Hopeful Demon

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.

He's been getting plenty of the ball but he just tries to do too much at times.

I've been impressed by Tom Mcdonald's performance this year. By the end of 2020, I was starting to feel very concerned about his future but now I consider him one of the first five players to be picked every week. I understand that Fritsch is our leading goal kicker at the moment but I think that Mcdonald has been our most effective forward. He may not be getting a great deal of attention from the media but he should be in contention for the All Australian squad based on these first 17 games.

I had a photo taken with Colin Sylvia in 2012, when I was only 10 years old. Whenever I look at that photo I can't help but feel a bit sad about what happened to him six years later.

Based on the first 17 rounds, Petracca, Oliver and Salem have to be locks. You'd expect at least one of May and Lever to be there as well. While Gawn probably hasn't been as spectacular as he was early in the season, he's still been very good. If he doesn't get his fifth All-Australian selection this year, I'll be pretty surprised. Tmac and Langdon should be considered outside chances.

I've been very impressed with Petty lately. I was initially concerned that Tomlison's injury would have a negative effect on our backline, but Petty has covered him perfectly.

You said numerous times on this forum that we'd lose to Essendon and Port Adelaide and we ended up beating both teams, so it's a bit early for you to say "I told you all."

Excellent win. Prior to this match I was starting to feel a little concerned because of our poor performances over the past month, but this was the exact response that we needed. We were challenged in the third quarter but the fact that we didn't let Port Adelaide's momentum continue shows that we deserve to be considered grand final contenders. We have been extremely consistent against top 4 sides. Petracca and Oliver were outstanding. Tmac is continuing his resurgence. Pickett finally retuned to the player he was early in the season. Our defence was unstoppable, as usual. This win shows that we are not pretenders, after all.

I loved the ending to that quarter. Those two Tmac goals were crucial given that the momentum was going Port Adelaide's way. We just need to make sure we don't let them get back in the game in the last quarter. The best way to do that is kick the first goal or two.

It's impossible to decide whether the Port Adelaide crowd or the umpires are more insufferable.

And what are you going to say if he kicks 3 goals or more?

Oh yes his form in 2016 was excellent but I honestly think that his form early this year was just as good. The only difference is that his 2016 form stood out more because other midfielders such as Oliver and Petracca were yet to rise. The problem with Viney is that in recent years he's been getting injured after showing promising signs. In the middle of 2018 he was finally returning to his best football until he suffered from a foot injury. I think that if Viney was less injury-prone he'd be far more consistent.

At this stage I'm not too concerned about Viney's future. Prior to his foot injury I thought he was excellent. In fact, he appeared to be in career best form. He's only two weeks back from his injury so he's clearly not completely fit. If we keep persisting with him, he should return to his early season form.

I don't think you're right. We're still second on the ladder and we've got seven more games to maintain our position in the top 4. Even if we don't make the top 4, would finishing 5th really be that bad given how underwhelming our last two years have been? As for your "Kozzie Pickett projections," give the guy a break for once. He's barely even 20 years old and he showed numerous times early in the year that he's got the potential to become a star. Two years ago I was reading some pretty insane Christian Petracca projections (e.g. he will be traded, he'll never get fit, he's not going to be a star). Look how those projections have turned out.

At this stage I don't think we're pretenders. It's normal for a team to suffer from an occasional form slump regardless of their position on the ladder. I remember in 2018, the year where we played in a preliminary final, we lost three games in a row in the middle of the year but quickly returned to our best. Unless our form slump continues over the next few weeks, I think it's pointless to panic.