poita

Not sure about a full rebuild, but I've been saying for the past two draft periods that we need to add more quality kids on to list. Hold on to high draft picks, and use them wisely to fill holes in the list. I get the May recruitment, but I always hated the Lever deal. Draft picks in the first two rounds should only be used on genuine midfielders and key position players. Turn over the NQRs on a regular basis, rather than giving them 5-6 years to show something. Hit the state leagues hard to find guys who can come in and play roles straight away (eg Lockhart) for the last few spots on the list. A T.Kelly / Stewart type late blooming, A grader would be a bonus. The coach needs a kick up the backside. If he doesn't have an experienced mentor outside the club, he needs to get one. A massive turnover of assistant coaches is required, and we certainly need a better alignment between the list managers and the recruiting staff.

I was amazed that Goodwin didn't try something different in the middle at any stage. Salem was definitely one that could have gone through there, at least he can tackle occasionally. Harmes should have been tagging Zorko from the first bounce. Jones looked lost in defence, and could have moved up the ground. I must admit I also thought May could have had a spell in the middle, as Hogan was used at times last year. At least it gives the opposition something different to contend with.

I'd be more concerned if we have a narrow, uninspiring victory over Carlton that allows Goodwin to keep on pretending that all is well (see wins over Hawthorn, GC17 and Fremantle for precedents). At least there is no sugar coating the result when we lose.

Don't be silly, those are all completely unrelated injuries. Just like Jetta missing most of the season with a knee injury that is completely unrelated to the knee injury that he was carrying previously.

I'm an Oscar McDonald fan, but this naming of players without adequate form or match fitness behind them has got to stop. It has cost us multiple games already this year and is sending a horrible message to players who are working hard at Casey but are having players leapfrog them into the senior team seemingly on a whim. How Hannan has retained his place is beyond me - he is a total passenger at the moment. At least Spargo looks interested occasionally, even if he doesn't have Hannan's ability. I assume Hibberd for J.Wagner will be the only change, with C.Wagner to travel as the emergency. O.McDonald needs to play at Casey this week and get some confidence back. I don't see any value to playing Lewis unless finals suddenly become a reasonable chance later in the season.

I'm amazed he lasted 14 weeks.

I am not a massive fan of Aaron Vandenberg as a player, but I can certainly accept that some of our best football in 2018 was played when he was in the side late in the season. By the end of this season AVB will have played just 7 out of 69 AFL games across three seasons, an appalling return for a player who will be 28 before next season starts. Give that, I am surprised at the radio silence surrounding his continued absence and ongoing injury issues. I would like to know: 1. Is AVB's current injury related to overuse or to a single, unavoidable event? Did we push him too hard to return in 2018, or again through the 2019 preseason? 2. Given AVB's injury history and Sydney's reported interest last year, on what basis did we offer him a three year contract? Was this in any way conditional on his continued fitness? 3. Did giving AVB a long term contract, presumably on decent money, affect our ability to retain either Tyson or Kent? 4. When did it become apparent that AVB would take little or no part in this season, as the initial reports were that he would return sooner rather than later (ie within weeks, not months)? Why have members not been kept better informed on his progress. 5. Has there been any progress made since round 1? Will AVB be able to do a full pre season, or are we still completely in the dark as to what the problem is? 6. Is AVB still in Melbourne doing rehab, or is he off working in his family business? 7. At what point do we consider paying out AVB's contract and freeing up a list position if he can't get back on the training track?

The issue is not with the individual players he is selecting, it is the type of players he is selecting. You don't win premierships with 173cm slow forwards with no tricks, and certainly not by selecting them in the second round.

So we played a player on QB who was already significantly underdone in his comeback from a serious knee injury, but who was also carrying a foot problem that may have caused him to change his running style, hence leading to this current knee soreness? Congratulations to the club on its never ending quest to achieve new levels of incompetence.

The question remains, who is Jones keeping out of the side at present? Answer = nobody. Both Wagners, Stretch, Kennedy-Harris, Neal-Bullen, Lockhart and Spargo have all been dropped this season, some on multiple occasions. None of those offers anything new. Jordon, Bedford and Chandler are miles off senior selection. Dunkley will hopefully get his chance in the next month, but is more likely to come in for Garlett, Spargo or Hannan. Jones' form has been underwhelming for most of the past twelve months, but there is hardly a queue of talented young players at Casey. It will be up to him whether he pushes for 300 games next year.

