poita

I know its a weak draft, but having 1 pick in the first 50 selections was never going to be a winning strategy. Now watch Lamb give up the world in future picks / players to get back into this draft.

I'm glad you're satisfied with what has been served up by the club this year. It would seem that most people are not.

I see the inmates are still running the asylum. Why bother having fitness and medical staff when the players are going to do what they want anyway? We've seen plenty of examples this year of players carrying injuries that have significantly impacted their performances - Lever, May and Viney are three obvious examples. I get it to some extent if finals are on the line, but there is no benefit in playing unfit players in inconsequential games, particularly when we have fringe players desperate for an opportunity.

Surely we have a work experience kid available to argue May's case instead of relying on that dingbat Anderson again. His success rate must be running at about 3% over the past few years.

There is absolutely no doubt that Daniher would make us a better side overnight. So maybe we finish 10th instead of 15th next year. Big deal. Ultimately it would be a move that brings us no closer to the next premiership and does nothing other than give Goodwin and Lamb a tiny amount of breathing room as they fight to save their jobs.

Tex Robertson is an excellent runner, but definitely on the small side. He plays in Beaumaris's Under 15s Div 1 SMJFL side that loses about 1 game every three years, but is maybe the 10th best player in that side. His Dad is assistant coach, Justin Plapp coaches. I'm pretty sure he hasn't been playing in the SMJFL rep teams. I've seen Oliver Green play a couple of times in recent years for East Brighton in the same division. He didn't stand out initially, but definitely had taken a step forward when I saw him earlier this year. He did play in the SMJFL Div 1 rep team this year. Tigga Johnstone plays for Bonbeach in the Southern League, but I haven't seen him play (have seen him play cricket). He is on the small side as well.

We've now lost to 5 of the bottom 7 sides (excluding ourselves). There is no question in my mind that we're closer to a wooden spoon than a finals appearance, unless the powers-that-be extract their digits in a major hurry. We'll either beat St Kilda and fall over the line against West Coast, or beat West Coast by 60+ and lose to St Kilda over the next fortnight. The chances of us playing at a decent level in both games are almost non-existent.

It is, but there have been many, many decisions that also looked pretty bloody ordinary at the time they were made and even worse in hindsight. Exhibit A: Bailey Laurie's two year contract extension in early 2024.

If Goodwin guides us to two losses against St Kilda in the one season he should hand in his resignation on Sunday evening. The Saints have won 2 of their past 14 games - he shouldn't be able to survive that, particularly not on top of winning just 11 of our past 33 games.

Interesting to see Jack Ferraro get a call up to Casey. He spent the last few years at St Bedes-Mentone Tigers, which was where Kyah Farris-White played last year. It just goes to show that you never know who is watching and where the next opportunity might come from.

I can't see the point to Sharp until he shows he is capable of playing 4 quarters of decent football. Sure he is an okay sub choice, but it is not helping him develop as a footballer. I have no idea why we have an aversion to resting players like Lindsay. Give him a week off to freshen up, and let him loose for the last five weeks. Both Windsor and Tholstrup are very, very lucky to be playing this week when there are other players who haven't been given an opportunity yet.

There is no way that you can convince me that Sparrow and Spargo are contributing so much to the team that they are basically undroppable, when there are players at Casey who haven't been given a single opportunity this season. How do we know that Culley or Brown might not offer something different if we don't try them?

Or perhaps we massively overrated the quality and depth of our list and subsequently realised that we can't progress with the current group?

So, a club with one of the worst forward lines in the competition is looking to move on its only reliable goal scorer? There would want to be something seriously, seriously good coming back the other way. The alternative is that he gets replaced in the lineup by a Spargo / Sharp / Henderson type that contributes 10 touches and zero goals a week, and that certainly doesn't improve the side.

Honestly, who cares if we're the 8th best side or the 13th or the 17th? The reality is that we are miles off genuinely contending for a premiership, which surely is the aim. There is a fair argument that our best player, best forward and best defender are all aged 33. Hence we not only need to plug the current gaps in our list, we also need to find replacements for these three players before we can contend. Sure we should aspire to be more competitive on a weekly basis than we have for much of this year, but the gap between our best and worst football (from week to week, and within games) is way too big at the moment.

Sheezel played better than Fritsch or McDonald? That's hilarious Clarko.

Some of his kicking to advantage inside 50 yesterday was just sublime. The sky is the limit for him as he builds his fitness levels. If we saw fit to give Tholstrup a contract to 2028 last year, we should be looking to extend Langford to about 2040.

Unfortunately for him he won't be opposed to Lever each week. Let's see how he goes against an opponent with some mobility.

Another really disappointing game. As said previously, he is not fit enough so doesn't get to enough contests, doesn't read the play well enough so is consistently in the wrong position and makes simple skill and decision making errors (may also be linked to fitness issues). Having spunk and attitude are great, but you need to be able to back it up - he is not at this point. Only 1 tackle as well, so not sure about this great defensive workrate that others are praising. We're just not doing him any favours by persisting with him in this role at AFL level. Has to go back to Casey and get his hands on the ball regularly for a month.

Aren't we just reversing the change that was made two weeks ago? Most of our changes this year seem to have been undoing decisions that were made in previous weeks. There is absolutely no conviction or transparency with our selections this year.

Well, I can guarantee you that Lever wasn't one of the two given he was injured (yet again) for one of those games and had 9 touches in the other.

And realistically Casey Fields is not even in Cranbourne itself - it is another 10 minutes down the road if traffic is [censored], which it is any time there is an event on.

Completely underwhelming potential inclusions. Windsor is obviously best 22 when fit and firing, but not sure he is. Henderson isn't up to it and has done nothing at Casey. We're already carrying enough defenders without adding Howes into the mix. And as much as I'd like to see a Gawn-Campbell combo, both are almost 34 and Campbell hardly represents our future. It's sad when Tholstrup and Jefferson look like good alternatives by comparison. Why aren't we having a look at Brown, Woewodin or Culley at this point of the season?

I just don't see it happening unless the superstars of the competition demand it. If the likes of Daicos and Bontempelli start making noise, the clubs and media will fall in line pretty quickly. Otherwise it would just be the AFL forcing their will on the players, and you'll end up with teams full of C graders.

I don't really care whether Lever is unhappy or not, or whether these media reports are true or not, The fact is that he is a very highly paid, experienced footballer whose form has been woeful for two years, in a team that has significantly underperformed in that period. He absolutely deserved to be dropped, even earlier than round 16, and probably for more than one week. I've said it previously - Lever is clearly the first player we should be floating as trade bait if we are serious about rebuilding the list.