poita

His game against St Kilda was as bad as any I have seen by an experienced AFL footballer, but I don't think that means we throw him to the kerb. Especially when the next in line is just learning to put his big boy pants on. Unfortunately we have a coach who plays favourites, and form is not a consideration.

We don't have too many midfielders, not by a long shot. We have too many utility / flanker types such as Kent, Harmes, Kennedy, Michie, Newton, M.Jones who are not capable of being genuine midfielders. What we need is midfielders who can play forward or back at times (eg Hodge, Martin, Dalhaus), not flankers who aren't good enough.

Well, it is a much better balanced side than previous weeks, but the personnel is as ordinary as ever. Roos' love for Dawes is difficult to fathom, Frost and McDonald are unproven, Vandenberg has no form or match fitness, and both Kent and Harmes are extremely lucky to retain their spots. I'd love to know if Roos has flat out told Grimes (and Terlich for that matter) that he won't be selected this year, or if he is just stringing him out with lame excuses. How Newton, Vandenberg and Michie have jumped Grimes in the queue is baffling. I can't wait until Lumumba comes straight back into the senior team after 8 weeks with no time at Casey as well.

So happy for Jack. He is a very impressive young man, and I wish him all the best for Saturday and the rest of what is hopefully a long and productive career.

This will be interesting. I can't see us winning, but anything under 6 goals would be a good result. Hawthorn are due for a good performance, so anything up to a 20 goal loss is possible if we don't select the right side, and / or persist with stupid tactics and / or don't come ready to play. Hopefully all the C graders that have been clogging up the team sheet for the past month are shuffled back to Casey this week.

It seems to me that we just don't have the players to play this style of football against decent sides. Too many of our players are too lazy, too stupid or too inconsistent. I'll leave others to decide which players fit where, but Dean Kent is in all three groups. There are certain times and oppositions where it is appropriate to play in this manner, but teams such as Hawthorn and West Coast who use the ball well will cut us to shreds. We will lose by 100 points if we play the same way against Hawthorn that we have done for the past month.

Totally agree. Oscar needs at least 12 months more in the VFL, taking the opposition's number one forward each week. Then, and only then, should he be considered for AFL selection. He has only just turned 20. He can have five years developing at Casey if he needs it (this being his second), and still have a ten year AFL career.

Grimes is a better player than at least half our of current side, and will at least give 100% effort each week. I'm sick of players such as Kent and Harmes who only bother trying when it suits them. Sadly he seems to have run over Roos' cat, or committed some other unforgiveable sin, and hence cannot be considered for selection.

The lack of changes last week was shameful, and any less than five this week would confirm that Roos has left planet earth. All of Kent, Newton, O.McDonald, Hunt, Neal-Bullen, Kennedy, Wagner, and Harmes should be seriously considered for a trip down to Casey. Plus Viney is out. Kent, Kennedy, Newton and McDonald should be certain outs. We need experience, toughness and heart. In: Pedersen, Grimes, Trengove, Oliver, Terlich and White. Would seriously consider Spencer to give Max a proper chop out, but I assume Roos will find a way to get his love child Dawes in instead.

We are still far too reliant on our best 6 - 8 players to be a decent side, because our bottom 6- 8 players do not consistently play at AFL standard. On the weekend Viney, Vince, Garlett and McDonald had zero influence, hence we lost badly. The likes of Harmes and Kent come to play once a month, and until those guys become consistent footballers, or we find guys who can stand up consistently, we will remain an average side. The thing that bothers me about season 2016 is that our five wins have been against sides we beat last year, and our five losses have been against sides we lost to last year. We are playing a different style of football, but our results show to me that we haven't improved on last year (yet).

It is just plain dumb not to go in with a tall on the bench. God forbid if Gawn gets injured in the first quarter. Then what do we do? Watts in the ruck, spelled by Hogan? I can see that ending well for all concerned. Port have gone taller and we should have too.

There was nothing tough or hard about Pickett. He was a sniper at best, and gutless at worst. We paid massively over the odds for him and he did nothing in return. He was the biggest waste of space ever to grace the MFC with his presence in my 32 years as a member. Viewed the club as his superannuation only. Rarely got out of 3rd gear on or off the field, and resembled a keg on legs by the end of his time. Probably fast tracked the departure of Neale Daniher.

