Yokozuna

6. Trengove 5. Moloney 4. Bail 3. Sylvia 2. Tapscott 1. Morton Apologies to Grimes and Jamar who were both close to gaining some votes. Also after watching the replay I have forgotten to put in Bail, but I will leave my votes as they are.

I am glad they have given Watts another game, especially against some younger players. Hopefully he stands up and plays well and answers some of the doubters, although I doubt a good game against the Suns will quiten too many people down. I also dont think they should have the same player as a sub 2 weeks in a row, in usual circumstances, however as Morton has come back from injury and has not got the fitness for a full game I can see him subbing again or at least being the subbed player if there are no injuries. I was hoping Maric would come back in, as reward for a great game after being dropped, to send the message to other players that they need to step up when they go back to Casey. Who I would have dropped for him, I am not sure, maybe Morton (but I rate Morton and want him in too!). I could see Bennell maybe as a sub, just trying to think of a versatile player on the bench, or maybe one of our key backs, as they dont have a particularly damaging forward line atm.

Personally I hope he is right and that our game plan is different to others. Everyone tried to copy Geelong and it did not work for them and now everyone is trying to copy Collingwood, and it does not work for most teams. You need to have a game plan that suits your players, as well as bringing in players to suit your gameplan. I dont particularly like how our game plan makes us look though, and it is not only us. We clog the backling to cause turnovers and then move the ball quickly forward. Unfortunately we have no forwards there! If I was not such a passionate Demons fan I am not sure how much AFL I could stand. I hate the rubbish that the so called experts and the AFL trot out saying the game has never been in better shape and how great it looks! It is great for them cos they are making heaps of money and they are changing the game to suit themselves. The game to me is looking uglier by the year, if I wanted to watch that average sport called rugby I would put on the NRl and if I wanted to see Netball I would put on One. I DONT LIKE SEEING RUGBY AND NETBALL ON AN AFL GROUND. End Rant. Back to my point about the gameplan though, as I got sidetracked. I also dont like how we have our zone so far back, allowing other teams to get to their HF line before we really put pressure on. Most teams press all the way to their own HF line, we dont. I also hate the zone when there is a player who is clearly going to be passed the ball and a player does not go to him, cos he is in his zone position. Most of the things I dont like with the current game plans of most teams is the full ground zone, no forwards and the fact that all players are pretty much midfielders now. Not sure if I wrote a reply to this post or just my feelings in general!

Aaron gets tagged every game, he always has an opponent on him, just that some cheat and are more easily identified (like Raines) than others. 2 most diappointing things for me were the lack of protection for him from his teammates and the lack of protection from the umpires. There needs for someone to stand in between Davey and his opponent and provide a block and give him space to use his speed, or simply for someone to clean up (fairly) his opponent. Other teams do it to protect their stars, so we need to as well. For those who say he has no impact, I think his finish in last years B+F should prove you wrong. The other thing is that when Davey is tagged it frees up others, and those who love Moloneys and Sylvias clearances can thank Davey in a small way as he is getting tagged and they are not. Until Scully, Trengove, Gys etc. play for a bit longer and become more dominant he will continue to be tagged. When they are all on fire the opposition will not know who to tag. Finally, for those who want him dropped or traded you might need to drop the rest of the team who are playing some average football at the moment too, could be an interesting team when Casey Seniors line up against the Eagles in R6!

He was tagging Hannebery who he kept to 4 touches in the first half, so think he did his job. He is being used as a run with player, however I can see Bail replacing him if he Bail does what he did on the weekend simply for the fact that he is quicker.

And after guessing something happened he then reported him!! That makes real sense! If anything Mumford's crude bump on Sylvia was way worse, but as the commentators said, the AFL is all over protecting the head, and they thought Davey made head high contact and Mumford did not.

You cant understand the criticism E25? His kicking is suspect, not too unusual for a rcuk, but he needs to be versatile. His ruckwork has never been great. When he flies for marks he often looks like he does not want to make any contact. In the preseason he was more intent on kicking off the ground or from mid air rather than picking up the ball. Yesterday he showed none of those signs and was hard at the ball, attacked the game and took marks.

