Wiseblood

Agree. You were very harsh on Bugg mate, many worse than him.

I agree this week Saber. When things started going south we weren't reactive enough and it got out of hand too quickly. The coaches should have done something to rectify that. The players need to take some blame though, as I'm sure they could have worked harder to close up the gaps and put more pressure on. We allowed them too much easy ball and they certainly worked harder than we did.

You're okay mate, Joeboy does one every week and generally everyone has a crack once that thread is up. No harm done!

Here is the weekly "give Roos the flick" comment when we lose a game. Congrats. You should be very proud.

Laughable.

I see that as a problem with the high press today. The coaches and players are on record as saying we are pushing higher up the ground to force turnovers in our half - it broke down big time today and allowed the Saints way too much space. Full credit to them as it was clearly a plan of theirs and we didn't do enough to stop it.

Bang, bang! Obviously a few were down today - Frost, after kicking a couple, was barely sighted. Hunt was poor as well. Do they make a statement and drop, say, Dean Kent? Is Salem due for a run in the ressies? Any of ANB, Trengove, Grimes and Oliver may get a look in next week.

Someone trying to steal Joeboy's thunder. This should be interesting...

Yes, we don't handle that well. Plus their smaller, quicker midfield/forward types always cut us up. They out pressured us and that allowed them to get past our high press, which is looking for that turnover, and get some easy goals. Our smaller forwards were putrid as well. Kent had a shocker, Garlett went missed and guys like Kennedy aren't having the same influence. If they aren't putting that pressure on and forcing the turnover then we really struggle. We'll be right though. It's not all doom and gloom. We need to understand that these games will still happen and accept it. We know how good we can be, we just need to work on that consistency. Hopefully most posters can see that before they come stomping in here making outrageous claims - the same posters who would have been talking us up just a few days ago.

Oh well. Disappointing loss but we are to expect that with this side until we mature and find that consistency. We are just as likely to come out and roll GC next week. One thing that this game does is show us all that we are still very much a middle of the road side who will win some and lose some. Finals was always out of reach. Hogan is a gun. Those who, in the Hogan thread, tried to make a claim we would be okay without him are kidding themselves. Onwards and upwards boys. There is always next week.

Aaaaaaaaand it's game over.

If we can get it under 20 points going in to 3 qtr time then we're a chance. Anything above 5 goals and it's game over. We've been poor but it doesn't take much to turn it around.

Bulldogs being found out a bit tonight, they lack that big target up forward to kick to. Lots of their entries inside 50 are to small or medium size forwards, North picking them off too easily.

Our balance has looked pretty spot on over the last couple of weeks. And Frost clunked a few on the weekend as well. He may not have a huge impact but he is certainly doing his part.

Earl Spalding. Stoked he gets his debut this week. Smash 'em up Trac!

I think you'll find he did that during a Qualifying Final against Carlton. We won that game. And they can criticise Bugg all they like, but it's wasted breath. What he did means nothing and doesn't even need to be analysed.

Still can't get over how much Carey and the other commentators tried to justify his actions. It was really poor.

I don't know why anyone would have a problem with what he did. So what if he showboated? Big deal. If I were these two 'tossers' I'd be more focused on spending time analysing the dog act that Rance committed and how bad it looks during a time where we are trying to eliminate coward punches like that from society. When compared to that, what Bugg did means nothing.

It's not really. He didn't keep his feet in one contest on a slippery night where many fumbled and fell over under the pressure of the contest. It's not a problem.

Give it a rest, Adam. He brought up the thread to pot the bloke over one, yes ONE, action within the game. There was nothing else to back it up, other than a hollow "he's a great kick" to try and mask the fact that he wanted to knock him. If you want to call a player overrated then at the very least he should be able to back it up. He can't.

So he has one 'poor' effort and he's overrated? Nice logic.

I'd love to see some stats about how much we've lost quarters by, as a part from the first quarter of the North game I wouldn't have thought we would have lost those quarters by much at all.

Jon Ralph won't be happy with that after he continually had a crack at him last night. Should have gotten 10 weeks based on his tweets.

Plenty of season to go before we write the Essendon game down as one that cost us finals.

You don't always have to let them in the door, though. If the seniors are playing well then I'd be telling those guys at Casey to keep playing well so when the opportunity arises they are in the frame for selection. It's not a great message to send to the players that, even if you're playing well, you'll be dropped because someone hit a bit of form at Casey. All those you mentioned above are in the frame but would be lucky to get a gig at the moment, and that's a great place for us to be in. The only player in a bit of danger is Brayshaw. Outside of that we should stick with the same side.