Blistering

Yes, but even more important than percentage is the four points that go with winning the game. Of the other contenders battling with Melbourne, Hawthorn very narrowly won its last three games against Essendon, Geelong and St Kilda that went right down to the wire. Had they lost all three they would have been fighting today for their place in the top eight. Instead, everyone is talking about the genius of Clarkson. True, you have to be good to get up and win the close ones but there’s also an element of luck involved and the Hawks have had it in spades over the past month.

6. James Harmes 5. Jake Melksham 4. Mitch Hannan 3. Angus Brayshaw 2. Max Gawn 1. Nathan Jones

Things could be worse for Gold Coast 17. They drafted Lynch at #11 in the 2010 national draft ahead of the next most favoured key tall who they left for Melbourne to pick at #12 - one Lucas Cook.

Noah Yze plays basketball in the same competition as my son and he goes all right at that. A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of scoring a game with his old man. Great bloke, fantastic footballer.

Does anyone else think Geelong are playing games with Dangerfield’s injury? He’s such a valuable commodity for them and yet they’re saying that they won’t have a scan done till tomorrow because of the public holiday today. This doesn’t sound logical to me in view of the fact that any remedial work would surely depend upon the diagnosis. They should be eager to find out.

I guess nothing’s happening today because they’re training at Casey Fields tomorrow?

We have both so there's no need to compare them. The video? Meh.

Need to get Watts and Salem into the team to add some sublime delivery skill which was an area we were lacking in last week.

Reckon you assume correctly.

Funny thing but at one stage (could have been half time), I looked up the stats on the AFL app and it was 11-11. This means that to finish at 27-16, the Eagles received 16-5 frees after half time. There's no law that requires the free kick stats to be equal but I wonder why there is an inequity every time we play them in Perth

I think with the six day break against a team that's had a ten day break, it would be imperative that we bring in at least three or four new faces to freshen up the team for the run of games ahead. Gawn, Stretch and Wagner would all be good 'ins'.

Lovely work George but there are still question marks. Why do we have to wait until we're nearly 5 goals down before we start to play? We have a tough draw from hereon in - we have yet to play GWS, Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs or the Eagles of the main teams we're competing with for a place in the 8. We also have games to go against Sydney, St Kilda, North (our hoodoo team) not to mention Adelaide and another game v Collingwood. It's one of those years when everyone's tough to beat but the fixture is a lot tougher than Essendon's or Richmond. On the credit side, we won't be starting as odds on favourites in too many games.

Hogan framed?

Yes. Probably the most pleasing thing about this week compared to last is that we really didn't slack off. Probably part of the reason was that Carlton didn't have the same intensity.

This. It never ceases to amaze me how often people bring up the tired old story about Mark Neeld destroying Gysberts' career. Gysberts' problem from early on being that he lacked a tank and that was when Dean Bailey was coach. Anyone who watched Gysberts lagging behind the field at pre season training would know what he needed to do to get to AFL standard. Unfortunately, we live in an age where people look to blame others for their failures - rarely do they look in the mirror to find the true answers.

Hanlon wrote the article - the other ruckman you're thinking of is Nyuon.

Don't worry. Nobody noticed.

After seeing what Rory Lobb could do at GWS, I would like to see someone of his ilk in the side as a back up ruck/forward. Could he fit the bill?

Club house leader until Round 22.

If you've been around football clubs you would realise that players do have an interest in the jumper numbers they wear (not all though). I think Christian Salem might consider that a new jumper might bring him some luck given the injuries/illness he's had over the past two years. Why not switch him to 6 and given Jordan Lewis 3?

Two different kettles of fish BBB. I was discussing being shafted over the issue of draft assistance but now that you bring it up it should be stated that despite its largesse in the installation of PJ and supposedly giving us the money to pay Roosy (something that's never been established or shown on the books), a number of other clubs including the Brisbane Lions, the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne (not to mention the two new love child franchises) receive more money than we do. Moreover, the AFL might have installed PJ but he happened to be the man who applied twice for special assistance for the club that was twice denied by the AFL. We were shafted.

Jack Steele who has been burning it up in the NEAFL for the GWS Giants has asked for a trade to St Kilda.

You might have convinced me of the deviousness of the AFL but you haven't made out a case that we weren't stiffed. While the AFL has never outlined the precise criteria for "special assistance" it has been clear that remuneration was not the only criteria. Even if you accept the figures being bandied about, you also have to take into account other circumstances including age, player's past achievements, injury history etc. Frawley had just turned 26 when taken by the Hawks, Mayne is 2 years older and Wells 5 years older. Moreover, the whole world accepted that Melbourne was entitled to Band 1 compensation at the time. We therefore received proper compensation under the rules at the time for Frawley. We received no special assistance from the AFL when we had a worse record than Brisbane. There's no doubt in my mind, we were stiffed by the AFL.

There have been a few this year blitzing it out at Casey but I'm not sure all that many of them will be back for us in 2017.

Well at least Selwood's out. The bad news is that it's the wrong Selwood - Scott.