S Marsh or Voges. We need young players who are committed to test cricket and the technique and mindset required. The hitting that works in limited overs cricket just isn't the same as proper test match batting.

No need for Jamar. If we lose because Gawn gets tired then so be it, it's the best development for him having to guts it out. He took on 2 rucks against the Pies and whilst Goldstein might do more than 2 Pies rucks combined the ability to work head to head against 1 guy might make it easier. Take your pick out of Michie, Newton or Matt Jones for the last bench spot. I'd probably stick with Michie but I'm not sure it's the right call.

The rules should allow for clubs to put their own protections on picks ie. not top 5. But not sure they will. Really though clubs are so conservative, trades for big players so hard to come by and even harder now with free agency and players can't be traded without their permission. All up it's not really going to create too many circumstances where clubs are giving up future picks. Swapping future picks I can see, ie your first for our first, but mainly clubs will need a really good player to swap this year and next years first pick. It doesn't do much to fix the circumstances where a player is out of contract and wishes to be traded though which will now become an even bigger issue. All out of contract players should be restricted free agents or able to be franchised/tendered to avoid this system where a player doesn't have a contract but still has to be traded.

Anyone else want to storm the medallion club seats and see just how many security guards it takes to stop us? Worse thing that can happen is probably getting kicked out and being saved the pain of watching us lose to GWS. By the way if GWS sneak an upset win either of Port or Sydney as well as getting the job done against Carl and Essendon then they'll likely be playing to make the 8. If we do them a massive favour and beat North this week then they could be as high as 7th by the end of this round as well.

I heard Port went after Gawny last year before they targeted Ryder and he had no interest in leaving then. I can't see him leaving now. I'm sure the club has an offer in front of him but at the same time I don't begrudge Max from playing a big 5 weeks so he can then point to a sustained patch of form as a reason for a really good contract.

Backline? Tall yes. Mobile yes. But Garland better take about 50 intercept marks because the thought of the other 3 kicking it around the backline is scary. I'm not sure Tommy Mc and Frost will be able to coexist due to lack of footskills, yet alone adding Fitzy in there. Fitzy should be considered this week. But I think Garland will be a decent match up for Brown who gets a lot of his ball on hard leads. If we can push him outside 50 and use Gawn and Howe as aerial support deep then Garlo should do the job. McDonald to Waite and Dunn to Petrie might be the other 2 match ups although as usual the more important thing is McDonald gets to roam at CHB whilst Dunn plays closer to goal.

He's rucking well enough to cover his other stuff ups at the moment. Neither Jamar, Spencer or likely King could do any time at CHF that helps take the pressure off Hogan (and get him deep). Whilst Dawes does stuff all forward it's probably still more than those other 3. This week he'll have to give Gawn a give chop out which is fine when it's against Brown or Petrie, but the short moments he goes up against Goldstein might be ugly.

Watching the replay did Grimes no favours at all. Turnovers, getting run down, bad handballs. Michie was ok. But he just doesn't get enough of it or do enough with it. He needs to play in the guts but hasn't nailed a spot there. The questions are: 1. Do we have anyone better? 2. Do we have the required level of fitness if we add Newton or Salem compared to Grimes who makes mistakes but does cover a lot of ground 3. Do we need to play Michie and/or Grimes to work out where they are at At this stage: In: Salem, Newton Out: Grimes, Michie With Salem, Newton, ANB or even Brayshaw as sub. I think it's smart not alarmist to suggest Brayshaw needs to be sub or the week off at some stage this year.

Unless there's a special event on (and it would have to be a big one) parking is no problem at Casey for VFL games. There's a big car park just next to the grand stand and plenty of other parks around the rest of the adjacent ovals. Not sure on entry. Do you still get a Casey membership with your MFC one. I haven't been this year so not sure. Otherwise someone will know.

He was sensational. Maybe a knock that he didn't beat much, maybe 6 others played really well, but I agree he was great. 6 Vince 5 Dunn 4 Jetta 3 Gawn 2 Vanders 1 Watts Could've had any of the back 6 (Dunn, McDonald,Garland, Howe, Jetta, Cross). Could've had Jones or Viney. Nothing wrong with Hogan's game either.

Might be related to the post above. If that young fella is a CHB then maybe there isn't room and Casey likely have obligations to fulfil with the 23rd player. Plus dropping Oscar back for an easy kill might be good for him. Our youngsters are tiring at AFL. No reason to dismiss that as perfectly logical if a young tall is doing the same at VFL level.

Brisbane were flat out terrible. Gold Coast were poor considering the expectation. But our other 4 wins have been 3 teams in the 8 and one team fighting for it and we've heard how poorly they've played and I don't blame supporters for getting angry about it. I agree with whoever said it should be our pressure. We should take beating a team who played poorly as a compliment not an insult. I'd beat teams who played poorly every week! I bet Tigers fans are enjoying how poorly the Hawks played last night.

Terrible first half sitting and waiting for the ball and costing us goals for it. Much better 2nd half, not just the junk time marks but some better competing and a nice spoil on the far wing. Did well in the ruck considering his limitations. If we had a very good 2nd ruck/forward - Pedersen is better but still not perfect I agree - then I think we could and would try Vanders, Watts, Petracca as medium marking players to go with Hogan. Similar to the way the Hawks just have a 2nd ruck, Roughy and then use Gunston, Breust and even Rioli to win 1 on 1's in the air. Vanders and Watts did well today in taking up the slack and with more speed and skill in the side the reliance on tall targets will diminish further. I'm sure the club know this and King is a potential option worth the gamble as a rookie pick. The focus has probably been on beefing up the tall defenders (O Mc and Frost) and of course on getting midfield talent in. I'm sure we will make an investment on a key forward or 2nd ruck/forward in this draft and it will be very important for the future. But for the present I really hope Dawes takes some confidence from his 2nd half and makes attacking the ball again his priority.

Vanders, Harmes, Neal-Bullen all named in the original Casey team with the 9 man bench. That now becomes a 6 man bench for 5 spots (4 + the one 23rd play spot). Or in other words White is almost certain to play. Thanks for making me open the interestingly titled threat worried we were making some terrible mistake before seeing there's nothing to it.