poita

I didn't have any trouble getting in to ground, but it is an appalling place to watch football. I was stuck behind the goals at the Southern end, couldn't see the tops of the goalposts in front of me, or the boundary line, or most of what was happening at the other end of the ground. I had one eye on the TVs to see what was going on, but the picture was on a 3 second delay. The speakers barely work, so you couldn't hear the team songs. I'll go again to support my team, but it is pretty much world's worst design, unless you are one of the chosen few sitting on level 2.

I don't really care whether the problem is with the selectors, coaches, or playing group, Roos has 4 more months to fix these once-a-month debacles where the team performs so far below expectations. Otherwise his tenure has to be viewed as a failure. It is also concerning that we have a brand new opposition analyst (Jennings) who is clearly having no impact on selections, match ups or tactics. What is his role exactly?

Candidates for demotion this week in order of priority: Lumumba, Frost, Harmes, Wagner, Hunt, Dunn. Kennedy and Salem on thin ice. Petracca stays because he will be better for the run. Assume Oliver is a certainty, I would also bring in McDonald, Grimes, Garland, Stretch and Trengove.

Riewoldt is a champion who destroys us every year. Our young forwards should be made to watch tapes of his work rate and attack on the football on a daily basis. The fact that the coaching staff didn't think he was worthy of a direct opponent beggars belief, and calls into question their suitability to be running the team.

Yaaaaawwwwwnnn. Heard all the excuses before. Let's face it, the selectors picked the wrong team, the coaches were comprehensively out-coached, and (most of) the players were either disinterested or out of their depth. Most people are reasonable and do not expect giant leaps of progress to be made overnight. However, after 6 weeks its pretty clear that we are no further advanced than we were last year. We've won three games against teams who we beat last year, we've lost three games against teams we didn't beat last year. We are scoring more goals, at the expense of a much, much worse defensive performance. Our worst football, which is as bad as any in the competition, has not improved and our players are almost guaranteed not to show up at least once a month. If we can't beat Gold Coast this week there is a fair argument that we have actually regressed so far this year.

He doesn't fit in. The game has gone well past him, this team has gone past him, and he should be quietly put out to pasture at the end of this season. The last thing we need is Dawes running into Hogan or drawing the football away from Watts in his current form. The best place for Dawes, if ever gets his body right, is educating and taking pressure off Weideman and Hulett at Casey.

Salem's not a defender, but if he doesn't have the fitness to play on ball at present, we don't have many other options. Good teams will exploit him with the right match up and drag him back towards goal. Then it becomes important for the likes of Dunn and Lumumba to swap opponents and get him out of there.

Number of games is a false indicator. Are players like Pedersen and M.Jones inexperienced, or just not good enough to have played more games? I can see that age is a bit more relevant, as a 25 year old will generally make better decisions than an 18 year old.

That's about the dumbest thing I've ever read. Stephen Powell kicked 32 goals in 2000, Bugg hasn't even scored this year. He just doesn't hurt teams with his possessions, no matter how many of them he has.

Oliver looks cooked to me and could definitely do with a rest. I thought Bugg's disposal was rotten again today, and could happily drop him back as well. I don't want to drop Brayshaw again, but if he doesn't have the fitness to play on ball, he shouldn't be in the team. If Brayshaw stays, then perhaps Wagner goes. Matt Jones was beaten by Sidebottom and couldn't be a certain selection with our current depth. I thought that was close to Lumumba's best game for the club yesterday, mainly because he lowered his eyes and looked for a target, rather than blazing away. I'm not convinced about Frost due to his lack of football smarts, but he may well trouble Richmond's defence. Vince and Garlett are definite ins, but Vandenberg needs to get some touches at Casey. I would play Petracca ahead of him.

Wins are less important than 3 strong efforts. If we put in each week we are every chance of winning, if we don't we'll get a repeat of the Essendon game.