Our players just need to learn to tackle better. The Bulldogs were able to get their arms free far too easily last week, then we kept whacking a bloke around the head this week (yes, I know he ducked, it happens, move on). Other times this year we have had a spate of in the backs paid against us because players dive forward in the tackle. We just need to adjust accordingly.

Would be surprised if there weren't a larger number of changes than usual given the short turnaround, and some players who are struggling to put in 4 quarter efforts at present. In: Jetta, Tyson, Pedersen, Grimes, Trengove, maybe Spencer Out: Michie, Wagner, Kent, (Oscar) McDonald, any of Hunt, Harmes, Oliver possible

Our defence was woeful again yesterday, particularly given the quality of the opposition. Oscar was pretty ordinary in parts, but he certainly wasn't noticeably worse than any of his more experienced teammates in that part of the ground. It was a good game to play him, and we lost nothing for it. That said, he should only play when match-ups and opposition dictate it, and that probably shouldn't include the next fortnight. Frawley came good towards the end of his third season, and was All Australian in his fourth. Tom's trajectory was fairly similar, so we are still at least twelve months from Oscar being a decent player.

Brisbane bring in a second specialist ruck, and we lose our only backup. We are going to run Max into the ground very quickly at this rate. I have zero confidence in any of our defenders if we can't win the centre clearances.

I switched in for a few minutes between ads on another channel and I reckon Max said about three words the entire time I watched. I'm not sure why he was in a suit and tie either. Overall one of the more painful television experiences I have endured for a while. Jake King is a dropkick who struggles to put two words together, let alone a coherent sentence, Gilbert McAdam monopolised most of the air time with juvenile 'look at me antics' and the other four panellists struggled to get a word in. I am no fan of Dipper, but he was clearly the best of a poor bunch last night.

I'm really not as worried by what stats Michie, Wagner and Hunt have, as by the number of goals and uncontested possessions their direct opponents have. Yes, we are playing a zone defence (rather poorly at times), but it was staggering how often Bulldogs players were 30 metres clear inside 50 last week. Michie is the same unaccountable player he has always been (don't get me wrong Hunt, Wagner, Salem and Lumumba are every bit as bad) and he doesn't do enough offensively to justify a spot on this team. I would much rather see Grimes or Terlich get the opportunities that Michie keeps getting.

Anyway, back to Jack T. Really disappointed he won't be playing this week. I can't believe that Jack wouldn't contribute as least as much as our bottom 5 players, eg Bugg, Wagner, Michie. Plus it would be a good story for a match that desperately needs some interest.

We simply don't match up well against Brisbane, and Jetta is a big loss in terms of taking the type of small/medium forward that has hurt us in the past. I think we'll win, but it probably won't be pretty and I'm not putting my house on it. I'd like to see us put in a strong display without Gawn and Viney having big games, because our results seem to depend too greatly on the performance of two players. I'd love to see Jack Trengove make an appearance this week.

Plenty of potential outs this week. Michie and Wagner top of my list. Bugg lucky. Any two of Trengove, Neal-Bullen and Grimes will do me fine.

We basically lost because (a) we had too many players who did nothing for the entire game or went missing for long periods (Salem, Gawn, Oliver, Garland, Pedersen, Michie, Hunt, Kennedy, Garlett, Wagner and Harmes, to name a few; and (b) we were unable to stop the Dogs from getting a quick handpass out of a pack. Our tackles always seemed to be around the waist, instead of getting the arms as well.

Maybe we didn't have any tall defenders ready to go because we've only drafted one (Oscar McDonald) in the past five years. Perhaps we could have taken an experienced defender in the rookie draft instead of wasting our time re-drafting Michie. Although we finally went after some key forwards this year, we have taken far too many utility types under Roos (eg JKH, Harmes, White, Newton, etc) and not enough key position players.

Not that I'm bothered, but I'm surprised there hasn't been more scrutiny around the Lumumba situation. If he was concussed against RIchmond, played against St Kilda and has now missed two weeks with the same issue, that doesn't reflect well on the club. Hope to see Grimes and maybe Neal-Bullen in this week, for Kent and Michie. Salem can have a run at Casey.

You'd think so wouldn't you, yet Roos will always play Lumumba and Dawes regardless of both form and fitness. I fully expect to see Lumumba in the senior side this week, irrespective of the team's performance on Saturday and his own putrid form.