Tarax Club

Kicking accuracy meter awry. 8 behinds

Was in first quarter.

JEFFO!

Big Luker! Mark and goal.

Going Live in less than 15 minutes. https://www.afl.com.au/vfl/matches/6475

Match Day! Having missed last night’s heroics. Travelling back to the land of Oz. Will be tuning in this afternoon. Andy Moniz - Wakefield’s performance will be on the radar as will the other Oliver (Sestan). Question on notice will young Pup get another go around? That was a terrific rundown tackle on debut. Given the context of the game.

We patiently await team selection: ‘Clark’ Kentfield must out looking for a telephone box.

Tholstrup a most deserved elevation after his last match at Casey. Performance actually matches ‘some’ of the messianic hyperbole being spouted about, since his arrival by worshippers of a paranormal kolt.

The haircut helped. He’s now a ringer for the old dog. Add the Brown pedigree of dare, deavour and determination. Pup’s debut with the big dogs decidedly deelights the Demon Diaspora.

Or the scenario has the satisfying twist of denying Beagle Boys inc. aka ‘The Filth’ A finals berth. Of course as a final after thought ‘Bros’ gets collected by the Karma Bus.

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The great thing about Aussie rules was the unpredictability of the Sherrin. Bounces could randomly go anywhere and decide the result of a whole season on the point of the Sherrin at the Grand Final. The playing field unlike other codes was not derived from the square but oval. Surface area was much larger and contained more bodies contesting for the ball. Harking back to many contestants competing over a pig’s bladder or a ‘ball’ of kangaroo hide. Serendipity or just plain luck was a factor in deciding the victory. Fast forward to now with the AFL Big Media and $$$ in play, ‘the industry’ has removed most of the native charm. Leaving an often more predictable product for consumers. Despite the post-King’s Bday emergence of doubters, doomsayers and deriders and the media pile-on. Personally the performance last round was utterly without luck. Plenty of ball going forward, matched the opposition for marks inside 50 late into the match. Plus 4 or 5 posters and being denied a goal by a dodgy technician assisted scoring interpretation. Was massively deflating. Yes the opposition was going up the other end. Either getting easy goals over the back of defenders or frequently kicking low% goals from the boundary line. Hawkeye would have had a field day. Internally the feeling would be some steps back from ‘The Alice’ precipice have occurred. Add some judicious selection reinforcements, re-instil belief and kick in a modicum of luck. The form slide can be arrested after all this is a team game. Greater than the sum of its parts.

If last week was rock bottom, it’s not all doom and gloom. Points margin of loss was decreased by 41% from the previous round. joeboy - comic genius works Max Gawn - monumental in defeat Trent Rivers - endeavour lacks finesse Kysaiah Pickett - wayward [censored] genius Christian Salem - ying or yang? Caleb Windsor - kid goes alright Jacob Van Rooyen - showed some spark Bayley Fritsch - press play now Tom McDonald - centred amongst kaos Alex Neal-Bullen - Nibbler does daicos Steven May - matchup from hell Christian Petracca - gallant at Gallipoli The rest - little meaningful impact Next encounter - Clarkson smells blood?

Is Tommy McDonald going forward?

Woken up to a beautiful morning north of the normal horizons. There is a cool breeze, the sound of water bubbling over a fountain and bird song. Smelling sweet incense from the sanggah. As close to morning of the earth l’ll get. ps. Taking this as a good omen the lovely lady who cooks breakfast turned up in Red ‘n Blue. Go you mighty Dees! ❤️ 💙

Did intend to view the game live. But got time zones differential well out of wack. So watched the replay this evening. Much improved team performance with some significant inclusions BBB Shane McAdam and Adam Tomlinson. Some solid performances from unheralded Casey boys; Gregory, Edwards and Neocleous. As mentioned in previous posts, Koltyn Tholstrup played his best game since arriving from Esperance and was very clean. Ollie Sestan went OK too. Big kid Kentfield added some much needed physicality. AMW got the run around in the first half but settled better in the second half and contributed positively to the Casey team performance. During the last quarter, Taj Woewodin featured in a goal scoring chain with two classy foot passes, penultimately hitting Ben Brown before the goal was kicked. Belied the notion his kicking was wayward. Tom Fullerton’s performance deserves some praise too, went alright. From my side of the picket fence Mitch White lead from the front. Fingers crossed the boys find some similar form tomorrow.

“What the [censored]!” Billings to play Laurie the bridesmaid.

WCW given Lethal’s ‘contributions’ to Australian rules, l’m not surprised takes one to know one. Thug that is.

Some here may recall former coach Neil Balme circa1994? Kicking a chair which flew across the visitors change rooms at Kardinia Park. Immediately after a defeat of similar proportions to last Sunday's shellacking in the Alice. Got a response too, the very next round at Princess Park. We turned up to play, Allen Jakovich was at his imperious best. It was a responding victory against the odds. Love and respect Neil Daniher. King's Birthday is very much his MND awareness and fund raising day. But down in the rooms a bit of fire and brimstone from Balmy wouldn't go astray.

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities. And able to lift the under performing Demons out of their tenth ladder position form slump?

True, but as his ability to run the required repeat distances improves. It should allow him to get to more contests or ahead of contested ball situations. Seen a few glimpses of his tool kit. Kicks a very handy snap goal when the opportunity presents itself. During his performance against Port Melbourne at Frankston. Young Ollie displayed a lovely 'step' around and through opponents at centre bounce contests. Winning the ball and delivering it effectively into the forward zone. Or kicking a mighty barrel goal as he did against the tiggers at Punt Rd. IMO a natural footballer, with a potentially much higher ceiling than others running around at Casey at the moment. With improved fitness you'd expect his consistency to improve too.

Despite the mantra about ‘no limits’ on young blokes at the club. It is rebuked by the number of non-performing players with AFL experience who ‘grace’ the current side. Their selection is biased on reputation and a Hail Mary hope they play themselves into some kind of form. With the team bus teetering on the edge of the no return precipice. Can this season be resuscitated? Not if the whiff of favouritism and blind faith continues. To quote Bertrand Russell “The whole problem with the (footy)world is that fools and fanatics are certain of themselves, while wiser people are full of doubts.” Including a prominent poster on this thread who most publicly announced pre-2021, that ANB was not worthy of consideration as a forward. Time for another Hyphen buddy.

Picket I'll take optimism and self-belief over cockamamie pessimism every time.

Commensurate with Casey's performance, so down a little on last weeks high personal performance mark. The naysayers will say his statistics were padded out by kickouts. Though Blake Howes appeared to be sharing that responsibility. Casey backline were under a lot of pressure from Coburg. Centre clearances were going decisively one way, particularly after quarter time. So Andy was getting amongst it and was involved in repeated attempts to get the ball going the other way. Two memorable plays he was involved with led directly to Casey goals. One an unlikely extraction from a pack and a clean pass to Matthew Jefferson. The other an outrageous fend off, after gathering the bouncing ball at pace and a long handball which resulted in a footpass to Tom Fullarton, goal. Both those plays showed he is gaining confidence and has the elusive "X" factor. IMHO he is the best uncapped MFC player running around at Casey. Where or when he gets his debut is dependent on him continuing in his current vein of form. The decision to play him in defence is sound, he is getting his hands on the ball a lot more. Plus his defensive game is getting plenty of opportunity to improve. I don't see his possible field position being limited to defence. As he is an attacking, creative player by nature.