Our HBF stocks are very low - Lumumba is (occasionally) okay with ball in hand, but is rubbish defensively; Salem is poor defensively and doesn't win enough of his own footy; Grimes is clearly out of favour; White and Wagner are a long way from being the finished product, although I like the look of White. As such, we should definitely look at any one who can defend well and hurt the opposition going the other way. If Hibberd is that person, great, as he won't cost us anything.

KC, is it Casey or the VFL that are pushing Saturday night games at Casey Fields? I'm sure people living in the outer south east aren't overly bothered, but for most people it is a ridiculous time for a football match in that part of the world. I was hoping to take my family down for a Saturday afternoon game, then I saw the time.

Not sure why the selection thread has been closed, so I'll make my comments here. These are the most underwhelming changes / selections I have seen for a long time. I cannot believe that after Roos admitted he got selection wrong last week, he has backed up again with largely the same group. None of Kent, Lumumba, Harmes, Bugg, and Vandenberg offered a yelp last week, and yet all get another chance. Brayshaw was clearly underdone, but he and Garland are a long way from being at fault for last week's debacle. We have to play all of Frost, Dunn and Pedersen to cover North's tall forwards, and to give Gawn a rest. That leaves just one running type to come in (or maybe Oliver to stay), which is unbelievable given that our so-called runners let us down so badly last week. I'm sick of selection issues costing us, but they will again this week. If the weather is good in Hobart, we will be lucky to get within 12 goals.

The problem we've got, and have had for some time, is that the Casey alignment is simply not working. I can't think of a single player who has spent a decent amount of time at Casey, developed his game, and then come into the senior side ready to go. We have either had guys like Brayshaw walk straight into the senior team from day 1 and do well, or we have to throw guys like Oscar in at the deep end and hope they swim. Casey has done nothing at all for the likes of Hunt and Harmes, and you could argue that Stretch and Neal-Bullen are heading down the same track. The likelihood of Weideman and Hulett spending a year or two at Casey and coming the other side as ready made players is infinitesimally small. Perhaps not yet, but at some point we will have to give these guys senior games and develop them that way.

Not occasionally, consistently turns the ball over. Reason being that our forwards have led under the ball by the time that he finishes running around in circles and then delivers a moon ball to the resultant pack. However, his big problem is that he is a defender who doesn't defend / tackle / chase / etc.

I had assumed it was. We weren't doing it in the NAB challenge when Goodwin was in charge, but we have done just that for seven of eight quarters since Roos has taken the reins back. I feel sorry for Hogan, our delivery was beyond abysmal on Saturday.

