Mad_Melbourne

This is the only week that there hasn't been the full compliment of Melbourne players in the best, not only that but I feel that the big issue at the moment is that not all of out AFL listed players are of AFL standard and even fewer of the casey players are of a standard that could be considered VFL. Especially considering we used to have some of the better non-afl players at casey this is a big change and really needs to be addressed. Another point that is necessary for consideration for caseys efforts this year is the fact hogan and spencer are injured. Last year having the five of fitzy, hogan, spencer, gawn and pedo playing vfl more often than not made a huge difference to the casey team.

The problem is that his game shouldn't really be based around winning his own football, not that he doesn't need to work on keeping his feet and being able to affect the contest on the ground more, but he has significantly improved these qualities this season. Often he is 5-10m out on his opponent and is missed, then the idiot in the crowd who often sits behind me will scream "that's your man Watts" where I think to myself, yes it is his man but if the pass had of hit him it wouldn't be an issue. The other problem with this is that when the ball is kicked to his advantage side he often is able to win a marking contest and position his body well against his opponent often enough. At the end of the day, there is no coincidence that when Melbourne play well watts is playing well. There is no way he should not be in the side and he is very close to a top 5 best and fairest this year I would think. Definitely top 10.

Because who needs tv when you have this kind of drama! We just need a love story or something to make it a movie. Seriously though I have tried to pay as little notice as possible to the side show and it's still fun to go on with the draft and what not. As if you wouldn't want to be part of the sequel

Let's be serious the main reason the player does it is to gain 15 m on the run and therefore Dunn can get the football 70m away from our goals.

The footage is shotty and the fact that bulldogs players remonstrated was taken into consideration. They remonstrated because it was a young player. Ridiculous suspension. I can't help but feel that due to the viney suspension Melbourne are getting bent over, all these 2 weeks down to 1 suspensions that aren't worth challenging

And people talk about how it is poor from the 12 Melbourne players. From the stat sheet all looked to be doing there bit, but like last week the other blokes on the ground are a flat out liability

I feel like the censored post relates to you as well. He is well and truley in the casey firsts and is not far off selection week in week out. Is he getting 30 touches a week no. But really players have to develop and saying he is way of the mark is a vast over statement and really an uninformed, boring and expected garbage post that you usually come up with

I still don't think it's right, there are 14 other people that this is being harsh on. I agree name calling and swearing in posts in unacceptable (you did that in your posts also?) but no reason to ruin the season. Just let it be, reinstate him and ignore the fella

Yeh, playing jones on him (as has been done throughout the year) and giving Barry or nicho the role on Macrae is probably how it will pan out. That said it is damn near impossible to stop Libba because his hand (which I think half the time is a throw) are just so quick when he gets the footy

Granted, but I still think you underestimate the defensive side of his game as a club like hawthorn wouldn't allow players to not play a defensive role considering he plays off the half back and wing. That said the player roles aren't really comparable, but I would think that suckling is pretty switched on to grabbing an opppnent when the ball is in the oppositions hands. I get that, but the problem is he doesn't put on pressure, personally I think Kent, Salem, JKH are ahead of him for that position and even Byrnes was when fit.

Don't know how well Libba can be tagged, due to the fact that it isn't the outside ball the he harms teams from but rather his contested stoppage work.

Good to see King back. Hopefully he can return and successfully continue to develop and give a little chop out to fitzy and gawny

No, they don't. There is no defensive liability for hawthorn. Whilst I know you are thinking of hill and smith their defensive presence is clear in every match. Both have enormous engines and are able to support two way running, meaning they can run ridiculously hard forward as they are able to match these efforts back. Blease does not defend but the fact he often ignores team mates in better positions running himself into trouble

Blease is by far the most overrated player on our list. His first half was good on the weekend but average for the rest of it. That said he played as a forward/mid but when he played as a forward he put zero forward pressure and is just flat lazy when he doesn't have the football. Role players are necessary and at the moment as had been the case much of his career Blease is a one way, non team orientated player. That said, cross and Mckenzie are defensive mids and Blease is definitely not one of these so Barry and nicho get put in the squad. Kent, Salem, JKH and resting mids get the small forward role ahead of Blease Barry played as a tagger the last few weeks, whilst not attracting massive sums of the footy the fact that he is in the best and also playing his role for the team puts him ahead of Blease. Nicho was due, and whilst his disposal is still iffy the fact that he can actually play as a defender/tagger is the reason he can play.

Yeh the problem is that if you are running forward in the chain and your opponent doesn't follow you (due to him being a forward) and someone like nicho or the non Melbourne listed players turn the footy over, they are stuck in no mans land. But in this instance I guess it's not so much about your direct opponent but your nearest player, but at the same find this was what he said was the hardest thing to balance while playing AFL and vfl

I have had a few chats with a couple recently ex afl players who I had the pleasure of attending school with and they said the biggest problem is that when you stick to a shut down role you get crucified for not wining the football, and when you win the football you get told off for not having a balance. Basically it is hard to get a call up when you are just stopping your opponent, but when you win the football you get your chances to play. That being said it is probably different with roos in coaching position but yes

I think the one thing Nicho has that a lot don't is an elite work ethic, so they are hoping they can work on his disposal and decision making. It's weird that Strauss is one of the first cab off the ranks from reading the match reviews and few conversations I've had with people around the club it looks like he is held in pretty high esteem, that said if you don't turn it on at vfl level you don't play afl.

