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I feel 100 times better this week than last week.

About to head into the oval shortly... Pretty s.hitfull morning here in Adelaide... Drizzle and breeze is starting to pick up... Took my son down to see the lads have a short session yesterday when they arrived... Jones doing his own thing separately from the main group... I think he'll play as he looked to be moving freely... Quite a jovial bunch and looking pretty relaxed out there... Angus Brayshaw's reaction when my son asked him to sign his guernsey was priceless... Walking down the race, heard his name, looked around and his reaction was almost like "Oh yeah, that's right, I'm an AFL player now!" Haha... Jack Watts (my lads fav) is King of the Kids! Will make a great father when his time comes... Right now I just want him to be a great footballer though A lot of family in the crowd for Hulk... I have a feeling he will crush bodies like a beast today! After watching McCartin last night it makes me think we've got an absolute ripper in JH... Do we win today? Viney is a huge loss! In my opinion it could be the difference... Hope I'm wrong!

Matt Jones in for Jetta. Now I've heard it all!

I've always admired Dangerfield and still do but thought his acting today was embarrassing; the sort of stuff you see on the soccer field. I'm not surprised the umpires basically ignored him.

I wouldn't worry about it. It's just the big fella from upstairs saying "g'day" and to "keep the faith." He is rarely far from all our thoughts too...

I usually defer to Garry Lyon when I do my football tips. In Round 1, he picked the Suns to win. He got it wrong. In Round 2, he picked the Dees to win. He got it wrong. In Round 3, he picked the Crows to win. I am hoping for a hat trick from him.

If we bring that effort every week the wins will come.

hard not to be happy with Brayshaw, Hogan, Salem, Vandenberg, Newton

I asked my 5 year old nephew how much we would win by - he said 100 and thousand points. I'm going with that.

Vinces demolition of Dangerfield was the highlight of my day. Also thrilled with the response of Walsh - it's a long time since we needled the opposition like that. More please.

Staggering to see people put Watts and Dawes in the same category today. Get passed the contract Dawes is supposedly on. He was no where near our worst today. Watts was terrible and bereft of confidence and effort. JKH, Kent, Newton and VanB all went missing for long periods. Mistakes still hurt us so much. Hogan and Jeff must learn to capitalise and the absolute clanger kicks and loopy hand passes in the backline are so frustrating. Hogan still has so much upside though, and Brayshaw is going to be a pleasure to watch in the coming 10+ years. The way he dragged Jones away from the 3 quarter time fraca once it had passed its usefullness was wonderful level headed leadership, from a third gamer.

LOL. Less than 0% of Jetta getting dropped. Seriously!

Don't understand the hate on Dawes. Bloke had a dislocated finger and looked like the English Patient for most of the second half, and the moment Frost was injured he was asked to do some rucking around the ground. Plus it [censored] with rain for the second half. We are so quick to bag him but he gives a contest each and every week. Terrific effort from the boys today. Adelaide are a side that have looked sensational two weeks running and we went with them all day. Apart for some poor kicking for goal we matched them in all areas. Watts deserves a bit of harsh criticism today. That dropped mark led to 2 goals in 30 seconds in the first term - if we hold them we go into the first term break 2 goals up. All in all though we were fantastic and I can't fault the effort for one second. McDonald awesome, Hogan and Brayshaw are the future and we are a better side all round. Bring on the Tigers.

Umpires absolutely deplorable. Was a great effort for us to not pull up stumps and walk off the field. What a joke. Good game today, I am proud of this side. Brayshaw is god.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-03-18/lions-waiting-on-leuey Brisbane Lions free agent Matthew Leuenberger has put off contract negotiations until the end of the year and has been left out of the team for this week. Prodigiously talented, though injury ravaged, he has struggled to share the ruck duties with the MFC's own Stefan Martin. With Jamar most likely hanging up the boots at the end of the year and neither Gawn, nor Spencer beating down the door; could Melbourne spend some of their massive salary cap surplus on this 202cm, 104kg, athletic ruck? I would certainly think that as a free agent, who would only cost money and not a player/pick, Leuenberger would be a good addition to the list and the presumptive starting ruck in 2016.

I'm sure Chook's commentary was only in reference to the late Dean Bailey's philosophy of getting games into new players.

Sorry, but poor form Chook.

Pedo should be in for Dawes. Pedo is a better Mark and is more mobile around the ground when he pinch hits in the ruck.

Take out the 30 cent cone and put Viney in and we'd have come close to winning that. I can't have Watts, at all. He embarrasses our club. We're a pretty hard team now and he sticks out like a dogs [censored]!na. Happy with the effort, play like that and we'll easily account for Richmond, provided we kick straight. I love Hogan and Brayshaw. Hate Lumumba's long bombs. Sookyfield won no friends today, Boonie Vince is a legend.

