poita

The game felt like 40 minutes of timid, half hearted efforts that allowed Collingwood to build a match winning lead, followed by 80 minutes of complete domination for no reward due to collective panic attacks every time we entered forward 50. It is a shocking waste of a gold plated, diamond encrusted opportunity to host an interstate side in a preliminary final. Unfortunately we were always going to be in trouble when we were forced into rejigging the forward line so late in the year and, equally crucially, made the bone headed decision to tinker with a winning defence. After a terrible start Hibberd played pretty well, but May and Lever weren't running around like headless chooks, losing their men and spoiling each other when they were playing alongside Tomlinson. Our forward entries were generally poor, but what chance do they have when the forwards simply refuse to lead or even play in front? Even then we were able to create enough decent scoring chances to win the game, but lacked the smarts and the composure to capitalise. I don't know where we go from here, but having Van Rooyen, Chandler and Laurie contribute nothing in the same forward line cannot happen again. As a side we are going nowhere next year if Salem, Langdon and Hunter are automatic selections every week. Their collective lack of hardness, lack of composure and lack of kicking penetration make them liabilities. Hopefully Howes and Woewodin can put in McVee level pre seasons and push hard for these positions. Hopefully the club also reflects on the wisdom of extending coaching contracts in the middle of a sequence of demoralising finals losses. If Goodwin can't get this team up to win next week's game, this could become a mountain that is too big for this group to climb with an ageing, declining list.

Do we really need more competition for half forwards, or more 28 year olds on the list? I can't see how this possibly improves the mix of our list.

I really love this award. There are so many players doing great things in the community without seeking recognition. It would have been nice if the other nominees were mentioned in the article as well, given that they are all surely worthy.

Great to have AFLW back, and a fantastic fixture to open the season with. We have selected a very strong side, so there will be no excuses if we don't win. Hopefully the desire to go back to back is very strong. Campbell is an interesting selection. Clearly we will try to nurse Pearce through the regular season, but we do look pretty tall with her in the team. Hopefully we haven't sacrificed too much run, as this tends to be more important than size in AFLW.

Really disappointing selections. Do we really need to hold over all of Laurie, Tomlinson, Hibberd, Grundy, Jordon, McDonald, Schache, Spargo and Woewodin when we'll likely make one change this week? That's eight players sitting around doing nothing when they could be getting a high level game in. Not only do we most likely end Casey's season as a result, we deprive our fringe players of the last chance they have of getting game time. Do we really want to be bringing players into a Preliminary or Grand Final side not having played for a month?

I've said it in other threads: as fantastic as it is that Kyah is able to train alongside and learn from Max and Brodie, we are actually hurting his development by having him play limited minutes against fully grown men at Casey. He needs to be playing big minutes against kids in his own age in a local league to learn the game and get his hands on the footy.

Surely the wild card game is part of the finals series, so (at the very least) anyone who played that game will be eligible to play the remainder of the finals series? It was always my understanding that normal restrictions re finals eligibility didn't apply whilst the AFL team was still playing. Perhaps the Bulldogs will send a few players in for some off season surgery to help us out.

I would have brought McDonald in anyway, but the Melksham injury should make it a certainty. Tomlinson in for Turner. Turner is a young kid in his third game who lost track of his man on a regular basis yesterday. He would get destroyed against a top side. It was a nice reward for some decent Casey form, but Tomlinson has to come in for Cox (May for Mihocek, Lever for McStay). I hate to say it but Grundy has to come in to support Gawn this week. Van Rooyen can't be expected to compete against Cox, and we're completely stuffed if Cox takes Gawn out with a knee to the ribs in the opening minutes. Smith to sub where he's just as likely to get his 7 touches in one quarter, than spread our across a full game. I'm still deeply concerned about the form of Bowey and Chandler, but expect both to remain.

I think naming Turner, Laurie & Woewodin on the extended bench is more about ensuring that Jordon, Grundy, Spargo and others get a full game at Casey and can therefore be called into the senior team over the next week or so if required. If we are picking a sub and a non-playing emergency for a (relatively) inconsequential game at this stage of the season, we want these to be players who are not next in line for a senior call up. As much as I want both Fritsch and McDonald in the senior team for finals, I'd be surprised if they both play this week. That said, Smith averaging 6 touches a game over the last three weeks is not doing him any favours. The sub role still looks the best fit for him in the finals.

I'm no fan of Grundy, but a D rating seems particularly harsh for a guy who stepped up pretty well in Gawn's absence earlier in the year.

Not a Melbourne record, but in response to the last post, North are getting perilously close to the top ten of all time consecutive losses. One more loss sees them equal the longest losing streak of the past 30 years (held by the rotting carcase of Fitzroy and the expansion clubs in their early days). Any other club and the scrutiny and criticism would be out of this world.

That would be incredibly short sighted. 13 of Sunday's starting 22 will be 28 or over by the start of next season. We have a deeply unbalanced and rapidly aging list, and desperately need to add quality young talent.

Are we really helping Kyah Farris-White's development by giving him very limited game time against fully grown men? Surely he would be better served playing against kids his own age and size, and so he can get his hands on the footy a bit. It's great that he can train with the club and learn from Gawn & Grundy, but there is absolutely no need for him to play with Casey.

He needs to spend less time and energy flying for ridiculous marks, and more time & energy front & centre of marking contests. Otherwise he is going okay.

Mcdonald for Laurie Hibberd for Bowey Fritsch can have a run at Casey so we can manage his minutes

Average team score last 4 games with Brodie Grundy 60.75 (last 8 = 64.75) Average team score last 4 games without Brodie Grundy 108.75 I'm not saying we are 8 goal worse team with Grundy playing, and he was handy when Gawn was injured, but clearly his presence is preventing some of his teammates from playing their best football, Gawn in particular.

Busy day Demonstone?

Spargo, Laurie and Schache - how bad is our depth if they are next in line? Hopefully Tomlinson plays, and Harmes and McDonald can find some form for Casey.

The better team on the night won, but I'm not convinced that Petracca's kick was touched. So many of our players just cruise along at about 70% - Salem, Hunter, Langdon and Grundy to name four. Salem was especially poor. I'm not convinced Hibberd was a good sub choice. We need impact in the middle, not a defender getting two nothing touches. I'm also worried about Bowey - he is clearly the weakest link in our defence. Ultimately we lost because we gave up soft goals at the start of the third and fourth quarters. We can't afford to do that in the finals.

Any chance we can play some height in the forward line if we're going to bomb it in?

Definitely appears to be the case.

Really? My son's junior football is on Sunday, and the older teams are playing after lunch. I'd much rather Saturday afternoon games, especially when you don't get home until after 7pm on a Sunday night after a 3:20 game.

https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/page/Subway2023Brownlow/afl-2023-ultimate-brownlow-medal-predictor-tracker-leaderboard-odds-every-team-every-player-every-vote Petracca is within two votes of Daicos on the ESPN tracker, for what it's worth. Bontempelli currently second.

You need to commit to buying a 2024 membership to get access to the $1 memberships. I've seen plenty of worse ploys from other clubs.

Signing a 7 year contract on huge money comes with a significant amount of expectation and pressure. It would be fair to say that Grundy hasn't come close to performing at the level that that contract requires over the past three years. If he signed for five years at $700K, I reckon he may well still be at Collingwood, but he and his manager pushed for maximum value. Ultimately the next move is his. He can stay at Melbourne on his current deal and fight for a spot in the senior side, or he can agree to terminate his contract and look for another club. I'm sure plenty of clubs would be interested, but he might have to price himself at $600K for three years. What's worth more to him - the security and money of his current deal, or being a number one ruckman again?