Whilst I agree with your points, the i50 and shots on target aren't the be all and end all. For example against essendon the ball use by essendon into their 50 was useless and whilst they were having the better of their midfield battle it was purely our use going into our forward line that helped us score the win. It's alsmost an argument that our decision making has been so good for pieces in games that we are able to score from far less i50. That being said our real problem is that we are one or two class midfielders short still. We lose the midfield battle meaning they can get it into their 50 but our defence and forward set ups are good enough to keep us in the game.

I agree, that said he was never going to be one that got away and really with the speed of football now days and his blatantly obvious one way running leppa is well in his rights to play going kids ahead of him. The only player in the afl who doesn't have to defend is Ablett

You are one of those sink the boot in due to a game that wasn't great kinda people. Viney, lacks pace and disposal is questionable at times. Cross lacks pace and disposal is questionable at times. On the weekend Dunn kicked the poorest he has all year Jeremy Howe made 5-6 defensive and offensive blunders. Tom McDonald whilst he can make errors on disposal and judgement, defensively is a key player to our team. You just don't get rid of your starting centre half back who can sometimes make mistakes when he doesn't get goals kicked on him. The problem is that players don't get near him for him to hand pass to, due to his elite running and ability to find space

Tell me a game where his opponent had best him heavily this year. In 10 games he has probably only been really beaten once and that was against WC. I don't know what you have been watching all year if you dont agree? What point in the post that you questioned did you disagree with? I nearly can not think of a 21 year old defender who is better, Talia and May is probably it, frost is much less proven

Tom McDonald is going to be playing for Melbourne for 10-13 more years, barring injury or free agency. Whilst his disposal is not as good as others, his defensive output is often top notch and whilst Petrie had the chance to kick 4-5 goals, he didnt and yet again McDonald only had one goal kicked on him. He runs hard off his opponent which works if we are able to maintain the footy, but when we turned it over so easily Petrie did not bother chasing McDonald and gave him several easy marks. His disposal problem is a bit of an issue, but it is also to do with the options that are presented to him, he isnt going to be a 50 m pin point passer, but if he can run the footy for 20 m and get the ball to a one v one 50 odd metres away or over the boundary line then this is an ideal passage of play. That being said, he has been one of the best this year week in week out and will be top 10 in our BNF

i think the biggest difference is that the players who are currently playing in the vfl are much younger than those who have in recent times. Couch and Magner were VFL magnets and older with stronger bodies, they were replaced on the rookie list by younger players (Harmes and King) and also Nev who is playing ones. Not to mention that the good VFL players over the last few years at Casey have been replaced and this means that yet again the depth of the team has dropped. Spencer and Hogan are two big losses for Casey aswell, whilst it is a good oppourtunity for Gawn to play number 1 ruck and Fitzy to play number one forward, a forward line of Hogan, Fitzy and Gawn is much more dangerous than Fitzy rotating with Gawn. From the Melbourne listed players on the weekend i though Michie was very good at the stoppages and defensively aswell, he just needs to find the mix of running forward and watching his opponent. Sam Blease took the game on, and it is hard to see much of his defensive work from the tv, but he seemed to be a bit more switched on. That said i think he is just developing a defensive side of his game so he will be able to run both ways Gawny seemed to be on top of mcevoy in the stoppages and was often in the right spot around the ground. He would have had 2 goals apart from stupid free kicks that werent there, he did get beat once or twice when he was pushing back but most of the time McEvoy did his damage when playing as a forward not ruck. i think Barry played as a tagger on Iles and really only got beat once or twice, but didnt get too much of the footy. Georgiou was very solid, and really without him it would have been a 100+ loss. Fitzy showed his potential, he just needs to get a metre or two more away from his opponent on the lead, that said ball use to him was pretty hopeless for the most part. Tapscott was hard at the football, just needs to get on the outside more. I personally thought Strauss was our only other defender who defended well, he just needs to find the footy a little bit more. I think Roos and Allison have high hopes for him as he is able to defend strongly and just would like to see him take the game on a bit more. JKH struggled, i think he often switched off and really was unable to benefit from the hard work that fitzy did to bring the ball down due to the strong defence that box hill did have. Nicho made many mistakes on the ball, but also provided alot of drive from the backline. Harmes looks like he is going to be a player, tried hard all day and was one of the few who consistently battled it out Byrnes injured too early Evans, again just was up and down, a few good things and a few odd things. i think he needs to spend more time up forward but looked like he was playing in defence. Toumpas i thought he was pretty solid and other than being caught out once or twice defended well. just needs to be a bit more decisive with his disposal at times because the indecision led to a few turn overs.

spencer was strong to start the year, his contract extension was granted because really he is the only player capable of playing number 1 ruck if Jamar is down. Gawn is developing well as a ruck man and I am happy to be proven wrong by Grimley but at the end of the day I doubt this guy is going to be on hawthorns list for much longer and really he is not overly athletic, his skills aren't that great and really he is not even ahead of the players on our list.

I thought he looked pretty average and had his colours significantly lowered by georgiou. Fitzy is one to stick with ahead of him and I also like the early glimpses of Max King