Jaded No More

If he learns how to ruck he is virtually cemented a starting 18 spot, which I think is what we all want to see. It gives him an added flexibility and means he doesn't miss out on selection due to match ups.

If you read the VFL report from this weekend, you'll note that German talks about playing Martin in different positions, including the ruck. I have no issue with playing Martin at a lower level if by doing so he learns to ruck, thus eliminating the need to play PJ or any other relatively useless second ruck that we have on our list. He actually did OK in small rucking doses. By the way, German had Wheatley as BOG for the Demons, whereas I thought he was shite. Strange.

It's a shame you didn't, Mark Stevens! :D What a fantastic story this is, and a lot of credit must be given to Jurrah and the club for managing to fast track the development of someone who has come from so far back. If he can continue to stay fit both physically and emotionally, and settle in well at the club, there is no doubt he will be a very very special player who will bring in the crowds and help us win games. Good luck to him!

Absolutely. At the half way mark of the season we have won ONE match. The time to "list manage" is now, and to say that Bailey is 'not into tanking' is akin to saying that Bailey is not thinking long term, and we absolutely know that he is. The club can publicly say that we are all about developing a winning culture, just as long as they manage to lose games against West Coast, Richmond, Freo and North. Anyone who feels the need to take the moral high ground and suggest that tanking is an ugly thing, should just remind themselves how happy they are with Jack Watts, and how much happier they would be if we also had Naitanui. To miss out on Scully and pick 2 could be the difference between making up the numbers and winning a flag. Tanking = Losing the battle but winning the war!

The problem with playing Garland as a forward, is that it significantly impacts not just our backline but also our midfield structure. Garland is quick enough to play both short and tall. If you remove him, you are essentially forced to play someone like Frawley on a small type player, and IMO Frawley does not have the speed or athleticism to do so. This means that in situations like we had on Monday, when the opposition has 2-3 small quick forwards, we will be forced to play both Bennell and Grimes down back, which significantly decreases our midfield quality. In the long term, if we want the likes of Bennell and Grimed to play through the middle, and we do, we cannot send someone like Garland up forward without finding another quality defender who can play tall and small and provide us with the necessary attack from the half back line. Garland is the most important element of our backline IMO.

I have no issue if we don't pick up Morabito if he has disposal issues (never seen him play so cannot comment). I would however have an issue if we didn't pick up a player simply because we deemed that at 191cm he is just 2cm too short or too tall. Too tall for what? to be a good midfielder, or too short to be a good KPP? Fevola and Goodes are just two players who have proven that height and talent are in no way genetically linked.

Do you reckon it's because they might just be crap footballers? Do you have statistics that show the percentage of 191-192cm players overlooked in the draft when compared to players in other height divisions? It seems that for every player apparently overlooked because they were precisely 191cm or 192cm in the draft, there are plenty who were drafted and have gone on to become very good or even star players. This thread is now so ridiculous I'm going to read it only when I need a laugh.

What happened? I just missed it.

There is a saying in the fashion industry; only real men can wear pink. That is all :D

I got members tickets for level 3 and they cost $3.60 each (no way am I paying over $50 for two people to sit on level 1). The issue I had is that bloody ticketmaster charged me more in fees and handling charges, despite me choosing to print the tickets myself, than what I paid for the actual tickets. Talk about ripoff. If you have the time to turn up early on Friday and buy tickets beforehand, do it just to avoid paying them money I say. Unfortunately some of us have to work! :angry:

I hate Etihad and I hate Essendon. So annoying that I pay for a 17 game membership, then have to pay extra money just so I can get crappy seats. And as usual, half of the bottom level will be empty.

After he missed that goal while kicking across the body instead of just kicking straight through, my friend turned to me and said "who the hell is that idiot?". Summed up my feelings pretty well. He sort of gravitates between no confidence and too much confidence. Quite possibly the strangest footballer I have come across mentally.

