Leaderboard

Chugging along nicely at 47,174. 6,600 ahead of similar time last year. On last year's trend we should end up at around 52,000+, a 15% increase on 2018.

Coaches Votes: 9 Max Gawn (MELB) 9 Nathan Jones (MELB) 4 Oliver Florent (SYD) 4 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 2 Jayden Hunt (MELB) 2 Christian Salem (MELB) Not sure we were that dominant but I'll take it. Allir Allir and Heeny a bit unlucky to not poll. Well done to all the guys. Interestingly, Salem has hardly rated a mention in this thread. He is silk but not flashy so he goes under the radar a bit. Good to see he is attracting the coaches' eye as he has now polled their votes in 2 of the 4 games so far. Our quiet achiever.

My mate’s dad passed away late last year (64 year member). I called the club to let them know and they rapidly arranged a card for the family (also long term members). Subtle, classy and excellent customer service I thought.

Agreed. Future 4th round is what the hawks paid. Super shadey that deal. Nominates hawthorn “ because of their record with treating injuries” all the talk is of no Scully fr 2019 or most of it... or that he may never play again. Then viola he’s playing round frikn 2. Meaning he must have known the injury wasn’t that bad. I don’t mind players nominating a club and the club paying what the player is worth but that deal was utter deception. If it happened to us I’d be going off my nuts. Scully is the worst with [censored] like this.... keeps inventing new lows fr himself. I’m amazed there has not been more spotlight on this.

It will be interesting to see the Goodwin tactics

Will certainly be our first scalp of the year if we can get over St Kilda. Saw them live today and they’re a quality footy side. Anyone who disagrees is stuck in 2018.

saints are quick, and are playing winning football; given our below average form you'd be a fool NOT to be worried one thing that they're definitely not doing is scoring - high of 86, low of 66, two other scores in the 70s they're obviously not getting it inside 50 as much as us (average of 52.8 to our 59.8), but they are going at nearly 50% efficiency once they do get it in (we're at a paltry 38.9% by comparison) their defensive 50 work has been fairly mid-level (avg 9.3 to our 13.8 tackles i50) they rebound from 50 better than us by a fairly big margin, but their desire to play on and run with it will really test us (9.5 bounces per game compared to our 3) their game plan is not entirely dissimilar to the peptides in that it's all about fast ball movement and getting players out the back to help facilitate that if they pull it off it looks terrific, but if they don't hit the targets under increased pressure that you'd hope we'll bring, then there's a good chance they will themselves be susceptible to turnover themselves as they'll be out of the position and they don't track back that well we can win, but honestly...who knows in this nutzoid season

I was thinking an extra 3 days of recovery from niggles and bruises for the players, not extra training. To my mind the extra 3 days rest is a considerable advantage to freshen up, especially if we are wanting to curtail Saint's speed. 3 extra days rest should also enable us to run out the game better. As for the 4 day break to ANZAC Eve. Rich have the same 4 day break but they have two days less recovery than us this weak having played yesterday. No excuse for either team not turning up ready to play ANZAC Eve. It will be a level playing field. Potentially we have quite a few players fresh for next week or ANZAC Eve. Casey have no game next week and by all accounts Garlett and Petty played well so they are available vs Saints or ANZAC Eve. Lewis, May and Jetta probably won't play vs Saints as they are coming back from injury and a 4 day break may not be enough. So they will be very fresh for ANZAC Eve. Plenty of flexibility there to rotate players and keep the team fresh. Richmond are in the same boat to manage the return of Houli, Cotchin and Riewoldt.

They are not rubbish. I too am worried about the saints outside run and dash. On a big ground at the MCG they will expose us if we do not defend carefully and restrict their space.

I would suggest it’s a matter of gameplan. Some teams seek to control the play and tempo with a lot of short passes. As we’re (usually) so good with the contested ball, we seek to keep the ball moving forward as quickly as possible.

Every time I watch him play, even non dee games, he is an absolute gun. I have no idea why he was dropped for the best part of a season, but he always seems to kill it. Whats the knock on him? Would be a massive upgrade on Oscar. Won't happen I know.

Gotta be OMac for Petty, Keilty, anyone else?

On the dates from last week: May has blown out from 2 - 3 to 2 - 4. vandenBerg and Smith are still listed as the dreaded 4 to 6. Lever and Hannan have "improved" from 6 - 8 to just 6. Kennedy-Harris is in from 10 - 12 to 8 - 10.

