SaberFang

Exactly. This result will be as meaningless as Hawthorn's crucial upset against Sydney, right before we played North Melbourne. All the stars were aligning for us to mount a challenge for top 4; instead we're fighting for scraps outside the 8. If we fail to capitalise, again, just put a fork in us. We're cooked.

Embarrassing defence from the Giants right now. And these [censored] muppets mopped the floor with us last week. Let that sink in. The ease with which the Dogs are transitioning the ball into attack infuriates me, rendering the entire forward structure of the Giants useless. WTF were we doing last week?

Free kicks already 8-2. Looks like nothing ever changes with the pro-Bulldog umpiring bias.

Tonight's just the first in a long series of results we really need to go our way to maximise our chance of finals. Bulldogs have a rubbish percentage so even if we both finish with 12 wins we'll be above them. Need them to lose tonight.

Annoyed about the timing -- we really need them to lose against Adelaide. Now they have an extra motivation to cause an upset.

Nothing to do with form and everything to do with the AFL gifting them an easy draw plus pick 1 in the draft (because they artificially finished last due to having their entire senior list of players banned after becoming convicted drug cheats).

Round 1 is irrelevant at this point, barely worth the comparison. Look at our form over the last 6 weeks. We've chalked up 4 losses and 2 wins against the likes of Carlton and Port -- a team yet to beat anyone in the top 8. That's where we're at going into the next match.

Exactly. Knocking on the door of top 4 all season purely by winning the teams beneath them. They've been very consistent in this regard. Just imagine if we'd done the same AND still managed to get the huge scalps we did? Upsetting.

They've only won twice away from Docklands this year: against Hawthorn in Tasmania and against Fremantle at Domain (two rubbish teams who, unsurprisingly, beat us). Comparatively, we've beaten Adelaide in Adelaide, West Coast at Domain, Gold Coast at Alice, plus Essendon, Dogs & Saints at Docklands. Would be impressive if not for the laundry list of gimme games we've blown. It's rendered all the upsets meaningless. It's all for naught as of next week. Winner stays in the hunt, loser writes their year off. Few would argue which team's heights have been higher, but we have to lie in the bed we've made for ourselves.

Hard to say; they haven't played there once. But just to help you lose some sleep, they played there 3 times last year for 3 wins.

Makes sense. AFL gave Essendon the easiest draw in the competition because they reward clubs who run clandestine drugs programs and use their players as pharmaceutical guinea pigs. The other 3 clubs got harder draws because we finished higher. It's only fair.

I can see exactly what happens next week if we play a Saints team on the march to a fairytale finals campaign for Riewoldt. It would be talked up in the media all week. Their pressure is first class and they have repeatedly shown up our inside game with a predictable outside marking game. They're also in great form, despite losing at the death last week. So yeah, playing against a Saints team with a glimmer of finals hope next week? No thanks! Yeah, MFCSS. This club has given me no reason to think otherwise for months.

If the Saints win today then next week is officially an elimination final. Whoever loses between us is out of finals contention. And you just know how this team responds when the heat is on (cough). I'd rather West Coast win today and knock the filthy Drug Cheats out of the top 8. Also kills off any hope of the Saints making finals, thus having nothing to play for next week.

You just knew as soon as the tanking articles started, North would win one more [censored] game for the year and it would be against us.

Just [censored] infuriating isn't it? No excuses. I'm so [censored] sick of excuses from this club. Once again we have completely [censored] the bed and thrown away certain finals.

So, so disappointing that we've capitulated almost identically to the end of last season. Limping to the finish line once again after having every opportunity to play finals. Will it ever end?

Only Melbourne could [censored] over 16 other clubs and hand the drug cheats a finals position. I feel sick. The only consolation prize now would be Bulldogs beating Brisbane and knocking them back out.

Any team that starts relying on other results to secure a finals position really doesn't deserve to play finals. I've come to terms with that this week. For all the good our upsets against Adelaide and West Coast did, we squandered it with 4 unacceptable losses against North, Fremantle and Hawthorn. Hardly our fault though. I'm not one to make excuses but we've been utterly cruelled by injuries to our most important players all year. The suspensions haven't helped either but they are self inflicted by poor discipline.

Lose today and every match is an elimination final from here. Simply a must win; we can't rely on 12 wins getting us into finals anymore.

I will say -- it'll be interesting to see if we return to consistent form with Hogan back out of the side. He's obviously best 22 but it's hard to deny that, during our strongest patch of the year (Gold Coast to West Coast), neither Gawn or Hogan were in the team.

Methinks Danger's thinking, "maybe I should've stayed with Adelaide for another 2 years before activating free agency..."

We used two first rounders (Oliver and Weideman) in the 2015 draft. We don't need to use any first rounders in a draft until 2019.

I'm guessing their strategy is to put GWS off their kicking game with immense pressure, forcing turnovers and transitioning into attack. Basically what we were doing in the first half of the year before injuries mounted up. Maynard seems to be a high pressure player even if his disposal is iffy.

The media fall over themselves to gush over Bontempelli when he so much as farts. You barely hear a mention about Clarry in the media. Shamefully biased.

Don't understand this either, seems a bit archaic. Maybe to maximize the drama until the last match of the year, in case the top 8 is wide open? Could be the case if West Coast can knock us out of the 8 by defeating Adelaide.