With the short time Brayshaw is on he has already had a staggering 7 tackles.

Jesse Hogan is motioning to the lads, lift your heads boys. That is a leader. A born leader.

How good has bernie Vince been? Love him getting into danger!

Dawes has limited skill but busts a gut. I will take his effort over some of the [censored] poor attempts by Watts today.

McDonald is going to show Jack Reidwolt up for the sooky flat track bully spud that he is next week, and it's going to be great

Dean Bailey was a person who existed. Apologies to anyone who might have been offended by my having referred to him.

how good was the whole team effort though to actually fight and care about the jumper for a change there was heart today that was the biggest thing. After last week i thought it was 2012 again but today you can see they actually give a [censored] and running to back each other up in the melee etc and TMac and Vinces work on their opponents was great to watch. TMac is better than Frawley ever was even at his best. Does everything Frawley can do plus more. Its really only been last week's second half that was the old Melbourne everything else has been encouraging.

From the game here in Adelaide a few differing views to those who watched on TV it seems. We very much could have won this but needed to take our chances, we did last year, we didn't this year. Frost, Garlett x2 and hogan misses from set shots were awful. We needed them. Hogan is a gun, he can takes marks against two. Wow it's great to have him. McDonald was very good also, walker got a couple cheap. I though Tyson and Newton were pretty ordinary. Jones was ok, Vberg ok, H pretty good. Umpires cost us a few. Bernie was tough at it and made Dangerfield suffer a tough day, he did little. Sloan their best. Dawes did a lot of good today, but it was almost always him vs 2-3 in a contest he needed to nullify. He is very good at that. He is very poor at rewarding himself with a cheap goal and mark. Watts two dropped marks were aweful, they really cost us some mojo, and got the crowd up and about again. We went hard, had a crack......but after Hogans miss the score was 6.11 vs 11.6.....enough said. We didn't switch enough or play fast when we could. And when we had them out the back due to some great defence work we stuffed the long kick forward too often. If Garlett can kick straight he will be gold. Good effort, really good......but I'd like the win. We should beat the tigers next week.

I didn't think Dawes was too bad today, quite often he was against two and at times three and not once was out marked. Yes he needed to do a little more, but I thought he was far from our worst.

I miss Jeff White, we need more than a war horse tap ruckman, we need a ruckman that gets some ball round the ground

All I want currently is consistent effort and we got that today. When they got back into it I thought we would drop our bundle but we fought it out and if we had taken our chances would have been a chance to win. Watts inconsistency in application and Howes decision making and execution are both a worry. T-Mac, Garlo and Jetta played excellent. H, Jones and Vince worked hard in the midfield but we need to get consistent ball from Tyson, Vanders and Newton who all went missing for large patches. Brayshaw another good cameo and surely deserves a start next week. I don't think we are far off Hogan putting it all together and Garlett kicking straight.

Viney would have been perfectly suited to today's conditions.

Pretty good effort really. If - Watts doesn't drop those two sitters - Garlett and Hogan convert easy chances - Betts' 'goal' is properly reviewed Then things could have been very different. Brayshaw looks very, very good.

He'll be All Australian.

Been a great effort from Melbourne today. Showing a little more each week.

FFS Guys we are only 15 points down This thread sounds like a morgue Not over yet..

Some of you I am sure watch the game to see negatives... Three points in it at half time and reads like we are a mile away from being competitive... Enjoy the fact the team is having a crack and hard - not words you would typically use to describe us of late

watts still didn't want it. Got the lucky bounce.

WATTTTSSSSSSS

I watch Brayshaw move, he is a rare player. The future looks bright with Brayshaw and Salem. Vandenberg has done a solid job today.

FFS get off bagging players .....save it till when the game finishes......they've had as many dropped marks, kicks out of bounds etc. They're having a red hot crack & I can see they are a vastly improved team....Second half may disappoint but they are becoming a better more competitive team who I like to watch !!

You don't get cheered paying Melbourne frees.

Seems like Vince has taken Vineys role and is our tagger for now. Doing an incredible job on Danger.

Brayshaw 5 touches and 4 tackles already.

Taylor Walker 0 disposals - great job McDonald

Is there a switch on Watts' back with two settings: elite and hack?

Watts dropped two sitters.

Loved seeing Watts get polaxed and get up and into the contest straight away.

I was feeling more than slightly morbid about our chances until I read this thread, but the optimism shining through in some of the posts has lifted my spirits to some extent. What a wonderful place this is ...........sometimes!

It's not illogic, Luce, it's the purest form of sophistry, which in the estimation of some (many of them politicians) is the very highest achievement of logic since it can show that black is white or, more magically, both black and white at the same time. Far from being the fools that a few might want to paint them as, the learned members of the tribunal are in fact highly sophisticated men, in the original sense of that word of course.

In breaking news the team flew back last night because apparently we're no chance.