Wiseblood

I also noticed him taking the final mark on the siren to seal the victory, as well as winning a contested ball that got it inside 50 which eventually lead to the match winning goal. I guess we see what we want to see.

We have had a heap of players recently state they love the club and then signed on. You might be cynical about it, but we have a pretty good track record recently of players following through with their intention to re-sign with the club.

Not every player has to be painted with the Tom Scully brush.

Carey was just joking. All three players he named were originally GWS players before coming to us. SOS loves picking up GWS rejects so he joked they could trade the number 1 pick for all three.

I know. I'm as surprised as you are that SWYL has finally matured in his views.

He copped a pretty bad hammy from memory and it looks like they're set to rush him back into the side. Let them do it. When he breaks down early in the second term they'll only have themselves to blame.

He'll be linked to them until he re-signs because of his brothers. I don't really think there is much more in it than that.

He probably won't be bothered, but I reckon he would have a case. What he did was no worse than the pushing, shoving and blocking that would go on around the stoppages during a game. Or he could ask Michael Walters to pay it, as had he hit someone else who doesn't have a pea heart it wouldn't have even been a 50 metre penalty.

You're spot on here, mate. Not only that but the 50 metre penalty was a soft as they come with Walters going down like he'd been shot. Lewis is doing far more positive than negative for our side and there's simply no chance he gets dropped.

Great stuff. He should almost be a lock for AA selection now, although Grundy is breathing down his neck and he has the added advantage of playing for a Collingwood side in top form. Does anyone think Gawny is a smokey for the Brownlow, or will he struggle to poll votes?

I stand corrected. The Herald Sun live update said he was charged with misconduct against Lachie Neale, not Walters. They must have got that one mixed up with Hogan.

Yes, he was fined for something he did to Lachie Neale, not Michael Walters. Same for Jones. Neale must have done something to get under their skin during the game.

Are we talking about the elbow that was so bad he wasn't even cited for it by the match review panel? Going by your punishments, Hogan should have been given the electric chair for his hit on Sam Rowe last year.

I can recall a few years ago we played Hawthorn in the wet and we bemoaned our lack of ability to just hack the ball forward at all costs. We played too cute, while the Hawks had smart players who, in 50/50 situations, just kicked the ball forward off the ground to gain ground for their side. Now, we have Lewis doing the same thing many of us asked for a few years back, and we're potting him for it. Okay, he missed one, but he also connected with a couple as he tried to play the percentages in those 50/50 contests - instead of risking it with the slippery ball, he tried to simply get it forward to give us a chance and to keep it out of their forward half. I don't see what's wrong with that. If he was doing it on a day with perfect conditions then yes, it's very lazy footy. But not when the ball is as slippery as it was. He was attempting to do the right thing, even if it didn't always come off.

True. Saty will tell you that until he is blue in the face. Your opinion can be wrong, though, and it's not as if Gaff has been up and down this year. He's having a sensational year and everyone, bar one, agrees. It just seems as though he's sticking to his opinion out of stubbornness more so than actually believing Gaff is nothing but an accumulator. That, plus he also lied a few times when he said Gaff had never won a B&F, then when he was corrected on that claimed that he has Eagles supporter friends who didn't rate him that highly the year he won it... which made no sense considering he said he'd never won one. He hasn't exactly covered himself in glory on this topic.

Yeah, how dare he rack up important touches and hit targets further down the field. Just the player we don't need... On a serious note, there was piece of play in that third term that summed up how good he is. He got the ball on the half back flank, ran and took two bounces before hitting up Cripps 50 metres away to help set up a goal. It was great to watch. He would look superb in the red and blue.

To be fair, we'd just been rolled by the Crows quite easily, so it wasn't as much of a surprise to see that many changes. Take out the injuries and it's three changes, which you could theoretically see happening next weekend although I'm not convinced we'll make more than one or two.

I'm with you, Trav. As much as I feel dirty for saying it, the Pies winning today is good for us. The Eagles doing the same will also come in handy as I think both are pretty much assured a Top 4 spot and we won't catch them. Having the Bombers and Giants drop games on a weekend we win one is important.

While it's hard to gauge against a side like Freo, I think the midfield have been able to work out the clearance issues we were having a few weeks ago. Last night we won the clearances 42-28, but this time it felt as though we weren't getting in each others way as much. It felt as though we spread much better, giving us an outlet handpass that we could then use to run out of the stoppage. It did help that Gawn was able to dominate Darcy and Apeness, but it seems as though we're working far better in there than previous weeks.

Possibly, but has he been given enough chances over the years? I think the FD have made up their mind on him as I don't recall JKH even being named as an emergency this year. He did play well on the weekend but I struggle to see a way for him to play senior footy for us again.

I don't share the fear either mate, and I am hopeful that this stint at Casey will galvanise him to the point that he is constantly chasing, harrassing and pressuring the opposition as much as possible. I feel like he is only a game or two away from really getting back to some good form and he can still be a real X-factor type player for us over this final part of the season.

First two lines are fluff. He is generally pretty good regardless of the opposition. And I rarely see Lewis panic with the ball in hand. He isn't quick and he should keep his feet a little more often, but panic isn't something I see him do. The 50 metre penalty shouldn't have been given. Any player with more than pea heart would have kept on running. Walters, however, milked it and suck the umpire in. Your thoughts on his performance on irrelevant to me now. You're so fixated on potting the bloke that it overtakes any form of rational thought on the matter.

Fritsch looking tired? What game were you watching joeboy? The bloke had 25 touches and got better as the game wore on. Who was ANB tagging by the way? Generally agree with the rest, but the Fritsch one is a shocker.

Outside of the 50 metre penalty, which had Walters going down as if he was smashed by a battering ram, I though Lewis did his job well tonight. He was part of a backline that dominated and he played his role with minimal fuss.

I see this as the logical change for next week. Smith just seems off the pace and Bernie can play for us all over the ground. Hard to make too many changes outside of that. Reckon ANB survives for another week.