Dees2014

I agree it is management's job to ensure processes are followed in respect to how a performance management system is handled, but if you are running an international business with several thousand people in it you have to rely on your middle management to get the job done, and that is where mostly the "sugar coating" takes place. What pleased me about these reports is that what is clearly being practiced in the senior team now also seems to be practiced in the subordinate team as well. There has been plenty of criticism of Casey on here that they somehow are divorced from the MFC and do not buy in to the Roos gameplan and how he wants the club to be run. Well this is proof that at least in this aspect of performance management that the Roos formula is very much being folllowed. As far as publishing criticism is concerned, I think it is fair enough in this instance as it is information for supporters and sponsors. This thread is an example of the way supporters constantly speculate about team selections. It gives specific information on which this debate can be based, and clarifies very clearly why people are no getting promotion to the firsts. It also I think is good for those players because the supporters then know what they are supposed to be working on, and when they get it right they then become all the more credible.

I would imagine he is still formally tied to the MFC until season's end because that is what his contract says. Normally we would formally delist him at season's end. If he were to indicate to the club at that time he wishes to make a comeback I see no reason why we could simply renew his contract without having to go through the draft. It is not as though anyone has replaced him on our list.Any one disagree ?

All i can say is we are in a much much better position than we were even three months ago. There is an excitement and optimism about the Club which has not been apparent since the height of the height of the Daniher regime. Any player who cares about playing in finals, who cares about learning about how elite teams function, who cares about the jumper - will not leave. If they do (aka Scully) we dont want them anyway. Look what has happened to Scully? Once his contract is completed, he will be very rich but his AFL career will be over at such dollar, and he will return to the middle list where he belongs.

All i can say is we are in a much much better position than we were even three months ago. There is an excitement and optimism about the Club which has not been apparent since the height of the height of the Daniher regime. Any player who cares about playing in finals, who cares about learning about how elite teams function, who cares about the jumper - will not leave. If they do (aka Scully) we dont want them anyway. Look what has happened to Scully? Once his contract is completed, he will be very rich but his AFL career will be over at such dollar, and he will return to the middle list where he belongs.

As a result of this post, i read the appraisals of the Casey players. I must say i am very pleased. Having a senior corporate background, one of frustrations of senior management is that often appraisals are not realistic in what they tell staff. Often they prefer to tell then what they think they want to hear. This helps neither the company, nor the individual. These feedbacks told it the way it was. None of these players could be under any illusion about what is required. Very Roos culture i would have thought, and a primary reason why we have improved so much. Well done (yet again) to the Roos/Jackson regime.

If that is so, why were we all so excited about the forward set up of Clark, Dawes and Hogan. Surely Gawn, Dawes and Frawley would not be all that different? In fact it would be a little smaller, and Frawley is more mobile than any of Dawes, Clark or hogan. I can't see your logic.

what makes you think the Alice will be hot? It is in the middle of a desert: in winter deserts are warm during the day and quite cool at night. My guess it will be 17-18 degrees when the game is played and fine. Perfect weather for football full of high marking and strong running. It is imperative that Gawn and Jamar play, and another tall for Dawes. My guess is they will give Fitz another chance as he was good last week in the 2s

it is quite possible that we could be top 4 or even premiers within three years. If that happens everything changes. Either Roos will get so much satisfaction from digging mfc out of the deep hole they were in and sign on for another three years out of loyalty to the team he has built OR the Roos brand will be worth just so much that that the bigger clubs will pay just unlimited amounts for him like 4 or 5 million a year. It is possible that this is in fact the game Roos is playing. We may be in the long run better off to have a smart young coach trained in the Roos' philosophies under Roos for a couple of years then take over. My tip is that they already have Brett Kirk lined up for this. It makes sense. At the moment he is Lyon's assistant (also trained by Roos), is a great mate of Roos himself and apparently very smart and creative - a lot like Roos himself.in other words a perfect fit. My hunch is that that deal has already been done. .