McBurney did not see it, so he just guessed, as is his usual way. I love when the umpires try to explain their decisions, like Shaw's "handpass" to White for the 50m goal, it was a blatant throw yet he tried to say it was a handpass. Aso the holding the ball against Maric in the first quarter, he had no chance but he needed "to make an attempt" which means to throw your fist around pretending to hit it out.

I for one wrote off Martin at the start of the season and bagged him when the game began but I was pleasantly surprised. I was telling people with me that I never want him in the team and did not see any good signs from him in the pre season. He used the ball, tapped to advantage and took some pack marks. I was most impressed with his attack on the ball in the last quarter, on the MCC wing, and he dived into a large pack and got the ball out. I will happily eat humble pie if he can continue with yesterdays form.

I continue to dislike how they bring up the 8 players who went to the GC that they spoke about last year (as Sheehan did last night again), so it must mean Scully is gone this year. There were many players rumoured to be going to the GC last year who did not sign!

My top 10 in order of importance to the team winning would be: 1. Jamar 2. Sylvia 3. Davey 4. McKenzie 5. Frawley 6. Green 7. Jurrah 8. Grimes 9. Scully 10. Trengove We need our mids to get the ball forward as much as possible, that is why I have 4 mids up the top, so players such as Green and Jurrah can get the goals and hope we dont need to rely on Frawley and Grimes being under so much pressure. I have players like Petterd and Garland just outside my top 10.

Lets not go down the track of the "why did we pick him in front of other players" line. It is very easy to look in hindsight and state that players drafted after him have shown more than him. Every club has made mistakes, just look at all the clubs who let both Selwood and Rich fall through to later picks for example. I went to the Praccy game againts BL and a guy behind me was getting into Strauss and started getting annoyed that we did not take McKernan (who I believe the Crows took with the next pick). He tried to make it sound as if Melbourne chose Strauss over him. Who knows what he or Zaharakis will be like.

The problem I see at the moment is that he simply does not get a touch. In all the games I have seen him play he barely gets a possession. He kicks out after a point and that is about it. If he wants to show his elite kicking he needs to get more of the ball. He does seem top have bulked up though and hopefully with a full season without injury he may show more and develop the ability to find the ball more often, if he doesn't he may well enjoy many a windy day out at Casey.

It just proves how much better it is to be tall! So many average players get a game purely for the fact that they are taller or bigger and you need to have bigger players with some degree of athletic ability. I cant see him playing well too often, may get a game and do his usual stuff. Try hard at times, look agile for a big man, drop easy marks, be pushed off by small players and get less than 5 touches a game. He will not be missed.

I like your points re JOnes and Moloney, and agree. Until we get some other bigger bodied players, they must play. However, in regards to Spancer's handball to Jones, you could also say that Jones should never have asked for the ball, seeing that he was running forward and could see what was oncoming. It was probably both their faults in that case. Either way, I like Jones in the team but he still needs to be more careful with his disposal when he is clear, I can forgive him for some errors when getting clearances, but work on the skills in the open. Speaking of clearances, why do we never get any clean clearances? We need to get more clearances when we get a handball out to someone in the open for a good disposal, rather than a rushed kick forward to a situation where we are 1 on 2 or in a huge pack.

I try not to be too negative about a player and look for the positives, however, if Martin gets a game this year it just shows how much we are battling. He struggles in the ruck, Spencer shows more, and he is not a forward. If he plays, he should only be played as a defender, and that would be if we had heaps of injuries. I think that is the only place he has shown good signs, yet they insist on trying him other places. I hope he proves me wrong, but I doubt it. (if you were at the game yesterday you would never pick him).

