titan_uranus

Ah that late goal really hurts. We had a wind that quarter, is it worth 2 goals? More?' Really impressed with our pressure and our ball use but we probably should have one or two more goals than we do.

How about that pick up and left foot kick from Hogan!!

From what I've seen so far, we're really looking good. Fingers crossed we can keep this pressure and ball use right up there.

Don't agree, there's more to Port's form slump than simply a few key midfielders out of form. Shut down their run off half-back and clog the middle of the ground and they struggle to generate meaningful inside 50s. And they didn't 'take it up to Sydney', FWIW. They lost that game by 8 goals and were never in it. Still, as you say, they beat Hawthorn and pushed Fremantle, their best is obviously top 4 material, but right now they're not at that level and the reason why they're not at that level is more complex than a few mids being out of form. He genuinely has no idea about AFL. Geelong are so far off a premiership this year.

Bail and Jones are much better runners than Riley and Newton, and in a horses for courses situation, where Port's run off half-back is just as crucial, if not more, to their success as it is for the Dogs, I understand the decision. Unless they both improve their offensive game this week, there's no guarantee they'll hold their spots (especially with Tyson hopefully ready) against Collingwood the week after, though. I thought Riley did as well as could be asked of a sub last week and I don't like the fact that he was dropped for his efforts but I understand it. I hope he gets his next chance on QBD.

I was going to post the same thing. That's so un-Toumpas-like. To me, that really shows how much more confidence he was playing with on Sunday. Let's hope that rolls on. Riley's tackle was, though, absolute gold.

Have you forgotten this post already: So they are 'twice as good as us' until we beat them, at which point they are a 'team dwelling in the same bottom of the competition as ourselves'. You were either wrong to be so pessimistic about our chances, or wrong to dismiss the value of this win. Or, actually, wrong about both.

If you choose to bump, the onus is on you to not make contact with the head. He definitely chose to bump (i.e. he had other options, he didn't need to lay the bump at all given how far away Jones was from the ball). Once he made that call, it was his job to not hit Jones high. He failed. That's the kind of bump that deserves a suspension. Not the kind where a player is trying to pick the ball up, or doesn't have any other reasonable option, or where the receiving player ducks his head into a tackle. He jumped, he hit him high, that's 3 weeks IMO.

6 - vandenBerg 5 - N Jones 4 - Hogan 3 - Vince 2 - Cross 1 - Pedersen Toumpas, Fitzpatrick, Brayshaw, Spencer all unlucky. This is surely the first game of the year where McDonald isn't clearly in our top 6 (or top 2, to be honest). That's exciting in its own way.

Agree - although he probably should have centred it, the fact that he thought at that point that he could do it himself showed me he has a level of confidence he's never had at this level before. Despite being an error, it was quite an exciting one!

He wishes... I know I have focused on him a lot over the years, but I was there with everyone else giving him all the credit in the world for how he played last year. He was crucial to us last year - I guess then it's a positive that we're 3-5 and Dunn's yet to hit anywhere near his best form. I really don't like the pointing though.

No sh!t. Seriously, just try being happy for once. Just once. You don't need to start talking about how we're so good we're going to make finals and Toumpas is odds-on for the Brownlow, but just try being positive every now and again. It feels good you know.

Wonderful performance again today. We all know if the game had been played on their terms we were going to lose. But to our credit we got stuck in, we tackled hard, we made it a contested game and the Dogs hated it. Just like the Richmond game, we got our hands dirty, we were tougher, stronger and more disciplined and it paid off. We also scored 100 points despite focusing on closing the Dogs down. That's a huge positive IMO - we combined toughness and a willingness to make things contested with scoring, something we just couldn't do last year. N Jones and Vince returning to form helped us immensely too. Brayshaw's last quarter was incredible. I thought he was just going through the first three quarters but that last term he showed such amazing composure and determination. I love having this kid in our side. Toumpas, Spencer, Watts, Grimes and Pedersen all had improved performances, and all except Watts played their best game for the year too. On Toumpas, it wasn't silky skills or 'outside class' that stood out to me, and yes, he made a few mistakes. It was the running. I've never thought of him to date as a good runner, in fact he's stood out as the opposite. But today his work ethic and gut running was superb. There were multiple times he would get involved on half back, link up with handpasses, and then bust his ass to continue to provide an option through the middle and would end up at the forward line stoppage/mark. I really hope today was a corner turned for Toumpas, he looked to enjoy himself, and if he keeps that level of running up then he's going to keep improving. I also think Riley deserves credit for how he went about his job. Didn't get a lot of time but in his sole quarter he had 10 disposals and threw himself into tackles. It was obviously the only way he could do things in his restricted role as the sub, but I thought he did it well. Agree on McDonald but I don't agree on Dunn. Again, I felt he let us down in a number of areas. He has resorted to his 2013 finger pointing form where he tells everyone else where to stand and what to do but when it's his turn to go he doesn't go hard enough and/or mucks it up.

Our intensity is where it should be. The Dogs don't like it contested and they're fumbling under pressure. And our forwards look more dangerous than theirs. Toumpas, Watts and Spencer have all lifted which is great. Unfortunately Bail has not. Dunn has reverted to finger pointing which is disappointing but overall our senior players are putting in and pressuring. We deserve this lead, so far we're the better side.

