poita

Interesting to see Jack Ferraro get a call up to Casey. He spent the last few years at St Bedes-Mentone Tigers, which was where Kyah Farris-White played last year. It just goes to show that you never know who is watching and where the next opportunity might come from.

I can't see the point to Sharp until he shows he is capable of playing 4 quarters of decent football. Sure he is an okay sub choice, but it is not helping him develop as a footballer. I have no idea why we have an aversion to resting players like Lindsay. Give him a week off to freshen up, and let him loose for the last five weeks. Both Windsor and Tholstrup are very, very lucky to be playing this week when there are other players who haven't been given an opportunity yet.

There is no way that you can convince me that Sparrow and Spargo are contributing so much to the team that they are basically undroppable, when there are players at Casey who haven't been given a single opportunity this season. How do we know that Culley or Brown might not offer something different if we don't try them?

Or perhaps we massively overrated the quality and depth of our list and subsequently realised that we can't progress with the current group?

So, a club with one of the worst forward lines in the competition is looking to move on its only reliable goal scorer? There would want to be something seriously, seriously good coming back the other way. The alternative is that he gets replaced in the lineup by a Spargo / Sharp / Henderson type that contributes 10 touches and zero goals a week, and that certainly doesn't improve the side.

Honestly, who cares if we're the 8th best side or the 13th or the 17th? The reality is that we are miles off genuinely contending for a premiership, which surely is the aim. There is a fair argument that our best player, best forward and best defender are all aged 33. Hence we not only need to plug the current gaps in our list, we also need to find replacements for these three players before we can contend. Sure we should aspire to be more competitive on a weekly basis than we have for much of this year, but the gap between our best and worst football (from week to week, and within games) is way too big at the moment.

Sheezel played better than Fritsch or McDonald? That's hilarious Clarko.

Some of his kicking to advantage inside 50 yesterday was just sublime. The sky is the limit for him as he builds his fitness levels. If we saw fit to give Tholstrup a contract to 2028 last year, we should be looking to extend Langford to about 2040.

Unfortunately for him he won't be opposed to Lever each week. Let's see how he goes against an opponent with some mobility.

Another really disappointing game. As said previously, he is not fit enough so doesn't get to enough contests, doesn't read the play well enough so is consistently in the wrong position and makes simple skill and decision making errors (may also be linked to fitness issues). Having spunk and attitude are great, but you need to be able to back it up - he is not at this point. Only 1 tackle as well, so not sure about this great defensive workrate that others are praising. We're just not doing him any favours by persisting with him in this role at AFL level. Has to go back to Casey and get his hands on the ball regularly for a month.

Aren't we just reversing the change that was made two weeks ago? Most of our changes this year seem to have been undoing decisions that were made in previous weeks. There is absolutely no conviction or transparency with our selections this year.

Well, I can guarantee you that Lever wasn't one of the two given he was injured (yet again) for one of those games and had 9 touches in the other.

And realistically Casey Fields is not even in Cranbourne itself - it is another 10 minutes down the road if traffic is [censored], which it is any time there is an event on.

Completely underwhelming potential inclusions. Windsor is obviously best 22 when fit and firing, but not sure he is. Henderson isn't up to it and has done nothing at Casey. We're already carrying enough defenders without adding Howes into the mix. And as much as I'd like to see a Gawn-Campbell combo, both are almost 34 and Campbell hardly represents our future. It's sad when Tholstrup and Jefferson look like good alternatives by comparison. Why aren't we having a look at Brown, Woewodin or Culley at this point of the season?

I just don't see it happening unless the superstars of the competition demand it. If the likes of Daicos and Bontempelli start making noise, the clubs and media will fall in line pretty quickly. Otherwise it would just be the AFL forcing their will on the players, and you'll end up with teams full of C graders.

I don't really care whether Lever is unhappy or not, or whether these media reports are true or not, The fact is that he is a very highly paid, experienced footballer whose form has been woeful for two years, in a team that has significantly underperformed in that period. He absolutely deserved to be dropped, even earlier than round 16, and probably for more than one week. I've said it previously - Lever is clearly the first player we should be floating as trade bait if we are serious about rebuilding the list.

Fox SportsFlag Dee ‘gettable’ as teammate halts contract talks; rev...Flag hero ‘gettable’ after brutal ‘blindsiding’; revelation on Blue’s future — Trade WhispersIt is one thing if McVee is unhappy with his contract offer, it is entirely another if he is unhappy with his role in the team. If Goodwin's obsession with playing Salem ends up costing us McVee, that should be the final nail in his coffin.

Van Rooyen is absolutely the least of our current problems. Sure it would be great if he was a 50 goal forward in his third year as an AFL player, notwithstanding our pathetic delivery inside 50, but how many players are? He, like all young players, is not going to experience truly linear development and will benefit most from consistency of role, messaging and environment. I don't think he has had any of those three this year with the consistent back and forth between Melbourne and Casey, and the ever changing forward line personnel. That is on the coaches and the selectors.

Goodwin is the master of telling people what they want to hear, no matter how ridiculous the dribble he spews. I'm not sure what's worse - that he truly believes what he says, or that people still give him the benefit of the doubt after the past 18 months. And yes, we'll do well to beat more than 2 of the 4 so-called easy beats in the coming weeks. Not because they're better than us, but because we're the masters of finding ways to lose the unlosable.

Good to see Spargo maintaining his stellar scoring record from the past two years, even at the lower level. Only one tackle as well. But we know Goodwin loves him, so no doubt he'll be back this week.

We only got 28K to the North game last year when we were outside the eight on percentage. We could struggle to get 20K this week unless North supporters decide to come out in force, particularly with a forecast top of 13. Given that we fell over the line last year by 3 points when North were last on the ladder, and we were flogged in round 2 this year, this could be another tough watch.

Wasted a strong first quarter with woeful kicking and basically dropped our bundle after 10 minutes of exceptional play in the second. Never looked like it in the second half. Too many passengers (Jefferson, Tholstrup, Fritsch, Sparrow and Co), poor skills, especially by hand, and weak tackle efforts cost us a game that was there to be won. Sadly we are at full strength, with an experienced and seasoned team, so there are absolutely no excuses.

As I said during the week, something has to change with Tholstrup's role because this clearly isn't working. He needs a complete reset before next season.

I'm assuming from the lack of posts in this thread that most people are like me and are completely over this season. I don't think I've ever been less interested in a season than this one.

The best we can do after 3 consecutive losses is two forced changes. 🥱 Do better Goodwin.