Wiseblood

We don't play Meth Coast for a fortnight, which is a further indication that we will take a strong side over there. Watts, Kent, Jetta and Tyson sound as though they'll be fit and ready to go and you would expect all 4 to get back into the side. Who makes way? Players like Harmes, ANB, Johnstone, Bugg etc would all be ones looking over their shoulder, but none of them have necessarily done anything wrong. Tough decisions will be made, but it's great that we have to make them.

Just finished watching the replay. We played some seriously good footy, albeit against a poor Carlton outfit. Blues fans would hope they won't be that bad this year, but they looked out of their depth all day and we did what a good side should - put them to the sword. The one thing I took from this game is that the discussion over who plays over someone else is almost a moot point now. We have depth all over the ground, so if someone like Jetta were to miss Round 1 for someone like Melksham then no one should be disappointed. I'm not saying that will happen, but we have good players all over the ground now and we should have tremendous confidence in the side that is picked. There will be plenty of unlucky players who miss out against the Saints. It's exciting. Our young players look fit, strong and ready to take the next step and they are well supported by the veterans of the side. Melksham and Hibberd add further experience and some class to the side, while our game plan as a whole looks the goods. In the past teams would cut us open on the rebound, but there were many times I noticed that the Blues would rebound to the wing or half forward and end up having nowhere to go as we had cut off all their avenues. That, to me, is one of the big positives. All in all we rolled an average side, but that average side were spanked by a very good side. I can't wait to see this team continue to grow and improve.

Saints look good, no doubt about that, but let's not forget to mention that the Power look like absolute rubbish at the minute. Plus the Saints, as someone else mentioned, get to play their first game at Etihad where there game style always looks good. Wouldn't be reading too much into it at the minute.

What can I say? We bonded over a mutual love for Colin Garland and it prospered from there.

I love it when something goes wrong for a player and supporters almost want to gloat about it because they're right. Why anyone would want to gloat in this regard is beyond me. Hopefully Jack can continue to work hard and get himself in the side for Round 1, as he is clearly best 22.

Good to see them stick with a strong line up, and like others I'd like to see Trengove and Johnstone also get a run at the expense of a few fringe players. Hoping we can get another win on the board.

I noticed 'Carlscum' was changed to 'Carlton'. Nice to see a sense of humour still permeates across this board...

That's a pretty good point, Paul, although I still feel like the club might rest a few this week or next week when we make the trek over to WA. I don't think we'll need to rest too many as we still have a lot of the younger players who make up our best 22, but it wouldn't hurt to manage the loads that Jones, Lewis, Vince etc have going in to the season proper.

Absolutely, Tony. We had a number of players who were fit last week who didn't play against the Dogs and they should be cherry ripe for a run this week. I think we've seen that a close to full strength side is very good, so I see no harm in playing some of the fringe players and taking a potential loss. Now that we know where we stand we can concentrate on getting the players right.

Teams are announced tomorrow - do we go in with a strong side again, or do we look to rest a few players in favour of giving others a run? I'm hopeful of seeing Hibberd and Jetta back in the side this week to show they are over their injuries, but I also think we may rest some of our older players this week (Jones, Vince, Lewis) in favour of getting some further games into the younger legs. Watts to return and kick 10 as well.

Those bad hammies and dodgy knees have kept him in the magoos for a while now.

He hasn't logged on for almost a month - reckon he might have been given an 'enforced' holiday. Mods giving him the Jack Watts treatment.

No you didn't, Moonie - don't you know how selective hearing works?

Maxy didn't talk enough about Jack Viney being promoted to the role of co-captain during this interview, and I read between the lines that Nathan Jones isn't happy and it's causing lots of friction off the field to the point where they won't even go into the showers at the same time. Just my take.

I don't think it's so much that I don't want to believe, more that I want to wait for more facts before I judge. We can be too quick around these parts to hear a rumour and get stuck into a player without waiting for all the facts. All we have is a rumour from one poster and Mitch Cleary saying he is 'hearing things' at AAMI park. It's not exactly a lot to go on.

Hardly. Some posters questioned the validity of the rumour, myself included. He wasn't attacked, but in saying that, when you post a rumour that is not based on anything but hearsay you're likely to get backlash from some.

For those who don't want to click it, it's a short article about what Mitch Cleary has 'heard' coming out of AAMI park. Nothing better than what we've had on here.

Just as he got dropped a few times last year? You must watch a different team. And for the record, I'm a Garlett fan, but he has had his fair share of very quiet games where he has had minimal impact. His best is sensational, his worst is very poor.

Was that a call in or confirmed from the club? Again, not willing to judge if it's still just a rumour that's floating around. The club website mentions that Watts, Hibberd and Jetta are all likely to be available for selection this week. Call me naive but until the club confirms it I'm still of the belief it's a rumour.

Maybe we can get Tooheys back on board now that Brent Grgic is long gone... ?

Not sure Goodwin will be happy with this. Looks like too much fun and we know how much he hates Jack Watts having any form of fun over the pre-season. All 3 to be dropped for half the season.

It feels like one of those rumours where someone has put 2 and 2 together and gotten 5. Nothing in it.

No, I didn't see him play, but it's disappointing to here he didn't have much of an impact. I hope for our sake you're wrong, but there is certainly something amiss.

Pretty disappointing if it's true. If he doesn't play again next week, and there is no explanation, then something is up. Otherwise it may have been down to a slight injury he got in the intra club. Not saying you're wrong, just that I'll reserve any sort of judgement until we know more. I'd like to hope Jack isn't in the doghouse after the strides he has made over the last 12 months.

If he starts coming up the race with a python around his neck, then that nickname is his!