Bring-Back-Powell

A massive danger game this weekend. West Coast have been alright the last fortnight and lead Essendon by 5 goals at home at one stage. They showed in 3 games last year in Perth (Vs Freo, Melbourne and Richmond) that when they click they can be quite unstoppable with their attacking style of footy and Jake Waterman dominating up front. We essentially need to be 3 goals in front at 3 qtr time due to our inability to score in 4th quarters. We've kicked a total of 7 goals across all of our last quarters which is seriously concerning and the trend disappointingly continued last Thursday night when we had Richmond on toast early in the last quarter and looked to have killed their spirit. A loss would be disappointing but from from surprising.

Dearly needs to work on his set shots. I don’t think he’s nailed one set shot goal from the 35-40+ metre range this year which is a major function of being a permanent forward (maybe his set shot in round 2 V North was from 40??) He pleasingly can still instinctively snap those wonderful goals like the one in the third quarter on the weekend, and that reason alone makes it hard to drop him.

Charged yet again by the MRP. Third time in five games. Although it was only umpire contact it’s getting a bit silly now.

It’s a huge call to say Collingwood will miss finals. Probably too huge a call.

Problem is the Pies are so hard to beat at the MCG, particularly in finals. They truly have have the inside running to win the flag if they finish top 2, or play week 1 at the MCG as the ‘away’ team (by finishing 3rd or 4th).

Was it not Zerk-Thatcher (or however you spell his name)? Agreed he’s not a player that matches his high draft pick but he probably played a blinder at Gather Rd the other week.

I know a lot of Melbourne supporters like to downplay Collingwood’s prospects, probably because of recent history between the 2 teams. However, which team would you be confident of beating Collingwood on prelim or grand final day at MCG? Perhaps Geelong?

May’s problem is that he gets injured every second week and can’t get any continuity in his footy. Always looks like he’s hobbling on the filed. He may have got a coaches vote against Geelong so he can still play at the required level.

People are quick to write off JVR. It was only 15 games ago that he ripped a first half apart with 4 goals against quality opposition in McGovern and Barrass. And he was talked about within the AFL community as being one of the rising star key forwards of the league. I don’t subscribe to the theory they you can go from a rising star to a dud overnight, at aged 22. JVR clearly replaces Fullarton. Turner needs to come in to the defence and move Windsor further up the ground or even to Casey to work on his deplorable kicking which is resulting in turnovers. One of Sharp, Kolt or to a lesser extent Windsor to be omitted. Maybe Melksham for Fritta?? If we’re a bit off for this one, West Coast will roll us, irrespective of whatever they dish up tomorrow evening. It’s a tough road trip to Perth.

I haven't been a fan of Spargo this year (due to his return from a long lay off) but I thought he moved as well as he's had for a while and played a decent game last week. Given Sharp's been sub the last 2 weeks, I'd suggest he's on the border line and probably needs to play a really solid game sooner rather than later. Not convinced he'll be in the side in the back half of the year but I like his ability around goal. Haven't seen much of Culley in his West Coast days but did see him kick 4 goals against Port in 2023 which is nothing to sneeze at. If he can't break into the side this year it probably means we've (touch wood) had a good run with injuries to our mids and they're also performing.

I'm finding Richmond hard to read this year, but they're a lot better than first anticipated. They've had 2 stirring wins, 3 ten goal + losses and an honourable loss to Brisbane. All over the place and who knows which version we'll get tomorrow night. I do expect them to fall away in the second half of the season.

I don't think Balta's playing in the VFL tomorrow.

There's some expensive GA seats still available on the top deck of the Olympic and the bottom deck of the Southern if you don't have any luck here.

Good news about May if true. Seems like we would've been one tall defender down too many on Thursday night if he, Lever and Turner were all out. Now we can keep Petty in the forward line. Hopefully May can get some continuity into this footy and play the next dozen games without interruption as his form has suffered as a result.

I would be staggered if the AFL and the courts haven't come to an arrangement that allows Balta to play night games due to plying his trade.

There will probably be an exemption between the AFL and the courts to allow him to play because he's plying his trade. The AFL have shown absolutely no regard to the seriousness of the assault it would seem.

afl.com.auFixture analysis: Bulldogs and Dockers facing tough runs,...Check out your club's run of fixtures across the next five weeksApparently we've had the second hardest draw to start of the season given 4 of our 6 opponents (Geel, Ess, GWS, GC) have winning records thus far and Freo had a winning record before the weekend. We are projected to have the 3rd easiest fixture in the coming 5 weeks which also makes sense given 3 of our opponents have losing records and Hawthorn have been a little vulnerable over the last fortnight. We should be aiming for 3 out of the next 5 (Rich, WC, Syd), then give the Hawks a red hot crack and who knows? Meanwhile Brisbane is out of the question at the moment. 4-7 would be a decent recovery and would get us out of the bottom 4 doldrums and we could realistically look to finish around the 10th-13th mark. This would make Essendon's first pick more palatable. 5-6 would actually get us back into the hunt.

The overwhelming consensus is that Balta will escape jail. Therefore I don’t see any reason why he doesn’t play, considering Richmond’s been in a hurry to play him. On a side note, lucky prior suspensions have no bearing or loading on the next one. Kozzie once again reported, but luckily can escape with a fine.

Highlight of the day was Langford’s clincher in the last. When I need someone to step up in the big moment in the future, I know who to call.

Agreed. He’s selected a forward line that simply won’t win an AFL game against anyone.

Some condescending/2013/ Mark Neeld like KPI’s that we could achieve today. Win one quarter Keep Freo to under 100 points. Kick more goals than behinds for the second time in the last 9 games. Reduce the uncontested possession differential from 80 of the last 2 games down to 40. Ensure every quarter has a pressure rating score of at least 170. 160 is apparently unacceptable and what we dished up in 2 quarters last week. Try your very very best. Strip it back to junior footy where the player that puts in the greatest effort gets a McDonalds voucher. If all 6 points fail, for crying out loud, let’s keep the margin under 90 so at least we can avoid the bottom of the ladder/Essendon pick 1 territory.

Well I guess we can cross West Coast over there in round 8 off the winnable list based on tonight. So now it’s down to Richmond, North and West Coast at Marvel.

Not saying yes but how much worse would things get if we did get him?

The loss to North, who have since regressed to their usual 20 loss a year standards, should really count against Goodwin. And I’m sure it will if decisions need to be made. Some of our other losses have been understandable and a semblance of respectability (GWS and Geelong) but we have absolutely no business losing a game by 59 points to North Melbourne. Let’s get serious for a second.

You want West Coast to win because you hate Essendon? Or you want West Coast to win because we’ll be the only team to be winless and hence the microscope will be fair and square on the club? A small chance IMO.. Aside from round 1, West Coast will play their better games at Optus.