poita

It was bad enough that we went through the trade and draft periods without a coach, but to be heading into pre season without one is disgraceful. What kind of impression are we making on our young draftees and their families?

Goodwin coached all the natural dare and adventure out of the players. I've got no doubt that the players were overcoached in recent times. I'm sure a lot of them appreciate just being able to play football on instinct occasionally.

The three proposed options were all terrible, but at least the first one has red and blue. How long before the AFL just makes all the away teams wear their "official" gather round jumper?

Four months and counting. Either nobody wants the job, or the interested parties are well below the very high standards set by Mick Stinear. Either way, hopefully we get a resolution very shortly.

We don't know about other AFL players being gay because its nobody else's business how they conduct their personal lives, and the vast majority of the population, football fans or otherwise, have a million and one more important things to worry about. There is a very small group of people, most of them in the AFL media, who are obsessed with this issue. I assume this is because they want to paint the picture that this is a safe, welcoming space for the gay community when there is a 99.99% chance that it isn't going to be.

Too small, too slow, doesn't find enough football and doesn't use it well enough. I honestly don't understand how he is still on the list.

$11 GA tickets and free entry for kids 14 and under. The AFL must be expecting a crowd of about 30K for this one that they are throwing out so many incentives.

I assume Nick Stevens' defence to his regular and ongoing legal issues will be to blame a history of concussions.

I don't understand why people get so fixated on membership numbers. At some point someone will offer a $1 membership just to boost numbers, and will clearly lose money in doing so. I want to know what our $$$ income from memberships is relative to previous years and relative to other clubs. I suspect the drop in $$$ since 2023 is significantly greater than the drop in membership numbers.

What are the odds that we'll still be reading "Shane McAdam — Achilles / 2-4 weeks" in August?

There are three prominent members of what is seemingly our preferred defensive group who don't want to defend or be accountable. That is a major problem, and nothing is going to change until the personnel is changed. A lack of pressure from further up the ground is not helping either. I can see why Sparrow and Tholstrup are getting midfield time to get some balance alongside Langford, Windsor and Pickett who are not particularly defensively minded. Both need to get way more possessions that they have been to justify their opportunities.

761 days: Brayshaw's "terrible existence" amid insurance...This remains one of the great injustices in modern football.The sooner we rid ourselves of these parasites the better.

What I take from the first two games is that we have a maximum of 12 players who genuinely belong at AFL level and who are capable of playing at a decent level most weeks. The reality is that we can throw the magnets around each week, but we're not getting any more from the top 10 players at Casey then we're getting from the bottom 10 players in the senior team. The first question is who is going to benefit most developmentally from playing AFL and who is going to benefit most developmentally from playing VFL. The second question is who do we put a line through and decide that they are not going to help us either now or in the future, and when do make these decisions. I'm not convinced on Moniz-Wakefield, but he needs to be playing AFL as soon as his fitness is good enough to see if he can make it. Ditto Kentfield. We have to take a look at Heath and Jefferson as well, preferably sooner rather than later for Heath. Maybe Adams if his form warrants it. I really don't see any benefit to playing Laurie, Henderson, Johnson, and McAdam at any stage, and probably Melksham as well, unless we run into injury / fitness problems. Latrelle has had a taste of senior football, and did some fun things against St Kilda, but zero tackles in two weeks is completely unacceptable in that role. He needs to improve his endurance and strength in the VFL, and come back when he is able to compete more consistently. We do need to ride the bumps with Tholstrup (not overly a fan), Culley, Sharp and Howes because they are not going to improve further in the VFL. I'm happy for Langford, Lindsay and Windsor to have a week off every so often if we see that they are struggling. I could write a thesis on how Salem, Lever and Sparrow are complete liabilities who are in no way taking us forward, but I suspect that all three are undroppable. Hopefully King is not as attached to his senior players as Goodwin was.

I only watched part of the third quarter, and saw nothing to get excited about. Casey might be more competitive when the likes of Campbell and McDonald return, but neither is part of our next AFL finals side. Who from today's side is likely to step up and significantly improve the senior side in the next couple of years? The lack of midfield depth in our list remains a massive concern. Laurie and Henderson will never play midfield minutes in the AFL, but they seem to be our best option in the VFL. We all want the likes of Adams to succeed, but he is no closer to making the grade than he was three ago. Maybe Jefferson surprises when he returns, but I'm not holding my breath.

It will be weird seeing Jack Billings lining up for the Bulldogs. Will be sorely missed by Casey after his contributions over the past couple of years.