spirit of norm smith

By the way, last weeks win over the Blues is not in the list of greatest victories!!!

Hustwaite is on board. Good move by Casey. Hopefully Jason Taylor is watching because this kid has AFL potential. I think an invite to Billy Guerts, an exciting former Stingray in 2018, who played in 2019 in Mornington Peninsula league and led Dromana to a grand final win. Big lad. Good ruck option to help Casey’s ruck division. Signed by VFL Pies but should be available.

No.17 2017 Round 14 v West Coast Eagles at Subiaco The Dees were up and firing. We faced a tough road trip but had our confidence up. Both teams were on 7 wins (5 losses) so a crucial match up. But the Dees had not won in WA since 2002 and hadn’t beaten the Eagles since 2009. The Eagles were as arrogant as ever. Yet this 2017 Demon team had started to break through the longstanding run of losses. We’d won 3 in a row including a Queens Birthday epic against the Pies and smashed the reigning premiers the Bulldogs by 10 goals in the previous game. A big question though was where would our goals come from? Hogan was out and Watts copped a hamstring injury late against the Dogs. The game opened in frenetic style as it was a hot contest. Our ball movement and run was good on the vast Subiaco surface. It was goal for goal in the first half and we led by a goal at half time. A half time melee erupted as Hunt got smashed by McGovern. As we watched on the TV, there was a sense that we weren’t going to be pushed aside. In the third we had chances to pull clear but made some critical mistakes. The Eagles got one goal clear at 3/4 qtr time. The Eagles got the first goal in the last. Would we be overrun? The Dees kept in it with Petracca and Harmesy getting good goals but then the Eagles hit back with 2 more goals and we were 16 points down at the 20 minute mark. I remember feeling like it was a good effort but the roaring crowd, umpires and more experienced Eagles might pull away. (I think the Eagles again at home had about double our free kicks). This Demon team however wasn’t ready to be silenced. Pedersen took a great pack mark about 20 metres out and goaled, followed by a Tom McDonald goal. Back to 4 points. With under a minute left Michael Hibberd launched a ball deep inside the Dees goal, it hit Pedersens hands, bounced at right angles, picked up by Tom McDonald who spun in a McGovern tackle and snapped a left foot ball from 8 metres out. We were in front. We jumped around in the living room as we saw the Dees players now all sweep to the defensive half. Could we hang on? The Eagles launched an attack only for Jordan Lewis to take a matchsaving mark on the siren. What a victory. We broke the drought against the Eagles. The players celebrated like we’d won a final. It was huge. Jack Viney starred. 40 possessions. Huge. Tom McDonald- 5 goals. Amazing effort. The defence Frost, Lewis and Hibberd. Bernie Vince was almost BOG as he rebounded and setup our run. Tyson and Oliver were great. It was truly a great victory. Definitely one to remember. Melbourne 15.9.99 defeated West Coast Eagles 14.12.96

Open all the borders and let’s get it on !!

Again have to stress that it will be hard to see Casey play against Williamstown, Port Melbourne or Werribee that are cashed up and compete well against the AFL blended aligned teams. Maybe a win or two is the outlook. Two players that I am looking forward to seeing are Kurt Mutimer (ex WC Eagles) and Ryan Sparkes (Gippsland under 18s). Mutimer was unlucky to be delisted by Eagles and has strong AFL qualities. Excellent disposal. Sparkes is a strongly built wing type with good pace and skilled on either side. Both are ones to watch in the “short” VFL season.

Agree. I think his cerebral health is crucial and I hope the Dees support him through with access to medical professionals. It’s unfortunate but his footy career is likely to be over.

Agreed

The Bombers were still a top team but had to play the Hawks, Eagles and Pies twice (and lost) in 1991 as the draw started to become more skewed. They had lost to the Hawks and Eagles in the last two rounds but Sheedy had declared them as ready to go for the finals. The 1991 win over the Bombers was a great come from behind victory.

Confidence and intensity

“Team balance”. Anb didn’t do anything wrong but didn’t exactly demand to stay in. I’d have Hunt to remain in.

Pickett in and Anb out is the obvious and needed change. Weid might replace Jackson

Five things 1- can’t bomb it long and watch Hooker and Hurley control the back 50. Need Tmcd and Weideman in to make a real contest 2- Shiel and Merrett are prime movers in their midfield. Happy to match our guys like Viney, Petracca and Oliver. But watch for McGrath who has stepped up again. 3- They have Stringer and Mckernan but also dangerous small forwards. Tinpungwuti and Devon Smith need to be controlled. 4- run of Saad. He rebounds ALOT of their back 50 transition. Most of their defence is tall with Hooker, Hurley, Francis, Redman and Ridley. Try to keep Saad accountable by our smalls like Pickett. 5- Gawn should get on top of Bellchambers. Need to protect him psychically as the Dons will try to hit Gawn hard.

