Bring-Back-Powell

Well done Fritta - 2 quick goals!! Hope he’s not the one that wants to be traded!

Kicking against a 6 goal wind in the first qtr...aces

So the line’s 69.5 pts whether he gets sacked...

If we kick with the 13 goal wind on offer in the first quarter we might actually lead for a break. I shudder to think of the quarter time margin if North have the wind.

Shows where we are at a club right now when everyone’s expecting an 80 + point flogging against a mediocre team that finishes 10th - 13th every year.

Exactly. We showed a complete lack of appreciation for Roos in his farewell game. Can’t see us giving a continental in Lewis’s farewell - particularly after he gave the players a deserved parting shot.

I miss the days prior to 1996 when games like this one weren’t televised and you’d get the 90 seconds highlights package on channel 7’s Sports World the next day. We’d be spared the embarrassment of national TV exposure.

The loss of T Mac was absolutely shattering in a season that was bent but not yet broken. We were showing genuine improvement when T Mac finally hit form against Freo and he was a genuine match winner vs Carlton. How many players can kick 6 goals in 3 qtrs of footy these days? We could’ve won some of those close losses between rounds 17-19. That’s why T Mac’s return to the side gives me hope.

What part of: 1) being 6 points up against West Coast at 3 qtr time 2) being 8 points down with a couple of minutes left against an unconvincing Dogs who couldn’t put us away 3) being 3 points up against St Kilda with 10 minutes left... meant we were always going to lose those games??? We were every bloody chance of winning those games. Next year, our hopeful and anticipated improved fitness and accuracy will hopefully see us win those games. Not to mention we kicked ourselves out of the WC (rd 9) and Adelaide games.

Hopefully a better pre season will result in better fitness which will result in better skills.

Aside from the cluster F that was the Sydney game, we haven't been too far off the mark since the bye round: Fremantle - good win against a side on a 4 game winning streak (although they were down to 2 men) Brisbane - good first half. Lost our way in the second half. Who knows what would've happened if Hipwood didn't kick 5 goals in 5 minutes. Carlton - That win stacks up now, as underwhelming as it was at the time, 40 odd points up at one stage with T Mac kicking 6 goals in 3 qtrs. W Bulldogs - An 8 point loss against a team that has caught fire since the break is a decent effort. One of the rare games Lever and May played together. West Coast - Another more than competitive effort against the reigning premiers, as we were in front at 3 qtr time. This performance was better than some of our (rare) wins. Again, Lever and May played together. St Kilda - Bitterly disappointing performance to lose against what I consider a poor side but we lead with 10 minutes left, before our skills and fitness fell off the cliff. May didn't play. Richmond - A meritorious first half going into the sheds on even terms. Kept the margin somewhat respectable. Collingwood - Bitterly disappointing middle 2 quarters however had a rare good last quarter. Inaccuracy cost us dearly in this one as we lost by only 17 points. Sydney - A disgrace. Hopefully next year, the Dogs, WC, St Kilda and Collingwood losses are turned into wins.

He still might fly down but not actually play. Cannot work out the point in playing him if he has a suspect hammy for one of the biggest dead rubbers in the club's history.

Excellent. He can bring his IP over on how to beat Melbourne. Richo owned us over his coaching career.

Richo (as an assistant) and Hinkley were a good partnership when Port made the finals in 2013 for the first time since 2007. I've heard countless times that he was a fantastic assistant to Hinkley.

I'm far from one of those around here mate. I'll be the first to say we've been an absolute disgrace this year. Such a disgrace that the head coach should just about be shown the door for such an epic collapse. I was merely stating that I had grave concerns during the off season, and reading the training reports in January that most of our midfield was still in the rehab group, that we'd possibly go backwards this year. They don't say you need a good and healthy pre-season for no reason.

Thanks for clarifying that. Makes complete sense to alternate each year.

At least next year we'll be hosting the Queens Birthday and Anzac Eve.

Good. I had a feeling we'd be stuffed for 2019 when they announced the long list of surgeries last spring. There's no good reason to expect a side to have a healthy and successful season ahead when 12-15 of your list are coming back from surgeries. Sounds like Weed (hip) and Lever (possible ankle surgery) might have delayed starts to the pre-season. Hopefully everyone else can hit the ground running and some other sides can cop the long list of surgeries this time around.

Any reason we’ve been sent to this dump of a ground in 3 of the last 4 seasons?

Why not. Let’s have him, Preuss and Gawn in the same side and we’ll go from the smallest ever side to the tallest in one week.

Wouldn't surprise me RN. The venue is such a back water dump and shouldn't be hosting premiership points.

I'm not seeing it, but if he ends up being half as good Josh, we'll have a player on our hands. Josh is absolute gun, like top 10 in the AFL gun if he keeps his trajectory up.

Damn was hoping he'd be available this week. Please tell me we're seriously not considering putting out that same forward line we dished out against Sydney. That was without doubt the worst and most dysfunctional forward line I've ever seen from an AFL club. They'll have to bring in Preuss for some structure and just plonk him in the 0-25 mtr range all day when not relieving Gawn. Or perhaps play Gawn at full forward for most of the day and Preuss in the ruck.

You deserve a medal for producing such a comprehensive training report ahead one of the biggest dead rubber of a games in memory.

Should’ve gone on one more year if he requested it. Far too many unskilled players on this list should be departing before Lewis.