Wiseblood

Wasn't it our win over Sydney back in 2010? Bruce even told us that 'the Dees are going to be something!' It was just the wrong something.

What team matches another mentally for an entire game, every week, for 120 minutes? No team is THAT good. Every team has flat periods in a game, ours have just been a little longer than they should be during some games. The Adelaide game is proof we can do it, while the North game is an example of that inconsistency. Every game is also proof that we aren't pushovers and we will be in every contest.

In the first 2 minutes he had a wobbly shot at goal that was clearly going wide, yet Bruce was riding it home as if it was going to be goal of the year. Cats are a joke. They rely on a couple of players and the rest are average.

Totally disagree, but I'm wasting my time. Ditto for you, too. We aren't pushovers and can match it with anyone.

I can't argue that we should have won more games than we should, but we are no pushovers. If it clicks and we sneak into the finals then I would expect that no side would want to play us. Our win over Adelaide is proof that when we play well we can beat anyone in the comp.

We've been in every game so far this year. True, we've lost a couple we should have won, but we are a threat to every team in the comp when we're on. But to each their own.

True, but it's the quality of the clearances that's in question. Are they sharking it and just chucking it on the boot, or are they able to get a chain of handballs going and get some quality ball use going forward? Their W-L suggests that, while they win plenty of it, they don't do a whole lot with it. Our midfield has been in terrific form in terms of their ability to win clearances so I'm confident we can at least match them in this area on the weekend.

They average 17.5 a game, just ahead of GWS who average 17. We're third though with an average of 14.9 per game, which is brilliant considering we've had no recognised ruckman for almost half of the season so far.

The Suns are the best centre clearance team in the competition, so having Ablett out will help us big time this week. Their midfield isn't all that strong and if we bring the right endeavour and can win our fair share of the clearances as we have in previous weeks, then that will go a long way to helping us win this game of footy.

That's true LH, although one look at their backline suggests that they aren't that tall down there either. North had some quality in that area last week, where as this week we just need to make sure we don't bomb it on May's head. Hopefully this leads to more of the ball hitting the deck, better pressure from our forwards and more opportunities to score.

Kent and Weideman are the right choices as outs. Kent hasn't been good and while we could do with the height, Weideman wasn't giving us much in that department anyway. He rarely takes a mark and wasn't impacting the contest. We are going in small up forward but that's not a bad thing with the conditions. Harmes, ANB and Melksham all give us the extra run which will be handy in the heat.

GAJ was the player I was most worried about. Nice little bonus that he's out.

That's a fair assessment Dom. The problem we face is finding a decent forward who a club is happy to part with. More and more we are seeing clubs shell out big bucks for tall forwards, so we would need to nab one who simply needs to a change of scenery, but even then I'd be worried because if they can't kick goals at one club, why would they do it on a consistent basis at another? One example is Aaron Black - the Cats wanted a bloke to share the load with Hawkins, yet he can barely get a game. He got a fresh start at a new club but nothing has changed. We either need to get a little lucky or put our faith in some younger guys to develop.

It's purely his draft position. The kid can play, but he seems mentally fragile and he ran the moment things got a bit hard. Not the type of player we want or need at the club.

I'd rather Bernie on Ablett. Niggle the little bugger until he cracks.

He's been playing at half forward, so he would be a good choice to play on Harbrow who has been in good form off half back for the Suns.

That depends on his replacement and his response at Casey. It's not as if Harmes and JKH have set the world alight in the small forward role, while others like ANB are far more suited to playing midfield with a short stint at half forward than the other way around. He will get another chance this year but those chances are beginning to wear a little thin. He's just lucky everyone else outside of Garlett are out of form at the minute.

Totally agree. When he came back in to the side a few weeks back I thought it was a positive and that he would make us play better. I couldn't have been more wrong, although he made a few good contributions in the Adelaide win. Outside of that he has been poor and it's frustrating as we know he can play some terrific footy. If he is dropped tonight then he might be out of the side for at least a month and his career is well and truly at the crossroads.

While it won't take them entirely out of the game, the conditions as the sun goes down will be slippery to say the least. It won't be easy marking the footy once half time rolls around. On the flip side of this, if we want to win then we need to limit the ease with which they get the ball forward. I suspect they'll play Frost on Lynch, but Lynch is good enough to kick a few if he gets enough of a chance, so our mids will need to work super hard to limit those chances.

I'm confident of a win in this game. Gold Coast are more fickle than us and we match up on them well. I was nervous going in to last week's game but feeling quite at ease about this one. Hoping to see a couple of changes and the possibility that a tall gets dropped and we go for the extra run in the heat.

No chance that North let him go and, if they did, it would cost an arm and a leg to get there.

Brisbane have given Josh Schache a few weeks leave away from the club amid all of the speculation around his contract. I'm not posting this here because I think we should chase him, more because it's such a shame that contracts and free agency have come to this. His management have brought it on himself a little but shopping him to Vic clubs, but it stinks that a kid who was drafted with such big wraps could struggle so much due to the media interest in his situation. He may not play for the Lions again and while they'll get compensation for him, it stinks that a club can lose such a key plank in their rebuild in just 2 years.

Why would you leave one underachieving club to join another? It makes no sense to me outside of money, but you figure that the Tigers could either match or get very close to any offer that he gets.

@binman - while I'm certainly not one to write off Oscar, as I do a future for him at the club going forward, the stats you brought up about who we can least do without is pretty useless in this regard. There are plenty of horrible players on that list who have played in a few wins that have gotten their names on it, which doesn't give it a whole lot of credibility. Brown kicked 5 on the weekend and some of them weren't down to Oscar like some may make out. There were times where we kicked the ball out from defence, North marked it and then chipped it back in to Brown's advantage. It gives our defenders no chance. He will have his detractors, and I agree with others that we could use another tall defender, but he isn't nearly as bad as some make out.

A little harsh there jnr, although he isn't exactly doing much right at the moment. He's contracted until the end of next year so he has around 18 months to prove himself. Otherwise he's either traded or playing in the local leagues. I'm not ready to write him off just yet, but his output this year has been disappointing to say the least.