This Essendon game was the best tackling performance I've seen from the Dees. We had an amazing 24 tackles inside 50 to the Bombers 5. Unfortunately, this tacking effort was not rewarded by the umps as the Bombers had many dropped balls and throws.

Last year, tackling effectiveness was one of the big differentiators between the Dees and grand finalists Roos and Lions. Our tackling effectiveness against the Bombers shows we are building very, very nicely.

I saw much of the game online last night and we're such a good watch. Too many good players to mention. I hope Tayla Harris doesn't go looking for greener pastures again next year as I love her crash and bash. Paxy might be a little slower these days but she can still stick a tackle and has really quick hands.

Got to the game last night with a very tired 5 year old boy who loves Tayla Harris. Was in the pocket for a few Tayla crashes so we got our monies worth.

They game was a decent standard but we are always going to have a problem with teams flooding back and us looking like we are aimless forward as there is no space. Interested to see how we go against the Lions up at The Stadium in a few weeks time.

Eliza M is my favourite player in either team right now and Maeve C is a skilful force of nature.

Will say it again - we must keep Tayla until she doesn’t want to do it anymore.

just watching the north sydney game

sydney no slouches but north are brutalising them around the ball. if we're to win it we have to beat north but its very hard to see how we match them on the inside

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I hope Tayla Harris doesn't go looking for greener pastures again next year as I love her crash and bash.

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

Will say it again - we must keep Tayla until she doesn’t want to do it anymore.

I'm happy to be corrected by people who have better knowledge of these things, but my understanding was that Tayla's potential move to Hawthorn last year was not of her doing. I believe Hawthorn made overtures with promises of a top ten draft pick for her, and given our young tall forward stocks of Zanker, Gall, Campbell and Hose we decided to consider it. But it transpired Hawthorn had no genuine intention of delivering what she was worth so the deal died.

Before we move on to next game, some comments from Sophie Welsh on the W Download podcast:

“I watched from just behind the benches, and Mick Stinear appeared.

He was coaching up in the box, but from, I think it was definitely the last quarter, he was on the bench [...] and I think the Dees thought they were a bit better than what they were dishing up on the park. He was quite animated in his instruction to the players, especially those who were coming off rotating.

And then post game, Mick was quite strong, that it was barely a win almost for them. They scraped through that one. And I think reading between the lines, Melbourne think they're probably better than that sort of performance.

And there's an element of frustration as they kind of track towards finals."