btdemon

Watching Newton the last couple of years (especially today), I'm not convinced he has such a attitude problem, in fact he chased as hard he could at times. When he did tackle they didn't stick. Tackling is an art too. So is kicking and he can't do that very elleither (he's not on his own in that regard). Its just that he is too slow and doesn't really possess the skills to play a key forward role at AFL level. He could work his butt off but I don't think he's going to make it. Its tempting to bag him for being soft or unmotivated but just don' think he's got it. Its not his fault. Its a shame he took mark of the year because it fooled many into thinking he had afl potential.

Here here! Classiest player we have.

Thanks heaps She devil 64. My daughter will be very pleased. She is fired up to get autographs.

Can some one tell me where the meet the players function is tomorrow? It was on the website but seems to have gone.

What is going on with all these spam messages and how the hell do they get my email address?

I can see a possible three or four but we will improve over the season and sometimes the wins come from nowhere like the Freo one last year. Remember, we don't want more than four!

I think that at this stage Sylvia may qualify as a 'spud'. If he has a reasonable year this year then we could maybe do a TJ style trade for the sake of the future.

I on't give a rat's tossbag what BT thinks. ...............BTW. What is a rat's tossbag?

After the first two games this year there are many positives. All of the debutants have shown promise, the defensive stocks are high, and Petterd will be a great player. My concerns are the following:- 1. We have no power forward. While we have the makings of a good forward line with players like Watts, Maric, Aussie and Jurrah, we don't have any prospect of a big bodied power forward to create heavy contest, ball spillages and tie up the opposition's main defenders. Notice that i have not included Robbo (because he probably only has two years), and Miller (because he will only be a bit player in the future). Martin is a possibility but he seems to be more of a defender. He has great hands, good judgement of the flight of the ball, like Rivers, but his kicking lacks penetration and it remains to be seen if he has the instincts of a forward. I don't necessarily think these instincts can be learnt. Look at Didak and Medhurst yesterday and you'll see what I'm talking about. 2. Our midfield is totally one-paced I though Jones and Moloney played well yesterday, (Brock had another bleak day), but there is nobody in our midfield with the explosive pace and accurate penetrating disposal that is needed today. Buckley's disposal is horrible and our midfielders keep getting caught. Blease has both these attributes but is small bodied and will probably play on the wing. Bailey is forced to play Davey in the midfiled and he was fantastic as a sweeper/outrider yesterday but we would all like to see him crumbing packs in the forward 50. 3. Ruck stocks are low Johnson is not a natural ruckman. I'm not sure what he is, but he is worth persisting with. Spencer has great potential but is a couple of years away from really holding his own. We can see that he has no confidence in his kicking and he can't handball either. So often yesterday he tried to dish off and he was super slow and very inaccurate. These should be priorities for the coaching staff, as well as rucking skills, because he is a real goer. Who knows whether Meesen will be any good. I'm not holding my breath. 4. Our defence, looking like it might well be really solid in the future, doesn't kick well. We've seen the tentative kick-ins but its the general field kicking that worries me. The good sides at the moment have defenders with long accurate penetrating kicks (think Hodge, Hunt, Gilbee etc.). This opens up space and opportunity for midfielders like nothing else. If they can pinpoint a 50 metre pass to a running player then the rolling zone is not so much a problem. Our young defence lacks anyone who can kick like this. So many turnovers are happening and the movement out of defence is always tentative and risky. It will give me much more confidence when Wheels and Wheately are back in that lineup, but they are not the future. I know that Strauss comes with that reputation and I do think that Bennell has potential. These deficiencies point to the importance of this year's draft. From the limited video evidence, Butcher looks great. Big body, fantastic hands and a forward's instinct. Likewise Scully looks like a ball magnet with pace and great kick. We also need at least one more project ruckman. Who knows, but maybe the role of list manager Tim Harrington is to analyse the general shape of the list and project into the future. I hope so. The upside is as I've said, all debutants showed promise, Frawley has really developed, Martin, Morton, Petterd, Garland, Grimes, Maric, and Aussie all look great.

I could never listen to Rex Hunt. He drove me crazy. But looking at the names in the Casey reserves I'm guessing that he would had some fun with: Patti Virtue Blaser Benbow Creed Snow Oldmeadow Illmen Rosier BTW, the Sivagni in the seniors? Any relation?

Move on Brock Machine (Grasshopper). Harbouring these poisonous thoughts will pollute your soul. ..........................Amen.................Namaste

I've got a plan for kick ins. DON"T LET BUCKLEY DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sooner we get Wheatley and Wheels back in there for kick ins the more comfortable I will be.

