Wiseblood

No, go ahead. Argue all you want. Doesn't change the fact that I hope we win next week so you'll stop going on and on and on about it. And to go with your rhetoric, the opposition we played and the stage of the season mattered little. We sucked and it had nothing to do with Darwin. Back in the day we couldn't even string 2 wins in a row together. But no, you go right ahead and stick with as many negatives as you can. I know you enjoy it as you rarely say anything positive. Give it 18 months and you won't know what to do with yourself.

What was in your coffee, @Danelska? I actually think this forum is far, far better than it used to be a year or two ago. That's what happens when you are winning, though. Everyone is far more positive (generally) and therefore it creates less angst among the supporter case. When you're getting flogged week in, week out it means there is more anger and, therefore, more problems. This joint is far better than it was 12 months ago, no doubt about it.

I think I speak for most, but bloody hell do I hope we win next week so you'll shut up.

Do you have a Demonland 'Bat Phone', Saty? Every time something critical comes up you come out of the woodwork to post about it.

Absolutely. To be fair, Kent and Stretch aren't in the side for their grunt. We still need some run around the footy. We have Oliver, Lewis, Vince, Trac to do some of the grunt work with guys like Harmes, Hannan and ANB spending time in there as well. We don't want an overload of grunt. It will be an interesting team, but with both Watts and Tyson not getting up there may be no change to the side at all this week.

Both of these guys are giving us plenty in the midfield at the moment, especially Petracca. No chance I'd move them out of there for Trengove. For Viney, yes, but not for Trengove.

Who for? Be careful who you swap as well, as suggesting those that play in different positions doesn't constitute a straight swap. I like Trenners but I don't see a spot for him in our side.

So going by your last sentence here you are basing most of your post on assumption? I'll leave it to the club to make these decisions based around recovery. If they feel that they are better suited to the conditions at home then I'll go with that. None of us are really in a position to argue or criticise as we have no idea what is going on.

We'll never know. The plane up to Darwin might have sealed their fates, but then they may have wanted to give them another week regardless so they are cherry ripe to go for the rest of the year. This game won't be the one that costs us a finals spot either.

Goodwin also confirmed that both Watts and Tyson WILL play vs. Port next weekend.

We are every chance to win this weekend. This year has proven it so. It doesn't mean we will win, but we still have every chance to knock them over.

I feel like he's been wrong a few times already this year, so I wouldn't put a whole lot of credence in what he's saying, even if he is pointing out the bleeding obvious.

Can we drag him away from the contest as you suggest with T Mac, or whoever he matches up on. Maybe look to keep Lever as much inside our forward 50 as we can and aim to limit his ability to zone off and impact a contest. Structures don't always allow for that, but I can't see any other way, other than making him as accountable as possible. The one thing in our favour is that our tall forwards are all talented enough to kick a few goals and take plenty of marks - Lever simply may not have the luxury of zoning off as much as usual.

This. They key will be moving it quickly and not allowing them to lock it into their forward line. The moment we allow them to do that is the moment we allow Lever to zone off and pick up easy marks all night long. As long as we have enough at the contest then we should be fine. He isn't going to out muscle Hogan, T Mac or Pedersen.

If we stick to the gameplan, as we've done really well for most of the year, then there's no reason why we can't win this game of footy, even with some key players missing. Tyson and Watts coming back into the side would be a huge bonus, but I feel as though both will miss one more week and play against Port next week at the G. My one concern is their forward line, even though we had them well and truly covered last time around. Walker is in good form and Jenkins is the king of slipping out the back for easy goals. McGovern is also dangerous as a third tall. If we can curb them enough then we go along way to winning the game.

No need to get your knickers in a twist because of the Zaharakis thread.

It's school holidays. Too many kids with little to do.

Yes it is. And trade Hogan? Now I've heard it all.

It became a CP discussion because you brought it up in response to him being 'soft.' You've admitted yourself that you've seen little of him, so why are you pushing it so hard? You'll see that most on here don't want him, that should be answer enough. Compare that to how many people would love to recruit Jake Lever and you get the drift.

Over his last 10 weeks he is averaging 7.7 contested possessions so, no, he is not getting a 'helluva' lot more. As PD says above, he is not the type of player the new Melbourne needs.

Just as I'm sure many of us have seen him play poorly over the years as well. Too inconsistent and brings little to our current midfield.

I want to add as well - if you don't know much about him other than his stats, which you show by asking his he still has his pace, why would you suggest he is worth targeting? It makes little sense to me. It's as if you've seen an article that says he is out of contract and decided he is worth looking at even though you don't know a whole lot about his current abilities outside of how many possessions he averages. Strange.

This off season we should only be looking at players who will either be best 22, or add some depth on the cheap. Zaharakis is neither. We don't need to be looking at players like him.

On the what?

The Blues will chase anything in orange. They can't really develop their own talent all that well, outside of Cripps, so they need to get it from elsewhere.