Bring-Back-Powell

Agree it’s far too early to make big calls about St Kilda but there’s a bit of evidence starting to mount up. A Win over a 3-1 Fremantle in hostile territory. A win over highly likely finalist in Richmond. A dominant first half today over a side that probably won’t play finals but a team that has stated the season well nonetheless. They’ve started the season in great fashion and I’m sure our club will be taking a bit of notice of them.

Starting to think St Kilda are a chance to feature in prelim final week. Both clubs had a brief taste in 2018 and 2020 and then had down years. Why not them?

Excellent result. Brisbane are probably the second best side in the league so any loss by them is a bonus.

Any chance Taylor can shut up about intercept marking? Pathetic succession planning by channel 7 that BT is their premier caller post the retirements of McAvaney and Commetti. What’s their next move? Hamish and Basil calling the 2024 GF?

Why is everyone going for Brisbane? Surely we take any loss we can get from Brisbane and keep them away from top 2. I have no interest in facing Brisbane at the GABBA in a qualifying or prelim final in the event we don’t finish top 2 or stuff up a home qualifying final.

On the flip side we have 5 straight games away from the MCG after round 15 with only one of them being in town (Dogs at Marvel). A very uneven spread this year in terms of playing our home games at the G.

Which unfortunately means we play 5 games away from the G from rounds 16 to 20 (AO, Geelong, Alice, Marvel, Optus). The total opposite of Richmond's charmed draw when they were winning flags.

I love Thursday night games (one more day of footy) but not when we're involved. Much prefer to see us play on Friday night or the weekend. Hopefully this is our last Thursday night game of the year unless we're at the G.

If we're being honest I reckon May's had a poor start to the season in terms of what his opponent has done on the stats sheet. Naughton - 4 goals/6 marks Casboult (of all people) - 2 goals/9 marks Wright - 4 goals/5 marks Very unlike Steve May numbers and I suspect the absence of Lever has had a say in this. On topic, I would say BBB won't be selected due to his last minute availability. Robbie Gray has been ruled out under the same circumstances. In - Lever Out - Tomlinson, Bedford (unused sub from last week)

I like J Brown's idea of keeping Weid, dropping Tomlinson and putting T Mac back. I rate T Mac as a better defender than Tomlinson, and lets face it, the only good bit of footy T Mac has played all year was the half he played down back in round 1.

They suspended Michael Long for 4 games. Three of which were served in the 2001 Ansett Cup.

A few people have accused Carlton of not beating anyone of note. Last time I checked Bulldogs were a half handy side.

Brilliant post. puts things in perspective.

Just getting paranoid about Brisbane getting a ton of percentage over us, even if it’s early days.

Reminds me of Sam Blease. Just a little better.

Lions are clear second favourite to win the flag so I guess a 108 pt win by them isn’t ideal for the other contenders such as us. We must finish top 2 this year in order to avoid a GABBA prelim.

And the bizzare thing about the crowd number was that in the same Friday night game in round 3 2019, we got 53K in our home game against Essendon despite both clubs starting 0-2 that year. The club will be disappointed by the number but COVID is truly keeping 10,000 away IMO.

On the topic of ugliest wins, those with long memories might nominate the Brisbane win in 2015 at the G. 8.12.60 to 4.12.36 and we managed just 1.5 in the second half. Last night wasn’t one for the ages but I’ve seen far worse.

Easy call for us Demonlanders to drop T Mac but who knows what Goody sees in him? At the end of the day he’s phased out Jetta, Jones and Melksham out of the side so T Mac shouldn’t be any different here.

99/100 times Brayshaw gets BOG for a 20 mark performance but Oliver was just too influential on the night. 6) Oliver 5) Brayshaw 4) Langdon- his GOTY nomination increased his rankings here. 3) Weid - you kick 4 goals you get votes. 2) Harmes - kicked 2 critical goals in the 3rd quarter. Good ones too. 1) Jackson - found it hard to give that last vote, but this guy is just dominating at the moment. May can’t get votes tonight. Wright dominated the game in parts.

I can’t see BBB, Weid and T Mac all playing. So will the club have the guts to drop a senior stalwart in T Mac or a maligned key fwd who just kicked 4 goals, played his best game since the Geelong 2018 final and is crying out for some much needed confidence and continuity? Hard call to make next week.

Certainly not the latter.

He'll have his big moments and games this year but it's fair to say his engine hasn't started yet for the year, aside from the AAMI game.

In addition to Weid, I wouldn't mind T Mac stepping up a gear as our number 1 forward. He hasn't played a game of note since the Port game in July last year. He's only averaged 3 marks and less than a goal a game since round 18 last year. As others have mentioned, really hoping BBB is available for next week.

Petty's very injury prone. He chose a fantastic year (2021) to stay injury free.