Hopeful Demon

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.

There's no way that Salem is going to be shifted to another position based on his current form. He's a potential half back All- Australian. Keep him there.

I wouldn't drop Hunt. While he did get pinged a few times late, he showed much more intent than others. But yes, Brown is the obvious inclusion. I like Sparrow but I think he's the most vulnerable.

Agreed. If we were winning more clearances our forwards would be more likely to score. It's as simple as that.

I'm at ease when Sparrow takes a set shot.

Tmac's on fire so far.

Ha ha. Of coarse Green gets the first goal.

Are you serious? 2019 was one of our worst years in terms of injuries. Neither Lever nor May, who are easily our two best defenders, played more than 10 games due to constant injuries. Tmac did his knee after kicking 6 goals against Carlton and was unable to play for the rest of the season. Melksham, who had been in career best form, got injured very early in the season and wasn't seen again until around round 21. Our forwards were so hampered by injuries to the point where we were forced to play Hunt and Petty in the forwardline. Our performance in 2019 was obviously a shamble, but to say that we have "no excuses for it" is just ludicrous. If our players remain fit in 2022, our supporters should have every right to be confident.

You keep saying that we'll lose to Port Adelaide, West Coast, the bulldogs and Geelong but our record this season shows that we have been much more convincing against top 8 sides than we have been against mid-range and bottom teams. It shouldn't come as a surprise if we manage to beat three of the four teams mentioned above, if not all of them.

I find these two comments very unfair. Oliver's ability to win the ball was crucial and he provided some great run through the midfield. I don't think he should be judged based on a couple of skill errors. He was clearly our best midfielder tonight. I find the criticism of May bewildering. He was absolutely unstoppable in defence and he won almost every one-on-one contest. He was best on ground, in my opinion.

The hostility of the Essendon supporters was just as noticeable on TV. If they want Essendon to stop conceding 50m penalties and free kicks, then they should ask their players to be a bit more disciplined on the field.

He still nailed set shots at crucial times, though. Without him we wouldn't have won the game.

We were fairly scrappy throughout most of the night but we still got the job done. This game was another reminder that even when we're not playing our best footy we're still finding ways to win. The Melbourne of 2019-2020 certainly would not have maintained the lead in the final quarter. Lever and May were immense. Brayshaw's slowly making progress. Langdon was very good, as usual. If anything needs improvement it would be our forwardline. It was quite obvious from the beginning that we needed either Mitch Brown or Ben Brown. Let's take the four points and move on to next week.

Great goal. All we need to do from here is bury them.

The more I watch Langdon play the luckier I feel that we recruited him.

Shut up Stringer, you sook.

Spargo has been excellent, as always.

Surprising given that he's often a smart footballer.

The scoreboard doesn't reflect how dominant we were that quarter. We desperately need to start taking our chances and stop allowing Essendon to look capable of scoring when they get the ball in their forward line. This was a problem we had in 2019.

If Gawn and Jackson remain injury free for the rest of the year, I can't see Daw getting a game for us. We basically selected him as depth because of his height and his ability to kick the occasional goal up forward.