Wiseblood

Don't understand the hate on Dawes. Bloke had a dislocated finger and looked like the English Patient for most of the second half, and the moment Frost was injured he was asked to do some rucking around the ground. Plus it [censored] with rain for the second half. We are so quick to bag him but he gives a contest each and every week. Terrific effort from the boys today. Adelaide are a side that have looked sensational two weeks running and we went with them all day. Apart for some poor kicking for goal we matched them in all areas. Watts deserves a bit of harsh criticism today. That dropped mark led to 2 goals in 30 seconds in the first term - if we hold them we go into the first term break 2 goals up. All in all though we were fantastic and I can't fault the effort for one second. McDonald awesome, Hogan and Brayshaw are the future and we are a better side all round. Bring on the Tigers.

I asked my 5 year old nephew how much we would win by - he said 100 and thousand points. I'm going with that.

It had to be our turn for an injury this season. Every other team has seemingly had multiple injury concerns while we've been pretty much unscathed. Not much we can do about it, hopefully someone else takes the reigns and steps up in his absence.

It will almost fly in the face of the norm if that occurs - after a win we made 2 changes, after a loss we make none. For the record I agree with you, and if there is a change I think Grimes will be the one to earn a call up.

What happens if we play like we did in Round 1? You seem to be forgetting that, while the second half of the last game stunk, we have shown we can play some very, very good footy.

Won't happen. We'll have a real crack this week and get within at least 6 goals.

Bailey was an innovator alright - he may have overseen some exciting, attacking football, but he also oversaw some of the worst defeats in our history and allowed the players far too much leverage in terms of how they trained. I liked Bails but he is hardly what I would call 'innovative'.

That first line is spot on P-man. How many of us out there were predicting we wouldn't win our first 7-8 matches for the year? Instead we have come out and played 6 terrific quarters - it's just a shame the other 2 were very, very poor. I think we will bounce back from that this week and show it was an aberration - I'm not suggesting we'll win but, as you say, we have a very good recent record at the ground and I'm banking on the players coming out and making amends for the capitulation last weekend.

True, but history suggests that more often than not it goes to a player from a winning side.

If Frost were to play back I feel as though he would be better suited to Jenkins. Tex likes it on the lead and, with the form he is in, McDonald gets first crack.

This whole post annoys me no end. After one loss we are already lowering ourselves to dumping players and talking about the offseason. Absolutely ridiculous. Some people are acting like the world has caved in. Last week we couldn't stop praising the side, and now we are potting them and even trying to imply they don't play for the jumper. They certainly looked mighty proud of the jumper last week.

I don't buy the idea that there is no pride in the jumper for a second. It's a cheap shot at the players. We lacked leadership and the ability to stop GWS at critical times in the game, but a lack of commitment to the jumper? Just not true.

If you want to look 'quick' then you need players with high levels of footy IQ. At the moment we don't have enough.

Clark was rubbish, Chip does an arm injury and is subbed off.... don't like to see injuries to any player but it hasn't been a good day for either of these guys.

And it's glorious. I can't stand the Cats.

That might be the go for us. There are plenty of ruckmen who have been given a second chance - Mumford, Jacobs, Martin etc who have flourished with further opportunities. Trading for one might be the way to go for us.

The top 7 or so possession winners on the field were all GWS midfielders. I think that tells us all we need to know. When the going got tough we didn't have anyone stand up and their midfielders smashed us. For that reason I think we can give the backline and the forwardline a pass for this game. Our backs were under constant pressure while our forwards didn't get the opportunity to put their hands on it enough to have an influence, particularly after half time. I have confidence that this will be addressed in the coming weeks in terms of our midfield, but it just goes to show how far we will have to come.

I don't think that's what Chook was trying to say - more that we need to look at what is currently working and come up with a way to stop that, which would mean we ARE doing something different. It's easier said than done of course, but a good way of looking at it.

Vince had 2 good games in the magoos and is in our best 22. He may have been brought back a week early but the vast majority of us were happy for him to play this week. He looked short of a run but he'll get better with games. Maybe having an extra one at Casey might have been more beneficial but I think it's harsh to say he didn't fight his way into the side. Dawes is the funny one in all of this. I think he gets a little unfairly maligned, as there were far worse than him out there today. A forward is dependent on the delivery he gets from the midfield, which after about the 15 minute mark of the second term was non-existant. We have other things to work on before we cast our gaze on Dawes.

Rubbish.... Neeld innovated a whole new level of shite in 2013. No-one will ever do it better.

And added to this was the ease with which GWS were able to transition the ball from defence, particularly in the second half. We can't pin the loss on only this, but our forward line pressure last week was terrific and we just missed that extra small player buzzing around down there to create a little havoc. After quarter time we certainly went back to our old style of play, but we'll get better with that over the coming weeks.

This is all that needs to be said. We went too tall this week. Bringing Dawes in was okay, but at the expense of a small like JKH wasn't the right move.

All the talk during the week, in terms of changes, was that Dawes was a monty to come in at the expense of a small. Some, including myself, weren't that keen on the change as there was the potential for disrupting the set up that we had last week. While it certainly isn't all to blame I think we made an error at the selection table this week. We went too tall against a side that loves to run and we got found out a little bit. Obviously swapping someone like Frost for JKH isn't going to turn things around by 8 goals but I think we went with too many tall players and it hurt us.

And he loves to duck the head and drop the knees looking for free kicks does Toby Greene. Annoys the hell out of me.

Bit harsh I would have thought. The last half of the second quarter was ordinary but we've dominated them up to that point. Half time came at the right time for us and we can reboot and reload for the second half.