Kasey Korner

Got down to Casey Fields today and learned a number of things;

a) Casey Fields is a great name if you're thinking of getting into porn
b) Richmond, and everything involved with them, are worse than anything we served up over the last two years.
c) Everything's gonna be alright.

Now, don't ask me anything about what happened with the Casey defence because I spent the whole day following our forward line from end to end like a lovesick puppy. What I will say is that the ball seemed to fly out of the Coburg forward line at a million miles an hour. They kicked a lot of points but there was wild snaps all over the place - the Scorps backline completely stitched them up. One guy I did notice was Daniel Bell streaming through the middle and doing as he liked. One guy I didn't notice was the Stefan Martin Experience, because he wasn't in the side. Not sure if he played 2's because I arrived just as the reserves game ended and the Coburg players were celebrating like they'd won the flag.

So not only did the backline completely smash their opponents but the Spencil was absolutely dominating in the middle - shame he still can't kick to save himself. He goes hard and is decent at the contest, and not bad with his hands but he's never going to be anything more than a bit part player if he doesn't manage to get his kicking right. Interesting to see John Meesen playing Casey ruck coach and tutoring him at the breaks. I might be the only person other than Meese to be dying to see him back playing again but apparently he's only a few weeks away from resuming - we'll see if he can force his way back into the senior side by the end of the year because I don't think it's unfair to say that he's probably finished at the end of the year otherwise.

Now, down front it was good news all over the place. Aussie Wonaeamirri got through the whole game without having one of his hamstrings leap out of his leg a'la Alien, and he looked bloody good. Didn't get any goals but his defensive work was great. Same goes for Jetta who was all over the place, laying tackles, spoiling and setting his teammates up. Miller and Newton both got amongst the goals but were Miller-esque and Juice-esque in the way they did it - you just know that you're not going to get anything special if we promote them into the seniors.

But let's talk about Watts. I know he was lining up against a rank side who just did not care - though to his credit old pencil 'mo Jordan McMahon had a crack, possibly driven by the wild reception he got from our fans every time he touched the ball - but some of the stuff he did makes me think he will break into the seniors soon and do some damage before the end of the year. He got his first two goals from 45m on a slight angle, the first from a cheap 50m penalty and the second on a sweet lead and pass from our very own homegrown emo Addam Maric (who looks even more miserable up close). Both great kicks from the set shot, then for the third he led into the opposite pocket, pulled in a one handed mark from an ordinary kick, ran around to find himself confronted with an opponent on the goal-line, stepped around a bit and totally confused the poor bastard before snapping it. Top stuff.

Got another one from a set shot in the last quarter before he missed a couple. Was particuarly unlucky on the last one when it hit the post 90% of the way up at the last minute. Now not only was he marking and kicking goals, but he set up a couple for his teammates with his attack on the ball and some fancy work on the handball. Looked really good. Having said that I wouldn't necessarily rush him into the side next week, Dunn is gone for all money but Hughes deserves another shot after an encouraging debut. I'm leaning towards treating him like a pitbull and starving him a bit more to make him really up for it, but I was quite impressed with the leadership he showed in the huddles - telling the likes of Miller and Newton what to do. And no, his advice wasn't "Don't be shit".

Another highlight was Daniel Connors saying the following phrase to the Golden Child after a free kick was paid to Wona in the second quarter. "Go and pick the fucking ball up Jack, that's all you're good for". This coming from the guy who is suspended by the worst club in the league for getting pissed and punching his teammate. Time to put some perspective into your sledging to peanut.

Jetta is another chance to come in, but right now both he and Wona are probably going to be kept out by the form of Jamie Bennell. Jet definately deserves a game on today's form, but if you take Dunn out and put Morton in (he didn't do much at my end of the ground but it's pretty much a no brainer for him to come back even if he didn't do much at the other end either) then who do you drop for Jet? We could trade down on one tall defender (Garland or Rivers) for a small forward, but with Josh Kennedy going bananas with six goals tonight and the likes of Lynch, NicNat and Cox running around can we afford not to go in with the same backline?

Gysberts was also good in the midfield. He's got to be close to getting a game soon.

I'm going to make like the UK election and pick conservatism but with no confidence. Barring any injuries, suspensions or mid week shenanigans I'm going to go with;

IN - Morton
OUT - Dunn