VFL Rd 5: Northern Blues vs Casey Scorpions

[Lods]

ANy danger someone can tell us who actually got injured? Was it all NB players?

It's all in the thread Kruds
Just have a look back

[Baggers]

McGuiness, Wilson, Gorringe and Cam Wood are the injuries.

Yes, all our blokes.

Wilson and McGuiness badly injured and went to hospital. We were down to 19 blokes by midway through the third qtr.

[Lods]

There was also a suggestion Buckley was reported ...Do you know anything about that Baggers?

[Baggers]

Yep, had his number taken after a scuffle on the ground with an opponent.

[The Rhino]

No structure whatsoever. Lot of senior players who just didn't try.

Graham the only four quarter player of any note.. Had a lot of it, tried hard. No mates to support him.
Dick barely sighted all day.
McGuinness injured early. Didn't look good.
Foster well outclassed by Weidemann.
Buckley reported early, nothing in it. Did some nice things, but largely AWOL.
Wood injured, not seen after HT. Tried hard but beaten by Spencer.
Viojo did some nice things around the stoppages, but not enough.
Boekhurst looked like he didn't want to be there. Easily the most disappointing part of the day.
Tutt had a shocker in the first quarter, didn't really redeem himself after that. No concept of wet weather footy skills.
Wilson knocked out early. Huge blow.
Kerbatieh tried hard, but often double/triple teamed by Oscar McDonald, Terlich and Lynden Dunn. He's worth looking at for next year.
Gorringe injured. Did nothing of note.
Totevski kicked our first goal after a huge run through the middle of the ground from Buckley set it up. Barely sighted otherwise.
Jaksch played down back. Tried hard with that much ball coming in, but just overwhelmed.
Casley presented well in the second half but missed some real gimmes that could have brought us back into the game.
Clem Smith tried hard, our main focal point for the first 3 quarters, but like Kerbatieh, often double teamed. Just didn't have the skills to capitalize on his opportunities and really struggled in the slippery conditions.
Korcheck gets the participation award - did a great job as the lone ruck in trying conditions. Casey's midfield just dominated however.
Liked Gowers' first half. Third man up on a number of occasions provided some handy opportunities. Barely sighted after half time.

Northern are getting some pretty good homegrown talent through too. Aujla and Ballard have potential. Strachan was a lone hand in defence, prevented some Casey goals, but coughed up a few with some errant disposal. Having said that, the development side looked like an under 16s side and are well off it.

[crashlander]

Peter Jackson VFL 2016
Casey Scorpions  5.3  9.6  12.9  19.11 (125)
Northern Blues  0.1  0.3  1.6  2.6 (18)

GOALS:
Casey Scorpions: Briggs 4 Weideman 4 Grimes 2 Dawes 2 Newton 2 Terlich  Morris  Spencer  King  Trengove
Northern Blues: Totevski  Kerbatieh

BEST:
Casey Scorpions: Newton Neal-Bullen Grimes Smith Dunn Briggs
Northern Blues: Graham Dick Korcheck Buckley Tutt Boekhorst

I got kicked off the computer early in the last quarter. I'm not disappointed. It was clear that we really fell down today.
As for tonight, I almost didn't want to look at this thread. The only comments could have been bad ones, which is what you expect with such an insipid performance.
Yes, it was a 'perfect storm'. We suffered injuries to guys we could not afford to lose. We already had a raft of injured players unavailable. We were playing a good team on their home patch in conditions we have done poorly in of recent time (at a ground where we have a record that is truly ghastly). Yes, all of that. But I was hoping for some guys to show some heart and some system. It didn't happen.
Best to but this one behind us and move on.

Can we be this bad next week? Possibly. That depends on the injury situation and whether Buckley gets suspended. There MUST be consequences for our severely injured players, but what?

OK, where are we at?
Looking first at the VFL list: it started as basically a completely new list. Now the few experienced players we had are either really struggling or out injured. McGuinness gives a HUGE amount of leadership to our defence when the experienced Carlton players are not there. Wilson is the captain and an honest contributor and Bransgrove, a guy with a heart bigger than he is, has almost run his race due to persistent knee injuries.
Kerbatieh looks like the real deal and Casley could be something if he didn't kick like Casboult.

The Carlton boys: where are they? In the sheds. Our entire draft cohort from last year, the kids we bank on for our future, are all unavailable with injuries. All of them, from Weitering to Glass-McCasker. Remarkable!
When we have a full list, there will be someone like White or Jamison available. Certainly not the case at the moment.

Our midfield is probably the weakest area when the list is available. With out injuries total, it looks pretty bare indeed.
Ruckman: we don't have a lot on our list. We have Kreuzer, Phillips, Gorringe, Wood and Korchek, with 2 of these rookies, one an International Rookie. At the moment we have only Kreuzer (required in the seniors) and Korchek available. That makes life hard for the mids against serious opposition.
Next week our ruck combination will be Aurrechio and Korchek - both Americans and still very much learning the game. If one of them is unavailable, then we will be playing Cripps (who has been playing half forward and doing OK until today).

A few weeks ago we looked pretty good. We had Armfield showing the way and acting as the rover we lack totally. We had Silvagni getting goals and making them out of nothing. We had pace from Cunningham and huge endeavour from Glass-McCasker. We had White being BOG and showing the youngsters how to do it. We even had Liam Jones kicking goals (amazing as that is). Now we have none of that. It shows.

It is amazing, when each week I have been expecting our side to be reinforced by returning Carlton players, to deal with a side that is becoming less and less capable when it looked so good.

I have no idea when Wilson and McGuinness will be back. I don't even know if they WILL be back. But we need leadership out there and we have very little of it.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Boekhorst to do better than those reports I am reading about the NB's...not sure he fits into the Bolton lets play ugly hard football mantra....
Liam Jones has embraced the idea of chase, tackle and apply pressure and its won him his spot back in the seniors....Boaky and the King Tutt need
to toughen up to stay on the list and follow the lead of Jones and get down and dirty...

[crashlander]

Boekhorst to do better than those reports I am reading about the NB's...not sure he fits into the Bolton lets play ugly hard football mantra....
Liam Jones has embraced the idea of chase, tackle and apply pressure and its won him his spot back in the seniors....Boaky and the King Tutt need
to toughen up to stay on the list and follow the lead of Jones and get down and dirty...

Yes. Boekhorst needs to see what Jones did to get a spot and learn from it. Tutt knows and has been trying. Smith, I just can't see him making it at this point. He has plenty of endeavour: he just can't get the ball.

[Mantis]

Jones is not a complete package, but he at least shows himself to be more than a serviceable player and helping us with some depth. Better than what I have seen from him in the past. A little more size and strength and he could show real value.

[Thryleon]

Yes. Boekhorst needs to see what Jones did to get a spot and learn from it. Tutt knows and has been trying. Smith, I just can't see him making it at this point. He has plenty of endeavour: he just can't get the ball.

Boekhorst needs to spend as much time with Daisy as possible.