On what I saw yesterday, Wheatley is a definite delist. As for Buckley, I don't know where he would fit into our side. Let's assume for a minute that he makes a full recovery, and his speed is not hampered by the injury. Lets also assume that by some miracle he learns to kick. He is still going to be competing with the likes of Bennell, Grimes and Strauss for a position, possibly even Bail. All four are better players defensively and the first three mentioned are much much better offensively. Add Blease and Scully (yes, I went there ) as finishers, plus Sylvia and Davey now playing as midfielders, and there is little room for him anyway. Whoever it was that called him a gun needs to step back and look at what he has delivered at the top level. It's easy to get sucked in by his foot speed, but that does not cover his many other deficiencies including disposal, decision making and accountability. At best I'd delist him and maybe pick him up as a rookie.

He is quicker than our other inside mids (and Valenti). I'd say he is probably on far for speed with Moloney, but VFL is a lot slower than AFL so it is hard to judge. Some of his kicking yesterday disappointed me, but overall he is a machine when it comes to winning the disputed ball. I love players like him, but plenty have struggled to make it. His hands are phenomenal and he makes good decisions. Needs to work on his disposal by foot and could really be something. He is better than Valenti IMHO.

I've seen Juice play the last two weeks, live yesterday, and he does not deserve a game based on what he showed. He just has no idea where to go, how to position himself and apart from being a very good mark, he has no other tools at this disposal to make him a dangerous player at AFL level. That he pretty much refuses to take a shot inside 50m, even at this level, is terrible. Fisher, who is a horrendous kick for goal, took his chances yesterday and kicked 6. That is what Juice should do if he wants to push for selection.

I stand by my comment that he will be a much better AFL player than what he has shown at VFL level thus far. He is being under utilised at Casey, either because of a lack of fitness, or because it is apparently better to watch Wheatley turn it over 60m down the field. I was a bit annoyed that he wasn't on the ground more, but I suppose Bennell and Wheatley had the back pockets covered. Wouldn't mind seeing him get 2-3 games in Rounds 20-22 just to give him a taste. Our forwards (I don't know who they are either) are going to love him!

He doesn't need to measure his output by goals alone, because I thought he contributed to a lot of the score anyway, and was by far the most dominant forward for Casey. The umpires were absolutely terrible all game, and influenced way too many contests. They payed decisions that weren't there, and didn't pay the ones that were there. Shocking. They must have been at Etihad last night, because there too the umpiring was terrible. Jurrah definitely deserved that mark in the last. As for the one handed attempt, tell him to try both hands next time Oh and for those who care, CJ played for the Bullants and was woeful. He pulled out of one contest in particular which prompted my friend to swear at him and turn to me and give me an earful for releasing such a dud into the open market, thus enabling Carlton to pick him up! I laughed! :D

I tried. We only made the decision to go in the last minute, and were not appropriately rugged-up and did spend the majority of the game discussing the merits of Fisher's facial hair, the irony of Silvani dominating against Carlton, and whether Robinson is a ranga or an albino, or a bit of both. Then in the last quarter my friend got very distracted by some random Casey reserves player Clearly she was bored given that the Bullents is a team full of D-grade Carlton rejects (yes Cloke, we're looking at you), while Casey had a bit of talent on display. Much excitement ensued whenever one of Jurrah/Martin/Bennell/Jetta/Strauss/McKenzie got near the ball, and much swearing was involved whenever Wheatley turned it over and Newton dished it off inside 50.

Whoever does the "Bests" for the VFL needs to lay off the drugs. Bennell was good when he got the ball, but he was nowhere near good enough to get into the votes. A bit of credit to Valenti, McKenzie and Dunn is required, as they pretty much ensured we dominated the clearances in the last quarter which is when we actually won the game. Also think that Martin deserves a lot of credit for shutting down Fisher who absolutely dominated Wheatley and other various Casey listed defenders for the first half of the game. And no, Bell didn't play. Nobody who played on Monday played today, given the very short break.

