CHF

looking forward to next week already.

In no quarter did we kick more goals than points. after half time the pies kicked 9.0. We have no forward presence and no idea of where or how to deliver into the scoring zone..

9-15.....Rubbish kicking

I love the way we are playing this game. I like the games of Baker, Petty and also T. Smith.

Wow... the umps have given their whistles to the WC crowd

We will cut them up in the midfield with the likes of Viney, Oliver, Harmes and Brayshaw having season best games as they win it out of the middle, deliver bullets into the forward 50 and run hard into the defensive zone to cover any holes that might be there...... and then in the second quarter.......

I can see the reasoning behind including Petty rather than Preuss with WC looking to run just one ruck against Gawn. Petty will give us options and flexibility in our defensive setup and may free up Frost for a more flexibility. I see this as a 'no loss' game. Lose by 10 goals and it was expected. A close loss would be rated as a 'win' of sorts and if we get over the line it is a 'boilover'. With what is available playerwise I think we have a good balanced team that will push WC. if we are still in with a sniff at 3/4 time I think we might run out winners by a couple of goals.

If I leave now I may make it back in time but be suffering from jet lag and old age.

Melksham out I would look to bring in Tim Smith and ask him to play a similar game as Melk. Run through the midfield every now and then and play high half forward. Hibberd out then move Fitsch back there to keep some run out of the back line. Anb to come back or maybe Ossie Baker gets a run. it may be too much of an ask to debut him in Perth against WC. it may scar him for life. Preuss for Keilty. Dec has had a taste and now knows the steps he needs to take. let him mature some more at Casey.

Viney for ANB is the call with the rest of the team as is.

Interesting in the video to see Tmac running with the defenders. Lever, Petty and Omac.

The club's injury report is finally looking a little bit encouraging. Garlett received a corky but will be able to line up. Preuss to be tested and another 4 or 5 coming back over the next 3 weeks.

Congratulations to Dec. It has been great to follow his journey. I hope he does well tomorrow. I will be most interested to see how he is used. Personally I hope he is given a position and a task and asked to work on it all game with a couple of short stints in the ruck. ablove all, I hope he enjoys it,

I was about to post exactly the same thing.

I find him a frustrating player to watch. To my mind he has a lot of talent but I get the feeling he is a player that waits for the ball to come to him rather than be a player that goes to the ball. It may be that he does not read the play that well and is a pace away at the ball or it might be aerobic fitness.

Sue, maybe I should have made it a little clearer. I thought that my first sentence made it clear that we would be selecting the best team available for the different circumstances given the differences between the Saints and Tiges.

I hope that the selectors just pick the best side for the Saints game on Saturday and then sit down and do exactly the same thing a couple of days later for the Tiges match. We need to win the games one at a time. Pick the best side available and then after that match is over assess the players and their condition and pick the best side available for the next game.

I would look at Jetta and Lewis into the team for the Saints. I am not sold on Preuss. While I think he did a good job last week and his couple of goals were good, I see him at this time in his development as a very limited player that we should use in critical circumstances. Against Sydney was the prefect opportunity and the way he was used against Alir was structured coaching at its best. I will be interested to see how he is used in future games. It will be up to the coaching panel to work out the best most effective way he can be used each game. I hope they give him a simple straightforward game plan each week and look to his future development over coming seasons. If he is not ready for the Saints I would give Keilty a run and make sure he is well briefed on his role. he has the added ability to ruck a little with a good leap and can also have a run down back if required to cover defence.

For the Saints name the best 22 available and hit them hard. For the Tiges, assess the aches and pains from the Saints game and look at who is available for the match and put together the best side available. With a bit of luck we have the game in hand early with the Saints and we can 'rest' a couple of key players for the last quarter and have them a little fresher for a few days later. We do get an additional 3hrs recovery time than the Tiges and I hope they have a tough hard match against the Swannies the Saturday before.

Good to get the first win on the board for the season and excellent that it was against the Swans in Sydney. I have watched the replay a few times now and there are a few things that stood out for me. To my mind there was less overt celebration when a goal was kicked. It was more "ok. now we look for the next one.' rather than "that's great let's jump and whoop and leave ourselves open to a counter." I loved the way we structured our attack on the ball in the second half. We looked much more like the team of last year. We attacked in numbers at the ball carrier with a number of team mates around the scrum waiting to receive or step in if required. I liked Petracca's game and it is a significant building block for him for the rest of the season and seasons to come. He is starting to realise that he has the power and skills to do a hell of a lot more than he has been doing. Preuss was interesting. He filled a very good role against Alir. It may have been a role that was formulated by the coaching staff and if so, well done and well done that man for doing it so well. In the next couple of pre-seasons I would get him to shadow Max in his training. The way that max has matured in his training and body management is a credit to him and should be a profile for our developing big men.

Not expecting much tonight with the extensive injury list we have. With Jetta and Lockhart out I count 10 on the injured list that would play in the 22. that is a lot of preferred players and depth missing from the list. While not expecting much, I think it will be close as I do not rate the Swans this season.

Good to see Preuss in as it will give us a few options to try during the match and will have Sydney asking some questions as to how we may set up. If Preuss can more than hold his own in the ruck it will give us a chance to swing Max forward and possibly use TMac to shore up the defence if required. It will just make us a bit more flexible. I see Jones has been named on a HBF. a good thing if he is played there in my opinion as he should give some critical leadership support to the defence.

Our defence is rubbish

So, here we are two weeks into the new season without a win and there are a number on this site that are calling it 'season over' already. I am not one of them. The list we have is the same one that played good footy last year so they know how to do it. we have had a shorter preseason than in recent years and we had a large number of players that went under the knife to fix niggles. All have added up to a slow start to the season. Week 1 we were as bad as we could be. Last week I saw and overall improvement in the general play with the highlighting of structural problems in our forward 50. This week I think we will see another step up in overall quality of play and we will win a tight one to be 2-1 after the first three rounds.

Jones and Viney to the VFL