No.18 1991 Elimination Final v Essendon at VFL PARK 1991 was an absolute roller coaster of a year. The Dees had won 6-2 from the first 8 games, then slumped after a string of losses to 7-8 record, before winning 6 out of 7 to make the finals and finish 5th with 13 wins. We kept the reigning premiers the Pies out of the finals as they finished 7th. It saw the arrival of Allen Jakovich has he lit up the footy world with bags of goals kicking 60 goals in the last 10 games of the year. The 1991 Dees could be as good and as bad as any team. The Bombers had beaten us in controversy during the year at Windy Hill. The Dees had come back to be 1 goal behind when Steven Clark marked about 50 metres out. The siren went and the crowd streamed onto the ground. Clark was crowded by spectators and waited several minutes to take the kick. In fact his kick was a few metres short and stopped by spectators. Chaos. We felt cheated and wanted revenge. The Bombers were still a top team and had many stars and veterans from their premiership winning teams plus young stars like Wanganeen and Long. It would be tough. There was a 3-4 goal breeze favouring the freeway or small scoreboard end. We were sitting on the outer side half forward upper stand area and could appreciate the wind advantage. The Bombers opened strongly in a physical first quarter to lead by 28 points and then led by 20 points as they bottled up the game in the second. Lyon was in defence as we used Spalding, Bennett and Jakovich forward. Jakovich was held to one goal by Shane Heard and didn’t appear to be moving well. It was not great given the Bombers could blow open the game with the wind in the 3rd. But the intensity of the Dees lifted after the break. Northey must have inspired them. Viney, Obst and Eishold won the midfield, as Stynes started to not only win the ruck but kick an important inspirational goal. Jakovich took some marks judging the wind, and kicked 4 goals for the quarter. Despite two quick Bomber goals, we owned the quarter. Late goals to Jakovich and Lovell has us winning by 4 points. An absolute turnaround. We were up on our feet. The last quarter opened with 3 goals to the Dees in the first 8 minutes and game over. Lovell marked to stretch it to a 5 goal lead. We had it. The last one was Jakovich’s 8th goal to see us win by 6 goals and march on. Stynes was best, with Jakovich and Andy Lovell (4goals) bring the main goalkicker. The Bombers were out and our recent rivalry had us on top. We enjoyed the car trip home listening to another roller coaster day in our 1991 season. Melbourne 17.11.113 defeated Essendon 11.9.75 (postscript- we had to play the Eagles, the minor premiers, the following week as they lost at home to the Hawks in the 1v2 clash. They proved too strong for us especially with Jakovich injured early in the game and Wight out suspended).

Lever will get better once he and May, Smith and Jetta have played together. But he was not effective on Saturday and Goodwin will need to see if Lever plays as a key back OR as a 3rd tall intercept defender. His excellent Crows form was the latter. We gave up alot for Lever with 2 x 1st round draft picks and so rightly can be asking about his “A” grade status.

Fair call

Goodwin? Where was plan B. We were winning the clearances and contested footy for 1 1/2 quarters. Then stopped. The Blues started to win the inside and the contested possessions. We had no answer or ability to transition. It reflected 2019 and Goodwin has not resolved this.

Seriously it was poor. It was a sign of blokes NOT thinking and reflects the onfield decision making. Gawns first win as captain and he misses the song !! What was vice captain Viney thinking ??? Simply was not thinking. Did anyone think ... where’s Langdon and Tomlinson? It was a shambles Where was Goody ? Doesn’t he sing the song now with the players.

Gawn is hard to miss. He’s only 6ft, 9 inches !!!

Ridiculous. Brayshaw is part of our future and can be a vital midfield runner.

“We couldn’t connect forward of centre”. Goodwin has talked about this for all of 2019, after round 1 and now round 2. Surely he is the coach. It lets us down after we dominate, we find it hard to score. 1.2 in a half of footy was a disgrace today in good conditions. Our heart for the contest and our brain to make smart decisions was the issue. Gawn beat Pittonet in the first half, even in second half. Gawn either lost fitness or softened up.

Pass this week. But have to mention what a debut by Rivers.

Jetta May Lever Salem Omcd Rivers Langdon Viney Tomlinson Petracca Tmcd Melksham Fritsch Weid Pickett Gawn Harmes Oliver int Brayshaw Jones Hunt Bennell in. Omcd Pickett Weid out. Smith Anb Jackson emerg Lockhart. Hibberd Jackson Smith and Anb are obvious outs. Weideman must be played. We simply need to see if he can be the target full forward that we DESPERATELY NEED !

Yes today was not too good for Lever. Glad that he got through and will be better with May and Jetta once they play more together. Lever will be better. We gave two 1st round picks for an intercept defender. Not sure he’s worth that or the $600k price tag.

Excellent debut. He will be back next week.

Agreed. Unsure what a coach thinks sometimes!