Swooper1987

WCE paid the price for bringing in too many off a long spell. Naitanui went missing in the last quarter again. That final quarter was a demolition.

They certainly can complain. I've always had Collingwood as the benchmark for loathsome supporters but my 19 year old son said to me last night "I don't get the hate for Collingwood fans, these guys are absolute intellectual minnows. How is it you can hate Collingwood more than Essendon?" I then reminded him his mum is an Essendon supporter!

6. May 5. Lever 4. Jordon 3. Salem 2. Gawn 1. Brayshaw

Draper had 4 hitouts to half time. So even if he went at 100% HOTA in the first half we still had it covered.

According to the MCG scoreboard we had 10 HOTA at half time. Not certain what the second half looked like.

Yeah 32 to 10 is a comprehensive hitout victory. Plenty of those to advantage as well. The point about clearance stands. The bombers have some decent clearance players and at times they were better than Oliver, Petracca, Viney and Harmes. I thought Jackson was poor in the ruck tonight too and he got a substantial run at it. But as I said to the Bomber fans I was sitting amongst tonight, it's an opinion game and we all see what we want to see.

Not really. The ruckman isn't the sole determinant of the clearance. And I know you know that.

He certainly dominated Draper.

In the last three games he's polled 15 coaches votes - he's played one average half in the last three matches. I reckon he's going alright.

Level 2A two tickets easy as.

Both were poor yesterday in most areas of the game. They are allowed a bad one occasionally, just a shame they had it on the same day.

In: Viney, Melksham Out: Weidemann, Sparrow The smaller forward line will work much better against Essendon who have some great running, rebound defenders. 3 goals today betwen Jackson and Gawn was a great result and to be honest they were our only real threats when forward.

We are 11-2. If we get to 16-6 (maybe 15-7) we'll be top 4. That means 5 more wins out of 9 games. That's absolutely probable from here. If we get better than that then we are pretty much top 2. It's been a great season thus far, I'm a believer that we are a genuinely good side. Any of the current top 8 with the likely exception of the Swans can win the flag though.

In 1995, Carlton went 20 and 2 and won the flag in a canter. Apart from Essendon in 2000, it was the best individual season by a team in many, many years. They dropped two games for the year, consecutively in rounds 8 and 9 to Sydney and St Kilda, who finished 12th and 14th respectively. They lost to Sydney by 72 points and to St Kilda by 56 points ( and only kicked three goals). It happens - good teams lose to inferior teams. It will keep happening because footy is as much mental as physical and no team is on all the time. The best teams are rarely off, but they still have off days. Let's see what the next 9 games hold in store.

Does anyone know the forward half defensive pressure stats up to round 6 and then since then? Brown, then Weidemann came into the side from round 7 and it doesn't look like we have quite the same defensive intent or impact since the introduction of the extra tall. I'd be tempted to drop Weidemann for Viney and bring back Melksham for Sparrow and see how that looks. We got three goals out of Jackson and Gawn today, McDonald and Fritsch should be enough as tall targets.

11-2 a great result. It's a very tough competition. The best sides usually go around 17 or 18 wins in a season max, and that still doesn't guarantee a flag. We are building towards something pretty special and there will be bumps in the road. There are common themes to our two defeats so we have the opportunity to address those chinks in the armour over the break. Most of our better players struggled a bit today, and we were definitely flat but Viney and Brown will be back and I really do think Melksham's creativity is important for us. Well done to the team on a great first 13 rounds. Enjoy the break and come back hard after the spell!

6. Gawn 5 Jackson 4. Salem 3. Jordon 2. May 1. Petracca

Not sure Barassi counts as a Tory (in the UK sense of old style Conservative). More a Hamer Victorian Liberal - socially progressive and economically conservative. He'd have lined up with Turnbull against Abbott. Pro - republic, pro immigration etc Dixon was pretty progressive for his time as well. Also, we've actually produced a Labor MP - Bob Miller MP for Prahran 1979-1985. Played 69 games between 1961-1965. Alan Henderson, the old property steward was a dyed in the wool ALP man too. And well done, Neale. Absolute champion.

Clarkson makes sense. Especially with Wright in charge at Collingwood. Buckley is astute enough to to see the writing on the wall. My guess is the unrest at Collingwood is nothing compared to dealing with Jeff Kennett every day!

He was listed as two-three (which includes the bye) so I'd say not. He's their most valuable asset and has had neck problems in the past. They'll take no chances with him if there is any doubt at all.

And Gawn as Captain is the right decision too.

The second option is the most likely. Very rare for a player in the losing side to get 5. I can understand the disparity between a 5 and 3 for Tracc and a 5 and 2 for Oliver - Oliver had 8 possessions to half time but was brilliant in the second half. Gawn as a 4 and 2 makes sense. Bailey at 4 and 3 is perfectly understandable.

Games polled in: Oliver 10 Petracca 9 Lever 8 McDonald 8 Gawn 7 Salem 7 Pickett 4 Langdon 3 May 2 Harmes 2 Fritsch 1 Viney 1 Jackson 1 Tomlinson 1

Split: Petracca 5/3 Bailey and Oliver - 5/2; 4/3 Gawn - 4/2 McDonald and Hipwood - 1/0

I actually like our chances at the SCG. I think we'll defend that ground really well. We should win clearance fairly convincingly without Grundy to contend with. They do play a really good defensive game but I think they may be one or two runners short against us. Adelaide were the much better side after quarter time and should have won quite comfortably. 2.6 to Walker and even Fogarty missed which almost never happens. As I said before the Adelaide game, every game in this competition is a danger game. On their day anyone can win.