bing181

Surely such is the nature of medical science and of predicting outcomes? As of yesterday (Thursday), no-one could even say with any certainty if Cross would be ready to play in 4 days time, yet alone looking at what might happen 3-4 weeks down the track with Hogan. My layman's take on it all is that it's all very well being a boy-mountain, but that's a heck of a load on a still-developing body - Hogan has had a run of (different) injuries since this time last year, and I wonder if he's out of the woods yet.

You only have to look at the tweets from Jones and Dawes to see the esteem he was held in by the players. Good luck Shannon. Future coach somewhere ...

Don't care, as in, it's irrelevant. Doubling (at least) our number of wins, improving our percentage, and being "in" most games - including games against top sides - speaks more about where we're at and the progress we're making, than a number on a ladder. I was hoping for 6-8 wins, but with what happened to Clark, Hogan, Trengove, Dawes (missed quite a few games early on plus the pre-season), Garland and Jamar (ditto) plus Cross, that has turned out to be unrealistic. If half of that little list had managed a more or less full season with full health/fitness, I doubt very much that this thread would exist.

Also, you're getting more riders having a "jour sans" where they have an off day ... rarely had that in the good old days. Not to mention far fewer (almost no) Pro Tour riders testing positive, or even getting picked up through the Biological Passport scheme. Tiernan Locke was the only real recent one, and the (presumed) doping took place before he joined Sky. Biological Passport is interesting in terms of the "there's no evidence" Essendon supporters. No proof, no positive test, no hard evidence even circumstantial - simply blood test results over a long period that could be indicative of doping. I don't know, do the AFL even do blood tests (yet alone monitor them)? I think not.

Agree, but pushing it I think, he's not even training fully at the moment.

Got to remember, Riley had no pre-season, and his fitness/tank will be somewhat compromised as a result. Whether that's it, can't say, but feel it was pretty much eeny meeny miny mo between him and the players you mentioned.

The coach speaks: "Overall it was a terrific effort … that's the sort of standard we want to set as a footy club."

My son still has his 48 jumper hanging on the back of his bedroom door. Lots of broken dreams ... perhaps good that kids learn about that as well, but sad all the same. Hope Liam finds some peace.

Great to see at least some of the players responding. Blease edging closer you would think, but this week with no forced outs?

Now's there's a sentence dripping with assumptions.

Only if you presume it's true. From comments I've seen/heard Roos make, he's more than well aware of how the Melbourne players are tracking at Casey.

Football, like life, is never that black-and-white. I was there, spent very little time in the bar, and Riley had a solid, gutsy game where he put in and (at least) tried. He also had some glaring clangers - to be expected given his inexperience and the team/players he was up against.

Ill-informed comment. Not sure if you watch the Tour de France, but the young rider classification is for riders under 26 ... that's about how long it takes.

Yes, because they would have made a real difference today. Tapscott tore it up at Casey for a few weeks and look at how he went.

#10 and #14 have it covered. Then throw in confidence, experience, tiredness. A couple of dud kicks resulting in turnovers and easy goals to the opposition are all it takes to send a lot of our players back into their shells and have them second-guessing themselves ... with predictable results.

It is what it is. Change will come, but incrementally.

Think you'll find VFL players do quite a bit more than that.

Given how far back Barry is coming from, it's a vote of approval from the club. He has minimal football experience, and a couple of years gives both him and the club the time that's needed.

This week's review by Brad Miller. Who was, presumably, at the game. Similar vein, lots of "we're working with xxx to improve that side of his game". Only two to come through unscathed were JKH and Riley.

Serious?

In the interests of accuracy: UCI is the international governing body for cycling, it's not a French organisation, and is based in Switzerland, near Montreux. The national French body is the FFC (Fédération Française de Cyclisme). The body that "took on" the UCI was the USADA, the American equivalent of ASADA, not the national American cycling body (USA Cycling).

Tapscott and Jetta in. From the info that the club has been providing, Blease hasn't done enough, nor has JKH ... though we'll have to wait for the review to see what happened on Saturday, seems he was heavily tagged after his starring role the previous week. Out: Gawn, though depends on match ups? Then, you'd presume one of Salem, Barry or perhaps Terlich (back for a back if Jetta comes back in). Also need to allow for any mystery injuries, in which case suspect that Terlich would hold his place. But ... getting to be a bit of deck-chair shuffling. The only real difference-maker potentially available is Hogan, and he's still a way off.

Ever thought to check before posting?

Terrible post. The players you've listed are having a hard enough time getting into the "bests" at Casey, yet alone playing decent games at AFL level.

Yep, all the coaches' faults.