Prof

Rating: 6/10 Shown clear improvement with a LONG way to go. 3-2-1: 3. Junior What a great captain. 2. Russian Lionheart 1. Green All class. Team Highlight: Brisbane & come from behind win in Darwin. Team Lowlight: Hawthorn, North, WC and Carlton. All very poor performances. Biggest Surprise: Gysberts. Smart, switched on. Biggest Disappointment: Long term injuries to Jurrah, Petterd, Blease. Individual Highlight: Scully's game against the Bulldogs. Individual Lowlight: Losing to the Pies. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

I like Garland too. I just felt annoyed towards the end of the Carlton match when he had 2 goals kicked on him by 'steady eddie' then moped around like he had dropped his mobile. Come on Col! a bit of passion, please! (PS Rudd wouldn't get a game in my favourite pollies of all time - nor would the 'mad monk' for that matter.)

There will be at least 3 if not 4 spots available this week. McKenzie to replace Junior, Cheney or Strauss to replace Jones, Maric to replace Sylvia, Dunn to replace Miller

Garland needs to stop supporting the Greens and start supporting some feral party like the Libs. Alternatively, place a cracker up his rear and light it 5 minutes before kick off.

KEEP BRINGING IN THE YOUNGER PLAYERS ON THE LIST The smart move is to bring in the young guys who have played little or no firsts footy this year. Bring in Strauss, McKenzie, Cheney and Maric over the next few weeks. Leave them in for 4 or 5 weeks. DO NOT BRING IN: Johnson, Bell, Newton.

Reading the above sounds like a 5 goal victory to the Dees. Bartram - works hard but hardly excellent! Bate - standard rusty performance on return Bennell - must do a lot more Bruce - finds the ball, but his deficiences are starting to hurt Davey - needs to stand up when most needed, ie. AT THE START Garland - needs some angry pills, way too gentle Green - our only forward Grimes - good but not great Gysberts - outstanding Jamar - lionheart Jetta - talented but needs to find it more Jones - competitive McDonald - very good, yet again Miller - default performance Moloney - tries hard, give him credit Morton - smart, effective Rivers - reasonable game I thought Scully - unsighted Sylvia - OK but underperforming Trengove - had little effect Warnock - OK Watts - must learn to keep his feet, leave him in

Miller has to go. Has played 10 good games in a career of approx. 120. Out: Miller, Jones (Inj.), Garland In: Dunn, McKenzie, Frawley On notice: Watts - You've got to stop losing your feet.

In Scully, Trengove, Cheney, Bate, McKenzie Out Rivers, Wonna, Garland (Inj.), MacDonald, ?

Bartram - as always, tries hard Bennell - worst game for season, but don't drop him Bruce - not the worst Davey - good but swamped Frawley - our best defender Garland - struggled Green - our classiest player Grimes - battled hard but swamped Gysberts- excellent debut Jamar - looking forward to mid season break Jetta - no influence, steep learning curve Jones - great endeavour,lacks class MacDonald - solid effort McDonald - below par Miller - back to default position Moloney - worked hard but swamped Morton - some positive signs Rivers - swamped Sylvia - one last chance Warnock - swamped Watts - steep learning curve Wonaeamirri - some good forward pressure, but needs to contribute more

On Demonology they said BM got off. Hope they are right.

Moloney got him slightly high. He was always in trouble.

Bartram - limited but tries very hard, handy in the conditions Bennell - freakish talent Davey - outstanding Frawley - pace and strength Garland - not best game but will improve Green - classy, effective Grimes - worked hard Jamar - mark of the year Jetta - revelation Jones - useful grunt MacDonald - good McDonald - captain courageous Miller - see my post "Reality Check", May 16 Moloney - tries hard, a good ordinary footballer Morton - important link player, smart thinker Rivers - some good work in the trenches Scully - continues to impress Sylvia - play with that level of passion EVERY week Trengove - a cert. to be the NAB RS of the year Watts - clean, classy and clever Wonaeamirri - got through the game - well done McKenzie - gives it everything