Whoever we target it's time to start targeting them before the price shoots up. May may be great for us but like Lever came at a heavy cost if they work out great. I like the deals Carlton have done to get Plowman and Marchbank in. I like both players. Having said that both Hibberd and Melksham were good deals which I think the club won

I was thinking the same thing re: Salem this afternoon. Definitely just quietly going about his business. He doesn’t have any flash tricks in his book that get players noticed, but he plays a tough brand, gets plenty of it and rarely wastes a kick. He’s had a really pleasing start to the season.

Jack Martin from Gold Coast Suns

Dean Kent would slot right in

Demons playing Saints on Good Saturday. What could possibly go wrong?

Goody said in the post-match he’ll be fine for this week.

The tandem effect of Melk and Hannan is vital; these two look for opportunities and space, and Hannan usually lands on two feet ready to go and/or tap on to advantage. Other forwards need to realise this advantage.

Really classy. Can you have bogan classy ?

As Casey have a bye I wonder if the club will organise a practice match for them. Then Lewis and May can have a game-type run as they have had next to nil game time in the last month. (Jones, Viney and Melksham played Casey practice matches just before the season proper). Also a good chance to have another look at Garlett and others, maybe KK if over concussion. Just a few quarters each and modify their training and have them all cherry ripe for ANZAC Day. More generally, we play 3 games over a 13 day period which is similar to playing 3 games with 2 consequtive 6-day beaks. Our fitness staff are used to this sort of stuff. Didn't we have 3 or 4 consequtive 6 day breaks with interstate trips in the middle of 2017? Lots of options available to the club so I don't see the 4 day break as a problem especially as we have an extra 2.5 days extra rest than Rich this week and they also play ANZAC Eve off 4-day break. They need to manage the return of Houli, Cotchin, Dusty and Riewoldt if they are to play ANZAC Eve. So their player management issues are similar to ours. So ANZAC Eve will be a level playing field. Just to note: After ANZAC Eve we have a 10 day break so plenty of recovery time before playing the Hawks who have a 6 day break. So we are doing ok with time between games.

Lewis could be back this week and could have played against Sydney but precaution took precedence . Although he is getting on he has been missed and still has plenty to offer. Lewy is the General in the back half and will launch our attacking moves. I like to see Jeffy for pressure and speed in playing up forward and his goal sense. IN Lewis and Garlett. .... need the experience and the know how in the coming weeks. OUT ????????????? I feel for whoever is out this week.

I think we will smack them this week...

I spat the bait RN.

Why would our captains need a rest 4 games in to the season?

To me Weideman has gone back to how he was playing before his "breakout" game against Geelong. You get a couple of good plays out of him a game but that"s it. I know he's young but we need more out of him.

There is too much meddling with rules as it is. The umpires struggle to adjudicate the rules consistently as they are now. With each introduction of new rules every year and the need for umpires to get their heads around them, the basics are neglected. This year these basics have included the holding the ball rule, pushing in the back, deliberate out of bounds, to name only a few. Instead of the standard of umpiring improving each year it appears to be sliding backwards, creating frustration and angst among supporters. The AFL should be concentrating on the bones of the rules, not the fancy dressing. I would like to see one year when no announcements of rule changes are made. That would make a nice change.

Will we divide our skippers in the next week & a half ? Saints - Tigers. Will Viney rest out the Saints game, for Maynard... and Jones rest out the Tigers game, for Viney ?

Yeah Ding, just like last season when we met them at the MCG.

Relax, we've got this.

Out: Spargo, J. Wagner In: Garlett, Lewis

I agree we need both Lewis and Garlett in, but Spargo and Stretch play different roles within the side, and therefore it makes sense to drop Spargo instead of Stretch.

Off the bottom, now what second/third bottom - meh, who cares. I only care what we have achieved at the end of the season. If we beat St Kilda next week, we will be in pretty much the same win/loss position as the same time last year. The key difference will be that I think our draw from there on will get harder rather than easier, but if we can't raise our game to the point where we can consistently beat the better sides, then what's the point of making finals anyway. I think our fortunes from here will largely rest on how we recover injury wise. If we can get back some of our guns like Lever, May, AVB, Hannan etc, without losing too many other quality players, our back half of the year could be pretty dam impressive.

Saints have pace and Billy needs to stay in. No good dropping him after one game every time, it is destroying any confidence he needs. I would give him 2-3 games at least and give him the opportunity.