I seem to remember at a pivotal time in the last quarter a melbourne Ruckman flew high above the opposition at a ball up, superbly palmed it to Bernie Vince who slotted it through from about 60 meters out. I think his name was Max Gawn from memory. He had far greater impact on the scoreboard indirectly than 1 point as you are implying. Jamar and Gawn are a devastating combination and will be extremely difficult to match up on. Port will definitely be their next victims

I think that is a stupid comment. Look at the data. He seemed to hit the target alright when big Max palmed it into his arms 65 meters out and his 60 metre kick sailed through about 4 metres high. I reckon Bernie is a beauty. Gets the ball on the inside and the outside and is a booming kick, especially for goal.

I think Salem shows extraordinary skill around goals. He and JKH in a year or so will be devastating at the feet of Hogan, Dawes and big Max.

and M Jones. He is a serial offender

It will come - it does take time. It is so so much better than it was at the start of the season. this will continue to improve as the season wares on

Couldn't agree more. Max was excellent. When he starts to hold his marks in the forward half he will be phenomenal.Jamar seems to grow a foot taller when he is around.

I seem to remember Hawthorn supporter kept on asking the same question for years about Luke Hodge vis a vis Chris Judd. Don't think anyone is asking that now. Be patient folks. Jimmy Toumpas will be a very very good player for us, and may well become elite. It does take time.

Port Adelaide also has a young list - younger than ours. They seem to be able to keep up the pace. I disagree the side we had earlier in the year, even if it was largely the same personnel, is the same as we have now. We have seen major improvements across the board from our current players as they learn and start to believe in Roosy's game plan. The side is quite different in capability to the one which took the field in the first four of five games of the season. And as the season goes on it will only get better. The Dogs, also a young list, were SUBSTANTIALLY better the second half of the year last year than they were the first half. We can and will do the same. I might also add there are some quite competent players starting to put their hand up in the twos: Tapscott, Bleese, Clisby, Kent, Fitz, Michie as well as the debut of Hogan over the next seven or eight weeks. The more they perform and don't get picked owing to success of the team, the greater the internal competition for places. Healthy competition is great for everyone - raises the overall standard, and that applioes to the reserves as well as incumbents in the ones.

Gawn will be twice the ruckman/forward that Grundy ever could be. If you don't believe me, watch him towel him on GB.

Agree in part. I think the team is playing maybe 50% better now than they were at the beginning of the season. It helps having tall forwards I must say. Can I suggest if our current team played those games again then we would be 7-2. We will need this improvement as we move into games with top eight credentials. On current form (both ours and theirs), and current injury lists, I suggest we would beat Saints, Dogs, GWS. on the way home in the second half of the season, I suggest the following: R11: Port loss by 9 points R12: Coll win by 20 points R13: Ess win by 35 points R14: Kangas (MCG) win by 6 points R15: Dogs (ES) win by 12 points R16: Dockers (Darwin) loss by 15 points R17: Cats (MCG) loss by 35 points R18: Power (AO) loss by 20 points R19: Lions (ES) win by 50 points R20: Hawks (MCG) loss by 25 points R21: Giants (MCG) win by 30 points R22: West Coast loss by 40 points R23: Kangas win by 15 points That gives us 10 wins for the year and would probably finish about 10th or 11th. That very nearly makes Roos a genius.

I think the rise of Pederson makes us revise our best team, particularly when Hogan comes back. Based on current form, and what might be described as "potential" when over injuries, I would put it as: FB: Jetta. Frawley. Dunn HB: Howe. MacD. Grimes CC: Vince. N Jones. Salem HF: Hogan. Dawes. Watts FF: JKH. Big Max. Pedo Foll: Jamar. Tyson. Viney Interchange: toumpas cross garland Sub: Bail Emergencies: Matt Jones. Terlich. Evans mckenzie. Clisby. Kent. Michie Spencer. Fitz Strengths? Midfield & rucks (strangely enought) Back half Forwards if we can get the talls to combine with each other, and get Max to use two hands in the one on one marking contests ( which is is very much aware of!). This configuration might also be top heavy, so maybe could swap Watts and Salem, although watts is pretty mobile as well as being an excellent mark and kick. On balance though I think having Salem at HF makes sense. Thoughts? With this side in the second half of the year, we will win more than we lose I reckon, and may even beat some top eight and top 4 sides.