Two days on, and I am ready to provide my thoughts. 1. The selectors - I thought we needed one of Dunn or Frost in the side, turned out we needed both of them. We were always going to be undersized with just one ruckman and four genuine key position players, along with 17 midgets. Lucky none of those talls were injured, although perhaps it would have made the coaches try something different. The decision to play Brayshaw and Oliver, neither who could raise a trot, was pathetic. 2. The coaches - Did we try anything at any point of the game to change the course of the match? I can't think of one significant move that was made. Why not send McDonald forward when he lost his confidence down back? Why not put Watts behind the ball? Why not get Salem or Lumumba out of defence? Why not put Garlett in the middle? Why not stand Gawn 10 metres in front of Daniher? Why not get Viney or Bugg tagging Zaharakis or Merrett to get them to the football? Just do something. And if the players refuse to chase and tackle and man up, they shouldn't be playing AFL football. 3. Paul Roos - Yet again he claims to be blindsided by a poor performance, and distracts from his failings by blaming the players being tired. In round 2? Give us a break, Paul. It is time for you to go if you couldn't see this coming, and then had no idea what to do about it. Yet again. 4. Tom McDonald - His best football is exceptional, his worst is abysmal. For a supposed leader, it is incredible how quickly he drops his head once his loses a couple of contests. A decent defender would compose himself, and go doubly hard the next time. McDonald just stands idly by and watches his opponent take control. He should have been moved out of the backline by quarter time. 5. Dean Kent - I have never been a fan, and this game comprehensively proved that he is not an AFL footballer. 5 useless possessions in more than 80% of game time, whilst his opponents ran around unchecked all day. If I was in charge his file would be marked "never again". 6. Heritier Lumumba - Again, I have never been a fan, and again he proved that he is a liability to this team. Zero tackles, 4 pressure acts (both team lows) - he is a defender who refuses to defend, and his supposedly attacking prowess comes down to him running around in circles and then roosting moon balls over the heads of his leading teammates. He never lowers his eyes and hits a target 30 - 40 metres away. I know Harry is Roos' love child, but Grimes is ten times the player Lumumba is. 7. Jesse Hogan - I felt sorry for Hogan on Saturday, because the delivery was pathetic and he got no support from Pedersen and Watts. That said, he should have been crashing packs and at least making Gwilt and Hartley earn their intercept marks. Disappointing. 8. Dom Tyson - Not the worst in terms of effort, but his disposal is killing us. It is hard to believe he was a number 3 draft picks with those skills. 9. Harmes, Vandenberg, Bugg, M.Jones - Jones was good against GWS and poor on Saturday, the others have been poor twice. None of these are players who will take us forward as a club, so the likes of ANB and Stretch should play ahead of them. I would give a pass mark to Kennedy and Vince, and perhaps N.Jones. The rest were pathetic. Anything less than 5 changes this week (starting with Kent and Lumumba) would be a disgrace.

It seems like a fairly lame attempt to get some lapsed viewers back. It won't make a lick of difference to anyone who currently watches, as the dominant personalities will still control proceedings. But it could get some people to check back in to see what the new host is like.

90% of the population would much rather watch the Showdown. Channel 7 should always put the interests of the majority first, rather than worrying about supporters of the teams playing. Collingwood and Hawthorn have the largest memberships, but still accounted for less than 18% combined of total memberships in 2015. That means that at least 82% of the population would rather watch the best game each week, rather than watching the most popular teams play.

Brayshaw and Dunn for O.McDonald and Frost. If we had lost, any of Vandenberg, Kent, Tyson, Bugg and Harmes would be in the gun as well. Lumumba can come in when we have a greater need for some moon balls.

Frost was completely underwhelming on Saturday, exactly as he was in his games last year. Someone described him as strong - that may be the case, but he has zero physical presence. He was pushed off the ball with ridiculous ease at a couple of kick ins in the first half, and is clearly never going to take a contested mark. His skills are average at best, and often well below that. He has no game sense and has the uncanny knack of being everywhere except where the football is. Apparently Frost is capable of being a key defender, but I can't comment on that as I didn't see him play for the Giants. If he can't get a game in defence ahead of Oscar McDonald at present, then that is a real problem for him as he is clearly not a forward or a ruckman. Yes, he is quick for his size, but that alone will rarely cut it. I would much rather see him learn to play in the VFL then having him do so in the senior side.

YAAAWWWWNNN. Do the exact same job with a 300% pay rise locked in for 5 years? Every single one of you would have done exactly the same thing Tom did, so I don't understand why people have still got their panties in a bunch about the whole issue.

Clearly best 22 for me, well ahead of Lamumba and Wagner. If Roos was the guru he thinks he is, he would tell Jack he has the first 4, if not 6, weeks to make a position on the HBF his own. I'm sure he'll play much better if he doesn't fear being sent back to Casey, or wearing a substitute vest, every time he makes an error.

We're in deep poo if Max goes down. Why he was crashing packs in the dying minutes of a practice match is beyond me. Ditto for Hogan. Both should have been in cotton wool long before then. Spencer seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, Frost is giving nothing in any position at present, taking Pedersen away from the forward line is robbing Peter to pay Paul, and the Kings are babies. We desperately needed another experienced ruckman last year, instead of having two developing ruckmen on the list. Really poor list management.