pitmaster

Another reason for revelling in yesterday's win is the fact that the face of the Breast Cancer Network appeal this year is life long Demon Amber Whelan who, according to the Record - that's her on the cover with Jonesy - was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27. She was at the game with her family and I, and I am sure all Demonlanders, are rapt that she was acknowledged with a great victory. Enjoy the party, Amber.

My involuntary response to checking out the website today and seeing 49,636: WOW! That's incredible.! It really is tremendous news since the last I saw it seemed stuck on 48,080. We will certainly crack 50K this year which is a great achievement in the circumstances.

The upside of this - and this is how clubs like Hawthorn view it - is an opportunity to see how some of the kids slash lesser lights shape up. I reckon on the evidence so far Hore and Lockhart look like they could be the goods. Preuss also brings something although sadly he has joined the injury list. Clearly we are underdone - and while some might think it misguided I suspect the leaking of this was well-intentioned - but that does not really explain our vanishing skills as witnessed last week.

To know why it was leaked you would need to know who leaked it. It could be a board member or any one of the football department. I am saying I don't care how it came out, but I can see that the club would not want it out as an official statement because that would be excusing failure. I disagree it would have been released weeks ago for transparency...we weren't 1 and 5 then. I am saying it's important for the supporters to know the scale of the issue. Now we have some.

Well, given the madness that overtakes this place why not leak some facts? It's good to have the scale of the cutback in preparation quantified like this. I really don't know why you'd complain about it...you think it's a conspiracy to protect the coach and yet every week there is someone on this site complaining about the level of (non)disclosure from the official club site. You can't have this stuff dropped by an official because it looks like you're making excuses for the players. I'll go with the media strategy thanks. You go with your gut feel.

Looked to me like he had very late notice of Stack's arrival and just had time to brace. The villain by my viewing was Max with that horrible hospital handpass to Viney.

Fluke is precisely the right word.

What else did you expect?

Agree with your outs. Garlett and Lockhart to come in. I'm also open either to TMac out (rested if he is genuinely playing hurt as he appears) and T Smith in; or TMac to defence to find touch and Fritsch to go forward.

They're not mates. They're d*$#ks. Or are you 12 years old? Or are they Hawthorn "fans"?

Looks OK this arvo

I share the frustration and disappointment of everyone else here, but I must be the only one who saw some purposeful attempts to use the corridor in the first half. I haven't watched the replay yet (still summoning myself to that) but there were repeated moves where we drove into the corridor with direct low passes. It was in the forward 50 and in goal kicking (petracca, melksham, emac all culpable at different times) where we failed to press our advantage. There is a system being attempted but we need much better spread up forward to create options for the mids to find targets. StK repeatedly had up to three extras back to pick us off. I like the idea on here of putting Hunt on the wing. We also need to include Garlett. Like Preuss, he's coming in at least one week late even if he gets a go against the Tigers but his leg speed is essential. Lockhart also has to come into consideration. Spargo is a no go. In warm up he can kick 45 metres, under pressure in a game he is lucky to make 30 metres, and that's off target. Around goals he is no good. Petracca needs help from a sports psychologist. He has a kick on him like a mule but he needs to focus on the task of getting foot to ball, not on the intended outcome. Then he won't be such a momentum killer. TMac is just out of sorts. It happens; he'll recover eventually. The new rules hurt us - our game relies on keeping the ball inside the forward 50 but the licence allowed on kick-ins now makes that task more difficult. But those of us calling for the coach to show some emotion at press conferences...really? You want him to break down and weep? Shake his head, say "I have no idea what's happening"? On that I disagree. I want serious analytical thought applied to our dilemma, not some mad rant. Mad ranting...that's our job!

That would have us back in the Bailey era FFS!

He probably meant Harmes. Hannan is gravely missed.

Ratten did a great job with our mids. Wish we still had him.

Rubbish to claim they weren't trying. Key problem was conversion. We created opportunities - 55 i50s to 47 - had the same number of scoring shots but in the first half of the 2nd term when we should have built scoreboard pressure we added 1 goal 2 points. Misses like Petracca's and Melksham's - both out on the full from 40 metres almost directly in front kill you. We had no-one at the fall of the ball - needed Garlett, or maybe Lockhart for ground level pace - and bombed long while they had two and three extras behind the contest: we played dumb. Finally, skill errors going inside 50, by foot and hand, absolute fundamentals, were butchered. Spargo, TMac take a bow.

Keep it grammatical please.

plenty umpire assistance too...dream on

Looks like he's been having cake with that coffee.

Cannot be as bad as the Brad Johnson-Dermie gigglefest on Fox. I'll check the presser on the club website.

Correction: there are no acres of space at Geelong. It is a ground shaped like no other: there are no wings at all. It's a disgrace and should have been reshaped when they stands were rebuilt. There are always numerous OOBOTF at that poxy ground.

Funny. My Geelong supporting mate told me the weather would improve once you start the run downhill (whatever that meant). Sounds like it didn't suit our structure. Not that we have a lot of options.

No it wasn't good enough but it was close several times. You make it sound like it's been 55 years of 1981 or 2013-14 revisited. Northey's teams were honest and gritty. Danihers' usually were. They were a million miles away from the past two weeks.

So was it raining the whole time you were there? I am trying to make sense of our shapeless forward line. TMac and Weid hardly sighted airborne.

Really, it's time you stopped playing this record. Between 1987 and 2006 we were regular finalists, played two GFs and usually won at least one final, so give it a break.