Wiseblood

Of course not, nor am I saying it should be.

We were favourites. We're still better as the underdogs.

So theoretically we should have laid 150 of them?

One thing that I think has gone a little un-noticed, and has been a large key to our success so far this year, has been our terrific spread of goal kickers this season. At the moment we have these players in double figures: Jeff Garlett - 37 Christian Petracca - 23 Tom McDonald - 22 Jack Watts - 20 Mitch Hannan - 19 Jesse Hogan - 14 Jake Melksham - 13 Nathan Jones - 10 James Harmes - 10 Alex Neal-Bullen - 10 One positive that has come out of a year without having Hogan for large parts and missing Watts for a month is that we've had to adapt and learn to find other avenues to goal. Mitch Hannan, outside of a very quiet day yesterday, has been a great acquisition to our side and we've been getting more out of our high half forwards as well. The challenge we now face is being able to learn to play smart, offensive football with Jesse in our side. Some of our best football this year has been without him in the side (Crows at AAMI, Eagles at Domain) and we need to make sure we are not just trying to bomb it on his head all the time. Regardless, it's terrific that we've been able to see this improvement and it certainly holds us in good stead for the years to come.

This is what it is to me, regardless of how simple it sounds. Everyone else can over analyse, but to me this is what it is. We put in a shocker yesterday, but every club has them. It's not as if we're having them more than others. The 'unbelievably good footy side' comment was a little tongue in cheek, but my point stands. If we can have a shocker and still be within a kick then we will go okay for the next 4-5 years.

All that tells me is we are an unbelievably good footy side when we get it right. To have next to no positives out of a game, as it seems you have taken none, and only lose by 4 points to a team that plays the ground and conditions regularly tells me that we have much to look forward to as a club. We all see things differently.

We missed a few, but I also think some are overplaying it due to the result. If we had laid 50 tackles, then I'd be concerned. But we had more of the footy and only laid three less tackles, which is proof we can stick them and that we stick them often. If we didn't then we wouldn't be in the eight.

We still had 75 of them yesterday and had more of the footy. We miss a few, as any team does, but I think we're just looking for something to cry about.

The boys like a challenge. Next week in Canberra against GW$ is one of those and I'm backing us in to respond with a win. That could be blind faith, but I just have a feeling that we'll come to play and our contested and physical game style can put the boys in orange off their game. Yesterday was a tough pill to swallow, as I'd much rather us be in a position where we need to win 2 of our next 4 rather than 3 of our next 4. The only bonus was seeing St. Kilda and Sydney lose, and we know one of Essendon and the Dogs will lose today as well.

And because I love a positive: I think it's become very clear, if it hasn't already, that we probably have the best young player under 21 on our list in Clayton Oliver. Look at these for stats from a kid of 20 years of age: 33 touches, 12 tackles, 26 contested possessions, 12 clearances and 1 goal. The crazy thing is that he is doing this most weeks. This kid let's his football do the talking, and while he is still learning to mature and will have his moments, his year has been unbelievable for a kid of his age and I'm so stoked we have him at our club. I feel as though he is already one of, if not the, best players to walk through our doors in a very long time.

Blundstone sucks, we didn't handle the conditions well and we allowed North to dictate the play. We'll continue to learn from it. For us at the moment we need our bottom six helping out, and we didn't get that at all yesterday. Hannan didn't register a kick, while guys like Trengove, Melksham (he did snag 2 goals) and ANB didn't impact the contest often enough to give us that edge. We need to win 3 of our last 4 from here, and we can most certainly do that.

It's easy as 1-2-3. Sorry.

I'll be watching my brother play footy today, so in lieu of being part of the gameday thread I'd just like to make this clear for the afternoon: I hate North.

Chuck on some Gorgoroth while you chop that wood so you can be extra grim.

I've gone from being nervous, to feeling okay and now to feeling confident of a win this morning. We will get the job done This is in stark contrast to previous years where I would be crapping myself all week and praying we don't get flogged by too much.

I'm being simplistic in my view, but we just need to keep winning and forget about the rest. We can win every game from here to the finals and if we do that then our position takes care of itself. Having said that, seeing a few underdogs get up this weekend will be nice to watch.

Did you think of that all by yourself?

This makes the most sense, IF they want to manage him. It also looks like Maynard is waiting in the wings as well if we need some extra re-inforcement around the contest. But I'm banking on Oliver playing out the remaining 5 games.

Yep, that's fair. I forget that sometimes. I'm certainly not against getting him, just interested to see where people think he fits in our side.

Serious question about Zac and I'll preface this by saying that I really like him as a player. If we went after him and got him, who does he replace in our best 22? I feel like our best 22 is a very, very good side that would be hard for some to get into. They seem to have been playing him off half back and through the wings, so it will be interesting to see where he fits within our side if we are able to get him. I just hope we don't offer up too much in return.

I was nervous about this game a few days ago but I feel bad about that. We've come along way this year and this is the sort of game we are winning now. We've got our forward line back and playing well, our midfield is almost back to full strength and our backline has been terrific. If we play the style of footy we played last weekend and played during our great run of wins then we should have no problem accounting for this mob. They are out of the finals race and have nothing to play for.

You get the feeling that Norf aren't exactly trying to rush these blokes back into the side. Scott said last weekend that Tarrant would definitely play this week and now it's looking as though he won't.

Won't play. Sorry to disappoint you, Clint.

Jake Spencer for Jake Lever and their first round pick. Over to you Josh Mahoney.

True on both counts TPF, and I certainly wasn't trying to make out in my initial post that anyone who questioned the decision was a 'keyboard warrior'. I just think this is proof that some things need time and we can't be so quick to judge. Some things happen overnight, others take months. This decision was one of them.