TeamPlayedFine39

And that people try to draw too many conclusions from one or two games.

IMHO Jones is a very good captain of the side, for further proof of this, dig up the threads that follow many of our wins. When we're firing, Jones is praised, when we're playing poorly, he cops it. Which, to an extent, is fair enough; he's the Captain of the team and the buck for onfield leadership stops with him. The issue for me is that Jones, Vince and McDonald are terribly, terribly out of form. Great players, playing badly. Jones and Vince are not impacting off halfback and they are struggling to impose themselves when they are playing in the midfield. McDonald, another onfield leader, has some far more obvious and visible blunders. Until these three find form, following interrupted preseasons, we will struggle.

You've bumped 2 Jimmy Toumpas threads to give yourself a pat on the back... how's life under the bridge??

Great debut and looks like he'll be a great player. Staggering that a talent like that was almost missed!

Showdowns are great matches, nothing shocking about that being televised. Chanel 7 will unfortunately miss a record breaking game when we beat the Bombers by (literally) a buzzillion points. That'll be a shame.

I'd like to think we're above stunts, protests and symbolic gestures. We finally have a team that can do the talking out in the field; and that's the only talk that interests me next weekend. Were better than them on and off the field, if they wanna worship some sporting criminals and draw further attention to the most shameful chapter in their club's history. We're above them and, despite the professional era we're living in, we should uphold sportsmanship. Let them march and clap unhindered, I wanna see them smashed on the field.

So now when a player plays an off game with start a thread for him to be dropped?? Why couldn't this op just be added to any number of other friends devoted to preview and changes for next week?? Glad we didn't drop Tom McDonald after that atrocious thread.

Great thread! Thanks everyone who's reported. This has certainly put the Good in my Friday!

Players and coaches have been going on all preseason about the increased competition for spots and improved depth making us a better team. What's the point of having competition for spots if you're not going to pick and drop players the 'fans' like. The way Demonland has melted down you'd think we'd dropped Ablett and replaced him with Jason Daniels.

Port Adelaide Sydney West Coast Western Bulldogs Hawthorn Geelong Collingwood Fremantle Brownlow: Ablett Coleman: Kennedy Rising Star: Oliver Recruit of the Year: Dixon

Perhaps, and I certainly have been proven wrong. However it's worth noting that at first Bernie was against the trade to Melbourne. It was only when he was told he wouldn't be offered a new contract with Adelaide that he decided to leave. They were of the opinion that he was finished.

I honestly thought we were bringing in Colin Syliva 2.0 when we traded for Bernie. He's obviously worked very hard on correcting his onfield issues which saw him wasting his career over in Adelaide, and has become a talented, tough, committed and consistent AFL footballer. Love 'im!

It's petty, it irrational, it's unhealthy and its no longer relevant... But I still despise that little rat. Yes we were well compensated, yes he's a bust as a player, and yes, the money was good. But... I just can't help it.

Petracca's appaently been looking very good for weeks. Almost get the feeling the club is really rubbing it in to him that he's missing out on playing after the missed dunk. Hopefully he'll find being held up a huge motivation going forward.

And here we have the injury list from the AFL official site. Something that we're all aware of, but is beautiful to actually see for the first time in two years... No Jack Trengove. Go Trenners!

Thanks for organising! Havent joined a tipping com in 10 years!

I believe Roos was asked specifically about Oscar McDonald as there was a match report from the weekend that had him listed in the best. I would be very surprised to see him lining up on the weekend.

I wouldn't think that Harmes is a small forward in the mould of Garlett; I would put him in the same category as Kent - a high half-forward, even wingman. Kennedy too for that matter spent plenty of time up the ground in the NAB and at Collingwood.

No time like the present... FB: JETTA DUNN GARLAND HB: LUMUMBA MCDONALD SALEM C: VINCE JONES HARMES HF: WATTS FROST VDB FF: GARLETT HOGAN KENT Fol: GAWN VINEY TYSON Int: BRAYSHAW OLIVER BUGG KENNEDY Had Pederson in there, but opted for Harmes instead as, in the past, GWS have run us off our feet. With them missing some talls, we need to ensure we have the foot-speed to match them.

I'm a football optimist and I am not overly confident going into this match. I am however very interested to see how GWS come out to play this weekend. Cast our minds back 365 day and we were coming up against the Gold Coast who, at the time, were widely tipped to take part in their first finals campaign. We all saw what happened that day and for the remainder of the year for the Suns. This time it's the GWS who carry the weight of expectation into this game. Arguably, up until this season, there has not been the expectation placed on that team to win games and contend for the finals. That has certainly changed and it will be interesting to see how they transition from the hunter to the hunted. Teams will be primed to play them now, the tapes have been thoroughly studied, and they are going to go into most of their matches as early favourites. This pressure and expectations can do funny things to a team, especially if it's the first time that such a young team has encountered it. Melbourne is not at that stage yet; the football community is not looking to us to set the world on fire this year. Hopefully we can correct this by doing just that.

The irony of course being that when the 'ring of steel' was first implemented (for the boxing day test) it caused a massive cue and backlog of thousands of people. Lumping a massive crowd of people together pressed up against a fence is kinda what a terrorist is looking for.

Thanks for the updates! Gus sounds like he's a level above.

Like it. Have liked every element of the rebranding of the club, including the inclusions of the women's team.

Agreed- there's a real x-factor in Harmes. He's quick, aggressive, confident, and backs himself in. He's got a very high ceiling imho.