Temporarily Hopeful Demon

I am a Vandenberg fan but he hasn't been doing enough lately and he makes too many skill errors, especially by foot. I appreciate his toughness and aggression but we have several other players with the same qualities. I think that Jones is a more rounded and skillful player. He is too good to be kept out of the team for so many weeks.

This thread is about ready for a bump. Luke Jackson is an absolute star. There's no doubt that he has a chance of winning the rising star award this year. In our past two wins he has easily been in our top 3-5 best players. It's amazing to think that he's only 19 given the amount of talent he's already shown. Fast becoming one of the best young players in the competition.

I'd happily take that. The last 15 minutes were certainly hard to watch but I'm sure that if it wasn't for the infuriating lightning break we would've kept the game in control and won by 6-8 goals. That break completely messed with our focus. ANB and Melksham had their best games of the season. Brown is coming along nicely. Petracca and Oliver, as always, worked really well together in the midfield. The last 15 minutes aside, that was a very impressive win. We were all over them until three quarter time.

The West Coast fans are a bunch of entitled brats.

Very good quarter until the last few minutes. Langdon was back to his early season form.

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 ?