bing181

6 Gawn 5 Vince 4 Viney 3 Oliver 2 Lumumba 1 Hogan

Unless the ankle is more serious than thought, Garlett in. Probably Brayshaw, depending on how he trains. VDB, Bugg, Frost would be the ones in the firing line. I'd take Pedersen over Frost for the moment. Both Stretch and Wagner keep their places, having done just enough, though personally, not yet sold on Wagner at this level. If Vince gets a week, they may go for Hunt, hopefully to give us some run and drive off half-back. Vince had more I50's than anyone else today. As for ANB - I don't know if we can fit him, Harmes and Stretch in the same side. But matchups to play a role, and even a player like O'Mac could come in if necessary. Decisions, decisions.

Agree re Olivier, in spite of what we saw with Parish last week, Oliver just looks in another league. His awareness around the ball is already in a class of its own. On the other hand, he is still young, and giving away two 50m penalties (if I remember correctly) that resulted in goals was less than ideal. School of hard knocks, presumably he'll learn. I remember back in the day, we used to talk about "getting games into the kids". Now, we've finally got a group together - plus the half-dozen or so running round at Casey - where as much as anything else, that's what we need to be doing. The future can't come soon enough. We didn't lose today because they were a better side, we lost today because we were a less experienced side, and weren't able to finish when we needed to.

One word. Inexperience.

One word. Inexperience.

Apart from the injuries, probably fair to say that there are only positives to come out of this game.

27.13.175 to 5.5.35

According to Casey Twitter, we're 20+ goals up.

I only know what's in this thread - off with concussion.

Not doing too well on the injury front so far, that's two down already. Bummer for Trenners, he needed this game, puts him back a week.

You wouldn't know - nor would any of us.

Garlett out. Explains in part why Kent kept his place.

Yeah, why they don't just bring in Selwood, Hodge and Franklin I'll never understand.

ANB had a series of injuries and injury concerns over the pre-season, to the extent that he hardly had a pre-season. He didn't play NAB for a reason. One game, even a decent one, at Casey is not enough. Brayshaw had a decent game at Casey the week before he was rushed back, and look how that turned out

Hopefully the two aren't mutually exclusive. I always feel we're a better team with Dawes in the side, but equally, we can't afford to have players out there just to steady the ship. I think it does confirm - as if last Saturday wasn't enough - how lacking we are in on-field leadership and maturity.

As happened with Port in the NAB, and GWS in Round 1. The players must have thought that they could coast all game, do enough to stay in touch, then run over them in the 4th. Trouble is, it's a bit late to suddenly start playing like you mean it against a team with their tails up and everything to play for.

I'd bring in one (or both) of Stretch and Hunt for a bit of run, Dunn and perhaps O'Mac for a bit of height, and ANB because he seems to have been the standout player at Casey, and that needs to be rewarded. Outs from Kent, Harmes and ... not sure. Presumably Brayshaw will be better for the run, but it's a fitness dept. call.

Apparently, he has had off-field (personal) issues. There've been comments around the place, with no-one wanting to elaborate. Whatever it is, it has led to him having a less than ideal pre-season and getting up to speed. Presumably he'll be OK for next week, though we saw with Brayshaw the shortcomings of selecting players who are (still) underdone.

As Jack Viney said, we got ahead of ourselves, and didn't turn up to play. Essendon did. End of, and nothing else matters (except round the edges).

I'm in the Kent/Bugg/Harmes camp as well. Grimes is Grimes, but for the moment, would be a step up on all of these down back. Based on Casey form, either Stretch or ANB to come in plus, of course, Dunn - if he's fit.

They've already put their hands up re selection, but equally, from what i can see, most here were more than happy with the selection, and understood the reasoning behind it. Brayshaw was still underdone, though he did seem to get into it a bit more in the last quarter. Much of it still revolves around what's going on in the players' heads, and while we have plenty of talent, we don't have a lot of maturity and experience, and even less AAA-grade leadership. While I thought Jones and Vince were good, neither are the kinds of Big Game players who can turn a game or lead the way in the way Dangerfield did with Geelong last weekend. I felt Goddard played more of a captain's game today than anyone for the Dees. But the players today who most disappointed me were Viney and Gawn. When players like VDB and Hogan have an off-day, I can almost live with it, they're still only second year players. But Viney and Gawn are both further along in their careers and are in the leadership group. They needed to do more, and needed to step up and provide more leadership. To a lesser extent, same could be said for Jack Watts. But the game was lost in the midfield today - they were just left do what they wanted on the outside, and the ball spent much of the time in the Don's half of the field. So, big disappointment, I thought that these kinds of performances were behind us. But while so much of our success is riding on the back of comparatively inexperienced second and third year players, without a lot of real top end talent or leadership, I'm afraid that for a season or two, these kinds of results will continue to haunt us.

Yep, in a nutshell. This game had nothing to do with coaching or selection. The team we had out there was more than capable of winning this - if they'd wanted to. After all, we were leading half way though the last quarter. It was also a game that was lost between the arcs. The way the ball kept finding its way to Daniher had nothing to do with the backs, and everything to do with the mids. Essendon were ALWAYS going to be really up for this - first game in Melbourne, and they were playing for the club, the supporters, and especially, for their captain and the others who were banned. Too many of our players didn't come to play, with predictable results. As a footnote, about the worse game I've seen Viney play for a long time. I can only presume he was sick or whatever, difficult to explain it otherwise.

Thought this kind of performance was behind us. Just can't get going.

Petracca?