Vipercrunch

That's the way I saw Bugg's game. He would have been a walk up start for every game over the last 5 seasons, but now that level of untidiness in disposal won't keep getting you a game. Agree on Frost too.

Bugg is a real tough one. Knows how to get it and is tough but at times today really lacked the disposal class. Cost us the first goal then made a few mistakes immediately after. Just doesn't seem to have quick hands. Frost is another tough call based on today. Didn't complete marks he should have and made mistakes. Tyson got the 1 vote from MMM today so some rated him very highly. Hunt was alright after a rough start. Hate to give him only one game but to some degree we haven't had similar selection pressure for a while. Lumumba was huge in the first quarter and was a prime mover in our heavy scoring. Going to be some unlucky players...

24 disposals and 6 marks. Great game and won't miss any time soon based on today's performance.

Are they manning up better down field or are we just mucking around with it now? Need a steadier or two before HT.

Harmes still really impressive, but we're playing like millionaires atm and it's costing us.

A poor few minutes here. Mistakes and over use. Back to basics MFC!

That Frost goal was hilarious and so, so satisfying!

Harmes playing very well. Great team hustle goal to BenKen. Kent getting involved well too.

Some poor disposal by Bugg early. Needs to be cleaner.

I'm still watching my way through Sunday's game for the first time at the moment, but from what I've seen Wagner hasn't seemed out of his depth. He hit a ripper of a pass during the second quarter which showed great vision and execution and was getting himself involved a bit. 3 kicks, 5 handpasses and 4 tackles. What's the verdict now he's played a game?

I thought (and said as much) that he was a smoky for a debut early this year. Partly because of the form he showed in the NAB, with his creativity being his standout trait along with courage. But the main reason I thought he was very close was because he kept getting picked during the NAB ahead of many other more widely fancied and established players. It was clear the coaches were very impressed with what he had done during the pre-season and that he was well and truly in their calculations. Good luck to him. It's going to be a tough game and you would think he'll get plenty of chance to get involved on the half back line.

I'm really not convinced we were "tired" or at least significantly more tired than EFC. When you are not focused, not willing to work hard, not up for the fight then you may look "tired" but I'm really struggling to see it as anything more than playing with the wrong attitude and willingness to work hard.

Yes we hit the front but my son and I had very little confidence we would hold the lead. The players were just not in the right mindset all day. They had kicked a run of goals to take the lead in Q2 and handed back momentum without a whimper and we both feared it would happen again. My son and I felt we needed to get at least 2 more goals up before either of us would feel the game safe. As I said in an earlier post, from looking at the warm-up, the players just did not look switched on.

How the media spin things and whether the supporters are optimistic or pessimistic, none of that should really matter. It's how the football department internally review and process things. They can't allow the players to get ahead of themselves. We had a solid preseason but an objective view of the NAB games was that although we won them all, we were not all that good, let alone "terrific". We won Round 1, BUT we were out played in many areas, made too many mistakes, GWS was far from at their best. Basically we got away with one after playing one good quarter. I look forward to the day that I don't typically fear losing games we should win.

I agree with this. It was so obvious during the game. Each time we hit the front, we got ahead of ourselves and just handed them back momentum. Twice!!! I was worried before the game watching the lack of intensity in the warm-up and commented to my son about how flat we looked. We got so much wrong this weekend, mostly before the game even started.

Agree. We are 1-1, not 4-1 and to treat the one win as being anything more than pretty lucky is a oversell. We were lucky they kicked poorly and extremely lucky they didn't bring the same intensity they showed against Geelong this week. GWS beating Geelong this week doesn't make our win against them look any better, just luckier. If our players continue to take confidence from things that they shouldn't be taking it from, they will remain fragile.

From Titus O'Reily...

The fact that any of our players became over confident from our preseason form and our lucky win against GWS is a disgrace. We were poor against the Bulldogs and won because of the quality of players they rested. GWS played very poorly AND kicked very poorly for goal and we only just won. I am fine with our supporters enjoying wins, they have been all too few of them BUT our players should not have taken too much confidence from what we had dished up this year. We have shown some (and only some) improvements, but our costly turnovers and lack of composure when put under pressure have been all too obvious. So far to go.... As some posters have been trying to point out this season, there is such a thing as a good loss (I hope to see some this year) and there is also such a thing as a bad and/or lucky win. If our players keep taking confidence from those bad wins, then we're going to continue to be the laughing stock of the competition.

For most people it wasn't WHAT he did, it was HOW he did it. Maybe he felt the rules forced him to treat the public like fools, but some of the outright lies he told were just stupid. GWS must surely regret the investment and oversized contract. The Bulldogs might do the same in a few years regarding Boyd.

After NAB 1 and 2 I thought that, but I think his performance in NAB 3 (which I thought was quite solid) has put him right in the picture to play. I really didn't think he would be to AFL standard for the first half of the season, but I think things are looking good for him to debut this weekend. I think he offers some real creativity and vision off half back, and I have a feeling he is playing the role the coaches give him very well. All 3 NAB games and being part of the 18 running through match day scenarios on the eve of the season start? I think he's very likely.

If we beat GWS by 7 goals, we'll beat Essendon by 20.

Prefer to be in the place now where Roos is happy to go with these sort of predictions that apply pressure to the group rather than the excuses (although valid to a point) which we have heard for a long time now which gave the group an out if/when they didn't perform.

The Demons have opted to give Christian Petracca, who injured his toe playing basketball at Christmas time, a full month of solid training before having him ready to play. A torn anterior cruciate ligament at the start of last season also factoring into the caution Melbourne will show with Petracca. "He's training fully with the group and he's essentially recovered from the toe injury but he's only done two weeks of training coming off an ACL," Misson said. "We want him to have at least four weeks of full training before we let him play." From the weekly injury round-up quoting Misson a few days ago. Sounds like maybe (and just maybe) he will play some sort of football on the weekend of Round 1. They appear to be very conservative so could be a half in the Casey 2nds first up and slowly, slowly after that. Round 4 perhaps for an AFL debut all going well.

And hair grew really fast on his legs.

Very good question. I hadn't noticed any training reports saying he's had significant injuries or been in rehab.