Whispering_Jack

O'Keefe then Sylvia for goals. 3 points down.

Goal to Sydney's Mike Pyke from a Meesen tap out. Then a goal to Jetta. Two points down.

The breeze is more across the ground now.

Goal to Col and were now only 3 points down at 3/4 time. Sydney 6.8.44 to Melbourne 6.5.41 Daniel Bell off with what appears to be an ankle injury. Bail & Valenti substitutes. Valenti came on in the third.

Goal to Junior followed by a nice angle goal on the run to Jetta. Ten points down.

We're getting a bath. Swans full of running and winning the ball easily out of the middle. Lead 6.7.43 to 3.2.20. Getting ugly.

Wind favouring the end Melbourne are kicking to in the next qtr. Miller is the only forward in the game. Juice and PJ up forward - struggling. Better players - Garland, Grimes, McLean with Bennell, Jetta, Strauss & Spencer showing out.

Make that 2. Half time: Sydney 3.5.23 Melbourne 3.2.20. Doing reasonably well in defence and around the ground but nothing up forward.

Armerestle in the second qtr. Only one goal to Swans.

first goal to Swans after 16 minutes. Q time 3.1 to 1.3

Goal to Morton.

First goal to Miller. Juice just marked in front and it's a ... Goal! 2.0.12 to 0.1.1

Grimes on. Occo off.

Off shortly to Visy Park. Will try to update with scores and some details via the iphone (if it works) at least on a quarter by quarter basis during the afternoon.

Fan, If you check out the ip addresses of occo and the two new posters who claim they heard KB, you'll find that they're identical. No surprise. The fate of all "three" will be decided at Visy Park at a meeting of some of the moderators. An apology beforehand might help.

Fact is we don't have players like Richo and Nathan Brown who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and win it for you. Right now Richmond are still finals contenders despite their poor finish last night. We're rank outsiders until we can prove that we know how to regularly win matches and we're certainly not near there ATM.

Not making any excuses but Melbourne's fade out is more easily understood in the context of the injuries suffered on the day of the match. It turns out that on top of Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) and James McDonald (corkie) we also lost Matthew Whelan and Clint Bartram in the last quarter - Wonaeamirri to miss a month Melbourne football operations manager Craig Notman "said defender Matthew Whelan (calf) would not play against the Sydney Swans in Saturday's NAB Challenge match at Visy Park. Skipper James McDonald (corked knee) and midfielder Clint Bartram (burst ear drum) are still in the mix to play against the Swans. All three sustained the injuries against the Hawks." I was wondering what happened to Whelan in the latter part of the game after he was close to our best in the first half. It meant we basically finished the game off minus our two most experienced players and in a game where three points separated the teams at the end, an extra cool head like Whelan would have been handy.

The '87 Preliminary Final all over again!

We hold a good lead at the final break by 33 points and look stronger in the run home. I'm going to nominate James Frawley as one of our improvers of the year.

We're playing more committed game than at any time last year. Strong tackling and defensive work. Our rucks are doing well and our midfield is much better with Brock McLean in there. Still, our disposal skills and decision making are pretty average at times, especially when going forward. In the absence of Aussie, we have no crumbers in attack and the Hawks are sweeping the ball easily out of defence whenever the ball hits the ground. The club must be rueing the decision not to play Jetta today. Aaron Davey is a bit hot and cold and has to do a lot more if we're going to win this game. All in all it makes a change from being flogged by teams like Hawthorn even if they do have a lot of their premiership players missing.

Bate's third puts us back in front after a goal to Williams. Bruce injured.

Skills have dropped off. Aussie off with a hammy. We have no crumbers up forward. Junior limping. Still a 5 point lead.

Dwayne Russell commits the first gaffe of the season. Told us that Jake Spencer played seniors and reserves for Springvale last year.

Roughie - 3 goals from the pie stands. We lead by 5 points at quarter time - 4.5.29 to 4.0.24.

Bater's second for a 20 point lead. Spencer doing well in the ruck.