Couldn't agree more. Isn't it strange the way these clubs suddenly go into the worst crisis in their history after losing to us. For Saturday, every pundit in the Age and the Hun had Melbourne losing by between 16 and 70 points. Still, this is great for us. It means opposition clubs will continue to under-estimate us, and we can sneak up on them, and hopefully continue to win. No-one in the football world will take real notice of us until we beat a top 4 team. Maybe Freo, Hawks and the Woods on Queen's birthday are vulnerable. Let's hope so. Go Dees!

Max Gawn made a huge difference to us today. Made us multi-dimensional, particularly in attack. There were at least three instances where he should have been paid either a free kick or mark, all well within range. He is here to stay and we will be so much better for it. Likewise Jimmy Toumpas. Was a very creditable game. Showed much better defensive skills today than he has before. He is also here to stay. Christian Salem. His hardness around the ball and never say die attitude almost puts him in future in the Viney class. His kicking is sublime, and will be a huge acquisition for us in future years. Finally, if we get hogan in the second half of the season, I suggest we will win more than we lose from then on. We can now see the shape of our next premiership,side. God it is exciting!

Whilst I agree mostly with what you say, I'd prefer the approach of Roos where he sees his job to develop players to the point where they can become the best they can be. It has not been unknown for players to develop from mediocre to very good (eg Pederson, Bail, Michael Tuck, Jim Stynes, Barlow of Freo, Neville Jetta to name a random few - I know some of these are not yet "very good", but all have shown vast improvement). McKenzie has many valuable assets as a player but to develop beyond the fringe he needs to develop his offensive as well as defensive game and vastly improve his disposal. It is possible to do, just look at a Ryan Crowley. He is vastly improved offensively, as well as being the best player defensively in the competition.

I suspect the plan would be something along the lines of giving them room to draft additional players from lower leagues in a specially arranged draft and a major escalation in their salary cap should they be obliged to continue paying those rubbed out as they have promised to do.This is not going to happen soon though. After infraction notices are issued it will end up in the courts which will be the biggest longest and most expensive court case in Australian sporting history.this could take years and could by itself break Essendon and severely wound the AFL and the Game. As much as I can't stand Essendon and their smuggness, no one should take joy in this. The game will be very much worse off because of it.

We should all understand that Infraction notices will not be issued any time soon. What will be issues are "Show Cause" notices - in others words show cause as to why infraction notices should not be issued. This could well end up in the Supreme Court which could take months, and I'm sure Essendon will use every delay tactic in the book in order that the infraction notices (and therefore players rubbed out) are not issued during the season, no doubt with the tacit agreement of the AFL. This will make no difference to our June fixture, apart from the psychological affect on those players under the gun. This still has a long way to go.

I'm still not sure about the Frawley experiment up forward. Our backs were only ok at the weekend, and we did get found out a couple of times by their tall forwards. This will be even more so against the Tigers. The last real "swing man" we had was Neitz and particularly early in his career used to alternate even in games. It seemed to work well.i see no reason that this could not work with Chip, particularly given his record against Reiwolt. I have my doubts about whether Frawley is a good enough shot for goal to be a permanent forward. This week I think I would put him back to fullback for Terlich and have Garland play on the third tall. I would bring Gawn in up forward and second ruck (there were time both this week and last when Frawley was doing the ruck work - doesn't make sense to me). Max is a big powerful presence up forward and I still think outside Dawes, who is doing a sterling job, we lack power down there. Max is also an excellent pack mark - base him in the goal square and tell him to out muscle his opponent - he will out reach anyone in the competition anyway. The othe change is Byrnes for Riley. We need some more run from our half forwards up the ground and Riley would give it to us. The other change, Salem into the 21 for Matt Jones. I don't think he deserves to be dropped but I think this would make a point to him and others that the sort of clangers he exhibited Saturday will not be tolerated in the longer term. Emergencies: Bleese, Evans, Clisby. I think we might knock off the tigers at the weekend with this side......