Bring-Back-Powell

I had a feeling something was up with Dusty in last weeks game. With the game slipping out of Richmond’s reach, Dusty could only muster 2 or 3 touches in the last quarter and surprisingly spent much of the quarter out of the guts. In his prime he would’ve dominated that last qtr.

Kind of similar to the media referring to every second player in the league as a star. Trac, Salem, Oliver, Viney, Jackson were flag heroes as they had a direct influence on the win, whether it be to get us off to a solid start, leading the charge in that dramatic 3rd qtr turnaround or dominating through the entire game. I would not label Rivers a GF hero and I don’t recall him having a particularly great game.

Yeah, can't believe he's out of contract at the end of the year.

In his post game presser, Goodwin gave me the impression that Lever was no chance last week and touch and go for this weekend.

I don't expect anyone to return from the injury list as it's too early in the season to be making 50/50 calls. In - Bedford (elevated from sub) Out - Salem Chandler to be this week's sub. There will probably be a few around here that will measure this week's success on how much percentage we can gain against GC. However, I'll be ecstatic just to get the 4 points. GC are a proven dangerous side in March/April/May up at Metricon and do not resemble the rabble that we faced at Marvel late last year. We also haven't lost to them since 2014, so their time is due to beat us.

They’re a terrific home and away side.

Sounds like this is almost as bad as the PCL scenario in terms of weeks missed. Was hoping for 4-6 at most.

T Mac tore his meniscus that day. Funny (not funny) that he finally played a ripping game that year and then his season was over. As for Salem, 6 weeks or under is a good result here. Rather he out at the start of the year than the business end.

I know it’s extremely early days but we host Carlton in round 22. If the Blues are in finals/top 4 contention by them, that game could be an absolute monster crowd on that Saturday arvo or night. (Can’t be a Friday night as Marvel have 3 games on that weekend)

They looked super impressive against us on 3 March and carried their form into tonight. Carlton’s clear point of difference is their ability to smash their opposition in clearances and have big bodied high possession midfielders that kick multiple goals. For example Cripps and Kennedy have kicked a combined 10 goals across the AAMI game and rd 1. I know it’s early as you pointed out but I’m impressed thus far.

Carlton to finish top 6 and win a final. Lock it in.

Round 1 2019 wasn't much better. We must avoid Port in round 1 at the G at all costs!

I give Port a sniff over Brisbane despite everyone going for the Lions. Port have a fantastic round 1 record including some excellent unexpected wins on the road.

Ok well at least English will spend less time forward with Martin out. English can certainly take a contested mark up fwd and is a nice kick for goal.

Lever’s a terrible loss. We looked genuinely disorganised down back against Carlton without May and Lever together.

Tomlinson not in according to Ch 7. Hunter is in for them.

Not great that they're both under a cloud though. If Lever was to miss, I'd be tipping the Dogs due to us having too many first choice defenders out.

Concerning that the 3 out are from the one unit. Would much rather have a defender, a mid and a forward out like we did against North.

I would say Max is more on the money with Tomlinson over Smith. Both played the entire pre season but you'd imagine they'd go with Tomlinson who has had more runs on the board and is probably more dependable than Smith. Hunt would need to dramatically improve his performance from the Carlton game if he's selected. However we need a medium sized defender to replace Rivers. Jordon would have to be some sort of chance given he's always the 22nd/23rd player in the mix?

Might be partly in reference to Oliver and Trac over celebrating goals against a midfield depleted North in practice match week 1.

I like Jack Lonie as a top up player. A known goal kicker who was almost picked up by another side (can’t recall which one) in the off season.

Sounds like my prediction of 55K looks on the money. Whenever Q1-Q12 is GA it’s never a good sign for a monster crowd.

Anyone else more excited about this game than last years GF?

I know it's only pre season, but he had a poor practice match series. Perhaps his late start to pre -season in Melbourne has him a bit rusty and underdone? Be interesting to see if he can lift his standards when the real stuff begins on Wednesday.

Or, looking at it at another angle: Perhaps after the third 50 mtr penalty we gave away during the first quarter, one would've thought that the players may have picked up on a trend that was evolving throughout the night whereby the umpires might have been applying less tolerance to backchat than normal, as directed by the league. Instead we gave up eight 50M penalties by 3 quarter time? Anyone know how many Carlton gave away? or did they actually exercise a bit of discipline on the night?