Wiseblood

Goodwin - "Wattsy and Jeffy could be back next week." Obviously his hammy isn't too bad. Confirmed Hogan is closer to returning as well. The 9 days gives all 3 a chance to play next week.

You're kidding yourself if you think the season is over. Our backs are against the wall, but we've shown the ability to overcome some of those challenges this year. 4 games in 18 days will make it tough for any side. Let's see how the next few weeks pan out for us before we start giving the season away.

Has that been confirmed, or is it just hearsay?

Hold on, are you having a dip at Hibberd? Thought he was one of our best.

Will Corey Maynard be given a run in the guts with Viney injured? Might be worth a look. I'm seeing some say Watts had a setback at training, yet he was interviewed and said he was a big chance to play next weekend. I don't know what to believe.

Was it? Says on the stats sheet it was 6 goals.

I hate to say it, but did Goody make an error in selecting him? Should we have given a JKH, for example, a run and left Hunt down back? No one gets everything right, but it seems the selections backfired on us a little this week. Very easy to say in hindsight, though.

Where was this reported?

Also, it can be argued (as it has by others) that our bottom six players didn't step up at all under the pressure of the game. Harmes, ANB, Stretch, Bugg, White... these guys needed to give us something and they had no influence on the game. It really hurt us, as we needed a few of them to bob up with a few goals and some pressure around the footy. Wagner fumbled a bit tonight but he still found the footy. I thought Melksham did okay in patches. These guys will continue to get games though with the injuries we have so if we want to play finals we need them to step up - quickly.

3 things did us in tonight - a lack of forward pressure, not enough intensity and injuries. I feel as though we could have been more competitive if we had of changed the first two, but we just didn't have it in us. Viney going down at half time snuffed out any hope really and we did well to stay in the game as long as we did. Shows how far this group has come. Now the real challenge begins. I'm proud of the boys tonight but if we're to play finals football then the next few weeks are critical. Even with the injuries we can't drop a game to Carlton, so hopefully we can regain Watts, Hogan and Garlett to give us some extra firepower.

ANB, Harmes, Melksham, Bugg, Stretch... these guys form part of our bottom 6 and they are having zero impact on the contest at the moment. If we are to have any chance of winning then they need to lift in a big, big way.

True, but it's also not working because we can't move the footy quick enough to give him the chance to get out the back and use his pace. The problem is that we can't get it off half back at the minute.

One thing we really need to do to stay in the game is to get our pressure up across half forward. 2 or 3 times this term we've allowed them to run it out too easily, rather than put some pressure on them and keep it down there to give our backline a rest. Swans will kick straight eventually.

Meh. He'll do his time and that will be his punishment. Not angry at him at all, stuff like that happens.

Here comes the usual late goal. I guess they were due, though. We've shown we can more than match it with them.

Agreed. A little luck has helped but it's the mark of a good side. Petracca. I love you, son.

True, but that was right over the top. We're possibly about to kick our third, mark of a good side to weather the storm and respond.

And just like that we're in front! Very, very strange game.

Comment of the night so far from @Gorgoroth - 'welcome back to 2013 footy'. Seriously. I thought he was a half decent poster who wasn't prone to silly posts like that.

Really strange game at the minute. We aren't using it well but we are right back in the contest after starting slowly. I feel like we are the second best side, yet we aren't out of it at all.

This thread is full of absolute rubbish. Keep on keeping on guys.

It's going to be a long day waiting for this game. Pretty pumped and excited to see how we go on the big stage, and even with the injuries I'm positive we will give a great account of ourselves regardless of if we win, lose or draw. One lock tonight - Viney and Oliver to both get 30 touches for the game and lead the charge from the midfield!

Spot on, Chook. Our backline is also pretty settled as well which holds us in good stead. I'm still worried about where the goals will come from, with both Watts and Garlett out we lose our two leading goal kickers for the year, but I have faith that we can hit the scoreboard with enough regularity to keep the pressure on.

No it doesn't.

No it doesn't. And you go ahead and boo your little heart out if it makes you feel better.