At the break of Gawn

That's true. Ross might throw a curve ball. This week's game is a game I think we just win on sheer talent. The saints just don't have the cattle to go with us.

That's correct. We were the fastest but playing boring, straight-line footy. We're not the fastest anymore but we're the king of changing the angles.

I actually think we'll eclipse the Syd win with an even bigger win against the Saints (who I rate really lowly). The Saints seem to be spiraling big time - perfect time to play them really.

Pretty chuffed with myself that I predicted that this would be our biggest win of the season to-date yesterday morning on the game day thread. The belief in this group is really growing. I actually feel we've got a real level of trust with how we play, which was completely absent in 2024. I get the love for AJ because he's just a competitive beast that will scrag and do anything to compete (even with giving away free kicks) but he's probably one of the least skilled AFL players on a list at the moment The opportunity is right there for JvR to jump up and take that spot. I would trust JvR for a shot after the siren on a tight angle, I wouldn't trust AJ from the goal square. I agree with PF on this one. Our best 23 has JvR over AJ.

Melbourne now moved into $1.90 favourites (Swans $1.94). Seems like it took all week to finally move!

I wouldn't be surprised if Darcy Moore gets booed on KBD though.

I actually think this could be out biggest win of the season so far. Syd have improved their game but they can't score and they have some big outs. We'll be full of confidence after last week so I think we'll win easily here. Dees by 41.

How did we lose to North? We should be beating them by 6+ goals later on this season at the G.

Might be a few Collingwood outs for KBD with how things are going.

Coincidentally Petracca's 150th game was against the Swans. Which game you ask? The qualifying final in 2022 when he fractured his leg and we found out that back to back wasn't likely to happen anymore. Time for pay back. Thankfully this Swans side has half the talent of that side that beat us that night.

I thought McDonald would have been a much better matchup for McLean who troubled us last time. Syd have improved their defensive game by a fair bit. They're the hardest team to move the ball against between the arcs the last 6 weeks and the best ground ball team the last 6 weeks. We need our small forwards to be absolutely on song to beat them. Thankfully the Swans can't score for [censored] so even if we get to 80pts we'll probably win.

Hopefully Goodwin addresses it in his Presser tomorrow.

Out: Sharp, Johnson In: Lever, Viney Turner will be moved forward. He's actually pretty good at ground level and he's in great form. Petty to be back up ruck. Like it or not, we just can't have 4 tall defenders so Turner has to go forward. I'd prefer AJ over Petty in the ruck, but Petty's marking and contest work edges out AJ. I'd put Spargo as the sub as I think Fritta deserves a full game after his efforts.

Still in disbelief that we won that. 10 minutes into that last qtr I kept thinking to myself, I've seen this script before, it's going to be another honourable loss. It was a defensive masterclass and forward half dominance by Melbourne in those last 15 minutes. That will give us so much belief. I'm absolutely pumped for the Swans!

OMac a late out for Bris.

We've just drifted from $5.10 to $5.75 in 30 minutes. Any late outs?

Expecting to see 100% effort, 5 frees against and 0.3 from AJ.

Sydney are trash. Assuming no injuries for us on Sunday, I'll be very disappointed if we lose to them at the MCG given we'd pretty much have a full strength side.

As crazy as it sounds, I think the Lions are gettable. They haven't played good footy all year really. They're almost like us in 2022, good enough to always be in games and some short bursts that can blow away the opposition but their luck is running out. North really should have won last night. Ins: Petty, Melksham Outs: Jefferson, Fritsch Key match-ups I see are: Sparrow on Zorko - I think Sparrow can really influence here. Oliver on Neale Melksham on Andrews Petty on Payne JvR to try and stretch Lester McDonald on Hipwood May on Fort. It may be risky but I think Rivers can probably take Morris which could free up Turner to swing forward if we're struggling aerially.

Just finished watching the replay. We absolutely smashed them in the middle pretty much all day and our defense held up pretty well which is why I think Goody was pretty positive. Our inability to win a contest in our forward 50 is so damning. Petty was really missed I felt same with Melksham. There's no way Goody is playing JvR, Fritsch and Jefferson again in the same team. When Lever is back I honestly think a combo of Petty, Turner and Melksham is probably our best mix for the rest of the year.

Thankfully in the presser Goodwin said that the final qtrs would be a whole club review. To me that indicates that he thinks there's an issue with our high performance team.

I'm glad the media is picking up on this training schedule change too

I know I'm a broken record about this, but surely moving our main training session one day closer to game day so that it's main training, Captain's run, to game day needs to be seriously questioned. Think we're one of the only teams in the league with this same schedule.

The change in the training schedule that came from the review.

Settle down. The only top 8 side they've beaten are the Giants in Tassie. This is a team that got smashed by Port a few weeks ago