Nasher, I reckon when Jeffy plays a game like yesterday , his confidence soars! I wouldn't risk an extended break given Casey has a Bye next week. I think we pull the trigger and give him a chance, sooner rather than later. Next week ideal and if it works I reckon we go a long way towards a win. In a team lacking seriously good finishers with goal sense and pace, against the AINTS he must play! How many games has Stretch, Spargo, et al taken and become match winners. ZERO. Jeffy can and has done this for us and so he plays.

Petty BOG, hell yeah. This kid will be an All Australian one day, bookmark it.

Slow and vanilla. No thanks.

This is what actually happens, so often. Analysis of the numbers that go up for a mark indicates confusion and appears to be uncontrolled. Jetta, whilst a good mark and effective at one-on-one contests would be better utilised down back as a crumber that stays on the ground, so to speak for rather obvious reasons. I so often conclude that in 'winning contests' from which we fare so badly to make it a 'losing contest' is because the players know that the primary big man won't win the ball - OMac, let alone go for the mark in a pack or clear the ball with directed punches to teammates on the ground. He just must be supported by a jumbled backline as he makes token gestures of the defence functions. After observations of deep backline playmaking that spans (for me) around 58 years, I cannot recall another KPD so inept who requires the entire backline to assist his singular team function, and this leaves the count of the backline marks category at very low levels and creates obvious panic amongst the players that is relatively easy for opponents to exploit and to fabricate scores from nothing.

Hawks kept bombing it to the hot spot, and St Kilda kept defending it out from there. Hawks were undermanned and were pretty poor around the contest as the game wore on. We win by: Max connecting to our mids for clearances. Better lead up options and connections into 50. Strong i50 defensive mindset. Not being predictable by bombing down the line, or always kicking out to the members back pocket Strong man on pressure through the midfield, two way defensive running. Pruess man mountain with Jeffy at his feet.

In the stands selling pies and drinks?

If we don’t win we are officially pretenders

You've never watched old games have you? No one used to "showcase skills" they hacked it forward while punching each other and extracting themselves from the mud. The game has never stayed the same.

The level of intensity and application Essendon showed against us was at least double what they showed against St Kilda. That was little to do with St Kilda being better than us (which was also true), it was more about how Essendon attacked the contest or generally cared about the game. In the first half of their game, Essendon was non-existent. St Kilda were playing a below-VFL level side. They've beaten a developing young side in GC by 1 point, an Essendon side which played the worst half of footy anyone will play this year whilst struggling to hold them off, and they beat Hawthorn by a kick despite the Hawks having at least 6 injuries and only 2 on the bench for a half. If we're talking their 3-1 record alone, I'm not worried in the slightest. It's not their W-L record which is the thing we should be worried about. St Kilda play a style of game which, when they're on, is our achilles heel. They'll use the space on the G, they'll bring pace, and if we leave too much space behind our press then they'll find it easier to score than they have in the opening four rounds. This is not going to be easy for us, but St Kilda is not a good side.

Until his next game, when he doesn't play well, and you claim he should be delisted at season's end!

A bye next week ..... that's downright amateurish. How are AFL players supposed to build continuity, gain match fitness, work into form? Jeffry needs (maybe) one more run to be AFL ready, and instead he's watching on. Grrrr!

I might be in the minority but I find Bruce Mcaveney extremely annoying to listen to when watching the game. He seems to have no grasp of what is happening, fawns over well known players whether they are playing well or not and then distracts from what is actually taking place. Keen to hear others views re Bruce.

Felt like we're never a good contested mark team, so I went back and looked at the stats and we were second last year behind West Coast. Was a bit of an anomaly considering we've been 11th/3rd/11th/16th in the years before that. 3rd place in 2015 was propped up by Hogan's 47 (third most in the league), and last year Gawn had 55 for third best in the league.

Agree MS about Jetta too fond of flying for impossible fourth in line marks Can't understand thebbackline (or any other coach) Coach hasn't noticed and got him out of this very bad habit.

Just landed in Paris! Scrambled to get to my hotel to listen live....OMG! Picked up the last five minutes and the crew on 3AW were saying that the Swans were: 1. Out played 2. Being toyed with 3. Sinclair was cooked! 4. And I heard Gawny's name and C Oliver's named several times Fantastic effort! I love this team and Paris awaits! Night all, soak it up!