Here is a bit of an update on Sam. Straight from the "horse's mouth"! Sam is fine. He was going really well his first couple of games back, then he got a liver infection and lost 5kg. He missed a couple of games with that. He is just really frustrated having to play in the Casey seconds. He played with Aussie in Ballarat and he felt he played OK. He did say he doesn’t know any of the seconds because they don’t train with them. The next week they went to Qld and they wouldn’t let him go up there so he had to play in the seconds again. He was booked in to have a scan the following day just to check out a spot where the pin had been put in to hold his leg, that had been irritating him. The leg is really good and everything has healed, he was limping a bit because he had a bad corkie but he doesn’t limp around the house and is having no pain at all. His mother was pleased to see him kick so well on his left foot because kicking well with both feet is certainly one of his strong points. He just has to be patient and play in the seconds and eventually he will get a run with Casey seniors. Bailey spoke to him and told him they were in no rush. He just desperately wants to play footy. Once he strings a few games together he will be fine. Chris Connolly says he is training well and is really positive so they do not have any issues. He won’t play this week again and they are thinking of taking the pins in his leg out at the end of the year. He played against the kid that broke his leg and Sam gave him a really good bump – he said they are still not even!

Jack will be very good. It is just going to take time. He's smart, he's got clean hands and he's big!

OUT Sylvia, Johnson, Hughes, Bruce (Inj.), Bate (Inj.) IN Morton, Gysberts, Cheney, Dunn, Barassi

Bruce should NEVER take the kick ins, but this is not the fundamental problem. We invariably have no good options at kick ins whereas opposition sides generally have at least one if not a couple. Our defensive set up at kick ins is no where near as good as opposition set ups and there is no better example of this than last week against WC. Our standard tactic of toe-poking it then hoofing it 47m to a pack of players is painful.

Bartram - poor game, exposed a bit Bate - injured, ineffective Bennell - tried hard, keep him Bruce - butchered the ball Davey - copped a whack, ineffective Frawley - OK Garland - fair Green - worst game for season Grimes - some bad mistakes Jamar - beaten by Cox Johnson - not up to this standard Jones - below par McDonald - easily our best Moloney - beaten, lacks class Rivers - tried hard but slow to react Scully - OK Sylvia - VERY DISAPPOINTING Trengove - just a game Warnock - not bad Watts - clean hands, promising Hughes - not much chop McKenzie - OK

I've just checked my crystal ball. (Given it a good rub!) Miller will come in this week, and ... play quite well. In fact well enough to hold his place. Not only that, he'll play surprisingly well for the rest of the season, and ... guess what ... he'll get another contract and ... maintain his spot in the leadership group for 2011.

Garry Lyon gave his attitude & demeanour a big plus in the Age this morning. Let's give the lad some space. Hopefully DB will leave Jack in the side for a few weeks and we can all then get a better idea about how he's travelling then.

Sam's mother is a very good friend of my wife. So, I get all the 'goss about Sam virtually first hand. As I said in the post, Sam is very keen to be promoted to the senior VFL team. He has had a lot of chats with DB in recent weeks. DB wants to move things along very cautiously. The injury last year was very serious.

Sam has had an x-ray just to be sure everything is OK - and it is. Sam is feeling a little frustrated at the moment. He is playing in a side with a lot of players he does not know. Sam really wants to play in the VFL firsts ASAP.

A very good effort with no cigar. A few players who have been given a fearful flogging on this forum from time to time were very good last night. Bruce, Bate and Bennell.

Small article in the Herald Sun about Jack Viney, son of Todd. Still two years away from being drafted but all the mail suggests that he will be an absolute gun. Hope he turns out better than CJ!

SEN quoted a Ricky Petterd 'Twitter' that said "Already looking forward to wearing the red and blue next season". Here's hoping!

I started the new post on Jack Watts. Why? Because the original post was so large. It's interesting to interact with fellow Demon tragics in this forum. Some become agitated, some digest the information and try to 'enhance' it. Curious. By the way, my original post, now wound up, was that Jack Watts has a sore back. No big deal, but happens to be true. Fluxus dominatis