titan_uranus

After the Essendon game, we have every right to query whether we will win the games we should win. Hopefully, though, the GC win instilled the necessary belief in us that we are actually better than those sides.

Players out of the side (who've played an AFL) game: Brayshaw, Dawes, Dunn, Frost, Grimes, M Jones, Lumumba, OMac, ANB, Newton, Trengove, AVB, Spencer, JKH, Terlich, White. Not bad (and doesn't include the yet-to-debut players or Melksham).

A reminder that we've achieved nothing yet and need to keep winning.

Didn't Sydney have the ball with about 30 seconds left? How did they turn it over? 50 metre kick after the siren too!

Richmond was always going to fight back at some point. At least it was Sydney who copped it.

Struggled to beat Brisbane a fortnight ago, too, plus couldn't shake Essendon in the first half last week. Yet, unfortunately, despite playing in close games, Hawthorn is 6-2 and Sydney could well be 7-1 in 10 minutes. It's an even competition but not yet even enough I don't think.

Or Richmond's, or Collingwood's. That's three wins, IMO, against sides on the "rebound". Notwithstanding what happens tomorrow, no excuses next week.

10 minutes into the second quarter and Brisbane haven't scored. Not just goalless, scoreless. At home. Against Collingwood, who last week lost to Carlton. Football in Queensland is falling apart.

Should keep the pressure on Michie and Stretch (amongst others) to keep themselves involved this week.

Was it TMac who played on him at the G last year? IIRC Stringer was useless all day save for when N Jones kicked it 20 metres backwards in the third quarter and gifted him a goal.

Other than Round 1 last year, we haven't ended a round inside the 8 since Round 14, 2011. Beat the Dogs or lose very narrowly and Port loses to Carlton and we'll break that streak this week.

Dear Lord, this thread has lost the plot. Skuit is 100% all over it: It's two sentences. First, Kent says "I'm out of contract". Then, he talks about how, though there is no external pressure being put on him to perform (because he's out of contract), nonetheless it's in the back of his head and he thinks about it.

Having watched the full replay, I'd say Michie and Stretch are the two frontrunners to make way for whoever is right to come back in. If Salem's ready, I'd put him straight back for Michie. it's hard on Viv for him to keep coming in and going straight out of the side but he got his chance and, unfortunately, didn't take it. Still fumbled, didn't get enough of the ball on a night where it was relatively easy to come by. Harsh, but not his night and Salem takes his spot directly. Stretch would be the next one out IMO, didn't have much impact at all, but it depends on who is fit to take his spot. Dunn might come in to get extra height down back but not sure that's an ideal swap. What evidence? 4-3 with a percentage of 112.7% compared to 2-5 with a percentage of 88.8%. We've both beaten Collingwood and gotten close to North, but we played North at Blundstone (never played there before) whilst they got them at Etihad. We beat GWS, they didn't get close to GWS. Yes, they beat us, but overall I fail to see how the evidence overall establishes they are ahead of us.

To be fair, here's the team that beat them in Round 8: MELBOURNE B Colin Garland, Tom McDonald, Jack Grimes HB Jeremy Howe, Lynden Dunn, Heritier Lumumba C Daniel Cross, Aaron Vandenberg, Matt Jones HF Rohan Bail, Cameron Pedersen, Jack Watts F Jeff Garlett, Jesse Hogan, Jack Fitzpatrick FOL Jake Spencer, Nathan Jones, Bernie Vince I/C Jimmy Toumpas, Angus Brayshaw, Ben Newton SUB Aidan Riley So even more players turned over from the win than from the loss.

Agreed. There's no way you can argue Goldstein runs into Hickey. Hickey's not even in the frame as the umpire gets ready to throw it up. In a desperate attempt to make the contest he charges in from the right of screen, runs at Goldstein, looks at Goldstein, makes body contact with Goldstein to prevent him having his way with the hit out, and then contests the hit out. That's a pretty clear free kick IMO, but no way it could have been a free to Hickey. The deliberate out of bounds rule is a much worse rule right now than the ruck infringement one. It's quickly moving towards a "last touch" rule and that is not how this sport ought to be played or ruled.

Was there something you had to do/have done to be eligible for this promotion? Like sign up a new member or something?

That's probably right, unfortunately. Hopefully Foxtel pays attention to social media and the feedback going around about last night's crew. In 2011 we were 3-3-1, in 2010 we were 3-4. Last time we were 4-3 was 2006.

We've scored 100 points in four of our last five games. First time since Rounds 10-13, 2006.

In 2011, same period where we had the most recent consecutive wins before this year (beat Freo Round 13, Richmond Round 14, lost to the Dogs Round 15, then beat Port round 17 after a bye).

Kennedy had 16 disposals, 9 tackles and kicked 2 goals. Not sure he's really in contention to be dropped.

Good on Foxtel for getting in some new, real commentators. With Channel 7 it's all Bruce, Dennis, Basil and Hamish. No one new. None of them (bar Dennis) are any good.

Great to see us belt an opponent. Clearly they are down (both with injuries and in confidence) but we've faced opponents like that before and not won by 73 points. To kick 24 goals with Hogan and Watts combining for just 1 shows that we are building massive depth. To be +95 in disposals but +8 in tackles indicates superior work rate and effort, too. 22 tackles inside 50 (compared to 5) is also a highlight. Massive test next week. We get "lucky" in some regards to get the Dogs in their first game for the year away from Etihad. 7 weeks in a row for them on the hard surface, with them not playing the G well and, fingers crossed, 30,000+ MFC supporters there. If we bring the right attitude and we limit the clangers we can beat them, I believe that.

Kent and Harmes are interesting ones. Both were utterly appalling against Essendon but picked themselves up for North, Collingwood and Richmond (Kent especially). I've never seen Kent run so hard and work so hard as he did against Collingwood. But both then fell into bad habits against St Kilda. I'm not sure what the problem is. Do they pick and choose when to put in 100%? Are they not fit enough to do it weekly? Did they think the game was won early? Not sure what it is but we can't continue to play players like them who fluctuate from fantastic to abysmal like that.

Just out of interest, where is all this "our defence is appalling" this year coming from? It seems to me that people are looking at one game (St Kilda), the most recent one, and erroneously trying to say that what we showed in that game is indicative of the entire year. It was only the second time this year we've conceded 100, in a season where scoring is well up. We're 10th for points against this year, i.e. mid-table, where most if not all of us think is where we rank this year. To this point last year, we had conceded 527 points, this year it's 592. That's 65 more points, or just under 11 per game. Is that drastic? I don't think so, and when viewed in the context of the increased offensive capabilities of the side (the very thing most on here were hoping to see this year), it makes sense. It's wholly unsurprising that we've conceded more in the aim to score more (if you think that's unacceptable then your expectations are wildly out of proportion). Given our percentage after 6 games last year was 77.6% and this year is 102.2%, clearly the shift to offence is outweighing the losses (if any) to our defence. I really don't think there is some major cause for concern with our defence. Our defensive performance against St Kilda was poor and contributed heavily to our loss, but that doesn't mean there is some underlying problem.

You rival Bring-Back-Powell as the most pessimistic, negative poster on here.