I too went to the game, and not only was I disappointed with individual players, but I was more annoyed with what seemedto be a lack of a game plan or at least the players were not sticking to it. Last year we played well when we played on and moved the ball fast. Yesterday we were slow, had poor skills and put up little or no pressure. In terms of players: POSITIVES: Jetta - Tried hard, laid great tackles, got clearances and clearly BOG. Maric - Kicked 3 goals but he probably only had 5 touches. Not sure how positive that is, needs more of the ball. McDonald - Took some good grabs and showed a lot of fight for a young bloke. Tapscott - Showed a fair bit. Big, long kick and reads the ball well, just needs to get his fitness up, which will take a while. Gysberts - simply seeing him out there was a highlight. Watched him closely in the warm up and his skills look really good. Scully - Hardly got a touch early, but got into it in the latter stages of the game. Was getting tagged by Raines (a complete Spud) and it was a good lesson for him to learn. Biggest positive is all the players not playing will imrpove the team, but that cant be the excuse for some of the play displayed. NEGATIVES: Our slow movement of the ball, from kick ins and normally field play. Our lack of passing to a leading target, anywhere on the field. Our lack of aggression at the opposition, we were smashed by the lions in endeavour. Our reliance on long bombs forward and not hitting targets. Our lack of a forward line. I am not meaning who plays there, just the fact that there was often nobody there or only one player. Martin - Should never get a game. I am not sure what people are watching if they think he has any chance of playing. Howe showed more as another tall forward in the first 10 minutes he was on than Martin has shown in 3 years. Strauss - Does he ever get a possession other than kick ins. Bennell - I like him, but he needs to get more of the ball. Skils in the backline - there was not much shown yesterday, too many errors or poor decisions. I am hoping that it is the fact we had many players out that caused us to look like we were back in 2008. If it was not the reason, well we have a long way to go. I am ready to wait, as I know we are a young team, but I want to see the structure coming through and the improvement, no matter who is on the field, and I did not see that yesterday.

I hate all teams that are not Melbourne! As simple as that!

I am at work and could not hear the presser. Any chance of a run down, link etc. Really keen to hear what was said. Cheers

Cameron Schwab did say quite quickly in the interview that he was not sure if it was going ahead, so who knows. I did gather from the rest of the interview that Tom will speak but he did not divulge when or what would be said. Probably keeping their cards close to themselves. Could be an interesting question time if the media is allowed to ask questions, or will Tom simply have a statement to make? Given that Schwab said they wanted the young players to do intervies and show their personalities, I am guessing he will be open to all questions. A lot of pressure for a young man, buthe can handle it. I cant wait to hear it.

I never blamed anyone, and nor should there be any blame. What should we be blaming anyone for anyway? It was just a small mistake. I was just stating that it is annoying how they continually ask the same questions, a great example being the 3 interviews with JT where the main topic they write about is his view on Tom, rather than focussing on JT himself or other parts of the club.

I heard the interview and it was not as bad as some people say. They were asking about injured players and Cale was answering questions, and then they asked "and Tom Scully?", too which he towed the company line. A few questions later they said they wanted to know about Scully's injury, to which Cale had a smile on his face and siad that they players keep getting asked about Toms situation and that is why he answered the way he did. To say it is distracting, worrying, cringeworthy is an overreaction. He answered the question wrong and they all had a laugh. I think that the issue is more the media continually asking the same questions. I know it is there job and they want the scoop but really there are plenty of other things going on at the club.

WHy he is rpfc so wrong about those players? It is his opinion and you should at least give an explanation as to why you think he is wrong. To be honest, Petterd looks like a good player, but is injured too often. Dunn has played 1/2 a good year out of 5 and Bartram and Jones have suspect delivery. If we want these so-called young guns to come in, they need to replace someone. I am not saying we should delist the above players, but at least explain your position. I think we need to have players of the calibre of Dunn, Bartram etc. as our last 5 picked or depth players in order for our club to be near the top of the ladder and hope that our early draft picks kick on.

The fact that he himself may speak on his position is the new information. All we have heard is from other people, so to hear from Tom will be the new stuff. I hope the people who believe he will announce he is staying are right, but in my opinion I think he will just let everyone know where he stands, which is that he will make a decision when the year finishes. And why does it sound so ridiculous for a player to wait until the end of the year Steamin Demon, whether he is 19 or 29? I doubt that Tom or his management thought there would be this much scrutiny until someone brought up his supposed move to GWS anyway?

Also need to think how long Malthouse can coach for, will he want to coach for another 5 years? That may be how long it takes and I dont think he will want to go and develop another team rather step into a team which is close to the top. Either way I think it is pretty interesting how the Pies are doing it, I really hope they go like crap next year (even more than usual) when Buckley is in charge.