Swooper1987

It does seem a massive over correction by the AFL. I presume Andrew has been a part of the NGA for a few years. We would have invested some time into him, and then the rules change for this season. Seems to defeat the purpose of having clubs invest in the whole academy system. A better rule might have been that clubs get one free hit on the NGA every three seasons. That way the investment becomes substantially more worthwhile but means you can't just harvest the academy zone each year. Anyway, good luck to the young fella. The more representative the AFL is of Australian society the better.

Leppa is outstanding. A great footy brain. A shame he'll be back on a coaching panel soon

No change for now but at some point in the next few weeks Melksham will be back. He's not a Demonland favourite but he can deliver a great ball inside 50 better than just about anyone else in the side. That'll be important in September. ANB won't be getting dropped either.

Gawn should be Captain. He's an outstanding leader. His post game interview on Fox Footy was a gem. The way he spoke about Kozzy Pickett - the players in that team must love running out with big Maxy every week. And what he does on the field week in week out is extraordinary. Lever, Oliver, Petracca and May are all walk ups. Salem had a few off weeks post injury but he's back now. Probably he makes it too. That'll be it I'd say. 6 is a pretty good result.

6. Tracc 5. McDonald 4. Oliver 3. Gawn 2. Pickett 1. Petty Consummate team effort.

He would've sat on that footy instead of letting it out indiscriminately. Viney doesn't have great skill but he has pretty reasonable game awareness.

Great observation. Oliver and Petracca are great players but you do need to question their footy IQ at times. It isn't a mistake Viney would've made.

Daw is a very ordinary footballer. He is not a ruckman, not a key forward and not a key defender. He won't be on the list next season and if we have to play him this season then all is lost.

Taking Melbourne and its formline out of the equation, top spot is overrated in terms of winning the flag. The compromised fixture has enabled some interesting minor premiers over the last few years. The fact that of Richmond's three flags, none were won from top spot;the mighty Brisbane Lions team won three in a row never finishing better than second, the Hawks in 2015 were third going into finals etc etc. What is important is top 4. If we finish 4th and play the Bulldogs at the G - no harm done. If we finish third and get Brisbane away, it becomes somewhat harder, but still not impossible. From outside the top 4 it gets very difficult. 4 wins in a row against excellent sides. There's a reason why only the one team has managed to do it, and they were incredibly lucky. I think 16 wins will get top 4 - we need 4 out of 7. Those behind us need 5 out of 7.

Wouldn'tbe surprised to see three ins with the short turnaround. Likely to see Brown and Melksham, with Vanders a chance.

Definitely not pretenders. This is a tough competition. On any day any side can beat anyone else. We are one of about half a dozen really capable teams - Geelong, Bulldogs, Brisbane, Port and the Swans are in that group with us. Then you have Richmond, WCE and GWS who on their day are also very capable but not as reliable as the top 6. This season could well be like 2016. The dogs won 15 games, finished 7th after a bit of a lull in the back end of the year but put it together for finals. I think our game stacks up and the results prove it. We have lost three games by a combined total of 27 points. That's an average of 9 points per game losing margin. We could easily be 15-0. As long as we win 4 more, we'll be top 4 and a real chance. Interstate travel doesn't bother us. We are still right in this.

Yep, would agree with that, although Weid has hit the scoreboard tonight. I think they (Macca and Weid) are both lead up half forwards.

You are possibly, no probably ,right about our delivery. The truth is that won't change in the next two months, which makes Brown redundant. He can't really offer anything than a straight hard lead, which the mids will invariably miss. Perhaps he brings the odd ball to ground but I'd prefer Weidemann to have more impact given the way our side move the ball. I know it sounds counter intuitive based on Weid's recent output.

Just got home - lasted the first half. It's bloody freezing at Casey Fields. On the first half Brown is no chance. Didn't get near it. Weidemann was solid - took some nice grabs. Vandenberg playing well but he's more of the same really. I think Weid offers us more versatility. Brown does nothing when he doesn't have the ball and gets it so rarely that his impact with it is negligible.

We just looked unbalanced right from the start. When my son saw Harmes and Viney lining up inside forward 50 at the first bounce he said "this won't go well". And he was spot on. It's like our selectors are picking the All-Australian team - load up as many mids as possible and jam them in wherever. The fact that the guys in the centre square were in no danger of getting anywhere near a clearance didn't help either. Even when we did get first hands on it, which was surprisingly quite regularly, we managed to fumble or look for something that wasn't there. The team first approach was sadly missing today for Oliver and Harmes in particular and Viney looked like a guy who hadn't played in a very long time. Gawn is spending too long off the ball - at this stage Jackson is good for about 5 minutes per quarter. If Goody wants him on ball play him as a mid and get Tracc or Oliver forward for longer stints. If we are any chance of winning the flag this year we are going to need Tracc to up his scoreboard impact. He's our most dangerous forward and he's not playing enough time in dangerous spots. He's not a great clearance player so put him where he can do some real damage, maybe 60-40 forward.

Concur - maybe flip Max and TMac but the right 6. Lever probably a little stiff. The worst performance from our collective midfield that I've seen this season and why is Gawn spending so much time out of the ruck? We need him in there more than 50% of the time. It may have been worth playing both in the centre square and moving Oliver forward given how poor he was today.

And they were unbelievably accurate 11.2 to 15.12. 13 shots to 27. Insane accuracy from them. Greene was incredible. Hopefully Hibberd is a better match up for him.

It's a good side for the opposition we are playing. Brown more likely for the following week I think.

Knicked a calf at training on Wednesday.

Max usually polls Brownlow votes against Mummy. He can't keep up with Maxy. I think Max always enjoys the challenge of dodging Mummy's elbows and knees.

Geelong built a dynasty on three drafts. Hopefully this sets us up for many years.

Yep, the noise of affirmation - except they were only affirming their own stupidity. Some of their players even got sucked into thinking they were hard done by. Heppell is a great captain though. On a few occasions he told his side to refocus and get on with it. There are some dills in that team.

A great player, a wonderful athlete. He was such a professional. A brilliant intercept defender in 1987, moved forward in 1988 and kicked lots of goals in our run to the GF. In 1994 he played a great season at fullback. 150 of the most dynamic and energetic games you'd hope to see. A great player in a very good era.

VFA was a different beast altogether. Went and saw a bit of footy at Shepley Oval as a young fella in the 70's and 80's. That was a better education than anything I learned in school.

Your brother is a smart guy! The old ladies there were the worst - copped the full brunt of their umbrellas plenty of times in the 80's.