Wiseblood

When will people realise that it's the overall play of the team, and not the matchups down back, that needs to be fixed up? The Dogs got plenty of easy ball and open space for their forwards yesterday, and sticking Dawes down there won't change a thing.

Prior to this year we did happen to trade and draft for Hogan, get Dawes in and also add Pedersen and Frost to the list (although the Frost forward experiment is not working). In terms of our tall backs, hindsight is a wonderful thing. When Roos arrived our backline was seen as a real strength, our midfield had a serious lack of depth. He has corrected the midfield but the defence has taken a slight step backwards, although I think that is more down to the zone defence than a lack of talent. We just need to correct a few things and I think, in time, it will fall into place.

Because he always takes that view with the club. I don't know what he is going to post about when we're up and about.

Hey, joeboy - there are more posters trying to steal your thunder! What gives?

Leave me alone Steve! We're in the final days of one Colin Garland I feel, let me go down swinging...

I was being slightly facetious there Ted, although maybe I went a little hard.

True, I must admit I've forgotten about him jumbo. Will he be effective enough as our second ruck, though?

Ah, Garlo. I can't really defend him all that much, but I didn't realise he was the reason for all of our woes. I expect that, once he is dropped, we'll be premiership favourites, yes?

I've seen a few people say this, and while I don't necessarily disagree, who do we bring in? Regardless of form, Weideman and Hulett aren't ready yet. The Frost experiment has basically failed. So who do we play as that third tall/chop out ruck instead?

I know what an illusion is. You don't know what a delusion is. The saying is 'delusions of grandeur.' Go and look it up if you need to. Whose the clown now?

Look at the Saints today - a young side, heading over to WA... and they get smashed by 100 points. We are in the same boat as them, although I believe we are playing better all round footy. Understand that we will still have days like today. It's going to happen. It's good to see that most supporters can see that this week. We can't fault the effort, just the execution, and the consistency in that execution and the composure under pressure is still to come.

It's delusions. If you're going to troll you could at least look like you know what you're talking about.

Can't fault the effort of the players. They had a dip all day. We were just beaten by a side who ran just that extra bit harder and used the ball better going forward. Some of our younger players, like Hunt, Wagner, Oliver, Harmes and Salem probably didn't give us enough, while some of their younger players did. That's life. We'll learn from it. 5 goals is a fair reflection of the game, really. In terms of our defence, which people seem to be fixated on - remember that our midfield turnovers hurt us in that regard. I agree that it needs tweaking, but it needs pressure up the ground and good ball use to function at it's optimum level. We clearly didn't get that today. One last thing - really pleased with the game from Stretch today. Thought he was excellent. Bring on next week.

Great point 3Dee. It's almost as if we're TOO keen at the some of the contests and just need to read the situation a little better. As some have said, I don't think we can fault the endeavour, we just need to clean up our disposal from here.

Spot on bing, and I said something earlier in the game as well. I know some of our key backs have their limitations, but they're playing a defensive style that requires those guys further up the ground to do their job too, something they aren't doing enough of at the minute.

We're still in it. We've made lots of mistakes and not played our best footy... but we're still in it. Plenty of players out there who can lift for us, namely Gawn, Watts and Garlett (10 disposals between the 3 of them) and we have shown that we CAN defend and work hard. It's up to us now. If we're within 3 goals at the end of the third quarter I believe we can run over the top of them.

What is wrong with our supporters? Rubbish thread, Stigga.

Yep, and it's amazing what a little extra work rate and pressure can do. The challenge is to keep it up and not allow them a few easy goals to undo the good work.

Due to another turnover at half forward too. But again, I get what you're saying. We need to lift, and quickly.

I agree with that, although the zone defence also relies on good ball use and pressure further up the ground as well. We haven't come close to providing that as yet. When we do, it works. When we don't... well, we can see what happens.

Poor post, Chook. You're better than that.

Their back line has been tremendous. We aren't playing all that badly, they're just using it much better going forward. Our turnovers going forward are killing us. Easy to blame the back line, but when you allow them to get over that zone too easily there isn't much we can do. We just need to fix that up, get some scoreboard pressure going and we'll be right in it.

We don't even trust them, so it's hard to ask the punters to trust them as well.

I think this game will be won by whose 'bottom four' stands up the most. For us, it's guys like Stretch, Hunt, Michie, Wagner - if they can play their roles really well today, beat their opponent and give us some drive from the back half and through the middle, then we go a long way to winning this game of footy. Big Max SHOULD give our players first use as they really don't have a proper ruckman in their side, and Max should monster Roughhead, but we need to be disciplined in our use of the ball and not allow them to run it out easily from half back. If we do that then we are in loads of trouble. I'm feeling good about today's game, though. Would love to see us to 5-3, which would be an excellent sign that we have truly turned the corner.

The one saving grace is that we play the Lions at the G. I'd be a nervous wreck if it was being played at Etihad.