Chook

At the moment Clarry is happy to engage with the young nobody players because that's all he has. Poor fellow desperately needs a preseason.

We are so uninstinctive right now. It's a look I've not seen for a long time. A long time. At the end of the year our board will need to ask some serious questions. Goody has changed the gameplan, and that definitely is a reason for playing without instinct, but if it's more than that I don't want to be stuck with the next Luke Beverage.

Since we've come down a few pegs as a team, the few shining lights have shined all the brighter. Petracca before his injury for sure, but for me Max Gawn is far and away our best player at the moment.

He's just not physically ready. He wasn't then and he isn't now. He's a kid. Absolutely love his culture and work ethic. He'll make it.

I notice now we're not winning Max is starting to feel those head hight hits a bit more. Makes sense. Winning is a good painkiller.

I really like Roo as a 2nd ruck. It's no conincidence we got flogged when he was out of the side.

OK Petty back Tommy forward. Tom's a good baackman but Petty's a terrible forward.

Gerard Whately has always really gotten under my skin. People praise his intelligence, but in reality he's a conniver - he has no actual understanding or training in the topics he comments on, and yet has opinions that he tries to convince others are the only logical ones.

Getting rid of Grundy smacks of an overcorrection possibly due to egos at the club not willing to give things enough time to find a good balance. Max Gawn was always the better forward of the two. When Grundy came to the club I thought the plan would be to move Max forward/ruck and have Grundy be our main ruck. I still think that could have worked, except Max couldn't or wouldn't do it. I love Max, but this was a huge fail from him imo. Goody also, for not putting his foot down and making it work. Just banish Grundy to the VFL for no reason and play a backup ruck he's not even willing to put on the ground. Awful.

I think our fitness is just absolutely stuffed, leading to terrible disposal due to fatigue from already poor disposal players. Petty, Oliver, and now Petracca have been cruelled by injury and will need a full preseason to return to something like their best. On top of that, our gameplan relies on good disposal which we don't have, and our defence has finally begun to wilt under the intense pressure of an unfit midfield and noncompetitive forward line. Finals would be a good result, but we're simply making up the numbers if we get there.

Gerard's sentiments are valid, but his failure to apply any responsibility on the individual is so typical of the modern journalist. Petracca shares some significant responsibility here, and his motivations would be interesting to know. It would reveal a lot about him and AFL culture. Why did he choose to play on? Did he want to prove himself? Did he want to win the game off his own boot? Did he fear looking like he was soft? Was he simply trusting the medicos to pull him out of the game if they felt he was unfit to play?

Yeah finally managed to put on a bit of weight which is nice. Another preseason and he'll be ready to roll.

I've potted Max over his part in the Grundy experiment failing. I think we give him a pass for being a generally dodgy forward. A lot of our problems would be solved if he'd stepped up in that area and allowed Grundy to be our main ruck.

Yes you did. Now leave me alone.

Fair play. I thought we'd lost our last two against them. You might be remembering a different Chook though, as I don't usually do much mocking of people. You're the one being rude here.

We'd lost the past two, quite convincingly. Never let facts blah blah.

Well I can't say I expected that margin, but I will say I tipped it.

The days of domination are over.

Good on Harley Reid for brining the kind of competitiveness that wins matches. Not to dredge up the past, but imagine Jack Watts had his desire to win.

I use Sensodyne. It helps stop me from getting too sensitive.

We're Freo's bunnies, so I don't have much hope for a win in this match. Funnily enough I'm glad we're not playing them at the G. They absolutely have the wood over us there.

While watching this I was thinking "bet he's gonna say something about being a goal kicking defender" or some rubbish, and yep I wasn't far off. Jenkins' opinions aren't worth the time of day, though at least he follows that old adage about a stopped clock.

Sidebottom and Pendlebury will do that to a team's average age.

You hate to see an Australian football player injured.

I assume he meant to say fruiton - a bed made out of fruit, which I assume he sleeps on at night because that's just the kind of thing I'd expect a guy like him to do.