SaberFang

And also allow him to get re-acquainted against the best competition in the league. No point debuting him against Collingwood who will probably be softer than Hawthorn.

I'd feel more confident with Grimes down back than O-Mac at the moment, depending on the oppo forward line.

Perfectly represents the club then, doesn't it?

The coaches also seem to be refusing to budge on the gameplan or mix it up from week to week, trying to ingrain it into the players. It's as if the coaches aren't confident about teaching multiple game plans and trying different strategies to suit our opposition. We've been found out the same way against St Kilda, Bulldogs and Port now; why is it so hard to change the gameplan after half time when clearly opposition coaches have worked us out?

If Collingwood play this way in 2 weeks, I shudder to think what will happen. Especially with our diamond defence seemingly found out by such average teams.

Bulldogs are going to water today against a high-pressure Pies, which has come from nowhere after their early season form. Stringer completely invisible. Seems we really are the #1 ranked team for playing average teams into stunning form. On today's form we should've beaten the Bulldogs.

With the state Carlton were in last year, it's pretty depressing really. They're doing it off the back of some very average but very experienced senior players, however. That will almost always trump inexperience. Doing it against Geelong though was certainly something else, though we managed the same feat last year in much more impressive circumstances.

They have Lions next week, we have Hawthorn. If the results are as expected, they will be above us on the ladder. Then they have St Kilda the week after while we face a resurgent Magpies. We could easily be 5-7 at the bye and they could be 7-5, depressingly enough.

Will be interesting to see if Geelong really are exposed as pretenders. They looked seriously average for huge portions of 2015 and decided to take the top-up route with Danger, Smith and Henderson (ala North Melbourne). A good plan for the short-term but can fall apart pretty quickly. Who is part of the Cats' youth that stands up once the older crew drop off? I don't really want Carlton to be 5-5 because they'll jump us on the ladder in short order. But Bolton needs to be seriously commended for what he's achieving with that list. He clearly has total buy-in from every player and it shows.

This year strikes me as Roos just getting games into the kids and soaking up the flat week every 2-3 games as "failures at the selection table." We are very inconsistent but it does form a pattern. We were mediocre against GWS and Essendon, then up for the following 3 weeks (North, Coll, Rich), then down against the Saints, then up against the Suns, mediocre for the Dogs, up for Lions, down for Port. There's a pattern of inconsistency that's perfectly common with younger teams. Teams like Hawthorn can carry one or two kids because the senior players will compensate for any deficiencies; we simply can't do this because our players don't have enough experiences to make up for others being flat. Nonetheless, we really should be doing a better job rotating players through the 2's and giving them a rest every 2-3 games, but I understand Roos' reluctance to pull the trigger when the team is demolishing the opposition by 60+ points every few weeks. Probably sends a bad message to a developing team.

We haven't won a single game in the NT or the week after playing in the NT, in the history of this deal. Yet both Port and West Coast backed up NT wins last year the following round, so it's not impossible. Just for us!

Suddenly you can't read too much into Collingwood's surprise win over Geelong last week. Or... Carlton are just better than anyone expected? They win today (still unlikely with 2 players down with injury) and we're equal wins on the ladder. Frightening.

The selection committee comments are fairly mindboggling. We're only a few weeks since that St Kilda debacle where we decided to leave the team mostly unchanged after a 5.5 day break between matches. Now we have a 6 day break with interstate travel and only make 2 changes. We're a young list, we need to rotate players through the 2s and carefully monitor their training habits. We are having the same on-on-off patches routinely this year; how many times do we need to suffer embarrassing, flat losses before the coaches act on it?

You're right! 5th and 6th and 7th gamers should really know better against an inexperienced basketcase like Port Adelaide.

The wrist-slashing in here is hilarious. Youngest team in the comp, least experienced team in the comp. We are going to lose games that we should win, it's part of the development. Harden up and move on!

I just hope we show up today. If our fast small forwards like Garlett, Kennedy and Kent have another invisible stinker like the Saints match, we'll comfortably lose. We're also certainly pushing the boundaries with such a young team every week, it's going to be inconsistent and you have to understand that means occasional losses to teams that aren't great. Hopefully Jetta is well rested and does a number on Wingard. Hopefully we don't miss Oliver's hands too much, and hopefully our sloppy disposal last week was just a result of playing bad competition. Go Dees!

For us or them?

Why on earth would we waste our time going for Hurley this year when he's a free agent next year? Common sense people.

I'd rather Port played 3 key players under an injury cloud and underdone, than drop them for other players.

North FINALLY found out. About time.

Such a great initiative, especially with neither player an emergency. So great that they flew both up just to connect with great causes like this.

I think the links to Richmond are just clickbait. Every major trade target is always linked to one of the big clubs; it's purely to get eyes on the story. Look at Carlisle last year; he ended up at the Saints but was constantly linked elsewhere.

Would love this to be the week Petracca really explodes onto the scene. He's been building gradually and you just know he's only a few games away from kicking a bag.

Yeah, and only Barry Hall complimented the kid. The others all called it out for what it is. Let's hope the [censored] was watching.

Richmond will fall off a Fremantle sized cliff in a year. No A-graders, no excitement in their list, and no clear development path. Prestia would be a fool to go there for more money, unless he wants to parade in mediocrity for the rest of his career. The youth at the Dees is up there with GWS and the Dogs as the best in the comp. Obviously not in quantity (due to GWS' unrivalled concessions) but in quality.