Hopeful Demon

I actually wouldn't mind seeing Spargo have some time in the midfield. He is easily one of the best decision makers in the team. I think that playing in the middle will give him the chance to win more of the ball as he is a low-possession player. I wouldn't move Salem to another position as his performance across half-back this season has been All-Australian quality.

I think that this has been his best season to date and that says a lot considering that he has already had numerous elite years. It's difficult to think that he's less than 25 years old because he's accomplished so much in his first five years at the club.

I think he should at worst be in consideration for AA. As you said, his stats are comparable to some of the 'elite' small forwards. I think the only thing that's holding him back is his quiet patch in the middle of the year. Either way, it probably doesn't matter given that he has age on his side. I can't wait to see how good he'll be once he enters his prime.

Spot on. Pickett has been great to watch this year. I thought that he was excellent today. Not only did he kick two very impressive goals, but he also did plenty of great defensive work. His tackle after May's rare turnover in the last quarter was my favourite moment of the day. If Pickett becomes more consistent with experience, he seriously could be the best small forward in the competition.

That's just so far from the truth. Gold Coast challenged the bulldogs until the end and managed to knock off Sydney, Richmond and GWS, so I don't think they're as bad as you're suggesting. I think there's plenty to take out of our win today.

Viney and Harmes certainly do have their deficiencies but I doubt either of them will get dropped. I don't think that there will be any changes provided that Tmac and Salem are fit to play next week. Otherwise you'd assume that Weideman and Hibberd would be straight in the team.

Well, difficult for me at least.

Pretty difficult to complain about a 98 point victory. This was the kind of win we needed given that we had to find a way to compensate for our underwhelming performances against Hawthorn and the bulldogs. I was really pleased by some of the individual performances today. Jackson and Brown easily had their best games of the year. Oliver and Petracca are quickly becoming my favourite midfield duo. The only players who I'm slightly worried about are Viney and Harmes. We were inaccurate in the second half but I'd still take a 16 goal win any day of the week.

This is just too good to be true at the moment.

I'm not denying that but my point was that I didn't see him get caught at the same rate that Viney is today. Anyway, Tyson's been out of the team for three years, so let's get back on topic.

That's harsh on Tyson. Don't think that even he got caught that often. I do like Viney but he's just trying to do the impossible too often.

Excellent half. We're finally burying a team early in the game. So much for resting Luke Jackson.

It's amazing what kind of difference accurate set shot kicking can make.

I agree that Petty has had a couple of promising games up front but he's shown several times this year that he clearly plays his best football in the backline. We probably shouldn't move him to the forwardline unless our forwards are hampered by injuries.

Pickett's season has impressed me greatly. His ability to create forward pressure is exciting to watch and he is one of our few forwards who can kick goals out of nowhere. He does have the occasional game where he goes missing but I'm sure he'll become more consistent when he has more experience. 28 goals in 18 games is not a bad effort for a second-year small forward.

I think our set shots need to be addressed even more desperately. They've been costing us for a number of weeks now.

Brayshaw gets pinged for dropping the ball and Smith gets let off for a clear throw. Gutless umpiring.

Brown owes us.

Brown's set shots have been a worry lately. When he was at North he would've nailed that set shot 100/100.

2 free kicks to 6 ?

The doom-mongering on this site is becoming unnecessary. I don't think anyone thought they were 'gone' after they outplayed PA at their home ground just a week ago.

Yep. Send Petracca to the backline two weeks after he gets 33 disposals and kicks three goals as a midfielder. What a wonderful idea.

Ridiculous thread, in my opinion. Yes, Viney has been a little bit disappointing lately but there were probably more than a dozen players who were worse than him tonight. I don't think that Oliver, Petracca or Brayshaw were any better. It just amazes me how after a disappointing game some people on this forum like to point their fingers at one player as the sole cause of our problems.

I'm usually a very optimistic supporter but I find this performance very hard to defend. When you're 4 and a half goals up in the second quarter against a bottom two team, the sensible thing to do is to stay alert and burry them. You can't just turn up against a bottom side and assume you're just going to cruise through and win regardless of how well you're playing. I honestly wouldn't feel any different if we lost. The only good thing that came out of the game is that we maintained our position on top of the ladder.

The problem is that this is a completely different Viney to what we saw before his foot injury early in the year.