SaberFang

Saints are just a basketcase. GWS will blow this open in the second half. Would've thought everyone learned not to push out experience at the expense of youth after what happened to us.

Howe and second rounder. Assuming he doesn't want to stay with us.

The unselfishness yesterday was a real highlight to me. Gus and VDB had multiple shots at goal but did the team thing first.

Such a standout today. I reckon he'll get the Rising Star nom within 3 or 4 weeks as he builds into AFL intensity.

Can anyone remember if Roos made a point of not changing the team after our 4 wins last year? Have a vague recollection that he left things as is, and stayed loyal to his players.

Once McCartney gets Watts sorted, I've got no doubt Toumpas will become his pet project. So much talent that needs to be unleashed, can't think of a better coach to do it. Leave Roos to deal with the ones and hand off the developing kids to Brendan.

Billy Stretch just needs a year in the Casey oven and another pre-season under his belt. After that, I can see him slotting straight into the ones and staying there.

It's a really interesting point. You look at the way the competition is moving and the old fashioned notion of key forwards seems to have gone by the wayside. Clarkson and Hinkley have reinvented the game with goal scoring mids, and this is the direction Goodwin appears to be taking us (and I'm not complaining -- no Dees supporter with a sane head could, after the results today). I know he's teared it up over the pre-season, but I struggle to see Dawes as much more than a lumbering pillar in the forward line. On his good days he's a beast; can lay a tackle, can kick a goal, can be ferocious. On an average day though, he has very little effect on the game. The question I pose: who from today's squad would you have taken out and replaced with Dawes? For my money, not one person, unless you want the Suns to have won.

Still think this will become much clearer after tomorrow's match. Plenty to play out depending on injuries and whether Richo finds a way to shut down their run. Same coach for GWS so theoretically their gameplan (whatever that is) won't be much different.

Drop Kent? Please. JKH? No way. Both showed poise, were exciting, inventive, opened up the game and got their hands on it. They did lots of stuff that I've never seen Dawes do. He's a pillar for our forward line but he doesn't hunt the ball the way those two do, and it was a huge contributing factor to our win today.

Toump will be just fine, but for the time being he isn't best 22. He'll cement a spot by next year, especially if Crossy retires. Yeah, it's frustrating, especially when you see the other players from the same draft who exploded into AFL and are dominating, but it doesn't happen to everyone.

Stringer an absolute gun too... hard not to be frustrated.

Geez some peculiar matches tonight. Thought Brisbane were going to kill it this year, Collingwood would be pathetic and Bulldogs would threaten Saints for the spoon. Wrong on all counts.

Will have a better idea after GWS play. Absolutely no way to judge it right now. There's potential for injuries and who knows what else to play out yet. They could absolutely stink it up and they could absolutely come out firing. They don't have two of their three key forwards from last year, and they've gained Griffen who, on paper, is a huge get but was long past his best over the last few years at the Dogs. EDIT: Just remembered they're playing the Saints so you'd have to pencil in a win at this stage. Just depends how comfortably they win by.

Drop Vanders?! What? He's not leaving the team until he strings together 3 stinkers at a minimum.

Can't see us going to so much trouble to recruit Frost only to drop him from a winning squad? He showed great run. Sends the wrong message to drop him.

Some of his tackles were ferocious, and he just seemed to get himself in the mix constantly. Really disappointing for Toumpas to be behind a first gamer at this point in his career, but I know who I'd prefer to get games into now.

Seems we're going the Hawthorn route of encouraging goal-scoring mids rather than the traditional forward line KPP's. Not sure I like the idea of Roos changing multiple players from a winning team, just to fit Dawes back in. Kent/JKH/Garlett/Hogan/Watts was perfect, with goals peppered from Tyson/Newton/Jones/Lamumba.

Vince for Toumpas is an easy one for me. Not sure who replaces him as the sub though? Brayshaw looked right at home in the starting 18. We scored over 100 points without Dawes even playing. Hogan was still highly effective even as the number one key forward. You have to wonder about what we'll do with Dawes next week... who goes out for him, if anyone?

Breathe... breathe................. This.... is..... HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Um, he can't even break into the 17th placed team's best 22. Which team in the top 8 would need, nay want, a player like Grimes? His disposal is atrocious, and until he can fix this facet of his game he'll continue to play out his career at Casey. Opposition teams barely break a sweat against us because they score easily from our turnovers. They've learned quickly they just have to watch our backline (with Grimes) attempt to hold possession, because inevitably we cough up the pill with a clanger. This was bleedingly obvious to every coach in the AFL after about 3 rounds last year. Poor disposal is one of the missing links in Roosy being able to execute his game-plan with us. You simply can't have a team filled with Grimes/M. Jones types who cough up the ball so easily in a maintain-possession gameplan.

Exactly. There is a very specific Roos-prototype AFL player, and Angus has every trait PR loves. If you lack those traits, you desperately need to excel in other areas to get into a Roos team, be it athleticism, class, awareness, defensive transition, etc. He loves the contested footy though; the tackles, the bumps, the bruises. If we go out there and hunt the opposition it takes them off-guard and shakes their confidence. It contributed to most of our wins last year.

You mean that "excellent" form of Matt Jones and Bail? Non-entities with almost no impact? Jones, who can't even stick a tackle? And gives away countless free kicks? And the endless clangers all over the park? Interesting definition of "form".

Brayshaw's inclusion is any easy one for me. Loves the contest, is hard at the ball, shows grunt and loves getting in the thick of it. Erm, Bail...? Matt Jones? Grimes? Don't exactly strike fear into the opposition. We've been a soft team for far too long. The best teams, as Roosy said at the season launch, are the hardest teams that bruise their opposition; it throws them off their game. It's exactly what our team desperately needs; some mongrel and some X-factor.

LOL.