Not our worst game of the year by a long shot, but we are miles off being a decent team. The good: Gawn's game was excellent, Harmes was very good, Petracca had some good moments, May was solid first game back. The bad: Our goalkicking remains putrid. Lever and Hore spent half the day crashing into teammates in marking contests. Wagner and Spargo were their usual inept selves. Viney and Jones had zero influence on the game. Hibberd continues to struggle. The early loss of Frost was costly. The ugly: Oliver 33 possessions for 54 metres gained. What purpose did any of his touches serve? McDonald continued his abysmal form and I really can't see that he is adding any value to the team in his current role. Garlett's inability to put his body on the line - I can't believe an AFL footballer is allow to snatch at the ball whilst avoiding all contact. Tim Smith's inability to play more than two games in a row without getting injured - please delist.

Swans were keen on Vandenberg last year. They can have him and his busted foot for Jones. Vandenberg might be the better player, but he is not doing us much good sitting in the stands each week.

Lever, May, Hannan - can Goodwin find any more underdone players to bring in this week? Salem after a couple of weeks off, perhaps?

Or they could have a competition, and give $1,000 to every junior club in the country. I know mine could make good use of that sort of money.

The bottom of the barrel has been well and truly scraped clean this year. At least the inclusion of Brad Hardie means that Brian Wilson is a sure thing next year. How many of Melbourne's 1950s/60s premiership stars are still waiting on inclusion? Plus Garry Lyon should have been in a decade ago.

Not sure that those players are the issue and, other than Kerridge and Kennedy, I'm not sure they have given up much to get them. It would be like judging Jason Taylor based on the performances of C.Wagner, Bugg, Michie and Kolodjashnij. The bigger issue is the number of failed first round picks through 2008-2014, excluding Cripps of course. As with Melbourne's poor drafting throughout the 2000s (N.Jones aside), it takes 5 or 6 years for this to become noticeable as you have a shortfall of top talent in the mid 24-28 age bracket. Carlton have a proud history of picking the wrong types of players. Even guys like Murphy and Kreuzer are just average players who rarely influence games (when not injured). Bolton is an easy scapegoat, and removing him is cheaper than having a full clean out of the football department, but I'm not convinced he is the problem at Carlton.

My son's under 9s team won yesterday with a goal after the siren. An eight year old was able to kick straight from 20 metres out to win a game for his team. Yet we have highly paid professional footballers who can't kick goals from 30 metres out straight in front. I don't blame Weideman, as he at least had a go on Saturday. The efforts (or lack thereof) of Spargo, both McDonalds, Hannan, Garlett, Smith, Wagner, Stretch and Kennedy-Harris were just abysmal. Oliver and Brayshaw are making a habit of going missing when the heat is on. Goodwin's selection and coaching were again terrible, but ultimately we lost because the players couldn't or wouldn't execute basic skills at important moments.

Viney became a very solid kick late in his career - you don't get an All Australian jumper by being a poor kick. Like Robertson with his goal kicking, it shows that anything is possible if you practice enough.

That's fine, but don't go putting him in the senior team until he has played a couple of consecutive full games at VFL lever.

Good to see Salem and Hibberd back, hopefully both are right to go. Not particularly impressed to see Hannan in on the back of 1 game in 8 months. He can go missing even when fully fit, so I'd hate to see how he'll be without enough match fitness. Wagner has been dropped three times in five games - pretty safe to say that he is done as an AFL footballer. Petty and Lockhart may not have made the cut any way, so not concerned by their absences. That said, why on earth are Spargo and Smith in the team? They are both contributing nothing at present. I'd delist Spargo if he didn't have a contract for next year. I'm no great fan of Weideman, but at least he has some chance of being on an AFL list in two years. In a season where finals are off the table, we are just wasting games on playing Smith over Weideman and Preuss.

Fritsch may be when played in the right spot, J Wagner not even close - his decision making time is way too long for an AFL footballer.

16th on the ladder (and deservedly so) would suggest we should have mountains of salary cap space available. If not, there is some serious mis-management going on.

Goodwin and his advisers should be looking for a new job on Monday if they are stupid enough to even consider playing Lever this week. All Goodwin is doing is lining up the excuses for Saturday night's post match press conference.

That may be so but, at 27 and having played 7 games out of the past 57, you have to have serious doubts re his ability to withstand the rigors of AFL football. Hopefully the club is giving serious thought to paying out his contract if his condition hasn't improved by the end of the season.

Yep, he should be aiming for the Fremantle game.