A quick rundown before I go and defrost myself... Jurrah: needs to get himself more involved in the contest, but boy is he good. Makes things happen out of nothing, and nearly took one of the best one handed screamers I've seen. Very talented and I would say he'd be close to a call up. Again though, needs to stop spectating at times and actually run forward to present an option. Will learn. Newton: the complete opposite to Jurrah. Can mark and all, but has zero confidence in his kicking and is generally just poor in his positioning and ability to read the play. I think he may have a groin issue though because I saw him walk off at half time holding his groin. Martin: too good for this level as a defender. Played up forward in the first half, rucked for about 5 minutes, then went down back to play on Fisher and nullified him (after Fisher was kicking them from everywhere, which according to my Carlton friend is a rarity) Bennell: didn't get a lot of it, but when he did, make things happen. Very quick, good skills, will get a call up soon no doubt Jetta: very good forward pressure, but sort of floats in and out of games. Took some good strong marks and has potential. Would be threatening Maric's position in the side unless Maric starts kicking goals Strauss: didn't get much of the ball but is a great user of it. Kicking is superb. Don't think the VFL style of play suits him so much, especially since you don't get paid the mark when kicking backwards in the defensive 50. He'll be better in the AFL when we can feed the ball out to him and he can run down from HB to create a contest. He played a bit up forward in the last. Wheatley: one word- delist. Might be harsh because he kicked a great long goal, but he still can't defend and he is still turning the ball over nearly every time. Made a horrible fumble at ground level as well and got dragged. No way can he get a senior game based on that performance Dunn: not as good as last week, but he loves this level. Didn't make many mistakes and is constantly finding space. If only he could translate that when playing AFL Bartram: turned it over a lot, worked hard defensively. Just a game. Petterd: great strong overhead marking, horrible kicking. Just a game. Valenti: dominates at this level and is just so so good with his hands. Took some good marks for his size as well. McKenzie: I love him, although his ball use in space was a bit dodgy at times. Very very good hands in close though. Would be happy to elevate him to the senior list, but probably not necessary when we promoted Valenti Hughes: bloody quick, but didn't see much of it. Spencer didn't play. Can't remember if I forgot anyone, but my brain is frozen (and slightly hungover), so remind me if I did. Edit: forgot to mention Bail. He didn't do a whole heap in the first half, then got smacked in the head behind the play by Robinson (Carlton listed player) right before half time. He never came back on, in fact he never came out of the rooms. He looked pretty out of it after he went down, so I'm assuming it's just a concussion. No free kick was paid, so it's possible that none of the 7 idiots umpiring the game actually saw what happened, meaning Robinson won't get suspended. If that was caught on camera he'd get 3 weeks, easily. It was 50m from the contest, high and pretty forceful.

Trading TJ was the smartest on-field decision we have made in 10 years. That we got Grimes as a result of the trade means it could be the smartest decision we have ever made, period.

This thread is absolutely fascinating. Just wanted to thank all you guys who have provided insight into Jurrah's journey so far. Hopefully you can keep us updated throughout his career.

I would be tempted to delist him. His speed is the only thing that he has going for him, and with OP that is at risk. I'd say goodbye to him and move on.

Even though he wasn't really interested and had no new ideas to bring to the table? Appointing a coach is not about marketability, it is about long term success. Sheedy would have generated a buzz, but then what? Every somebody was once a nobody.

The hype and media focus surrounding him was borderline insane, and he would have been [censored] himself. Well and truly. Imagine being in his shoes, and the enormity of the situation. That he actually didn't fumble his first touch, and got up straight away after being nailed to the ground by three big players, is a miracle in itself. No doubt he was out there thinking to himself "gees so many people are looking at me to do something, but it's pissing down, I'm surrounded by a bunch of incompetent tools and nobody would kick the bloody ball to me... what the feck did I get myself into?". To be honest, I walked away from yesterday hoping that what Jack remembers most about it is the loud cheers he received when running onto the ground for the first time, and not his ultimate performance on the day, which means absolutely nothing in the context of his career. I hope he keeps playing for the rest of the year, because only experience is standing in his way right now (and lets hope he nailed his accounting exam today as well!)