Wiseblood

If there was nothing illegal about what they did, then Jonas wouldn't have got a fine, you absolute knucklehead.

@stevethemanjordan spot on with his memory. I felt sick watching it, though.

A match made in heaven.

So a giggle at training should see a 500 push up punishment for the player in question? Seems reasonable.

I'd actually love an @dazzledavey36 training report that mirrored his emotions from a game day thread. Someone like Billy Stretch misses a target and he can go off his rocker, then Clayton Oliver beats three players to a ground ball and he declares him the greatest player of all time... and so on. It would be bloody brilliant. Get down there, dazzle. Training needs you!

It's a massive challenge no matter where our form, or their form, is at. Outside of the final game of the 2016 season, we've played at Geelong relatively well, and our gameplan seems to translate to the smaller ground without issue. I'm confident that we'll be super competitive, and put up a much better fight than on the weekend, but can we win? I think we can, but doing so at Geelong is a massive achievement.

We really are living in the age where we overanalyse absolutely every aspect of the club that we can. I have no idea why people place so much credence in some of the things coaches say. They're trying to get through it without saying anything controversial, and much of what they say to the media is likely to be different to what they say behind closed doors to the players.

The first sentence is blasphemy!! As for the second - you could have a thread on anything and he'll do a best 22. Jaguar is our new sponsor, so who are the next best 22 we could have as a sponsor? No runners anymore? What are the best 22 ways we can send messages out during a game? It could do on forever.

I know it's not really the thread for it, but I'll be interested to see what Goodwin decides to do once Lever is ready to return. Last year, when we had Lever, Frost and O Mac available, we only played Lever and Oscar around a mixture of Hibberd, Jetta, Salem, Lewis and Vince. Frost was fully fit, yet he was stuck at Casey. There is a big part of me that thinks we may do the same again and just got with May and Lever as our key backs (May to take the best forward, Lever the next best) with guys like Hibberd and Jetta to potentially take the third tall and their best small forward. It worked pretty well for us last year. That's just my take, though. That could easily change, but past selection hints otherwise.

I don't see why people need to label other people's support, or non support, of our players as 'pathetic'. I also don't see why people need to label footballers as 'terrible'. Clearly, they have skills that have allowed them to make it to this level. If it eventuates that they aren't up to it, then that's okay. They're not 'pathetic' or 'terrible'. They just didn't make it at this level. While I believe that O Mac will eventually be pushed out of the side, I think it will be more to do with how we want to play as a side, and the fact that Jetta or Hibberd may play that third tall role beside May and Lever. It's not a knock on O Mac, just the way I see it.

I loved Clint Bizzell. He got every ounce of ability out of himself and gave 100% every week. I still remember the game saving smother against the Dogs when he had a broken hand. Didn't flinch for a second, just jumped in there for the smother for the team. Brilliant stuff.

I mean, it's good for him, but I couldn't give a stuff. He's a Freo player now.

2030, at the latest. Love to know our future side in 12 years time. I wonder if Nathan Jones will go around again?

They also only took the stat from 2010. They've done that deliberately to make things seem worse than they are.

To be fair, Vanders punched someone in the stomach in the Lions game and only got a fine for it.

Of course. I'm not saying it won't happen, but we only ever seem to go with two tall backs. Even last year, when Frost was available, we didn't play him with Lever or Oscar (not from memory anyway.) Even the previous week (against the Crows in 2018) it was the same - Oscar and Lever, with Hibberd, Jetta, Lewis and Vince. My money is on that being the same, with May and Lever, by mid year. But as you say, time will tell.

Big call, mate, When Lever was fit last year we only played two tall backs, which was Lever and O Mac. In the game against the Dogs, for example, we had Jetta, Hibberd and Lewis down back with Gus as well (which obviously changed as the year went on.) Whose to say that, when Lever is fit again, they won't go with May and Lever, with Hibberd, Jetta, Lewis and, say, Salem, as the other guys down back? It's a huge call to suggest Oscar is a lock for the rest of his career based on the, admittedly small, sample size we've seen from last year. Agree that he is ahead of Frost, though.

Do I? Thanks for telling me what I think.

Expectation for us would definitely be to at least make a Grand Final, especially after last year. It doesn't hurt to continue to make the finals, though. I'm not saying I'd be satisfied by that, but all the indications are that with the pre-season we've had, we might take time to get going, and thus we may not finish high enough on the ladder (say, finish 7-8) to have a real tilt at it this year.

Well, to make THE final, we need to make the finals first.

If they weren't depth players, then we wouldn't have gone so hard at recruiting Lever and May.

I've defended both, but Frost and O Mac are clearly depth players for us. Are they going to improve beyond their current capabilities? Probably not. But they are handy depth players.

I can understand the reactions - I think we were all going in to this game thinking we would win, and to lose the way we did was a let down. Higher finishes and a better list means the expectations rise and, therefore, losses like this one are analysed more harshly. I think we'll be right. It just might take us some time to get there.

Not much in that. We've come back from 0-3 before and made finals, so losing this weekend doesn't worry me in the slightest (unless we lose very badly).

Love the positivity, GC. Back in '06 we started off the year 0-3 and then went on to win 11 of our next 12. A few early losses doesn't confine us to the bottom 10. As you say, we could easily go 3-1 if we get back to playing the Melbourne way.