poita

I hope they are sending Steven May to every school in Melbourne between now and his next game to read to some kids or do something constructive to earn his fat paycheck. The Jetta injury is largely the fault of the club/individuals that let him play when clearly injured, and heads need to roll.

I've been a member for 35 years and Garry Lyon is comfortably in the top 3 MFC players in that time, if not number 1. It simply staggers me that he is not in the AFL Hall of Fame.

Can someone please tell me what role Spargo plays at Casey. I don't see an AFL player at all, but he has his supporters who gush about him at every opportunity. At VFL level does he play as a midfielder who can't find the football, or a forward who can't find the goals?

I'll ask again, what is the point of aspiring to 70K members when 2/3 of those will be 3 game members? Far better to have 30K-40K 11 or 22 game members from a $$ and attendance perspective, and to work on keeping those people happy. Richmond were spruiking 95K members on Wednesday, we have 48K. That is 143K people who had tickets for Wednesday's match, not counting AFL and MCC members and walk ups, and only 72K showed up. It's still a decent crowd, but you can't pretend that the majority of the members of either team are rusted on supporters who are going to take the club forward.

I still can't work out whether Viney took on Stack thinking he could run straight through him, or was completely oblivious to his presence. Either way it was extraordinarily poor football. I agree with other posters - if there is any thought that Viney could benefit from having surgery, just get it done. He has had little influence to date, so we will hardly be worse off getting games into a kid.

I'm used to seeing players step up in a contract year (Travis Johnstone is the classic example), but Weideman can't even look interested in his contract year. I have no issue with his ability to take a mark and kick a goal, but he still has zero intensity and hunger for the contest. I don't even think it an issue of physical development. Weideman just looks like the big kid who has cruised through his junior football on size and talent alone (probably similar to Jack Watts). Now he is no bigger and stronger than anyone else, and his work rate is atrocious compared with his opponents.

What's the point of bringing in players for a week and then dropping them, or sending them back to Casey for a week or two and recalling them after they under perform again? Stretch, Spargo, C.Wagner, and Neal-Bullen all fit into this category. Garlett and Smith must both be on their last chance - hopefully they can show some sort of desire to be out there. Jetta and Preuss both played with injuries last week and now miss, Jetta for several months. Good work medical team! Simon's selection blunder of the week: after Membrey pantsed Hore & Hibberd last week, you'd think he'd bring in someone to play on Riewoldt. But no, let's throw a fourth gamer on to the Coleman Medallist and watch him kick a bag.

Harley Balic is playing B grade amateurs for Parkdale Vultures.

Fully agree with this, and it has been an issue for Goodwin for more than 12 months now. Couple that with his unwillingness to pick a side that in any way combats opposition strengths (namely St Kilda's outside run, and selecting a suitable opponent for Membrey this week), and he is playing a very dangerous game indeed.

Richmond are building a strong list so presumably they'll end up in Conference A, and they'll dump Gold Coast and St Kilda in Conference B so that the AFL favourites (Carlton & Collingwood) can get a few more easy wins.

There was an email sent just before the start of the season with a link to print through the Ticketmaster website. That said, it wasn't that long ago that we received four printed publications a year. Now we get one online, wafer thin season guide and no end of year report. 11 game and above members should have the option to receive hard copies, whilst 3 game members can receive soft copies or go without. I also didn't receive my fixture magnet this year - all small things but they add up when the membership price keeps soaring each year. I wonder where the money goes when gate prices for walk ups have barely moved in years.

I've had reason to call them several times in the past six months and, whilst I feel the people taking the call are doing their best, there is something seriously wrong with the process at present. I signed my son up for the first time this year (well before the start of the season) and they really had no idea where his membership pack was, whether it had been sent or whose responsibility it was. Eventually they gave him a free pass for the first game when his membership didn't arrive in time, but nobody is taking responsibility for these problems. Outsourcing the production and distribution to companies who provide sub-standard products and poor communication with no accountability reflects badly on the club. Hopefully they bring some of this back in-house next year.

I don't mind Bruce, but he needs the right partner. Cometti worked with Bruce because Dennis would banter with him when appropriate, or otherwise tell him to shut up. People like Ling, Richardson and Taylor who struggle to string three coherent words together are not the right fit.

Of the fringe players Hore was good and Stretch okay. Spargo's 7 touches were very good, but 7 touches and 1 tackle is not nearly enough of a contribution. C.Wagner was quiet and his brother is still ordinary. Depending on who is available I'd be replacing Spargo first, followed by J.Wagner and C.Wagner in that order. Having said that I'm not sure I'd be playing either Jetta or Lewis against St Kilda. If the current side can't beat St Kilda they should give up. Save those guys for Richmond, rather than expecting them to back up 4 days later.

Very good last night. Trac just needs to play hard, instinctive football and he will be fine. He comes undone when he second guesses himself and goes over the top trying to do the team thing. That first goal was a thing of beauty.

As I was saying ... ?

Changes are as good as could have been hoped given the lack of options at Casey. Kolodjashnij & May - the trade that just keeps on giving. All we need now is for Hogan to win the Western Derby off his own boot. I expect Preuss to be fairly useless in terms of disposals, but I'll be disappointed if he doesn't plough through a couple of Sydney defenders. Set up Rampe or Lloyd under a high ball early and let Preuss knock him into next week.

Draft picks only sign 1 year deals? Downie would be good to keep and presumably they have hopes for Brancatisano. The rest are probably all expendable. And yes, a decision should have been made on the coach by now.

I'd be interested to see Max's hitout stats compared to last year, particularly in respect of hitouts to advantage. A number of his taps on Friday hit Shiel and Heppell on the chest. It is difficult for Oliver and Brayshaw, who I agree have been clearly our best players, to expect to receive a tap in one place and then have to change tack and defend when it ends up somewhere else.

So who is the player from Friday not on the plane? Neal-Bullen? Hore and Spargo should be nowhere near the AFL side. At least playing Preuss would give Sydney something different to think about.

Irrespective of who is available we have to hit the draft hard this year. You can't go four years without adding quality youngsters to your list without causing a major issue in the future (see Melbourne 2007-2014 as a result of list management issues in the early 2000s).

Not this first time I've said this, but until someone at Casey steps up and demands Jones' position he will stay in the team. Same for Lewis (when fit). Jones is playing poorly and has been doing so since first moved out of the midfield midway through last year. But when the possible replacements include Maynard and Stretch, who are even less capable in the role Jones is currently occupying, there is no chance of him being replaced. And the reason he is still (co) captain is because Viney is no sure thing to play each week. Until Viney gets through a full season I expect the captaincy to remain shared.

How many of the people saying we are certainties this week tipped against us the past three weeks?

Hogan doesn't need to kick goals to influence games. His workrate between the 50s and his ability to find the ball means that he can contribute without hitting the scoreboard. In fact he can be more important up the ground because he draws players to him and creates space for those around him. Hence why our forward line was the best in the competition in the 20 games he played last season. Weideman in particular, and McDonald to some extent, need to kick goals to have an impact because they don't provide much else to the team particularly in terms of physical presence. The poor performances of these two are significant factors in the dysfunction of the forward line and the struggles of our smaller forwards. Luckily for the club they can argue that the trade was done for non-football reasons, as the football reasons are hard to justify at present.

Now that we've finally added McDonald to the injury list, when most people could tell he was struggling in round 1, when are we going to be honest about Jetta? The guy can barely move at the movement.