pitchfork

If someone has a contact at the club, please let them know (I might email them later). They might be able to 'turn it up to 11'

would be very surprised if Spencer didn't get a game... I just can't see the coaching staff asking Jamar to make such a huge effort 3 weeks in a row, monster game today. Otherwise it should be pretty interesting, seems Strauss' absence probably helped the attack/defence balance but it's too small a sample size. That said perhaps one of Bate and Dunn for Sylvia, and hypocritically strauss for Bartram, ??Spencer for Dunn/Bate??. I'm guessing once Watts is ready he'll come in for Juice and Dunn will be back

According to the VFL Sporting Pulse site: Jack was 5th best player at CAsey despite kicking 5 behinds...so i guess he's making opportunities. - not at the game, but seems like good signs recently. Goal kicking generally has little to do with level of play (should be better), however being able to create opportunities is a good sign

This may honestly be the most brainless thread I have read on 'land. 1. We Won against a real football team, not a dodgy interstate side out of it after round 11!! stop complaining 2. We won 3. As for the "we actually were the more defensive side"...that's just plain rubbish Adelaide in the first half often had 18 men within 65 metres of the defensive goal. In order to counteract the fact that kicking to leading men inside our 50 would be difficult, Bailey clearly sought to 'break even' for the first two thirds of the game. So, there are two options - kick it into a forward with no chance, or stay patient and WIN THE GAME Anyone notice that once Adelaide stopped running them we absolutely went for the jugular...consistent leading options from half-forward instead of around the centre of the ground. Come on!, we should have had about 6-7 goals in that final quarter...I just don't get why anyone would be disappointed when our forward line lacks Watts, Jurrah, Sylvia rotating through, Wona,,,in fact any real good leading tll ...and we still win. Well done Dean, well done all 22 boys

Buddha Hocking and Chris Lewis. Both never failed to go into a pack knees first, or swing a fist around in a tackle. Haha...I remember that game where Hall snapped! Woey practically made a mission out of making Hall snap that day!

Only said the C word 3 times, I think...

Robbie you make a classic mistake, correlation does not imply causation. The fact we won playing attacking footy doesn't mean we changed back to a style that we once won a few games by. Yes, it was more direct, yes, we played man on man. However, rather than a change in style they just executed the game plan better. Did they ever bring 18 players into the defensive half under Daniher, no. Did they patiently get it out of defence, not really. You are right that we can beat a lot of teams. I think our style has been down the corridor (not filth around the boundry) but the boys have failed at the first step i.e. getting the ball into space to move it

Drop Frawley?! OMFG. The only time Melbourne was caught in a handball ring-a-ring-a-rosey nightmare yesterday, Frawley tucked the thing under his arm and ran it out of defence himself. At a 'good team' he'd be getting the plaudits he deserves. Frawley will play finals for us. JR might not. What would we get out of dropping Frawley? If you're teaching someone to play on the best opposition forwards, they'll learn nothing at Casey.

Something tells me nobody could run Scully into the ground. The guy had his stress fractures aged 15. He might suffer from the repetitive impact but he'll outrun anyone at the club, any day. His game yesterday wasn't perfect but he's on the way for sure. He ran off Sidebottom through the first quarter and Malthouse shifted Lockyer onto his wing in the second quarter to force him to man up. It's a pretty big deal when one of your first year players is causing headaches for the opposition coach.

The key word being "RUN". Watch the 2nd and 3rd efforts of Skull and Trenners...they're rubbing off on other players. Did anyone see Jones sometime in the first half come CHARGING like a bull through a pack just in front of the MCC? And players upfield ran, making real leads for a change, which meant the ball carrier didn't have to stop, turn around and handball off to someone under more pressure. There was still handball but most of it was forward to RUNNING targets rather than backwards and there were fewer handballs over less than 2 metres. FWIW - imagine Trenners or Scully in Brisbane's team the other night - still think Daniel Rich is superman? If these guys looked up everytime they won possession to see Fev/Brown (think Jurrah/Watts etc..) the media would be flipping out already.

Funny...I leant over and said the same thing to my brother at the game yesterday. Trenners started at 75% of the centre bounces yesterday. Scully held down a wing for 75% of the day. These guys are going to win serious respect this year. And then the psychological pipsqueaks in yellow, white (or whatever) will start seeing free kicks that they never used to see. It would be nice for a change, right? How many times have we seen Judd, Ablett et al. get the softest of soft free kicks against Melbourne?!?!?!

Titan is probably onto something. If he's not playing in the middle I don't really know if you try to stop Hodge. He's a gun, but I don't really think the best way to counter him is to have a hard tag. Bruce et al, should be near him at all stoppages but other than that, the best way to beat him is to provide a real attacking option, hurt him on the score board. I don't know if we're good enough to do this though and we'll probably end up needing someone to be on him at all times

***First thread, long time 'ologist *** I was struck when looking at Mike Sheehan's "top 50" by the challenge that preceded it. "THE TASK: You are charged with listing the best 50 players in the competition, based on what they have done previously and what they might be expected to do this year, on the proviso they are fit and in form." Unfortunately Mike's method is clearly subjective and comes up with some bizzare results. MY Challenge: could someone out there please establish some decent statistical analysis tools for the great game. The people who talk about our game base their opinions primarily on what they see and misleading stats such as possessions, tackles, and arbitrary goal scoring numbers. What's happened is there's no real way to argue that player A is better than player B, or Team X is impressive in any particular area. It all just comes down to the most impassioned, loudest person. PRIME EXAMPLE: Mike rated Fevola 6 last year, this year 30. Forgetting the fact that either no may be too high...Does anyone really think Fev is that much worse than last year? Statistics need to be compiled for deflections, spoils, turnovers forced, contests involved in etc etc...then some maths wiz needs to find some reliable formulas. I don't think statistics are THE way to analyse football, but another tool in the bag would be mighty helpful. The way we look at the game today is often half-witted and entirely subjective.

Look, the guy wrote about how good Fremantle's recruiting has been (which it may be) and how it bodes well for them (which it may) only ten days ago. But it seems the MFC merely recruits guys to wreck them I don't think this guy is worth much salt.