Why Don't we drop everyone???? Settle down for God's sake.

Has anyone noticed how clunky this tear's versions of supercoach and dreamteam are. Every time I try to scroll through players my computer just about freezes. What have they done?

The two big differences between 'Before the Game' and The Footy Show are - 1) Before the Game is interesting 2) Before the Game is funny TFS is an ego driven celebration of the lowest common denominator I make the same mistake a couple of times a year of turning it on. I last about ten minutes. It makes me want to puke.

Geelong also have had the same emphasis on 'process'. They often say that if they concentrate on the process and do all of the things they have trained to do, then the results will look after themselves. When these things start to fall into place for us then maybe we can begin to talk about wins v losses.

I agree with the assessment about those players with an unnatural kicking action always being suspect under pressure, in fact I made this point about a year ago in relation to Miller and Bruce. We must also look at those who through disciplined practice improved their accuracy. Think about Neita in the 2000 grand final. When daniher decided to make him into a forward a lot of us, including me, thought it was silly. When he first played there he waas notorious for missing set shots and this was very demoralising for the team. With enormous discipline, he ironed out aspects of his "swing" and became pretty reliable. He still fell into that school yard thing of waving around the ball in his run up and this drove me mad but he could certainly roost it a mile and became pretty accurate from different distances and angles. It didn't have the timing or grace of Hodge but he did it with strength. Miller also has certainly improved in accuracy and penetration. Jimmy had a very funny action and couldn't kick more than 40 metres but he got by. Robbo has improved enormously in both distance and accuracy. It would seem that young Grimes is a very dedicated and serious footballer. If he is being made aware of his poor kicking (I havn't seen enough of him to judge it myself), then I suggest that he is probably working on it. As for the rising star, of course he could win it. He will have some real competition, but then they don't tend to give it to people who aren't any good.

Oh dear!!

People on these sites are so fickle. Yes, Jones had a mediocre year in '08. He was recognised by the opposition as our main midfield ball winner and tagged mercilessly. Think back to that game against Freo where we came back from 51 points down (I have this recorded and watch every few weeks). Crowley was almost carnal in his close attention. The fact is that Jones had a cr*p year in '08 and this year he will be back. He is one of our most desperate hard at it ball winners and you can't teach this instinct. There'll come a time when you are all singing his praises again. Mark my words!

While Jack Watts may look a little skinny at this stage, the ball looks quite small in his hands (or am I imagining this?). He seems to control it with little effort. Good eh?

Yes Watts will be gun but he won't be a power forward like Buddy, Brown, even Neita etc.

Actually, Zomer looks like a big bugger. Its a shame we can't do the old switcheroo and put him on the list and Newton off.

As I said, I really like DB. He is calm, measured, has a great footy brain, a quirky sense of humour and I like the direction he is taking the club. There is one thing that botheres me, his use of language. He is very fond of footy cliches, but not anly that, he minces them around in a bizarre way. He also changes tenses several times in each sentence, eg. "You'd like to have all your players fit and on the ground, especially the Daveys and Woneamirris, plus the taller forwards but, going forward I am just asking the players to be competitive". I just made this quote up but you get the picture. So I would like DB to 'take this on board', 'have a real dip', and attempt to avoid cliches 'going forward'. PS. At least I havn't heard him say "yeah no, ......"

Something that struck me about the game against Hawthorn was the impotence of our marking forwards (excluding Bate). With the abject failure of Newton to present as a speahead with any balls or effectiveness, I propose that we don't persist with him in the seniors for too long. Put him back to the VFL and make him demand a spot in the team. If he doesn't, then delist him. Sylvia should not be far behind him. Given that scenario, who do we rely to kick goals and create genuine pressure in forward 50. I propose this forward structure as an alternative; Half Forward: Davey, Miller, Bate/Green Forward: Aussie, P Johnson, Maric With Aussie and Maric at ground level we need a large and powerful forward that can control ball at the contest and bring it to ground in an intelligent way. At least Johnson will present and make an effective contest. Newton's attempts are all about taking a screamer which he may do one in ten times. The other times he has no idea where the ball will end up and makes little attempt to keep the ball in the danger zone. Johnson could still relieve Jamar/Spencer in the ruck for 5-10 mins a quarter by bringing Bate or Green down to FF. Garland could also be tried at FF. We now have the stocks in defence to release Green to a more creative forward role. With Robbo a few weeks away and the possibility of people like Jetta bobbing up later in the year and then Watts and Jurrah in a year or so then we should have great mobile forwards but we must draft for a power forward or two. This must the next priority.

Pretty good summary of the game I reckon.