Great to hear Gawn stepped up when needed and finished with what I assume would be his best performance of the year so far.

Not recently though. Obviously last week doesn't count, but the week before was this: Jack Fitzpatrick: Fitzy played and continued to play that role at centre half-back for us. It wasn’t Fitzy’s best game to date. We’re certainly working on some areas of his game with him. Defensively it wasn’t his best game. We’re looking for him to take some steps forward. I think prior to that he'd had some positive comments in terms of learning a new role and developing, but I read them thinking he still needed some time and he wasn't dominating at VFL level. Certainly his most recent game didn't show anything to suggest an AFL call up.

I'd say the 8 who have played this year are all best 22 and therefore huge losses for a side like us with no depth to speak of. The other two I have faith will be best 22 in 2016, and I reckon if both were fit this year would be best 22 this year too. Might be a little/far too optimistic with Trengove but I see upside in him that makes us a better side. I think they decided to take extra precautions with him and give him four weeks off when he could have feasibly returned after two. I think. I hope. Either way, it's obviously not a good situation for him to be in.

The only, and I mean only, reason I can fathom for Fitzpatrick's inclusion is that they're going to put him on Cordy. Ruck when Cordy's in the ruck, follow him into the forward line and defend him when he goes forward. I literally cannot see any other reason for why he would be included. His VFL form was poor. On the weekend he played 10 minutes. I don't get it. Problem with that of course is that I don't then see why Spencer is still in the side. If Fitzpatrick rucks most of they day vs Cordy what is Spencer going to be doing? The fact that Bail gets a game this week is a perfect summation of how bad our depth is. His game last week was embarrassing but there simply isn't anyone else who warrants selection in his place. I still think we can win this game but we have to pressure them from the first bounce to the end. If we don't keep the pressure on their ball carriers they'll rip us apart. If we do, though, I'm confident we can slow them down and force them into the errors they are capable of. So when they played St Kilda, when they had the same four wins and St Kilda just one win, against Carlton, on your logic the Dogs would have been four times better and should have won by, what, 100 points? They lost. They are inconsistent. If they play their best, with the 22 we're fielding we're no chance. But if we apply pressure and force them into the kind of football they played in the second half against St Kilda, then we are every chance, despite our disgustingly bad depth.

Spencer presumably gets one more shot against a nothing ruckman - I'm sure he'll get a huge amount of hit outs but that isn't relevant against the Dogs. Cordy will go forward after the centre bounce which gives Spencer the freedom to play his own game. Whether it's following the ball and contesting multiple stoppages to keep himself involved, or moving back and standing in front of the forwards' leads, or going forward to stretch their defence, he has to take control of a game where is primary focus is on mitigating the damage against a better opposition. I'd be flabbergasted if Fitzpatrick played after average VFL form and an injury last weekend. I'd assume Stretch will be rested, and I don't think we can play Gawn, we'd be too tall. That leaves Bail, Newton, Riley and Toumpas. Stretch might be the sub and Bail could miss as a result.

Next week too! Carlton's horrendous demise is good for a lot of reasons, but one of them should be that Seven and the AFL recognise the danger of putting all their Friday night eggs in one basket.

Three weeks ago the talk was finals. Now it's priority picks. Both are ridiculous.

Rioli plays as much through the middle as he does forward, Duryea is a midfielder, meanwhile Toumpas played half forward most of the day and Bail played back, forward and middle. Point is, Hawthorn had fringe players having fringe impacts, just like us, but Hawthorn had solid contributions from its core players, we did not. I'm much more worried about the senior players than the fringe players or the kids. We can shuffle Bail, Michie, M Jones, Riley and McKenzie in and out of the side but that is a focus on the wrong part of the team.

Whilst I'm on the fence over whether Jamar should have been dropped when he was, I agree that Spencer's done nothing to warrant holding his spot and I think Jamar should come back in for him. Not sure about Gawn in for Dawes, mainly because I'm not sure that Gawn offers enough as a key forward and if there's one thing the Dogs want us to it's to go in too tall against them and let them run rings around us. As for smashing Cordy, he gets smashed in the ruck every week. Today the hit outs were 69-13. Last week it was 48-28 (lost to St Kilda), the week before 75-36 (beat Sydney), and the week before 48-29 (beat Adelaide). I'm confident that if we go in with Spencer he'll get a massive amount of hit outs, but clearly that's not enough to stop the Dogs midfielders from exerting influence in the game.

You mean like Rioli (11 disposals)? Litherland (10), Duryea (16), Breust (14)? We have to stop focusing on the kids and the players we know aren't part of our core. We need to focus instead on the key players. Dawes, Dunn, Howe, Tyson, Vince, Garland, Lumumba and Cross all need to improve much, much more than we need M Jones, Bail or Michie getting tonnes of disposals.

I think Roos is playing Dunn on the second forward, who the last two weeks has happened to be taller. Franklin is better than Tippett, I'm glad McDonald went to him. I think yesterday McDonald spent time with both Roughead and Gunston, and both of them are infinitely better than David Hale. Dunn's beaten taller opponents before, too. the problem isn't the height difference, it's that Dunn's woefully out of form and isn't putting in the same efforts that won him plaudits in 2014.